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I finally had some time during my short trip (to Los Cabos, Mexico to photograph a wedding) to edit a little video from our August 2010 trip to the Meher Baba Center in South Carolina. It's especially nice to remember the warmth and peace we found there in the midst of another big-ass snow storm. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQbEN2Ku_Y?hd=1]

I'm here for two nights to photograph a wedding. Weird to leave mountains of snow and on the same day see a whale. That would be such an absurd idea a 100 years ago, being in two entirely different climates in a single day.

--sent from my handheld device--

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbi7-H6uvUk&w=480&h=390]

Lewis is now at that age when all his toys are talking. Today some dinosaurs were talking and one said, in falsetto as all dinosaurs do, "Ok, I going to work!" [exit large dinosaur] Smaller dinosaur commands in a falsetto growl, "I wanna give you a CHEEK PAT!" Large dinosaur returned for cheek pat. Dinosaurs touched cheeks. -- Jessica

Jessica has made an effort recently create more routine in the lives of our kids, and she's done this by establishing special 'nights' for certain activities. Arthur especially needs to know what to expect (as does Jessica). Here are the results from our inaugural playdough night (so far, other nights include nature show night, puzzle night, car toy night and wrestling night) Art's face is in the middle, mine's at left, and Jessica created a lovely sculpture of her husband, complete with tiny wisp of hair on my head.

And Jessica did. Holding two sleeping babies. And look at that beard! I'm wearing a science experiment of sorts, I'm just letting it grow and grow and grow. I actually shampoo and comb it, ice crystals form in it, perhaps things live in it. It will have to go soon but I'm keeping it until my similarly bearded pops arrives next week for a visit.

This is a photo from last week (Netta at right).

Asks Art, while looking inside a toy garbage truck stuffed with hot wheels cars, "Why did you put a lot of cars in here, Lewis?" Answers Lewis, "To keep them safe from predators, Art." -- Jessica

Jessica just said that while eating a bowl of oatmeal and nursing the twins.

My favorite use of facebook is to ask a question. You reach so many people simultaneously! Here is the results of a recent query: Jessica Parker Garvin Lewis' fortune cookie said that someone was complementing him in his absence today. So, who was it? Monday at 7:53pm · · Like · Comment Laurie Parker Well, earlier today I thought to myself about how awesome his "No like it? Try it!" attitude is, as I tried to feed Aline some broccoli and she didn't really see his point of view. Monday at 7:57pm · Like Nance Longley It was us! Me, Brian, and Hannah were talking about what a great kid Lewis is - but that was yesterday... Monday at 7:57pm · Like Hannah Longley it's true! Monday at 8:57pm · Like Emily Parker it was me! I was telling Mike's mom what a happy kid he is! Monday at 10:29pm · Like · 1 person Deb Parker Maybe the fortune is off by a day or two ... Amy said something similar just the other day. Gotta catch up with you guys ... Monday at 10:36pm · Like...

From the archives! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNqRQbLhpcw?rel=0&hd=1] Buddha Lew ------------------- I keep adding to this post. All our photos are on our big desktop computer at home and it's awfully fun to go back and look at old stuff. Makes me long for spring even more seeing warm photos of kids in t-shirt outside playing on green grass. Winter is awfully long here! Anyway, here are a couple other photos from May '08: I think Jessica looks especially beautiful here. Curly.

Jessica just started teaching a weekly music class and one of her 'students' is Charlotte, her niece. Here are some photos and notes from their first class Sunday night (posted on Charlotte's blog by her mom Emily, Jessica's sister). Here's the link: http://parkernawrocki.blogspot.com/2011/01/baby-music.html

It's our kids' cousin Charlotte. I stopped by her house today to get some more photos of her with family.

Tonight was one of the rare nights I allow myself to do bedtime solo. Babies, boys and bedtime can be a very complicated and delicate balance! But tonight my cousin, who was supposed to help out, was sick and i just didn't feel like dragging my mom out of her toasty house to come hold babies, so I did it alone. Besides, both the boys and I really enjoy going back to the good old days, when it was just the three of us while Papa's at work. Of course, we still had the babies, but once in a while its nice to do things on our own. Anyway, Thursday night is Breakfast for Dinner so we had scrambled eggs with ham and roasted potatoes. Yum! We LOVE Breakfast for Dinner! I had the boys set the table and they had a tift over who was going to get to sit next to me. I said i would sit at the end of the table, so I'm in the middle, but that was not good enough. "Ok!" says Lewis angrily. "Then i sit next to you!" and he pulls his chair around to the end of t...

Here's a video I just finished putting together a bunch of random clips from last year (pre-twins). It's about 6 minutes long. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdlIiWjo0RQ?rel=0&hd=1&w=640&h=390]

This is our 2,000th blog post, which means absolutely nothing. But in celebration of that nothingness I'm posting a bunch of fun data from Google Analytics about our site. Unlike a period last year , this year we've got a page view from every state in the country, including a single visit from Wyoming (who the hell was that?). And a few hits from Russia (Hannah!) among other odd countries. This first graph shows a dramatic spike in October page views, which of course makes the birth of our twins totally worth it (I wonder what triplets would've done?). Anyway, for some reason I find this sorta info really interesting. Now, among other things, we know most of the people who check our blog do it from an Apple using Safari, that people referred through facebook spend an average of 30-seconds longer on-site than those with direct links and, most importantly, that the Polish have a short attention span (24 hits from Poland with average time on site less than a second!).

It all started several weeks ago when Art was really into making domino trains, but also really volatile when it came to dealing with them falling down before he was done building them. A lot of the time if his train got knocked down prematurely Art would throw a domino across the room or, if Lewis was nearby, right at Lewis' head. Then one day Art threw a domino at my head and I realized just how much it hurt. That night I told Ben about getting hit in the head with the domino and made sure Art was listening as I explained that the dominos would have a time out if that happened again. A bedtime Art stood in front of me and said, "Mama, because i threw a domino at your head I'm going to give you three kisses and four hugs." I kid of laughed and then told him I really appreciated that and we all continued to get our pajamas on after the hugging was done. Well, clearly Lewis was listening because ever since then he will randomly walk up to me and said, "Mama, u...

Here's Art pretending to be a jack in the box at our ECFE class this morning. And another photo:

Leaving Jessica for work these days inevitably involves me worrying about how things might go while I'm away. She's amazing. Really, seeing her manage babies and boys and dinner (and her ipad) is like watching one of those Chinese acrobats spinning a gazillion plates. She almost always has help, though, either from a cousin, a mother, or a mother-in-law--someone is usually over helping. Tonight Bubbe is over, likely holding a baby and rocking as I write this. But, I still sometimes worry about how things might be going when I'm away. So it's always super wonderful to get an email like the one Jessica just sent me: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jessica Parker Date: Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 7:17 PM Subject: I declare saturday puzzle night! To: "Garvin, Ben" Just want you o know that we ar heaving a WONDERFUL night! We will leave the puzzles complete and ion the floor to be admired. -- Jessica

Bailey, left, and Netta held by my mother, their Nanna.

I just got back into bed after nursing the girls and heard Lewis count to fifteen in his sleep. -- Jessica

Over the past two days Jessica and I have a visited a few schools (Art's entering kindergarten next year). It's all very intimidating and overwhelming. In Minneapolis you can choose from amongst many many schools, including some great charter schools. So far our favorite (and the one closest to our house) is Barton Open school. Although it's not likely we'd get in since it's really popular. But there are other good backup options, too. Anyway, the real reason I'm writing all this is to have an excuse to share this wonderful wall of self portraits that was hanging on the wall at Barton. We laughed out loud.

Sit up in the egress window, put a mattress against the boys and throw a ball back and forth. So weird.

"lasternight" when referring to yesterday or any memory before --sent from my handheld device--

Just returned from Detroit where I photographed the Vikings' last football game of the year. Here's a gallery of photos. I'm not really a football fan, but I do enjoy the challenge of photographing a football game. http://photo.twincities.com/ssp/m/embed.js SlideShowPro({ attributes: { id: "album-3463", width: 550, height: 400 }, mobile: { auto: false }, params: { bgcolor: "#000000", allowfullscreen: true }, flashvars: { xmlFilePath: "http://photo.twincities.com/ssp/images.php?album=3463", displayMode: "Manual" } });

Yesterday my sister, a couple of my cousins and my aunt took me out to belated birthday lunch and brought a couple husbands to help Ben. I am alone with all four kids several times a week, but I can breast-feed both girls simultaneously and still have at least one hand free. Whoever recommends bottle feeding for twins is into self-punishment. So here is part of the replacement team reading to the boys. Lew with Zach Art with Brian Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Poor Lewis, the middle child in between two needy babies and an even needier older brother. He fares so well because of his easy nature and positive attitude (he made up the phrase, "No like it? Try it!" which, as my brother-in-law pointed out, is an extremely positive outlook!) but we can't help but feel sad for him getting overlooked. Just yesterday we were reading bedtime books and I looked over at his smiling face realizing I'd been home most of the day and had barely spent any time with him. I said, "Hello, Lewis! I haven't seen you much today, have I?" and he said, "Ya-aw," and reached over to give me a big hug. Lewis. He is the embodiment of love and joy. -- Jessica