Updates

Underwear
Because you have all been on the edges of your seats wondering how my underwear is working out for me . . . the boyshorts are growing on me. They are really comfortable and stay put, so no fault there. I think the unsexy feeling they give me has less to do with the underwear and more to do with having a flabby, post-twin belly. Much as I wish that were the underwear's fault, I think I need to be honest about the real problem. Hmm.

Madeleine
She walks everywhere now. It's adorable. She's very steady on her feet and can even get over the lip of the baby gates without falling (most of the time). When she does fall, she just gets right back up and keeps going.

Also, she has a second tooth! Bottom left center. Go, Maddie!

Riley
Riley has determined that he is the funniest person on the planet. He laughs at himself all the time. It's very cute.

Firsts
Over the weekend, the twins fingerpainted for the first time. Translation: Over the weekend, the twins got stripped down to their diapers and used their hands to cover their bodies with fingerpaint. Good thing we were in a friend's backyard and could move seamlessly from the fingerpainting table to the wading pool. Hooray for backyard baths!

The twins also ate Greek food for the first time this weekend at a Greek festival sponsored by the church that a good friend of mine attends. Riley ate a piece of spinach pie that was the size of his head. Awesome. The kids also had their faces painted by an enterprising bunch of youths who charged me $2 to paint a "flaming lightning bolt" on Riley's head. I guess it was supposed to be some kind of Harry Potter-esque looking thing, but it made the Ri-Man look like he had a concussion. Maddie got a heart painted on her hand which she immediately smeared around into a red blob. Still, fun.

Home Improvement
My mom and stepdad are here. They arrived the day after I had the cat put to sleep (a day also known as Sunday, June 17, also known this year as Father's Day). This was great timing. I really needed some emotional and physical bolstering. It's been great to have them around.

I took yesterday off of work and ferried my stepdad to Home Depot for some supplies. I have a 20' x 20' deck in front of my house in lieu of a yard. It's awesome. We have a deck tent and everything. Only problem is that it's 100% not child-friendly. My stepdad is childproofing my deck for me. Happy first b-day, twins! It's gonna be great. We have a Little Tikes pizza oven to put out there, a wading pool, a bin of plastic food . . . we're going to spend a lot of time on that deck this summer. Wish we could have a mini-fridge and freezer for easy-access cool drinks and Popsicles.

First Birthday Parties
The twins' first birthday party is this Saturday. There will be 50+ people there. Huh. It was one of those all-or-nothing kinds of things: either only immediate family or everyone we know. First b-days are especially huge for Koreans, so I decided to just go whole-hog. Well, simplified whole-hog. There will be snacks and cupcakes and drinks and socializing for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to it. I hope the twins won't be totally overwhelmed. I'm going to be totally overwhelmed . . . my mom and stepdad are already here (staying with me), my dad gets here Wednesday, and my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law get here on Friday. Only my mom and stepdad are staying at the house, but that's still a lot of people who are going to want twin-time. Wish me luck on what will certainly be a crazy weekend.

Time to go home from work and hang out with the kids and my parents. Ahhhh. I need all the rest I can get before Friday.