Getting Out

Ok, these hats may be a little big

Blake took this photo

Brandon and Katelyn both went in for their nine month check up the other day. They are both doing well. Katelyn is developmentally at or beyond expectations for her adjusted age (6months). Brandon might be a little behind but he is making great progress and certainly not falling behind. They still are small but doing well. Both of them are surprisingly social. We hear this reaction from many of the different health care providers. Brandon often seems more interested in the people in the room than the toys around him. Katelyn kept surprising the doctor with her strength. In fact, he mentioned it several times with increasing surprise in his voice.

Last night we tried something a little crazy. We’ve been keeping the babies away from public places. We should be able to take them out very soon but we haven’t really done it yet. A small local theatre was performing the Pirates of Penzance. Derek’s favorite movie is Star Wars (any episode we will let him watch) followed closely by the Pirates of Penzance. We found a night when the attendance would be low because of the Jazz game. We called and they let us come with the babies. We sat in an empty section in the back. I was very nervous that things would go terribly wrong. Luckily it all worked out fine.

The boys seemed to really like the play, especially when they pulled out the light sabers as a gag. They got a little antsy in the middle but the en d was action packed and kept them very engaged. The babies behaved surprisingly well. We made a couple of trips to the bathroom and had a diaper change. We even fed them rice cereal during the show. They made a little noise but not enough to disturb anyone and it never seemed to happen in the quite times in the show.

We had another interesting Blake and Derek event. A while ago, Amy let them go outside and play with some of the neighbor kids. A few minutes later they came home with a bunch of treats in their hands. We asked them where they got them and they said the neighbors gave them the treats. When we pried a little and they explained that after they passed up the kids in the yard to knock on the door, they told them that they didn’t have any food or money. As you can imagine we were pretty embarrassed. We made them go back and apologize. The problem is that it worked. They have learned they can get a lot with a smile. We are going to have to work hard to make sure that they don’t become the annoying kids on the block who go around working the neighbors.