July 23, 1998
More new pictures and Sara's New Trick.
Note: On the July 9th report, when I said Jill was my editor, what I really meant was that when I can get her to read this report, she's the editor. Given the frequency of errors , this obviously occurs on an infrequent basis. So, for those grammarians who read this: If there are errors, they're mine. Please don't call, email, telegram, or otherwise harass Jill about errors that you find and maybe she'll stop harassing me about the errors that she finds.

July 17, 1998

We would like to congratulate Bryan and Mel Harston on the birth of their first son, Noah Connell Harston, who was born Wednesday, July 15, at 1:25 pm at Harris Methodist H.E.B. hospital in Bedford Texas.

Its been a pretty uneventful week. The babies are all fine.

As you can see, we've got new pictures. Therefore, obviously, I have my new scanner.

Here's some tech notes and a brief review: LeoScan S3: Its cheap, it comes with very little documentation--none for Macintosh--what little it has is written in very broken English. When it works, its fast, silent, and produces fair quality scans. However, its' driver's are as stable as a schizophrenic's grip on reality. BOTTOM LINE: You get what you pay for.

In other technology news: The Raines Babies Site has received the generous donation of a digital camera-courtesy of the Babies' Uncle Mike Raines.

Hint: Other donations of hardware or cash will be cheerfully accepted. I could use a 17 inch monitor (much needed) and an Audiomedia III audio card (in my dreams but while I'm dreaming, make it a Digidesign 888).

After Tuesday, you'll have to refer to the missus as "Judge Jill." She takes her seat on the bench for the first time Tuesday. Wish her luck.

Weird baby realization of the week: Babies sweat. It always freaks me out to pick up a sweaty baby.

July 9,1998: Janetta Smith, Jill's roommate back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, told me how much she and her friends enjoy reading my "witty" comments. So, to all my fans in the "Great Out There," I say thanks. To those of you who complain that my updates aren't frequent enough, I'd like to remind you that since I am the Father of Triplets, any updates are a miraculous occurrence on par with...[fill in miracle of your choice].

Writing this page has often seemed an exercise in hot air production. My apparent belief that I have things to say that anyone would care to read seems shamelessly egotistical. I must admit that the babies have merely given me excuse to spout, sputter, and splungle my twisted perspective on things en route to presenting what you really read this page for--information about the adorable Raines Babies.

Just as an FYI, I've been trying to get Jill to contribute to the site but she won't. She's satisfied with her role as my editor and redactor (read: censor).

Pictures. We've recently purchased a cheap scanner and should receive shipment in the next week or so. So, new pictures are on the way...Pictures to look for: Baby Seein', Christening, and 4th of July Parade.

Now, on to the news... Zane seems to be doing very well with his physical therapy and has loosened up lots. He's still much stiffer than the other two and this worries us more than it probably should. Our desire for perfect babies and the realization that they are three separate and wildly divergent beings don't converge often enough for us to relax about differences between the 3. Bottom line: He's fine.

Sara's new trick is displaying her Gene Simmons length tongue which seems to stretch well below the underside of her chin... She's also rolling over, which makes her momma VERY nervous. Back to the top.

Carter has really discovered his voice. He spends many hours each day singing, laughing, cooing, etc. This is quite adorable-in the day that is. It's a far piece less adorable at 4 AM.

It also appears that Carter will be blond-haired and blue-eyed. The jury's still out on the other two. Sara still seems pretty dark-haired, but her eyes are harder to tell. Jill seems to think that Zane's showing signs of increasing blondness, but I'm not so sure. His hair is still pretty dark. His eyes are most likely going to turn out brown.

We participated in the Edmond 4th of July parade with the local Mothers of Multiples chapter. It was fun--that is if your idea of fun is being packed like sardines with 20 hyper children and 20 sweating adults on a small flatbed trailer in 105 degree heat while people point at you with a mixture of pity, fear, and amusement.

I have two mental pictures of the experience. First, imagine a fellow -- barefoot, overalls, a beat straw hat he stole off his pack mule, grinning through his two remaining tobacco stained teeth, squinting through his one good eye -- saying "looka them babies, haw haw, whut'cha wanna go do that fer, haw, haw." Edmond, being the Northern most suburb of Oklahoma County, is right on the outskirts of civilization and parades seem to empty out the outback...

"load up them critters, Ma, We'uns is'a goin ta'town..."
The second image I'm left with is the crotch level view of the crowd from my seat on the float--up the skirts and shorts of all the spectators sitting on the curbs, lounging in lawn chairs, etc. I now know what kind of underwear 50 of the 70 thousand people in Edmond wear. That's the kind of knowledge empires are built on... All for now.

June 22, 1998

Tomorrow I turn 36. Presents will be gratefully accepted but no hoopla, please.

Of course, this past weekend was my first Father's Day. The Babies expressed their appreciation by gratuitously belching, farting, spitting, and pooping--in other words SOP. They'll fit right in at the next Family reunion ( I didn't say which...).

Last Wednesday was the Babies 4 month check up.

The Stats:

Carter: 11 lbs 12 oz, 23 1/4 in.
Sara: 12 lbs 1 oz, 23 3/4 in.
Zane: 13 lbs 1&3/4 oz, 22 3/4 in.

Carter has permission to remain machine free.

Sara is fine.

Zane is fine but his persisting stiffness is a minor concern. However, we have observed considerable loosening up recently and are working with a physical therapist to help insure progress.

Sunday, we had our first trip to the grocery. Despite the considerable oohing, aahing, and general conspicuousness, the babies and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Jill managed to get only slightly insulted by the clueless and stupid comments of the passersby.

June 16, 1998
This past weekend, the babies were baptized by Rev. Rob Morrison at our church, Santa Fe Presbyterian. We had tons of relatives in from every corner of the world. It was quite a weekend. Everyone survived.

Godparents:

Zane: DeAnn Raines (Kelly's Sister), Fred & Courtney Bush (Jill's Brother & Sister-in-law)a

Carter: Mike Raines (Kelly's Brother), Sydney Bush (Jill's Sister).

Sara: Charlotte & Michael Cordova (Jill's Sister & Brother-in-law).

Others in attendance:

Phyllis Raines, Fred & Camille Bush, Charlotte Taggart, Coston & Lorene Bush, Mike Ruch, Clyde & Annette Conger.

June 8, 1998

I took last week off to take care of the babies. Everyone survived--the babies, apparently no worse for the experience.

I came to an important revelation. I love taking care of the babies and don't even mind doing stuff like changing dirty diapers--But, I'm perfectly satisfied letting Jill be the boss in baby matters. I grown to have enough respect for the Maternal Instinct that I have no illusions that I could ever do better than to just follow Jill's instructions. So add this duty to financial matters, household matters, professional matters, and wassamatter matters. What purpose exactly to do I serve around here? Somebody has to kill spiders I suppose.

Carter is thriving and quite happy to be away from all the machines. Sara is finally learning how to smile and laugh, and Zane has mastered the art of communication. That is, he's developed a piercing smoke alarm like screech to let us know when its past time to feed him.

The first week of June, We took the babies on their first out of town trip--to my Mother's in Tulsa for her birthday party and a "Baby Seein'" for her side of the family. Everyone was well behaved including the babies. Jill was nervous about the babies being around so many people for the first time and spent the whole day poised like a jungle cat ready to pounce upon any and all who threatened her litter. I gave her a ball of yarn and some catnip and she settled down.

We'll probably have some pictures of the Baby Seein' up soon.