Little Kangaroo

Gardner is getting the hang of his jumpy-thing. Maisey is observing from the Exersaucer.

Car Seats and Swings

Who knew car seats could be so much fun? Malloy enjoys playing in them with her dolls and her real-life doll, Maisey. I think she was pretending they were going on a trip in the car, with a dog in her lap, wearing Kyle's size 4 denim jacket with a lambswool collar. Did I mention it is 100 degrees here everyday? You can only do so many things inside besides watching TV. I was glad she was finding a way to use her imagination. Gardner was sleeping during all of this fun. Maisey woke up from her nap and Parker (the boy American Girl twin) got booted out of the tan car seat to make room for her. He had to share the infant seat with his twin, Lilly. You will see that Kit and Bitty Baby are also along for the ride. Why do I have so many car seats you ask? Well, two of them are actually used on a regular basis by the babies. The others need to go up in the attic, but I was washing all of the covers. I haven't been too motivated to climb up to the sweltering attic, so they've been cluttering up my master bedroom for a few weeks.

It was only 93 degrees this afternoon (with a heat index of 100); therefore, I thought it was a perfect day to take the babies outside to play. Actually, it was overcast and there was a very slight breeze, so it felt pretty good. These kids were born in Louisiana. I am sure they are accustomed to these temperatures by now.


Malloy enjoyed pushing and serenading Maisey, as well as biting her toes. Maisey didn't seem to mind.

Gardner was hanging out in the bucket swing with his Hugga Bebe insert. Malloy also enjoyed playing with his feet.

Happy Maisey!

Gardner looks so long when he is all stretched out like that!

My Little Model

I was so flattered when my friend and clothing designer, Carrie, asked if Malloy could model some of her Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 designs. The pictures are going to be used on promotional postcards and on her website. Malloy did a great job. The little boy kissing her in the picture below is her friend, Murphy.

Matchy Matchy

As I may have previously mentioned, dressing the twins in coordinating clothes might be considered one of my new hobbies. If I can find a matching big sister outfit it is even more fun. I didn't get a chance to get a picture of all three kids in their coordinating green gingham because someone had to go and mess up her outfit (Maisey) before I could get all of them together.

Kyle took the pictures of Gardner and Maisey on the couch. You'll see below that he perfectly captured Gardner's "sad" face. The best part about having a fast camera is being able to capture things that happen quickly - like the change in expression on Gardner's face after he falls over.

Gardner and Maisey looking quite happy

Uh oh, Gardner is beginning to lose his balance...

...and he tumbles forward. Notice he is not upset about this change in position yet.

Awww, there is that signature "sad" face. Look at that forehead!

Maisey doesn't know what is going on.

Upright and happy again

Malloy and Gardner pose for a picture. Check out the tan on Malloy!

I swear we use SPF 50 on this child too.

Baby Food

We have been trying all sorts of baby food lately. I haven't determined if Maisey and Gardner have any favorites yet.

Maisey shows off her two teeth

Gardner needs to be entertained while waiting for dinner

The tower of baby food

Speaking of food....Malloy is making some progress in eating "normal" food. She has taken a liking to hamburger pizza. Unfortunately, she only likes pizza from one particular restaurant and her love of hamburger pizza has not translated to a love of actual hamburgers. We're working on it!

Summer Photos

We got everyone ready and out the door by 8 am for a quick summer photo session. The twins are six months old and almost sitting on their own, so I thought it was a good time to get more pictures taken. The photographer posted this one on her Facebook page already. I am looking forward to seeing what else she was able to capture. She told me that she can do a lot of Photoshopping - switching heads from different pictures - to get one with all three kids smiling. I don't think she had to do anything to this one. I was pretty impressed that she was able to catch all three looking at the camera. We started taking pictures at 8:30 am and it was already H-O-T so we didn't last long.

After we got home, everyone took a nap (including Mommy and Daddy). Gardner actually took the longest nap of all. Malloy said "Gardner, you are the best! If there was a trophy for sleeping, you would have won." It is hard to believe that Gardner has become a good sleeper. I thought he was going to be one of those babies who just didn't like or need a lot of sleep. I really think his reflux is what caused him so much trouble in the first few months. He seems to have completely outgrown it. He hasn't been taking Prevacid for over a month and he goes down for naps and to bed at night without a problem. I was worried he was going to be addicted to sleeping in the swing. For a while, that was the only place he would take a good nap. It was actually much easier than I expected to get him out of the swing and into his bed for naps. I really can't complain - I've got two babies who take good naps and sleep from 7 pm to 6:30 am. Malloy doesn't nap much anymore, but she goes to bed easily at night and gets her 11-12 hours of beauty sleep too.

The babies were supposed to have their 6 mo. check up this week, but I had to reschedule it. The only thing worse than taking one baby for shots, is taking two babies for shots... by yourself! I need to bring reinforcements when I go to the doctor. Ms. Rosemary had to go out of town unexpectedly, so I have rescheduled for a time when she can go with me. Gardner goes back for another scan of his flat head on Wednesday. I can handle taking him by myself. It is actually sort of fun to go somewhere with "just" one baby. Maisey will be at home with a sitter and Malloy will be at camp. He is doing great with tummy time and he actually rolls on to his tummy to sleep a lot, so I hope there will be some improvement in this head shape and we can avoid the helmet.

The babies are still having 6-8 ounce bottles every 4 hours and having one meal of cereal with baby food each day. I suppose we are going to have to increase that to three meals of baby food pretty soon. It sure is going to be messy! Thankfully, they have gotten better about eating from a spoon so it doesn't take quite as long. Kyle doesn't care much for feeding the babies food. He said, "I would rather change a thousand dirty diapers than feed them baby food." Luckily, I don't dislike it that much. I need to invent a straight jacket/bib so I can keep their hands out of their mouths while I am feeding them. I am just glad that they seem to enjoy eating for now. Malloy is still the World's Pickiest Eater so it is a constant struggle to find something that she wants to eat. Gardner is especially interested in food. Today at breakfast, he tried to steal a hashbrown off of Kyle's fork!

The Big Haircut

On Sunday, Malloy took me by surprise when she asked if she could get her hair cut. Getting a short haircut was something usually used as a threat whenever Malloy refused to let me brush her hair. The conversation would go something like this, "Malloy, if you don't let me brush your hair, I am going to cut it all off!" This is actually what happened to me when I was about 5. I had long hair in preschool and then had very short hair in Kindergarten. When I asked my mom why my hair was so short, she said it was because I wouldn't let her brush it. I often recounted this story to Malloy to lend credibility to my threat - if it happened to me, it could happen to you too!

After the movie Tangled came out last winter, I would use that as motivation to encourage Malloy to cooperate with hair brushing. "Don't you want to have hair like Rapunzel, Malloy? You have to let me brush it so it will grow long and beautiful." Needless to say, the chore of fixing Malloy's hair was an on-going battle, and I felt like I was chasing her around with a hairbrush every morning trying to get her looking presentable. Maybe a shorter hair-do wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. I don't know what came over Malloy on Sunday, but she told me she was positive that she wanted to cut her hair like her American Girl doll, Kit. I was a little hesitant - no more pony tails, pig tails, or long flowing hair, but I figured a short little bob would be cute and if she (or I) hated it, it would always grow back.

Fortunately for us, my hair stylist was working on Sunday and had an available appointment. Once I told Malloy that she could do it, there was no turning back. She asked me all day if it was time to get her haircut yet. When we arrived at the salon, there was no hesitation. She acted like she had had a million haircuts (actually, only one in a real salon and a few at home) and especially enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror while the cutting and styling was going on.

Eagerly awaiting her turn.

The hair before the big cut.

Enjoying a nice shampoo.

I think she must have cut off at least 6 inches of hair!

Blow dry!

Voila! The new 'do.

Now she looks EXACTLY like Kit.

4th of July Fun

We kicked off our 4th of July festivities with a trip to Lake Bistineau on Saturday. Marshall, Amy and the girls were staying there for the weekend. Katherine and her crew also ventured out to the lake, and the cousins had a great time playing together.

Gardner didn't feel like taking a nap, so we hung out on the dock with me. It was a little warm out there! Poor little guy has some red cheeks!

Gardner giggles when his daddy kisses his neck.

The girls enjoyed tubing on the lake.

Maisey really was there too, but I don't have a single picture of her from that day. She was snoozing away inside like a good little girl. Below is a recent picture of her. I thought it would be fun to put a bow in her crazy long/short/light/dark hair. It will be interesting to see what color it eventually turns out to be.

On Sunday, we headed over to East Ridge for a little swimming. This time, we took Jennifer, our trusty babysitter, with us. As you can see, Gardner enjoyed swimming with her.

Malloy waiting in line to test out the new slide.

Kyle and Maisey

After swimming, Jennifer watched the babies while Kyle, Malloy and I went to a 4th of July party and then back to East Ridge for the fireworks display.

On Monday morning, we participated in the Firecracker 5K run/walk. It is an annual event and since the route goes right through our neighborhood, we thought it would be fun to walk - there was definitely no running for us! We ran into Kyle's sister, Katherine, and her kids as well as Granddaddy.

After the race, we loaded up our crew and headed to the Tucker's annual 4th of July party. Everyone swam, and Gardner once again fell asleep in the pool. Both babies napped together in a pack and play. It was really cute, but I didn't have my camera with me to catch a picture. Below is picture of the babies hanging out in Gardner's crib. A lot of people ask if they sleep in the same crib. They did for about the first 3 weeks, but then they started sleeping in separate cribs. As you can see, it would be a pretty tight fit.