What a summer ...

With the passing of the fall equinox I was reminded how much work we really got done this past summer or at least from the spring equinox to the fall equinox.

April -- House Painted
May -- Deck stained
June -- Swing set built and twins turn two
July -- sister-in-law wedding
August -- Twins new room
Sept -- Baby Prep

Okay so some will say cost -- how much did all of this cost -- much less than you think. The house was painted by professionals. My house is much too tall to paint safely. Besides the even cleaned the gutters :-)

Deck stained well that was only two gallons of stain to paint the deck. And we did it ourselves.

The swing set -- now here is an awesome deal. Our neighbor knew that we where going to start to look for a swing set for the twins. Well a friend of theirs had a relatively new cedar swing set. Well cedar never really goes bad. It weathers -- but it too can be stained to look brand new. The wood was in great shape. The swings needed replacing and the bolts needed replacing but those are really easy to do. I found a company on-line called boltdepot.com which had every bolt I needed to replace the bolts and then some. The swing set parts which needed to be replaced came from an online company called playsetparts.com. Even a new canopy came without problems. They even called to make sure the canopy was made correctly before they ordered. Simply awesome.

Sister-in-law wedding was awesome. We had so much fun being involved and where happy to see them married.



The new "big girl room" for the twins. Well that was just moving furniture out, painting the walls, putting in new furniture - most of it obtained from other relatives and then calling it their own.

Then the new baby the end of September. Wow.

Six months and things really change quickly.

Have fun....

Nathan is HOME!

Hi everyone-

Well Nathan is HOME!

He came home to our house tonight. What a ride -- we had everyone in the car. He passed his car seat challenge. Now as worried parents we have to raise him without the use of a monitor to make sure his heart rate/breathing/O2 sat are fine....gee just like every other parent out there.

Speaking of car -- it took me over an hour to reconfigure the Toyota Sienna to get the correct layout to work. Not that the car doesn't have the room to seat 7 people confortably -- no I just needed to figure out the flow of children getting into and out of a car.

Here's to a fun childhood.

have fun...

If you passed Elementary School you can read this blog....

I'm not so sure that reflects poorly or not......

Nathan first ride

Hi everyone-

We have left Winchester Hospital -- not because they are the best hospital in the world - but because we need to be able to see Nathan without driving 45 minutes. Yeah little tough on the wallet considering the price of gasoline this morning $3.55.

Mommy is doing fine. We just need to keep her BP down closer to the normal side.

Nathan is being transported by Ambulance to the closer hospital with one of his favorite nurses from Winchester.

Thank you everyone for helping us. Now with all of our children we have experienced everything Winchester has to offer. Yeah!

Have fun....

Nathan ....

Okay little man -- we decided to stay with our friends some more. Nathan had an episode this evening.

Mommy however is improving -- YEAH! She is now getting off the Mg and we will be moving Nathan to a hospital closer to us as soon as Mommy gets discharged.

Coming home will be a challenge.

One good thing - this boy is a chow hound. His is nursing really well. Yeah for small successes.

We also figured out that he is having these O2 saturation episodes when he is sleeping very deeply.

Have fun...

Nathan Update

Hi everyone-

We have had another O2 saturation episode again today. So now Nathan is on the 5 day count. What that means is that if Nathan has another episode within these five days then he will restart the 5 day count clock again.

BTW Mommy has decided that this stress was needed because now she has become hypertensive with a BP of 140/104. Not so good. She is now on medication to control the fluid in her system -- a little Mg goes a long way.

Hang in there.

Update on Nathan

Hi everyone-

Saturday evening Nathan decided to fail his "Car Seat Challenge" test. Now as educated people and wanting our children to succeed at everything they do -- make sure you understand there is a tone of sarcasim in my writing -- Nathan failing your first test isn't necessarily the way we wanted you to begin. Failing that test landed him in the NICU -- or as PC people like to call it "Special Care Nursery". Failing the car seat challenge means that he had issues maintaining good O2 saturation in his blood. His heart rate never went funky thank goodness.

He will be monitored for the next 48 hours to make sure he doesn't do it again.

Have fun....

Welcome Nathan Frederick Davis

Hi everyone-

Well from the previous post we again hid from the world (or at least hid from the world) that Aline and I where expecting our 4th child. Go figure after all of the problems we had conceiving children this time -- things just worked -- WOW. So now here he is:



Specifics: Born 9/25/08, 7lbs 10oz, 20.5 inches

Everything is looking good for a quick return to the house.

Calling all parents and grandparents of Multiples

Hi everyone-

UPDATE: The governor has signed the bill!!! Thank you.

Well things have been happening at the Davis household lately.

Something that I feel everyone who has multiples should do -- first read this article

Bill would let parents split up twins in school - Boston.com


And also read the bill.

Second -- this bill would not let parents choose a "favorite" teacher or give them any other advantage over other children in the same grade -- it would give the parents the ability to decide how they want their children educated either as a group or in seperate classrooms. Currently, most public schools have a set policy to automatically place multiples in separate classrooms without parents input despite current research that says classroom placement should be determined based on the children's needs. It simply allows parents to have the final say in determining if their children will do better if they are placed together or seperately.

Finally -- the bill has successfully passed both house and senate of Massachusetts now we need to get the governor to sign the bill. Please take the time to call the Governor's office at office number is: 617-725-4005 or in state 888-870-7770. Please note that the Governor has until September 18th in which to take action on this.

Thank you.

Happy Birthday Ryan

Hi everyone-

Ryan is now three! What a good day we had today celebrating Ryan's 3rd birthday. We all went out to deliver our diapers, formula, and wipes to Loaves and Fishes food pantry. They had an immediate need for a family I was told. Thank you Ryan.

We then traveled to Target to get some books that would be age appropriate for Ryan, some bubbles and a new bear. The books are added to the collection at home for the family to read; the bubbles are left at the cemetery as is the bear. We all went to the cemetery after nap. Replaced his bear, played with the bubbles and read the stories.

The hardest part was finding some private time with Ryan -- the girls are still young to totally understand what is up with Ryan. I'm sure that next year or over the course of this year they will start to understand that Ryan is in heaven and we goto the cemetery to be "closer" to him.

Onto Kimbles for the sundae's -- a local ice cream farm that I'm sure he would have fun with.

All in all a great day.

Miss you son.

Sping is coming

Hi everyone-

Finally no snow in the yard. Now lets see if we can keep it that way. Our first snow storm was in November and the snow has finally melted. Onto mud season.

Have fun,

Green Lent

Hi everyone-

My wife and I attend All Saints Episcopal church in Chelmsford, MA. This year we have had a tough time actually attending Sunday services due because our twins are at the age where sitting still is impossible. Enough about that more about lent -- anyway usually every year we "give something up" to remind us of the sacrifices that Jesus did during his walk on this earth. Well this article from the Boston Globe give new meaning to "giving something up" for lent.

Carbon.

Interesting article and I think it should be something that everyone does this year. Could you imagine it if 10% of the worlds Christian community which observes lent would do this?

Have fun...

"Be Prepared"

Hi everyone-

As an eagle scout -- I have always made sure that I was prepared - prepared in life. Things kinda come your way when you least expect it sometimes. So here is a web site which I have found to be a good starting point for "Being Prepared".



Not that I have bought into everything they offer -- it is just another good source for ideas.

Have fun....