James and Claire

The number of the day is '2'.

Nicholas is the star of today's show. This morning at around 9:30 AM, Nicholas informed Mamaw that he had to use the bathroom. He surprised everyone when he grabbed the newspaper, sat down, and dropped off a friend in the correct pool....for the first time ever. Shrieks of joy from Mamaw and Christy were followed by a subtle tip of the cap from me. He was rewarded for his efforts with a lollipop of the watermelon variety.

Christy and Mamaw took him out this morning...I am not sure where...but apparently Nicholas requested to be taken to the bathroom and used it several times. It is as though a light switch has been turned on and he suddenly has realized that soiling yourself is really disgusting.

The trend continued at dinner tonight. In the middle of dinner, he indicated to me that it was time. I took him to the Men's room and sure enough, it was time. As we were leaving this really dirty, gross Men's room he refused to go out the door and said 'I want to wash my hands now'. I tried to explain that in most nearly all cases, that is the right thing to do. But in this case, the two of us were cleaner than anything in there. But he would not be denied and we washed our hands in all kinds of new bacteria.

At the hospital tonight, I had a strange occurrence. I was waiting for Christy outside of the women's restroom when I noticed a young man, about 18 years old, trying to feed a dollar into a Coke machine. The dollar kept coming back to him, and being the compassionate human being that I am, I took great pleasure in watching this. A few minutes later he approached me. In broken English, he asked me if I had change...and then displayed his $2 bill. That caught me off guard and I started laughing. I asked him where he got it, but it was clear he did not understand me. I had only a $5 and a $1...so I just gave him the $1 and he got his drink. I think the odds of a stranger asking you to change a two-spot is less than being pooped on by a bird. Tomorrow I am hoping to encounter a leprechaun, who will take me to his pot of gold.

By the way, the twins are doing fine. They are bottle feeding 3 times a day, and the nurses are once again saying 'two' more weeks.