In Motion

The girls continue growing and getting stronger, and in a week, at our next doctor's visit, we'll have their latest weights. Bets anyone?

Both are getting good at holding up their own heads and reaching for things, and are now learning to sit up, and we continue teaching them how to crawl, although sometimes we cannot help but think educating them in mobility is a highly questionable goal. They love smiling, which means so do we, and continue to experiment with numerous run-on vowels, sometimes for hours, as they work their way toward language. Meanwhile, they have cool rides that require no work from them at all -- one a new baby sling, and the other a rockin' chair they both enjoy, especially Rory, since as the big sister she is able to pull free from its hiding place the little stuffed bee that turns this chair into a hide-n-go seek too. Here they are in today's pictures, cruising in these rides, up close and personal.

Six months

Today marks six months since we lost our little boy, and we know anniversaries like this are going to be hard days. Sometimes it doesn't even seem possible that he is gone, our connection with him is so potent, and other days the depth of that connection only makes his life that much more profound. We know we are living in a unfathomable situation, trying to learn to live with this grief and yet feeling truly blessed and grateful to have been his parents, to have our little girls, to know the three of them, and to know all of us will be connected forever.

We are grateful to everyone for their continued understanding and support, and the prayers, kindnesses, and warm thoughts family and friends near and far have shared with us. One friend told us that he and his wife are amazed at how sad they were at Leo's death, having not even met him. We are truly sorry about the pain his passing caused those around us, and at the same time grateful that others felt and feel a connection to him. With all that has happened, we would still not for a minute trade the joy of being his parents or the memories of his strength, character and beauty for even the removal of this pain.

We are building a memorial garden in our backyard for Leo, and are enclosing three pictures of it in progress below. The first shows the space where the garden will be. At that time, Dad was about half-way through clearing the shrubs and weeds from it. The second photo shows the view that will be directly behind our house, out our kitchen window, beyond our small fish pond, with the first stones laid. At the top of the garden is a weeping cherry tree, kindly given to us by Leo's uncle and aunt Brant and Celeste and their two sons. The third photo shows the trim stones of the garden in place, laid with the help of three friends of Leo's Dad. Through the garden we are going to lay a path of other specially chosen stones (the pallet of which you can see stacked near the cherry tree), in the shape of three interlocking paths, and they will curve underneath a bench we will place in the space that will ultimately lie beneath the cherry tree's shade as it grows. Three colored interlocking stones will sit in front of the bench. The garden will be covered with flowers, low-lying flowering shrubs, and the like, and will have three entrances. The pile of topsoil that will be their home sits under that blue tarp, and we'll be fixing up that arbor as well. We'll add additional pictures as we make more progress.

As you know, thanks to the generosity of many people who are honoring Leo with their gifts, we have also been able to make several contributions in his name, as noted here, to help children in his name. Gifts actually continue to come in, and we deeply appreciate everyone's generosity.

In addition to that effort, Leo's Mom and Dad have decided to sponsor a poetry reading in Leo's honor at Bucknell University, in part to say thanks to the community here that has been so kind to us. The reading will be the evening of February 23, at Bucknell's Stadler Center for Poetry, and will feature Michael Blumenthal, an accomplished poet based at Old Dominion University. Read more here.

Motor Skills

In the last two weeks, the girls have taken major developmental steps forward -- reaching their arms forward to grab toys and pull them to their mouths, preferring to sit facing out against our chests rather than staring over shoulders, and laying on their bellies and lifting their heads to look around them for many minutes at a time. As our parental education has taught us, including the special guidance of a helpful physical therapist for premature infants, the capacity to make these motions at these times are all positive markers of the girls' motor skills and muscle strength advancing just as they should. Time seems to be flying, though, and every day the girls show us they are older, stronger, and more confident.

So, what do we present today? Pictures of them lying on their backs. Hey, what can we say: it's easier to take pictures this way. Although we are including a shot of a recent stroll with the girls in their "Berg," the all-terrain vehicle we bought as a jogging stroller for our triplets back during our pregnant days (p.s. the couple we bought it from on E-bay have a five-year old, a one-year old, and quadruplets on the way. Anyone tired yet?). See below for the girls styling in it. They really seem to like it -- and all we keep wondering is how quickly will the girls be asking to borrow the car keys?