Male pattern baldness strikes Sophie!

She’s gone bald. Well, not entirely, but the hair from the top and sides of her head vanished overnight. Very weird. I was sure Chris or her Mum had shaved her for a joke.

It brings to mind a rather strange vision I had when I first set eyes on Sophie in the operating theatre. An image of my Dad’s old friend Roger flashed before my eyes – heaven knows why. Pretty much the only thing they have in common, visually, is a bald head. Except Sophie’s head wasn’t really bald then, but now it is, she does have much the same hairstyle that Roger sported. Here's an ancient photo of Roger with my brother. Now tell me you can't see what I'm talking about...



Two big things today. The 23rd June was the twins actual due date, had they gone fully to term, so technically they are 0 days old today! This is reflected in their growth charts, which are backdated 4 weeks from today. We celebrated this virtual birthday by doing absolutely nothing.
And, of course, it was my first day back at work. Could have been worse, but I really couldn’t focus and the separation from the bubbas was not easy. I got back home as soon as I could to top up on grizzles, milk stains on my shirt and to check up on their nappy activities. Bliss.

Last day of freedom

Beer o'clock chimed several times today, as I drowned my sorrows at the thought of returning to work tomorrow. Not that I don't like my job - I really do. But the past 4 weeks have, obviously, been utterly unlike any others and I have enjoyed the highs (and even the early lows) so much. But we need some dough to keep our bubbas in nappies and milk, so there's no escaping it.

Busy day today, which helped. My auntie Josie and uncle Alastair dropped in midday for a chat and to cradle the twins. When they left, Chris' cousin Filomena and her daughter Alex took over. Matthew picked up a little sunburn to one cheek, which added to his rosy glow.


I popped into Argos to buy a duvet to replace the one Wolfie peed one. Bless him.

Finally, Chris' Mum turned up in the evening, or, more accurately, moved in in the evening to help Chris out over the next few days.

Now... I wonder if I'll be able to concentrate on my work or whether I'll spend the day dreaming...

A few more snaps...

Small, but powerful

I am reliably informed that a newborn baby's grasp is so strong that they can briefly support their own weight. Matthew and Sophie definitely have powerful grips and you can easily lift their upper bodies from your lap once they've grabbed hold.

I haven't the nerve to try lifting either of them completely off the ground, but I reckon I could still do so with Sophie, she being so light. Matthew, though, feels a bit too heavy now.

I just love the way they grasp my fingers...

Three weeks old and still cute!

What's in a name?

We've been asked a few times why we chose the names we did, so here goes:

Sophie or Sophia was high on both of our favourite names lists. We didn't decide until a few days before the birth, but when little Sophie appeared, we knew it was the right name.

Jasmine is my Mum’s name and both of us decided long ago that this would make a lovely middle name.


Matthew was also on both of our favourite names lists. In my case, my oldest friend is Matthew and the name is, to a degree, in his honour cos he’s a great man. Although we decided this long before the birth, it took a little while for the the name to fix to the baby. Strangely.

Charles came more from Chris than me, though I feel it goes really well as a middle name to Matthew. Chris’ Dad’s name was Carlos, the Portuguese for Charles, so there’s an element of family honour in there too, and a good balance to Sophie Jasmine.



What do they mean? Well, we didn’t pick any of the names for their meanings, but here they are:

Sophie: Means “Wisdom” in Greek.
Jasmine: Simply the name of the Jasmine plant with fragrant flowers, derived from the Persian Yasmin.
So, here we have a daughter who is wise and smells nice.

Matthew: English form of a Greek form of a Hebrew name, meaning “Gift of God”.
Charles: Either from the German Karl, derived from a word meaning “Man”. Or, derived from the Germanic element heri meaning “army, warrior”.
So, here we have a son who is either a man or a warrior, given by God.

I wonder if they’ll like each other.

Close, but no cigar
Names we considered that came close but didn’t make it included:
For Sophie: Catherine, Isabella
For Matthew: Max, Ethan

Nicknames
Well…they get called all sorts of things, especially in the middle of the night when they WON’T STOP CRYING!!!

But some of the more common nicknames include:
For Sophie: Little monkey, butterbean, Munchkin Minor, scrap
For Matthew: Grizzler, Chubster, Munchkin Major, Mr Potato Head

Uncles and Aunts (Part 3)

Switching to my side of the family, my sister Belinda paid a visit today. Auntie Belinda, as she'll be known from now on.

Here she is helping Chris get a little expressed milk into Sophie.

Baby?

I'm so confused about Matthew. I mean he looks like a baby in his birthday suit, but tickle him or pick him up and he sounds like a laughing hyena. Or a herring gull. (Or a machine gun.)

In his clothes he looks like a puppy. Any sign of him sprouting a tail and he's off to the circus.

.

Eye to eye contact

Every day, our little charges seem to grow more and more aware of their environment. Sophie is good at direct eye contact now and appears to take time on details. She does take the mickey a little, by staring intently at me, then going cross-eyed and drooling. One of us is clearly mentally defective and I fear it’s not Sophie.

Matthew, on the other hand, scans the whole room, not dwelling on anything for long. He's clearly a big picture man.

Aware that newborns see contrasts rather than colours, I drew a big smiley face and planted it in front of both of them today. Sophie, as expected, studied it for a while, looked away, studied it again and spent reasonably long periods focused on it.

Matthew, also as expected, did follow the face for a while when I slowly moved it across his field of vision, but quickly returned to scanning the room for a way to escape the nuthouse he’s found himself in.

Uncles and Aunts (Part 2) and Yiayia

Uncle Luis on Saturday. Uncle Nico, Auntie Gyorgyi, cousins Sophie and Leni and Grandma today. Now, Grandma in Greek is Yiayia (pronounced Ya-ya), but we're sticking with the English for Uncle and Auntie...so confusing. Apart from the twin cousins, Chris and I both have twins in our families, so there was always a good chance, I guess, that we'd end with twins too.

A few weeks ago, Sophie and Leni were baptised and they seemed so small then. Here's Luis and me holding the two cuties. Chris was heavily pregnant at the time, so got to hold the candle.

Small they may have been, but compared to our two, they are positively enormous! They are only a little over one year old. So much growing for our two to do to catch up!

Yiayia, Nico and Sophie


Gyorgyi and Leni