Our Cat Tabby

A year before the kids were born, we adopted a cat.

Well, more accurately, a cat adopted us.

A stray kitten wandered into our yard, looking pretty forlorn. At first we ignored her, but she hung around.

After she gave no indication of leaving, we ended up feeding her, and pretty soon she established our backyard as her territory.

We ended up naming her "Tabby", mainly because Terri and are were not cat people when we named her, and it seemed like an appropriate name for a cat (never mind the fact that she is not, in fact, a tabby colored cat!).

Tabby, despite adopting us as her family, is not technically "our" cat.

She will let us feed her, but never lets us get too close. Attempts to trap her to get her fixed and get her shots have met with utter failure. We think she might have been abused as a kitten, given her condition when she came into our backyard, and her skittishness around humans.

However, the girls are fascinated with her.

When Tabby comes to eat at her bowl, they will often crawl up to the glass door and peer out at her, often even banging on the door to try to talk to her.

Tabby, surprisingly, doesn't seem to mind the girls. While she would normally run away if I banged on the door while she was eating, she hangs around and continues to eat while the girls admire her behind the glass door. She will even sometimes sit and stare back at them, much to their delight.

Animals must have a sense of who is a threat, and who is not. Tabby has definitely decided the girls are not a threat. Or perhaps is just as curious about them as they are of her.

Whatever the case, it make for an interesting morning interaction between our girls and our cat!

Katherine checking out Tabby.
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Tabby checking out Katherine.
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First Father's Day

While I never gave much thought to Father's Day, I'll admit I woke up this morning pretty excited to be celebrating my first Father's Day as an actual FATHER. Here, for posterity, is how my wonderful day proceeded:

I was awakened at 6 am for my first Father's Day by Katherine, who was laying next to me in our bed.

[The battle over sleeping territory has subsided quite a bit since last week. Katherine now wakes up at about 5 am every morning almost to the minute. She takes a bottle, then will not go back to sleep unless she comes into bed with Terri and me.

However, the good news is that the girls are back to falling asleep around 9 pm and going to bed in their own cribs. Caroline might wake up once between 12 am and 2 am, but otherwise until Katherine's 5 am wake up call, they sleep like angels in their own cribs!

Back to Father's Day.]

Katherine for some reason did not want to go back to sleep at 6 am. Could it have been her soiled diaper, or was she just excited to wish me a Happy Father's Day? I decided to be an optimist, and chose the later (after I changed her diaper, of course).

We both loitered in bed for another 45 minutes, until we got up around 6:45 am to play. Caroline woke up soon after, and we proceeded to start our first Father's Day together.

Daddy and the Girls: First Father's Day.(click on photo for larger view)

The girls instructed Mommy to get me a very nice gift -- a Mr. Coffee Espresso Maker.

You might consider it an odd gift, since I don't drink coffee, much less espresso.

But my girls know my affinity for hot chocolate, and so they knew that the steam frother attached to the espresso machine was what I really looked forward to.

They also knew that with the rising cost of college tuitions, the Mr. Coffee machine would save Daddy the $2.10 a hot chocolate costs at Starbucks.

A Mr. Coffee for the Dad who doesn't drink coffee?!? Caroline doesn't get it.

I spent a happy morning playing with the Espresso machine, while the girls helped Mommy fix Daddy breakfast.

Later in the afternoon, we took a trip down to the local farmer's market, then drove around the city at random, while the girls took a nap in their car seats.

In the early afternoon, Mommy let Daddy take a NAP -- for a whole hour! -- it was heaven.

In the late afternoon, we went to my sister in-law's house for some poker and a Father's Day dinner.

All in all, a pretty mellow First Father's Day, but a great one nonetheless!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL!

No Lurking!

Saw this funny comic strip in the paper today and had to post it.

Even if you never leave a comment to this site, please leave one for this post, just so I know you're out there!

Whose bed . . . Part II

Relief!

Last night, the girls slept the whole night through without waking up. EITHER OF THEM.

It's as if they took pity on Mom and Dad.

Then today, Caroline showed the beginnings of not one, but TWO front teeth coming in. Her first teeth.

This could explain the restlessness over the past week. We hope.

To be continued . . .

If only they slept this well at night, in their cribs!
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Whose bed is it, anyways?!?

When we first found out we were having twins, Terri and I agreed that one thing we did not want to do is have the girls sleep in our bed.

It was the one thing we were absolutely sure about -- the girls would sleep in their own room, in their own cribs. Our bed was OFF LIMITS.

Fast forward to this week.

A battle of wills has developed between the parents and the kids.

Starting this past weekend, it's as if Katherine and Caroline have conspired to find a way to get into our bed.

It started with Katherine. One night she just would not go to sleep in her crib. She continually cried, stood up, and shook the bars of her crib until we came to get her.

We tried the whole "Ferber Method" thing, and that had been working --- until this week.

Katherine just kept shaking the bars of her crib, yelling and screaming, until we got her. I half expected her to start shouting, "Attica! Attica!" a la Al Pacino in "Dog Day Afternoon".

Finally, exhausted and frustrated, we brought Katherine into bed with us, where she promptly fell asleep, and spent the rest of the night in blissful slumber.

Things have gotten worse as the week has progressed.

Katherine has gone back to sleeping in her crib, but Caroline has picked up where Katherine left off. It's almost as if they are working in shifts!

For the past three nights, Caroline REFUSES to lay in her crib. She will stand at the bars of the crib and cry until we come to get her.

Two nights ago, we tried the Ferber method, and within the first five minutes she cried so hard she threw up her whole dinner. Nothing like your child vomiting in her crib to get you to ditch the Ferber method!

If we hold Caroline until she falls asleep and then put her in the crib, that will work . . . for about an hour. After that she will wake up and proceed to cry until we come get her.

For example, the first night we got her to sleep, put her in her crib at 9 pm, then woke up when she started crying at 10 pm and repeated the procedure. We proceeded to wake up every hour on the hour until finally, at around 3 am, we gave up and just brought her to bed with us.

Last night, exhausted from five straight days of these late night battles, Terri and I capitulated at about 2:30 am, and brought Caroline into our bed.

Once in our bed, Caroline falls asleep immediately, and sleeps through the night.

We've tried every trick we've learned so far, with only moderate success. We will continue to try, of course, and hope that this is just a phase that will pass with time.

But for now, the girls know they have an advantage over us -- they don't have to work the next morning! They have all day to sleep! So they know that if they keep it up, somewhere around 1 to 3 in the morning, they can look forward to spending at least part of the night in Mommy and Daddy's bed.

The battle of wills will continue into the early morning hours at the Lim Household. To be continued . . .

Then and Now

As the girls turn 10 months old, I saw this post at Savage Stories, and like the idea. So I'm stealing the concept.

Here are Caroline and Katherine at 10 WEEKS of age:

Caroline & Katherine - 10 WEEKS old
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And here they are at 10 MONTHS of age:

Katherine & Caroline - 10 MONTHS old (Caroline is not blinking -- that's her "funny" face)
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You know you're a parent when . . .

. . . you go bowling for your brother in-law's birthday, and the drinks on the counter look like this:

Which drink is Daddy's and which is Katherine's?
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Here are some more photos from the bowling party, and other random photos from around the house.

The girls with Mommy and friend Stephanie and Kyle
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Hanging out with Grandpa
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Caroline in her car (See a video of her driving)
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New Games

One of the most fun aspects of watching the girls at this age is seeing how quickly they are developing. Right now the girls love learning and playing new games.

Here is one of their newest games: Turning their head sideways while they sit in their high chairs.

Katherine's New Game
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Caroline joining in on the fun
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Who knows where they learned this game? All I know is that they laugh hysterically when they do it, and they keep doing it until you also tilt your head sideways, and which point they sit back upright . . . and then start all over again.

Elvis is IN the building!

At ten months of age, there is no getting around this fact about Katherine.

She has a LOT of hair.

Not only does she have a lot of hair, it's not the usual straight hair that most Asian babies have.

Katherine's hair is curly and wild.

A few nights ago, she went to sleep and her hair must have been wet, because when she woke up for her late night feeding, it looked like she was doing her "Elvis" impersonation.

It was so great, I took a photo, even though it was 2 am.

I'll let you decide. Will the real Elvis please stand up?

Katherine or Elvis?
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Elvis or Katherine?
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Ten Months Old

The girls turned ten months old yesterday.

They are now so big, they can reach into our kitchen trash can.

I know it seems strange to measure your childrens' growth by their ability to reach into a trash can, but I do.

You see, when I baby-proofed the house a few months back, the trash can seemed so tall, I figured there was no way EVER the girls would be able to reach into it.

Now, however, after Terri has caught Katherine digging into the trash, we find ourselves devising ways to "baby-proof" our trash can.

Where has the time gone?

How do you baby-proof a trash can?/span>
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