Miscellaneous Silliness

Someone is starting to have some pretty funny looking hair. Kyle said she needs a trim because she is beginning to look like a werewolf.  It looks even better than usual when she has been eating something sticky and then pulls it straight out on the sides.

Speaking of crazy hair, Malloy is well known for her awesome bed head.  This weekend she dressed herself.  I really love the stylish sequined Santa purse.  This girl knows how to accessorize.

I may have mentioned that I get a kick out of matching the kids' outfits.  Malloy and Maisey were "twins" yesterday.  Both also have some rockin' bed head going on.

Check out Maisey's mouth in the picture below.  She really wishes that cup was in her mouth instead of Malloy's.

"What?  You're not going to share with me?"

Aw, how nice of Malloy to share her cup [and germs] with her little twin.

Gardner and Grandma.  He is showing off his two teeth in this picture.

I am not sure why Maisey is holding Gardner's finger.  It might have been to prevent him from touching her book.

Silly big sister.

Maisey was going crazy in the jumperoo.

Malloy was showing Gardner her love.

He, however, was not enjoying it.

Blankie Lovers

Like mother, like daughter... and daughter, and son.  I had a special blankie when I was little, and I sucked my thumb until I was in Kindergarten.  I am sure it would have continued even longer had I not been bribed with the option to get my ears pierced in exchange for throwing away my blanket.  Malloy has had a special blanket named "Night Night" since she was about one.  It used to be fluffy white and is now a dull grey with a tattered pink satin edge.  Her favorite corner is literally disintegrating to the point where she has a few threads that she rubs on her upper lip while sucking her fingers (the middle two on her left hand).  I learned my lesson on that one, and the twins have small blankets that are pink and blue.

There is something about the blanket and sucking digits that just go hand in hand.  For Maisey and Gardner, it is the thumb rather than the fingers.

I think Gardner had just removed his thumb from his mouth in the picture below.  His trusty blanket is at his side.  He was watching some football with Daddy...

and they both fell asleep.

9 month appointment

Well, I guess I should have entitled this post "10 1/2 month Appointment". We were just a little overdue for this check up. It seemed that one of them was always sick, so I was waiting for both of them to be healthy for their "well visit". Gardner weighed 21 pounds 15.5 oz and was 28 3/4 inches tall. Maisey was 20 pounds 9 ounces and 28 1/2 inches tall. It turns out that Maisey wasn't well after all - she had her second ear infection. Both got the flu shot and were exhausted by the time we got home.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to East Ridge. It was nice not to have to cook or clean up. We just showed up, ate, and left. I told Malloy that it was a rule that everyone take a nap after eating lunch on Thanskgiving. It worked - EVERY one in our house did sleep at the same time - a true Thanksgiving miracle!
Granddaddy shared some banana pudding with Maisey

Malloy kept busy making Thanksgiving cards.

Sweet sisters

Gardner and Grandma.  He looks so different without his helmet!

It's always amusing to give babies lemons and let them figure out what they taste like.

Bones

I recently contacted the Georgia Athletic Department to see if we could get some "bone" stickers for his helmet. The UGA football players earn these if they perform especially well in a game. Kyle e-mailed the equipment manager a while ago and received no response. I decided to e-mail Coach Richt's assistant and to send a cute picture of Gardner in his helmet. It worked! Within a week we had a sheet of bone stickers. I am not sure how we are awarding the stickers to G Man - maybe one for each helmet appointment. We also picked up a new "G" for the side of his helmet while we were in Athens.

Hand, Foot and Mouth??

Kyle and I were lucky enough to sneak away to the Georgia-Auburn game last weekend.  We returned to a sick baby.  Gardner had [what I diagnosed as] Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease.  Funny name, common childhood illness.  I just had lunch with a friend whose twins had it last week.  She said she never would have guessed that's what they had, because terrible diaper rash was really their only symptom.  

Gardner is good at getting himself into tight spaces.

See the spots on his chin?

While we were waiting at the doctor's office, he broke out in a totally unrelated rash on his entire body.

Lacy rash on arms and legs

Rosy cheeks

Blister on thumb

Poor little guy!  Crusty nose, blister on thumb, spots on chin...and an ear infection.  

Fortunately, he is feeling much better now.  We had many sleepless nights during the Hand, Foot and Mouth week.  Maisey either did not get it, or had a very mild case.  I saw one red spot on her lip and one on her wrist.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it has left our house for good!

Baby Monitor

When I was pregnant, I got lots of ultrasounds. I would come home from each appointment with a stack of black and white pictures that were supposedly my babies. I never could tell what I was supposed to be seeing in the pictures.  I figured the ultrasound techs only knew because they had years of experience looking at these things.

Sometimes I feel like an ultrasound tech when I use the video baby monitor.  Now that I have almost 5 years of experience in looking at images on the video baby monitor, I can actually tell what I am seeing.  We have a monitor with two cameras - one pointing at Maisey's crib and one at Gardner's.  They are mounted high up on the wall, so we get an aerial view of the entire crib.  When we hear a noise and see the lights go from green to red on the monitor, we turn on the screen to see what's going on in there.  The other night I was taking a peak at the babies and felt like the ultrasound tech.  I can tell what's going on here, but the untrained eye might be confused.

This one is Maisey.  Her head is the darkish spot at the bottom center of the screen.  She is lying on her back with the back of her head resting against her crib bumper.  Her body is to the left of her head.  One arm is outstretched to the side (the dark spot in the middle).  When Maisey was first learning to roll over, the video monitor came in very handy.  I would hear her crying and when I flipped on the screen, I could see that see her wiggling around on her tummy trying to flip back onto her back.  Not wanting to get out of bed myself, I was cheering her on - hoping that she would turn herself back over and fall asleep again.

The image below is of Gardner.  It is pretty easy to tell from the big "G" on his helmet!  You can see he is laying on his left side with his head in the lower left corner.  Now that he is standing, the monitor is super helpful.  When I hear fussing from his bed, I look to see if he is standing up.  That is usually not a good sign! If he is sitting, or just tossing and turning, he usually settles himself down and goes back to sleep.  Last night he was very restless and when I looked on the monitor, I could tell that his blanket was in one corner of the crib.  Kyle swooped in, gave him the blanket and a quick pat on the back, and he fell back asleep.  What would we ever do without this technology?!

Chick fil A

Tuesday night is "Family Night" at our local Chick fil a. Malloy goes every week after her swimming lessons. This week, there was no swimming, but she still wanted to go AND she wanted the twins to go too.

We stopped at "The Chick" on our way to and from Chicago this summer, but the babies were too little to enjoy the food. Tonight, they thoroughly enjoyed their chicken and Ice Dream. Both babies surprised me by sucking on a straw and actually getting liquid into their mouths. Maisey was quite surprised when the lemonade touched her tongue! She also managed to puncture the packet of Chick fil a dipping sauce that she was playing with and ended up with that in her mouth.

Overall, it was a lot if fun. There were, however, three adults and three kids. I won't be taking my crew there by myself anytime soon!

Harvest Festival

Today we had Malloy's Harvest Festival at school. All of the k-4 classes, dressed up as Indians and rotated around various stations doing "harvest" activities.  Below, Malloy is making a candle by dipping the wick in wax and then into cold water.

Malloy and Kennedy making butter by shaking heavy whipping cream in a cup with a marble.

Gluing some decorations around the side of her copper punch art work.