SofiandNatalie.com

I started reminiscing the other day about how quickly the girls are growing up.  It seems like every day they’re into something new, a little taller, or talking about what they did so many years ago.  Looking through our pictures - we have slightly over 27,000 in the last four and a half years - brought tears to my eyes from laughter and joy.  Seeing their faces and remembering is an amazing experience and one that I hope to relive over and over again.  Here, and in their gallery, I am sharing these photos for you in hopes that you will also get some of the joy and laughter from your own experience with these kids.

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The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man.  The end product of child raising is not the child but the parent.  ~Frank Pittman, Man Enough

Summer is over; we’re coming into fall.  It’s easy to see everywhere you look.  The weather is changing; stores are putting out their holiday wares and advertising is making the inevitble swing to push us to shop. For me though, it’s all a reminder that another year is nearly over, and my children are getting older.  Every day when I leave in the morning I wonder what will have changed between the morning and when I get home, and every day I’m amazed by how much it seems I’ve missed.  My babies are growig up, learning, and perhaps what I fear most, yearning for their independence (all while still wanting a hug and a kiss.)

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Natalie: “I’ll open the garage and get our bikes out.”
Mama: “No, you need to wait until I’m done doing the dishes.”
Natalie: “Oh, yeah, I thought I was a grownup.”

Even though everyone has been sick for what feels like forever, there have been some well days and a lot going on in between. It’s actually kind of amazing at how much happens in our lives without really appreciating it. Sure, many of these events are very tiny in my eyes, but when I am able to step back and see them through my daughter’s eyes I can be truly amazed by their wonderment.

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It’s been so long since I last contributed anything to the blog, I’ve almost forgotten how, but after a very, very long break I’m back to contribute on a much more regular basis. For those that don’t know, we’ve been out ill for pretty much the whole of two months – mama and the girls both had the stomach flu, followed by colds, and then Sofi and Natalie both contracted pneumonia. So basically we’ve had two months of battling fevers, enjoying the Good Samaritan Hospital Emergency Room and everything that goes along with being sick. At the same time, I scratched my cornea to the point where I was only able to see out of one eye – we were just loads of fun.

But, I’m knocking on wood now – we’re all well and definitely ready for summer. Mama is off this year and the girls have been enjoying every day. I’m very happy that they get to play and have fun all summer – even though I’m also a little jealous. But that’s okay – knowing they’re happy will be enough for me. So let the posting begin…

Papa

Just wanted to post a quick note of apology for the lack of writing over the past couple of weeks.  The entire family has been under the weather, and the girls have caught it again (twice this go ’round).  Fortunately, I think that we have finally just about licked this and assuming that mama and I don’t get it again we should be back to regular posting shortly.

Thanks for your patience!

Papa

I would guess at one point in time we’ve all had a dream so real that we wake up wondering if it was real.  Until now, I had never thought about that from a child’s perspective.  Sofi apparently had a dream that involved a pink puppy that she saw/left/remembered underneath a magazine.  We couldn’t figure out what she was talking about - she doesn’t have a pink puppy - and she was adamant about it to the point of tears.  When she is brought to tears, so are we, but how do you explain a dream to a three year old?

We calmed her a bit with a picture of a puppy on the internet (and one for Natalie), but I wonder what we’ll end up doing next time.

Papa

I imagine that the first day of school - any school - qualifies as something of a right of passage.  It symbolizes that you’re maturing and getting ready to endure everything that life has to offer.  What nobody ever talks about is how traumatic it can be - for the parents.  That’s right, I can hardly believe that my daughter is off to preschool, starting this week, and complete with her backpack, lunchbox and a whole lot of enthusiasm Sofi headed off to “Mama’s School” to start her education.

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When I decided to create this blog, it began as a labor of love.  It was a way for me to put down into words the love and happiness that my children had brought into my life, and a way for me to “give” them their history so that later on they could know how their actions had impacted my life and opened my eyes to a happiness and joy that could be neither bought nor stolen.  If, at some point, I happened to make them laugh or cringe in embarassment later in life, all the better.  Realizing this, I always think that there is something more that I can give, something else that I can share, or some way that I can be better for my children.  And of course, when I think these thoughts, I am reminded of Diane Looman’s poem:

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What a wonderful Saturday.  I know that I should probably be writing this into a single weekend post; especially since it’s now Monday, but we did so much this weekend and had such a good time that I am forced to break it out into two posts or I will never get in the required number of pictures.  Sofi and Natalie, after all, have their fans, and their fans want photos!

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