I had this amazing and magical week. It was a week so full of… well, so full, that I almost have no words. On Monday September 19th, I made the trek up to Portland and made myself at home in the waiting room of the international arrivals area. I’d spent the previous week scrubbing down the ugly from the house, picking and re-picking welcome gifts, arranging appropriate transport, stressing out about sleeping arrangments and, in one particularly insane example, debating and theorizing in the middle of the aisle at Wal*Mart for nearly an hour about SHEET COLOR. Seriously. Both the same? Both different? Similar? Would the one that had no pink be upset about the one that had all the pink? My gawd. It was ridiculous. But it all ended in the waiting room at the Portland International Airport when, after an hour of nervous sitting and fidgeting and poor plays on Words With Friends, I looked up to see one man and two amazingly tiny princesses stumble down the hall after clearing customs from their ten hour flight.
Petter and the ladies had come to visit.
It… Just… wow. I was SO excited to see them! And they were SO tiny! And they looked… okay, I’ll be honest. They looked run over. But really, what two and a half year old wee ones and their tired Pappa wouldn’t look worn out after 10 ( 12? 14 total?) hours stuck on an airplane? But CHIPPER!!! and HAPPY!!! and OMG I can’t believe they were actually here!!!
The week that followed was just……. magic. All that crazy stress for nothing. NOTHING. Family had come to visit, and it was just that comfortable. I got to paint tiny toes and play with sweet baby hair. I got to learn a few words in Norwegian ( Vaska = purse. Also Rosa = pink. And finally bæsj which… well the two little ones are potty training. Lets just say it’s both a necessary word to know and funny, if you’re two) I got to giggle at their glee and not worry about how increasingly icky my house was getting through the week as I ignored it in favor of playing. We did a whole bunch of nothing during the week they were here, and as far as I’m concerned that’s just about perfect. Play at the local park, seeing some of the local attractions, hanging out and just being together. We finished off the week at Great Wolf Lodge to wear out the little ones with some water play before they had to climb back on an airplane and fly home. It was way too fast. It was much too short. I miss them with a fresh heart, but I’m glad they are back in their comfortable surroundings, lol! So today I’m just going to sit back, sip my orange-chocolate granita in tribute, and upload some pics. One thing I’m happy I planned was a session with the amazing Kimberly Teichrow, the photographer that captured Tom’s arrival into this world so sweetly. Here’s my share for today.
I found myself very surprised when spending time with the girls. I.. feel a connection with them that I didn’t expect to feel. I don’t know if it’s okay to feel this way or right or what, but I feel connected to them. They aren’t my children, my heart isn’t confused in that way. But in a way, they are mine. Just a tiny way, a way that doesn’t make sense to me and is very likely one sided, but my heart, in a corner, claims them. Not as my children, but as children that are mine. Does that even make sense?? These girls have a special spot, all their own. They were my first surrobabes, they were my first twins, they were my first family grown outside of my own. All of those bits of love carve their own little spot out, and holding them and cuddling them and playing with them and watching them… it was like watching my own children. That same corner of my heart gets warm. I didn’t expect that. Didn’t expect how sweet that would feel.
I was also surprised at how tender it was to see my own children loving on the girls. It wasn’t like they were being sweet to some other kids, some friends child or a random strangers baby. It was like… like they were loving on me. SO WEIRD. I’m messing up this description completely. Lets just leave it at my heart smiled all week, for so many reasons.