When The Flies Begin To Circle

This post is a little late but, that's how it goes in this family. Last weekend, Meg and I decided to get away for a Saturday night. Meg had purchased a hot air balloon ride on LivingSocial for my birthday present. I'm not going to lie, I went back and forth several times about actually going up as I couldn't shake this concern about something happening to Meg and me. I've never looked up statistics on fatal accidents due to hot air balloons (and probably never will), but I was worried about something happening to us and leaving the girls without either parent. I can, literally, see the eyes rolling in everyone's head right now.



Well, I got over it and we decided to go. After all, it was our first night away from the girls, together, since they were all in the NICU. Meg booked a room on the water in Lake Geneva, WI. She had planned it out so that Melissa and Felicia would come over on Saturday morning and watch the girls through Sunday afternoon. We wanted to make sure everything around the house was as ready to go as possible so that they could "relax" and just watch the girls...and we thought it was.

Melissa and Felicia arrived and we gave our mandatory status update to anyone that comes over to watch the girls. I was sitting on the floor and had noticed a fly circling around the girls, but didn't think too much of it, except to notice that it was in the house. We soon discovered that its intentions were more purposeful.

We were also feeling a little bit guilty because Maddy and Sophie had picked up colds over the previous week. Fortunately, it skipped right over Izzy, but we ended up needing to give Sophie neb treatments and Maddy spent the better part of the week blowing spit and snot bubbles from what was dripping down in to her mouth. We gave Melissa an opportunity to back out, but she gave us the typical, "I'm a NICU nurse line," and told us to get going.





We began making the good-bye rounds, kissing and squeezing all of the girls. Meg then moved on to Maddy, who had a magnificent surprise waiting for whichever parent got to her first. Words can't begin to describe what she had in store, so I won't even try, except to say that, at that moment, the fly being in the room made perfect sense.



After we cleaned her up, we hopped in the car. No more than 30 seconds passed by when Meg received a phone call from the balloon company, letting us know that they were canceling the ride due to a storm front in the area. That wasn't going to stop us. We had sitters for the girls, a non-refundable room on the lake, and 24 hours of freedom staring us in the face.

We spent the afternoon golfing then went out for dinner at the Baker House. This place was phenomenal. It was built in 1885 as a family home. It's a 17,000 square foot Queen Anne mansion that is now both a restaurant and a hotel. It's right on the water with a great view. There's too much history for me to describe, but they have all of these hats that everyone gets to choose from when walking through the door (they promised they cleaned them multiple times per day). At sunset, a gentlemen with a top hat stands at the top of the stairs to the yard, a bell is rung, they provide everyone with champagne, and then we all toasted to the beautiful sunset.  We missed the girls tremendously, but had an amazing time.  When will we get away again, just the two of us?  Probably next year but, it's great to have something to look forward to!

Thanks Melissa and Felicia!

Their Last First Holiday

Well, we did it. We made it through a year's worth of holidays relatively unscathed. Halloween was filled with a lot of sleep and no ghouls. Thanksgiving helped add to everyone's waistline. Christmas delivered our Izzy home to us. Valentine's day was, well, another Valentine's day. St. Patrick's day made the girls excited about the color green and dad about beer. Easter gave them a taste of the egg hunts and chocolate bunnies (dark chocolate bunnies if I have anything to say about it) to come. Memorial Day provided Sophie with the opportunity to learn how to remove a dvd from the PS3. And this year's Fourth of July celebration taught us all that our babies, especially Izzy, aren't huge fans of 100 degree heat (neither is their dad by the way).

U.S.A. (aka T.R.O.U.B.L.E.)


If I'm ahead of the game, Fourth of July week can be slightly more relaxing than the normal work week, so I've been able to spend a ton of time with the girls and help out Meg more than she probably expected. That's the "two birds with one stone" approach to being a husband!

Last year at this time, the weather was definitely way cooler and we were counting up the weeks as Meg passed each weekly milestone with keeping those girls inside the oven. I had to go back and look at a couple of the photos just to see if she was as beautiful as I remembered, and as I thought, she was. For the record, I never doubted it.



This year, our party of five decided to venture out to same country club to watch fireworks, fully knowing that we had no intention of staying remotely long enough to watch the fireworks even being set up. Schedules are schedules and are gold in this house!

The scalding hot weather caught us by surprise and our specially-chosen holiday outfits were just a tad too warm to wear. So, we improvised. We made our own outfits. The only clothing that was reasonable for these girls, besides their birthday suits, were some white onesies. Meg suggested that we decorated them and shared her idea. Then, I took it and did the exact opposite. Well, not exactly. I just took a much more thorough approach to the design. For those who know Meg and me well, this will come as no surprise. Take a look for yourselves.


Meg's sketch


She scribbled on a piece of paper and said, "you can draw lines straighter than I can so, just draw these on quickly." Ha! "Jeremy" and "project" in the same sentence as "quickly." I'm fairly confident those words have never been spoken before in all of history. What's funny is that she knows this about me, which is probably why she REALLY asked me to do it. You should see the way I used to cut the lawn--everything but actual scissors to make the grass even. My wrapped Christmas presents look like pieces of art. I can't just jot down some letters on their clothes. Below, is my approach and the final results.

Just a few millimeters more...


This photo even captures my furious measuring and marking abilities







We all strive for perfection, do we not?


A Jeremy DeBauche original design



Not too shabby for short notice


Surprisingly, we made it out of the house close to being on time. It never ceases to amaze me at the amount of time it takes to get these girls out the door, even when we plan and begin much earlier in the day.

We met up with Mary, Charlie, Kelly, Steve, and the kids. We decided to see if we could brave it in the shade, but Izzy's overheat alarm began screaming about 10 minutes in to that effort. Fortunately, we had purchased tickets for dinner inside the clubhouse, which provided a welcome escape from the oppressive heat. Everyone was happy, but mostly me and Izzy, who managed to escape away from the crowd and enjoy some cool moments together inside.


Izzy and me just having a conversation


Sophie taking a break from her bottle.  Who likes drinking milk in the heat anyway?




Maddy and Izzy rockin' it out in our new Foundations quad stroller


One BIG happy family


Need to be just a weeee bit taller


Sophie was already dreaming about her 16th birthday.  "C'mon mom and dad, lemme drive just for a minute.  Please!"


Almost everyone was down for the count


I've been determined to not enlist the services of a professional photographer, mostly because I enjoy the photographic process and I'm proud to be putting in the effort for memories with our girls. However, I think the girls are going to look back and wonder where their father was and why he was never in any photos. Also, it would be nice, for once, to see our girls (and us) through someone else's camera. We pretty much breezed through their nine months photos so, I figured we'd better get some in at 10 months before a year sneaked up on us. This is what we ended up with.



One of my princesses










Buds










Soooo happy!







This one sits still for about .5 seconds on average








For your viewing pleasure, I've decided to include some "behind the scenes" photos, as well as some of the outtakes. This is how we make the magic happen ;)



We decided to mix things up this time and created an obstacle course for dad


Did I mention they were moving obstacles?




It takes work to look this good


Our "dining" room


As my father so aptly pointed out, she looks like the cat who swallowed the canary


"Just a little to the right.  Perfect."


This one requires constant distraction/re-direction


The next dozen or so photos capture my attempt to get a photo of all of my girls.  Who says they all have to be looking at the camera?  (no one I hope, as that's never gonna happen)






















And.....that's a wrap!