Happy Anniversary to Us!

We've been married for ten exciting years.  When I think about all of the stuff that has happened to us in the last ten years, I can't help but think that the next ten years will have to be pretty boring in comparison...

  

-We got married!

-We flew halfway around the world to Bali for our honeymoon

-Kyle took (and passed) the Georgia bar exam

- I sold my condo in Atlanta

-We moved to NYC

- I worked long hours for a big company with huge clients

-Kyle graduated from NYU

-He took (and passed) the Louisiana bar exam

-We bought a house based only on pictures that someone e-mailed us

-We moved into that house and realized we needed to do some a lot of renovations

-Kyle started his job in Shreveport 

-I started working part-time at East Ridge C.C.  and also did tax returns for a small firm

-We traveled to Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Paris, London, San Francisco, St. Kitts (not necessarily in that order) and numerous Georgia football games

-We had a baby

-We bought a bigger house (and remodeled again)

-We had twins!

-We added a second story on our house

Surely, there will  not be as many life changes in the next decade.  There will be no additional kids and probably a lot less travel.  We are NOT moving again and hopefully not changing jobs or taking more bar exams.  

We had big plans for a luxurious get away to celebrate our anniversary, but realized that was probably not going to happen because 1.)  Kyle's passport was expired and 2.) Who is going to watch THREE kids while we left the country? 

 I settled for the next best thing.  One night away from the kids, dinner at a fancy restaurant, and a shopping trip to Ikea!

Since Kyle has taken a recent liking to sushi, we decided to eat at Nobu in Dallas.  I had to take the picture below because I think it was the first time in 10 years of marriage and a total of 14 years together, that I have seen Kyle eat a green vegetable.  

We traveled in style to Dallas - a huge passenger van with all of the seats taken out to accommodate our Ikea purchases.  It was a tad bit embarrassing pulling up to the hotel valet in the van, but so worth it when it came time for the shopping trip.

We got everything we came for (and more) and had plenty of room to spare.  Needless to say, we spent the rest of our Memorial Day weekend assembling furniture with little Allen wrenches.  The playroom is now looking good!  I will post pictures later.

Misc. Stuff

Gardner (wearing the stethoscope) checking out the view from upstairs.  Glad I have those safety bars on the windows.  They are perfect for climbing.

We took a family trip to Kroger a few weeks ago.  They have carts big enough for three (or even four) kids, they give away free cookies, and they make fresh tortillas.  Yippee!!

Malloy was in the driver's seat.

I took the kids to a place called Kiddie Mia's.  They have little rides and games.  Maisey and the dog really hit it off.

Gardner enjoyed a tractor ride.

G-Man's new toy arrived today - his mini Dyson vacuum.  He loved the red Dirt Devil at Mother's Day Out,  at home he would play with Malloy's old pink vacuum, but he would go crazy whenever I got out my real vacuum.  He was pretty excited about this one.  I ordered it from Leaps and Bounds.

Maisey (the shaggy dog) got into the cleaning mood too.  Here is a glimpse of some of our Ikea purchases for the playroom.

Gardner is on a cleaning rampage.

Our Graduate

Malloy had her preschool graduation on May 18.  We have enjoyed our time at St. Paul's Day School and look forward to having Gardner and Maisey there when they are three years old.  The graduation ceremony was very sweet.  Each child walked across the stage to receive a diploma and they sang a lot of songs.  They must have practiced for months leading up to the big day because some of the songs they sang had several verses and they seemed to know them all.  At the beginning of the program, the principal explained that it is a tradition to have a set of parents sing this song called "Turn Around".  I nudged Kyle and asked him why we weren't asked to sing.  The parents who sang were David and Emily Hobson.  He is the choir director at Centenary College and Broadmoor Methodist Church.  She was in the choir at Centenary.  I guess they are slightly more qualified than us.  The lyrics got me choked up:

Where are you going my little one, little one

Where are you going my baby my own
Turn around and you're two, turn around and you're four
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of the door

My, how's she's grown.  Below was her first day at SPDS.

Granddaddy and Dearie celebrated Malloy's big day with us.

Visitors from Up North

My brother, Kerry, and his wife, Marie made the trek to Shreveport for a quick visit. They had never been to the Port City.  We enjoyed having them in town.  

Gardner made friends with Uncle Kerry.

Maisey played Peek a Boo with Aunt Marie.

Both babies wanted to sit on Grandma's lap at the same time.

Maisey, what's up with that hair do?

I Do Have My Hands Full

 

 

 

 

The Tooth

Here it is.  Maisey's front tooth.  It is sitting on the kitchen counter.  Not in her mouth where it belongs.  If you are wondering why it looks so long, it is because the entire root came out.  The tooth is just the bottom 1/3 of it and the rest is the root.  It is shocking and upsetting for your one year old to completely knock a tooth out, but if you put it in perspective, it's not that big of a deal.  I have friends whose children have crossed eyes, some who were born with red birthmarks on their faces or bodies, some who have extra fingers and toes, some who wear hearing aids or glasses.  All of these things are upsetting, but not really worth fretting about .  Am I sad that Maisey doesn't have the same cute smile with all of her baby teeth?  Yes, but I'll get over it.  It is purely cosmetic, doesn't require any surgery, and she'll eventually get a permanent tooth.

When people ask me what happened, I hate to start out by saying, "Well, I wasn't home when it happened...".  Kyle was watching the kids - but I know this wasn't his fault.  It could have happened to her under anyone's supervision.  Sometimes kids just fall down.  He had just returned from a trip to St. Louis with Malloy.  It was Mother's Day afternoon.  He told me to get out of the house and enjoy what what left of "my day".  I went shopping for a couple of hours.  On my way home, I received a somewhat frantic call from Kyle.  He said, "We've had a disaster.  Maisey's tooth came out".  That was about all I remember.  I was home less than five minutes later.  Kyle said Maisey was in our bedroom and just fell into the corner of our bed.  It is an upholstered bed frame, but it is wooden underneath the fabric.  She must have hit it just right, because the entire tooth came out.  He later found it on the floor.  We have several dentist/orthodontist friends.  I knew to put the tooth in milk if there was any chance of saving it.  The first person we got a hold of was Sanders Graf (orthodontist).  He was in the neighborhood so he came by to take a look.  He explained that the standard rule is to never try to reinsert a baby tooth.  There is a risk that it could mess up the development of a permanent tooth.  He called a pediatric dentist just to make sure and she confirmed that rule - don't try to put it back in.  "Such a shame" he said, it was such a perfect tooth to try to put back in.  All of the root still in tact.

Poor baby is going to be a snaggle tooth like her big sister...for a long time. Actually, I am going to more seriously pursue getting her a fake tooth.  I looked into it with Malloy, but my dentist discouraged it.  She said it was really hard to get it to look right and she had never had any patients that were happy with what she could do.  When Malloy lost her second tooth, the dentist said it was easier to make a partial/bridge to replace two teeth than just one, but at that point Malloy was four and I was used to her toothless smile.  Maisey, on the other hand, has a long, long time before it is "normal" to be missing a tooth.   Another pediatric dentist in town said she can make a bridge once the two year molars are in.  Fortunately, Maisey is an early teether and already has 14 teeth.  I hope those molars come in early!

A Random Assortment of Photos

These are a bunch of pictures that I took on my phone. When I upload them to the blog, they appear in no particular order.

First off, here's toothless Malloy.  Those front teeth are no where in sight.  She is only five, so it might be another year or two.  It seems like kids lose their bottom teeth first, so Malloy will have a big gap in the front when she loses those.  It's a good thing she doesn't like to eat much!

My brother, Kerry, and his wife came down to Louisiana for a visit last week.  They had never been to Shreveport.  We enjoyed visiting with them and introducing them to lots of good restaurants.  Malloy had fun being rolled around by Uncle Kerry.

Gardner is obsessed with the vacuum.  I have several pictures of him in action and a video that I will try to post too.  Unfortunately, my vacuum is really heavy and hard for him to maneuver.  He was having fun until he sucked up a sock and the vacuum made a really loud noise.

Gardner loves the water.  Hopefully, we will go to the pool this weekend so he can test out his skills.  He has the back float mastered.  We are starting swimming lessons in June.

The babies are really interested in "our" cat, Callie.  She sort of came with the house and stays outside.  Callie is always hanging around and lets us pet her.  One of the babies' favorite activities is looking at Callie through the door.

Malloy is teaching Maisey how to rest on a nap mat.  Next year at Mother's Day Out, Gardner and Maisey will have to sleep on mats instead of in cribs.  Malloy also has to take a rest mat to Kindergarten.

I captured a rare moment of sweetness between the babies. Hugs from Gardner!  When they are not ignoring each other, or fighting over toys, they can be quite sweet to each other.  If one baby is upset, the other usually looks concerned and will try to comfort the other one by bringing his/her blanket. 

Gardner is busy cleaning the living room with the wand attachment.

Dressed like a mini Kyle - white shirt, grey pants and New Balance shoes.

Maisey (aka Gilly)

There is a character on Saturday Night Live named Gilly. She has crazy hair and she does mischievous things.  Whenever she gets caught, she makes this face where she bites her lip and looks from side to side.

I think Maisey has a little "Gilly" in her.  She has a bit of a naughty streak and she makes a funny face when she is pleased with herself, but knows we are not.  This usually happens when she takes a toy away from Gardner or prevents him from taking something from her.  The picture below does not capture the look  (and her hair is much flatter than usual) but I thought these pictures captured her funny personality.  Maisey also has a TERRIBLE temper and gets MAD when Gardner tries to take something away from her.  If she doesn't get her way, she lets her unhappiness be known!





The picture above is probably one of the last ones I have with all of Maisey's baby teeth in tact.  The McInnis family suffered another premature tooth loss.  More on that later...

All clean and ready for bed.  How sweet!

Amazingly Good Pictures

A few weeks ago, I scheduled a mini-session with my photographer friend, DeAnn Arnold.  I did not have high hopes.  I thought getting a good picture of all three kids together was likely impossible.  We showed up at 9:00 am one Friday morning and in 20 minutes, the amazingly talented DeAnn, was able to get lots of good pictures.

Here is my favorite.  It was one of the first ones she took.  No Photoshop necessary.  Everyone was looking and happy!

I have a really great picture of Malloy when she was about 15 months old, so I wanted to get some good ones of the twins individually.  These are my favorite close ups and full body pictures.

Malloy is such a good model.  I wasn't worried about getting good ones of her.