They went home in the early part of February—first Isaac, the larger one, then Gabriel. This in itself was a singular achievement.

As you may recall, they arrived two months prematurely at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Gabriel weighing in at a little under two pounds and Isaac at a little under four.

Today Isaac, the larger, is up over nine pounds, and Gabriel, the smaller, is over five.

Today, too, Gabriel looks much less like Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame, although he could still use some hair. Isaac, on the other hand, has lots of it and is pretty much a full-term baby.

We, as grandparents, think they are absolutely adorable, a sentiment we like to think is shared by all those who see them.

And an amazing number of people have seen them. That's because their dad is a computer software engineer, and, as a proud new father, he's created a website just for them. It includes pictures of Mom before and after the births, a running account of the C-section that brought them into the world, and a status report, issued every few days, of their progress.

The status report also includes pictures of The Boys and various visitors, their nurses while they were in the hospital, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and so on. As befitting the modern age, all the pictures on the website were taken with a digital camera and transferred electronically to the web. Don't ask me how. It just happens—or, as a friend says, it is all plus and zeros.

In any event, The Boys are home where they ought to be, firmly in the hands of Mom and Dad, who previously had to travel back and forth to the hospital and spend most of their day there helping tend them.

At home, as at the hospital, both boys spend most of their time eating and sleeping.

In Gabriel's case, most of the time is spent eating because he has been trying since birth to catch up with his brother. And he is. But Isaac likes to eat, too, and does—a lot. He tends to sleep a lot, too, or at least more than Gabriel. Maybe that's because even though he is a twin, he is currently the bigger twin. I suspect that won't last very long, though.

Gabriel has had the larger share of complications, as you might expect, from being born two months early and from being so small. A couple of weeks ago he had a hernia operation, a problem not uncommon in premature babies. He weathered the surgery just fine. All he wanted to do when he woke up from the anesthesia was eat.

He also has passed various eye and ear tests and seems to be developing normally. Considering what he has been through—an arrival two months too early, a blood transfusion (for anemia, another preemie problem), his surgery and frequent "bradys," a sudden slowing of the heart (which Isaac also experienced), a condition now slowly disappearing—Gabriel has done very well.

Much of this, of course, is due to the loving care of his parents, for whom Isaac and Gabriel are the first and probably last children.

And then there have been devoted visitors and helpers, including Aunt Catherine, who drove to and from Marin County on a daily basis to help out in the hospital; Aunt Betty, who lives far away but has been a constant help; and Carol and Marvin, the other grandparents, who have been grocery shoppers, general helpers and all that grandparents are supposed to be.

And last but by no means least, great care has been rendered by the wonderful staff at Lucile Packard—both doctors and nurses, who turn out daily miracles.

Not all these miracles are premature babies, however. The hospital staff deals with many other conditions, often much more complex than those experienced by Gabriel and Isaac.

The hospital, one of the great benefits lavished on this area by the family of the late David Packard (along with the Monterey Bay Aquarium), has an exemplary neonatal center that draws patients from all over the United States. Not all its patients, of course, are preemies. The hospital also treats children of all ages with conditions that stagger the imagination—diseases and conditions generally unheard of in the general population. And the patients have a mortality rate of only 4 percent.

In another life a good 25 years ago, I was the public information officer for San Jose's only teaching hospital in the days when it still had a neonatal nursery. My recollection of those times is that infant mortality was not uncommon, certainly higher than 4 percent.

I'm immensely grateful my grandsons were born now, not then, and that Lucile Packard Children's Hospital is where it is and that it was able to assure life for Gabriel and Isaac.