As Opposite As Twin Brothers

The twenty-one week checkup (couldn't get in with the doctor at twenty weeks) was on Tuesday. Another ultrasound and a meeting with our new OB (our old one left the clinic at the new year). The ultrasound showed the different personalities (or more likely, different sleep cycles) of the two boys. Baby A was uncooperative and moody, doing little more than mooning the ultrasound tech the entire time. Baby B, however, was acting like Peter Griffin on Red Bull.



He was spinning, flipping, turning, not holding still at all. Perhaps it's a foretaste of what family pictures will be like from now on.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:
We felt the babies move! More specifically, Mama Bear felt "something" that was probably babies last week, then felt that "something" several times last Friday. While she was laying in bed, she felt it strongly enough to call me into the room where we both saw her stomach MOVE. Bloop. Just like that it moved! We put our hands on her belly and felt Baby A kick (or punch or roll or something) on his side, then Baby B outdo his brother on the left side. It was...(wait for it)...breathtaking.

Mama Bear is now growing at a rapid clip, making up for lost time after a nauseous first trimester with little to no weight gain.



The house has had all sorts of activity lately. Lots of showings and open houses and needs to quickly evacuate the house for a couple hours. We are racking up steep dog-sitting debts to some good friends who thankfully like Win despite his googily eyes.

Seen:
We caught a couple of films over the weekend. The Social Network was playing at the Riverview (best movie deal in the Twin Cities). I was leery going into the viewing for some reason but it turned out that I had no reason to be at all. The movie was fantastic. A wonderful character story and a wonderful performance by Jesse Eisenberg, no matter how accurate or fictional it may be.

Next was a morning matinee showing of The King's Speech. I am a fan of just about everyone in the film and had high hopes. It was great but...not as great as I was hoping? I am soon to graduate into a rehabilitation-based career and had a professional interest in seeing how they depicted early speech therapy and was encouraged by how it was portrayed. Again, not sure on the historical accuracy but I appreciated how Lionel Logue's career was based out of a need to help people regain a load-bearing piece of their life after some trauma, either physical or emotional.

What have you seen lately? What did you think of it?

Paint fumes = progress

Golden on the ground, originally uploaded by A-Wix.

I want to take a moment to publicly declare that my in-laws are amazing. They have spent the last three days ambitiously ticking off item after item from the daunting to-do list for our house. Here's a summary (almost certainly leaving something out):

- Both bedrooms painted
- Living room painted
- Dining room painted
- Accent wall in the kitchen painted
- Kitchen cleaned to within an inch of its life (Our range looks brand new! And it's from the early 80s!)
- Bathroom tub scoured clean and shamed for being so dirty
- Many heavy things brought up from the basement

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that we have wonderful friends who also chipped in to turn our house inside out, clean the gross insides, then turn it right side out again. Mark, Devin, Jon, and Andrew, you are the wind beneath our wings. Thank you.

Boxes, brush, and blizzards

A car full of boxes from Matt and Brooke!, originally uploaded by A-Wix.

We were recently gifted with this treasure trove of moving boxes, courtesy of our favorite friends in Highland Park. Winning the lottery would have made me only slightly happier than I was to receive this wonderful gift.

This weekend involves several possibly conflicting plans: I need to clear a two-year accumulation of brush from a corner of the garage to make room for boxes that are coming out of the basement. We live close to a county yard waste drop-off site, so no problems there. EXCEPT that we are supposed to get the largest snowstorm in 19 years tomorrow. So I have the brilliant idea to instead burn the vast supply of brush in our fireplace (which I just cleaned) to provide a lovely backdrop of homey warmth to the nastiness outside. Mama Bear is (rightly) unconvinced. "You'll drag junk all through the house. It will take you forever. We have other stuff to do."

These things are all true, but I am unswayed. We'll see who wins out tomorrow morning. (Safe bet is on Mama Bear, not me.)

If you're in the Twin Cities area, stay safe tomorrow.

Time to begin to say goodbye

How does your garden grow?
Originally uploaded by A-Wix

We officially decided to sell our house today. We couldn't resist the perfect market conditions and sky-high housing prices and...wait, what?

This isn't 2006? The housing market did WHAT?

Shit.

Regardless, we had considered selling for a while, and due to the soon-to-be rapidly expanding clan, our time table has been bumped up several months. We want to get our house on the market lickety split which means we gotsta get a fresh coat of paint on the walls.

We've been here about six years and seen lots of things happen in that time. As much as I would love some more space, I'm going to miss this place. It has been a great home for us.

Know of anyone in the market for a lovely cozy tudor style in St. Paul?

Twelve weeks

We are humming along smoothly and Mama is getting bigger by the day.

The Nausea seems to be finally giving up and going home, but The Fatigue apparently didn't read the invitation all the way through and has stayed way past its welcome. Seriously, Fatigue. Bugger off.

Things we are currently pondering:

Should we try to sell the house now instead of waiting until spring time? Do we really want to try to schedule showings around the sleep/eat/poop schedules of twins? But do I want to finally face the scary realities of selling a house? I have a recurring nightmare of the realtor telling us our house is worth about $20 (give or take).

Do we need a minivan? (Papa wants one because they are SO COOL NOW. Mama isn't so gung-ho, or more accurately, simply rational.) Can we afford a minivan? (Have you priced out a new Odyssey lately? Geesh. I got student loans, man. We got future kids to pay for.)