First, a primer:

There are two types of twins: fraternal and identical.  The differences are complete and absolute and have nothing to do with physical apperance.  Fraternal twins are created when more than one egg is present at fertilization - resulting in twins no more genetically similar than ordinary siblings.  Identical twins occur when an already fertilized egg splits into two distinct (you know, usually anyway) embryos.  These are (for all intents and purposes) genetically identical.  Of course you know all this but I thought I should get it out of the way first.

Having said that...

• Yes, they are identical.
• Yes, we're sure.  Really.  Really very sure.  I promise.
• No, it doesn't matter if they look the same.
• Yes, they are both girls - please see "genetically identical"
• Yes, we can tell them apart.  Well, usually, anyway.
• Really very sure.  Seriously, I saw the single placenta and everything.
  

Furthermore...

• Yes, they're twins.
• Yes, twins run in her family.
• It's really not as uncommon as you're making it out to be.
• Oh, really?  Your cousins?  Wow, small world.
  
• That's just really a rude question and fertility drugs cause fraternals not identicals.
• Yes, they're a double blessing.
• Yes, they're more work.
• Yes, I've thought about what college is going to cost.
• And the weddings, yes, them too.
  
• Yes, they are precious, thank you.
• They're about seven weeks old.
• Natalie and Kate.
• Thank you, we like the names too.
• 7 pounds, something, and 6 pounds, something.
• This one's Natalie, this one's Kate.
  
• Yes, I suppose they're smaller than other seven-week-olds you've seen.
• Yes, very tiny.
• Yes, they were early.
• Actually she's already lost the pregnancy weight.
• No, I don't want to hear about your labor.
• No, there's nothing "wrong" with them - they're just early.
• It's a monitor for Natalie's heartrate and breathing.
• She's fine - growing like a weed.
  
• No, you can't hold them.
• No, please don't touch them.
• No, even if they weren't immunodeficient I wouldn't let random strangers hold them.
• Please stop your kid from trying to touch them.
• Yes, indeed, very precious.
• No, this one's Natalie, this one's -- you know, what difference does it really make to you?
  
• They're dressed identically in pink outfits, in pink carseats - no, one's not a boy.
• Stop whispering "twins" and "two babies".  We hear you and they are not a sideshow attraction.
• We will not lower the shade or move the blanket so you can see better.
• Yes, I can tell you love babies.
  
• Seriously, I'm trying to eat here.  Keep walking.
• So... if you're just going to stand there and stare at them you really don't need me for that so I'm going to go back to eating
• Umm... are you done asking questions?  If so, keep it moving, we have a line to get through.

There, now all I have to do is format this into a FAQ sheet I can attach to their carseats and it'll save us all a lot of time.

Ok, Picasa's really getting on my nerves.  So unless I find another system that works I'm just going to host my own pictures.  It's just bare-bones right now (thumbnails - click to get the full image) but I'll add tags, etc. time permitting.

http://www.smilingkevin.com/babies.asp

Babies are here!  I don't have the energy right now (nor the grammatical skills, evidently) to do a whole thing about what's happened, but for those in search of pictures, your journey ends here:

 http://picasaweb.google.com/smilingkevin.com

Use caution in viewing the Delivery album.  There be blood.

That great theologian and political strategist, Charles Barkley, on how conservatives aren't true Christians, and his bid for Governor in 2014.

Personally, I'm not going to be convinced until I hear Howie Long's opinion on the election.

Snipe Drunken Waldo!

I'm sad to say I came to say you must be going.  I'm glad you came, but just the same, you must be going.  It's been a fun run, but I'm afraid Huckabee has little chance of winning.  And unless he has a really great showing today (which he has won West Virginia so far) it's probably time to drop out and throw his support behind Romney.  Because the alternative is he and Romney splitting the evangelical base and McCain getting the nomination.  And McCain, despite a recent barrage of media to the contrary, has a very spotty record when it comes to conservative values.

On the other hand, McCain might be more electable in the general than Romney since he's more centrist.  On the gripping hand, Rush Limbaugh and others have joined Ann Coulter in saying that they would vote for a Democrat over McCain - meaning he'd lose as much from the base as he'd gain from the Dems.  So I don't know, but either way it's bad news for conservatives.

Ah well, always 2012.

Oh, yes, I voted for Huckabee.  So call me an optimist.

Well, we've made it to 28 weeks as of yesterday.  Our girls would stand a pretty good chance of surviving without permanent problems now if they had to be delivered, though they would likely spend 4 - 6 weeks in an incubator.  So I'm happy to say that they are still safely with Leesa and growing more every day.  She hasn't had any other issues recently.

We did have to go to the hospital last Tuesday around 11p, which was fun.  She hadn't felt them move much for a couple days and the discharge slip from our last visit said that was something to watch for.  So we called her OB on call and she said to head for the hospital for some monitoring.  Which means we had a few hours of find-the-babies, with both of them becoming very lively indeed once they felt the monitors on them.

So we weren't real concerned about their lack of movement by the time we left since they hardly stopped moving the whole time and both had good, strong heartrates.

I'd like to momentarily call attention to the excellent nursing staff working at the new Family Birth Center at St. Mary's in Athens.  They are really exceptional - Angela, in particular.  Especially considering all of the challenges of constantly putting up with our hyper girls and taking care of easily-excitable new parents, it's wonderful how professional and still friendly they are.

That being said, I'd really like it if I only see all of them once more in my life.  You know, nothing personal, we just never go there just because we're bored and have little else to do.

Leesa has an appointment with her perineonatologist (hah, Firefox's spellcheck isn't even going to try) tomorrow where I'm hoping we get some more great ultrasound footage (maybe even the 3D (4D?) dealie) and she's hoping he'll say, "Your placenta is like the Rock of Gibraltar and you may feel free to decorate the nursery, take frequent trips to Target, and lift objects many times your own weight at will!"

Probably not, but hopefully she'll at least be cleared to go up the stairs once in a while or take short shopping trips.  I know it's killing her being stuck in the house all the time and not even able to come upstairs and see the nursery.