It's been a long time since my last post and lots has happened. I figured I'd give a run down of two highlights that have come along since I last had time to sit down and write. I know it's a real big shocker with 2 little human beings that I don't have a lot of free time. Lets get right to it!
Growing Up:
The girls will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. That doesn't seem like very long to some, but to see how much they grow each and every day is just crazy. I mean Londyn has a full on mullet on the back of her head, which is fucking awesome, Wren has lost hair and grown it back, along with other physical changes that occur every single day. Both girls are now in size 1 diapers, and Londyn is in some 3 month clothes. They've doubled their birth weight by now, and are applying to colleges. Ok that last part isn't happening but you get the idea. Sleep is actually occurring for Nora and I at night as the girls go from about 10pm-3 am sometimes even longer without waking up. They slept for over 6 hours last night and have done that once before so we aren't going to complain about it. I am back at work, have been for about 7 days. It's hard leaving the girls, Nora, and Stark, but the time I had with them the last 2 months being off is something I can't put into words how blessed I was to have that. Every day I come back home, it doesn't matter how hard or long I think my day was, as soon as I see them smile at me when I pick them up that all disappears. Thanksgiving is coming up and I will have a 4 day weekend home with them spent with family coming down to celebrate with us, so I am really looking forward to that.
Driving 12 Hours To Ohio With the Twins and In-Laws
Go ahead read it a 3rd time because I know after the first time you read it, you went back and read it again because you didn't think you read it right the first time. It happened. Oh. Did. It. Ever. People. My cousin and his beautiful now wife got married outside of Cincinnati, Ohio and I drove with my In-Laws, Nora, and both girls from VA. My cousin Greg told me he was getting married and I was pumped for him. I mean this is fucking great. He's getting married to the love of his life, our family is growing, and I will be able to get hammered at the reception. All of these things ran through my head when he told me over a year ago...before the girls. These things all happened except for the last one as you can imagine why. Lets get to the exciting trip.
So Nora and I threw around the idea of flying at first, but that was quickly shut down when we remembered what a giant cesspool of diseases an airplane actually is. Positives: 1. The girls are young enough where I wouldn't have to spend money on tickets for them. 2. It is about a 2 hour plane ride, that's better then driving double digit hours. Negatives: 1. If the girls are "those babies" on a plane where they just scream for the entire 2 hours, I can't do anything about it. 2. Disease. I don't want the 38 year old dude behind me hacking up his lung while eating a tuna sandwich which is making the entire plane smell like shit. Thanks buddy. You don't own this jet, you are in coach just like the rest of middle america. Act like it. So again, after thinking about flying for maybe 6 minutes, we decided to drive. We lease our Traverse, so I wasn't going to put over 1,000 miles on it, and all 6 of us can't fit into my Sonata, so that left us with renting a car. At first we rented a Tahoe. That's big. We can all fit in that right? Wrong. Nora saw one in a parking lot and started to question whether or not we could put all our shit in it. Well she was right, we couldn't. Tahoe gone, hello Suburban.
Nora's parents once we told them we were driving jumped at the opportunity to come on the trip with us to help take care of the babes since Nora and I were both in the wedding. Thank god they did this as we don't know what we would have done if they weren't there to help. Both Nora's parents love to drive. I mean love it. Think of the one thing that you love to do most in this world and then multiply that by 100 and that's how much her parents love to drive. They would drive to Europe if possible. I hate driving. I don't like driving the 11 minutes it takes me to drive to Wegmans every weekend to food shop. This is family though, so we suck it up and drive. Her dad and I go to pick up the Suburban and they actually have a GMC Yukon there too we can choose from. I ask the woman working to pop both trunks because that's what I need to see. I'm serious. I popped both trunks and eyed both up to see how much space was in both. The Suburban looked like it was a few inches wider and taller so we went with that one. We get the Suburban back to the house, pack it up like a game of Tetris, and we are off around 10 am.
For those of you that have never driven to Ohio, or anywhere for that matter, with 8 week old infants, let me enlighten you. The drive is about 8 hours when it's just you and anyone else that is above the age of lets say 2 years old. With 8 week olds, this 8 hours turns more like 11 hours. Londyn and Wren have to eat and they do that every 3 hours. That means we are going to stop 3 times, adding the 3 hours to the trip. Neat. First stop goes great, second stop goes even better, then we get to the 3rd stop somewhere in Ohio. I don't know where we are exactly but it is about 40 miles outside of Columbus. This place is a shithole. Of course I pull off at the one exit where the Wendy's has a field right behind it and guess what they are doing during the time we have stopped? Fertilizing. With Shit. Lots of Shit. It smells. It really smells. I've been in the car for 9 1/2 hours at this point. My patience is thin. My cousin Greg at this point actually texts me to see where we are and how it is going and I respond with "I'm somewhere outside of Columbus this place is a shithole." He laughs and says what do you expect. Fair enough. Since we are at Wendy's we might as well grab something to eat. I maybe eat 5 times a year at a fast food place so this isn't ideal, however I need to eat. At least I think I do. Nora's dad and I walk in and there is 19 people working behind the counter and about 8 people in line. All the people in line look angry. Really angry. I can see where this is going so I make the decision right there that I just want fries. This is a order fuck up waiting to happen and at this point I'll drop kick someone in the throat if they put something on my JBC that I didn't ask for. Tony orders what everyone wants after we repeat to the woman about 3 times it is to go and she asks us another time if it is for here. Breathe Rocky. Breathe Tony. We get the bag of food and walk back to the car. I start handing food out and what do you know. They fucked it up. No honey mustard sauce, they forgot a fry. I'm pretty sure something else was missing, but at this point I feel like I conquered the world since I saw this coming and chuckle to myself as Nora's dad walks back in steaming to get what they forgot. We are back in the car and off to our final destination.
We arrive around 10-10:30 pm and my family is there to meet us. The wedding was beautiful and the girls were great. They slept pretty much the entire time driving there and back. A lot of my family got to see them that I haven't seen since Nora and my wedding over 4 years ago so that was very nice. Coming home there wasn't really too much to talk about as Nora's dad drove the first 3 hours so I could watch the Giants game on my phone, and then I took over from there. We hit about 90 minutes of traffic around 6:30 which is when Wren normally likes to scream for no apparent reason so that was fun. We weren't moving for a good 40 minutes with her screaming so I told Nora's mom to take her out of the carseat since we weren't moving so Nora could feed her. She did and what do you know as soon as this happened traffic started moving. Of course. Back in the car seat she went and she piped down since the car was moving. Everything was right in the world again. All in all it was an experience that I think everyone should try. Whether you have 1, 2, hell even 3 try it. We survived and so can you.
Growing Up:
The girls will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. That doesn't seem like very long to some, but to see how much they grow each and every day is just crazy. I mean Londyn has a full on mullet on the back of her head, which is fucking awesome, Wren has lost hair and grown it back, along with other physical changes that occur every single day. Both girls are now in size 1 diapers, and Londyn is in some 3 month clothes. They've doubled their birth weight by now, and are applying to colleges. Ok that last part isn't happening but you get the idea. Sleep is actually occurring for Nora and I at night as the girls go from about 10pm-3 am sometimes even longer without waking up. They slept for over 6 hours last night and have done that once before so we aren't going to complain about it. I am back at work, have been for about 7 days. It's hard leaving the girls, Nora, and Stark, but the time I had with them the last 2 months being off is something I can't put into words how blessed I was to have that. Every day I come back home, it doesn't matter how hard or long I think my day was, as soon as I see them smile at me when I pick them up that all disappears. Thanksgiving is coming up and I will have a 4 day weekend home with them spent with family coming down to celebrate with us, so I am really looking forward to that.
Driving 12 Hours To Ohio With the Twins and In-Laws
Go ahead read it a 3rd time because I know after the first time you read it, you went back and read it again because you didn't think you read it right the first time. It happened. Oh. Did. It. Ever. People. My cousin and his beautiful now wife got married outside of Cincinnati, Ohio and I drove with my In-Laws, Nora, and both girls from VA. My cousin Greg told me he was getting married and I was pumped for him. I mean this is fucking great. He's getting married to the love of his life, our family is growing, and I will be able to get hammered at the reception. All of these things ran through my head when he told me over a year ago...before the girls. These things all happened except for the last one as you can imagine why. Lets get to the exciting trip.
So Nora and I threw around the idea of flying at first, but that was quickly shut down when we remembered what a giant cesspool of diseases an airplane actually is. Positives: 1. The girls are young enough where I wouldn't have to spend money on tickets for them. 2. It is about a 2 hour plane ride, that's better then driving double digit hours. Negatives: 1. If the girls are "those babies" on a plane where they just scream for the entire 2 hours, I can't do anything about it. 2. Disease. I don't want the 38 year old dude behind me hacking up his lung while eating a tuna sandwich which is making the entire plane smell like shit. Thanks buddy. You don't own this jet, you are in coach just like the rest of middle america. Act like it. So again, after thinking about flying for maybe 6 minutes, we decided to drive. We lease our Traverse, so I wasn't going to put over 1,000 miles on it, and all 6 of us can't fit into my Sonata, so that left us with renting a car. At first we rented a Tahoe. That's big. We can all fit in that right? Wrong. Nora saw one in a parking lot and started to question whether or not we could put all our shit in it. Well she was right, we couldn't. Tahoe gone, hello Suburban.
Nora's parents once we told them we were driving jumped at the opportunity to come on the trip with us to help take care of the babes since Nora and I were both in the wedding. Thank god they did this as we don't know what we would have done if they weren't there to help. Both Nora's parents love to drive. I mean love it. Think of the one thing that you love to do most in this world and then multiply that by 100 and that's how much her parents love to drive. They would drive to Europe if possible. I hate driving. I don't like driving the 11 minutes it takes me to drive to Wegmans every weekend to food shop. This is family though, so we suck it up and drive. Her dad and I go to pick up the Suburban and they actually have a GMC Yukon there too we can choose from. I ask the woman working to pop both trunks because that's what I need to see. I'm serious. I popped both trunks and eyed both up to see how much space was in both. The Suburban looked like it was a few inches wider and taller so we went with that one. We get the Suburban back to the house, pack it up like a game of Tetris, and we are off around 10 am.
For those of you that have never driven to Ohio, or anywhere for that matter, with 8 week old infants, let me enlighten you. The drive is about 8 hours when it's just you and anyone else that is above the age of lets say 2 years old. With 8 week olds, this 8 hours turns more like 11 hours. Londyn and Wren have to eat and they do that every 3 hours. That means we are going to stop 3 times, adding the 3 hours to the trip. Neat. First stop goes great, second stop goes even better, then we get to the 3rd stop somewhere in Ohio. I don't know where we are exactly but it is about 40 miles outside of Columbus. This place is a shithole. Of course I pull off at the one exit where the Wendy's has a field right behind it and guess what they are doing during the time we have stopped? Fertilizing. With Shit. Lots of Shit. It smells. It really smells. I've been in the car for 9 1/2 hours at this point. My patience is thin. My cousin Greg at this point actually texts me to see where we are and how it is going and I respond with "I'm somewhere outside of Columbus this place is a shithole." He laughs and says what do you expect. Fair enough. Since we are at Wendy's we might as well grab something to eat. I maybe eat 5 times a year at a fast food place so this isn't ideal, however I need to eat. At least I think I do. Nora's dad and I walk in and there is 19 people working behind the counter and about 8 people in line. All the people in line look angry. Really angry. I can see where this is going so I make the decision right there that I just want fries. This is a order fuck up waiting to happen and at this point I'll drop kick someone in the throat if they put something on my JBC that I didn't ask for. Tony orders what everyone wants after we repeat to the woman about 3 times it is to go and she asks us another time if it is for here. Breathe Rocky. Breathe Tony. We get the bag of food and walk back to the car. I start handing food out and what do you know. They fucked it up. No honey mustard sauce, they forgot a fry. I'm pretty sure something else was missing, but at this point I feel like I conquered the world since I saw this coming and chuckle to myself as Nora's dad walks back in steaming to get what they forgot. We are back in the car and off to our final destination.
We arrive around 10-10:30 pm and my family is there to meet us. The wedding was beautiful and the girls were great. They slept pretty much the entire time driving there and back. A lot of my family got to see them that I haven't seen since Nora and my wedding over 4 years ago so that was very nice. Coming home there wasn't really too much to talk about as Nora's dad drove the first 3 hours so I could watch the Giants game on my phone, and then I took over from there. We hit about 90 minutes of traffic around 6:30 which is when Wren normally likes to scream for no apparent reason so that was fun. We weren't moving for a good 40 minutes with her screaming so I told Nora's mom to take her out of the carseat since we weren't moving so Nora could feed her. She did and what do you know as soon as this happened traffic started moving. Of course. Back in the car seat she went and she piped down since the car was moving. Everything was right in the world again. All in all it was an experience that I think everyone should try. Whether you have 1, 2, hell even 3 try it. We survived and so can you.