Big Orange Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we took the boys to their first ever pumpkin patch.

Lots of laughs and memories.

Chris and I high-fived twice in celebration for how well it went.

Apparently getting there early - shoes = happy pumpkin times.

Click below to see all the photos.

Big Orange Pumpkin Patch, Celina, TX

I Heart Friends of the Plano Public Library

A little side post from twins and family life...

It's no secret that I love books.

It might be a secret though that I love children's literature; even more than adult lit most of the time.

I wish that I could fill my boys room with books so high that they would have to crawl over them and under them just to get to their beds.

And I wish I could do the same in my room.

I really don't think Chris would mind.

I was thrilled to learn a few weeks ago about the Friends of the Plano Public Library Annual Book Sale.

The book sale is only once a year, no book/DVD/tape/what have you is more than $2, all the proceeds all go to the library, and there are over 100,000 books to choose from.

I tell you, it's Half Price Books on crack.

With coupons.

And a $100 gift card.

Okay, not really, but that's how I felt.

I'm not officially a "friend" of the library so I had to pay $5 to attend the Thursday night opening event.

A small price to pay.

I got more than 40 books, mostly all hardcover, all children's books, for $72.



Including this book from my childhood:



Did anyone else's parents read them this one?
Chris's did, and both he and I were blushing just thinking of reading it to our boys one day.

I also found this awesome book in Chinese about dental hygiene:





I also got the boys their Christmas books. (We are getting them each a Christmas book every year.)

While I only bought children's books, they have every category of book that your local bookstore or library would have.

It's nice to know such a great thing goes on in the world.

And to see the line snaking around the building 25 minutes before the opening night started would at least momentarily silence those that think the paper and ink book is going the way of the VCR.

Just come to my house -

You'll see books.


And VCR's.

A Photo...

To get us all through till I have time to post more

A Visit With Nana

C: Dude, you were totally right. Going to visit Great Grandma "Nana" is the best thing ever. I don't even know who this friend of hers is but she thinks I'm so funny!

B: I told you man. You slept through the whole thing last time.

but this is the place to be. Nana is the bomb.

C: Right on. I've never eaten half this stuff before. It's like it's all made for people like us with little to no teeth.

Jell-O you say this one is called?

B: Yeah. Mom totally needs to make this stuff at home.

C: Dad. Dad. Daaaaad! If I smile a really cute smile, will you buy us some Jell-O for at home?



C: I don't know man. He seems a tougher sale than these nice ladies. Maybe we should just stay here!



B: They even have better strollers than we have.



B: I wonder if we could just move in next door.

C: You check and see if anyone lives there, I'll keep a look-out.





C: Danger! Danger! He's coming! He's coming....



C: Dude! You let him get you.

Wait, he's coming back, flee! Flee! Go legs go.

Oh no. He got me too.

Oh, hey bro.

B: Hey bro.

C: Maybe we could just live with Nana.

B: Done and done.

Tell Mom to forward our mail.

Meooooowww

I realize I'm slightly biased (being that he's my son), but this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

True

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

-Emilie Buchwald

In Summary

Emily babysat for us on Saturday and in one try caught this awesome video.

I think it pretty well captures the month of July in a microsetting.



(Please click through to blog homepage if the email doesn't include the video - I'm still working on that hitch.)

No, I didn't Hear Any of This

C: "Ah man...what happened?! She's only been gone like 14 seconds. And, she specifically put you in that car so you wouldn't do something like this."

B: "Whatever dude, you totally pulled this thing down on me. It's so obvious you tried to escape but just got yourself trapped."

C: "Right. Try explaining that. Last night when you tried to tell her about the dolphin you saw in our bathtub all she heard was 'goo goo ga ga'."

B: "I know - I'll just start eating this thing and maybe when she comes back it will all be gone and she won't even know anything happened."

One Photo

That's all really.

Luck - by Christopher

Last Friday I was enjoying some drinks at happy hour with workmates when a bird pooped on my jeans.

I didn’t notice it until after the same bird, perched on a branch fifteen feet up, pooped a second time directly on the back of my head.

That one I noticed.

I loudly expressed disgust and embarrassment, and my workmates enjoyed it thoroughly, and both poops cleaned off easily enough in the bathroom a few minutes later. Upon my return I shifted my chair slightly away from its original position (I couldn’t move far as I was crowded around a table packed with people).

That should be the end of the story, right?

Except that 30 minutes later the same bird pooped on my jeans again. It actually shifted its position to a different perch to poop on me again.

Or it was just a remarkably odd coincidence. And of course, my workmates got to have another laugh as I made my second trip to the bathroom to clean off bird poop.

What has been most interesting to me is the handful of times I’ve told this story I have heard a similar response from listeners: “Bird poop is good luck,” they’ve said.

I have never heard this myth before. But it has made me feel better about being pooped on 3 times. This, I suppose, is why it was invented.

Luck is a harebrained concept on paper, yet it’s something the human mind seems especially geared toward believing in. Just ask anybody to tell a story from their life where they have been especially lucky (or unlucky) and literally everyone has a story.

And, of course, anywhere you find harebrained concepts there are people more than willing to spend their money on them.

Case in point, www.goodlucksecrets.com. For the low price of $12.95 author Steve Gillman is more than willing to teach YOU how to “have good luck” by sending you a copy of his self-published book Secrets of Lucky People.

He boldly claims that his book is, “More than just a book, this is a true course in how to have good luck,” because “after every chapter/lesson there are the exercises. These are designed to get you thinking like a lucky person. Do this easy ‘luck work’ and you’ll start seeing results in days.”

How many days? He doesn’t specify. Maybe in 2 days, or maybe in 10,000 days.

Steve even includes gripping testimonials to the power of his book, like this one from ‘Ana B.’: “The research gathered here is fascinating.”

But by far my favorite section of this snake-oil salesman’s website is near the bottom, where Steve makes his final push to convince stupid people to buy his stupid book.

Can you spot the section where Steve’s mind wandered to lunch?

For someone with such incredibly good luck, accidentally writing Catfish? as a headline in the middle of your webpage and never noticing it for years seems pretty unlucky.

Peas

Started with rice cereal.

Moved on to green beans.

And now we've added peas.

As you can tell, we had some mixed reactions to the latest delicacy.

Benjamin

Colin

Benjamin

Colin

We're going to give the green stuff another week and then I think move on.

That's all I got time for for now.

As I speak two jumpin' beans are hopping around on the patio.

5 Month Update - by Christopher

Our good friend Shea requested a blog update with some new pics of the boys, and I am happy to oblige. It's been too long since we've updated this.

Sarah and I just put the boys down for their morning nap and we were both noticing how big they are becoming. They turned 5 months old last Tuesday.

At 5 months old, Colin loves rolling over to his right and kicking his left foot like he is furiously trying to cold start a motorcycle and Benjamin loves to grab both feet and jam them in his mouth.

They are just about as great as can be.

Mr. Colin

Mr. Benjamin

90% of the time we are able to tell them apart at a glance, but there are still those 10% moments when we look at each other and one of us says, "I think Colin is on the left."

Sarah started the boys on Johnny Jump-ups recently and they never hesitated. Colin is an especially determined hopper.

I caught myself gushing about how proud I was that he was jumping with such gusto, and then I felt a pang of guilt that I hadn't equally praised Benjamin, who was happily waggling around in it like a drunken hula dancer.

So I invented some praise for Benjamin's happy waggling, but realized at that moment how difficult a balancing act fathering is going to be (especially once they can actually understand what I'm saying).

Finally, our 5:30pm walks have become something of a daily ritual. Tensions at this hour have typically risen beyond the level of pleasantries and it's a good change of scenery to take a jaunt around the neighborhood.

Benjamin decided to play some charades with us on a recent excursion to pass the time. I guessed Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen and Sarah guessed 'BAM,' Emeril kicking it up a notch but we were both wrong.

Colin got it on his first try:

Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits.

Should have known.

Swings for Sale

We currently have 2 infant swings for sale on Craigslist.

I got so excited last night because someone wrote inquiring if we still had them available.

(you have to click on the photos to make them bigger. Sorry...blogging struggles)


"Yeah", I thought, "there's some pretty obvious grammar missteps, but who (whom?) among us doesn't make a grammatical error or too every know and again?"

Could be a second language learner, someone that didn't finish high school, a young kid trying to buy some swings for his baby brothers, who knows?

So, I replied as quickly as possible:

I was thrilled to see a response only a few minutes later:

We all know what "send me your address for the certified check" thing means. There was no explaining that away.

Total disappointment.

Or was it?

I gave my computer to Chris.

Joy of Love: Days 4 & 5

What They Wear & What You Love to Hate About Them

(I think these are both pretty self explanatory)

I decided to combine days 4 and 5 (and really day 3 also), to produce the following pictures.

I think it shows what they wear pretty clearly. It also shows then and now. And finally, what I love to hate about them - I love that they're growing up so big and strong, but I hate that they're not going to be babies for much longer.

I tried to use some symbolism in the number of outfits. They are 14 weeks and a bit, so on the last one I put them between a 3 month outfit and what will probably be a 4 month outfit.

Colin


Benjamin


Colin above, Benjamin below

Joy of Love: Day 3

Then and Now

(capturing change in photos)

This was easy to think of ideas for.

I could have taken photos all day if the boys didn't require naps.

Or age appropriate activities like cooing and drooling.

To accomplish my then and now's I first wanted to look back and dig up some "then" photos to recreate.

Most of the photos from the early days were either taken by our wonderful photographer Janelle, or with an iPhone. (I had wayyyyy to much to worry about and too many pains to mention - taking photos with the SLR was not the furthest thing from my mind, but it was the most improbable.)

So...

Boys then (Colin on the right)

And now

Benjamin Then

(Whom by the way we called "Benjamin Defiant for a loooong time. You have to admit you see the resemblance.)

And Benjamin now

Colin then

Colin now

Boys then (Colin on the left)


Boys now

(Don't worry, they still have parents!)

These shots really put things in perspective.

What fun watching them grow and change.

More to come!