A bad influence.

Last week, I visited LA. Saw the sister. Brother in law. Nephews. Grandmothers. Grandfather. And sweet Julia.

Or is she?

It seems she has rubbed off on Elizabeth and Miranda is two specific, and not so endearing, ways...

1.) They both seem to need to be carried more now. Putting them down in one colorful and loud aparatus isn't working as well as it used to. I keep thinking they are hungry or tired or pooped up, but no. They just want to be held. Which is all fine and good (holding babies, I mean) but it is pretty hard to do that with two at once. And they seem to be double teaming me.

2.) Almost the entire time I was in LA, cousin Julia did not go #2. My gals poop several times a day. Or they did. Miranda is done plugged up. Can't poop at all. And boy does she try. So sad. Both for how she feels and for the fact that she had to eat prunes for the last two days.

On a positive note...Amy's baking rubbed off a bit on me and I made a pie yesterday (see blog post below) and some banana bread today. Sure I screwed up the meringue, twice, but they both tasted yummmy! I haven't done the homemade granola bars yet, but there is still time.

Chocolate Babies?

Or just prunes? You be the judge.

His mudder was a mudder.

Sometime in the last week, Parker learned how to say Mother. Except he doesn't really say it right. He says Mudder. Tonight he said, Night Night to Mudder as he went into his room with dad.

It cracks me up every time.

The Good Life

Nothing like coming home to a freshly baked lemon meringue pie made with lemons from the front yard.

Last One for Michael

Daddy's Glasses

More for Michael

For Michael

Bubbles

Busting out

There used to be a tiny little hole in the foot of these jammies that a toe would peep out of.

Necklace

New poop

So with the girls about to be 6 months old, we're getting into the swing of feeding them daily and introducing new foods on a weekly basis. They seem to like it for the most part, and are starting to get into the swing of things. One regrettable side effect is that they've shifted from the totally benign, runny mustard poop that comes from a straight breast-milk diet, and now their poop is brown and stinky and pasty. And they must have eaten a particularly big meal yesterday because this morning they both had quite voluminous poops that departed their diapers at their lower backs and didn't stop traveling until reaching their shoulders. During cleanup, I actually found some poop in Elizabeth's armpit - and that, my friends, is one prolific poop.

Sorry if this post isn't your cup of tea, but I don't make the news I just report it. Be glad I didn't include pictures.

Nap time

The girls have started rolling over in their cribs. Elizabeth loves being on her belly, but doesn't know how to sleep that way. So we put some towels on either side of her to keep her on her back. Doesn't she look sweet here?



And Miranda rolled over, got freaked and then fell asleep. Best nap she ever had.

Spoon

Miranda is one talented gal. Today she tried to feed herself.

Thirsty?

High Five and Flash Cards

Story One...

People are always coming up to Parker going, "Gimme Five" and holding their hand up. He looks at them as if they are crazy and then looks at me slightly scared. I'm not sure why the High Five is so popular, but it is.

So last night, while reading books, we were reading Trashy Town, a new addition to the all time greatest hits, and he said, "Stop!, There are trash cans behind the pizza parlor." When he said Stop, he held up his hand to indicate stop. Then he thought about something for a moment, turned around, looked at me and said, "Gimme Five" and held up his hand for me to give him a high five.

So I did.

I went back to reading Trashy Town, "Dump it in, Smash it down, I love to clean up Trashy Town." Then Parker turned around again and while holding down his thumb, said, "Gimme Four."

So I did.


Story Two...

As you have read, we were having real problems with Parker not wanting to stay in his bed lately. We tried reasoning with him. He tried staying in bed with him. We tried letting him out of the bed. We tried ignoring him. He tried punishing him. Nothing worked. I was telling this to another mom and she said, have you tried a sticker board. You know, when the kid does something good, you give him a sticker and after a certain number of stickers, he gets a toy or prize or something. I thought that a 27 month old was wayyyy too young to comprehend all that, but at the same time, I was willing to try anything.

So I got some poster board and some stickers and some incredibly cheap toys like play dough, chalk, and crayons. I also got two sets of flash cards. One with letters and one with numbers. I didn't think he would get them, but I thought he would have fun playing with the cards. So the first time he got enough stickers to get anything (which was day one, since we were trying to explain the concept of the game to him), he got to select one prize. He picked the number flash cards. So we open them up. They have numbers on them and then pictures of random stuff. You know, like Two Fish. Three Buttons. One Flower. 10 Butterflies. There were about 30 cards in the box. Parker went through every one of them, one by one, telling me exactly what was on the card and how many there were. He got a couple wrong (said flower instead of hat and cake instead of ice cream), but he got every single number correct. And then he did it again in Spanish. The numbers, not the pictures.

As Michael said, Damn, that boy's got some game.

Memories

We bought this giant exercauser when Parker was a baby. He loved it and used it for a very long time. Then I gave it to a new mom and she gave it to another mom. Now, we have it back. It is loud, ugly, garish and the babies love it. Parker seems to remember it well.

Lunch

Girls aren't really napping today so I thought we would do a little solid food. I served a delicious rice cereal and pea mash medley.

Elizabeth loves to eat, but isn't very good at.
Miranda could take it or leave it, but is quite neat about the whole thing...she even wipes her own mouth when done.

Two hours...an update

Well...it lasted three hours (until 10pm) and ended with Parker falling asleep on the hard wood floor just inside his room. It was the saddest thing you have ever seen. I picked him up and put him in bed. Michael and I were so shell shocked by then, we just fell asleep ourselves.

Until Midnight, when it started all over again. This time, I got into bed with him. Which is what he was demanding and which made him happy.

Until 2am. When he demanded Milk. Which I got for him. He was happy, drank his milk and fell asleep.

Until 4am. When he demanded a variety of things. Somehow I got him back to sleep.

Until 5:30am. When he was up for good despite me pretending I was still asleep. The screaming started almost immediately so I sat, worthless in the chair and did the worst reading of Trashy Town ever.

Then Dad came in and took over.

One of the worst nights ever. And I haven't even mentioned the girls...

Two hours

That's how long Parker has been hysterical this evening, not wanting to go to bed. And when I say hysterical, I mean two solid hours of the most shrill, piercing, skull-shattering screaming the world has even known. Thank god for naproxen.

Getting some sun

Boots