Beautiful

Chad and I haven't been in the US since November of last year. In the intervening six months we have blocked out what jet lag feels like. Today, we are being not-so-gently reminded that the human body just isn't built to travel through 10 and 1/2 time zones all at once. And while this hasn't been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day--at least not quite--it hasn't been roses and gum drops either. I slept fine on the plane, but Chad only slept for two hours out of the thirteen. I think, however, that we both feel equally grumpy and intolerable of others. So, obviously, instead of staying home and nursing our jet lag in semi-solitude, we're going to go visit family and share our positive attitudes and outlooks on life with them. I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, back in Delhi, our babies are doing swimmingly well. We had an exceptionally wonderful visit with the ultrasound doctor on monday. It was the first time we had attended an ultrasound, and our surromama looked great. She had a tiny little baby bump. I imagine that by the time we get back to Delhi seven weeks from now, she'll have more that just a little bump. All through the procedure she looked at the screen and smiled.

The ultrasound doctor, Dr. K, comes highly recommended in Delhi. We were actually going to request that Dr. Indira schedule an appointment with him because several of our colleagues at school have found his care thorough and highly professional. Then out of the blue last week, Dr. Indira emailed and said that this scan would be with him. Cool! Come to find out, Dr. Indira and Dr. K have worked together for a long time, and she even did part of her studies with him.

We showed up for the scan right on time (which is amazing, given the day we had). But, Dr. K's office was running about 45 minutes behind. I have to say that this is the first time we've had to wait for medical services for more than 10 minutes, so Chad and I were a little thrown off by that. But, Dr. Indira had told us that we'd probably have to wait. About 2:45, we met the good doctor, and then we met our babies. What an incredible experience. I think we interrupted their fun, as it appeared that they were having a little dance party for two in utero. The were wiggling and dancing and hopping, and it was beautiful. Dr. K narrated the entire ultrasound. Every move he made and measurement he took he described in crystal clear detail so we knew exactly what was going on. "Everything is just beautiful," he kept repeating in between his medical narration. I couldn't agree more!

After the scan we talked to Dr. Indira for about five minutes about our surromama, and a few other details. Then, we waited around for about 10 more minutes and the clinic made us a CD of the scan with two videos and about 16 pictures.

In other (less important) news, Chad and I had the busiest Monday ever. We started early with a run to the airport to drop off a friend's son, and then we dove in to packing the last 5 boxes of things we had been using right up to the last minute in our apartment. The painting in the new apartment was supposed to be completed the day before, but was still being touched up that morning (grr!), so we were about 2 hours delayed in starting to shift boxes. Finally at 11, about 10 workers from school started to empty our old apartment and fill our new apartment. Chad and our house keeper directed the loading process, and I directed the unloading process. Then, we left the workers alone with the housekeeper to keep working while we went to the ultrasound, then we came back and supervised the arrival of the last few boxes at the new place. Then, we hastily began unpacking the boxes that were absolutely essential for our housekeeper to stay there with our dog over the summer, and then at 6:50 PM we stopped the whole operation, ran back to the old apartment to jump in the shower and grab our suitcases, and by 8:00 we were headed to the airport. On the way to the airport in Delhi, Chad informed me that we are never to shift apartments on a day we are also leaving Delhi for the summer and having a baby appointment ever again. No problem!

And finally, I am pleased to report that I got a new computer! The only reason I consider this newsworthy is that my old computer had become so defunct that the backspace key wasn't functioning any more. Since approximately the middle of February I've been writing without the ability to immediately erase errors. Every time I made a typing mistake I had to shit+arrow back and highlight the mistake and then replace it. Now I'm writing sentences and erasing them just because I can. Feels good.

(Top picture of both twins: torso of one and head of the other; second picture of twin A; third picture of twin B)