Annnnd... We're Back

Annnnd… we’re back. Sorry about that. Phew. Raising two little girls is hard work. Rewarding, yes, but difficult nonetheless. Time has become the enemy. The girls are growing up incredibly fast and we want to squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of our time with them. (Yes, even when they’re misbehaving.) After they’ve gone to bed, Nicole and I are so disoriented by the quiet normalcy that sets in that we don’t think to sit in front of the computer, and so the blog has gone neglected for many long months.

I’m going to try again to be better about it. I promise.

Mostly I feel that the blog needs to be regularly updated as a record of our time together as a family. It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but they forgot to mention that to do so it needs to be a really good picture. A picture of my dog really is only worth the words “picture of my dog”. I still contest that the only thing truly worth a thousand words is, well, a thousand words. I’m happy we have the pictures, but I also want anecdotes and stories that will transport me back here to this exact moment.

Then again, maybe I’m having delusions of grandeur and this is just a simple blog. Perhaps it will one day be forgotten as the internet gives way to the next technological advancement. Nicole and I will nostalgically weep over its contents while Haley and Zoe look upon it with the same bored curiosity I reserve for mimeograph copies and rotary dial phones.

I also want to get back into blogging for Zoe. It doesn’t seem fair that while her sister was afforded weekly updates of progress and anecdotes of observed cuteness, a substantial portion of her first year was left undocumented. One day, she may confront me with it. She may point angrily at the gaping hole in this narrative and ask why no entries exist between the months of April and August of her first year. And I will pluck at my white goatee and say from my hover-recliner, “that was when you weren’t letting us sleep.”

But enough discussion of my excuses for stopping and my reasons for starting again. What has happened lo these intervening months? A freaking truckload, that’s what!

Haley continues to impress us as she grows into an intelligent and lovely young girl. She had her fourth birthday in June and overnight seems to have grown into her headstrong personality. This is her world, we just live in it. At least that’s the impression she gives off. Whatever you do, don’t help her do something she has gotten it in her mind she wants to do for herself. You’ll pay for it dearly. She has started to ride her bike (with training wheels) and her scooter all over the neighborhood. And she has just started her second year of preschool. Her ability to write her letters and numbers is getting better every day, and she has even started writing and spelling a few simple words! Her math skills are coming along nicely and she can even do some addition and subtraction without using her fingers. (I’m not sure I can do that anymore. Anyone got a calculator?) We took a break from ballet to focus on swimming for a while, but both will be continuing this fall.

Zoe is also making daily advances. At 11 months, she is already standing up without holding on to anything and appears to be on the verge of her first tenuous steps. Not to say she needs to walk just yet, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a baby crawl faster. I’m considering painting racing stripes on her and entering her in a few races. Her teeth are coming in, but in a little bit of an odd manner. Her two incisors have come through faster than the rest of her teeth, prompting me to yell, “Vampire baby! Cover your neck,” whenever she smiles. Speaking of, this baby smiles A LOT. And Zoe’s smile can light up a room and melt the ice caps. I think Al Gore has something about her in his next movie. As I alluded earlier, the only flaw in this tiny bundle of perfection is that she is STILL not sleeping through the night.

There you have it - a “quick” update. Believe me, there is much more to say. But I’ll end here for now and try harder to at least write something new in this space once a week.