James and Claire

We got off to an early start today when Nicholas woke up at 2:00 A.M. complaining that 'Mamaw is snoring at me'. While we adults know that snoring is for the most part non-directional, I can see where he might feel as though he were a target of some kind. As we have mentioned before, the noise is loud and menacing. Nicholas was fully awake and wanted no part of Mamaw, which left only Christy and I. Christy took first crack at him, spending an hour trying to calm him down. When that failed, the circus was brought onto my lap. I tried soothing him and finally thought I had fixed things when I moved out to the sofa and let Nicholas take my place in the snore-less room. But a few minutes later, he was talking happily to Christy. At this point, I woke up Mamaw and sent Nicholas back in there to play...after all, this was her fault. Not sure exactly what happened after that, but I hear they were up until 4:00 or so.

Everyone slept in. My first memory is at 9:00, when I headed to the computer to start working. As Christy, Mamaw, and Nicholas prepared for morning errands, it was apparent that none of them were in a good mood, and me just existing in the corner of the room did not seem to please them. When the door finally shut behind them, I felt liberated.

They went out and filled up with gas, got Nicholas a haircut, and hit the grocery store. At 12:00, they dropped Nicholas off and we both ate turkey sandwiches. I then read him 'The Little Engine That Could' and put him down for this nap.

Christy and Mamaw visited with the babies, who are doing great. James is up to three bottle-feeding session a day, while Claire is up to two. Both are gaining weight and looking great.

When they returned from the hospital, Mamaw took Nicholas to the pool and I sent Christy in for a nap. At the pool, Nicholas found one of his girlfriends from yesterday. He approached and asked 'Do you want to play with me?'. Of course, she did, and she blew off her sister to do so. Eventually, a games of basketball broke out in the pool and my son was the ball. He loved it.

Mamaw seemed a bit worn down. Trying to push her over the edge once and for all, I suggested that Christy and I go out to a nice dinner while she stayed and ate room-service with Nicholas. Amazingly, this is what she wanted. Her favorite thing to do is to stay at home and watch horrible sci-fi shows and read trashy novels. Once Nicholas went down, she was free to do this.

Christy and I headed out to Eddie V's, which is an upscale seafood place owned by the same people that do the Roaring Fork. Dinner was great, and we ordered moderate amounts of healthier food. But we made the mistake of mentioning our adoption to the waitress, and just as I thought I might have a day where my weight goes down, she brings out a 3,000 calorie Godiva Chocolate Cake Puddle that says 'Congratulations on the Twins'. Not wanting to be rude, we ate it all.

We got to the hospital at 7:30, Oskar and his wife (Frances) showed up a few minutes later. I sent Frances in to see the babies with Christy while Oskar and I chatted in the waiting room. A few minutes later, we switched places. In addition to giving us all sorts of insider info on Austin, they invited us over to their place on Saturday to eat and swim.

At 9:00, Christy and I were back hanging out with the twins when we ran into another NICU father who was visiting his daughter. I had talked to him and his wife two nights ago briefly and by now we each knew each other's situations. WHen he saw him tonight, he was alone. After talking for a few minutes, he confessed that his wife (who is a very attractive woman) had seen Christy tending to the twins and whispered to him, 'I hate her already'. He said she was also referred to by some of the new mothers (with their raging hormones) around the NICU as 'Zero Percent Body Fat Girl'for being skinny just days after delivering twins. After I had told them we were adopting them, the nickname and contempt has dissipated. I find it funny because if the situation were reversed, Christy would have said the exact same thing. She will be wearing her 'Adoption Rocks' t-shirt more often.