Auntie Em and air conditioning

My sister Emily came last week for our birthdays (they are a day apart) and to see the babies. We had a lovely time, especially during the car ride home from the airport, during which Emily sat in the back while Lily screamed for half an hour. She has since decided she may not be ready to have children at the moment. Here we are with our birthday cake, which we absolutely did not make. Sadly, I neglected to take pictures of the Fourth of July cupcakes that we--I mean Emily--actually did make.

I had an interesting birthday, overall. It happened to be one of those days when I couldn't put down a baby long enough to use the restroom, let alone get anything else done. And sometime around noon we realized the air conditioning wasn't working, so we spent the rest of the day having a repairman visit and trying to decide where we would get money for a new a/c system. After Scott had made a dozen phone calls, we realized the air was working again (and it has been, ever since). So it looks like we won't need a new system right away, at least...


In other news, I have begun the long road to getting myself back into shape. Apparently, going nearly a year without breaking a sweat is not the best way to maintain one's physical fitness. I've never been much of an athlete, but I like to be able to run (well, jog at least) 2-3 miles. Once the presence of two parasites was discovered in my abdomen, I was restricted to walking. I planned to keep up with exercise through the pregnancy, but by the end the only sport I could manage was couch-sitting. And then after the c-section I wasn't really supposed to do much exercise for 6 weeks.


And now 6 weeks have passed and I am cleared to work out again. So the other day I went for a "run". I use the term loosely--I wouldn't use it at all, but to say "I dragged my sorry carcass around the block at slightly faster than a walk" isn't very concise. It wasn't my best performance, to say the least. Suffice it to say that, after this "run", I feel as though I've been hit by a truck. Good thing I have my flubby leftover twin-belly to laugh at me in the mirror and motivate me to keep exercising.

And now for pictures! Here's the first baby-smile caught on camera... (it's Lily)

And Noah is sort of smiling...it's mostly just a trick of the camera, but this is pretty much what his smiles look like. They are smiling more and more every day, which is nice. Apparently we truly have produced two little people and not just two small, needy blobs.

And here's Noah, demonstrating the proper way to slip into a milk coma: (I had to hold his hand there whilst Daddy grabbed the camera)