Ella & Zoe get some tumble time in on the neighbor’s trampoline:

I don’t care what the purists say… Flickr’s video service is pretty sweet.

My near constant companion of 15 years passed away earlier this afternoon, from complications of a stroke suffered on Saturday. Camille lived through a house fire, being clipped by a car, and being lost and living on her own for 3 months, but in the end age and time caught up with her, and she left this world curled up and sleeping on her favorite spot on the bathroom tile. I’ll miss her terribly.

G’night, my pretty Camille.

Sooooooo, it’s been quite some time since I had the time/energy/wherewithal to dedicate to this site, and I apologize for that. I also apologize for apparently failing in my non-negotiable duties of taking copious amounts of photos of Ella & Zoe. I can’t say I’ll be dedicating much time to posting (even though I’m certainly at no loss for applicable topics), but I shall endeavor to get more photos up.

This time around it’s a double-dip of the girls having their very first taste of solid food (in the form of the not-really-solid rice cereal), along with their 10th attempt. For the truly starving for EZ Twin action, a short movie file of the girls getting their chow on is available here. Lighting was meh, so I apologize for the less than stellar image quality.

A quick(ish) update: On Saturday, the girls got their first taste of sweet firework display action, courtesy of the Huron Boat Basin and their 11 minute long display of pretend war prowess. The girls were enthralled by the lights and colors, and seemed to enjoy themselves. Daddy sneezing in the next room is enough to set them off on a 5 minute screaming jag, but 5 inch mortar shells faze them not in the least. Weird.

As indicated in the title Sunday was indeed my 34th birthday, and a fun time was had by all. Technical difficulties prevented us from enjoying a waffleated breakfast (we settled for cream cheese filled coffeecake), but our beach outing was a rousing success, with the girls enjoying the sun, sand, and surf. Okay, so not the surf so much. Though Ella seemed fascinated with reaching for pebbles in the water, apparently Lake Erie’s trademark ‘Oh god, it’s so cold’ temperature was too much to handle for Ella & Zoe. Thankfully, they enjoyed hanging out in their bouncy chairs and napping in the sun (until a veritable horde of ravenous seagulls intent on our sandwiches awoke them).

The day concluded with a walk to Pied Piper for lemon-lime slushies (mine) and orange twist cones (Kaitlin), the girls conked out before even making it home, super-delicious plank cooked Sockeye Salmon (courtesy of Dad & Amanda. Super-awesome thanks), lime & cilantro jasmine rice, and peas and corn.

All in all, a most enjoyable day spent with the family, and hopefully a harbinger of many grand birthdays to come.

As always, all photos can be found via the o’fficial dadsbigplan Flickr page.

Today the girls discovered the scintillating sound of each other’s voices [video 1 or video 2*] , and thus our girls begin their journey into the strange and wonderful world of twin-speak. 

Considering we spend most of our lives looking for that one person who utterly and absolutely ‘gets’ us, how lucky for Ella & Zoe to have that perfect complement just inches away before they even realize that’s what they’re looking for.  I wonder if down the road that perfect symmetry will hinder other relationships as friends and lovers complain that they’ll never feel as appreciated or as close to them as their sister.  That perfect and beautiful alignment with another is what we spend our lives searching for; will those future friends and lovers be justified in feeling left out of an already complete circle?  Or will it just be jealousy knowing how lucky Ella and Zoe really are?

Then again, I’m discussing the future of two individuals whose sole goal in life right now is to out-do one another in the quest for the perfect rancid mustard odor diaper.  I’m probably reading too much into this.

In other news, our good pals the Rutgers have found out they are indeed having identical twin girls in September (ha! I so called it!), so head over to their far more often updated site and give a hearty congrats and revel in ultrasound pic madness.

*These files are rather large at 75mb & 45mb respectively, so be ready for that. As always, the Flickr page has the most up-to-date images of the girls, so keep checking there while I continue my assiduous neglect of dadsbigplan.

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We’re smack dab in the middle of winter storm watch here at Casa del Mono, with blizzard conditions in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  Thankfully, we’re pretty well stocked for provisions (many thanks there to some outrageously generous grandparents from both coasts), and now that I’m unfettered from having to work out of the home we’re hunkering down for a comfortable mini-hibernation. 

The rhythm of taking care of Ella & Zoe has finally settled in, and I must admit we’re very lucky to have such congenial and contented wee bairns.  Outside of some fussiness (mostly likely due to constipation) ‘round feeding time, the girls are happy just to hang out together and look around.  They got their first taste of the Fort Awesome Dance Party (TM) last night, with us boogieing down to some Off the Wall era Michael Jackson.  I’ve set up a couple playlists to run through the SoundBridge so that the girls always have some music when they’re hanging out in the family room. So far they seem to equally enjoy Guided by Voices, T. Rex, Josh Rouse, and Japanese dance music.  Obviously these are my children.

I’m well aware that a goodly number of you are here just for photos, so here’s the link to the new Winter Sleepy Time Fun photoset on Flickr, which is where I’ll be hosting the images from now on.  If you’d rather skip my blathering and just get the photos, you can always subscribe to my Flickr photo RSS feed, which will notify you when new shots are uploaded.

Holy crap, but I like bein’ a dad.  And before you ask:  No, I’m not planning on combing my hair ever again.

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That hard, beyotches!  You see that correctly, dear readers!  We have (through top-secret Grandmother technology) the holy grail of onesies!  KISS Destroyer album cover onesies!  And I thought my Soundwave Transformer onesies were awesome! I can’t stop using exclamation marks!

In other news, our dear pals the Rutgerians have discovered they are chock-full of twinsy goodness themselves.  Thankfully, this blatant display of ‘us too’ behavior only slightly diminishes our joy for them.  Apparently the water at Casa del Mono (aka Fort Awesome, Ohio) is not to be trusted.  Guests, consider yourselves forewarned.

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More photo fun from Team Awesome who are still ensconced in the temporary digs I’ve rechristened ‘St. Awesome’.  The coffee situation is better now that I’ve brought in a couple pounds of the good stuff ( in comparison to the hospital’s previous brand “dirt that’s been molested by a hobo.”), and things are proceeding nicely. 

We’ll be staying an extra day to ensure that the girls’ weight gain is moving in the right direction, as well as to keep living high on the hog ala cafeteria food that’s being paid for by Howard Shultz and the fine folk at Starbucks.  At least, it better be.  Otherwise wise we’ll have to abandon everything and go to plan B, which requires us to live the carefree life of carnies, traveling from town to town, solving mysteries, and dodging Johnny Law while fleecing the rubes at the ring toss.  We’re keeping our options open.

All in all, the experience has been pretty much similar to touring.  Strange beds, lots of people coming in and out, and a complete and utter lack of decent sleep.  Except this time, I’m not being paid in alcohol.  Only time will tell if that’s an improvement or a detriment. 

But seriously, on the the pics, right?  Have at ‘em.  Sorry for my complete and utter lack of naming structure, but I figure if I can’t tell ‘em apart, why should you be able to?

Just a quick note:  a goodly number of these pics are of a lesser quality due to both the girls complete and utter hatred of flash photography (possibly a clue as to potential cybernetic origin?  Note to self: warrants investigation), as well as my complete inability to adequately comprehend the user manual’s clever use of Esperanto. 

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Well, apparently January IS good enough for the Weber twins, because as of 7:03 and 7:08 am January 20th, 2007 the world just got a little more kickass times two.  Ella Rose (4lbs 13oz) and Zoe Adele (4lbs 11oz) came into this world the same way their father will go out of it: naked, screaming, and covered in blood and goo.

Due to copious amounts of drugs, K was feeling fine for most of the 7+ hours of labor, and she stepped up (or bore down, as it were) and gave up her twinsy bounty to the world to make more room in herself for sushi, alcohol, and waffles. 

The girls are doing just great (nothing untoward as of this writing), the wife is doing double-fine, and the dad is loopy and deranged from lack of sleep. 

For all you potential parents out there, I have a word of advice:  Stephen Chow’s excellent Kung Fu Hustle is so kick-ass, it induces labor as evidenced by our couch.  Also, cutting the cord (or in my case two of them) does not in any way translate to lower cost of the birth, a fact I find highly objectionable.

More fun facts about childbirth:  Human baby birth and kitten birth smell EXACTLY the same.  Weird!

All in all, an astounding experience all around.  The fine, fine staff of Firelands Hospital in Sandusky, Oh were just absolutely amazing and as helpful as they could be, even if their coffee tasted like hobo-filtered water that someone pointed old grounds at.

More pix and info to follow.  Consider this your FYI of the day.  And as always, donations of Nintendo Wiis (for the dad) and Dungeons & Dragons manuals (for the girls) are accepted.

Update #1: The first batch of pix.  Mostly gore free.

Update #2: Going forward, all photos will be hosted on Flickr under the dadsbigplan moniker. 

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Things proceed as they should.  Ella is 4 lbs and 12oz, while Zoe is 5 lbs and 1oz.  Weight gain is tight, and so far it’s been an exemplary pregnancy (according to the Doc). 

Looks like January 30th will be the D-Day for baby a’splosion. 

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