I had this great idea once. It's likely that it was my last one, and it hit me almost a year ago now, as my kids were just a few weeks old when it happened. It came - as many arresting notions tend to - as I was trying to jockey my way through the 35W-Crosstown commons.
"You know, we should really keep a journal in the girls' room, right by where we feed them, so we can chronicle some thoughts and stuff during the dim hours of the night," I said to Jen, my now-very-frightened wife. "Think of the interesting parental scribblings that stupendous fatigue would bring." She cheerfully agreed, eager to coax my mind back to driving.
There was no shortage of journals in the house. I'm a whore for half-witted stabs at creativity, so I only had to tiptoe into the basement, pluck one from the shelves, tear out three pages of cloying drivel I'd written years prior, and we had our new journal.
It was a bust. We started diligently enough, but a nursery, as it turns out, a nursery in the middle of the night with a baby on your lap is hardly an opportune time to put pen to paper. So after some decent entries and some heartfelt meanderings, the journal languished (again; far too dismal a fate for a nice journal). It's still there, collecting dust. I may take a snapshot of it and put it on here.
The girls' first year of life, then, passed without much in the way of written record. I like photography, so we're sitting on some 152,000 photos (give or take), but not many nouns or verbs, or even adjectives, which is a shame; our kids are bursting with adjectives.
So here we are. One day after they've turned one year, I've decided to plunge into this stupid project. I chose the picture above because it really captures the mood quite candidly: those two morons, who I love more than anything, look like they're watching a train wreck, which this blog will admittedly and undoubtedly turn into.
But they're watching...and that's really the point of it all.
Year two. Day one.
Lily.
Lily, pre-attack.
Dave, this is awesome. I can't wait to follow. Your girls are adorable. I think about you guys all the time when I'm with my little one (six months old now) and try to imagine everything times two. Nope. Unimaginable. Maybe this blog will help me imagine it.
ReplyDeleteJen Aspengren
Dave, great idea and I can relate to the promised memory tracking with little follow through (You will have to ask Tracey about Elizabeth's memory chest -- the best laid plans of mice....). Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMark
Those two are so gorgeous. I especially love the one of Abby peeking. By the way, I have a blog.
ReplyDeleteChristy
Blog??? What's a blog?
ReplyDeleteWe have journals for Maya and Oliver, with maybe 5 and 2 entries, respectively, to represent almost 8 years of crazy living. I hope you keep up with this better than I have with ours! I look forward to reading more...
Steve G
Dave/Jen:
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, and good luck following through. I'll be following closely, and relishing every picture and word, especially of my dear, sweet grandtwins. They are lucky to have two such loving parents. (This is my very first blog comment. I feel so "now".)
Dad
Makes Tampa and Minneapolis not seem so far apart... sigh... They'll probably have jobs and boyfriend and driver's licenses before we know where the time went. xoxo
ReplyDeleteWay to go Dave! You have the cutest kids on the planet...they both seem to have such funny personalities! So, you're now a blogger. My webmaster guy asked me if I wanted to start a blog on my AviaNation site, but I said no because I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. Hats off to you and I'll be checking in daily to read the latest twins news!
ReplyDeleteYou are nuts, but man it will be awesome if you pull it off. I thought about doing something like this but right now I can barely take one a week (Friday keeps sneaking up on me) let alone every day.
ReplyDeleteWant me to list this in your bio on PoHo365 to keep you honest?