Hey hey we're back! A lot has gone on since the last time so lets jump right into it.
4 Months
Babies are so cute. Babies this. Babies that. It took me 3 days into the girls turning 4 months to realize that this was going to be none of the positive things that everyone speaks about when talking about babies. I always told you from the beginning that I was going to be blunt and honest with all of you and I'm sticking to that. The girls are perfect from the time they get up to about 6 pm and then it happens. I can't really explain it to those that do not have children yet, or have kids but just never experienced this fantastic journey that Wren takes us through from about 6 pm until sometimes past 8 pm almost every. single. night..... We'll get into that in a second, but back to 3 days into the girls 4 month mark. Wren was screaming. Not the whimpering I'm hungry or I'm tired cry, the screaming at the top of her lungs cry. The one where she cries to the point where she is out of breathe and you have to calm her down. This isn't new as she sometimes did this leading up to 4 months, however Nora could 100% always soothe her so she would eventually go to sleep. Not this time. Wren had other plans. We do what all new parents do which is jump on the internet and google "why is my baby crying at night?" Go ahead judge, we don't care. Until you have experienced two humans that you are in charge of the same age at the same time, zip it. Nothing was working, so we thought maybe it could be gas. Nora sent me on my way to Babies R'Us to get something called the windi. It's a swedish invention that helps babies get rid of excess gas. I won't get into that too much since you can look it up and see exactly what it is if interested. So I get in the car and I start to drive to Babies R'US. I wouldn't call myself a religious man at all, however it's times like this where I find myself asking for help from above. There I sat at a red light, by myself, asking for God to just let her go to sleep. It didn't work. Thanks big guy. Neither did the windi. Thanks Sweden. Nora finally got her to calm herself down and eventually go to sleep close to 3 hours after we started the entire process. It's draining and I feel awful for Nora because she's the only one that can put Wren to sleep. Don't think I'm an awful father because I've tried on numerous occasions. She isn't having any of it. She just screams and screams until Nora finally comes to the rescue and she normally has her sleeping within 20 minutes. I can't tell you why she won't let me put her down to sleep, but she won't. I've watched what Nora does while holding her to get her to sleep, mimicked what she does when she puts her down to get her to sleep, hell I even took notes on my cell phone at one point to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I compare it to all the guys out there growing up as kids emulating your favorite basketball player in your parents driveway. You and you buddies would watch Micheal Jordan and Scottie Pippen dismantle the Nets, and go right outside to emulate what you just saw. I'd be Pippen, Ryan would be Jordan, Matt and Chris would argue who would be Horace Grant or Luk Longley because nobody wanted to be them. Well here I am doing the same thing as a grown man, just as a father now. I try to be Nora Parrish when it comes to putting Wren down to sleep because she is the Jordan, however I'm 95% of the time Luk or Horace. It's frustrating, but I'm going to keep trying because I'm determined to be part of the rotation. I just want more playing time Wren. This is still going on currently at 5 months, however we are only a few days in and she isn't doing it as often as she was at 4 months. Fingers crossed we keep going in the right direction.
So I know what some of you are asking yourself. Where is Londyn when all of this is going down? Easy answer. Right next to her. It's amazing. She doesn't wake up at all. Doesn't even move. "Oh that's fantastic, that's so good for you guys." Yup it was, and then it happened. Her 4 month sleep regression. Neat. Now we have 2 screaming babies at the same time. Our heads. Our sanity. Londyn felt as if she was missing out on all the "fun" so for a good 4-5 days Londyn would taunt us by going to sleep, and then proceed to wake up every hour on the hour. At least during this 4-5 day stretch Wren was sleeping after her screamfest from 6:30-8 pm or else I don't know what we would do. Nora and I would take shifts on who would get up with Londyn during her hour power naps and I don't know if we would have survived if it wasn't the week before Christmas break which wasn't a full week of school. Then Christmas happened........
Christmas
We made the decision before the girls were born that we weren't traveling for any holidays this year until they were at least 6 months old. We hosted Thanksgiving and next on the docket was hosting Christmas. There is a lot I could talk about here like how both girls were being difficult most of the day, which made it hard for Nora to sit down for longer then 30 minutes, or the fact that the god damn roast wouldn't cook, but we won't. I just want to talk about what Christmas look liked after everything was opened and the day was basically over. Both grandparents bought a lot. If you had no idea who we were and just walked into our house on Christmas eve, you would have thought a family of 12 lived here. Presents were everywhere. Toys, clothes, things I don't even know what they are. It took us a good 2 hours to open everything and the girls will realize really fast how blessed they are that they do not only have parents that love them with everything they have, but TWO sets of grandparents that do the same. My grandmother lives up by my parents still so the girls even have a great grandmother (shout out to grams). As mentioned earlier, the girls weren't on their best behavior christmas morning. Wren was grumpy, and Londyn wanted to eat every hour. That left Nora pretty much going up and down the steps from about 8 am - 4 pm. Merry Christmas babe. She is the best mom ever though because there was not one complaint or anything. She continues to show me how lucky we all are to call her mom and wife. Love you!
Christmas isn't over just because I made another paragraph. I split this up because we are off the girls and I want to talk about my father and my father-in-law. Outside the girls being grump monsters, they didn't make a mess or break anything. These two mentioned above though................ Nora's dad made stockings for the girls that were very nice and thoughtful. He used glue and glitter to spell their names out on the top of each stocking and it looked great except for one problem. One big problem. Glitter is fucking everywhere. I use the word "is" because it's still here. I know Christmas was over a month ago and I've vacuumed multiple times and our cleaning lady has done the same, twice since then, but the glitter doesn't care. I shit you not, the girls are napping right now and I sit here typing this blog post and across from me by the door is a gold piece of glitter. It's just taunting me; " Oh you think you got all of us up didn't you Parrish? Think again hahahahahaha". There are still fragments of the glitter on each floor and it may never leave. The other day Nora's parents came over on Saturday to see the girls and Nora was sitting in between both of them holding Wren. I was laying on the floor playing with Stark when Nora called my name. I turned around and there it was on her cheek. One piece of red glitter; "Hey asshole I'm on your wife's face now still taunting you hahahhahaha." I thought about not saying anything to her, but after about 30 seconds of me just starring at the glitter and not paying attention to a word she was speaking, I had to tell her about it. She laughed. Glitter 120 Rocky 0. Then you have my father. For those of you that have never been to my house, we have a basement and it's big. There are multiple places to sit down. Our couch, a chase lounge, a cushioned IKEA chair, and a coffee table. Wait. What? A coffee table? But Rocky you're suppose to put your cocktails, money slices of pizza, or other things on coffee tables not your ass. Exactly people, but my father decided that on this fine Christmas night, with not one person sitting on any of the above mentioned correct things to sit on, he was choosing the coffee table. It went about as good as you think it did while you sit there and laugh while reading. It broke. Not in half, just splintered down the middle. I for one didn't get mad because a) he paid for it b) he was going to pay for another one and c) I knew my mom was going to take care of the yelling since she witnessed it. I went up stairs to bring Nora Londyn to get ready for bed, and I could hear my mom just scolding him like he was the 4 month old child, not the girls hahahahaha. New rule on Christmas; Tony's not allowed to use glitter on any holiday paraphernalia and my father isn't allowed to sit on furniture besides the couch. These two!
Swimming Lesson's Almost turns Into A Boxing Match
Nora and I enrolled the girls into swim lessons at a swim school near our house. It's free through 6 months, and we want the girls to get use to being in the water, so we signed them up. Our first class was 3 weeks ago, and driving over Nora told me that we didn't have time to dilly dally. I didn't want to get yelled at, so I walked into the place focused. I had to change Wren out of her clothes and into her bathing suit and swim diaper. That's great and sounds easy enough. I've changed them thousands of times already and I'm money at it. The changing area for the kids to be swapped out of the clothes and into their swim attire isn't big at all. You can fit two babies on the table at a time, which makes no sense because the place has room to put another changing station in the opposite end of the room. I'm not going any further into that, so we'll get right to the point. I was changing Wren next to Nora as she changed Londyn and I was zoned in. It was like I was back in high school again in the locker room before one of our football games. I'm taking her onesie and regular diaper off. Put a new diaper and swim diaper on top of that one, grab the bathing suit to put it on and then it hits me. Fuck, I've never put on a girls bathing suit before and this thing has crossed straps in the back. I can't ask Nora because she's already finished with Londyn and not next to me anymore (at least I think she isn't). I can do this. It really can't be that hard. Wrong. It is hard. I somehow got one strap across her one shoulder and I thought to myself, "I didn't know they made these types of bathing suits for infants.", but just went with it because it looked right. I think. Well before I can even bask in my victory, or what I believe is a victory, I turn around and Nora is calmly yelling at this women for reasons I do not know yet. Nora gives her a final zing as the lady dips into a changing stall and I ask Nora what happened. Apparently this women was all pissy because there was no room on the changing table and she was wet. You read that right. She didn't care her 3 year old kid was wet, just herself. She threw her bag on the table next to Wren and I almost hitting Wren, which I didn't see because I was so focused, and Nora went Alpha Mom on her. Good for you babe. I'm kind of happy this is how it went down, because if I had saw this I would have either went to jail for the things that would have came out of my mouth or we would have been kicked out of the swim school on our first day. I've never seen Nora so fired up. If she wasn't holding Londyn, I'm pretty sure she would have swung at this lady, that's how heated she was. Thanks for taking care of it babe. Other then that, swim class went great and the girls love it. Wren is still taking it all in 3 classes deep, but loves to float on my shoulder as I hold her, and Londyn loves splashing with her hands and feet. They'll be pros by the time summer comes around!
Until next time, the twins, Nora and I wish you the best and remember Valentines day is around the corner so I'm sure another post will be coming your way!
4 Months
Babies are so cute. Babies this. Babies that. It took me 3 days into the girls turning 4 months to realize that this was going to be none of the positive things that everyone speaks about when talking about babies. I always told you from the beginning that I was going to be blunt and honest with all of you and I'm sticking to that. The girls are perfect from the time they get up to about 6 pm and then it happens. I can't really explain it to those that do not have children yet, or have kids but just never experienced this fantastic journey that Wren takes us through from about 6 pm until sometimes past 8 pm almost every. single. night..... We'll get into that in a second, but back to 3 days into the girls 4 month mark. Wren was screaming. Not the whimpering I'm hungry or I'm tired cry, the screaming at the top of her lungs cry. The one where she cries to the point where she is out of breathe and you have to calm her down. This isn't new as she sometimes did this leading up to 4 months, however Nora could 100% always soothe her so she would eventually go to sleep. Not this time. Wren had other plans. We do what all new parents do which is jump on the internet and google "why is my baby crying at night?" Go ahead judge, we don't care. Until you have experienced two humans that you are in charge of the same age at the same time, zip it. Nothing was working, so we thought maybe it could be gas. Nora sent me on my way to Babies R'Us to get something called the windi. It's a swedish invention that helps babies get rid of excess gas. I won't get into that too much since you can look it up and see exactly what it is if interested. So I get in the car and I start to drive to Babies R'US. I wouldn't call myself a religious man at all, however it's times like this where I find myself asking for help from above. There I sat at a red light, by myself, asking for God to just let her go to sleep. It didn't work. Thanks big guy. Neither did the windi. Thanks Sweden. Nora finally got her to calm herself down and eventually go to sleep close to 3 hours after we started the entire process. It's draining and I feel awful for Nora because she's the only one that can put Wren to sleep. Don't think I'm an awful father because I've tried on numerous occasions. She isn't having any of it. She just screams and screams until Nora finally comes to the rescue and she normally has her sleeping within 20 minutes. I can't tell you why she won't let me put her down to sleep, but she won't. I've watched what Nora does while holding her to get her to sleep, mimicked what she does when she puts her down to get her to sleep, hell I even took notes on my cell phone at one point to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I compare it to all the guys out there growing up as kids emulating your favorite basketball player in your parents driveway. You and you buddies would watch Micheal Jordan and Scottie Pippen dismantle the Nets, and go right outside to emulate what you just saw. I'd be Pippen, Ryan would be Jordan, Matt and Chris would argue who would be Horace Grant or Luk Longley because nobody wanted to be them. Well here I am doing the same thing as a grown man, just as a father now. I try to be Nora Parrish when it comes to putting Wren down to sleep because she is the Jordan, however I'm 95% of the time Luk or Horace. It's frustrating, but I'm going to keep trying because I'm determined to be part of the rotation. I just want more playing time Wren. This is still going on currently at 5 months, however we are only a few days in and she isn't doing it as often as she was at 4 months. Fingers crossed we keep going in the right direction.
So I know what some of you are asking yourself. Where is Londyn when all of this is going down? Easy answer. Right next to her. It's amazing. She doesn't wake up at all. Doesn't even move. "Oh that's fantastic, that's so good for you guys." Yup it was, and then it happened. Her 4 month sleep regression. Neat. Now we have 2 screaming babies at the same time. Our heads. Our sanity. Londyn felt as if she was missing out on all the "fun" so for a good 4-5 days Londyn would taunt us by going to sleep, and then proceed to wake up every hour on the hour. At least during this 4-5 day stretch Wren was sleeping after her screamfest from 6:30-8 pm or else I don't know what we would do. Nora and I would take shifts on who would get up with Londyn during her hour power naps and I don't know if we would have survived if it wasn't the week before Christmas break which wasn't a full week of school. Then Christmas happened........
Christmas
We made the decision before the girls were born that we weren't traveling for any holidays this year until they were at least 6 months old. We hosted Thanksgiving and next on the docket was hosting Christmas. There is a lot I could talk about here like how both girls were being difficult most of the day, which made it hard for Nora to sit down for longer then 30 minutes, or the fact that the god damn roast wouldn't cook, but we won't. I just want to talk about what Christmas look liked after everything was opened and the day was basically over. Both grandparents bought a lot. If you had no idea who we were and just walked into our house on Christmas eve, you would have thought a family of 12 lived here. Presents were everywhere. Toys, clothes, things I don't even know what they are. It took us a good 2 hours to open everything and the girls will realize really fast how blessed they are that they do not only have parents that love them with everything they have, but TWO sets of grandparents that do the same. My grandmother lives up by my parents still so the girls even have a great grandmother (shout out to grams). As mentioned earlier, the girls weren't on their best behavior christmas morning. Wren was grumpy, and Londyn wanted to eat every hour. That left Nora pretty much going up and down the steps from about 8 am - 4 pm. Merry Christmas babe. She is the best mom ever though because there was not one complaint or anything. She continues to show me how lucky we all are to call her mom and wife. Love you!
Christmas isn't over just because I made another paragraph. I split this up because we are off the girls and I want to talk about my father and my father-in-law. Outside the girls being grump monsters, they didn't make a mess or break anything. These two mentioned above though................ Nora's dad made stockings for the girls that were very nice and thoughtful. He used glue and glitter to spell their names out on the top of each stocking and it looked great except for one problem. One big problem. Glitter is fucking everywhere. I use the word "is" because it's still here. I know Christmas was over a month ago and I've vacuumed multiple times and our cleaning lady has done the same, twice since then, but the glitter doesn't care. I shit you not, the girls are napping right now and I sit here typing this blog post and across from me by the door is a gold piece of glitter. It's just taunting me; " Oh you think you got all of us up didn't you Parrish? Think again hahahahahaha". There are still fragments of the glitter on each floor and it may never leave. The other day Nora's parents came over on Saturday to see the girls and Nora was sitting in between both of them holding Wren. I was laying on the floor playing with Stark when Nora called my name. I turned around and there it was on her cheek. One piece of red glitter; "Hey asshole I'm on your wife's face now still taunting you hahahhahaha." I thought about not saying anything to her, but after about 30 seconds of me just starring at the glitter and not paying attention to a word she was speaking, I had to tell her about it. She laughed. Glitter 120 Rocky 0. Then you have my father. For those of you that have never been to my house, we have a basement and it's big. There are multiple places to sit down. Our couch, a chase lounge, a cushioned IKEA chair, and a coffee table. Wait. What? A coffee table? But Rocky you're suppose to put your cocktails, money slices of pizza, or other things on coffee tables not your ass. Exactly people, but my father decided that on this fine Christmas night, with not one person sitting on any of the above mentioned correct things to sit on, he was choosing the coffee table. It went about as good as you think it did while you sit there and laugh while reading. It broke. Not in half, just splintered down the middle. I for one didn't get mad because a) he paid for it b) he was going to pay for another one and c) I knew my mom was going to take care of the yelling since she witnessed it. I went up stairs to bring Nora Londyn to get ready for bed, and I could hear my mom just scolding him like he was the 4 month old child, not the girls hahahahaha. New rule on Christmas; Tony's not allowed to use glitter on any holiday paraphernalia and my father isn't allowed to sit on furniture besides the couch. These two!
Swimming Lesson's Almost turns Into A Boxing Match
Nora and I enrolled the girls into swim lessons at a swim school near our house. It's free through 6 months, and we want the girls to get use to being in the water, so we signed them up. Our first class was 3 weeks ago, and driving over Nora told me that we didn't have time to dilly dally. I didn't want to get yelled at, so I walked into the place focused. I had to change Wren out of her clothes and into her bathing suit and swim diaper. That's great and sounds easy enough. I've changed them thousands of times already and I'm money at it. The changing area for the kids to be swapped out of the clothes and into their swim attire isn't big at all. You can fit two babies on the table at a time, which makes no sense because the place has room to put another changing station in the opposite end of the room. I'm not going any further into that, so we'll get right to the point. I was changing Wren next to Nora as she changed Londyn and I was zoned in. It was like I was back in high school again in the locker room before one of our football games. I'm taking her onesie and regular diaper off. Put a new diaper and swim diaper on top of that one, grab the bathing suit to put it on and then it hits me. Fuck, I've never put on a girls bathing suit before and this thing has crossed straps in the back. I can't ask Nora because she's already finished with Londyn and not next to me anymore (at least I think she isn't). I can do this. It really can't be that hard. Wrong. It is hard. I somehow got one strap across her one shoulder and I thought to myself, "I didn't know they made these types of bathing suits for infants.", but just went with it because it looked right. I think. Well before I can even bask in my victory, or what I believe is a victory, I turn around and Nora is calmly yelling at this women for reasons I do not know yet. Nora gives her a final zing as the lady dips into a changing stall and I ask Nora what happened. Apparently this women was all pissy because there was no room on the changing table and she was wet. You read that right. She didn't care her 3 year old kid was wet, just herself. She threw her bag on the table next to Wren and I almost hitting Wren, which I didn't see because I was so focused, and Nora went Alpha Mom on her. Good for you babe. I'm kind of happy this is how it went down, because if I had saw this I would have either went to jail for the things that would have came out of my mouth or we would have been kicked out of the swim school on our first day. I've never seen Nora so fired up. If she wasn't holding Londyn, I'm pretty sure she would have swung at this lady, that's how heated she was. Thanks for taking care of it babe. Other then that, swim class went great and the girls love it. Wren is still taking it all in 3 classes deep, but loves to float on my shoulder as I hold her, and Londyn loves splashing with her hands and feet. They'll be pros by the time summer comes around!
Until next time, the twins, Nora and I wish you the best and remember Valentines day is around the corner so I'm sure another post will be coming your way!