2 months tomorrow

Hello all. Not much to report here, just a summation of where things are and have been.

Babies continue to improve their sleep patterns. Robby might be able to go all night. We have to wake him up when Hannah wakes up and then he doesn't eat much. Hannah is still the one who's not quite on track. She now is in a pattern of becoming wide awake after her last feeding. She's actually been doing that for a while, but has been able to fall asleep on her own. Now, though, she sometimes has to have a crying session before she'll fall asleep, and at least so far, one of us usually goes in to hold her for a few minutes. Probably start backing off on that pretty soon. At any rate, they are consistently good for 5-6 hours at a time which means only one nighttime feeding. All in all, we couldn't have asked for more.

Hannah and Robby are still fighting off colds or a series of colds that have been passed around the family. Steph said today, "This is the house of snot." I've got it too, now...and it's not a bad cold, but it is moving in geologic time. Despite this, they have both become very smiley. One or the other of them usually has a wonderful happy session right after they wake up in the morning. Steph and I can sit in bed while the girls come in and we all just hang out. Of course we have to keep Tookzilla from trampling both babies and Salsa, but it's still a nice morning routine. We'll be sad of course when summer's over and it's back to school again.

This week is/has been busy. July 4th get-together at M&MJ's on Friday, maternal side of the family over last night, B K and family tonight, Great Wolf Lodge tomorrow night, with more time there on Tuesday, then Cleveland on Friday and Saturday. A whirlwind.

THat's all for now. Posting is ever tougher now, because Steph's laptop from work is also less than functional. But we'll keep trying to find the time.

Thanks all, hope your summer is going well.

Matt

P.S. Here's the rescued Louisville video - from the waterpark:

Happy 4th

Here's how you know that you really needed time away from the kids. And the parents of young children will know exactly what I'm talking about:

It's like in some bad sitcom, where the parents go out to dinner and end up calling the babysitter every 20 minutes to check on things. We really never were quite THAT bad, but we would end up sitting around talking about the girls quite a bit if we ever had an evening to ourselves.

Yeah. This time, we haven't mentioned them at all. Haven't said to each other that we missed them. We've been blissfully taking care of the babies and ourselves, and MAN has it been nice.

And we know it's been nice for the girls too...sometimes everyone just needs time apart. I think that next week will be a much better week because of us having this 24-hour break from one another. Thanks again, G and Z!

So, it's noon, we're going back over to G and Z's for dinner, and then taking everyone down to M&MJ's for a laid-back July 4th get-together and possible fireworks display (raining all day here in Cincy, so you never know).

So, all in all, not a bad time right now. Enjoying the quietness of the house, and the break between crazy trips.

Oh, and a note to Mary who keeps leaving comments admiring us for taking trips with the kids and whatnot. Mary, just so you know, we still have the suitcase from Louisville full of dirty clothes just sitting in the middle of our living room unpacked. We have our issues, trust me.

Happy 4th, everyone. And if you're setting off fireworks, remember..."Do not place in mouth."

Matt

My the time does fly...

Whew. Busy couple of days. The highlights:

Computer starting fritzing out on us - as it does once a year or so. Smartly, I grabbed the external hard drive and backed up all the video files. The next day the computer died. Thankful that I had all my movies safe and secure, except for the latest one I had created that day, I hauled it up to the Geek Squad where they know me pretty well by now. I purchased the highest level of extended protection you can get, and it's been worth every penny. Trust me people, when you buy a laptop computer, things will go wrong. Especially if you have 4 kids and 2 dogs. Anyway, they were kind enough to back up my single file to a CD for me, and I was on my way. Of course, later that day I remembered that I hadn't backed up the pictures, so I ran to the phone and managed to get a hold of them before it got shipped off for repair. Got those files on CD and now the computer is on its way to probably have the whole board replaced again. OH well. That means no new videos for a while.

Tonight we just had our first annual viewing of the 2007 trip video with mom and dad. Pretty complicated arranging things to allow us all to watch with not many interruptions, but it all came off very well. Thanks mom and dad for being part of those memories and reminiscing with us. Hopefully there will be many more in the future, starting soon.

Tomorrow is an exciting day...the big girls are having a 'sleepover' at G&Z's place. Steph and I have come to the realization that our little trip to Louisville was great, but in doing it we really stretched ourselves thin as parents. It will be good for everyone to have 24 hours apart. We are looking forward to time with just us and the twins, and time with just us.

Monday we're spending the day/night at Great Wolf Lodge up by KI. Z will be coming to help and spend the night with us. Should get some good pics and stories from that one. And then Friday we're beelining it up to Cleveland for a family reunion on the Specter side. Again, should be wild, especially since Grandma will be leaving for Kenya a couple days prior. Yeah. It's going to be a wild week next week.

Anyway, just wanted to check in. I might be able to post the new Louisville video tomorrow, if I can get the gumption to transfer it from the CD.

Peace,
Matt

Old vid

This one is from day 3 of the 2007 trip. Driving from Salina, Kansas to Denver. A few random thoughts:

Kansas is pretty much exactly like all the cliches. But what they don't tell you is that eastern Colorado is probably worse.

Steph actually did some driving on this day. Figured Kansas was the place to let her try it. Of course, she was a bit nervous. And of course, the one day she drove, we got passed by 3-4 oversize loads. If you've never driven an RV with only one foot of space on either side in your lane, let me tell you, it takes some mental control to convince yourself you're not going to scrape every vehicle you see. When there's a barrier, it can be terrifying. When there's a big rig, you can't help but cheat to the other side. So when these houses started passing us...it was pretty wild.

Also, this was one of those times when I wish I had fancy sound editing equipment. There were a bunch of amusing conversations but it's really hard to capture them with all the road noise in the RV...if I get enough complaints/requests I might add subtitles to help everyone hear and appreciate the experience of being trapped in an RV with the Specter Family.

Enjoy!

Teaser and Retrospection

Here's a little hint of what's to come. I managed to throw together the first part of the Louisville video. It's really short, it's just the drive down there, it's certainly not my best work or anything. But it proves that I can still find the time to edit video with 4 kids. It also turned out to be one of those 'look how far things have come' moments. Allow me to explain:

Choosing the music for these videos is sometimes clear as day - I know even when I'm filming exactly what music is going to be perfect. Sometimes it's really tough to find something that fits. Sometimes I go through 2-3 different ideas until I find one that works. And sometimes, it's a total intuition...somehow I just pull up a file that had never crossed my mind and it just works.

5 years ago, when I was putting together the first road trip video, the one that started it all, I was looking for music for the beginning of the drive, Day 1 of this amazing trip we had taken, and somehow I thought of "Take it to the Limit" by the Eagles. I'm not even a huge Eagles fan, and back then I probably couldn't have recited half the lyrics. But I stuck it in there and it worked like a charm. And in a lot of ways, if I hadn't gotten that music right, there wouldn't have been the drive to finish the rest of the thing.

And just today, as I was sitting thinking of music for this short little video of driving to Louisville with our family of 6, something led me back to the Eagles, and this time I pulled up "Take it Easy" and lo and behold, one or two splices and it was done.

I think it's meaningful that both of these 'beginnnings' were one of those intuitive selections. I think it's meaningful that I was drawn to the same band. And I think it shows the change in attitude in my life in the last 5 years...from "Take it to the Limit" to "Take it Easy".

5 years. Wow. Seems like a lifetime ago, but amazingly, 5 years ago, there was no Robby, no Hannah, no Mari, no Faith. Just 5 years. Amazing.

What will the next 5 years bring? We all hope you stick around to find out.

Oh, here's the vid - it uses the "overlay" function that I first used on Day 3 of the big 2007 trip...gimmicky, but effective. I promise I will use it sparingly. Enjoy.

Last day

Okay, so. The last day was really only a half day, but a good story or two did come about.

After packing up the stuff and saying goodbye to the hotel (it's cute that the girls still don't know the difference between a 5-star hotel and the ratty place we were staying...it's nice to know that it's going to be a special memory to them even if it was less than stellar to trained eyes) we drove over to Clarksville for a 'nature walk'. My family used to spend a lot of time going on hikes in Eastern Pennsylvania, so it's something I'd like for them to at least have as part of their world. And also, we have potential plans for some small walks in the Smokies in August, so we wanted to see how they'd handle the idea. I had found a park in Clarksville with 3 trails and decided to try one that went by a creek, so we'd have a sort of physical objective in mind. We spent the whole drive explaining that we weren't going to a playground, that we were going for a nice walk in the woods, etc...because Faith can get it into her mind that something is boring or pointless (like staying and talking with your family after dinner) and just become miserable. Anyway, we also remembered the night before that we had forgotten to pack the second Bjorn, so we were going to have to either carry them or attempt to push the stroller.

SOOOO, we got there. Found the trail. It was actually a lot less distance to the creek than I had thought, but then right there at the overlook and bench, the terrain dropped off into a dry creekbed. So having come all this way and talked it up, and with the girls being in a pretty good mood, I left Steph with the stroller up on the bench and Faith and Mari and I headed off on a little 'adventure' into the ravine. It was a little muddy of course, but pretty dry, so not too slippery. And it went really well. We got all the way down to the bottom, and waved back up to Steph. And then, after successfully navigating the whole descent, Mari turned around and fell in the mud.

Not bad at all, but since Mari likes a new napkin after each bite of food, it was a moment of panic for me. But she thought it was funny, and she managed to not put her muddy hands all over her hair and clothes. We climbed back up, did get a little muddy on the way, and used baby wipes to perfunctorily clean everyone up (during which time Faith managed to wipe her muddy shoes all over me). The whole thing took about 20 minutes, but it was a nice, fun, memorable ending to the whole affair. The girls were so good, we let them play at the playgrounds there at the park for a while before we headed home.

So, all things considered, a modest vacation was acheived with pretty good results. Nice to be home. Nice to know that we have more small trips planned throughout the summer. Anyway, thanks for checking in, we'll keep posting the day-to-day stuff, and maybe I'll have some brand new videos in a few days.

Matt

We're home!

We made it - a modest vacation, but successful in almost every way. More thoughts later tonight or tomorrow. It's good to be home.

More pics from Day 3

More good ones - big post about day 3 is below.

Good Timing (Day 3)

Phew. Another day down -- we did it again! The twins slept slightly better last night. Went 4 hrs for the first stretch which makes a difference. Unfortunately, then I couldn't get back to sleep after I fed them -- a rare occurance, but it does occasionally happen. Anyway, we just hung around the hotel room this morning. Luckily for all of us, between PBS and Nick jr, there were several things on the tv that the girls enjoyed. We're not usually big fans of just sitting around letting them watch tv show upon tv show, but this morning was a good time for it.

We had an early lunch here in the room and then headed out. We ended up at Incredible Dave's. For those of you non-Louisville people, it's similar to a Dave & Buster's but much more oriented towards kids. Lots of aracade "redemption" games (you win tickets for different scores and can turn them in for ... well ... junk). They also had a very cool bowling alley. Two lanes that were kinda sectioned off and were just for kids. The lanes were a bit shorter and the kids didn't have to wear special shoes. The bowling balls were very small -- completely appropriately sized for Faith and Mari. And of course, there were bumpers in the gutters. Oh and it was all glow in the dark so the girls were excited about their clothing looking all glowy. Faith really started catching on by the end of her second game and was actually starting to concentrate and improve. Mari only made it through one game. Matt and I kept saying how surprised we were that crazy silly run-around Mari wasn't able to throw the ball with enough strength to really do much. The pins were even smaller sized but more than once, Matt had to go up alongside the lane to get Mari's stopped ball back.

After bowling the girls found this toddler area with inflated stuff to run and slide and jump on. Good for 15 mins or so of fun. Once we spent all the money we had put on the cards, Matt went to the redemption area and traded in the tickets for two plastic magic wands, a glow stick and two fans (like those Spanish kind that fold out) with Jesus on them. Pretty chintzy (no offense to Jesus) but fun. Both magic wands are already broken. Oh well.

Came home, rested (including a successful transfer of a sleeping Mari from the van to her sleeping bag in the room), found my wallet (after having cancelled my 2 credit cards and my bank card, by the way) and went to downtown Jeffersonville to Schmipff's candy shop. A truly old-time candy shop with a HUGE selection. They're known for their hard candy, especially red hots. We each chose out a few things with the promise that if the girls ate a good dinner, they could sample some candy afterwards. You know the expression "kid in a candy store?" Yeah.

We then headed out to Hometown Buffet for dinner. We found some time ago that those buffet restaurants are worth every penny when you have young children. It's so nice to a. be able to get them pretty much anything they want and b. not have to wait very long at all to get them pretty much anything they want. That went pretty well. They each got a piece of candy after dinner.

Next stop was a great park alongside the river. We managed to stay and play there for a while and even FINALLY got Matt's long coveted shot of us (minus him) in front of the river. Came back to the hotel, talked to Matt's parents (and Sandy) via Skype (that thing ROCKS) and my mom via cell. They're all having a wonderful time at the beach. Sigh. I truly wish we were there but this vacation is a definite close second.

Anyway, the whole day, the twins continued to be very compatible to our vacation wants and needs. Really. We're SO SO lucky. They have really only been fussy when they're hungry or maybe too hot or too cold. Hannah has a pretty significant cold today, but even that doesn't seem to do TOO much to her spirits! They're so good about letting me nurse them pretty much wherever I have to which is obviously pretty important so that we can all be out and about. They have good awake time during the day off and on and are SO cute when we get back to the room after having been out for a while. We take them out of their infant carriers, change them and let them stretch out on our bed. They stretch and grunt and groan and are genuninely happy to be out of their seats. There are two fairly ugly pictures on the wall above our head board that both babies are FASCINATED with! They will turn their heads completely around just to look at these pictures! So funny.

So a few funny things. Last evening, Matt was having a "conversation" with one of the girls here in the hotel room (I forget which one). I was getting the babies situated on our bed and I hear Matt say to whichever girl it was, "and you need to stop 'fripping' out so much..." and I just lost it. Of course, an accidental combo of "flipping" and "freaking". Not helpful to Matt as he's trying to be stern with her and I am losing it on the bed. I seriously couldn't stop laughing for like 10 minutes and now it's a commonly used term in our family. So funny.

The other very cute but a bit annoying thing is that Mari is now in the habit of asking EVERY single time we're getting ready to go out if we're bringing the babies with us. Really. Every time. As if we'd forget them. Faith is always asking, as SOON as we begin a new activity, what we're going to do next. Trying to explain "living in the moment" is very difficult to do with a 4 year old!

Other than all that, we're truly having a great time and are so glad we were able to get away! Sadly, I found out today that my great aunt B. is on 24 hour Hospice watch now (she's been in "regular" Hospice for some time now) which means there is a Hospice person there with her in the nursing home room at all times. I just continue to pray that she goes peacefully and that she's able to let go when the time comes.

So, not to end on a total downer, but it is 10:22 and I'm sure that I only have about 2-3 hrs to go until I am up again to feed one baby or the other, so I'm going to sign off. As we've said before, this is a TOTALLY long post and I apologize. It's how I am. If you've stayed with me up until now, God bless you and thank you! :-) Steph

Pics below:

Bowling:


Inflatables:


A mixed blessing:


More simple pleasures:


Along the Ohio:

More pics

Can only post 5 pics at a time - here are some more good ones. The BIG post about Day 2 is below, if you haven't read it yet.

Robby smiled!


Took and the twins


They're actually sweet to each other in between screaming matches.


Soon it'll be time to retire the little Pack n Play.


Okay, so we did get ONE good picture.