Blogging is a luxury these days. I'm sure many of you are anxious to hear how everyone is doing, so I'll see if I can accomplish the impossible.

Chase: Chase is handling the whole situation very well. He tries to help, but is met with limited success. He's learned a few new things that have made life more interesting. He has taken the art of pulling things off the counter and kicked it up a notch. He likes to use things to stand on so that he can reach things he otherwise wouldn't be able to. Unfortunately he has mastered the skill and we have no viable defense. For example, he uses a chair. If we remove the chairs he uses a clothes basket. If we hide the clothes basket he dumps his toys on the floor and uses the upside-down toy basket to stand on. If we hide the toy baskets he uses food storage cans. You see the pattern? There is always something he can find to stand on.

The other trick he has learned is appropriate use of the words "yes" and "no". Typical conversations could go as follows:

Me: "Do you want to brush your teeth?"
Chase: "No."

Or another common conversation occurs when he arrives in the kitchen with a clothes basket (for reaching the counter as discussed earlier):

Me: "Nope, nope, nope."
Chase: "Yep, yep, yep."

He is also getting to be very smart. He has an alphabet puzzle that he likes to do. The pieces have a letter and a picture of an item that starts with that letter - Q for quilt, O for orange, etc. The blank spaces where the pieces go say something like "A is for Apple". Without any help he can put all the pieces in the correct place. We haven't been able to determine how he does it, whether he memorized where all the pieces go, or recognizes the shapes or compares the letters. I'll try to make a video because it's pretty impressive.

Jaxon: Jaxon is still pretty mellow, but he's starting to get a little more lively. He's not as patient waiting for food as he used to be but he's still a very good baby. He tends to only cry when he needs to be changed, fed, etc. He spends a lot of time with Mason screaming in his face, but takes it pretty well.

Mason: Mason still seems to be pretty much out of control. He doesn't tolerate being hungry, or full for that matter. He screams a lot and is really testing our patience. He'll often get in moods where he just screams and screams and we can't find any way to calm him. He regularly screams so hard that his face turns bright red and he can't breathe. He also doesn't keep a pacifier in his mouth very well, so nights can often be challenging, to say the least.

Here's a good picture that is representative of Jaxon and Mason's personalities:

For those who have asked for the "Real Scoop", it's basically this: having the twins has been excruciatingly difficult. Essentially every minute of every day is spent taking care of them. The process of feeding, changing diapers, washing bottles, playing with Chase and so on is non-stop. When one baby is asleep the other one is often crying. As soon as one stops crying the other one starts. It may be easier if Mason wasn't so fussy, but he's basically a full-time job on his own. We know that better days are ahead and the thought of the future keeps us going. But right now is pretty brutal. As difficult as it is we are counting our blessings. I'm convinced that having more than two babies at a time - like man walking on the moon - is a hoax.