Three more evenings, and then we won't be the three of us anymore. We are very happy to welcome to expansion to our family -- but it is also a moment of reflection. We've had three great years with Nora so far.
Her life, and ours, will certainly change -- especially in the first few months. We're enjoying the relative peace and quiet together.
A milestone I want to remember is Nora going on the stairs by herself. She's been doing this for a few weeks now and it makes her more independent in the house.
We have wooden stairs and we set the rule: no socks or PJ's on the stairs. So bare feet or shoes are okay.
Nora listens well and sometimes when she wants to go up or down the stairs and we're not around, she'll take her socks off to make the trip.
Several friends asked us if twins run in our family. The answer is: yes... but only on the paternal side. The tendency for twins is passed on through the maternal line only so the fact that we're having twins is pure chance.
Nevertheless, it's fun to look into our family history. My greatgrandfather Johan Jacob was born in 1891 in Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands. He and his brother Marinus were twins. Johan Jacob's son Gerrit married Johanna. Their first child was my father. Four years later my grandmother learned that she had carried twins only when she gave birth! One of the twins, my aunt Ria, later gave birth to my dear cousins -- again, including twins.
Through my uncle Harm I recently got in touch with descendants of my grandfather's brother Joop. Three of my second cousins had twins also.
Like I said, it's highly unlikely that there is a biological reason for this but it is fun to find out about other twins in the extended family.
Nora took a good nap today so I went for a run when I got home -- her sleeping allows us to eat a little later. It was the 3rd time in a row that I ran (with 1 day breaks, of course) and I haven't done that in a while. I was pretty tired and when my left leg started tightening up I decided to cut the run short. I really don't want to strain myself -- mainly to prevent getting a cold now.
It's February today so when the boys are born we will have four birthdays in February.
We weren't quite sure if we would have this weekend for ourselves so it was a bit of a bonus weekend. We tried to rest as much as possible to prepare for the crazy next few weeks and months.
After lunch Nora and I went for a walk together. To the library and then back over Fairfax. She walks so well that we've officially retired her stroller now and I put it in the basement.
Last night Nora and I had an 'argument'. She said she "didn't need her water bottle in bed". I said that I expected her to wake up later that night and then call me to find her water. And of course that's what happened -- around 1.00 am I had to bring her the water. She'll tell me to store it "in the kitchen" but I secretly keep it around the corner of her door so I don't have to go downstairs in the middle of the night.
Still, not ideal of course so tonight we had the discussion again. "No no, I don't need the water and no, no, I'm not going to cry". Yeah, right. I told her I would laugh at her if I had to bring the bottle at night and that seemed to have worked, because after I closed the door she yelled that she did indeed want her water. And meneer prascho.
Super Bowl tonight. During the run I understood why I saw Water and Wall closed earlier today, during my walk with Nora. Saw several guys with 6-packs beer in their hand.
After my last run I felt my throat hurt a little bit. Fairly sure that it was because of the cold air -- not of an illness -- but I definitely don't want to take any risk. So I've been reluctant to run a little bit. Last night I went for a nice run. It's very cold but it was good. Forgot to switch off my watch -- or Nora played with the buttons -- but I don't know the duration.
I came across an older interview with Rick Harrison on NPR.org, by chance. It sounded like an interesting book and I borrowed it electronically from our library.
The book is about the owners of a big pawn shop in Las Vegas. It describes their business and rise to fame after they became subject of a TV show.
It's an entertaining book. I wasn't sure what to expect, honestly, but the guys running the store and very smart and great observers of humanity.
By the end of November, when we were scared about a possible premature birth of the boys, I badly needed a good book to read. On November 30rd I borrowed The Hobbit from the library, and yesterday I finished the final book of the Lord of the Rings. Two solid months of wonderful reading -- and of wonderful progress with the pregnancy, now at 35.5 weeks.
There is not much too say about these books: they are phenomenal. My father read them to me when I was a child -- something that must have taken several years -- and I read them again in high school, even used them on my literature reading list. I think Sasha and I saw one or two of the LOTR movies also. Definitely not the third one -- and I enjoyed that the most of all actually. Very satisfying ending.
This was the first time I read the books in English, interesting enough. But I kept hearing my father in my mind, talking about "Sam Gewissies".
Three more evenings, and then we won't be the three of us anymore. We are very happy to welcome to expansion to our family -- but it is also a moment of reflection. We've had three great years with Nora so far.
A milestone I want to remember is Nora going on the stairs by herself. She's been doing this for a few weeks now and it makes her more independent in the house.
Several friends asked us if twins run in our family. The answer is: yes... but only on the paternal side. The tendency for twins is passed on through the maternal line only so the fact that we're having twins is pure chance.
It's February today so when the boys are born we will have four birthdays in February. 