Lub dub lub dub lub dub

flickr with video!, originally uploaded by Thinklab.

Sixteen week check up today. Unfortunately there aren't any new pictures to share but it was still worthwhile because we heard HEARTBEATS. It was the latest heart-stopping moment in what will be a lifetime of them.

I am now a heart-stopping moment junkie. I need my next fix. Gimme gimme gimme.

Mama Bear just got through the State of Nausea to run smack-dab into the Territory of Flu-like Bugs and Other Unpleasantness. Being prego means you can't take most run-of-the-mill antibiotics and remedies. Instead, it's just your already overtaxed body fighting mano a mano against Generic Head Cold Syndrome. So far, GHCS has won the first few rounds but Mama Bear is rebounding nicely thanks to Tylenol Cold & Sinus, about the only arrow left in her quiver.

What's Papa Bear doing through all this? Just repeatedly asking if he can make her some tea to the point where she wants to poke me in the eye. I'm the best nurse ever.

Thanksgiving

A birthday quilt to celebrate family, originally uploaded by A-Wix.

Today the twins hit the 14-week marker. According to a weekly email from a website that apparently knows about such things, our babies are roughly the size of lemons. I have citrus children.

This year brings a new meaning to thankfulness. I am grateful that we have two healthy, growing children tucked safely in their mother's womb. I am thankful that Anna is healthy also and does everything and more to ensure she stays healthy for the babies. I am thankful that we have access to quality prenatal healthcare. I am grateful that our friends and family have been so supportive and generous already, offering things that they may regret when I take them up on it.

I am grateful for my wife, my best friend, my companion. She and I are several states apart this Thanksgiving and frankly, I don't like it. Circumstances didn't allow us to be together this year but she is taking advantage of an opportunity to celebrate with a side of her family she doesn't get to see often. She will also get to show of her babies bump to her relatives for the first time. And she will present this wonderful handmade quilt to her grandmother in celebration of her 90th birthday.

Don't pity me, however. I will enjoy my family's company tomorrow, enjoying delicious food and going hoarse trying to talk over each other and laughing heartily. Too bad we couldn't mush these two celebrations into one mega-Thanksgiving.

Be thankful, everyone, and be safe. If I haven't seen you lately, give yourself a hug from me and know that I miss you.