L. got to spend an hour in the Baby Bjorn yesterday and got her first bath last night. She snoozed in the Bjorn while we were cleaning the house and trying to keep her sisters under control. She screamed like she’s never screamed before in the bath. At least she smells better now.  

It’s hard to believe L.’s been with us for a week now. It’s been a busy time, with two of my out-of-town sisters-in-law coming to visit, the in-town relatives coming over often, and of course many more visits from friends and neighbors. It’s been fun but we’re happy that things are slowing down and we can begin taking some deep…

Brought the girls (mom and baby) home yesterday, right on schedule. Everything is going well with both. L. prefers to lay on us, rather than in her bed, which meant it was about 4:30 this morning before I finally got to sleep. And S. spent much of the night in bed with M. and C., who were having their own…

In honor of M. starting school Wednesday, here are some stories about the kids. As promised, I will now reveal the curse word that C. has been using from time-to-time. When I drop something, knock something over, etc. my default curse is “Dammit.” I’ve learned to more mutter it than exclaim it since becoming a father, so I say it…

We took the girls to our church’s festival/carnival last night. While I did not indulge, I was reminded of why I’m glad I married a Catholic girl: drinking is encouraged at church fund raisers. That’s going to come in handy when the girls get a little older. For now, though, we had to concentrate on keeping the girls from getting…

We celebrated M.’s fourth birthday last night. As mentioned earlier, her actual birthday is today. We didn’t make a huge deal out of. Next year, no doubt, she’ll realize that she got to go to several cool birthday parties for friends and that she should start complaining about wanting farm animals to come to the house, or a trip to…

Some day I’d like to mic up the girls so I could record every funny thing they say. Although their behavior could often use improvement, about 90% of what they say makes us laugh. One day M. found a wallet-sized picture of her and C. on my desk. She looked at it and said, “Boy, this picture is adorable!” She…

<a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15parenting-t.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin”>This article</a> is a thought-provoking (and lengthy) examination of how couples struggle to achieve a fair balance when it comes to raising kids, managing the home, etc. I’m fascinated by how little the numbers have changed over time, as though there’s something hardwired in either us or our society that prevents us from moving the ratios too much. Regardless…