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.