It’s been a rough couple of weeks around here, but everyone is finally feeling better. Since I had a four-day break over Memorial Day weekend (thanks to an off-Friday and the Monday holiday), of course I got sick on Thursday night. Thanks a lot babies. I can’t wait until they start going to daycare and school and bring home all those super-germs. It’s going to be awesome. Anyway, here’s a recap of our sick weekend.

Shae’s parents drove down on Friday, so we spent the day straightening up and resting. Of course, the babies were still sick so they didn’t make cleaning very easy. My sore throat and body aches didn’t help either. Other than that, Friday wasn’t very exciting. Tom and Grace finally got into town just in time to go to bed.

Saturday was international blacksmiths day (everyone knew that, right?), so Tom and Grace spent a good portion of the day up at the tractor museum in Vista doing blacksmith stuff. I was very disappointed I had to stay home with Shae and the kiddos. Super disappointed. Shae, the babies, and myself all weren’t feeling super so we just kind of rested and relaxed most of the day.

After the grandparents got back from the exciting tractor museum, we put the kids down to sleep, grabbed some dinner, and then Shae and I pawned the baby-sitting duties off and got out of the house for a bit. It’s been so long since the two of us have been able to get away on a “date” that we were really excited to get away long enough to see a movie. We met up with Chris and Patty at the theater and spent a couple of hours watching Star Trek. Spaceships, explosions, and (best of all) no babies. It was great to get a few baby-free hours, and we both really liked the movie. Good times.

The plan for Sunday was to spend some time at the zoo, but something was going on at Balboa Park and the traffic was crazy so we gave up on that idea. Instead, we decided to go over to Fort Rosecrans Cemetery where Grace’s parents and sister are buried. In honor of Memorial Day, there were flags setup by all of the headstones so Shae took some pictures. Shae and I were both feeling pretty crappy Sunday, so we took it easy the rest of the day.

Monday, Grace fired up the smoker and cooked several chickens and some ribs. While the meat was smoking, we took care of a few projects around the house. Tom and I (mostly Tom) finally put the doors on our hall closet (they look great), Tom setup our table saw, and Shae and I installed a new deadbolt and knob on our back door. We even found time to give Lunchbox a bath and let him play with the water for a while. Eventually, the food was ready and Chris and Patty came over to enjoy some smoked meat and some beer. It was a nice laid back Memorial Day.

The next day was not so nice. For starters, I guess I overdid it on Monday because I felt like crap when I woke up on Tuesday. Of course, there were some major issues at work to take care of so I had to go in for a few hours to take care of them. Even worse, something was very wrong with Lunchbox. Monday night he was not himself and Shae and her dad decided they probably needed to take him to the vet on Tuesday. By Tuesday morning something was definitely wrong with LB and he was clearly in pain. Normally, when the alarm goes off LB jumps around like crazy until I get up and then he sprints out to his bowl for breakfast (with lots of peeling out and slipping on the hard-wood floor along the way). Tuesday morning, however, he was really lethargic (he still made his way out his bowl and ate breakfast of course, he’s still a lab). Shae and I were both really worried, and we decided LB had to go to the vet when they opened. I had to leave for work so I didn’t see it myself, but apparently Lunchbox started trembling like crazy and Shae and her dad were both worried and decided he had to go see the vet ASAP. They took him in, and after examining him the vet decided it was most likely some sort of muscle injury (probably hurt when we were playing in the water). She gave the Box a painkiller shot and sent Shae home with some doggy-profen to give him for the next few days.

When I got home from work around noon, we had a house full of sickos. Shae and I were sitting on the couch feeling like crap, the babies were still sick and fussy, and LB was laying around drugged and sore. Everyone was still under the weather on Wednesday and I stayed home and rested. By Thursday the babies, the Box, and I were feeling better (Shae still wasn’t super), and by Friday everyone was pretty much back to normal. The babies still have runny noses, but they don’t seem to be feeling sick like they were before.

That’s about it for the Memorial Day weekend recap. I’m going to try to write a few short posts a week rather than only writing about one post every couple of weeks. For some reason, the babies don’t like to give me time to write out these posts. Maybe I can even convince LB to write a few more posts.

Well, last night it happened: we finally had to stick a thermometer up a baby’s ass. We’ve been able to avoid the ram & read for the past seven months, but out luck finally ran our. When I got home from work the babies were sleeping, but when I picked up Jack after his nap he was burning up. He was red and fussy, and even after some Tylenol he was still too warm. By bedtime we had no choice; we had to go find the thermometer and get a reading.

Of course, we don’t have a 10-second anal analyzer so we were going to have to keep this thing up Jack’s pooper for about a minute. Yay! After a short argument over who was going to hold baby boy’s feet and who had to hold the thermometer (I won), I grabbed the feet, Shae lubed up the rump reader, and Jack got an unpleasant surprise. About a minute of discomfort later (Jack was very brave) the thermometer beeped and the readout told us Jack’s had a fever (100.4). Even though Shae was slightly traumatized, there wasn’t much we could do last night so we put the babies to bed. A few hours later we retook Jack’s temperature and his fever was gone. By this morning, Jack was back to smiling and laughing. I guess we did good work.

I think Jack was a little traumatized by the probing experience. Even though he didn’t feel as warm this morning, Shae wanted to take his temp just to make sure he was doing fine. Jack disagreed. Just as Shae was about to give him another jolt, he defended himself the best way he can: he peed on his mom. That should teach her to think twice before trying that again.

A few updates:

• My guess at the cause of Jack’s fever was that his teeth were finally coming in. Ella already has three and he doesn’t have any so I figured it was time. So it makes perfect sense that Ella has a new tooth this morning and Jack doesn’t. So Ella leads the tooth race 4-0.
• Speaking of 4-0, that’s the current “score” in our war against the rodents. About two weeks after deploying the WMRs (Weapons of Mass Rodent-struction, AKA D-CON), Shae found three more dead mouse-warriors. Counting the one we got with the trap a couple of months back we’ve taken out at least four of the little bastards now. It seems to be working because we haven’t heard any scurrying up in the attic lately. I’m sure they’re just plotting their next attack. Of course, the mice got the last laugh. They may have died, but I was the one who had to to dispose of their maggot infested carcasses. I’d almost rather have them making a ruckus up in the attic than have to pick that crap up again. Gross.
• The babies had their 7-month checkup on Tuesday. They’re both doing fine. A few highlights:
  • The babies growth-rate has really slowed down. Ella was 15lbs 8oz and Jack was 16lbs 5ozs. Basically, in three months they both put on about a pound-and-a-half. I guess this is pretty normal since they are both still about average according the the chart the doc showed us.
  • Ella is still a very tall girl (90th percentile…she must get her height from her mom). Jack’s height is still right about at the average. He would have been a lot taller if they counted the height of his faux-hawk.
  • The expectations for the babies get higher every visit. Last time everyone was impressed that they drooled. This time, no one cared how good they were at drooling (Ella is a superstar drooler); the doc wanted to know about their sitting, rolling, “talking”, etc. I guess it’s kind of like school where not pissing on the floor is a big deal in kindergarten, but by the higher grades you have to do math and stuff (Note: this comment is based on kindergarten when I was a kid, not the crazy requirements now where kindergarten students do algebra and calculus). Actually, I think teachers at every level are happy if the students don’t piss on the floor. Maybe it’s not the same at all.
  • Another visit, another round of shots for the babies. That part gets tougher every time because the babies are more aware of the pain as they get older. Especially Jack. He’s our sensitive little boy.
• Last weekend my mom came down to visit for Mother’s Day. It was a short visit, but we squeezed in a trip to the zoo, some pictures at Balboa Park, and we took in the Bodies exhibit that is currently at one of the Balboa Park museums. Oh, and lots of baby time. It was a very nice visit.

I think that’s about it for now. Hopefully Shae will get around to processing and uploading some new pics of the kids sometime soon.

Today is April 7th, which makes it six months since Ella and Jackson popped out of Shae. It feels like it’s been much longer than six months, but it’s also hard to believe that it’s already been half-a-year. I’m not sure how to explain it other than it feels like the babies have been around forever, but at the same time it seems like only yesterday that Shae was pregnant. Very weird.

The babies just keep on becoming little people. Ella’s bottom two teeth are all the way in, and they definitely work (Shae and Jack both have the bite marks to prove it). She bites Jack, and he pulls her hair. It’s a fun game they play. It’s also getting really hard to keep Ella in one spot. She rolls all over the place, and even goes after her favorite toys. Her favorite thing to go after is Lunchbox. She sees him, gets all excited, and rolls/squirms over to him.

Jack’s doing great too. He’s not quite as mobile as his sister, but he is a very happy baby boy. He has a great laugh, and loves to play (if by play you mean lie on his back and kick and laugh). His hair has grown back from his friar hair-style, and his reflux is almost all gone. It’s great to feed him and not get puked on 20 seconds later.

Last weekend, Shae took the twins up to Escondido to visit the Wild Animal Park and Kit Carson Park. She got a few cool pictures, and the babies are even in some of them. She’s uploaded a few of them, and will be uploading more as she processes them. You can view them over in our gallery.

It has been awhile since we have done a real update on the babies, so I figured with all my free time I will sit down and do one.

Ella:
Ella is such a funny little girl. She comes up this these little expressions that just melt your heart. She also does this little giggle when we wash her face and hands after she eats that is just hilarious. I think I start laughing every time she does it. She is one of those babies that just lights up the room.

This last week was a pretty big deal in the life of Ella. First, I was playing with her and she does this thing where she grabs my finger and starts chewing on it. Well this time when she was chewing I thought she picked up something hard off the ground and had it in her mouth. I was wrong. It was two little teeth. Yup, that’s right, Ella is teething. At almost 5 1/2 months, she has two bottom teeth pocking through and they HURT! She has been doing pretty well with it. If she didn’t bite me, I would never have known they were there. The next day, Ella rolled onto her stomach. She got stuck, but at least she made it. She is very good about going from her stomach to her back so now with a little practice she will be rolling around in no time.

Ella is growing FAST. I can’t believe how big she is getting. I mean wasn’t she just 7 pounds not too long ago? With this whole growing thing, comes movement. She is the squirmiest little thing. When I have her on the floor she will do this little crab walk and scootch all over the living room. Just today she was laying next to Jack on the blanket and the next thing I knew, she was half way across the living room. I guess we will be child proofing soon.

She doesn’t like sitting at all. I take that back, she just can’t do it. She has this need to be moving all the time, so when we practice sitting, she is sooo wiggly. Now the thing she loves to do is stand. Of course she needs us to support her, but she wants to do it every chance she gets. Maybe we will just skip the whole sitting step and go strait to standing!

Overall, Ella is the sweetest squirmiest little girl ever. Oh, and cute!

Jack:
What can I say about Jack? He is one cool little boy. He also has started doing a hilarious giggle when the wash cloth gets near him. He is so sweet.

Jack wants nothing to do with rolling over. I think he watches his sister get stuck and doesn’t want to go through that. I keep telling him he’s gonna have to get over it. He did make it to his side the other day so I guess that is progress. Today he went from his tummy to his back for the first time. YAY! He still hates to be on his tummy and really has no desire to scootch around on the floor. He is pretty content just laying or sitting there. It is kind of nice because I only have to really keep my eye on one baby for now. When they both start moving, YIKES!

When we went home for my dad’s retirement party Jack actually sat up on his own for awhile. When I say awhile, I mean he didn’t immediately fall over.

No teeth yet for Jack. Part of me wishes he would get his first teeth right now too, so they can both do it together and we only have to deal with the first teeth thing once, but on the other hand, He is just too sweet to teeth already.

Jack is strong. He has an awesome grip and can pull hair like a pro. His legs are also strong. He doesn’t like to stand up, but he can sure kick. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and he is kicking Ella in the head. Ahhh, it starts already. I think he will be the future kicker for the Chargers!

I think Jack is such a cool little boy!

I have added a few new albums to our photos. Go check them out!

Jack and Ella recently turned five months old. Do you know what five months means in the world of babies? Time for food! I cheated a little and started the cereal a few days early. They don’t really like it unless it is mixed with juice. As for the other foods, they have been doing pretty good. They love bananas and applesauce. Ella is a pretty good eater. For the most part, she will open her mouth for us to stick the spoon in and she only spits out a little bit. Jack is an awesome eater. He doesn’t spit any of it out… Until today. We are supposed to introduce one new food each day so we can check for allergies. Today was the day we introduced peas.

I LOVE peas! I get this trait from my dad. My mom does not share this same love. When you grow up in a house where the main cook hates peas there were not very many meals that included them. Pat also hates peas. Now, if I had known about this before we got married… Just kidding. I am still able to sneak them into meals from time to time. Today was the test to see who the twins take after, me or Pat.

The twins definitely take after Pat! As soon as I started feeding Jack, he got this horrible look on his face. It was such a pleading look. You could almost see him begging me not to feed him any more. It was so funny I had to start laughing. As soon as I laughed, he started laughing. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak some more peas in his mouth. We did this for a few minutes and then he started spitting. No, it was more like spraying. I swear it was like a scene out of The Exorcist. So, Jack does not like peas.

Ella was a little better with the peas, but she still spit everything out. Between the two of them, I really don’t know how much they actually got down. So, now I have a bunch of canned peas and mashed peas in the pantry and no one who will eat them. It is a sad day in the Lorigan pantry.

I don’t know what Shae does all day around the house with the babies,
but today I came home from work and it looked like they had been in a
brawl. Jack has a scratch and little red mark under his eye and Ella’s
cheek was all scratched up. I guess while they were laying in their
crib “talking” to each other they got bored and decided to start
hitting each other. Fun.

Well it’s been a while since our last update so here it goes. As usual, I’m too lazy and tired to write up a coherent post so it’s time for another list.

• Thursday, Shae and the babies are heading up to King City/Lockwood to help prep for Shae’s dad’s retirement party. I’ll be flying up next Thursday, so that means for a week it’s just going to be me and Mr. Box down here. I’m sure I’ll miss Shae and the munchkins, but it’s going to be nice to have some quiet and relaxation around here. I’m not even sure what I’ll do with all that extra sleep.
• The babies are doing great but have taken a step backwards in a few areas, most importantly in their sleeping habits. For a while, things were pretty good. We put them down around 7 or 8 and Jack slept through the night and Ella woke up once (at most) to eat. Let’s just say that’s not the case anymore. Both babies are up at least once, and usually twice every night. Several nights recently Shae has spent half the night sitting in our glider in the baby room.
• They also seem to have forgotten how to drink out of their faster speed nipples. We moved them from the slow nipples to the “variable” nipples because they were taking so long to eat (and because the variable speed nipples don’t spill if the babies fall asleep with them in their mouths). They did just fine with the new nipples for about a week, and then apparently forgot how to drink out of them and just started making a mess. We had to go back to the slow nipples for a while and now we’re back to trying to get them on the faster ones again. We’ll see how it goes.
• This is a little awkward, and I’m not sure I would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but Jack and Ella french kissed this morning. They were laying next to Shae in our bed facing each other and all of a sudden they were kissing. Seriously, Jack’s tongue went into his sister’s mouth. Gross. If you don’t think I’m telling this story to every single date either one of them brings home you obviously don’t know me very well.
• Ella is doing great, and is growing up pretty fast. She has so many expressions and loves to smile. Unfortunately, she keeps losing her hair. Between her cradle cap and Jack pulling her hair out she’s getting pretty thin up top. Looking back at her newborn photos it’s hard to believe how much hair she had then.
• Ella may not look as much like a mini-Pat like her brother does, but there can’t be any doubt about whose daughter she is. The other day she was laying on the couch laughing at her own farts. Fart, laugh. Fart, laugh. Yup, that’s my daughter.
• Jack is doing great too. His reflux is getting much better, and he doesn’t puke after every meal anymore. It’s nice to be able to feed him and not have half of it come right back up all over us. We still have to be careful not to feed him too much, but it’s way better than a week or two ago.
• Both Jack and Ella have started to get into an oral phase. After not having much interest in pacifiers, a couple of days ago Jack became obsessed with them. Now whenever he gets fussy we just shove a pacifier in his mouth and he’s happy as can be. On one hand, we really don’t want a baby who’s addicted to pacifiers, but on the other it is really convenient to just shove a pacifier in his mouth and shut him up. Ella kind of likes pacifiers too, but she is happy with her thumb, my hand, Shae’s neck, or pretty much anything else she can find. The other day she almost left a hickey on Shae’s arm.
• The babies really love Lunchbox, especially our baby girl. She stares at him and smiles, and loves it when he gives her kisses. It’s hilarious to watch, and Lunchbox enjoys it too.
• You can already kind of see which kid is going to doing to do certain things first. Ella is going to roll over, crawl, and walk WAY before Jack. She’s already about to roll over, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts flipping onto her stomach while she’s up North. I think Jack’s going to talk first, but Shae disagrees. Ella makes a lot of noise, but Jack seems to already be trying to talk. He just lays there and babbles to us all day.

That’s about it for now. If you haven’t checked out our gallery lately, take a look because we add pictures all the time. I’m sure there will be plenty of pictures from Shae’s trip North. Also, Shae has been playing around with some images lately, and her pics blog has some cool new images.

For some people, excitement is jumping out of an airplane or driving a
race car. For others, it’s the opening of spring training. Then
there’s me. Nowadays, my life pretty much has two forms of excitement.

The first happens almost every time I change a diaper. For just a
moment after I rip the diaper open there’s a split second where
anything can happen. It’s like a game of diaper roulette (unless I can
already smell the danger, in which case I’ve already lost). Most of
the time it’s an innocent enough wet diaper, but every so often one of
the babies has a stinky surprise for me. I don’t know how they can
keep something that foul a secret, bit they find a way.

The second source of excitement occurs more often and is a lot more
dangerous. Every couple of nights we give the munchkins baths. One of
us gets in the tub to bathe them while the other takes care of getting
the little ones ready and bringing them into the bathroom. That’s the
exciting job. It’s about 15 steps from the changing table to the bath.
Normally this isn’t a big deal, but when you’re carrying a naked baby
chanting “Don’t pee. Don’t pee. Don’t pee!” it seems more like 15
miles. So far we’ve both made it without either baby making a mess,
but it’s been close a few times and it’s only a matter of time before
one of us isn’t so lucky. Sure, we could just carry the babies into
the bathroom and then take off their diapers, but what’s the fun in
that? Then we’d have to jump out of an airplane to get our excitement
fix.