Happy Halloween!

For the girls' first Halloween, we dressed them up as baby skeletons. Then we brought them to a party where they met lots of new people and had a great time.

The next day was spent shopping and setting up the baby room. We actually think we have enough stuff for when the girls come home... At least, we will last about a week until we run out of diapers - we're told that newborn twins use 156 diapers a week! We've also graduated from baby school, so we feel very prepared (false sense of security, we know).

Does she look like either of us?

So our hospital has super-fancy ultrasound machines that do the whole "4D" image thing. That's the type of ultrasound you can purchase at the mall, but ours is paid for by insurance thanks to our high-tech twin needs. We've been shown a lot of 4D ultrasounds at our visits, but mostly they were a little too weird-looking to share – the techs warned us that this would be the case until the babies put on a little fat. I guess they're getting chubby, as right before the wedding we got some good images (while Grandma Brenda was in attendance). They're almost all of Amelia – even when we tried to look at Eloise, Amelia would butt her head in the way and say "look at me instead!". So here is an Amelia headshot.

We did get one good shot with Eloise. Here we managed to capture her receiving a kiss from her sister (so cute we had to frame it). They say twins start bonding in the womb, and here's proof!

The knot is tied!

We did it! Thank you thank you thank you to our friends and family - your love, well-wishes, humor, suggestions, and support made our wedding weekend better than we could have imagined. A special shout-out of gratitude goes to our many camera-wielding friends and relatives - we can't wait to see all of the moments we missed. We'll sort and post photos of the ceremony, reception, and other festivities as they come in. Until then, enjoy these few photos capturing our last moments as single gals. FYI, that look in Tami's eyes is excitement, not fear. Or at least that's the story she's sticking to...

She's definitely preggers!

It's official (as if it wasn't already) - Christine really is pregnant. While shopping for comfortable shoes, Christine was asked whether she was six or seven months pregnant (she's actually five months). We were wondering when the twins questions would start coming, and it looks like the time is now. Barring any surprises, we don't expect to meet Eloise and Amelia until Christmas or later. Christine is still holding up like a champ, and the kids look great at every doctor's appointment.

Pink!

We now have a baby room - RIP to our former home office/piano room/exercise room. And to make it official, the room is pink! Yes, Tami has talked Christine into pink paint - did you ever think you'd see the day? The color is officially named "elephant pink", which goes with the pink elephant decor we're planning for the room. Yes, we chose a paint color because of its name (partly).

As for the future occupants, they and their incubator are doing great. Do you think Christine looks pregnant yet? We had another super-long ultrasound on Friday (twins like attention), and everyone looked as they should. The kids are still very active, and have been entertaining us with their frequent bumps and kicks.

Back to the salt mines (ok, eco-friendly, fumeless paint-filled room) to finish up our girly decorating for the evening.

A is for Amelia, B is for Eloise

This is the baby formerly known as Twin A, now officially known as Amelia Joyce Fisher.







And this is the baby formerly known as Twin B, now officially known as Eloise Colleen Fisher.





We found out today that the twins are healthy and growing right on schedule. Oh, and that they're girls. Christine made it abundantly clear that we wanted to know our babies' gender. After being told that finding out the gender is difficult at 16 1/2 weeks as babies are not often cooperative so early, Eloise and Amelia...well...let's just say they were quite obliging. They were also once again big hams for the ultrasound – starting off the scan by having a fist fight, and ending with crawling all over each other. If their in-utero habits are anything to go by, we're going to have our hands full. We have ultrasounds every two weeks for the next few months, so there will be lots of updates to come!

Hotel ideas

We've been doing a little research on places for our out-of-town visitors to stay. To start off, a disclaimer - neither of us have really been tourists in San Francisco, so we don't have any personal experience in this area. We also have not looked at hotels in nearby cities, such as Oakland, Berkeley, or Marin. We tried to find places under $200 a night (a bit of a challenge in the City). We looked into group rates, but it doesn't seem likely we'll get enough of a critical mass to make that feasible. We did inquire about discounts and found that most hotels will give AAA or AARP discounts if you call directly, so please check it out. Also, we'd recommend that you book soon, as some hotels are already booking up for October and the best rates are available early.

As for where to stay in San Francisco, if you haven't been here we might suggest Union Square. It's central, has lots of nearby shopping and entertainment, and has easy public transportation to other touristy places like Fisherman's Wharf. For the young hipsters, perhaps check out the Mission District, where we found a neat looking B&B. Below are a few of our suggestions; feel free to call or email us if you've found something and want a little more information about the location.

For a perfect location, perhaps check out The Powell Hotel. Some friends recommended this place for their wedding visitors, and said it got good reviews. It's right on the trolley turnaround, next to Union Square, and directly across the street from the fancy downtown mall. Prices are extremely good for the area. Caveats - it's an older hotel that's not super fancy and has poor disability accessibility. And it might be a bit noisy - we recommend asking for a room in the back.

Up the hill a little is a slightly fancier (and a bit more expensive) hotel - The Orchard Hotel. It's one (rather steep) block above the shops on Union Square. This hotel gets very good reviews on tripadvisor, and despite its quality is still less expensive than many places nearby. And as added bonuses, it's a very green hotel and is has excellent disability accessibility (aside from the hill).

In the Mission, tripadvisor recommends Inn San Francisco, which is a charming-looking B&B in a beautiful Victorian mansion. The Mission is a hip neighborhood near our house, and the hotel is walking distance from public transit to downtown. However, don't expect this area to be very touristy, and you might want to be careful walking around the nearby streets late at night.

Of course, there are many other great options in and near the city. Good luck and hope to see you in October!