The boys' first birthday!

Friday the boys turned one year old! It is really hard to believe that the boys are already one. It is crazy to see much they have grown and all they do now in just a year's time. Both of them used to sit nicely next to each other on a single couch cushion. Now they are sleeping in their own cribs. They're walking, Jacob is mastering running, they are talking, laughing, mimicking.

I took the day off work and we all headed to the Akron zoo in the morning. I had thought we'd have the place to ourselves but instead it seemed every school district was having a field trip to the zoo. The place was packed!! We ended up doing a quick run through.

After the zoo, we headed to toys r us to get two new convertible car seats for our ever growing boys. They have so much more room in their new seats and eventually will have a cup holder added.

After dinner, they each had their own cake to dig in to. Joy had made little cakes with strawberry shorting. They both loved it and made giant messes.

After cake, they opened their presents. We got them a xylophone, cars, and stuffed animals (Kermit, animal, and where the wild things are.)

Their birthday concluded with a viewing of their favorite movie, Mary Poppins.

Time moves quickly

It is really crazy to think that the boys could be here very soon. It could happen in the next couple weeks. These nine months went by so fast. With time going by so fast, I need to make sure I make the best of each moment of our children's lives.

I hear a lot of parenting advice in books, podcast, birthing class etc that no one's the perfect parent. "You WILL make mistakes," they all start off with. I understand, I'll make mistakes. But why does it feel they set you up to fail? Maybe that's just my take. I really want to be the best parent I can be. I think starting parenting advice by saying "you'll make mistakes" is the wrong approach. Everyone makes mistakes, how do I be a good parent? I want to be the best parent I can be and make the most of the time.

This coming weekend (well, actually Monday) marks Joy and I's first wedding anniversary. Not to gush too much but what a year! Within a year, we bought house, got married, and went on one amazing honeymoon across the US and now we're having children! Couldn't have been a better first year of marriage and my love for her grows bigger and bigger each day.

In other news: the c-section has been scheduled for June 7th if they don't come out sooner!

The preparations continue. On Monday, we installed the car seats. Joy brought out stuffed animals to test the works. We had some issues because the car seats are also baby carriers that latch into a base and handle is so large that we kind of need to pull the driver and passenger seats up. It's not bad but it will take a little bit to get used to because Joy and I are tall people. Next we need to finish packing our hospital bag.

Due date approaching!

The due date is rapidly approaching! Last week, we had a doctor's visit. She said that she is hoping no earlier than May 15 and if we haven't had them by June 6, she will schedule the c-section.

We are still busy getting prepared. Joy had ordered a whole bunch of reusable diapers. They've all been washed and hung on the newly put-in clothes lines in the basement.

It's kind of funny because I have a little recording studio in the basement and I contemplated awhile back when we moved in about putting a wall in, blocking off the studio from the washer and dryer. Now I have a makeshift wall made of reusable diapers.

One task we want to accomplish is to figure out what we're going to bring the boys home in. I think we're gonna go through our closest and if we can't find the perfect outfits, we'll head off to the store.

Joy and I talked about food I should bring for myself. In baby classes, the teacher was talking about how men who don't eat because they feel guilty and if they don't eat things can happen like passing out. I think I would feel guilty. I was thinking I could stuff junk food in my pockets and step out of the room and eat or in the bathroom. Joy didn't like that idea. So, she came up with a bunch of foods that I could eat that she doesn't like that I could eat without her wanting some such as sneakers or anything with nuts or oreos (not chocolate chip cookies). There's also pizza, Joy's mom who works at another hospital said the pizza's not bad. I also suggested I could have my parents or her mom pick me up some Taco Bell on their way to the hospital.

I want to make our own list of things to bring to hospital. In most all pregnancy books they provide a list. I'm hoping that everything goes good at the hospital and we won't have to be there too long but it's good to prepared.

The teacher at the baby classes said they still don't allow cell phones in the hospital. I'm not sure if it really affects equipment like they say it does. I'm just wondering if that's old policy that never got updated. But the teacher said they do have wi-fi. So I bet we could either bring a laptop or connect our iPhones to the wi-fi.

Oh and finally, one thing we have to do is get the car seats installed for the boys. A couple weeks back, Joy and I did a hardcore car clean out session with the car we're going have the boys in. I think we'll either go to the Triple A or the fire dept to have the seats installed.