About
When I hold your small body close to mine
I feel weak and strong at the same time
So few years to give you wings to fly
Show you stars to guide your ship by
-Johnny Clegg, Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World
One day Zoe and Apollo will look back on 2011, and it will seem like a long time ago. They may read about our generation in the news and in history books, but what did their parents and their parents’ friends think about things as they actually happened? What were the folks like back then?
We created this blog to one day be a window into the world that mom and dad inhabited while Zoe and Apollo were growing up, and we invite you to contribute. Feel free to drop your thoughts into this time capsule, and help us guide Zoe and Apollo into life on planet earth.
Welcome aboard kids, it’s gonna be one helluva ride!
-Emery and Nancy
Porkers R Us
Concerned that they need to reach their birth weight, the pediatrician had us come in last week for a weigh in. Both Zoe and Apollo exceeded their birth weights by about 10 ounces, thus confirming the fact that these guys can eat. And if you think Zoe looks self-satisfied, that’s because she is. Apollo demonstrates the key to packing on the pounds, which is to sleep whenever...
read moreTiger monkey crane style, or “the secret life of Chinese babies”
Sometimes Zoe does kung fu Apollo, however, is not without skilz More skilz Drat, she’s using flying mantis move no. 34 Must plan counterattack… Darn, foiled by the family...
read moreThe world is a funny place…
when the remote is almost as big as you are. We’ve been home for a week, and the living room is ground zero for baby camp. I can tell you all the good shows to watch between the hours of midnight and 6 am: you have your choice between the overnight news on CBS or NBC, British comedies on PBS, or many products to make you skinny. Hooray, today we went for our first pediatric check up! The car seats, however, were a bit roomy. ...
read moreLeaving the hospital
Wednesday we finally got to go home. After passing a car seat stress test and being weighed a final time, Zoe and Apollo got packed up and ready to...
read moreFinally a quiet night
Looks like we have an extra night at the hospital because Zoe and Apollo have lost weight, and the doctors want to monitor them another night as they increase the amount of milk they get. Nancy has been discharged, so we can stay in the room one more night with the babies. Hopefully they will release them tomorrow, and we can all go home. In the meantime, it’s 8pm, an hour before the next feeding. The babies are asleep, and Nancy and I can get on with dinner. Right now, nothing beats a quiet, dimly lit hospital room with snoozing babies,...
read moreTuesday afternoon
These little guys have to eat every 3 hours, and it seems every hour a different nurse or doctor stops in to check on something. It’s good to have the room to ourselves in between. My folks brought Nancy a poached egg in brown sugar and fermented rice, and a pizza for me. Tonight one of Nancy’s friends may sneak in some beer for me. It will be good to go home tomorrow, but it is nice to be in the hospital for the first 2 days surrounded by doctors and nurses who are there to help with anything, and to answer any...
read moreDamn, we’re pooped
So, Zoe and Apollo arrived around 3pm today. After a long hard labor, delivery took only about 10 minutes. Zoe weighed in at 6 lb. 1 oz, and Apollo was 4 lb. 11 oz. Nancy delivered in the OR on an operating table, and about a dozen doctors and nurses were ready to jump right into a C-section in case Apollo had difficulty making it out. But, they both arrived the old fashioned way, and are now fast asleep in the nursery. The quick and easy delivery was due no doubt to the quick thinking and skill of our OB doc Lara Williams at Legacy Emanuel...
read moreT minus 0 days?
We arrived at the hospital last night. Now it’s about noon, and after a sleepless night and what seemed like endless hours of contractions and labor, we finally got Nancy an epidural. Her platelet count was low, so there was doubt whether she could get an epidural. But there was a platelet recount, and she had barely enough. Now everything is groovy. Epidurals evidently are a lot scarier than they sound, because Nancy didn’t even seem to feel the needle. Now time is flying, where before it barely crawled. I think there is a...
read moreAnd a big jug of vinegar
It appears there is a lot of cooking that needs to occur after delivery, which evidently involve pig feet, peanuts, rice wine, a chicken, dried pearl barley, dried mushrooms, and a big jug of black vinegar. These are needed to create the special post-delivery dishes that all Chinese moms need to eat for a month after delivery. Nancy fails to appreciate my fascination with the ingredients, and is mostly concerned that I remember where to get that live Tilapia which needs to be added to the ingredient list once we all get back...
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