Drowning in Art

We have a constant battle in dealing with the artwork created by the kids. Whether it is from school or at home, we have a lot of paper to deal with. So...we decided to take the bull by the horns! Ole! And we made an art wall. The girls are responsible for deciding which pictures go up on the wall and which come down. We are working on recycling. Maya seems much more connected to her pieces and struggles to get rid of them. Whereas Fin is ruthless and ready to dispose of things quite easily to put up a new one of her pieces.


We are pretty proud of this creation and it brightens up the entryway nicely.

Fin and I

Daddy Blog (1/16/12)

Nesting for the Third

By: Danny Thomas

Wow.

I have a daughter who just turned six…
and another arriving in less than a month…
And a little ball of glorious sister in-between.

Jen and I spent this weekend getting the house in order,
some of which involved the common post-holiday purge and re-organization
and the also common stemming the tide of stuff and clutter…

but most of which involved building a crib and preparing a nursery
and working out the engineering of three car seats across the back seat of our car.

Wow.

It’s funny, when the first baby came we spent hours poring over books and articles, attending classes on birth, child care, and nursing. We were already avid watchers of TLC’s “A Baby Story”, but viewings went into double time, and carried more weight…the kid was due in January, and we felt guilty about not having her nursery-ready until mid-October. Ha! We bought a new, safer car. Our worries were BIG, esoteric, felt like life and death.

When the second one came, we got out the old books, and set them next to the bed, intending to read them. We felt prepared. We had a lot of the same worries, but we were in the same home, a familiar place…things were definitely changing, but we felt confident and easygoing about it, excited for the ride.

Here we are on the verge of number three! It feels like a mix of the two.
We have never had a new baby outside of Eugene, OR. We have never had a baby in this house. We have never been outnumbered. We know how to have a baby, we like that, we love it. We revel and delight in it. That’s not what worries me. It’s more how the big sisters will handle it, and how the new one will change all our relationships. Our worries are so much more in the practical; how will we keep up on cleaning, laundry, car seats? Feels like life and more life.

I feel like I was so distracted by maintaining a home and a family, that I spent the last eight months just sort of knowing but not knowing this would come…and now…

There is nothing between us and this third baby coming. No holiday. The day to day is here. But we have a crib and a car seat – it’s all very real.

I feel like I am trying to make up for 8 months’ of laissez-faire – of not worrying –by absolutely losing my shit now.

It started when we took the girls to the hospital for their “Big Sister Class” – the birthing center, the room, the bed, Jen’s expression when she saw the bed…and the little tiny squealing humans…

The new sense of losing my shit, and the new sense of waiting until this late in the game to do it comes with a concomitant sense of excitement and enchantment.

I love babies. I love my wife. I love my family. We delight in each other.

My wife, good god, she just threw me a Reisen. She is perfect, profoundly strong, and inspiring and I thank her daily for carrying and birthing our children. I will slice her Honeycrisps and bring her Diet Coke (or whatever it is she wants) until I die, for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is her miraculous ability to bear our children. I will also give her a bit of a hard time now and again, partly because I am moody, and partly because she likes it when I do.

Lil’ Chaos just turned six.

Wow.

I can’t believe it’s gone by this fast.

She is sophisticated and elegant
wild and complex
She is a tightly wound spring
and a loosey-goosey clown.
She is my love, my pride, my princess.
She’s also the Huck Finn to my Tom Sawyer.
I can’t wait to see what she becomes.
I am filled with worry at the thought of what she becomes.
She is a warrior and a bandit,
A dreamer and a mastermind.
And, just like her mother…
She makes me want to be a better me.

Mani/Pedis with Dad

Having 2 daughters can be such a hard thing for a daddy! :P He is a very good sport.

Mommy Fail

Well, it finally happened. Maya made it home from the bus stop before I got home. I found her with her head on the kitchen counter crying. Poor thing!

Zuzu's Room

Today we decided to brave Zuzu's room! It has been an unheated mess of a room since we moved Fin into the bunk beds. We figured we better at least get the little one a place to sleep!

Danny unpacking the box.

Maya acting as the lovely assistant.

Fin and I playing with the camera.

Daddy being silly.

Finishing touches.

And final inspection.

And not long after, the crib was filled...with babies!

Shopping for Zuzu

We were missing a couple of things for Zuzu (mainly changing pad and covers and diapers). We thought it would be cool for each of the girls to pick out an outfit as a present for Zuzu. Here are the pics. Of course mom and dad had to take part as well! :D


Fin's selection

Maya's (a tutu of course)

Dad's (although truth be told he originally had a pair of stripy osh-kosh overalls instead of the pink pants)

Mom's

We got the other items as well and I think tomorrow is the day we turn on the heat and attack her room. I think we might also work on the car seats as well. Fingers crossed that they all fit!

35+5

I haven't added any pictures since 28+6 so I thought I'd better add another, even if it is an unflattering pair. Here we are...no more than 6 weeks from Zuzu's arrival! Crazy. We better get some work done around this house!

Daddy Blog (1/2/12)

Counting Your Blessings

By: Danny Thomas

The end of the year has, oh, since I was a young kid, been a time of reflection for me…

it happens by reflex

reflex reflection….

I suppose it comes with all the thoughtfulness of Christmastime…

and the inevitable letdown that happens after so much celebration…

I suppose it comes from the tendency of society at large to look back
at the end of the year, to review… I guess, even if I tried, I couldn’t help but get caught up in the swell of wistfulness that the end of the year brings.

I am not big on resolutions, my feeling is that if I want to make a change in my life, I should be able to do that at any time, and waiting for the end of the year is a cop out. But, I enjoy the opportunity to take a look at the year and the choices I made, and to examine the path(s) that lead me to those choices… I try to be objective about the outcomes, not to place too much judgment on the outcomes, I try to not look at them as wins and fails, but rather as turns on a path, forks in a road. I think the analysis is good and I honor the reflex, I think an opportunity for analysis is an opportunity for progress…

But I end up with a feeling of general malaise, uncertainty….

Because so many of those questions don’t have answers…

They are all the what if’s…

The coulda shoulda woulda’s…

And the other side of that coin – the unknowable future…

We are up for a lot of big changes… I need to stop waiting for things to settle… chaos is the routine, it seems…

The constant changes, the things that fall away, the things we try to cling to…

Two nights ago, those thoughts and questions kept me up late into the night… or late into the early morning really…I avoided thinking about them, writing about them, I watched mindless television, folded laundry, surfed the internet, but those doubts about my path persisted… Eventually I made my way up to bed, tired, but still distracted, and trying to distract myself from that distraction by reading… eventually my mind lost the battle with my eyes and they slammed shut.

Two minutes later ‘Zilla came in and asked for snuggles…
Knowing, or rather, hoping that the weariness I had just succumbed to would pull me easily back into the land of nod, I followed ‘Zilla back to her bed, lay down next to her and rested my hand on her back…

It took all of about 30 seconds to feel my mood change…

The words from a song in White Christmas which has been on heavy rotation in our house this holiday season came to mind…

As I lay there listening to my girl’s breath, I started to count my blessings and it brought me back in to the moment…

And, while I do believe that there is value in taking stock in the year, and looking at where you’ve come to in the year, and that one can’t help but plan for the future a little bit, just to exist…

The key is now.

For me one of the things that keeps me tethered to the now, that keeps me in the moment, or maybe makes it okay for me to exist here, is my family.

I have many blessings to be grateful for, my family helps me see that, and for that I am most grateful of all…

A Surprise Visit

The girls got a surprise visit from Auntie Kate! We didn't know what the dates were for a while and so we decided to just let it be a surprise...which was awesome.


Fin hanging with Mel

Maya keeping an eye out for the surprise

The surprise making her way up to the house

AUNTIE KATE!!!!

Hugs, squeezes and squeals all around! 

A dance party eventually began.

Later an Auntie Kate pig-pile.

Look at those cute girls!

The next morning Auntie Kate walked to the bus stop. (It was damn cold.)

Brrrr....

Even more brrrrr....

It was a quick overnight visit but we all got a good Auntie Kate fix. The girls got lots of snuggles and mom and dad had good conversation and even a game of scrabble!