I thought it might be time to update the blog with some words and pictures… As they say, no gnus is good gnus, and the boys are just happily growing away, becoming more and more alert.

As you may have seen in the video the other day, Alex is making a serious effort at trying to make some noises, and Jack isn’t too far behind him. Man, they’re so cute though. Apparently it takes equal parts of serious concentration, working yourself up to it, and forming your lips into a perfect tube shape to be able to make any noise.

He must have been getting right into it, as Nat came the other night after a 3am feed and told me that I’d created a monster. Apparently when he was supposed to be eating so that they could both go back to bed, all he wanted to do was try and make words at her!

It’s getting colder and darker here in Vancouver as we gently slide into winter, so we’re having to bundle the boys up before we go outside. One of the questions people ask when they haven’t seen the boys much is “are they actually identical?” well… When they’re all wrapped up with just a smiling/sleeping head popping out the top, it’s tough to tell them apart. Alex is a touch lighter still, but has a slightly bigger head, and that’s about all of the obvious differences. There are others, but you’ll have to work those out for yourself next time you see them!

They’ve also started getting real hair, and now have a nice layer of fuzz over their scalp. It’s rather odd since they’ve been pretty much bald, apart from the monk-esque patches of hair they have behind their ears, since before they came home from the hospital. “What colour is it?” you ask? Light brown, maybe a little blonde… Not red! That was one of the big questions, and it looks kinda like my genes won through there

Anyhoo, enough prattling, here’s some pics from the last few weeks (click for captions):

The other day we went to see a prosthetist, one of the folks we’re going to become very familiar with over the next however long. These are the guys who are going to be building Jack new legs every couple of years, and refitting him every year or so. All we did this time was a meet and greet, just to get a feel for what may happen, and we may not even end up using this guy to make Jack’s first leg, as he may not need one till after we head home. He was a great resource though, spending almost two hours with us just chatting about the facts of life when it comes to prosthetics, things we’ll all have to go through, that sort of thing… all free of charge.

Nat and I are both really positive after that meeting. A couple of take home points were that he would need probably 5 or 6 new legs over his growing career, plus an adjustment about every pair of shoes or so – that’s more an analogy, but gives you an idea of the regularity.

The prosthetist was very positive when it came to Jack and his leg. One of his favourite quotes was from someone who was missing a leg, who said “I’m only disabled for 10 minutes a day, the 5 minutes between when I wake up and put my leg on, and 5 minutes between when I take my leg off and I go to sleep.”

So after that, Jack was feeling pretty stylin’.

Stylin' Jack

To add some other stuff that’s been going on recently, here’s Alex being very cute… and Jack having a bit of a grizzle in the background. Apologies for the mug behind the camera (smiles start at about 20 seconds in):

We also got a couple of VERY cool Flight of the Conchords tops for the boys from Aunty Jenna, who was one of  the boys favourite nurses (and a Primary, so looked after us whenever she was on duty). Better shot later on when they fit a little better, but here’s a taster

We also went down to Whiterock for Thanksgiving dinner with some friends, and took the opportunity to check out the waterfront as it was a brilliant blue sky day – here’s a shot of our feeding spot, in the sun, overlooking the water.

We woke up this morning… or at least Nat was awake and came running in to wake me up… to a whole bunch of pink people running down the street. Alex insisted on going out to see them:

Turns out that it was a fun run to support breast cancer awareness and funding… people were getting into it!

Then when we came in, both the boys were awake so I thought it would be a good opportunity to have nice happy snaps with just the two of them. I was mistaken.

It’s a shame, because both boys are becoming real smilers – you can get a great series of smiles out of them if they’re in the right mood. Proper smiles, with crinkled eyes and a very happy boy behind them

Oh, and we’re into their third month home! Woo hoo!