32 years ago today....

I made my auspicious entrance into the world, but the story is quite fun.

My poor mother was on bed rest during most the pregnancy with complications, don't really know what they all were, but since she wasn't allowed to pick up my sister, Tania still hasn't forgiven me!  Well, what was bed rest turned to panic as labor pains started nearly two months early!  YIKES!  Dad rushed mom to the Hospital, while grandparents watched the other four at home.

They hit the neo-natal unit, or whatever it's called, and you know one of those Oh, S**T moments that dawns on someone's face, ummm.... The nurse was trying to read the baby's heartbeat with a stethascope, when all of a sudden her face panics and looks at my mom: "I think I hear two heart beats!"  The Doctor looks at her: "What?!?!  Give me that!"  After a few seconds, his face does the same utter transformation.  "We got issues here, people!"

They were able to slow down mom's progression and get things quiet for the night, so dad headed home.  Unbeknowst to him, however, the parking lot had iced over and he fell getting into the car!  Oi!

Well, to make matters worse, my older brother had a propensity to run through the house and trip and fall into those old, huge, cast iron heaters that sat beside doors and such, busting his head open.  Yep, managed to do that the next morning!

So, dad's back at the hospital with mom, bro's upstairs getting his head stitched together and mom's in the OR for a C-Section.  What a grand and glorious day it was!  They ripped me from the comforts of the womb first and sure enough my twin bro showed shortly afterwards.  (We always contend that they named us backwards, but that's beside the point.)

Dad managed to call his in-laws, and reported: "Mom and the boys are doing fine."  "Boys, plural?"  "Oh, yeah, sorry, didn't get a chance to call, we had twins!"  Yep, dad's life was effectively over at that point!

The nurse's felt so bad for mom, because we were so small, she couldn't hold us (I was in intensive care at the time), plus her other son was upstairs; they went against doctor's wishes and took mom up to see Keith.

Well, 20 days later, they finally brought us home and put us where else?  Under the Christmas Tree!  (Tania was, and still is, looking for the gift exchange on that one!)

 Mom and dad left the ankle bracelets on till they could tell us apart, which for dad was somewhere around our 18th birthday!

Happy Birthday, Kurt!