Guus Bosman

Leo and Adrian are 9 days old today which means that they've slept more nights at home then in the hospital. Well, "nights" is a big word for stretches of sleep no more than two hours.

We are still trying to figure out our routines and schedules but we're getting a bit of a handle on things. One lessons we learned from Nora is to write down when they wake up and eat (which is typically at the same time).

It's been cold and snowy weather the whole week of Leo and Adrian's life. Yesterday there was a big snowstorm again.

At 7.30 pm, just as we were preparing Sasha's birthday dinner, the power went off in our neighborhood. I was outside shoveling the snow when I saw three bright flashes in the sky. Most likely some electrical transformers exploded somewhere.

We have plenty of emergency lights and our dinner was ready, but the cold weather is scary without power since our heating is electric. The temperature dropped 3 degrees Fahrenheit in 45 minutes and I had visions about having to heat the house with the fireplace and having everybody sleep downstairs.

After a while one of our neighbors stopped by and offered us to stay at their place since they still had power, which was very kind.

Thankfully things were resolved in 45 minutes. Nora said: "papa was geschrokken!". Spot-on.

We came home from the hospital yesterday and we spent the first night together as a family of five.

Going home was stressful, and so was figuring out all the small details for the first time. In the car we worried when the boys were crying. "Why are they crying?!". Then when they stopped crying we were also worried. "Why are they not crying?!". Haha.

But in the evening we had time for a sit-down dinner together which was really nice.

Through the night the boys woke up several times and we're all getting used to us. One lesson we still remember from Nora: sleep when the babies sleep -- so we took our first nap at 9.00 pm.

We made every effort to have Nora's birthday as special for her as possible. Getting two little brothers is going to be an adjustment and birthdays are important.

I woke her up at 8.10 am by taking her in my arms and she quickly start to move around and opened her eyes. "Zeg Nora, wie is er eigenlijk jarig vandaag?", I asked. "Nora!" she said and she smiled wide. We saw a video message from Sasha which she liked a lot, and then we went downstairs. There were balloons and decorations and we opened several presents. A balance bike from us and several books from Opa and Oma. Lelya Snezha arrived and had a lovely baby stroller for her. I left for the hospital.

In the afternoon her friend Eli came to visit and our friends Lori, Ginny, Judy and Lelya Snezha threw her a nice party. We are very grateful for that.

When I got home she told me that she had a nice birthday, but "Ik ben nu niet meer jarig" -- the day for her ended after her nap, haha. Then we went shopping together, which was nice.