The official "Hai! Here's mah bebbeh!" thread

[Furiously]

Third year was the toughest for me.

Forth has been a blast.

[JWIV]

Third year was the toughest for me.

Forth has been a blast.

2 was fun honestly.  3 is proving to be a hell of a lot rougher.  But anyhow - Congrats Pennilenko!

[Merusk]

My family has always said "I don't know why they call it the terrible twos,."   Three is the age my kids and all my nephews got really get obnoxious.  They leveled out again at four, but that year of boundry pushing really made them a handfull.  

I will say that so long as you maintain alpha status and don't give in out of sheer weariness they seem to listen well until they're teens*.  My wife gave in all the time and both children don't stop pushing for her to give in until dad steps in to say no.  It's really bad with my daughter, where she gave in even more than with my son, so the child simply doesn't listen to her at all.

*The daughter turns 13 this year. We'll see how well she continues to listen to me. I'm trying the "let her find who she is, but enforce strict guidelines within which she's allowed to move freely." approach.  i.e.  No staying up to 3am just because you want to becausde it's not in your best interests, but go ahead and write on your clothes or your rooms walls and listen to that godawful blood on the dance floor group.

[ghost]

2 has been a real bear for us.  The oldest boy is pretty smart and stubborn at the same time.  And to top it off he's had a bit of a regression since the younger boy (9 months) is starting to get some more attention. 

[Bandit]

I'll bite. Mah bebbeh who is about 5 months old now...

[Viin]

That's a cool swim vest, what brand is it? Roots? Boots?

[Bandit]

Roots.  Roots is a very Canadian outdoor clothing company.  They actually designed the American Olympic gear for a couple of Olympics, which was odd to Canadians.

...and the dog's life jacket is "Outward Hound" if your interested 

[Paelos]

That's the perfect bulldog face for that picture.

[Slayerik]

Anthony and Ana at 1 year!


















Twins are really damn tough.

[WayAbvPar]

And they are just about ready to get REALLY mobile now. Good luck with that. I have enough trouble keeping up with 1.

[Lantyssa]

Tie them together.  With luck they'll wrap themselves around objects and make it easier to catch them!

[Sand]

My new son. Born on Thursday the 21st. I thought things would change and be awesome. I completely underestimated the awesome.

Congrats! 

[CmdrSlack]

I need to setup a flickr account so I can link some of Molly's photos. Not even the ones of her, but the ones she has been taking lately. I got a free iPad2 for attending a legal conference, and the kid has been having fun taking pictures of stuff and using that photobooth app to take some decent, unintentionally psychedelic art.

[JWIV]

While daddy was off doing something silly like high knee lifts or babysitting a stroller, my boy was off flirting with the Baltimore Ravens Cheerleaders.

[Slayerik]

Nice!

[squirrel]

Cute pics all! On the phone so don't have a pic of my lad who is now 8 and has a more interesting social calendar than I do, but I did just find out I'm going to have a second arriving next spring! Yay! Mostly... Hehe.

[Viin]

Congrats! That's a pretty big age spread, they'll both be the only child (and spoiled to match)!

[WayAbvPar]

Cute pics all! On the phone so don't have a pic of my lad who is now 8 and has a more interesting social calendar than I do, but I did just find out I'm going to have a second arriving next spring! Yay! Mostly... Hehe.

We have our 2nd (AND LAST) on the way too- March 8th, give or take. And daddy will be getting snipped soon afterwards on the off chance my wife and I will ever have time or energy for sex again 

[Viin]

I thought about getting snipped too, but it sounds a bit scarey ...

http://badvasectomy.livejournal.com/

[JWIV]

Cute pics all! On the phone so don't have a pic of my lad who is now 8 and has a more interesting social calendar than I do, but I did just find out I'm going to have a second arriving next spring! Yay! Mostly... Hehe.

We have our 2nd (AND LAST) on the way too- March 8th, give or take. And daddy will be getting snipped soon afterwards on the off chance my wife and I will ever have time or energy for sex again 

That's my plan sometime next year.   We're 2 and done - but got nailed this year with bills and the like, so I'm just waiting till next year to pay the out of pocket costs via FSA.

[Rasix]

One and done for me.  But, we're keeping me intact. 

[Viin]

Yay pumpkin patches. Wasn't able to go to this with Sofie, but mom got some pictures.

[murdoc]

Boys are over a year old now and walking!

[Slayerik]

The twins!





The Big Kids!



All 5!

[Miguel]

Twins are really damn tough.

'Twins' is actually Latin for 'I wonder if there's a gun that doesn't taste so metallic'. ;)

I got snipped last year:  couldn't do it fast enough.  It's really a total breeze:  in, out, and done in 45 minutes...a trip to the dentist for filling work is FAR worse.

[murdoc]

Twins are really damn tough.

I didn't think it'd be this tough.

Though, I have a good friend who has a collicky 6 month old and high maintenance 3 year old and I wouldn't trade twins for that EVER.

[Slayerik]

Have him try 'Colic Calm' - saved our ass.

[Miguel]

Twins are really damn tough.

I didn't think it'd be this tough.

Though, I have a good friend who has a collicky 6 month old and high maintenance 3 year old and I wouldn't trade twins for that EVER.

What I wasn't prepared for:  you essentially become two single parents living under the same roof.  My family is very small:  I've lost both of my parents when they turned 60 (I'm 36), and my wife lost her Dad a long time ago.  We don't have close brothers and sisters so there's nobody to help.  For the first year, the only way we didn't kill ourselves was to break up the night into two 6 hour shifts so one of us could sleep at least a little bit.  I took from 9pm to 3am, and my wife took 3am to 9am (thank God for Fallout 3!).

As a result of having no help, the twins tag-team both of us to the point where we never get any breaks.  They are both 3 now so it's better, but now rather than constant feeding and diaper changing it's breaking up fights and stopping arguments, and enforcing time-outs. 

I think when you have two that are separated by a few years,  you and your partner can experience each stage individually, and you each get a chance to get away and recover.  When my wife and I aren't working, it's full time child care at our house.  It's 16 hour days every day, 24/7 for both of us, because one parent really can't watch two crazy three year olds.  Watching a 1 year old and a 4 year old is a completely different experience as they're going through different things at different times.

For those thinking of IVF:  you will be asked for how many embryo's to implant, the doctor will not make a recommendation.  They will put in 1 or put in 10 if you ask them, as you are paying out-of-pocket for the experience.  Knowing what I know now, I would *never* have agreed to implant multiple embryo's.  Fortunately with cryogenic storage, you can always try again on the next cycle.

Of course I wouldn't change having my boy and girl:  they are wonderful kids.  But boy I have never hated life so much at any time in the past as I have the last few years.... I don't care what Dick Cheney says:  prolonged sleep deprivation and constant emotional stress are *torture*.

[Slayerik]

I had two 15 months apart, it was a cake-walk compared to these twins. Miguel put it very well, there are never any breaks. I get an hour occasionally, when I want to sacrifice my sleep, to play some LOL. It took a long time before we could even enjoy the twins, it was so much work. I can't imagine triplets, or more.

[murdoc]

What I wasn't prepared for:  you essentially become two single parents living under the same roof.  My family is very small:  I've lost both of my parents when they turned 60 (I'm 36), and my wife lost her Dad a long time ago.  We don't have close brothers and sisters so there's nobody to help.  For the first year, the only way we didn't kill ourselves was to break up the night into two 6 hour shifts so one of us could sleep at least a little bit.  I took from 9pm to 3am, and my wife took 3am to 9am (thank God for Fallout 3!).

That's it exactly and great way to explain it.

I watch friends just hand their kid back and forth and we just don't have that option. We've been pretty lucky as both boys generally sleep 10-12 hours through the night so we don't have to take shifts and it's been that way since about 3 months.

[Sand]

I had two 15 months apart, it was a cake-walk compared to these twins. Miguel put it very well, there are never any breaks. I get an hour occasionally, when I want to sacrifice my sleep, to play some LOL. It took a long time before we could even enjoy the twins, it was so much work. I can't imagine triplets, or more.

You've got a good looking bunch of kids though! Congrats!

[murdoc]

Christmas card time







I think the biggest problem is just how BAD my wife and I are at taking pictures.

[RhyssaFireheart]

The middle pic of them looking at each other is good though, especially their expressions.  Taking pics of kids is actually really hard, or so I've heard.

[Rasix]

They tend to move a lot. 

[MuffinMan]

I agree, middle pic is good except for the flash reflection. I think if I sent a Christmas card and they cared about the picture quality I wouldn't send them one the following year.