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November 04, 2007
October 2007
Dear Kids,
The word this month is adjustment. When people ask how we’re doing I often reply that we are “adjusting”. I’ve learned these last few weeks that adjusting to one baby is one thing, but now that we have two of you it’s a whole different kind of adjusting. Although your mother has never complained I know that she has had to adjust the most as she is taking on the brunt of the adjusting. But I guess that us humans are pretty good at adapting and I know that this is a drop in the bucket of all the adjusting that has taken place over time.
Not to sound dark or dreary. We really are happy about the adjusting. It’s a good kind of adjusting after all and if there was a good reason to adjust it’d be for this. You two kids are the greatest thing in the whole wide world. We love you with all of our hearts and can’t wait to be with you when we are away.
We talk about you constantly. In fact, you make up about 95% of all that we talk about. We know all the intimate details of your life for they are most important to us. We talk about your bowels and what you eat and who you play with and how many hours you slept and all kinds of seemingly small things, but nonetheless they are what you do and therefore they are vital to us.
We’ve had lots and lots of visitors the past few weeks. Pretty much all of your mom’s family has been here for a night or two. Aunt’s Robin & Suzanne visited for a few days which is always a welcome treat, even when infected cousin Sam brings a cold with him. And not just some ordinary cold mind you, a South Dakota cold. The most potent of all colds to be had. So potent in fact, that it made itself right at home here for a couple of weeks. No biggie though, kids get sick and you two took your obligatory turn.
I continue to take my preparatory algebra class. In order to officially graduate I have to pass Math 1030 (and my prep class is Math 950). I’ve got to be honest here when I say that I can’t stand going. I hate it. When I think of everything else I could be doing it makes me sad. It’s my own fault however. If only I had taken and passed the AP Calculus test my senior year in High School this’d all be a moot point. Unfortunately for me I didn’t have that kind of vision. I guess that there’s a lesson in here somewhere.
RUBY-
We thought that the arrival of brother Henry would change you, but we couldn’t have imagined that you’d change the way you have...or maybe you’d have changed anyway, but we’ll go with this Henry scenario for now. You continue to declare you independence a little more every day. You obey less and less and throw back the occasional attitude when you deem necessary. It’s really not that big of a deal (except for when you drink your bath water) so we’re just rolling with it for now.
At times we forget how young you are with your fancy-schmancy vocabulary and 100th percentile height. People often mistake you for a three-year-old and expect a little more out of you. Of course it’s fun for us to declare that you’re only 22 months old and watch them catch on to just how brilliant you are, which they eventually do.
Lately you just love to inform your mom and I whose stuff belongs to whom. “Mommy’s pants” or “Daddy’s chair” seems to be your obsession. We’re glad your taking inventory for the time being but I’m sure that this phase will pass...except for when it comes time to share something of yours, of course. There you will probably will be keeping score for a while.
You are completely obsessed with books these days. Your mom thought it’d be good to explore a bit of multimedia in the form of CD books to cure you from your budding TV habit. In the mail this past week you’ve received three books, all of which you can’t seem to get enough of and are currently in heavy rotation.
It appears as though you are enjoying being a big sister so far. You love little Henry and want to participate in his daily routine, especially when it comes to keeping his binky in his mouth or helping change “Henry’s poopy diaper”. You are gentile and loving for the most part and we’re working on helping you develop a delicate touch as you haven’t quite mastered that just yet.
Halloween was a success in that you looked liked the cutest butterfly of all time. You flapped with much determination and scored your mom and I a bunch of candy at the Waterloo Ward’s annual Trunk or Treat. It was fun pulling you around in your wagon and watching you take it all in. Lately you declare yourself “scared” of things and all the costumes seemed to have you rattled a bit. Next year will be much different I’m sure and you’ll enjoy the craziness of it a bit more.
HENRY-
So here you are just over six weeks of life on earth. I hope you like it so far and promise you that it’ll get better. Solid food. Continence. No diapers. Walking...it’s all out there for you my boy. Just keep putting in your time and you’ll get there soon enough.
It’s probably not fair to you, but comparisons to Ruby are going to happen. We try not to, but often find ourselves discussing/asking whether or not Ruby was doing this then or how big she was at this point or if her hair was longer or some other relatively unimportant fact. I hope you understand that she was the first and that everything with her was heightened. Now we have more experience with you and understand babies just a little bit more than we did with Ruby and therefore we’re just a bit more laid back about things.
When your mom was pregnant with Ruby we were confronted with this decision we would have to make about weather or not we’d circumcise (providing of course we had had a boy). We felt a giant burden lifted when we discovered that she was a girl and that we wouldn’t have to deal with that dilemma that time around. So when your mom was pregnant with you we were once again faced with this same unresolved discussion. Now I’m not about to broadcast to the world what decision we made (of the “covenant” or “not”) but suffice it to say that we put in a great deal of thought and discussion to arrive to our decision and we hope you’re okay with it. Right behind your name, this was the issue we sweated over the most.
You’re quite the similey fellow, especially now that you don’t have a cold. You react to smiles given by your mom and I at will. It’s fun to get you there and we hope this is a good omen implying your personality.
Over the last few weeks you managed to take my place in my own bed. It turns out that you are quite the snugly fellow and love cuddling up next to your mom whenever possible and feeding at will. After a few weeks of the initial adjusting it became apparent that one of us had to go and I was more than happy to take up residence in the living room (late-night SportsCenter factored a little bit in that decision as well). Unfortunately this led to my back locking up and now I’m back in my own bed with earplugs jammed in. We’re frantically working on your bedroom and hope to have it completed by the first of December, just in time for your baby blessing.
All that late-night feeding has apparently been working too. You’re quite the chunk of man so far. Lately I’ve been calling you “Hank the Tank”. Don’t worry though, you still have quite a ways to go to catch up to cousin Tennyson.
Alright then kids...I gotta go hit the hay.
Love,
Dad
Posted by patatomic at November 4, 2007 11:57 PM