Back in the Saddle Again

Back from a Father’s Day sabbatical from blogging, I’m here again to share stories of Braelyn McKee (a.k.a. Brae Bear) and Gwendolyn Marie (a.k.a. The Gwenner).

Before I dive into that, I want to thank my family for an AMAZING Father’s Day. It’s strange and I know I don’t need to tell any of you parents out there but you think you know what it’s like to be a Daddy until you actually become one. When I was looking over that “memory lane” of a blog that my wonderful wife posted, I started flashing back over the time our journey began. From the moment that we first heard the girls hearts beat during an ultrasound to where we sit here nearly nine months after their birth, it’s been such a wild ride. I still vividly remember finding out we were having twins, that they were both girls, and the moment they were born. Still, even with all the tears of pain and joy that have been shed, it has so very much been worth the trip. When I get home from work and see those smiling little faces as I climb the stairs each day… well, it just melts my heart.

As for an update on my three girls, Mom has really enjoyed having specialized time with Braelyn and Gwendolyn. Yesterday, Grandma McKee went on a shopping outing alongside the Castellano Three. Yes friends, it seems as though Mom continues to start the girls young on shopping expeditions much to my angst. She even introduced them to the restaurant Cheeseburger in Paradise when their shopping was complete… for those “Parrot Heads” out there like Heather, there’s no need to describe the décor I’m sure… for those casual Jimmy Buffett fans like me, it can best be described as burger joint meets the Florida Keys.

Outside of Mom giving the girls a different “road trip” experience of sorts each day, things are pretty status quo. Gwen infrequently needs oxygen at night but still will beep off a handful of times each night before she brings her oxygen levels quickly back to the safe zone herself. She’s likely to get that new sleep study in the short-term. Hopefully the progress she’s seemed to make at home carries over then when she’s wrapped like a mummy with all sorts of sensors.

Braelyn is the morphing into “Little Chuck” before our eyes (in fact, I’ll refer to Braelyn as “L.C.” just to get a rise out of her Mother… I’m happy to report that it often works!). One thing I learned with these two is to never assume. When they were first born I would have swore that it was Gwen who would become a carbon copy of her Daddy. She looked just like my baby pictures and was not bashful about vocalizing her displeasure. In the months that have followed, she’s become a bashful sort who often gets compared to her mother in the looks department (luckily for her). Instead, it is Braelyn that has become the most social of butterflies. She longs for constant attention (which we try not to always kowtow to) and now in addition to her personality, she really starting to look a lot like Dad.

Speaking of the girls’ looks, we keep hoping that there’s a closet redhead between the two of them but each day fosters little progress on that front. Perhaps it just isn’t meant to be.

I suppose that’s it for now… Like sands through the hourglass…