Santa Who?!

While I was off at the AGU meeting socializing with the other nerds scientists, Jenn, Max and Charlotte were out on the town.  And Jenn took Max and Charlotte to visit Santa Claus for the very first time!  (I can't believe I missed it.  Though, in Jenn's defense, it sounds as though it was a very impromptu affair, born of a desperate effort to occupy two bored, fussy children.)

Now when you think about it, this tradition of putting our children into the laps of some stranger (often) sporting a fake beard and dressed in a red suit so that they can reveal their hearts' desires and so that we can take cute pictures is pretty bizarre.  The oddity of this strange ritual was probably best depicted in a Christmas Story, perhaps the funniest movie ever (not just the funniest Christmas movie, mind you).  It's also made pretty evident by the picture below:

5 December 2011

Looking at this picture, I can't avoid the thought that Charlotte and Max were both simultaneously asking themselves: 'Who in the hell is this guy?!'  It's actually the cutest picture from that photo session, in my opinion.  Max just looks confused in the other pictures.  And Charlotte looks eager to be anywhere else.  Perhaps next year they'll have bought into the hype and will be begging us to take them to see Santa.  Maybe not.

At least this Santa's beard appears to be genuine.

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Charlotte and Max Head North for the 2011 American Geophysical Union Conference

Last weekend Jenn, Charlotte and Max traveled with me to San Francisco, California, where I attended the American Geophysical Union's annual Fall Meeting.  It was a quick trip, as I only attended the planetary science session on Monday (including the poster session in which my poster was presented).  But we did fly up early so that we could visit with Jenn's aunt Judy in Oakland, California.


Max and Charlotte were enthralled by the singing of their cousin Meredith (a.k.a. Missy).  (Well, second cousin, but who -- aside from me, of course -- is picking nits?)  Jenn and Missy's mother, Stephie, were pretty amused, too.

3 December 2011

The day before the conference began we met up with my friends Jen and Adrian and their new baby, Alexis.  While I was busy getting a jump on the conference registration Jen and Alexis posed with Max and Charlotte.

4 December 2011

Alexis gets a piece of Max while we all stopped for a meal.

4 December 2011

Charlotte gets her first close look at an Australian (Adrian) and discovers that they're not so bad after all.

4 December 2011

Adrian poses with the young ladies.

4 December 2011

This isn't exactly my kind of picture, but I know this picture of Alexis and Charlotte "kissing" would provoke too many oohs and aws to forgo including it in this post.

4 December 2011

As seems so common with babies, Max and Charlotte really got a kick out of spending time with another baby.  And I was so happy to meet Alexis myself.  I'm just sorry that it took so long!


Following our breakfast at the wonderful Cafe de la Presse on Tuesday morning, Jenn posed for the babies in downtown San Francisco (please note the awesomeness that is Charlotte wearing her pink hat).

All in all, it was a great trip!  We got to see Aunt Lauren in Oakland, as well as Missy's brother Garrett and Missy and Garrett's dad, Mike.  And we also spent a lovely evening with Jenn's friends Chuck and Betsy.  The Fall AGU meeting is always held in San Francisco.  And it's such a fantastic time to visit the city.  I sincerely hope that we can make this an annual Christmastime tradition for us.  (A tradition which, I note on the off chance that there are any NASA program managers reading this, would be much easier to uphold if one my grant proposals were to be funded!)


--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Thanksgiving

Though this was technically not Charlotte's and Max' first Thanksgiving, it was Jenn's and my first Thanksgiving with them that we'll be able to remember concretely.  While we know what we did last year, we were still within our first two weeks of parenting and desperately trying to sort out our new lives.

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of our cousins Paul and Janetta.  And Aunt Lauren came down to spend the long weekend with us!  As you can see below, we all had a blast.

Max and Charlotte enjoyed Thanksgiving turkey in their portable high chairs.

24 November 2011

The next day we went to Griffith Park where we rode the train,

25 November 2011

and Max and Charlotte took their first pony rides.

25 November 2011

Max was sad for the train ride to come to an end; Charlotte was fond of the ponies.

Max and Charlotte spent some quality time with Aunt Lauren.

26 November 2011

And, for at least a few days, Rufus (foreground) and Lucy (leaning against the wall) enjoyed having another member of the pack around: Bailey, Aunt Lauren's puppy.  Everyone, toddlers and terriers alike, got along together just great!

26 November 2011

So I've obviously got a backlog of posts to clear; it's been a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving.  Sorry about the delay.  And I promise that there will be more updates over the next few days!

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Max and Charlotte Get Cold-Blooded

Charlotte and Max (and Jenn and I) attended a birthday party thrown for the son of one of Jenn's girlfriends last Saturday.  The party was a hit, with not one but several highlights.  Among them were some special guests escorted by a local reptile wrangler.


Charlotte made a new friend, an African spurred tortoise.

19 November 2011

And Max met a Chinese water dragon.

19 November 2011

Personally, I was much more comfortable with Max and Charlotte hanging out with this guy than with the Burmese python.

19 November 2011

They both liked the reptiles.  But I couldn't help noticing that Max seemed more intrigued by the trees.  He's fascinated by the plants outside our home, too.  Is my son perhaps destined to be a botanist?  More importantly, why do I feel compelled to make such wild extrapolations and to try to see the future?


--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Birthdays #1

Last weekend Charlotte and Max celebrated their first birthday!  So much has happened to us in the past year that it seems hard to believe that Jenn, Rufus, Lucy and I welcomed Max and Charlotte into our lives just 12 months ago.  And we're not just happy but proud that we have made it this far.  So it seemed appropriate to throw a big party to celebrate!  Grandma Judy and Grandma Cheryl came to celebrate with us, as well as Aunt Pat and my sister Lauren, among so many others.

Charlotte and Max get in the party mood (and learn to use a toothbrush).

7 November 2011

 
Max gets his first taste of birthday cake ...

12 November 2011

... and Charlotte gets hers.

12 November 2011

People often ask about the differences in Max' and Charlotte's personalities.  Well, to answer that I draw your attention to the difference between Charlotte's piece of cake and Max' piece of cake (or what was a piece of cake).  I don't know exactly what that says, but I think it says something.  And you've heard of milk mustaches?  Well, all on his own Max has invented the icing mustache at the tender young age of one.

12 November 2011

We hung a few old photographs of Max and Charlotte around our living to decorate for the party.  They're still up.  Here are a couple of those old photographs:

A happy Charlotte when her hairline was at its nadir.

1 April 2011

Max after one of his first meals of solid food.

15 April 2011

That blue spoon is history, having been stolen and chewed into many tiny pieces by one of the terriers (my money is on Lucy, but we'll never know).

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us.  And thank you for all of the gifts they received!  (Max and Charlotte are now the proud owners of the wheelie featured in this post, as well as one that is shaped like a tiger.)  Charlotte, Max, we love you so much already and look forward to years and years of fun birthday parties.

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

All Hallow's Eve

So what did Max and Charlotte dress up as for their very first Halloween?

GNOMES!

31 October 2011

Jenn made their costumes, of course.  Charlotte loved wearing her gnome hat.  Max ... not so much.  (Hmmm ... I wonder where he gets that?)  And I, for one, am so excited for them that they have such an artistically inclined mother who will help them with oodles of fun art projects as they get older!  (The previous comment is meant in no way to be taken as an indictment of any mothers with whom I might have grown up.)

We hope y'all had a Happy Halloween!

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Max and Charlotte on the Road Again (Again)

We were accompanied by Max and Charlotte on our recent trip up to Chico, California, to visit their new baby cousin Natalie, who was born earlier this month, and her older brother Patrick.  This was their second trip to Chico and their third plane trip; they're becoming pretty seasoned travelers (for 11-month-old babies, anyway).  As you can see, Max is a pretty cool flyer.

20 October 2011

But Charlotte is even cooler.

20 October 2011

Actually, poor Max had a pretty hard time on the final leg of the trip home.  (While Charlotte slept soundly in my arms during the entirety of that flight.)  But it was understandable; plane travel is pretty hard, seeing as how they don't let you crawl with impunity all over the cabin.

While we were up in Chico Charlotte and Max got to play in Grandma Judy's kitchen, 

21 October 2011

Charlotte went shopping for a new set of wheels (as Max napped in their stroller),

22 October 2011

and they hung out with Tio Johnny.

23 October 2011

We also picked pumpkins and visited the animals at a local farm.  Max loved hanging out with the donkeys and the calves; it was a little tough getting him away.  I think we're looking forward to all four cousins being able to have fun together in the future, to say nothing of when their cousins from Indiana can come visit!

And, no, Charlotte and Max don't have frequent flyer accounts ... yet.  But if you know me, you should be confident that they will as soon as we have to start paying for their tickets.  I definitely plan on giving them a leg up on their million-mile status!

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Games People Play Charlotte Plays

Charlotte and Max have this funny habit of waving their arms somewhat ... er, spastically when they get excited.  So when Charlotte starts flapping her arms in this video, you can interpret that as her being very excited and very amused!

Max plays this game, too.  (You can hear him "talking" and banging his spoon on his tray in the background while Charlotte plays peek-a-boo.)  I think their particular twist on peek-a-boo got its start as a result of our cleaning their faces with a wet washcloth following meals in their high chairs.  And it's still a lot of fun.  I love the fact that Charlotte has started covering her own head with the washcloth!

(This would be another example of a large file that was too large to share over e-mail, but which can be shared via a blog!)

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Reminiscing

Once upon a time our babies were very young ...

13 November 2010

 ... and so were our puppies.

9 May 2009

--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

An Unforeseen Development

Getting used to Max and Charlotte being mobile was one thing.  Their talent for crawling has us worried about how chaotic things will be when they starting walking (and running).  What we hadn't considered was their developing ability to climb.  It is now clear that we're just going to have to get used to falls and the attendant bumps, bruises and crying.  Sigh.

Max and Charlotte love to climb into their toy boxes baskets.

14 October 2011

Getting in is easy.  Climbing out is hard.  It is also when heads tend to hit the floor.  You'd think this would dissuade them from climbing in in the first place, but …

15 October 2011

 And they're getting pretty good at standing up unassisted.  Walking can't be far behind.


--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)

Prologue: Am I 11 Months Too Late?

Perhaps this is not the right foot on which to start my very first blog.  Nevertheless, I would like to apologize for not starting this sooner and not keeping more of y'all abreast of the adventures of Max and Charlotte (and Lucy and Rufus).  I suppose that T minus some-months-and-days before Charlotte and Max came into our lives, I decided that someone starting yet another blog about someone else's children was a bit cliché and borderline narcisstic.  And I decided to do my part in keeping our hallowed, sacred Internet pristine and useful and not cluttering it up with more information that was valuable to no more than a handful of people on the planet.

Then I realized, as all new parents eventually do, that so many of the things we've seen other parents do -- some of which we swore we would not do ourselves -- are done for good reason.  In particular, it turned out to be more challenging to routinely send out pictures of the twins via e-mail than I anticipated.  Such e-mail messages were often so large that my e-mail server refused to send them.  Then I had problems because people often felt as though they were being intentionally left off "the list" (as though I had been carefully grooming and maintaining any one list of e-mail addresses); in reality, I just didn't want to be stuffing people's e-mail inboxes with e-mail they might not have wanted.  And, of course, sending out pictures of your children via e-mail is no less narcissistic than posting them on the Web.  Finally, starting your own blog has the added benefit that people can choose to visit your blog's website, thus alleviating any worries about whether or not they want to receive pictures of your darling offspring.

So I decided sometime ago to start a blog … and, of course, it took me a long time to get around to actually doing it.  (Publicly acknowledging the embarrassment of it having taken so long was yet another reason for my delay.  I mean, in this day and age who starts a blog about their kids when those kids are 11+-months old?)  But we have twins and life is crazy.  That is why it took me longer than I'd hoped to start.  And this brings me to one of the cooler things about having twins: you can blame almost any personal shortcoming or flakiness on having twins and people almost universally accept that excuse because who in the hell can imagine taking care of two babies at once?!!?  But there are many even more awesome things about having twins (and twin Airedale Terriers) that I hope to discuss as this blog unfolds.

So without further ado, I introduce you to Two Toddlers and Two Terriers: Life with Max and Charlotte and Rufus and Lucy!  I hope to update this blog more frequently than I'd been sending out pictures.  And I'll try to clear the backlog of old pictures I never sent out as I think of them.

Oh, one more thing: though I will try not to favor one child (or puppy) over another when I post pictures, I am not going to try make sure that there is one picture of one child (or puppy) for every picture I post of the other child (or puppy) 'cause that kind of shit'll just drive you (i.e. me) crazy.  (I know; I've tried to do so elsewhere.)  So even in the unlikely event that one of my children should show up significantly more frequently than the other, everyone should rest assured that we love our children (and dogs) very much and in equal measure … not that we feel compelled to prove that on the Internet.


--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)