hang your mistle-sho

We're having to make do with what's at hand for Christmas this year, and since mistletoe isn't as popular in Asia, we had to hang a baby instead.

We went Christmas light viewing at Sakuragi-cho's big mall with the Japanese grandparents, and had a big dinner at Sizzlers afterwards. (Cant beat a salad and dessert bar if you have kids) Kay was impressing us all with ability to use a spoon for the last of the ice cream. When we offered the cup and spoon to Sho, he ditched the utensil, picked up the cup with both hands and drank down the rest. That's lateral thinking!

But the big news this week is not so cheery. Kay tripped on the sidewalk and broke his tooth, of all things. Not just a chip, the whole thing had to come out. There's a big hole in my baby's mouth, and this is right before Christmas pictures, too. For the next four years, at least, all the Christmas pictures are going to look a bit off. Naoki looks on the bright side of things and tells me that now we'll have no trouble telling them apart. (He also insists that Kay gets it from my side of the family, which I really can't protest). The whole thing is still surreal for me, but nevertheless depressing.

Hide and Go "Baaa!"

Yes, the boys favorite game this week is peekaboo, played in Japan as "Inai, Inai, BAa!" Kay runs around the kitchen, poking out from the doorway, shouting "Baa!" So if that counts as a word, we're up to three. Sho likes to play the game with mirrors, which makes him very clever, or very stupid.

The weather is still good enough to go to the park often, which is the perfect place for them to get all that fidgety out. They've conquered the big-boy slide, and they're learning the swing. Of course, they still stick everything in their mouth, but they know that they're not allowed to pick up cigarettes. (Hazard of public parks, I'm afraid) They do the appropriate finger-wagging and stern voice, admonishing the butts for having the gall to invade their park.

The crows, on the other hand, are apparently the most fascinating conversation partners. Every bird they see, they talk to it with "Caw, caw" Somehow, though, they understand that helicopters and planes are different. It amazes me they can spot a pigeon on a wire 100 meters away.

We got the clothes for christmas, and let me tell you, the pictures are going to be cute!

Where in the world is Ash?

Gone, long gone, back to Japan, and I missed telling so many of you. I did intend to send condolences, thanks, congradulations, and greetings, respectively - you know who you are - to each of you individually.

My visa was processed, and the boys and I joined their father in Japan in May. It has been a wound up, crazy life since then. Just the plane ride was a doozy. We've been to several festivals, the zoo, ridden trains, buses; we've tried all kinds of new and interesting foods. And, as you can see, we learned how to drive. Well, mommy still wont let daddy drive with us in the car.

The boys just love books. They prance around while we clean up the play room, pull out our futons, and put on our pjs because they know theres books coming up. They love turning the pages themselves, and get a kick out of flaps, tabs, sounds, rolly-eyes, and anything else they think to stick on books these days. Consequentially, they send books to be taped up every week, and have turned Goodnight Moon into a three-part series. Thank you, Lynn, for all that experience in Technical Services, learning how to doctor up books.

They also love helping clean, shop, and anything else they can get their paws into. Because gas stoves are just so much fun! They want to be just like the big people they see around them, though the half-big ones are pretty interesting, too. I can tell they just can't wait to get big-boy bikes.

They haven't gained much weight since we got here, but they're taller, so it's as if they stretched out. They look and act more like "kids" than "babies," but until they reach their "no" phase, they'll still be babies to me.

And yes, their first word was...."ice." Second word was "ba-ba" for book, and we're still waiting for the third one.

Mathematics of Motherhood

I was talking tonight with a friend, herself a math PhD student, about the ins and outs of life with two babies, and I explained that a mothers live doesn’t work like everyone else’s: the mathematics of motherhood are completely different. Take, for instance, going to a restaurant. I asked the waitress for a table for six and two babies and she chose a booth for us that really only seats five. Now, you’d think that maybe two babies would take up one whole seat, or maybe two seats to be generous. Not quite. With strollers and a diaper bag, and car seats, and wiggle room, they can easily crowd the rest of us out of the way. And, of course, anything within arms distance has to be kept clear of tall glasses of water, sharp objects, and potential catapult material like corned beef and/or cabbage. So, in the end, they really got half the booth to themselves. We switched to a bigger table when the drinks came out. When you figure in spit-up space, six and two babies is really more like twelve. (And in our defense, we tipped as such.)

Having twins only complicates the matter, because most people only really remember about a seventh grade math level. They all think that having twins means work X 2. The truth is, it’s work squared. Which helps explain why my diaper bag is the size of a carry-on. Diaper bag x 2 + (Bottles + formula) x 2 + spare clothes x 2 = space cubed. It doesn’t matter what order of operation you solve the equation in – I need a chiropractor.

Time, of course, is completely different. I make my shopping lists at 3 am. And I don’t just calculate how long it takes me to get to town, run errands, and get home, but I have to plan it such that if they sleep in the car, they’re not up till eleven that night. Not too early, not too late – this is a science on par with orbital physics. It also explains why I’m still excited that the characters of “Lost” just found the other half of the plane, and The Black Dahlia is a new release for me. Windows Vista does not exist in my world. VH1 Classic channel, on the other hand, gives me a comfortable feeling of constancy. The altered course of time can make walking a fussy baby feel like hours, although only yesterday he couldn’t even sit up on his own and tomorrow he’ll be walking all over the house. Other people think about their sleep in terms of hours, preferably seven or eight, while I think about it as shifts, usually not more than three at a time. (NO, they’re not sleeping through the night, like everyone told me they would. Liars, all of them.) Daylight savings time certainly didn’t affect my world, since the boys follow their own incomprehensible fluctuating sleep chart that is completely independent of atomically engineered populist time zones. I feel like the entire state of Illinois.

This is all by way of saying that the time elapsed since my last post is really only a fortnight by my calculation. If you think of a month not as thirty days, but as meals that I eat sitting down, this new post is right on schedule. I’ll see you again at oh-eight-hundred, fantasy-time.

Heads Up Seven Up

Well, the boys are getting bigger, fatter, and stronger every day. Their favorite thing to do is stretch out their neck when I'm holding them up against me. They look around for a bit, wiggle, and flop ungraciously off to one side. Their neck strength is coming along quite well, but its still not quite there. I have decided, though, that gas actually provides a very important developmental function. If it weren't for all the straining and stretching they do when trying to toot, I don't think they could have come this far this fast. So, for strong babies, I recommend the Kung Pao spicy beef chicken.

I was excited that mainstream food companies are noticing all the junl that goes into our food these days. So, I went out and bought the new 7 Up. It's quite tasty, but it still has a ways to go before I'd call it "natural".

Two months old today...

...and finally looking and acting like real babies. Both boys have topped seven pounds and they're still growing, little piggies. Now that the weather has warmed up, I put them in summer onesies instead of double layering with bootied sleepers. They've got fatty little legs and plump little toes. I wish I could look like that and still be called 'cute.'

What a difference a few days makes, though. Just this weekend, they've become more active and demanding. They want to stay awake after feeding and play with me, which would be great, except I still have to feed the other one. After wearing my roommates down thin, I went ahead and got a baby swing used on craigslist. I probably won't be able to take it back with me to Missouri, but for two weeks, at 20 bucks, it'll do. Today, they were both resting quietly while I did housework for the first time in a long time. I said to John, "Do you hear that?" "Silence," he responded. "That is the true sound of no hands clapping, or rather, no babies crying" (Just another religion geek joke - more transparent than the last one.)

I hope to see most of you very soon!

Well-deserved update

Thanks for everyone's support and good wishes. We're all doing great!

Thanks to my mom, I recovered from my surgery very quickly. I was up and out the door a week after I came home. I may have been a little too quick to get out, as I caught a cold taking the subway to and from the hospital downtown. With my current situation, though, a little cold became a big cold. I learned to take things slower than I thought I could do.

Luckily, the boys moved closer to home, to Mt. Auburn Hospital, which is a short bus ride away. It's also a much more relaxing environment for all of us. Also, they let me order meals while I'm there. It's just hospital food, but it's at least one square meal a day, and I don't have much time for cooking right now.

However, we may not be there much longer. The doctors are starting to talk about Kay coming home VERY soon and Sho not far behind. Possibly this upcoming week. Which is exciting because tomorrow....*drum roll* Naoki arrives in Boston and gets to see his kids for the first time! It's going to be so unbelievably cute - there will be more pictures!

The boys have become noticably more alert this past week. Although they still can't focus as well as most newborns, they now love to stare at the mommy-blur. They know when food is coming and get very eager when I tuck that burp cloth under their chin. Mostly, they feed by bottles, although we're starting to push them on nursing now. Pumping milk and feeding it to them is very time consuming and I don't know how things are going to go for the next few weeks. But, every day is a new adventure, and I'm always surprised when they suddenly decide to do something brilliant. And hey, when you're 5 weeks old, a big tooting poop is cause for celebration. As I said, they're doing so much better than we expected. They're growing fast, and they have appetites just like their dad.

We pretty much have everything ready here at home for them, thanks to the shopping prowess of my mom. My room has been transformed from study-central to baby-zone. It's even leaking into other parts of the house like the fridge, under the bathroom sink, microwave, and pantry. I've even started bringing the infant carrier to class.

Speaking of which, classes have wrapped up and now it's just writing papers and sitting in on some tests. It's going to be difficult to find time to finish up, especially with the boys coming home so early. But once it's done - I'm done! Wish me luck for my last lap.

I'll just close with a funny moment from the days when I was truly big-bellied and waddling around campus. I was talking to friends and one of them told me "When I see you, it's like I'm seeing three people!" "You're the Trinity," another one said. "But only in a very Eastern Orthodox kind of way," I corrected. And if you got that joke, you truly are a religion geek.

One month

Here we are on April 29th, our one month birthday.
Kay is intrigued by the funny grey thing mommy's pointing at him. Is it edible?
Sho and Kay sleep quietly, once their bellies are full. (Thank you for those warm blankets, Julie!!)
 

4 weeks old

Here we are at four weeks and we're starting to look "like real people" now. (someone else's quote, not mine!)

-Kay-
We still have our feeding tubes in, but they came out in early may.

- Sho-

Look, big boy clothes, too! Kay wears his Gerber preemie onesie.
The outfit was so cute, it's a pity I couldn't get Sho to make a decent face for us. 

A New Home

We made the move to Mt. Auburn Hospital, which is much closer for mom to get to, and our good friend Liwen came to see us.  

3rd Week

The boys contently kangaroo together.

Kay and his Easter Present from Grandma.
Sho and his present. 

2nd week

Sho takes a big boy yawn.

Kay looking around

Kay and Sho kangaroo-ing together. We couldn't do this for much longer, because they got very possessive of space and started a kick-box match on my chest.