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Please bear with us while we try to clean up some files. Our web host noted some corrupt files on the blog so instead of take it down completely we had to remove some potentially infected theme files which is why you’re probably reading this on the boring default wordpress theme. Sorry about that! We’ll work up something fancy in the near future.

At this very moment, six years ago, I wasn’t even tired.

Well, not yet.

I was probably still high on adrenaline and hadn’t even cracked my first Monster brand energy drink (of which, over the course of the following week, I consumed nearly triple-digits). Sure, I had three different girls in three different areas of the hospital, but I had a handle on things.

One in Post-Partum. No problem. Check in on her, give a detailed report regarding the status of the other two. Watch the nurses poke my wife with needles, squeeze her arm with blood pressure cuffs, and generally make her uncomfortable — but all for the noble cause of insuring she was well. I discounted it all, figuring that if they could slice her open and pull out two human beings and she could survive damn-near anything. Surely a twisted, snakey IV in her arm is nothing to get upset about. I had recently decided that she was invincible. This means that the odds for my now barely-300-minute-old daughters to have inherited some sort of awesome super-power was also much higher than I originally thought. (For the record, I was pretty sure it was 5:1 in favor of super-powers, but that was before I saw my wife carry on a casual conversation while she was being butterflied like a pork sandwich at the White County fair.)

Another one was in the nursery. The regular old nursery. Right across the hall from Post-Partum. Great! I could almost see her from my wife’s room. Precious and adorable, just like I expected. I could step out of Carrie’s room and see Taylor tight there through the glass. The other side of the glass was a different story. I’d like to take a moment and talk about (but not necessarily thank) the engineers who developed what I have now termed the Glass-Panes-Of-Lies-And-Deceit. On a good day, there are a dozen new born babies in that nursery. You can see them cry — I mean, we all know that babies are SUPPOSED to cry. That’s their job, at least until they’re 6 and they can start mowing the lawn, right? (It’s a joke, folks! Relax!). Anyway, sure, red-faced babies crying a little, but still cute, right? Just sit tight, Captain Smiley. Just you wait until one of those nurses opens the door to the hallway. Hear that? That’s what synergy sounds like. The sound of a dozen babies cries, somehow adding up to greater than the sum of its parts. So, engineers of the 21st century, congratulations on your achievement, but parents of newborns may help to remind you that just because you can invent something, doesn’t mean you should (case-in-point?: Fan Man. If you don’t know, don’t ask.) Kudos, also, to the brave souls who work in that nursery. I still hear the sound in my sleep some nights, so anyone who can survive 40+ hours a week with that may also consider making a few extra bucks moonlighting as a jack-hammer operator on a late-night road construction crew.

The third girl was down the hall in NICU. Apparently the one super-power that we could cross off the list was regulation of one’s own blood sugar. That’s ok, there are countless others that are still in the running. Going in that door required some extra layers of security which only served to back-up my assumption that my kids were genetically superior — as if it were a Top Secret Government Funded Research Facility and they were putting the finishing touches on her titanium skeleton and affixing the propulsion unit on her rocket feet. Turns out they weren’t. Ok, another super-power down. No problem. Anyway, I had a wrist-band on my hand for EACH of the girls I was in charge of. However, after the countless times I washed my hands to enter the NICU, they were functionally irrelevant. The nurses knew me, though, so I could come and go as I pleased as long as I used the retna scanner and DNA collector front door. Because of the blood-sugar thing, though, they had to give her an IV. No big deal, I thought. Just like Momma. They’re both tough, so I’m sure a poke in the arm will be no big deOH MY GOD YOU PUT THE IV IN HER FOREHEAD WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT SHE LOOKS LIKE SHE IS WEARING A ONE-FEATHERED INDIAN HEAD-DRESS BACKWARDS TAKE IT OUT TAKE IT OUT TAKE IT OUT. Well, that’s what happend in my head anyway. I think the only sound I made was a caveman-like grunt and I pointed. They told me it was a place that got disturbed infrequently and it was easy to access; better for them and better for the baby. I remained unconvinced, but I figured that the knowledge of the folks with the name badges trumps the knowledge of the guy who’s experience having children was all of 5 hours hold. (Ten if you count them in man-hours…or however you phrase that.)

Anyway, I can’t honestly say how many days were like that for me, but suffice to say it was too many. Today, six years later, my day was much less crazy. I woke up to my darling daughters showing off their new birthday shirts (read that carefully now, it says birthday SHIRTS, not birthday SUITS). Then they opened a present. I kissed my wife, drove my kids to school, and went to work. I even got to eat lunch with all three of them. In the same room — not split out over multiple wings of a hospital. What a difference a few years make, huh?

Crazy? Yep. Worth it? Yep.

To my daughters, on their sixth birthday, I’ll tell you this: Your super-powers are the most amazing I’ve ever seen.

I love you more than you’ll ever know.

-Daddy

Well we have had a super first week of 1st grade so mommy and daddy decided ti surprise us with a trip to the children’s museum. We had so much fun checking out the new exhibits

and making a long stop at our favorite exhibit BARBIE!!!

Next up was a pit stop to check out Daniel and Haley’s new house. It was super cool!

All that fun made us super hungry So we went checked out Incredible Pizza where we got ti watch a movie while we ate. Then got down on some games and bumper cars. And of course won some valuable prizes. It was a super Saturday!

The pencils are sharpened, the folders are folded, the supplies are dropped off — now there is nothing left to do but START LEARNING! Today is our first day of first grade. We had a great summer at Kiddie Kollege, and we’ll still go there in the mornings for breakfast, and after school until Mommy and Daddy get off work, but during the day we’ll each be in our own classrooms learning first-grader-type-stuff like reading, writing, and arithmetic which we are pretty sure just a fancy way to say “math”.

We’ve memorized our lunch number so we can eat lunch on the super-cool big kid trays. We’ve memorized our bus number so we can get back to Kiddie Kollege. We’re a little bit scared and a lot of bit excited.

Since today is the first day, Mommy and Daddy are going to take us to school in their car. How cool is that? We’re not sure why they’re crying though — the big babies…this is going to be awesome!

From this…

…to this…

…in the blink of an eye!

Ready for 1st grade. All supplies are dropped off! Now to IHOP for some pre 1st grade fuel!!

Happy Birthday to our favorite boy cousin! Can’t wait to party with you on Sunday!

My Riley girl is such a trooper, found out yesterday she has strep, and she has been complaining for the last week about a sore throat. Mom of the year right here. Glad she is so tough.

Happy Birthday to the best Gigi in all the world…OUR GIGI!

Wait, didn’t we just post a Happy Birthday message? Oh yea, that one was for Poppa. This one is for Aunt Jill. Happy birthday Aunt Jill. Wonder who’s birthday it will be tomorrow?

Happy birthday to the best Poppa ever, OUR Poppa!