The First Year by Bernard

As Eleanor and Miranda’s birthday approached, several people asked me “Can you believe it’s been a year already?” I have to honestly say yes. A year ago, I was trying to change two tiny diapers every three hours and learn how to soothe our newborn girls. I remember asking a nurse how she managed to soothe Miranda who was so upset and frustrated that she couldn’t eat. So much has happened in the last year that makes that time seem so long ago.

Agnes and I have had to adjust our schedules quite a bit since the girls were born. I don’t think we’ve gone out to eat for dinner at all in the past year, and we definitely haven’t been out to the movie theater–the last movie we saw was Batman Begins, a few weeks before Miranda and Eleanor were born. We start each day with a two hour routine before the girls are dropped off at daycare, and we end each night with a solid hour and a half of cleanup and preparation for the next day. I’ve been so tired during my one hour drive from work that I’ve started to give myself repeated hard stinging slaps across my face to keep awake. I try avoid lining up with someone in the next lane when I’m slapping myself since I’m sure I would get some strange looks. I could wait a couple hours at work, get more done, and have a twenty minute commute instead, but then I would miss seeing Miranda and Eleanor before they sleep. Also, I would be leaving Agnes alone to juggle the girls.

As far as kids go, I think Eleanor and Miranda have been relatively good babies. They don’t get into much trouble, they play by themselves fairly well, and they tend to be pretty happy. We have had a few scares though. Back during Memorial Day weekend, we were at Agnes’ cousin’s house, and Eleanor and Miranda were playing with a number of new toys. I was sitting with Eleanor, who was playing with a toy cash register. Miranda started to get upset at something and I took my eyes off of Eleanor for a moment. During that brief time, Eleanor figured out how to open the toy cash register and grabbed a few coins that happened to be inside. By the time I noticed, Eleanor already had a quarter in her mouth and a dime in her hand. I grabbed Eleanor, scooped the quarter out of her mouth, and took the dime away from her. Luckily Eleanor tends to keep things in her mouth a long time before she swallows, or we would have been off to the emergency room to make sure the quarter successfully made its way out.

We also had a scare with Miranda. I had just finished reading an article about how a number of parents let their kids fall on their heads from a hotel bed while the parents were busy unpacking. We then took a trip to Massachusetts for Peggy and Sean’s wedding, and our first night there we were all sitting on the hotel bed. I reached over to grab our camera, and at that instant, Miranda decided she was going to flop backwards. Unfortunately, she was at the edge of the bed. I saw what was happening and caught her just as she was going over backwards. Miranda seemed startled for a moment, but then continued playing. Nothing bad happened as a result from either of these instances, but it’s a good reminder that it’s so easy for our kids to run into problems.

It hasn’t all been chores, lack of sleep, and scares though. I really love being around our girls. I check in on them at night before I go to sleep and occasionally untangle either Eleanor or Miranda’s limbs from the crib or their blankets. I like that Eleanor likes to hand her toys to me. I like that Miranda and I can roll a ball back and forth. I like that when I’m lying on the ground, Eleanor will crawl over and pull up my shirt to check out what’s underneath. I like watching Miranda move a piece of food all around her mouth as she’s trying to figure out how to mash it with just her gums, tongue, and front teeth. She gets such a serious expression on her face for a moment, and then she lights up with a smile. I really like the big smiles both of them give us.

For Miranda and Eleanor’s birthday, we prepared photo albums of our immediate relatives that the girls should know. We gave these albums to the girls yesterday and pointed out each picture and reminded them who everyone was. We’re also pulling together the first year of this blog into a single bound book. I’ve been copying over all of the blog entries and all of the comments into one big file which we’re going to send to lulu’s for printing and binding. If you want to add a note to the girls, please feel free to add a comment in the next day or two. Then, we’ll have everything printed so Miranda and Eleanor can look back at this time when they’re quite a bit older.