The Learning Tower is one of those pieces of kid gear that makes parents in the know say, “Oooooh.” It’s a pretty clever idea: an adjustable platform that can act as a sort of combination step stool, activity center, and jungle gym. The standard suggested usage scenario is that it enables kids to reach the counter or sink in your kitchen so they can “help” you cook or at least play with kitchen tools. (The website is full of pictures of adorable moppets in ridiculous chef’s toques.) It’s made of wood, rather than plastic, which is nice. Because we are cheap (er, frugal) we scored one secondhand off of Craigslist and we’ve been very happy with it.

For the first few months that we owned it, we kept our Learning Tower in the kitchen, pushed up against the island where I did most of the cooking and prep. The idea was to get the kids up closer to our level so that we could interact with them while still getting things accomplished. Unfortunately, given the age of the twins, our interactions with them largely consisted of repeatedly urging them to EAT their Cheerios instead of throwing them on the floor. No, seriously, if you throw your food on the floor you’re going to have to–that’s it. Get down.

Then we got the whiteboard/chalkboard attachment, which essentially turns the Learning Tower into sort of a Learning Easel. This seemed awfully promising. It even had a big magnet that could hold up a large piece of paper for coloring. The problem, of course, was that our kids didn’t quite get the concept of only coloring with crayons ON THE PAPER and not all over the tower itself. We had much better luck switching to chalk, but it didn’t take us long to realize that two toddlers sitting constantly underfoot playing with (throwing, eating, and occasionally drawing with) chalk didn’t make for a calm, productive, and clean kitchen. The Learning Tower was banished to the family room, and downgraded to full-time chalkboard status. We pushed it up against the wall next to the couch, and figured they could still practice climbing up and down if the wanted.

And the kids loved it! Still do! The chalkboard is magnetic, and they love sticking alphabet magnets onto it. They love coloring with chalk (they like erasing even more) and Julian will sometimes grab me by the hand, pull me over the chalkboard, and insist that “Daddy draw b’loon.” I’m getting very good at drawing balloons, as it doesn’t really tax my limited artistic abilities. (Although, having seen a drawing of one once, they’re now insisting that I draw hedgehogs. Hedgehogs!)

So, that was that. They draw on the chalkboard, got better and better at climbing onto and off of the tower itself, and enjoyed being up a little higher. Sure, we had to sternly remind them not to violently SHAKE the tower, since that didn’t seem safe, but it seemed like generally good, clean, quiet fun.

Until they realized there was another way off of the tower:

Honestly, this is now their favorite game in the world.

I expect that in 6-12 months, when the twins are a bit older, we’ll be able to get more use out of the Learning Tower in its intended use. They’ll be, hopefully, more interested in being involved in what’s going on in the kitchen and have slightly longer attention spans. Of course, by then they’ll probably be big enough that we’ll need two of the dang things. Sigh.

I found something adorable on the internet the other day.

A mom (who lives in Finland) creates these somewhat elaborate scenes and photographs her napping baby in them. As she says, “While my baby is taking her nap, I try to imagine her dream and capture it.”

I find it almost too hipster/whimsical, although of course I wish I’d thought of it. Then again, I would never have dared to pick up my napping child, put them on the ground, take a picture, and put them back to bed, since the chance that the baby might wake up was too terrifying. When ours were sleeping, we tiptoed around the house and forbade anyone from even mentioning the fact that the twins were asleep, because that would jinx it.

But the adorable thing I want to write about isn’t this woman’s hobby; it’s what the government of Finland does to (indirectly) make this woman’s hobby possible.

Here in the United States, we don’t make it particularly easy for working people to have and raise children. We’re one of only five countries—along with Australia, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland—that doesn’t mandate paid maternity leave from work. (Most countries offer at least ten weeks of paid leave, although it varies greatly. Many European countries even offer paid paternity leave. Oh, and it looks like Australia will start offering 18 weeks of paid maternity leave in 2011.)

What we do have is the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) which requires that employers with more than 50 employees offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave. New parents who work for smaller business, and parents who can’t afford to go without pay for three months are out of luck. (Rhode Island state law actually goes further and requires 13 unpaid weeks, and permits new mothers to collect temporary disability insurance, or TDI.)

My little family was extremely lucky. My wife works for an organization that allowed her to bank up enough sick days and vacation that when added to the state’s TDI benefit added up to some substantial (for this country, anyway) paid time off. I was in graduate school, with all of the scheduling flexibility that entails. Even so, becoming parents was exhausting and expensive; if one of us had needed to return to work much earlier than we did, I’m not sure how we would have made it work. Families who do make it work have my utmost respect and admiration.

This is probably neither the time nor the blog for an extended piece on the economic and social impacts of parental leave policy. Instead, let’s focus on something else totally awesome that Finland does: in addition to financial support during their maternity leave, new mothers receive a maternity package of things a new parent needs.

Check it out! All new mothers get a package containing about 20 outfits, a mattress and bedding, cloth diapers, books, condoms, a rather stylish bib, and my favorite item, a “box (can be used as crib).” I just love the idea that every new parent in Finland gets this stuff, and I’m fascinated at the process that must go in to deciding what makes it into the package each year. It must be so reassuring to know that at least some of your basic “stuff” needs are going to be taken care of.

Before the babies were born, I did ludicrously exhaustive research on cloth diapers, changing my mind many, many times about what I thought the best options would be for us. Now that Matt and I have been using cloth diapers on Julian and Eloise for about nine months, my opinions have crystallized about the single best, most effective, and most economical diaper system. I find myself moved to offer these opinions up to others who might want to skip the research and go with one extremely smart person’s* recommendations. So here they are: (Suggested quantities are estimates for ONE baby.)

The essentials:
18-24 Cloth-eez prefolds (hands down the best prefolds)
5-6 Thirsties covers
3 Snappis fasteners
3-4 BumGenius one-size pocket diapers

The advantages of this system are many. In spite of their plainness compared to much more elaborate diapers, prefolds have many benefits. They are cheap; they are every bit as effective (if not more so) than the fancier options; they are very easy to use after a day or so of practice; and they are a breeze to care for. When paired with Thirsties covers, they are about as good a diaper option as you can find.

BumGenius diapers are incredibly effective and absorbent, and we have had very few issues with leaks overnight. Because they’re one-size, they should last from birth to potty training. Presumably if you had a good bit of money to spend (though still less than the cost of disposables!) you could do an all-BumGenius stash, and I know plenty of people who do this. I just kind of hate stuffing pocket diapers.

One huge advantage of this set of diapers is that they can all be bleached. I know some people aren’t fans of bleach, and I suppose it’s something to avoid if your baby has very sensitive skin, but it has never bothered our babies and an occasional bleaching really rejuvenates a diaper stash.

The optional splurgy bonuses:
3-4 Thirsties Fab Fitteds or Kissaluvs fitteds (for friends and relatives intimidated by prefolds — pretty foolproof)
2 Sposoeasy all-in-ones (for the diaper bag)

Neither is necessary, but both are nice.

The accessories:
-Diaper pail (this one works great)
-2 pail liners (we use these)
-2 wet bags (for the diaper bag; we use these)
-24-30 cloth wipes (Thirsties work great for us)
-Spray bottle (for wetting wipes)
-Baby Bits wipes soap (one box will last months)
-Strip of velcro loops (optional, for hanging covers to dry — put it on the underside of a table or shelf — possibly Matt’s best invention ever)
-Toilet spray hose (for dealing with non-breastmilk poo)
-Diaper detergent (we use Country Save but I’m not convinced it’s the best; many people like Charlie’s Soap and Allen’s Naturally, but I haven’t tried either (yet); consult this list)
-RLR laundry treatment (use every couple months to remove detergent build-up from your diapers — the number one cause of stinkiness)
-California Baby calendula cream (use this or another product on this list for simple diaper rash — for serious diaper rash, use serious diaper cream with disposable diapers for a day or two)

And there you have my unsolicited opinions. I hope this is helpful to someone. I’m always happy to answer questions — I think after I convert 10 people to cloth diapers I get a toaster oven.

Julian and Eloise say: We love our cloth diapers!

*Everyone knows this is a joke, even if I don’t use an emoticon, right? I’m trying to wean myself off them.

Now that they can move around, we can’t have blankets in their cribs anymore, even the tightly tucked ones that we used to use. So we’ve transitioned to wearable blankets, which are vest/sack/gown things that give them a little extra warmth. We have a few fleece ones, but as the weather was getting warmer I started eying these great Aden and Anais muslin ones. I had it in the back of my mind to pick up a couple the next time we made it down to Bellani Maternity, when lo and behold a package of six-month “birthday” gifts arrived from our friends Julia and Jeff in Portland, Oregon, containing — among other things — two muslin sleep sacks!

Julia and Jeff are our “twin twins,” because Julia and I were due on the same day (among other eerie commonalities). Their adorable kids, Ben and Elly, were born one week before Julian and Eloise, and it has been great fun to follow the development of all four of them. Eloise and Elly have been showing uncanny similarities…we’re a little bit nervous about what will happen when we allow those two little firecrackers meet in person.

Anyway, now that Julian and Eloise are unswaddled, they are entertaining us by the degree to which they move around the cribs in their sleep. The other night I heard discordant music playing over the monitor and went up to discover that both had simultaneously kicked on the mobiles in their cribs (they continued to sleep peacefully through the cacophony). Julian can sleep-rotate himself 180 degrees in a matter of minutes. I check on them much more frequently now because I’m curious to see what funny spots they’ve scootched themselves into. (I am easily entertained.)

Another mini-milestone passed.

So, if I manage to keep the time between cloth diaper posts to a month, that’s not too pathetic, right? Right? Eesh.

Fitted diapers, as the name implies, are fitted: they’re shaped like a diaper, they have elastic around the legs, and they have a built-in fastening mechanism. We have two different brands, which are rather different in style: Thirsties and Kissaluvs.

The Thirsties are made out some kind of soft micro-fleece that is supposed to wick moisture away from the skin, with a more absorbent internal cloth part. They fasten with Velcro tabs, and come in a host of shiny colors.

The Kissaluvs are made of a terry-like cotton, which doesn’t have the “wicking” feature but which Rachel thinks is a little more absorbent than the Thirsties. They fasten with snaps, and come in a few colors, but not the same rainbow of fruit flavors that the Thirsties offer.

Neither is waterproof, so in either case we pair the diaper with a waterproof diaper cover.

I’d have to say that the fitted diapers are my favorite style of cloth diaper. They’re incredibly easy to put on and take off, and the fit is less bulky than the prefolds. Of the two, I slightly prefer the Thirsties because I prefer Velcro to snaps: snaps are probably less likely to wear out over time, but Velcro provides more flexible sizing options, since you can only snap where there’s a snap, but Velcro works over the length of the tab. I admit that I am also, like a hummingbird or a small child, attracted to bright colors.

(With the Velcro tabs on the Thirsties fitted diapers or the covers, it’s important to fasten the tab down to the adjacent laundry tab before washing. That way, you don’t have free-floating Velcro that will pick up lint in the wash, or end up mating with all of your other diapers to form a giant Velcro mass.)

So, if fitted diapers are my favorite, why would we use prefolds at all? A few reasons: First, the fitted diapers are considerably more expensive per diaper—about $12-15 compared to around $2 for a prefold. The fitted diapers are also less absorbent than a prefold, which in practice means somewhat more frequent diaper changes. The micro-fleece fabric is also a bit more finicky than the plain cotton of a prefold: some diaper creams may end up coating the fabric in a way that negatively affects their performance.

In the following extremely dorky (and too-quiet) video, I demonstrate the use of both kinds of fitted diaper:

Over a month ago, I promised a series of posts on cloth diapers, but then stuff happened. Mostly, Ellie happened. I won’t say that situation is entirely resolved, but she has her eyes closed at the moment, so I figure this is as good a time as any to catch up on some all-important blogging. (You may have also noticed the flood of daily picture posts below… we’re still catching up, but we’re much less far behind than we were. If for some reason two photos a day of our kids aren’t enough for you, you should probably also be watching my Flickr photostream, which has rather a lot of photos in it.)

So! Diapers!

Julian and Eloise each go through between six and eight diapers a day, and the vast majority of those are prefold cloth diapers. Prefolds are rectangles of absorbent cotton that have been folded over several times and quilted together so the thickest part of the fabric is right where the action happens. We use the unbleached version, because (if for no other reason) it seems silly to employ a sparkling white item for such a dirty business.

There is a little advance work you have to do to use prefolds. Rachel put them through three wash cycles before we used them, which shrinks, softens, and thickens them.

The Twist

Since they’re just rectangles, you have to fashion them into a little baby loincloth when you put them on. We use a slightly different wrap technique for each baby. Ellie, as you can see in the pictures, gets the “twist.” You put the prefold under her butt, twist it around to form an hourglass shape, and pull the front up. This focuses the twisted (and thickest) part of the diaper where her business end is. For Julian, we fold the front into thirds, vertically, and then pull it up, focusing the thickest part of the diaper in front, which is where the peeing happens.

Snappi

In this day and age, you aren’t forced to hold them together with sharp safety pins. Instead, you use a clever little plastic doodad called a Snappi. It’s a Y-shaped piece of stretchy plastic with little plastic teeth that grip the diaper fabric. You just wrap the diaper around the baby, snap on the Snappi, and voila. Secure and snug, and no pokes.

Diaper cover

Of course, that’s not quite it. Prefolds are absorbent (really absorbent) but not waterproof. Since you presumably don’t want pee to soak through the diaper onto your baby’s adorable outfit, you need to enclose the whole assembly in a waterproof diaper cover. Our favorites are the Thirsties covers which have double elasticized leg gussets to hold everything in and double-sided Velcro tabs for a snug fit, and come in a variety of cheery colors… which you’ll never see, since presumably your baby is wearing pants most of the time. Ah, well.

Cloth wipes and spray bottle

As I think I mentioned in the initial post, we use cloth wipes, as well. We use Thirsties wipes pretty much exclusively. We have a spray bottle on the changing table containing water with a little bit of soap dissolved in it. We just moisten the wipe, and go to down. They’re so soft, I wish I could use them. (Take a moment to enjoy that image, won’t you?)

Happy Baby

The dirty diaper and wipe go in the laundry pail, and unless it’s visibly soiled, the cover gets hung to air out for another use. (We basically have four covers in rotation—two for each baby—during a given day.) Since the covers have convenient Velcro tabs, we stuck a strip of Velcro tape under the edge of our changing table so we could easily hang the covers.

To recap: put on the prefold, snap on the Snappi, and Velcro on the cover. That’s it! I honestly think our cloth diapering procedure takes maybe 20 percent longer than a disposable diaper change. That seems completely worth it to me. (Not to mention that the prefolds cost about $2 each, and we’ve probably used each one more than thirty times. Compare that to the cost of disposables!)

Julian helpfully agreed to help Rachel demonstrate in the following video:

(Man, you can really tell from how tiny Ellie looks in the pictures how long ago we took these. Where does the time go? Also, since the babies are bigger now, the diapers fit much better, too.)

• Disposable diapers put all kinds of freaky-ass chemicals up against your baby’s, well, ass. Disposables are incredibly absorbent, but they achieve that absorbency using space-age gels and such. These things might not be bad for your baby, but not using them has got to be better.
• Disposable diapers put tons and tons of crap, literally, into landfills, taking up valuable landfill space and potentially contaminating groundwater, etc. Cloth diapers have to be laundered, which uses lots of water, it’s true, but I think cloths still come out ahead, environmentally speaking.
• Cloth diapers are more expensive per diaper, but in the long run are much cheaper than disposables.

Some commonly asked questions seem to be:

Are you using cloth diapers exclusively? Heavens, no. We’ve only been using cloth for a week or two. We still pack disposables in the diaper bags for the few times we’ve ventured out of the house, and at this point we’re putting them in disposables overnight. We’ll probably switch to cloth overnight when they get a bit bigger and can fit into some of the other diapers we have.

Do you use a diaper service? No. There are probably some places that still have services that take away your dirty diapers and bring you fresh clean ones, but Providence isn’t one of those places. With two babies, we’re basically doing laundry once a day anyway, so an additional load of diapers isn’t too arduous.

Wait, you wash the diapers in your washing machine? With, like, poop on them? Yes. We do the diapers in a separate load from our regular clothes, and I think we run them through an extra rinse cycle, but at this stage in the babies’ development, their poop is pretty liquid-y. Things seem to be pretty clean. Really, it’s fine. Nothing else we own seems to be covered in poop at this time.

How do they work? Cloth diapers seem to have come a long way since the old days of safety pins and rubber pants. What I figure I’ll do is over the next few days (oh, who am I kidding: weeks) is do a series of posts on the different kinds of cloth diapers we’ve tried, and our impressions of each. It will either be fascinating or incredibly boring, depending on your personal interest in diapering. Non-parents, feel free to skim.

OK, so, there seem to be four basic types of cloth diapers. We have examples of three of the types.

Prefolds are the most basic type of cloth diaper. These are basically rectangles of absorbent cotton. You fashion the cloth into a little baby loincloth, and then put a waterproof cover over it. We’ve had good success with these: they’re our default diapering solution at present.

Fitted diapers are absorbent fleecy things that work just like disposables: they’re shaped like diapers, basically, with leg holes and Velcro tabs and all. You Velcro on the diaper, and then put a waterproof cover on it, just like with prefolds. I think these are the most convenient, although Rachel insists they’re somewhat less absorbent than the prefolds. We have two different brands of fitted diapers: Thirsties and Kissaluvs. (So far, the Kissaluvs are a little big for our babies, but they’re more adjustable than the Thirsties, so we expect to get a lot of good use out of them.)

Pocket diapers have a waterproof shell, a fleece lining, and a pocket in which to stuff a piece of absorbent fabric. We haven’t used any of our pocket diapers yet (small babies) but we’ll eventually try out bumGenius and FuzziBunz.

All-in-one diapers are one piece: waterproof exterior and super absorbent interior. They’re as convenient as disposables, except you have to wash them. We don’t have any of these at this point.

Since both prefolds and fitteds require waterproof covers, we have quite a few of them. Our favorites so far are the Thirsties covers, but we also have some Bummis, ProRap, and ImseVimse. After a few weeks of use, we can enthusiastically recommend the Thirsties. They have double leg gussets, which help keep the diaper tucked inside and prevent wetness from leaking out, and they have double-sided Velcro tabs, which allow you to overlap them for small babies.

With prefolds, you generally want some kind of device to hold the diaper in place under the cover. Although it’s possible to just fold the diaper into shape and then wrap the cover around it, we find that the Snappi fastener is extremely convenient.

As long as we’re being environmental, we can’t go using disposable diaper wipes, can we? No, we cannot. Instead, we use cloth wipes that we spray with a little soapy water before using. We like the Thirsties wipes best; the Kissaluvs can be a little rough on sensitive baby parts.

OK, seriously, I’ve gone on about cloth diapers for rather a long while here, and I’ve threatened more posts to come, so I’ll wrap this up. We do think using cloth diapers is a great choice environmentally and financially. We (mostly Rachel) did a lot of research into the best options, so we hope the results of our experimentation can be of use to anyone else.

Oh, crap, gotta go change a diaper.

A tour? Sure!

We never got around to picking a theme for the room. Well, that’s putting it mildly: we spent hours at Babies “R” Us arguing about which bedding set we should get, and whether we needed a bedding set, and whether any of the bedding sets would match our paint color, and whether we should buy a set (because did we really want the crib bumpers?) or just individual sheets (but are they less cute?), and debated the names of patterns long enough that “Bunny Meadow” stopped sounding ridiculous. Finally, we remembered that we’re not really “matching” people. Our home decor can probably be generously described as “eclectic” rather than “well-thought out,” or “coordinating,” or, you know, “tasteful.” It’s fitting, then, that our babies’ room reflects our hopes for them: adorable, but a little crazy.

The toughest decision, furniture-wise, was a changing table. We spent quite a bit of time going back on forth on our options here (and by this I mainly mean walking back and forth between showrooms at IKEA), and finally decided that the changing tables, per se, were not the best option for us. Instead, we got an IKEA HEMNES dresser, plopped a changing pad on it, and hung an IKEA LACK shelf above it for supplies and things:

The bins are from Land of Nod, and, of course, no changing table is complete without a giraffe to watch over the scene.

Other highlights of the changing table area include Jefe the Heffalump and Chippy, my stuffed chipmunk whom I’ve had since I was three, and these awesome nightlights Andre and Meghal got us. (And seriously, how awesome is that giraffe?)

Let’s talk about these cute cribs (thanks again to Rachel and Liz) now all decked out with monkey decals, and monkey sheets, and a rather spectacular mobile:

We’re going to put them in the same crib to start out, and you can see the little “sheet saver” pads we’ll park them on to sleep.

The glider is from Dutallier, and is ridiculously comfortable. (The handmade quilt is from Rachel’s college roommate, Liz):

Other décor highlights include these cute nursery rhyme thingies from Rachel’s mom, four incredibly cool prints from Etsy, and some kick-ass parachuting sheep decals. Yes, parachuting sheep.

Oh, and look who wandered in! It’s Rachel, at 34 weeks pregnant!

So, that’s the babies’ room. (There’s more detailed notes on some of the pictures if you click through to Flickr.) Stay tuned for breaking news about the twins’ arrival date…

Let’s start with the most justifiable of my recent impulse buys: the baby books! Because we have done oh-so-reliable a job of documenting my pregnancy here on this blog, I decided that baby books were a an obvious must-have for us. Actually, I am hopeful that we’ll be able to make ourselves fill these out, because I remember thoroughly enjoying looking through my baby book when I was younger. Also, with twins, we have a unique opportunity to neglect each child’s baby book equally, rather than going all out with the first kid’s and then forgetting about the second kid’s except for a hastily scrawled “you were born and now you’re in the fourth grade.”

So baby books it was to be, although I probably didn’t have to spring for top-of-the-line baby books. But these had several appealing features: first, they aren’t too cutesy. Second, they are both gender neutral. Third, they coordinate without matching. Fourth, the company offers an optional twin insert page pack, which of course I snapped up right along with the books. Fifth, they were running a buy two, get one cat free special.

We’ve started filling out the pre-birth pages, and even Matt, who was initially skeptical, admitted that it’s kind of fun. When you come to visit us after the babies are born, be sure to badger us to make sure we’re keeping up with them.

This next purchase is also not at all frivolous. In planning ahead for our post-partum hospital stay, we realized that it simply wasn’t practical to expect to lug in our much loved but cumbersome SLR with external flash to capture all those wondrous and bloody first moments. We needed something small and fully automatic. But what, were we going to use cell phone cameras? I don’t think so. So a cute little point-and-shoot (one highly recommended by our photography buff friend Ken) is now standing by, ready to go into the hospital bag and snap zillions of photos that you will all have to look at one at a time and go “awwwwww” convincingly for each and every one.

Okay, I’m going to try to convince you that this last item is also a baby gear essential, but I can’t even make myself fall for it, really. This is my new iPod Touch. You might think that this is an awfully impractical thing for me to buy myself when we have two babies, and all their attendant expenses, on the way, but think of all the ways this will improve the babies’ lives:

1) I will be able to enter Trixie Tracker data from anywhere in the house, thus keeping meticulous track of every diaper, burp, and grunt.

2) I will be able to create baby-specific playlists according to their personal musical tastes.

3) I will be able to have hand-held internet access even during the early days when I am confined to the couch constantly feeding babies, thus discouraging me from becoming one of those lame, out-of-touch moms.

4) I will be able to carry photos of the babies around with me on the large, high definition screen, thus enabling all interested parties (by which I mean everyone I run into, of course) to see their adorability in crystal clear technicolor.

5) I will not resent the babies for forcing me to give up my dreams of having an iPod Touch in order to save my money to give them a better life.

I have also tried to distract you from the frivolousness of this purchase by including a photo of my 34-week belly. Big, right? Makes the iPod look insignificant. Hardly worth noting. La la la.

About <mumble mumble> weeks ago now, my mom and Mark threw us a wonderful baby shower in New Hampshire, where friends and family were extremely generous in their efforts to prepare us materially for the arrival of the twins. (As for preparing us mentally and practically, most people just shook their heads sympathetically and chuckled, “Good luck with that.”)

My mom did a great job finding cute but not cutesy decor and accessories, including the invitation above, this delicious cake (which matched the design on the plates by nearly complete coincidence — she found the plates after ordering the cake) and M&M favors that said “Sparvey Twins!” on them. I would have included a picture of one of the 10 extra bags of M&Ms I brought home with me, but I…am not sure where they are right now.

I think this picture very nicely demonstrates my supreme comfort with babies. “Hello, small human, thank you for coming to the party. Can I…get you a beverage?” Usually my awkwardness around kids is not that big a deal, but it felt somewhat damning at my own baby shower.

Although you might be distracted by Joy’s rather inexplicable expression of pining for Sandy, the point of this picture is the cute ice-breaker game (and the only game played at the shower): Each guest had a label stuck to his or her back with the name of a famous parent of twins. Everyone had to guess his or her celebrity by asking other guests yes or no questions. Once you figured it out, you could move your label off your back. It was fun, even if I never did figure out Nelson Rockefeller.

The gift opening was great fun and included highlights such as handmade all-over clothing protectors (though I can’t think of how our clothing would possibly be at any greater risk of stainage with babies in the house) and Baby’s First Klan outfits. (If that is in poor taste, I apologize. And I tried to whip off the towel as soon as someone pointed out what it resembled, but the camera was too quick.) I’m sorry we don’t have more photos of the gifts, but I am sure that most if not all of them will make some kind of appearance in the coming months while being used by the babies!

Many thanks to Mark for taking the lovely photos, of course.

We also were very fortunate to have another shower thrown for us in Providence two weeks later, hosted by good friends of ours who spent the entire eight weeks leading up to the event threatening to hire strippers for the occasion. Our friends were incredibly generous and creative with their gifts. We have no photos at all of that shower except for this one I just took of the invitation, but again, I expect you’ll see the fruits of the shower highlighted in future posts.

This is the first of a trio of posts I have in mind regarding the great fun of acquiring STUFF in anticipation of the babies’ arrival. Stay tuned.