The Helmet

Hi, I am Gardner and I have a flat head

Here I am in my new helmet

I am showing Maisey how it works

She is helping me put it on

But first, she wanted to see what it tasted like

She is worn out after a big day at school.
 I had to go the doctor to get my helmet, so she was missing me all day.

Maisey is loving her blanket almost as much as Malloy loves hers.

Our big sister was nice enough to share some of her Italian Ice with us.  We loved it!

This is Malloy...

I thought it was funny that Malloy is wearing pink nail polish in her self portrait.  She also appears to be making an obscene gesture with her right hand.

It's Official...Gardner's Crawling

He's got the hand and knee coordination and he's on the move

High Style Lipstick

My child watches too much TV.  I will be the first to admit that.  She is also very observant of commercials.  I have heard her ask for items she has seen advertised and even use phrases word for word from the commercial.  For instance, "Mommy, I really need to you to get me a Pack It so my juice will stay refrigerator cold".  She also asked me if some jean leggings I bought her were Pajama Jeans.  She really hoped so because regular jeans leave ugly red marks.  Today she was performing a commercial for a product she called "High Style Lipstick".  I have never heard of this, so I think it was completely made up.  Malloy says it is available at highstylelipstick.com and it never smears.  I think she may have a future as a spokeswomen.

Three in the Tub

More Teeth!

Maisey's top teeth have finally made an appearance.  She's had the bottom ones for about 4 months now.  Gardner is still toothless.  I keep thinking he's going to get some any day.

Here's a picture of Maisey's new pearly whites.

A Long Week

I can officially say I survived a week as a single parent.  Kyle had to go to Atlanta for a continuing education seminar.  He left Sunday afternoon, got back late Friday night, and then turned right around and went to College Station, TX on Saturday.  I didn't do it completely alone - I had some help from Ms. Rosemary during bath/ feeding/bedtime on Monday and Wednesday evenings.  My regular Friday night sitter, Jennifer, was on duty too to relieve me after a long week.  I have never been so happy for 5 pm to roll around!

I think the most challenging part of being alone is getting ready in the morning.  I had some spectators as I was showering, fixing my hair, and putting on make up.

Not only did I have to get myself ready, but Malloy had school pictures on Wednesday so I had to fix her hair too.

This week, Gardner decided to start standing up in his crib.  

Good thing I lowered that mattress on Sunday night after Kyle left town!

Wednesday was Spirit Day at the twins school. 

 They were supposed to wear their First Presbyterian Day School t-shirts.

Gardner is on the move!  He is already cruising around the furniture.  He is also moving from place to place on his hands and knees.  It doesn't look exactly like crawling, but it is effective in getting him where he wants to go.  The other day, he was sitting on the rug in his room and the next thing I knew, his entire body except for his head was under the crib.  I guess he scooted backwards on his tummy and got stuck.  I would have taken a picture, but he was really mad so I had to rescue him right away.

Lazy Maisey woke up from her nap (still in her PJs because she is so lazy) and was looking awfully cute.

Feeding time has gotten more pleasant around our house.  The babies actually seem to enjoy food.  We tried yogurt this weekend and it was a big hit.

They also really like these crackers called Baby Mum Mums.  They are made of rice and basically dissolve when they get wet.  They also turn into glue when they get dropped on the floor.  I have spent a lot of time scraping them off the wood floor.  

Maisey is getting much better at self feeding.  Check out the pincer grasp!

Sometimes the stars don't exactly make it in the mouth!

Kyle took Malloy with him to the A&M game.  Here they are with Uncle Marshall.  He is the Aggie in the family.  Kyle and Malloy just support the team because we live too far away from our Georgia Bulldogs.  I think this is Malloy 6th college football game.  We are breaking her in early.

Family Outing

Today, we did something that we rarely do.  We took the whole family out for the day.  Kyle's dad's company was having it's family picnic at Party Central.  It is a local place with miniature golf, go carts, bumper cars, arcade games and rides.  The weather was pretty nice and it happened to fall at a good time of day for us.  The babies eat around 11 and then they don't need another bottle until 3.

Gardner and Maisey did very well in the confines of the umbrella stroller for about the first 30 minutes.

I think G-Man grew tired of the stroller, so he got out and big sister jumped in.

Maisey thought Malloy's name tag was hilarious.  

I had to post this picture of Carolyn.  She is Kyle's dad's secretary and one of my most faithful blog readers.  Something was wrong with my camera settings.  Sorry for the blurry picture!

Photographic evidence that I was actually there too.

At some point, Granddaddy decided it was a good idea to give Gardner some of the blue Snow Cone.

Then he apparently also ordered an orange Snow Cone and shared it with the babies (see Gardner's chin and bib).  I actually ran into my pediatrician while we were at Party Central.  It was her son's birthday and he was having his party there.  I am pretty sure she would not approve of Snow Cones for 8 month olds.

Malloy and Kyle enjoyed the spinning bumper things.  Fortunately, they had the whole ride to themselves and didn't have to worry about anyone crashing into them.

When we got home, the babies were all off schedule.  They each took naps at different times.  Gardner must have been sleeping while Maisey played.  I just had to snap these pictures of Maisey and her FULL and THICK head of hair.

Malloy's First Day - K-4

After posting about the twins' first day of "school", I realized that I forgot to mention Malloy's.  She has been in school now for about two weeks.  We absolutely LOVE her school, and her teacher this year is just as sweet as can be.  This is a picture of Malloy and Mrs. Yeates on the first day of school.


Malloy and her friend, Piper, get the baby dressed.

Posing with some of her buddies from last year - Helen, Landry and Caroline.

Piper, Carolanne, and Kennedy are all new to St. Paul's this year.  I know they are going to love it!  I never realized how tall Malloy was until I looked at these pictures.

First Day Of School & Bathtub Built for Two

Yesterday was the twins' first day of "school".  They are going to the same program that Malloy went to when she was a baby.  It is Tues, Wed, and Thurs 8:30-2:00.  As you can see, Gardner's day did not get off to a great start.  In all fairness, he woke up at 5:25 that morning and was beyond ready for a nap by 8:30 a.m.  He was really more tired than unhappy about his new surroundings.


Malloy helped me drop everyone off for their first day.  She was showing Maisey the ropes in her old classroom.

Yesterday was the first day I have been alone in my house since the twins were born.  Some of my twin mom friends told me that keeping your kids at home with a sitter is easier than getting them to Mothers' Day Out.  I agree that it is more trouble to load everyone up, but having the house to myself for a few hours is worth it!  After school, we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Maisey loved swinging.  Doesn't she look happy??  Well, a few hours later she had a fever of 102.7 and had to miss her second day of school. :(  We went to the doctor today, and after a finger prick and throat swab, the doctor diagnosed it as "just a virus".

I went ahead and sent Gardner to school.  Maisey and I had the whole day to ourselves.  After the doctor's office, we took a quick trip to Wal-Mart (her first trip EVER to ANY store), then met a friend for lunch.  I was reminded of how easy it is to do things with just one baby.


Now for my latest invention - a bathtub built for two!

While we were in Chicago, we gave the babies a bath in the kitchen sink.  They were still a little too wobbly for my liking.  Now that they are good sitters, I decided to bathe both of them in the sink at the same time.  It was so much fun!  Each baby had his/her own compartment, and they were splashing and splashing and having a ball.

"Hey Gardner, you're getting water in my eyes!"

Maisey was doing her share of splashing too.

They shared their toys.

What?  We made a huge mess and got water all over the floor?