June has been a really busy month for us. The twins have been taking daily swimming lessons all month, early in the morning, which means that the tasks that I typically would accomplish in the morning before work get pushed to the weekends. This explains how I repeatedly find myself at the grocery store on Saturdays, which is a time I would usually avoid due to the crowds. Often I will take the twins on outings with me, because they enjoy taking in the sights of the world around them, and Dave enjoys an hour or two to himself to fit in a run or work on one of his various hobbies. This past Saturday, I had both twins at the grocery store with me. Andrew rode along in the top basket of the cart, while I wore Audrey on my chest in a baby carrier. We slowly made our way through the store, Andrew helping to hold red bell peppers, Audrey grabbing at my shopping list, and me keeping an ongoing conversation going with them while selecting various breakfast and dinner options. We found ourselves browsing the cheese aisle, when one of my favorite songs, Sugar Pie Honey Bunch came on in the store. We all 3 decided it was necessary to have a little dance party there in the cheese section, and all 3 of us were quickly laughing. Many of our fellow cheese lovers around us were laughing with (at?) us, and a guy came over and said to me “I think you need a couple more sets of twins…you are just having way too much fun!” I laughed and went on my way, thinking that it was a nice exchange for once, instead of the typical comments I get from strangers about how hard things must be.

I write this post from Tulsa, OK. Although its not the most glamorous of travel destinations, I find that the locals are refreshingly friendly and kind, the city feels safe to move about, traffic is easy, and the food is fantastic. Believe it or not, there is a wonderful seafood restaurant called Bodeans in Tulsa, a landlocked state. I’ve eaten at this restaurant at least 10 times and have had some of the best pieces of fish I’ve ever had in my life there. They fly it in fresh twice a day. Yesterday, I had a piece of fresh wild Columbia River salmon.

Speaking of fish, the twins are doing fantastic in their swimming lessons. Audrey and Andrew can both float for about a minute, unassisted. This week will be the last week of lessons, so they are learning how to float wearing full regular diapers and winter clothes. This trains them to deal with more lifelike situations where they would end up in water. Although the lessons have been a very big commitment, we are pleased with the results. Also, in case you’ve ever wondered, a regular diaper weighs about 2 pounds when completely saturated with water! Of course I felt the need to weigh one with our baby scale.

My parents continued their motorhome adventures this month, celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary in Glacier National Park in Montana on June 4th before heading north to Alaska. I remember when I was a little girl, I was beginning to learn about relationships and “best friends.” I asked my mom who her best friend was, and I was shocked when she said that my dad was her best friend. I thought “why would she be best friends with a guy?” Especially a guy like my dad who is always picking on her! It didn’t make any sense to me at the time. It’s been pretty awesome to have the opportunity to witness 35 years of their relationship. They have truly set a wonderful example of the commitment of marriage and all that it entails. My parents reached Alaska around the 15th of June, and are continuing their adventures in exploring Alaska, together with their border collie, Daisy. If you are not already following my dad’s rather entertaining blog, you can find it here:

www.avisfamily.net/alaska

Dave and I will be undertaking our own adventure next week, by packing our car, and driving 16 hours to vacation in Florida. I have no idea how the twins will do with a 16 hour car trip, but somehow we will make it work. I look forward to showing the twins the ocean, beach, and whatever other sights life throws our way. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share at my next post.

I was lucky enough to start off the month with a visit from my parents, who were with us over Mother’s Day. It was really wonderful to spend my first Mother’s Day with both my mother and my kids. We had a really nice day, spending some quality time together at home. When my parents come for a visit, they typically hand out a detailed agenda of the favorite restaurants that they intend to visit while they are here. Houston, while not a beautiful place, is what I might call the restaurant capital of the US. There are all kinds of interesting, diverse, trendy, ethnic, non-ethnic, and just fantastic restaurants in Houston. When you come here, you are going to eat. A LOT. All the time. So, my parents have embraced the culture here by making a list of their favorites that they frequent, one of which is called Big Daddy’s BBQ.

Big Daddy’s is a cafeteria tray style dive in a run-down strip mall with an ugly parking lot out front. It does have some pretty fantastic bbq though. We still had Big Daddy’s to cross off the list, so we headed over there on Mother’s Day. While we were in the car, partway there, I looked down and realized that I was accidentally wearing my bedroom slippers. Oops! I decided I didn’t care and we continued on our way. We enjoyed chopped pork sandwiches, brisket po-boys, mac and cheese, green beans, and fried okra to excess. Audrey and Andrew went along for the ride in their new double umbrella stroller, which they like because they can see and reach each other to swipe each other’s toys and pacifiers when the other isn’t paying attention. My feisty girl Audrey got particularly fired up and managed to grab my dish of green beans off the table and hurl them onto the floor in an almost frisbee-like motion. We all stuffed ourselves to bursting and rolled ourselves back out to the car. At that point, my mother and I looked at each other with horror as we realized that we both would have to climb into the third row of our SUV with only a few inches to squeeze our bellies past the new and giant convertible car seats that the twins are using. We managed to do it, but it wasn’t pretty.

We got home and spent some time relaxing on the back deck with each other and the twins, until I had to go sprinting to the restroom with the onset of a fun little stomach virus that knocked me out for the next few days. Let’s just say I won’t be eating any more Big Daddy’s for awhile. Each of us ended up getting the stomach virus, with the exception of my mother, who always gleefully proves herself tougher than pretty much anybody else on the planet. Aside from the stomach bug, my Mother’s Day was wonderful and I was so thankful to spend it with all of my family.

Audrey and Andrew turn 10 months old this week. Sometimes it feels like the time has flown by, and sometimes it seems to drag, particularly when someone is screaming. They are both crawling, laughing, playing, and enjoying each other’s company more and more each day. I love to watch their relationship grow stronger over time. Andrew pulls himself up to standing on pretty much any structure he can find. Audrey has not yet managed to pull herself to standing, but she is actively working on it. It is neat to watch their development.

One of the things that we decided we wanted to do as soon as possible was to get them Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) lessons. If you have not heard of these lessons, they are survival swimming lessons for infants to train them how to float in a body of water until they can be rescued. The intent is to teach them to save their own life if they fall into a pool, lake, river, etc. We have a pool in our backyard, so we felt very strongly that these lessons were needed. Infants can start them at 6 months old or greater, as long as they are crawling. Audrey and Andrew began ISR lessons about 2 weeks ago. The lessons are 10 minutes long for each of them and are private lessons with a certified instructor. We attend lessons at 7:24AM and 7:36AM every day for 6-8 weeks. When you add in the 30 minute one-way drive and the fact that we both work full time jobs and I travel a lot, it is quite a commitment. However, it is something we feel very strongly about, so we are making it work. It has been interesting to me to watch them learn how to float. Audrey is doing fantastic and is rolling, on her own, from a face-down position in the water on to her back and floating. Andrew has missed a couple of lessons due to illness, so he is a bit behind Audrey at this point.

The ISR lessons are rain or shine, as long as there is no lightning. I’m not sure how many of you have experienced a “rain shower” in Houston, but it’s pretty intense. A normal Houston rain shower is basically a torrential downpour, the likes of which, I had never seen prior to moving to Houston. You are completely drenched, sopping, dripping wet within seconds of being out in it. One of these deluges happened during the middle of lessons last week. It goes from nothing to extreme rain event in seconds. The sky just opens up and POURS. Audrey was in the pool at the time, and I stood there at the side, greatly resembling a drowned rat. Everything I had brought with me was sopping wet. I was wearing running shorts and a running shirt, along with running shoes. I removed the shoes and walked around barefoot. All of this was fine and not a big deal, until I went to drop them off at day care afterwards and I realized that I was going to have to walk into the daycare with the other professionally dressed and dry parents while soaking wet from head to toe and barefoot. It was a Parent of the Year moment as I pushed my somehow dry twins down the hallway in their stroller with my wet hair plastered to my face and my sopping dripping clothes leaving puddles on the floor. Oh well. At least the twins were dry.

May wrapped up with a nice quiet Memorial Day weekend, followed by a trip to Galveston with some of our church group. All was a lot of fun and the twins had some new adventures.

Speaking of adventures, I’m writing this post from a hotel room in Vegas.  I’ve just arrived for a 2 day business trip.  I should quit typing and get out there for some fun.  Until next time…