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I’ve never participated in the Weekly Challenge before, but I’m bored at work and our ticketing system is down so what the hell?  This week’s challenge is to edit an existing photo in your library using the WordPress dashboard.

Another part of the challenge is to tell about a time when your life was turned upside-down.  I’ve been writing about a lot of depressing stuff lately, so I’m not going to write about my most recent experience going through life inverted.  Instead, I’ll tell you about the most enjoyable time my life was turned upside-down.  But first, my pictures.

The picture I’ll be using is actually a meme I made using a picture of one of the twins.

Baby Facepalm

I heart this.

This has long been one of my favorite pictures of them.  Of course, I have no idea which one it actually is because his face is covered, but it was perfect for a facepalm meme.

And now, flipped upside-down the picture looks, well, upside-down.  Honestly, who didn’t see that coming?

baby-facepalm

Yay for upside down!

And now I shall tell you about a good time when my life was turned upside-down, much like this picture.  It was the day I was blessed with twin boys.

I was 22 when they were born.  I had already been raising the twins’ half brother and half sister for roughly two years.  Their sister is 4 years older than they are and their brother is 8 years older than they are.  So I was certainly no novice in the parenting department.  I was prepared for dirty diapers and bottles and crying.  I had played that game before.  And even though I had been told repeatedly how my life would change after they were born (duh), I was not prepared for how drastically it would change.

On an absolutely frigid morning, Friday December 3, 1999 to be exact, the twins were born.  Well, to be perfectly technical they were born in the afternoon.  Baby A at 12:00PM and Baby B at 12:01PM.  Right away I was flooded with a love so intense it nearly overwhelmed me.  I was on the brink of tears for the majority of the day.  Happy tears.  It was unbelievable to me how much I loved two people I had only just met.  It was at that moment that I became a believer in love at first sight.

That night I got only a taste of what was to come.  Infants normally need to feed every 2 to 3 hours, right? I think all of us who are parents are aware of this.  Well, the twins conspired against their parents and decided to have totally opposite schedules.  They fed every three hours, alright.  An hour and a half apart.  Every 90 minutes a baby needed to be fed.  Talk about lack of sleep.  Luckily, I had a month’s worth of vacation time I was able to take and I was able to stay home for a month after they were born.

Unfortunately, alternating feeding schedules wasn’t the only thing keeping us up at night.  Nor was it the only thing keeping them awake.  Sadly, both boys had hernias.  Two each.  One on each side of the pelvis.  Because of this they rarely slept as they were in constant pain.  At the tender age of 2 months, they had to undergo double hernia repairs.  Until that night we didn’t have a full night’s rest.   After the surgery they slept, thanks to a combination of being pain free, not having ever really slept, and being infused with anesthesia, for almost 13 hours.  We were freaked the hell out and kept checking to see if they were breathing.  They eventually woke up at 11 the next morning and have slept through the night ever since.  What a relief.

Having twins has been a fun ride and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Doing everything in twos is a unique experience.  Potty training two boys at once?  Unique.  Teaching two boys to walk at once?  Unique.  Teaching them how to talk and count simultaneously? Unique.  Trying to schedule two parent-teacher conferences in one night? Unique.  Every time.  Trying to find a way to get them both their own cars in a couple of years when they’re old enough to drive?  Unique, and probably not going to happen.

My life was completely turned upside-down when the twins were born, but in the best way possible.  Sure they drive my nuts sometimes, but my love for them and the joy they have brought me, and continue to bring, far outweighs those few times when they drive me all the way to the end of my wit and leave me stranded there like some poor schmuck on the highway with a blown tire.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I love my boys.  They have been the one constant in my life for the past 13 years.  I can count on them to cheer me up.  I can count on them to make me laugh.  More than anything else, I’m proud of the young men they’ve become.