Parenting

Taking the first step into our fears Watching my children continues to teach me valuable lessons. The big decisions in life are tough and we often put off making a decision as long as possible due to fear and anxiety. This leads to procrastination and can be crippling at times. I started thinking about this while interacting with my oldest daughter at the waterpark a few weekends ago. In the kids pool area there were 3 waterslides. She would happily slide down the smaller two but steadfastly refuse the slightly larger slide. My one and a half year old twins even rode the larger slide but that did little to sway the strong willed 3 year old. In her mind it was a gargantuan waterfall. On the second day there I continued to plead with her to take plunge. It would be so much fun I assured her but she couldn’t look past her fear. As a last ditch effort I offered a treat in return for trying the slide. Her expression immediately perked up at the sound of that magical word and she ran straight to the top of the slide. ...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0yzUuHBW3o?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w;=500&h;=281] I’ve always thought Jim Gaffigan was hilarious. His jokes about having a million children have always been funny, but I never would have imagined his family living on the top floor of a 5 story walk in a 2 bedroom apartment. I though I was weird for having 3 kids in 2 bedroom apartment. Take a look, it’s a great interview. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

It turns out my wife is a fantastic writer. She has written an excellent, entertaining, and thorough run down of what an average day for us looks like. Raising a 2 year old while managing newborn twins is pretty hectic and challenging. Its sometimes surprising that we’re surviving all of this. A day in the life…triple insanity

We got to see the twins again today. Twin A is slightly smaller and really active. The little stinker was doing flips and waving during the ultrasound. Twin B is slightly bigger and the more mellow twin. Sounds like there’s a little Tif and a little me in there!

I love Apple and the products they create. I always had an interest in gadgets but was too busy playing guitar and trying to keep an old Dell laptop working to take it much further than that. It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago and bought my first Macbook Pro that I fell in love technology. There is something in the design of Apple products that makes them a pleasure to use, and that is thanks to the vision and genius of Steve Jobs. ...

We obviously knew Tif was pregnant. We were trying to have our second baby and today was our first ultra sound. As the nurse started the ultrasound the first thing she says is “uh oh, your having twins.” Haha, funny joke. I thought, this nurse is funny. Then I see two sacs as she says “better you than me.” WHAT!!! Turns out that there’s two babies in there. I started sweating. HOLY CRAP! Twins!!Tif and I always said that we wanted two babies. I never considered having more. I was good with two. Well, God had different plans. This generation of Schaaff’s will number 5 just like the previous one. We’re e excited, but if I’m to be transparent, I must admit I’m super scared. I was already a little nervous about waking up all night again. Now I’m worried about how the heck I’m going to take care of two newborns and a toddler! I already know this will be the hardest thing we’ve ever done, but it will also be the most rewarding. I definitely don’t know how we’re gonna do it…but I know that we will. Please send up some prayer for us. There will be a lot of logistical and personal challenges and we need all the grace we can get. ...