We also got to see several places where they were shooting the next Transformers movie (#3). Large parts of Michigan Avenue were shut down and they had a car dangling off of the Michigan Avenue bridge.

All in all, it was a great day. Summers in Chicago are really the best. You can find the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

After being outside close to an hour with the boys and Sydney we started to bring them into the house since it was past their bedtime and they still needed baths. While Brenda was holding Sydney and trying to convince Andrew why going in the house was a good thing, I carried Max into the house through the kitchen door that connects to the garage. I plopped him on the floor in the kitchen, made sure that the basement door was locked and pulled the kitchen door closed behind me.

Brenda and Sydney were about 20 feet away from me as I pulled the door closed and we swapped places as she went to take Sydney into the house and I headed for the yard to continue negotiations with Andrew.

That was mistake number 1. Never leave a 2 year old on the other side of a door that can be locked.

As I passed Brenda I joked “I hope he doesn’t lock us out!”. And only seconds later Brenda was yelling from the garage that indeed, we were locked out. There are two locks, one on the handle and a deadbolt. Max had turned the deadbolt.

Over the next 30 seconds we realized the following in rapid succession. We did not have house keys on us, the hidden set from the garage was missing (and probably had been for a long time), there were no keys in the vehicles, and we had no cell phones on us to call anyone for help.

So I start to talk to Max through the door and ask him to unlock the door. We can hear him on the other side playing with the lock and babbling so I’m feeling somewhat confident that if he locked it he can unlock it. I hear him playing with it and as I’m turning the door knob back and forth I hear a click – and now the bottom handle is locked too. The likelihood of him unlocking both and letting us back in seems rather unlikely now.

Now Brenda is kind of, shall we say – losing her mind. She looks through the kitchen window to see what he’s up to but can’t see much because the counters are taller than he is. Since it’s now clear that we are helpless to fix this situation alone I decide to run to the neighbors house and see if we can use someones phone to call 911, not really knowing what the police can do.

I went to 3 different houses and nobody was home (or I looked to crazy to answer the door). As I was getting ready to go to a fourth there were two women walking down the street with their dogs and I ran up to them and asked if either had a cell phone I could use to call 911. One of them did and she handed it to me.

As I was on the phone with the police, luck finally turned our way a bit and a police car was coming down the street. I waved the officer down and explained the situation quickly through the passenger side window. She explained that she could help but the only thing the police can do is break down the door. Now it was a matter of choosing what door to break down. Great!

This is not our actual house, in case you were wondering.

The officer comes up to the house and we start to discuss what doors to break down. I wanted to do the garage/kitchen door since it’s in the garage and nobody would see the door damaged. But that door is a strong metal door, so we start looking at the front door. The inside front door is open, but the outside screen door is locked. At this point you might be wondering why we did just jerk open the screen door and go into the house. We tried! It’s not the typical screen door, and is made even better than we thought. I pulled on it with all my weight and force only to have the handle start to bend, which would do no good.

Then the officer had a good idea. If we could get the top glass pane down (it’s a sliding glass top) we could just cut through the screen and unlock the door. So that’s what I did, and less than a minute later I had the door open and ran into the kitchen. What I found was Max standing on the kitchen chair and sipping diet coke out of a McDonalds cup. This is of course a nice treat for him since we don’t give the kids pop.

So all is well that ends well, but it was a pretty uncomfortable situation to be in and we are trying to take some lessons away from it.

Lessons Learned

• Never walk outside without keys to the house if the house is left empty, even if the doors are unlocked.
• If you ignore the first rule, have extra keys available in other locations. We now have 3 extra sets of keys hidden in various locations that only we know the location of (and no, it’s not one of those “key rocks” so don’t come over and look).
• Keep your cell phone in your pocket when going out to play in the yard. It was very rare that I didn’t have mine, and it was only because my phone was dead from using it all day in the city.
• Never underestimate what a child can do. It never occurred to me for a second that Max would lock the door on us. I won’t make that mistake again!

Thanks for keeping things interesting Max, but don’t do it again!

The rest of the photos are on SmugMug as usual.

More on SmugMug

A new park just opened up this weekend, and the best part is – it’s on our property. Sure it’s a little sparse at the moment, but there are no membership fees, no hours of operation, and many hazards to be discovered (boys, just keep an eye our for that teetering pile of bricks next to the beehive!).

Life has reached the point of pretty much every minute of every day being scheduled, so I’m a bit behind on doing posts. Next month when work slows down a bit things will change. So here is a quick photo post.

The boys had there first “school day photos” taken this week. While we don’t have those pictures form the school yet, we did take a few photos of them all dressed up.

You can find the rest on SmugMug.

Our first family trip to the city, and it was a great time. We did a lot of walking and enjoyed the weather.

You can find the rest on SmugMug

It’s amazing when I think about what our visits were like just 3-4 years ago vs now. The whole focus of our visits have changed, not to mention simply exhausting.

There are a few photos here, you can find the rest on SmugMug.

I’m still amazes at how fast time is flying by, and how little time I have these days. Between the boys being more and more “mobile” and pushing the boundaries, and Sydney needing more then just a bottle and diaper change, it just seems like the walls are closing in sometimes.

Proof of that? I’ve been working on a video for Sydney since she was born in November but have not made much progress, I more or less stopped doing blog posts, and I keep saying I’m going to take more photos of the kids yet weeks go by without me getting the camera out (there’s either no time or I’m too exhausted when there is the time).

So I finally forced the issue of at least taking photos a few weekends ago and we took the kids into the basement to play and take some updated photos. We still need to take some nice family photos, but now that the weather is getting better maybe that will be possible.

You can find the rest of this series on SmugMug.

Maria was hired before she even left the interview after spending 2 hours talking and caring for the boys while we asked questions. We could tell just from her interaction with them that she would be a great caretaker for the boys. In no time at all she was in love with them as if they were her own. Even now, just saying “Maria is here!” gets the boys running to the front door looking for her. She has not only been great taking care of the boys, but most days she helps clean the house, do the boys wash and makes us dinner. What’s not to like!

So now the boys are almost 2 years old, and we’ve realized that hey need more help then we can give them on our own or even with the help of a Nanny. They need more stimulation, more challenges, more interaction with other kids and need to be more engaged in general. We recently found a school (a pre-preschool) that seems to have a great balance of all of these. We knew after our first meeting at the school that this was what they needed. We did one trial day with the boys at the school to see how they liked it, and it was clear that we were doing the right thing.

So starting next week, the boys will be in school from about 9-5 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This gives Brenda time to relax and start “nesting” for the new baby, and sometime next year if she chooses to, it gives her a chance to continue her career, something she’s still very passionate about.

Maria is still weighing out her options and may continue to Nanny or pursue some other opportunities that have come her way recently. One thing is clear, if she continues to Nanny she will not have a difficult time finding a new job, even in this economy. She is second to none, and the only bad part about having her help out is that any other caretaker after her will just not compare.

So while she’s no longer our Nanny, she will always be a great friend. We love you Maria.

You can find the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

The boys really loved it and we ended the trip with a ride on one of the Fire Trucks. All and all a great way to start the day! The rest of the photos can be found on SmugMug.

We had an awesome day downtown with the boys. The weather was great, and love him or hate him Mayor Daily sure knows how to create a beautiful public park. There’s always something to do down there, even with our little guys.

Here are a few photos, and the rest are on SmugMug.

Their room was not really totally child proof, since we really never let them play in there. We had plenty of things that they could get into – like old fireworks, open paint cans and a case of “easy strike” matches. So, we had to make some changes. All of those things are now in the bottom drawer of their dresser.

They now have toddler beds (cute little beds from IKEA) that can be adjusted as they get taller. On the surface it wasn’t all that expensive, until you doubled the price for everything since we needed 2 of them.

How have they done? It’s been a challenge, but they’re getting better. The first several nights they screamed, cried and spent an hour jumping on the beds and sometimes hitting the floor. Now they’re much better. The crying time is less then 15 minutes and for the most part they sleep through the night.

So now the room is all setup for the two of them plus #3, and their new sibling due to be here in just 12 more weeks. Then the real fun begins.

As with the library clip, this is unedited footage so it’s a bit longer then the 2 minute clips I normally put up. But you might find if you start watching it you can’t stop! TRT is 10 minutes.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

More photos can be found on SmugMug.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

We left on Saturday at 10am, went to see a movie, checked into a nice hotel downtown, had lunch and then just relaxed in the room and ordered room service. We didn’t return until Sunday at 1pm and then spent the rest of the days with the boys at the park.

Download QT File

This past weekend we took the boys to the Wheaton Library to visit their children’s area. We found out recently that they had a nice play area and decided to check it out.

Normally I cut down the video to just the highlights, but honestly if I waited for that to happen I wouldn’t have put anything up. So I decided to just put up the raw video that we shot as is, no editing.

Last week I stayed home and played Mr. Mom with the boys while Brenda went out and made the money. I thought I would have tons of time to take lots of photos and video (something I’ve been falling behind on lately) but only managed to snap a few photos one morning.

For whatever reason, Max would get into this smiling fit after eating his late morning snack. We would just be there watching one of their videos and I would look over and find him just staring at me smiling for now obvious reason. It happened everyday, and always at the same time. Finally I grabbed the camera and caught him in the act.

It was a fun week at home with the boys and I loved it, but I am exhausted! I don’t know how Brenda does it day in and day out while also working 3 days a week. The boys are very lucky to have her.

There are more photos on SmugMug.

To say it was a busy day would be an understatement. If it were not for Toni suggesting that I take some photos of the cake before it was cut there’s a good chance I would not have taken any photos at all. We ended up having around 30-40 people throughout the day and for the most part the boys were very good, especially considering they had almost no nap at all yesterday.

Thanks to all the family and friends that made the trip out (many from the city) to share this special day with us. It means a lot that you spent part of your day with us when so many already had their own plans. Both Brenda and I were left feeling that we short changed nearly all the guests by not having any time to talk to any one person very long, but I guess that’s just the nature of having a party, and even more so a party with twin babies.

You can find the few photos I did take on SmugMug, and I’ll have some video posted tomorrow.

Happy New Year !

Let’s hope 2009 turns out better then we’re all expecting!

We were about to leave the holiday festivities at Trina’s last night, and the boys insisted that they get a photo with Jeri Ann. Then little Timmy walked by and said he wanted in on the action too, so he jumped into the picture. You can find the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

There is nothing that gets the boys attention faster and calms them down more then putting on a Baby Einstein Video. They are not only very focused, but they laugh and smile at times while watching as well. 

And Max had his glasses adjusted so that they stay on better, so we’re back to trying to get him to wear them more often then not. 

More photos are on SmugMug.

Today was a special day for Max. Today was his first of many days of wearing glasses. 

Unfortunately for us, he has a different idea. Getting him to wear the glasses is going to be a struggle, and after only an hour we came to the conclusion that the frames are probably not the right ones for him, or at the very least need some adjusting. They just don’t fit tight enough, but it was kind of hard to determine that while we were there since he wouldn’t wear them for more then a second. It wasn’t until later when we were able to distract him that he wore them for a few minutes. 

After the visit we took them to McDonalds for their first visit to the play area. 

The rest of the photos are on SmugMug.

Max playing on the floor while waiting for his pupils to dilate.

On Monday I took Max to see the pediatric eye specialist to verify that he needs some help. The visit was a long one for him (over 2.5 hours) but overall he did very well and didn’t cry too much until the end when he was getting fitted with glasses. But even then he took it all pretty well. 

The doctor dilated his eyes and was able to confirm that there was a fairly large focal difference between the two eyes. The large difference between them is more of the concern then the actual vision problem, since babies of his age are often farsighted. His tests show that Max is about a +3 in one eye, and a +6.5 in the other. 

So… he does need glasses, which we have already ordered. They’ll be in this weekend – and then the struggle to keep them on his face will begin.

Full resolution versions can be found on SmugMug.

We didn’t even realize it, but the boys had outgrown their original car seats, by both weight and body length. So this past weekend we upgraded their travel accommodations to 2 brand new plush seats. They honestly look more comfortable then the seats in the front that we sit in.

Brenda did a lot of research and came up with a seat from Graco called the Nautilus 3-in-1. Although it was more expensive then some of the other options, it had the best reviews on Amazon.com by people who had purchased it.  

The only down side to the new chairs is that we can’t just lift the chairs from the base and carry them in. For example, whenever we would go out to eat we would just carry the chairs in and request a large booth so that we would each sit with one of the boys. Now, not only do we have to carry them in but they have to sit in a high chair. In theory it sounds OK, but they are just too excited and too unrestrained for us to really relax at all. But, like everything else, we’ll adjust. 

Here is a short video of their trip to Chili’s, and their first treat to sitting at the table while being out. 

This week we took the boys in for their first eye exam. We really wouldn’t have thought to do so, but we did for two reasons. On and off we’ve seen Max with one eye slightly out of line with the other. And second, when I went to get my eye exam in October, my doctor (Dr. Dennis Francisco) recommended that even if we suspected no problems at all, that we take both boys in before they are one year old to have their vision tested. 

While children used to get their first vision test when they started grade school, the newer thinking is that the sooner problems are detected in a child’s vision, the better the chances of correcting them. In fact, there is a program called InfantSEE that was started just for this reason. Its purpose is to help make people aware of the risks of waiting too long to get an exam. 

So, we found a doctor in our area that was certified by the InfantSEE program and took them both in on Friday. Andrew checked out to have roughly 20/20 vision and no known problems. As expected, Max did have some issues. For one, the doctor did verify that his right eye occasionally turns inward. With more examination he was able to determine that his left eye was about 20/20, but his right eye was about a +5, give or take a little. This was the cause of the right eye turning in, because of the extra strain it was under when he tried to focus on objects too close to his face.

So Max is farsighted, and almost exactly to the extent that I am. And I know how bad that is because if I take my glasses off, I can see anything. 

The bigger issue is that because one eye is so much better then the other, if he is not treated with vision correction there’s a high likelihood that his one eye will eventually be ignored by the brain, and thus he would have what’s called Amblyopia, also known as a “lazy eye“. Once this happens it’s very difficult to re-train the brain to use both eyes. Not impossible, but a lot harder then just fixing early. 

So Max will need to wear glasses very soon. We have an appointment for him on December 8th to get a more accurate assessment of his actual vision, and then fit him with glasses. 

We suspect he’ll look something like this…

Max?

And on the lighter side…

Before the doctor had entered the room, I captured Max on video being very slap happy with Brenda. It’s hard not to laugh when he’s laughing too. 

When I got home Max decided to make himself at home in my suitcase. It got me thinking that maybe next time I could just take him with me as long as I made sure he had a few bottles and extra diapers to change himself during the trip.

On Saturday we decided to try again getting some photos of the boys as well as an updated family photo. They boys were GREAT and just seemed to love not only being outside, but playing with leaves (a new experience for them). 

You can see the best of them on SmugMug.

I didn’t get many good photos of them yesterday, but what I did get is OK. I was a bit rushed taking them and didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to set things up. On top of that, the boys decided not to cooperate so just getting them both to look at the camera was tough. 

You can see the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

Today we took some new family photos, and those will be up later in the week.

The most fun thing is watching them play together. It’s not really demonstrated in this video, but there are times when they chase each other around and then when one of them corners the other they look at each other and laugh!

They’re exhausting, but fun! And we love them both.

The boys are now officially 9 months old and had their checkup today. All went as expected but at times it was a bit of a challenge to keep them from getting all riled up. They are said to be right on track in almost all areas, and as an added bonus they didn’t need any shots today. 

Their next checkup is on their 1 year birthday! 

This clip is on the longer side, so I split it into two parts. Part 1 is for today, Part 2 tomorrow. 

However, we did get some great photos of the boys themselves. After almost 200 shots, I ended up with about 20 that I really liked. Not a good ratio, but man are the boys hard to shoot! They can’t sit still for even a second, so every shot is with them on the move. 

Here are a few samples, and you can find the rest on SmugMug.

Here are a few photos, and you can find the rest of them on Flickr.