They should make sippy cups with wings.

Whistling lessons have begun in earnest at the Gels house.

My current photo total for the month of March is now 3,120. Is over 100 photos per day normal or completely obscene? I am aware on some level that my hard drive is in fact finite, and there are only so many blurry photos of our moron kids it can bear. For now I'm digging my head in the sand and refusing to check the properties on my C: drive. If I don't check it...I can't possibly run out of room.

Tonight we headed over to Sarah and Jason Dockter's for dinner. Five kids total, and although it bordered on chaos, it went off smoothly. Their three boys were quite gentlemanly, and Abs and Lils were solidly impressed. They babbled about them all the way home.

At one point in the evening, I noticed that the Dockters had the same kind of sippy cups as us. I checked the brand: Playtex. I wanted to tell Jen about the similarity so we didn't walk off with one of theirs, yet I felt awkward saying "Jen, they also have Playtex sippy cups" in front of the kids, but the funny thing was that I couldn't realize why this seemed strange. Finally I asked Jen: "What does Playtex make that makes me feel funny about saying Playtex outloud?" She told me (I should have figured this out): Playtex also makes feminine hygiene products. Ah. I told her that they also made sippy cups, which she hadn't realized. None of us could figure out the correlation, why a company known for one thing would foray into manufacturing the other. The mysteries of feminine hygiene slash sippy cups abound.

Day forty one.

You've seen "Poltergeist" right? Well this ghost had an uncontained poop today that was way scarier than that movie.

Abs and her Mum.

"Hello, school? We have two girls who are too cool for you."

Throwback! The difference 13.5 months makes.

One of Lily's very first pictures. She wasn't even Lily yet...just some 5 pound kid that came rocketing out of Jen's uterus.

Obviously, I didn't take any new pictures today. I have a fantastic reason, and her name is Marj. Also known as Grandma, she is as generous with helping with the girls (I was solo tonight; she was in town) as she is skittish around photo-taking implements. If you've seen those pictures in National Geographic where they get a shot of a demure jungle lemur using high speed flash and motion sensitive cameras, you get an idea of what it takes to capture Marj on film.

Since she was gracious enough to visit tonight while Jen was in class, I chose not to torture her with the camera. Hence...throwback pictures! Why the hell not?!

Another lovely day with the kids. Lily once again gave some serious kisses to Abby. Grandma did some serious duty with dinner time and bath time and bed time. Abby decided to stay up and play another round of Insomnia, so we watched the end of Oklahoma trouncing Syracuse while we rolled a ball back and forth to each other and giggled exhaustingly about the silliness of life.

I have to feel bad for Jen tonight. She missed the girls because she was in class, and upon returning home she was treated to many cute and delightful anecdotes of the girls' hijinks. Sufficiently motivated, she decided to steal upstairs and sneak a look; she made it as far as opening the door a few inches before Lily belted out a cry. Jen decided not to risk a peek for fear of rousting them, which is sad because it's amazingly cathartic to look at the kids while they sleep. Now she has to settle for looking at me. Bad deal.

Although, I have to find it darned amusing that Lily yelled just for her opening the door, like an annoyed teenager. An amusing and scary harbinger of things to come.

Day forty.

Abby's first picture. Our wee little peanut.

Lily, sleepy from all the birth and existing and stuff.

It's still hard for me to look at pictures of Abby in the special care nursery. I don't think I have a more vivid memory than those of the times I spent in that place. Fantastic, terrible, fearsome times.

Hoo-ray for sisters!

"Hold me closer, tiny daaaaancer.."

The girls were ridiculous tonight. I'm not trying to sugar coat our life with them, I swear; this blog is using a warts-and-all approach. But the girls seem intent on topping themselves lately. Abby was in a fantastic mood when I picked them up, and that mood never really abated. Lily was cranky, but in a very cuddly and needy way that was cute and amusing in its own way.

Our night went pretty fast, the girls playing nicely, eating well, fitter, happier. The stunning moment of the day came when Lily, randomly and for no apparent reason, tried to give Abby a kiss (which failed because she had a pacimafier in her mouth), then when that didn't work she just laid her head on her chest and snuggled with her for a few seconds. Jen claims that it melted her heart five times, which I think was just a figure of speech. Moments like these are special because the girls usually don't really give each other the time of day. When it happens, it's noteworthy and heart melting (five times over).

Another fun encounter between them: they were both sitting facing each other, Abby with a cracker in her hand and Lily with a pacifier in her mouth. Lily made a rather lazy grab for the cracker, which Abby deftly thwarted. Abby countered with a lunge for the pacifier. Again, no score. This went back and forth a couple times until Lily finally got the cracker. Then Abby got the pacifier. They both then - in complete unison - rotated 180 degrees on their butts so they were facing away from each other. I almost lizzed my pants.

I will throw in a negative for the day: the current situation with trying to change Lily's diaper is terrible. It's horrendous. I'll save it for another post, as it deserves its own lengthy telling.

Day thirty nine.

Lily keeping abreast of all the newsity news. I wonder if someday they'll see this photo and be amazed that newspapers came on paper and were delivered by hand every day.

Abby actually loves the sunglasses, she usually leaves them on for a good 10 seconds before ripping them off and devouring them.

Lily and Mommy. I think this captures Lily's mood for the night. Sad. Wistful. Delicious.

You haven't lived until a 13 month old girl hand-feeds you cheddar cheese.

Happy happy Abby Abby.

I left work today after only an hour; sixty minutes of scripting through half-lidded eyes and a really bad headache. It was eventually too much to concentrate, so I wished my coworkers well and left for home. Any guilt I had over leaving dissolved into a four hour nap; I think I needed to be home. It must be a sinus thing, every time I move my head I get a shooting pressure/pain in my head.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Exactly: a short post.

I did manage to get some fresh pictures of las diablitas today, so I'm up to date with that. Girls are good, feeling healthy; only once in a while does Abby cough a rattly cough that is a sharp reminder of the pumonia she's still getting over.

Lily is doing a lot of sharing lately, which is truly heartwarming stuff. Sharing her food with us was the first step (and still delicious; today she fed me some cheese. Cheese!!), and now her toys are being graciously offered to us, Abby, the dogs, the tv, etc. It's a wonderful trend that sends us into fits of applause, which leads me to my second favorite thing lately: that look of recognition when you clap for them and they know they just did something right. We could see it in her eyes, that glint of awareness that she made her parents happy and that means more happiness for her. This leads to more sharing, then more clapping, and on.

How long can this fragile nirvana last?

Day thirty eight.

She loves being blown on. When we inhale deeply and she knows what's coming, she scrunches up her face and starts laughing. Good stuff.

Abby also likes being blown on, which is what Mommy just did here. Ah, the love.

Lily loves peas. They're delicious and they also are the perfect item to squish. No pea could find safe harbor from her relentless digits.

I think Lily could get a ticket in a 15 mph zone.

Lily at Ella's birthday party. Bluest. Eyes. Ever.

Unable to shake this funky health doledrum that I'm stuck in, I'm going to take this one off.

I will say, briefly, how very excited and proud I am of Abby. Bursting. She is starting to pull herself up onto her knees without aid, sometimes while getting her face licked off by the dogs. In addition, she is standing up at tables in a vastly more relaxed manner, and I even caught her moving her legs around and standing with one leg bent. Not newsworthy for kids her age, I know; but her pace is agonizingly glacial, and every time she progresses a bit, it's a beautiful thing. And it lets us remember that she is progressing, which we forget when the frustration sets in.

Lily still hasn't walked yet, but I still think it should happen within a couple weeks. I was saying that 4 weeks ago. In the meantime, she can crawl so fast I am thinking of renting a radar gun. I'd put her at about 20 mph.

Repeat pictures again (the nerve!) today. I will now relax on the couch, reading and listening to Wheat on the current; but I will do so in dismal shame of my slackerness.

Day thirty seven.

Scenes from a porch.

See the glint? Troublemaker.

See the red hair? Troublemaker. Just like her red-headed aunts Tracey and Christy.

I bet Scientologist meetings have snacks, too.

Abby, doing what she does best: banging two objects together repeatedly.

Monday = ECFE day. Early Childhood and Family Education. I should have clarified what ECFE stands for the last time I blogged about it, but I hear about ECFE from so many people, I consider it common knowledge. This thinking was proven wrong when I used the acronym while talking to my day care provider, and she cut me short and asked me, "What's ECFE?" Am I wrong to find it odd that a day care worker would have never heard of a program that I'd been aware of years before I ever had kids?

While there (ECFE. not daycare) we did the normal playing and socializing for the first hour. This goes down in a rumpus room (or is it rompus room? Or romper room?) with lots of toys that run the spectrum from "too dull to even chew on" to "so awesome I can't put it down".

Towards the end of that hour, everyone gathers in a circle to softly sing songs before splitting up. Somewhere during the second verse of "The More We Get Together", I started to get a very distinct cult vibe. It all seemed to fit: everyone was smiling, the kids were entranced, they send us home with pamphlets, the juice was pre-poured in little tiny dixie cups, everyone was in their socks. Okay, I was actually the only one in my socks, but only because I felt like ditching the shoes for a bit.

As we sat there singing our songs, I looked down at Lily and she was quite enthralled with what was going on. I realized then that I could transplant her into a similar situation where she could be brainwashed (Scientology center, fundamentalist Mormon church, Apple store, etc.), and she wouldn't miss a beat. There was a glaze to her eyes that belied a certain kind of devotion. This is likely the same response I'll have when she's glued to whatever Saturday morning cartoon I cannot pry her from.

I wonder if Katie Holmes' dad felt like this at some point.

The adult portion of the night did not do much to convince me that I will get much out of ECFE, at least not this class. It would all just go so much better at a bar, or a hockey game, or at the very least somewhere that didn't have air conditioning on with the outside temp at 50. As it is, there's a measure of stuffiness to it that can't seem to be dispelled by anyone; like I mentioned earlier, it has all the makings of an AA meeting.

For the record, I did come away with one revelation from the night, so maybe it's not all a waste. Somewhere in the discussion our intrepid instructor mentioned possible books on parenting that might shed light on the subject we were talking about. Books on parenting. I have nothing against this concept, but it suddenly became clear to me (my life kinda flashed before my eyes right there in class) that I will probably not ever read a book on parenting. There isn't time enough in my life to read books not on parenting. This is the same knee-jerk response I get when I see an issue of Parenting magazine: "Oh, I should read that, and yet I'm not." Is there something wrong with that? Should I want to read about parenting? These feelings are likely tainted by the utopia that is our current situation. It may come to pass that, in just a couple years, I will own a library full of parental advice literature.

Kids were good today. As I followed Jen home tonight, I witnessed her kinda "run" a stop sign (it wasn't her fault, and was warranted). Still, I said to the girls, "Mommy just ran a stop sign. Mommy broke the law!" and Lily promptly yelled, "Wwooooowwwww!" Crap like that just can't be beat.

Day thirty six.

Today's pictures are reruns from yesterday, fyi.

Abby's hair looked very red all day.

This was one of the funnier moments of the day. Lily crawled up to Abby and started yelling at her. I didn't manage to get a good shot of it, but Abby opened her mouth equally as wide and for a second they kind of sparred, mouths agape, like two hyenas over a dead wildebeast. Hilarious. Sad that we're raising dogs, but certainly funny.

The Lilster.

Title! Bahh, I can't think of a title.

It took the girls a few minutes to warm up to Uncle Tobler, but warm up to him they did.

It's so windy outside right now, the storm windows are rattling and the house is creaking in some suspicious places. I asked Jen earlier if we have wind insurance. She either didn't find it amusing or didn't hear me, because there was no response. She is now claiming (as she's right beside me on the couch. Actually, not quite right beside me: it's Elly the britany, me, Olly the beagle, then Jen, all like happy little sardines) that she never heard me, which I believe since she is one of the most deaf non-deaf people ever. She also does the worst Count from Sesame Street impersonation I've ever heard; it sounds like a gut-shot englishman. But that's pretty irrelevant; sorry to disappoint, I'm not going to tie in Jen's impersonations to some larger theme of this post later on. If this little experiment devolves into a simple forum to poke fun at my spouse, it might have to come to a (hilariously) early end.

So, it's windy. I have a dog on each hip (and one is raking me with her paws). We just flipped on the news, and there is an ominous and amorphous blob of monsoon bearing down on the cities. Upstairs, the girls are snoring. It's quite cozy. It feels very spring-like.

Outside, my plants are starting to limber up. The sumacs are showing signs of life. The ambitious chokeberry is wasting no time shooting up with new growth. My rhododendron is stubbornly waiting for warmer breezes, as always. It's the big reveal we get every year, when I get to take my daily 50 yard constitutional and find out what's going to push up, and what I ended up donating to the big compost bin in the ground. Very exciting times. That I now get to share these walks with the girls makes spring even more awesome.

Now that winter's almost taken a final bow, some of these posts may turn to gardening subjects, of which I'm a new and eager learner. This year, my landscaping budget is hovering somewhere around $0, so I'm going to set the goal for the year of being a scratch gardener...everything I'm going to take in, I will get from plant swaps or just steal outright from yards I admire. Bachman's has taken enough of my money; as I wryly pointed out years ago when I started working the yard, "plants don't grow on trees".

If you are hip to any genius ways of getting lots of shrubbery on the cheap, please share. Or, if you want to swap plants with me (or donate them outright), bring it on. I'd especially love some large-ish river birch and a couple staghorn sumacs.

I've avoided the girls this entire post, which isn't fair since they were fantastic all day. Super kids, almost the entire day was quite pleasant. We took a walk down on Minnehaha path just north of Lake Nokomis with the kids in backpacks and the dogs on leashes. It would have been a perfect time to take pictures, and I did in fact bring the camera in the car, but eventually decided not to bring it. I am a slave to that camera sometimes (I took almost 400 shots today), and although it's my own damn hobby, it is very freeing to just leave that thing behind and live untethered. This is advice that I need to remember more often.

The girls laughed much of the walk. We are trying to point out objects as much as possible now ("Lake!", "Rock!", "Tree!", "Dog poop!"), so there was a lot of that happening. We got some stares.

Later on our friend Erik came by to visit, primarily for the girls, but he talked to us out of kindness and sympathy. It was a dubious start, as they were quite wary of him (he is scary), but they gave in to his charms, and Lily even let him put her down for a nap.

That's the day. This is a long post. If you're still reading this...my apologies.

Day thirty five.

This is a view I often get of Lily.

CrocoLily.

Abbygator.

This look, I have no idea where this came from, I've never seen it before, though Jen says she has. It is completely random when kids do new faces. This one is particularly hilarious.