If you love twin girls, send them to Duluth....if they come back in grandma's car, then it was meant to be.

Abby happily waits out the Wings/Pens pregame, ready for the puck to drop.

The giiiiirls are back in tooowwwn. Yes, I am back in custody of the kids. It took only an hour to find that Lily was not a fan of this. Both the monkeys were quite happy to see me, and it was a lovely reunion. Hugging. Kissing. Some tooting. But when grandma left for the car, Croc-o-Lily voiced her displeasure. Loudly. Apparently the grandparents won the girls over while they were in Duluth. So long as I can still get the girls to function tomorrow when Marj and Neil leave, I think it's fantastic.

So I'm back in charge. I'm not panicking yet, but I'm not alone yet either. Tomorrow may end differently.

I was excited to see that Abby is showing another tooth on the bottom. Lily is sporting 71 teeth that average a centimeter in length, but when Abby gets a new one, it's memorable. Sweet.

It's great to see them again, and see those smiles and hear their (very amazingly different) laughs. I got to chase Lily. I watched Abby try and climb the stairs for the first time. I like having kids again.

Day one hundred and four.

Grandma and Lily. Lily and grandma. And a scrap of paper.

Oh no. Oh no you didn't.

Oh, look, it's a film picture of Lily I scanned in. A photo with cheesy fashions and decor circa 1978. Doesn't Lily look happy? Doesn't she look cute?

Foooool! You totally fell for it. That's actually Jenny, around about the same age as Lily. I can't believe I fooled you so thoroughly.

Really, the similarity is just staggering. Tomorrow I'm going to try and bribe Lily to pose just like this for a side-by-side comparison.

And I think I'll be renaming Lils. Now: Jenny 2.0

My final day of kidlessness(ness)

I didn't get any text-based info from the 'rents-in-law about the day, but I did get some nice pictures, so I'm just going to roll with that.

Unless you want me to break down my day as a single non-parent again. Do you!?? I didn't think so.

I will regurgitate a bit of info I heard on the news today. I'm not sure if this info was for MN or nationwide, but the last quarter there were more bike sales than car sales. Go recession!

Day one hundred and threeeeee...aaaah ah ah ah ah (that's The Count from sesame street in case that didn't translate..)

Not sure what was going on here. Obviously some sort of relaxation exercise on the couch.

The girls in the cutest outfits they have. So cute. They're sporting some new boots, thanks to Marj and Neil. Very stylish.

Lily was helping in the garden; hopefully she was more helpful than when she helped me tear the leaves off my sedums.

Smiles have been few and far between from her the last few days I saw them, so it's great to see this sort of photo. I get to see them tomorrow, and that's a good thing. For all of us, I think.

google maps...almost as good as being there.

Marj is getting the night off and some much needed time for rehabilitation. Lily and Abigail have been running roughshod over the grandparents, or at least that is the impression I've been left with after talking to Grandpa. Their countenance has been quite agreeable, I think, but their level of healthfulness has been the cause of some extra labor from the grandparents. Poor guys; they had no idea the tsunami of effort they were in for when they offered to watch the girls.

At least I can blame all the kids' malfeasance on illness-related bugaboo.

Since I'm not privvy to the specific details of the girls' day, here's what happens on an average day when I don't have kids:

5pm: Get back home from work (I won't be chronicling my time at work. Be very relieved). Receive kisses from the beagle and nips from the cat. Walk the dog around the neighborhood.
5:30pm: Return home. Check caller ID...I missed three calls. One from Florida, one from Indiana, one from Ontario. Those literally were the names on the ID. Hmm...later on I miss another call from Ontario.
5:35pm: Wonder why states are trying to reach me
6:02pm: Meet Klocker at Longfellow Grill for the happy hour that ended at 6. Beer. Perogi. Get lime juice sprayed on me by a jovial but inept bartender who does not offer me a conciliatory beer.
7:11pm: Taco Bell. No explanation necessary.
7:30pm: Back home to watch the national spelling bee
8ish: Mow what's left of my grass. Most of what's left in the bag is just leftover dust from this Steinbeckian month of drought.
9:00: At some point around 9 I guiltily watch - wrapped in raptness, my eyes welling up with the pure emotion of it - the training montage scene from Rocky 3. Is that the one with the Russian guy? That one.
9:40: After my second beer of the night, it becomes clear that I should stay up all night to write my version of an autobiography; it would be tragic and completely fictional and would require more than a passing mention of my time as host of Hollywood Squares.
9:47: Spend forty five minutes looking at Stockholm - a cruelly labrynthian city of seemingly infinite directions - on google maps. With no information to go on, I pan over the city and imagine that I can find exactly where Jen is like I'm using a Ouija board, and this somehow makes me feel happily closer to her.
10:15: Decide - incorrectly - that I'm in the right mind to do a blog entry.

It's my average day.

Day one hundred and two.

Obviously, old photos since my camera does not have a 140 mile zoom.

Lily owns the hillside.

Whoa. Whooooaaaaa.

I love her expression here.

And I obviously love her love of the soccer ball.

News from the north.

The trick to telling if she's smiling behind the pacimafier: it's all in the eyes.

[...again, from the mind of Marj, Grandma in charge...]

Dear Jen and Dave -

For us today we saw two little individuals emerge -- having seen them before in purely a grandparent mode we never really were given the benefit of who they really were (the first six weeks don't count as they only opened and closed mouths and eyes).

But today changed that. Your oldest child called us grandma and grandpa (when prompted but nevertheless parrots are cute), and lily played us with virtuoso performances. i think we should put her on the stage. ...where is my cheese sandwich with tomato??

ps. lily is much better, abby ate like she was a 200 lb. football player.

Day one hundred and one.

She's eating so well, a jade plant is growing out of her head.

Lily has been dragging this purse around ever since she got to the Stalker's. Now, according to Neil, the pony inside is a constant companion of hers.

Abby...dressing a pumpkin patch kid?

Gels Girls in Limbo

Missives from Jen's mom shall serve as the daily update. I will take this moment to say that I should never, ever look at pictures of the girls while they're away. It's painful. Take it away, Marj....


well dave and jen- I thought that the day had gone fairly well: the girls ate together (well, Abby ate, and ate....and ate), took naps at the same time, took a bath with no problems. All had gone remarkedly well- until Lily realized that it wasn't daddy giving the bath, it wasn't mommy holding the towel and she crawled soaking wet into the towel onto my lap, buried her little nose in my chest and whimpered for about five minutes. Felt like an hour. I felt so bad for the little froggy.


Lily is not feeling well at all and every breath is raspy and clogged. She is full of croup. Abby, though, is feeling much more like her normal jolly self.


They both wanted to go to bed at 6 -but being a bad and selfish grandma I couldn't let them go down so early so they made it to 7:15. I haven't heard anything from them yet. Neil came in from golf and cleaned the kitchen for me, offered me dessert (which I virtuously passed on) and didn' t even seem to notice that you can't walk through the living room without tripping over something child or dog related.


Just thinking about it makes me tired, so even though it is only 8, I am going to curl up in my bed and pretend I am still 30 plus when this kind of day would be normal. love you both, and yes - you owe me! I will take a cheese sandwich with tomato to go. thanks. love mom


...and you, Marj, get the distinction of being the poster for the 100th day! Super job, and it's an honor you've earned well.

Day one hundred.

Adios, mis ninas.

Lily watching Kyla and Grandpa polish their hopscotch skills.

The reins were officially handed over today at 11:33...Grandma and Grandpa are officially in charge of the girls. I scurried off while Lily napped (which was agreed to be the least shocking way for me to go, but it kinda hurt my heart to think that she might wake up and look around for me with that little face that I knew she would make for just such an occassion), and I came home to an empty house. Echo echo echo..... I guess I have the dog and cat still, but they don't really count.

I will also be relinquishing creative control of the blog for the next few nights. I thought it was to be starting tonight, but it's 10:30 and I haven't heard from Marj, so I think maybe they'll start posting tomorrow. Maybe their first day with the Gels girls has them running for bed. I do feel a bit guilty leaving them; Abs and Lils are not exactly the pictures of health right now, so I can only cross my fingers and hope they don't give Marj and Neil too hard a time.

I made the mistake a few minutes ago of checking my flickr page and looking at Saturday's photos. Now I miss them enormously. Silly kids. I should be enjoying my bit of time alone, time to do nothing and relax a bit, but I'm just too struck by how lonely it is. I'm here. Kids are in Duluth. Jen is in Norway. We're all very scattered. I think I'll be spooning the dog tonight in bed.

Here're a few photos from this morning. Again, they're lopsided in favor of Lily, Abby was sleeping the better part of the morning, which I hope is a good thing.

Day ninety nine.

Lily with her goofball laugh.

Grandpa ruled the hopscotch court. I hope Jon got a good shot of his backside.

Love the hair.

55 degree water can apparently give you a heart attack. Who knew?

Jen:



I am already starting to mooch off the family, in terms of babysitting/watching the girls. This morning Neil, Jon and I went off to Enger for 18 holes while Marj and Suze and Kyla and whoever else were in charge of watching the munchkins. Kyla needs to get a special shout out; she is an ace at playing with the kids. Especially Abby, with whom she's very gentle and attentive. Suze and Marj are no slouches, either.



The kids are good, although I'm fretting about health things more than I probably should. Lily's rash isn't getting better, and in fact the last time I changed her it seemed markedly worse. And she woke up with a cough today. Hmm. Abby is still just "blah", kinda lethargic and not feeling herself, but her temps have been a lot better. It's frustrating having her not be herself, but there were moments when her spunkiness would creep to the surface. Just before bed she managed, out of nowhere, to blow sleepy kisses and wave bye-bye to us in attendance. Nice.



Lily does not stop roaming the house. She just circles around, around the dining room, walking and walking, stopping here and there to say hi. She's even warming to Jon, which is remarkable. And while she's good with everyone, she especially seems quite taken with Grandma. We'll have to curb that somehow.



We're all marvelling over a picture your Mom brought out of you when you were about Lily's age. I am flabbergasted...it's totally Lily. It's you, but it's Lily. I can barely fathom how similar you guys are. Right down to the last squinty smiling eye.



I took a mammoth nap today. It was amazing. After dinner Jon and I did a sauna-swim-sauna-swim. Jon opted out of that last swim cycle because he's a wuss. Felt great. I was told afterward by Mike, our resident internist for the night, that that was a good way to have a heart attack. Maybe I need to stop doing things like this now that we have kids.



Miss you. Sorry no pictures today, I'll try to do some tomorrow before I hand over control to your parents.



Day ninety eight.