a giant step forward

well here we are, 14 months old. so much wiser. so much more worldly.

mumma has received the appropriate smack-down (non-violent for those of you 40+ and unfamiliar with such slang) for her delinquency and i merely penning this on our behalf (we're too busy climbing furniture to focus on typing skills).

since we last spoke, we've moved to a lovely house in an equally lovely neighbourhood. our friend claire lives across the street, and vincente is just around the corner (it's nice to finally have some boy prospects in the mix). mumma's gone back to work, so we spend our days with the super lovely katie-bird ... she's our hero. we walk and jump and pee ourselves laughing (just us, not katie). we went home to see the family for christmas and had the best time with charlie and reilly, our boy-cousins ... they have lots of thomas the tank engine and a hand-crafted train table (their diddy made it!) that char likes to climb up on so she can sit in the middle of the train yard.

so here are a bunch of pics from the past few months ... highlights of our lovely adventures.

user's note

i've just noticed that the blogger formatting doesn't work very well with firefox, so if you want to see the lady-twins looking good you gotta use IE ... bummer.

so long mumma

this is my final post and the ladies' first assertion of independence. i've been advised that i may be invited to make guest appearances from time to time, but that c & g are big girls now and feel that they would be better represented by their own words ... alas. feel free to petition for my return.

history of the world, part deux

okay, i gotta hurry up and finish this story because i only have until sunday at 11:59 p.m. to wrap it up.

so diddy and mumma moved to victoria, bc. we lived at 12 wellington ave. you can check it out on google maps and switch to satellite view ... we lived right by the water (the juan de fuca straight). it was really lovely. (i'm having a moment ... why did we move back to ottawa?)

zorg and lewis made the move with us, as well. they were very happy that their new home included a handy-dandy cat door so that they could go in and out as they pleased. but zorg got really sick last spring and he decided to stay in lotus land (in a flower-filled field in sooke, according to the vet). zorg's been my man since 1991 and i miss him everyday ... i send you 'pankings in heaven, my little man.

sometime in march, you were conceived. diddy and i were very excited. we started going to see midwife susan. she took care of us for the first six months, testing mumma's peep (you go on a stick and it turns all sorts of colours ... there are good colours and there are bad colours, but ours were always lovely) and soothing diddy's concerns. when we had to say goodbye to susan in august, diddy's got something in his eye and had to go outside to be alone (he's a sensitive diddy and i love him for it).

we didn't find out there were two of you until about nineteen weeks along, but i knew something was up because i needed bigger pants at six weeks. this is what you looked like:

(A = g; B = c)

mumma and diddy were torn. we loooooooooved living in victoria, but the thought of TWO babies without family close by scared mumma a little bit. we met so many lovely people in victoria ... aaannndd, the p'illips live there (we miss them all the time). mumma and dennypenny have known each other since they were five. this is a picture of the p'illips (the chickens are in the background wearing pink):



so back in ottawa mumma and diddy found a lovely nest and settled in for the final few months. we went to doctors' appointments and mumma's feet swelled up and she pouted and napped. the doctor told mumma that she couldn't work anymore, so i said "okay." mumma and diddy stayed home together and stared in wonder at the belly.

the weekend before you were born, charlie and reilly came to visit. whenever they were around, g would start to dance like crazy; you wanted to come out and play. after that last visit you decided you'd waited long enough, so g kicked off the labour and the party began. i'd been kinda crampy for a few days, but i woke up around 4:30 a.m. on november 3rd and (cover your ears, boys) my water broke in a huuuuge rush. we got to the hospital around 6'ish and there were lots of nurses and doctors ... i don't really remember that much because it hurt a lot. g, you were still facing feet first, and c, you were crunched up top waiting for your sister to make the first move. so the doctor said "c-section it is," and i said "no problem, let's just get this moving!" they gave me the spinal anaesthetic, which took over quickly, and before i knew it you were both born; g at 8:46 and c at 8:47. diddy and gisèle, our doula, were there to take pictures and talk to me, but really, i was so stoned at that point that everything seemed pretty pleasant (shhhh, there's morphine in the spinal). diddy doctored up this picture to hide your pink parts :)



g, you were 4lb 3oz, and c, you were 3lb 14oz ... very small potatoes. but they only had us stay in the hospital until sunday; you had both already gained back the little bit of weight you'd lost and i was healing like a great big healing thing (aka really well). that sunday afternoon, diddy was sooooo nervous. he could only get one of the carseats strapped in well enough so we drove you home one at a time. grandma bev was there by then, so she went home with g and then diddy came back for me and c ... i think ... it coulda been the other way around, c then g ... we couldn't really tell you apart back then. we kept the hospital name tags on your ankles for about a week and a half so we knew who was who. then grandma bev discovered that c has pointy ears, so we had a new way to tell you apart. it's funny to think about it because you don't look anything alike to diddy and i now, although you're both beautiful :)

so that's how it all started. and it gets better and better everyday.

all growed up

okay, this post has nothing to do with c & g, it's purely a me moment i'd like to share with my brother, michael, and my baby sister, meghan.

i think i was about 15 when i took this picture of michael and meghan, so that would make them 13 and 4. i was taking photography in school and i obviously needed to illustrate the heavy angst of teen-hood. but i love this picture and it still sits framed in my living room.

and this is michael and meghan now, 20 years later ...
i love you guys!

history of the world, part one

the lady-twins have informed me that they're taking over the blog. "it's not you," they told me, "it's us ... we just need some space" (this sounds tragically familiar. it was montreal, summer of 1992 ...). annnnyway, i've been given a week's notice to bid my farewell and clear out my stuff. so i've decided that i'm going to leave a little "this is your life" for the cha-grace-lottes (this is the name of their new r&b band; we're hoping to profit shamelessly).

part one (as told to c & g):
mumma & diddy fell in love and got married on monday, march 8, 2004 ... well, not all in one day ... we fell in love over the course of a few years and then got married in about 20 minutes. here's a picture:

we got married in tofino, bc, at the wickinnish inn. it was super lovely. they have an aveda spa, and we had massages before the wedding in an ocean front cabin; they don't play music during the massage, they just open the doors so you can hear the waves crashing on the rocks.

the next day we went whale watching on the exact same boat we took 5 years before when we travelled out west with out friend marty. just the three of us in a two-door sunfire, driving across the country :) but anyway, we took the same boat out, and it was the first day of the whale watching season. diddy and i were so excited that we pushed everyone out of the way and jumped in the very front seats of the zodiac boat. it was super choppy and the waves were so crazy that i was desperately nauseous and missed seeing all the whales. there could be a moral to this story, but i choose to ignore it.

after the wedding we drove back to victoria and stayed with my dennypenny, her dan and her chickens (children>chitlens>chickens), emi and kate. emi was my first baby girl nine years ago. i still remember visiting denny in the hospital while she was in labour (c&g, mumma gets to include any sidebars she wants!).

so we hung out in lotus land, and let me tell ya, march is probably the most perfect victoria month there is ... well, maybe april, too. along the way i called up a man named merv. i knew he was looking for a federale to come work for him, so i thought i'd check it out. we had lunch (with monsieur thomas) and decided it would be a good idea for me and diddy to move to bc so that i could work with merv & co.

so we packed it all up and moved to victoria in september. actually, i moved in september; diddy moved out at the end of october. until that time, mumma and diddy hadn't lived in the same city together, so it was a very exciting time for all. we spent our first christmas on the beach (see left).

i will sign off and post for now. TBC...

chocolate eggs

time for the easter postmortem (save it for the comments).

we packed up the mazda minivan (auto of choice for the insta-family) and headed home to see family and friends. the twin-ladies were very well behaved and slept for most of the trip ... pretty amazing considering it's a really long drive. i wasn't afforded the same luxury ... i had to stay up and keep the pappa dutchie company, so as punishment i played prince's greatest hits for 2+ hours.

it was a heady five days! thursday we arrived at charlie and reilly's house. this was the long awaited moment for the parents, the cousins would finally meet (eariler efforts were thwarted by illness). all was happy and joyous, but clearly the big bonding was between charlie and gracie ... the little man even shared his vinnie (stuffed cow, see picture)!

friday was spent with grandma bev. we had a super lovely easter salmon (mmmm!), but it was an early night with four babes to get to bed.

saturday was diddy's family's easter extravaganza. there were nineteen attendees and it was loud, boisterous and a whole lotta fun. the lovely rachel (second cousin to the girls ... i think that's how that works) took a shine to the lady-twins and helped out all afternoon, enduring puke and drool.

nurse yolanda, first cousin to the girls, also pitched in and changed a diaper.

we had yummy pork roast and trifle for dessert (my personal favourite) ... we all had a super fabulous time.




sunday started with a walk in the 100 acre woods (komoka conservation park). it was a perfect day for a mini-hike and the eternal city girl, auntie sarah, joined us for a bit of fresh air. that's chris on the left with a starbucks tucked in next to gracie's head ... and that's michael and amy, charlie and roo's mumma and diddy, coming down the forest path with chickens in tow (aunt amy's carrying charlotte) ... and then auntie sarah, also with a starbucks, but not nearly so crass as to use her niece as a cupholder.

then it was off to grandpa treasure and granny c's house for lamb and vegetable clafoutis. it was a short evening again due to bedtimes, but we all went for a lovely stroll about the neighbourhood after dessert (a delectable ice cream cake).

all in all we had a super lovely easter weekend, no complaints ... although i'm not sure if the lady-twins want to get back into their carseats anytime soon. all our love and thanks to the lobbs (michael, amy, charlie and roo) for their hospitality.

michael, don't you think it's funny that we both grew up? love ya :)

weighing in

we had a doctor's visit this morning. the girls hadn't been weighed in a while, so we popped them on the scales for a look-see. gracie's thirteen pounds and charlotte's catching up at twelve pounds. the doctor was super pleased with their growth and progress ... and i said "well, of course. they are bred from the finest dutch stock."



they screamed for most of the half hour we were at the doctor's office and i'm convinced they were having immunization flashbacks. as soon as we stripped them down on the table, they freaked out. they were looking around wildly, as if they were expecting poor nurse lori to walk in any moment with gi-normous needles for their little sausage thighs ... but no needles today (shhhhh, we're getting them in another three weeks).

many of you may have already seen these pictures, but i just love them so i'm posting them anyway.



later gators