Episode 3- Sibling Rivalries

Captain's Log:  3:55 AM- Tuesday

Where does the term Charlie Horse come from?  Does anybody know?  It's a weird name for a leg injury, isn't it?  I know I obsess about little things like this late at night, but unless some guy a long time ago named Charlie got kicked in the leg by a horse...  Does that even make sense?  Why would they name an injury after them?  Is that allowed?  I should Google it but I'm too tired to type it into my phone.  I ask only because Esteban snuck into bed with us at some point last night and when Renata started crying at 2:59 AM (every night like clockwork), he jerked awake and kneed me 3 times in the thigh and groin.  Sigh... That was an unexpected bonus from the 8-year-old fart machine.  Because nothing accompanies exhaustion better than a severe hematoma. to the groin area  This morning's assault aside, he's a great kid and an even better older brother.  

We adopted Esteban in 2009 from The Gladney Center for Adoption's international program.  He is from Cali, Colombia and we spent 5 weeks over there getting his papers in order before we were able to come home with him.  Those 5 weeks in Colombia were an amazing learning experience for us,  and I felt that that experience had fortified me as the type of parent that could handle new-born twins.  I mean, what could possibly be different?  I  was now experienced in preparing bottles, changing diapers and rocking a child to sleep.  It's going to be exactly the same thing, right?  It couldn't be that much different, right?  Wrong.  Not even close.  Esteban needed constant care when we got him but he was already 11 months old.  He was eating from a spoon... He was teething... He was sleeping through the night.  That is the biggest and most impactful difference between these 2 adoptions (aside from the fact that Esteban is from Colombia and the girls are from Ft Worth, Texas).  The difference between a new-born and an 11-month-old is massive, I know that now... and then multiplied by two?  Forget about it.  I didn't prepare properly.  I was over-confident.  "How much of a difference could 11 months possibly make?" I asked myself in the mirror one morning.  "I got this." I said with a wink.  You know what?  I don't got this.  Never had it, not even once.  I'm lucky that Treicy excels at this.  She's constantly bailing me out.  I'm in a perpetual state of confusion and desperation.  I've never been so in love in my life... and at the same time, I've never been so overwhelmed and intimidated by anything weighing less than 12 pounds in my life.  I just need to hang on until they start sleeping through the night.  That is the carrot that I have dangling in front of me.  If I can start getting more that 3 hours of sleep at a time, I feel I can return to being a contributing member of society instead of the sleepwalking zombie that drives the whole way home from work with his computer bag on the roof of his car  (true story).   I could not find the remote control for the TV for 2 days last week.  I checked every logical location and was about to give up  and declare it an unsolvable mystery when Treicy found it inside the refrigerator next to the beer.  Sigh... Daddy needs a nap. 

Captain's Log:  3:09 AM- Thursday

As tired as I am, I can't help but be really pleased with the progress that the girls are making.  Their personalities are starting to really come through.  Renata, the oldest by 30 seconds, is the Alpha personality in this equation.  She is strong-willed and very much the leader.  Their entire schedule is dictated through her.  They eat when Renata decides that they're ready to eat and they get diaper changes when Renata announces to the entire neighborhood that she just pooped herself all the way down to her socks (also a true story).  Catalina, on the other hand, is much more subdued.  She is patient and willing to wait for her tempestuous older sister to be attended to first, before getting any attention.  Renata is fire and Catalina is ice.  Renata sleeps with a furrowed brow while Catalina sleeps with a smile on her face.  Catalina loves scalp massages from Daddy that relax her and put her to sleep while Renata doesn't want anyone, anywhere near her hair... ever.  Catalina is a better sleeper but Renata is a better eater.  Catalina's burps sound like children laughing  Renata has the burp of a 40-year-old truck driver with chronic heartburn  Catalina likes to sleep face-up without a pacifier while Renata prefers the downward facing dog position, with her little butt in the air, and a pacifier in her mouth.  They both react positively to Esteban's kisses and he is very gentle and loving with them.  It's too soon to tell which personality he will connect with more but for now they both get equal amounts of love and kisses from their older bro.  There have been no incidents of jealousy from him as of yet and he's been great about donating his baby blankets and old teddy bears to them.  But they're infants right now.  They are not independently mobile yet.  Not like when they become toddlers and start going after his beloved Star Wars action figures.  That will be the ultimate test of sibling love.  Because sharing a security blanket is one thing... sharing Boba Fett is a different level of comittment altogether.