Hey, Father’s Day is coming. For those of you who were trying to decide what to get me, Starbucks gift cards will do nicely, thank you.

Oh, and while I try and figure out what to write about for Kara’s Five Days for Dads, please go over to see my latest post about my own father at The Blogfathers.

On Monday, June 12th (TheMonk’s first birthday), he awoke and immediately let it be known that he was not in the mood to celebrate. His crankiness was heard throughout the neighborhood and his poor Daddy wasn’t even able to eat breakfast with all the attention TheMonk demanded.

Could the cause of this crankiness finally be the arrival of a tooth?

We thought so and we lathered on Orajel and gave him a shot of Tylenol with a milk chaser.

This calmed the savage beast and we went along our day. This morning, as Daddy fed him, TheMonk grinned – and showed the tip of a pearly white. His white front tooth winked at me and we all rejoiced!

LET IT BE KNOWN THAT TheMonk WILL NOT GO THROUGH LIFE BEING KNOWN AS GUMMY!

TheMonk HAS A TOOTH!

Today, TheMonk and Swee’Pea turn one! I can’t really believe it. Wow, I survived a year. Below, you can find letters to my little one-year-olds.

Andrea and I did “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to see who gets to publish the first bites of cake at TheMonk and Swee’Pea’s birthday party on Saturday. I should have picked “Rock!” Anyway, you can see the pics on Andrea’s blog.

Dearest Bri,

My goodness. How in the world are you one year old? So much has transpired in such a short time that it’s hard for me to put into words how you have become such a part of me over the past year. First, you have such a wonderful spirit. You love animals. Poor Nutmeg the cat spends most days running from you but you get so much joy by seeing that kitty. You squeal in delight everytime you get close and the times I hold you close enough to pet Nutmeg, you get a huge smile and you kick your little legs back and forth with a rush of excitement.

I love that energy. You laugh at things out of the blue. You love anything soft and sometimes I’ll catch you burying your face into a blanket or a soft stuffed animal and you giggle with glee. Along with that energy though, my little Sweet Pea, comes a temper that flares up whenever you don’t get what you want. It’s hard not to laugh as you throw your temper tantrums. You are so serious but so cute at the same time. Soon, you move on and are back to your usual happy self.

You and I have a bond, little girl, that came about from your early morning wake-ups. We used to spend lots of time cuddling in the early morning hours. You’d curl up in my arms and we’d keep each other warm while talking softly in the emerging light. It is one of my favorite memories of you and one I’ll cherish as you blossom from a cute little baby to a beautiful woman.

Your capacity to love amazes me Little One. I get so much joy from your kisses that you love to plant on my cheek. I love them so much that I don’t even mind when you accidently bite me with your four little teeth. I’m not the only one you kiss though. You give mommy kisses, of course, and you try with all your might to kiss Nutmeg, but I my heart swells with love and pride everytime you lean over to kiss your brother. I cannot believe I love you so much.

I’ll always love you, Baby Swee’Pea. For so long I wanted you. And now that I have you I cannot stop gazing at your beautiful face with awe and wonder how I could help create something so perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing about you. I love your smile, your laugh, your cute little pout and even the way you smell. I love nuzzling your face and feeling your soft skin next to my cheek. I can’t help but shower kisses on your chubby little cheeks whenever you’re in my arms – even when you’ve been a little naughty. I’m going to have to work on that.

Thank you for coming into my life. I’m certain an angel guided you to me because you are the answer to my prayers. You and your brother arrived into my life and now there’s no other life I’d rather live. You are my heart and soul and I thank you for making my life so complete.

Happy first birthday my little Swee’ Pea. Your Daddy loves you.

Always,
Daddy.

Buddy,

You’re one year old now and I can’t seem to find where that time went. It seems like yesterday that your little 6 pound body would snuggle with me while you slept on my chest at night. It seems like yesterday that you grumbled, grumbled, grumbled all the time. It just seems like yesterday that I could hold you firmly balanced on my forearm as I rocked you to sleep as I inhaled the smell of your soft skin in the dark of the night.

But now look at you. You’re no longer the baby reacting to the world, you’re now a little boy making the world react to you. Every time I look at you, my heart smiles. I love you so much my little man. And boy do you love your Daddy. Lately, you’ve been screaming out “DADA!” whenever the urge strikes. You have been playing with Dada more than ever as you crawl around the floor like a little monkey. Just last weekend you found it hilarious that Daddy would want to thump his feet on the bed with you while we lay next to each other, gazing at the ceiling. It was so hilarious that we spent the next 10 minutes thumping away – holding our feet in the air until you decided it was time to thump our heels down on the bed. We continued this until Daddy’s ab muscles were begging me to stop. Our other game recently is “share the binky.” You think it’s so funny when Daddy puts your binky in his mouth. Inevitably you’ll get the binky out of my mouth, put it in yours for a few seconds and then take it out and put it in mine. I am so very honored that you want to share your binky – your most prized possession – with me.

Have I mentioned how much I love you? I never really understood how deeply someone can be loved until I had you and your sister. You mesmerize me. You captivate me in a way I’ve never experienced before. I love your soulful eyes. I love the way you snuggle into me as I pick you up each morning from your crib. I love that you are my son. I love that I will get to spend my lifetime with you in my life.

You have done so much in one little year. You have changed my life forever and I didn’t even know it needed changing. Thank you for energy. Thank you for your smile. Thank you for your spirit. But best of all, thank you for your love. I can’t wait to love you even more tomorrow.

Happy First Birthday, my little Chunky Monk. Your Daddy loves you.

Always,
Daddy.

Do you ever do something so many times that you can’t remember if you did that thing today or if you are remembering yesterday’s time that you did that? For instance, you can’t quite be sure if you locked the front door because you’re not 100% sure that what your mind remembers is from this evening and not the night before?

I do this all of the time.

And now that parenting has become so much of a routine, I’m very much afraid that I’m going to miss a crucial step in the day-to-day tasks that, when accomplished, make the difference between Parent of the Year and Parenting Class. For example, almost every weekday morning I load up my car with my work stuff along with the baby bag and then I take one baby down at a time from our upstairs and load them into the car – carefully buckling them into their baby seats. I then get in the car and drive them to daycare. Inevitably, somewhere along the way, a tiny little voice whispers from somewhere deep inside my brain…

Of course I remembered both babies! Of course I did! Don’t be ridiculous! How could I forget something like that? It’s automatic – like locking the front door… (It is right at this moment that I give in and quickly glance in the mirrors to make sure both are on board)

I may be hearing a little voice and that little voice may be messing with me, but I haven’t forgotten one yet.*

*Really Honey, I haven’t forgotten one. I promise. It’s a joke, okay?

I started reading Corinne at Two Pink Lines early in her pregnancy and immediately got caught up in her total enthusiasm as it related to her pregnancy and the impending birth of little Shepherd (whose name she withheld forever). While I wouldn’t let any of my stuffed animals over to play at her house (that Fleming is sure to be a bad influence), I sure wouldn’t mind hanging out with Corinne. She seems fun and has just the right attitude when dealing with all the little things that pregnancy and parenting infants has to offer – like going to your doctor’s appointment on the wrong day. So, let’s sit around the dinner table while Corrine tells us about her family tradition.

I was honored when Matthew asked me to write about my family’s traditions. I thought, awesome! I know there’s bound to be something I can write about! But here I am, weeks later, racking my brain trying to think of one of our “good ol’ family traditions”. It’s hard, because my family is anything, if inconsistent. When I was little, we moved every 4 years or so, and never close to family. We even lived in Costa Rica and Chile for a few years. So having moved around all my life, there was little time to cultivate traditions.

Now that I have a family of my own, I’ve looked back into my own childhood, remembering what it was like growing up. And the one thing that I found that we consistantly did as a family was to eat dinner together. Even when I was in high school, dinner was always served at the table, and everyone ate together. We never ate in front of the TV, never ate in shifts, and never did anything other than eat at the table. It was a time for us to come together, to talk, and to deal with issues we struggled with. I remember many a debate that took place over dinner with all four of us offering our own opinions. This was the great thing about dinner… we could own our own opinions, we could disagree, and we could still love each other. We did this from the time I was an infant to when I was in high school… I never thought to ask if I could eat somewhere else, because dinner was fun. Yes, I even thought that as a teenager. It was fun to talk with mom and dad, it was fun to listen to what was going on at mom’s work, to hear about dad’s day, and to joke around with my little brother. We enjoyed visiting, and we enjoyed being together.

Years later, I still find myself lingering at the dinner table long after the meal has been consumed, talking with my parents. And even today, in my own home, we strap our little 4 month old son in his high chair, sit down together at the table, and talk. Mostly, we make faces at Shepherd trying to get him to smile, but occasionally, some adult conversation takes place… and long after our plates are clean, we sit, talking and enjoying the time spent together. Traditions have a way of forming, even in the most chaotic situations, and I’m thankful for our dinners together… and look forward to many more years of shared dinners.

Weekends around the Childsplayx2 household have been, for the past year, all about survival. It has been a delicate balance between getting all the things done that we don’t have time to do during the week, trying to rest and, of course, spending time with TheMonk and Swee’Pea. Many times that balance isn’t achieved and we start the next week feeling like the weekend never happened.

This weekend wasn’t like that. This weekend Andrea and I managed to finish some landscaping in the backyard, we rested, and TheMonk and Swee’Pea played so much with us that they had to go down early for their nap tonight. Next week TheMonk and Swee’Pea will be one year old and, it seems, this parenting twins thing is getting a little easier. I know, I know, there will be many other things that will come up that will make me rue the day I said this but it sure seems a little easier.

It was a great weekend. It was good for lots of reasons but it was great because TheMonk couldn’t stop saying Da Da with all the energy he could muster. It was great because TheMonk decided that he wasn’t too cool to wave to Mommy and Daddy after all. It was great because Swee’Pea gave me kisses all weekend long. It was great because TheMonk and Swee’Pea tried yogurt for the first time – and liked it. It was great because we were the family I always envisioned us being.

Hell, I even got my laundry done.

So, I’m going back to work tomorrow but for the first time since we became parents I’m going back to work actually feeling a bit energized. Who says parenting twins is hard?!