The Week Went So Fast!

I wanted to get some photos loaded this week, but the days have gotten away from me. :( So, this is my lame attempt to get a few pictures up and I will write more as soon as I can.


Emily on the left side of the picture, Ella on the right. Like two little birdies waiting for food. :)


Chris on his Birthday (7/16). Ella is on his right, Marilyn is in the middle, and Emily is on his left.


At Gary's house. Savannah and Joe go swimming!


Ella and me at Gary's. She's watching Savannah and Joe play in the pool. Next time, we'll go swimming, too.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall... (the Johnson Twin version)

Last night on the drive home from Sherri's after dinner, Sarah and I came up with a new song. It's called "99 Sippies of Water on the Wall." It was dark, and whenever we drive home after dark, the girls cry pretty much the whole 10 minutes it takes to get home. A couple weeks ago, Sarah and I discovered that if we sang to the girls, they quieted down. But we're getting tired of the same old songs - most of which we learned at Swim Lessons. So last night, we went through the usual bunch:
Sally the Camel
Little Fishy
Ella's Here Today
Emily's Here Today
Old MacDonald's Farm

We were almost home and the girls started crying again because we couldn't think of another song. I started singing 99 Bottles of Beer, as a joke, but I didn't want to sing that to the girls (something seems wrong singing a drinking song to babies - maybe that's just me). All of the sudden, Sarah or I said, "99 Sippy Cups of Water on the Wall." Even though that didn't quite work, it made us laugh, so we shortened it to Sippies on the Wall. And we only did 10 or less for the rest of the drive home. But it made us laugh and it entertained the twins.

Then today, Sarah was at work and Sherri was helping watch the twins. Around 11:00 it was nap time. I had both twins in my arms and sat in the Lay-Z-Boy. They were fussing a bit and crying, and I knew they were tired, so I started singing "99 Sippies..." Boy, what a great song! It's my new favorite. Ella was asleep by 75 and Emily was asleep by 60. Sherri came and carried each of them into their cribs. Again this evening around 6:00, same thing. Sarah and I split the twins to try and get them to take a last nap - I had Ella. I sat in my chair and sang the song, and she was asleep before Sarah had Emily asleep. This is great! :)

Last Day of Swim Class

Last day of swim classes was today. The girls did great, as always. They are now officially "Star Fish" having completed all the required elements to attain such an esteemed rank! :) The elements consisted of holding their breath, kicking, entering and exiting the pool appropriately, and holding onto the wall for safety. For each element they completed, they got a little plastic colored token - each token was a different color. When they got all their tokens, they got a ribbon with their name on it that says "Super Swimmer." Very exciting, as you can imagine!

Now that classes are over, it'll be our job as parents to keep them up with swimming. I'm looking forward to it.

Final Week of Swim Classes

So this is the final week of swim lessons. I had to go to Cupertino on business yesterday, so my mother-in-law, Sherri, filled in for me. I heard it went very well. Today I went and my mom, Sharon, came for the first time to watch. Tomorrow is the last day, and as far as I know it'll just be Sarah and I with the twins. I am kind of bummed that it'll be over tomorrow, but Sarah and I will make it a point to get the twins into a pool over the summer. Sherri has one, my father-in-law, Gary, has one, my uncle, Doug, has one. So we've got several we can use.

FYI, feel free to post comments. If any of our family and friends are reading this, please let us know. I'd love to hear from other dads (and moms) of twins especially. Take care!

Swim Lessons, Week 2

The girls finished their second week, and are doing GREAT! The instructor has commented multiple times how great the girls are doing. She said their attitudes are great - they rarely complain. They are great about going full underwater, too. She said they are really advanced for their age.

In fact, this week the instructor had us let go of our babies underwater as we pushed them towards her. So she would stand a few feet away from the parents and we'd give the babies the signal to go underwater (for me, I say, "Okay Ella, ready? Blow!" or sometimes, "1... 2... 3...") and then we push the baby towards the instructor and let go with about a foot of space left for the baby to travel. It was pretty nerve-wracking for Sarah the first time, but both girls were wonderful!

Now at bath time (we bathe them in our full-size bath), we practice things like running water over their heads so they get used to holding their breath. One of the funniest things happened just a couple days ago. We were bathing them when all of the sudden, Emily stuck her face in the water. Sarah and I both looked at each other, pretty stunned, and then looked at Emily (who was looking at us for approval) and we clapped and told her what a good girl she was. Well, that started a frenzy of "dunking." Emily did it again, and again, then Ella joined in. Then Ella started drinking the bath water (we're discouraging that), and now each day since the girls like to dunk their faces in the water. They will just be sitting in the water, and then lean forward until their whole face is under, and usually stop right before their ears touch. Usually, they pop right back up within a second or less. But last night, Emily did it for more than a second on a couple occasions. Now I know a second doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're the parent and you're used to seeing your baby pop right up, you notice a one second difference. It was a bit disconcerting when she didn't pop back up, but when she did, we clapped and smiled. I think Emily did the longer dunk once or twice more, and Ella did it I think once.

It is so fascinating watching them learn and do things. Just a day or two ago, I showed one of them, I think Emily, a new sign that I'd never showed her before (I don't remember it now), and she did it back to me immediately. That is when I realized two things:
1) I can actually see their mind working, and it's a wonderful thing.
2) I better enjoy this while I can 'cause pretty soon, I'll have two mirrors walking around, imitating what I do and what I say. Yikes!!

First Swim Lesson

The girls had their first swim lesson today. Sarah and I were hoping to get pictures of the girls actually in the pool, but it didn't work out. I'm sure we will get some over the coming weeks. The lessons are 30 minutes each, three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and go for three weeks. I think there are about 8 babies in the class, from 10 months - 2 years.

The girls did well - better than I expected. They actually have us put the girls fully underwater (only for about 1 second), but we did that 3-4 times today. Emily was with Sarah and did a bit better than Ella, but that could be because I wasn't doing it quite right. Sarah showed me the right way to do it, and so the last time Ella went under was better. The pool is nice -heated to about 92 degrees. Sarah and I are going to be trading off on the twins, we'll get to work with each girl.

I am SO glad we're doing this because so many people we know have pools and it's just something that we all love to do - swim in the summertime. As a safety factor and as a skill, I'm really looking forward to the next three weeks of classes.