Daddy

Daddy with his girls!

My oh my.. where does the time go?

Geoff goes back to school tomorrow -- his summer with the girls is over, and boy is he sad. I think Geoff learned a lot this summer about himself. When we brought the girls home, he was much more comfortable with the girls than he expected to be at that stage -- the time in the NICU with the nurses instruction helped a lot. But now, Geoff has tricks up his sleeve for settling the girls that put me to shame! He has definitely become a very caring and nurturing father -- he loves his girls and it is so apparent that they love him too.

Often times when we are at the doctor's office, or even when we went for pictures recently the questions/discussion is directed to me, as their mom -- and often Geoff is ignored. Questions about their feedings or preferences are things that usually the mom knows most about. Not in our case. Geoff is often bothered by this and I keep telling him that it is not him -- it is society. People can't get over the old stereotypes. We are so conditioned to the old way of raising a family -- that mom does everything while dad sits back and reads his paper and smokes his pipe. Those days are gone, and dads now share a more active role in child rearing.

I used to say to people who were amazed that Geoff took such an active role with the girls that he didn't have a choice but to help -- with twins, I couldn't juggle everything for both kids, so he had to pitch in. I used to say that, but I know I never meant it. It wasn't a choice for him, it's his job as a dad. It was what he signed up for when we made the decision to start a family. He wanted to be a dad and wanted to take an active role in our child's life no matter if we had one or two babies. While I was on bed rest I often thanked Geoff for helping "ME" -- I felt bad that he had so much to do and had to take care of his wife who was completely incapacitated. He always snapped back -- "um, they're my babies too -- I'm not helping you, I'm helping us. I want these babies as much as you do." This often made me feel bad but I think I said that because of those stupid stereotypes of dads...

As Geoff prepares for going back to work, I know he is going to miss the girls -- plus, he finally got the hang of being home with them. In the past couple of weeks he finally got to a point where he could balance taking care of the girls with running errands and getting a few things done around the house. I think it has helped that we have finally got them on a schedule -- they nap pretty close to two hours after they last woke (just like the books recommend). But he will soon find out that the hardest thing about being at work is that any quiet moment when you let your mind wander, you let it wander to them. If you have pictures of them in your office; all you can do is envision picking them up and giving them lots of hugs and kisses. When you realize that you can't just do that right now, you feel bad and your heart aches for when you get to see them again.

So good luck at work daddy -- I am so proud of you and all that you did this summer. Taking care of two babies is not easy, and you did an awesome job! Abby and Emily are going to miss spending so much time with you!