Some Catching Up To Do...

Some things that happened before our time became consumed with taking care of infant twins and are other children:

August 2007: Mandi loses her first tooth! She was so elated it's hard to describe. It all happened during some daddy/daughter time at McDonalds. She had a blast calling Nanny and Oma to share the good news. Fortunately, we were aware of the tooth coming out and weren't suddenly notified of it by finding the thing in her cheeseburger.

Brennan celebrated his 10th Birthday with the family just days before Ryan and Andrew joined our clan.












The day before the delivery of the twins, Gwen and I were sitting down to breakfast when Kimmie approached; binky and burp-cloth (security blankie) in hand. She then proceeded to drape said burp-cloth on Mommy's now perfectly round "pillow," and laid her head on it to snuggle. It truly was a picture moment.

Nearly two weeks after the birth of our fabulous twins, Andrew woke up one evening looking for some crazy delicious (if you can call formula "Crazy Delicious"...) tummy-filling action. He must have remembered the Binky Fight the day we came home from the hospital, because by the time I reached him to take care of that need; he commenced latching on to Ryan and sucking on him instead. It was quite amusing to behold.









September 2007: Crazy Hair Day at the kids' elementary school. Crazy as in "Crazy Delicious."

Brennan's birthday party; which we had to postpone until the end of September... It was ok, though, cause dad picked up a Voltron / Optimus Prime cake. Go dad... :)

Kimmie takes her first turn feeding Andrew... feel the love!

Hopefully now that we're finally starting to settle in with the new "schedule" I'll be able to get back to some blogging... I'm quite back-logged and will hopefully get to make the entries I've been wanting to make for weeks.

Stay tuned!

Gotta Be Prudent at this Juncture...

Stay the course... a thousand points of light... Those of you that knew me in high school will especially appreciate this one. :)

Mommy's Laughing On Me...

I so love my Drama Queen youngest daughter. She's really at a cute age right now (when she's not copping 'tude.) She'll use any and every word that comes across her path, whether she understands it or not.

She's actually becoming quite the versed communicator for the most part, excepting the times where direction the communique is supposed to go gets reversed or incorrect prepositions are used.

Here are a few examples:
Kimmie talking on the phone:
"Can I talk to Daddy?" ... means ... "Would you like to talk to my Daddy?"

When asked if Kimmie would like to say a prayer on the food:
"Daddy help you?" ... means ... "Will Daddy help Kimmie?"

But nothing beats the one that happened today...

My ever-so-beautiful-and-on-the-road-to-C-Section-recovery wife and I were feeding our newborn twins this afternoon; when out of the blue Kimmie starts going spastica all over our bed.

Mind you, this is the daughter named after Kim Possible, so naturally, "She can do anything..." She tries to prove this using our bed as a prop in frequent, random splendor. Yesterday, for example... she commenced bouncing from the head of the bed to the foot with a foot-to-knee bounce right at the foot of the bed, topped off with an aerial-twist to the floor; landing her on the bum and rolling backward over her head to a stop just before smacking her head into a dresser resting against the opposite wall. (This, of course, whilst Mom and Dad are busy feeding babies and can't rush to the rescue in any quick fashion.)

Today's near-heart attack started with some rehearsal for the X-Games that we weren't expecting. As Gwen and I were feeding the twins, Kim climbed up on our bed and commenced to start Donkey-Kicking her legs up in the air... then letting her body fall to the ground, gracefully landing on her feet. This was repeated several times, much to the delight and gut-busting (almost literally for Gwen) laughter of her audience.

She was laughing with us at first too, or so we thought. She must have been so engrossed with her own glee that she hadn't noticed the audience watching and enjoying too. After about 10 rounds of "climb, kick, drop", Kim turned to see if we were paying attention.

We apparently were paying with the wrong currency as Kim immediately stopped, pulled the biggest pout I've ever seen... dramatically paused for a few seconds, then started to cry the most heart-wrenching, "Dad and Mom what kind of parents ARE you?!" cry I've ever heard... it seriously broke both our hearts.

That is, until she explained why she was crying...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Mommy is laughing on me.... WAAAAAAAA!!!"

Then commenced the bladder-emptying try-as-you-might-there's-no-way-on-Earth-you-can-hold-it-in laughter that is the worst thing you can do to a child whose feelings you've already hurt because they think you've been making fun of them. Yes, the twins weren't the only ones who needed changing; and to make matters worse, we worried if Gwen had popped the incision made when giving birth to said change-needing infants. Luckily the incision wound is still in proper order.

Oh, from the mouth of the babes... I wish I could communicate half as well (and fully as entertaining) as my precious baby girl. She truly is an inspiration.

So remember... laugh WITH your children, not ON them.

Ryan and Andrew's First Fight

They didn't even make it home from the hospital before they had their first fight...

We had just changed them into their first outfits to bring them home from the hospital. Andrew had taken a pacifier for the first time since being there and Ryan hadn't. Andrew smacked Ryan in the face with it, and of course, he thought it was something to eat... so they commenced fighting for it.

Too cute...

An Ode to the Cottonwood Hospital Staff

Everyone knows that going to the hospital is a traumatic, sometimes horrific experience. You're away from home, out of your zone; and if you're the patient, not living in the most "wireless" world (IVs, monitors, blood-pressure cuffs, oh my.)

Well, we knew Gwen was in for that ride when it was time to deliver our twins via C-Section. While we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our twins and looking forward to holding and caring for them; we weren't looking forward to the things that make hospital stay something that isn't often equated with the excitement of, say, going on vacation.

But I have to admit, as hard as it is to sleep in those insane recliner/beds the fathers have the privilege of sleeping in whilst staying by the bedsides of their beautiful wives who have just visited the Valley of Death after sacrificing the past 30-40 weeks of their lives carrying and delivering their children... Cottonwood Hospital has always rocked at making the stay as pleasant as possible with the deliveries of all our children.

This time was no exception. In fact, it was the most memorable hospital stay I've ever been involved with, and a fitting last delivery for my wife and I. It makes the impending closing of Cottonwood even more bittersweet (heh, almost the same feeling I felt when Jordan High was torn down to build a newer, bigger, better one.)

Anyway, I have to blog about our stay there because the staff was so incredible. Our world never hesitates to point out the negative things we observe; but how often do we give positive feedback when it's most certainly due?

This entry singing praises and shouting accolades is completely dedicated to the amazing staff that was involved in the final stages of our bringing our blessed twin babies into the world.

This includes Gwen's OB-GYN, Doctor Lloyd - who has been with us throughout the entire growth of our little family. He's an incredible man we know, love and trust; who has always been professional, compassionate, skillful and accurate. Thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do for my wife.

Next, our pediatrician, Doctor Bean. Oh my heavens were we blessed with Doctor Bean. She is the greatest pediatrician to grace the Earth. We have complete faith, confidence and trust throughout the ten years we've worked with her... and have absolutely loved our association with her. We're not alone... as we talked to many of the nurses in the Women's Center at Cottonwood during our stay there; and they too couldn't stop bragging her up. She's an incredible woman and we thank her for all she has done and will continue to do for our family.

Now Doctor Lloyd and Doctor Bean, as mentioned before have been our friends for over 10 years... we also had the wonderful opportunity of making new friends and associating with old friends that happen to work at the Cottonwood Women's Center during the delivery and post-partum stay there.

They made us feel so at home and welcome and took such good care of us, that Gwen and I actually looked forward to each of our four days there. It was such a special experience, I finally started making the nurses take pictures with us so we could keep them in our baby books to save the memories. Thanks for being good sports about it (including Gwen)! (And if any of you hate having your picture in this entry, let me know and I'll promptly remove it. hehe!)

I wish we would've caught all of the names of the many nurses that assisted us during our stay there; we appreciate every one of you... but I will list the ones we spent the most time with recorded after I wisened up to doing so. :)

Thanks and praises go out to:
Shelley
Kristen
Trisha
Tami
Elsha
Susan
Renee
Vicki
Becky
Cheryl
Amy
Erica
Megan
Natalie
Lisa
Kira
Amanda
Marsha
Gigi
... and everyone else that helped us that I missed in the Labor & Delivery, Maternity Ward, Nursery and even Housekeeping staff!

Yes, I said housekeeping staff... Everyone that served us at Cottonwood was friendly, professional and loved their jobs... and we as patients could feel it as they worked with us.

It was nice to come home, but hard to leave a plethora of friends, many of which we know we won't see again, as they will either be going to the new IHC hospital, going to LDS Hospital or joining a "float pool" which will have them serving at a few different IHC hospitals after Cottonwood closes its doors.

I hope the same spirit of compassion and kindness will follow you all wherever you go. What you do means so much and it definitely left a lasting impression on us. I certainly hope that your administration will notice and appreciate the hard work you put into taking care of your patients and reward accordingly.

Incidentally, we're writing a similar letter to the Cottonwood staff; but feel the world should hear about the positive things that happen in our lives... especially ones that leave lasting impressions.

Again, thanks to all the fine staff at Cottonwood Hospital. We love you... and appreciate you helping bring our new angels into the world.

God bless as you all move into the next chapter in IHC history.