Pigs Have Flown

They frequently wear pink, Nana and Poppa have even given them pom pons, and now looks what's happened...

(please disregard the yellow paint on Baby A's leg, we were on our way to the bath tub, I promise!)

You might think I'm getting soft or just good at painting but in both cases you'd be wrong. You see they had just come in from their first of what was to be two-a-day soccer practices and they wanted some strawberries and... you're not buying this, are you?

As evidenced by their angelic faces and completely coerced smiles, they were happy.

I'm just a mom - trying to make my children happy.

And yes, for those of you that know me, I'm dying a little inside. :)

5 kids under 5

This Saturday we were able to spend some time with our good friends and their three kids. The have a nearly 5 year old and twin boys who are about 6 months younger than the girls. Seeing them all sitting down, at the same time, we decided we need to take a picture of this monumental event!

We quickly realized that getting them in the same frame was a very big "check" in the "Mom Book of Things We Have Surprisingly Managed To Do". We proceeded to pat ourselves on the back and yet still went a step further...

We foolishly attempted to get them all the smile.

To no avail.

What were thinking?

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon. (and the fork ~ P&G '09)

We were given a clock before the girls were born that portrays the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" and has the words to the rhyme around it. We say it to/with the girls before we go to bed every night. I'm not sure why or how it started but it's part of our nightly ritual now and they let us know if we forget to say it! They also decided the rhyme needed a little something else to the end. And I have to agree. Why would the dish run away with the spoon and not the fork? What did the fork do to deserve the dish dis? (You're trying to say those last two words again, aren't you?) At least the girls understand the importance of including everyone.

Back to the rhyme at hand.. this weekend I was able to catch video of Peyton singing the rhyme, at least part of it. Now that I think about it, this is also a true portrayal of the attention span of a 2 and half year old. They wake up at 6:30am and go to bed at 8:00pm. That's 13 and half hours in the entire toddler day... with a 2 hour nap that leaves 41,400 awake seconds... with the average toddler attention span at, let's be generous and say, 13 seconds:

• that's 3,185 separate attention spans a day
• adding another 3,185 for Baby B
• for a grand total of 6,370 separate attention spans...
  

Who wants to babysit?!?!

I digress, here is the video...

Cute Alert! Cute Alert!

Yes, I agree.
You can only really understand the last word she says as she squeezes the life out of the word "moon".
Give her a break... she's only two!

Miraculously and with the help of the gravitational pull of the moon we were able to convince both toddlers to stand in the same frame so we could capture the SINGING EVENT OF THE SUMMER!

Nothing like singing in your PJ's and sandals at 10:00 in the morning...

Yes, they are standing on the picnic table and singing.
They also like to jump off it.
Are we terrible parents? Maybe.

But we got the video! And the blackmail video catalog gets a little bigger...

First Milkshakes!

There is nothing like a guilty pleasure milkshake on a Sunday afternoon. We took the girls to Steak n' Shake for some cheeseburgers and shakes on Sunday.

I'm not sure why I feel the need to commemorate this mundane task with a post but kids enjoying ice cream is always cute, right?

Grace

Peyton

I highly recommend the "lower-mess-maintenance" milkshake as opposed to the "spoon-in-hand" method. Much easier to clean up when the straw is the vehicle for consumption!

Mission Complete!!! (Part 2 of 2)

Peyton has caught up folks!

(Although Grace is still clearing excelling - if you call going 3 times in a week and half excelling...)

Next up: Mission Consistency

Only 2 minutes...

That's how long I was gone... I just had to change out of my work clothes. You'd think they could behave themselves for 2 minutes. They have up until this point and to be honest I thought I was going to be lucky enough to avoid the horror stories that I've heard about other toddlers. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Their weapon of choice, you ask?

A green sharpie of course!
What ELSE were they going to use?!



Their medium?



What else but carpet would show the intricacies that a green sharpie creates with every stroke??


Oh yeah, they also drew on themselves.

And no, I do not have pictures. It's hard to take pictures when you're yelling...

Mission Complete!!! (Part 1 of 2)

That's right! Grace used the potty for the first time yesterday!!! We are ecstatic as evidenced by this post being shared on the www...

The girls helped me make their poster so we can track their "successes".

No shocker that Grace picked Dora.

Here's to hoping Peyton follows in her footsteps today!

Elephant Pool Time

Where the frog pool fell short last year...the elephant pool (complete with slide) has picked up the slack! While the girls were sleeping we put water in the pool so it would warm up before they got outside. It worked and the girls seemed more apt to get in the pool as opposed to last year. A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for getting the pool!

Testing the water...

The girls loved the pool and played for a good part of the afternoon however I have no photographic evidence to show you here on this blog. That's because I got in the pool with the girls... in my bathing suit.

While I have no pictures to verify they got in above their knees...you'll just have to take my word for it.

This blog intermission was brought to you by Mom Jeans, Land's End catalogs, and holiday themed applique vests.

Here are the girls coming in from the pool and sunburn free...

...thanks to Coppertone Kids Continuous Spray SPF 70.
This stuff was great and super easy to put on a squirming toddler.
I highly recommend it!

Harris Wedding

A big shout out to Meghan and Steve Harris who tied the knot this weekend! We had a great time at the wedding!

Here are some pictures of the girls from the reception at the Dixon Gardens...

Holding hands... Peyton (L) Grace (R)




Mom clicking away so as not to miss a single second of the adorableness!




Look! Mom is still taking our picture!

I'm not done if they're not done!




The last one! Promise!




Daddy and the girls




Here they are sitting on the "troll bridge" a la Dora.

Photo Friday

So I realize it's Friday and not Throwback Thursday or even Way Back Wednesday as I've seen on so many other blogs. However, this is what I want to post today so I hereby deem today:

"Photo Friday"

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of when the girls were small...and not talking, and not crawling, and not throwing their food on the ground... you get the picture.

Here they are on Valentine's Day 2007 only 17 days old and their 2nd day at home after a 15 day NICU stay.
I would have been 36 weeks pregnant with a whole month to go by this point!
Peyton (L) & Grace (R)

Little Gracie with an arm around Peyton.

The girls sleeping in their crib- we didn't put them long ways for a while!
Now they take up half their beds...
Peyton (L) & Grace (R)

So fun looking through old pictures! Thanks for humoring me!

Swimming at the South Pole...

...otherwise known as our neighborhood pool! Even more remarkable than our ability to escape from certain hypothermia was the girls swimming "all by myself" for the first time! It was adorable and we were VERY proud parents yesterday!

Daddy and the girls (so cute)




And they're off!




I'm swimming all by myself! They were all giggles over their new found freedom.

I decided against posting the pictures of them in hysterics after we took them out of the pool. You know, because their lips were blue and all. Mean mommy and daddy at it again!

Picture hodgepodge

Here are some random pictures from the past couple weeks that I am finally getting off my camera!

A cute one of Daddy and Grace!

I made strawberry shortcake for dinner couple weeks ago. What goes on top of all strawberry shortcakes?

You guessed it, whipped cream!
Although, make no mistake... ours was not fat free!

Of course once it's on top of your shortcake you HAVE to squirt some of the whipped cream in your mouth! Who doesn't, right? The next thing you do, as evidenced by Grace below, is let your mom squirt some whipped cream in your hands to play with. I am either the coolest mom on the block or the dumbest.

Here is Grace enjoying her hands full 'o whipped cream!

Here is Peyton cleverly using the whipped cream as a soothing lotion.
Looks like i've found the secret to baby soft skin!!!

(patent pending)

Here are the girls playing Mommy (P) and baby (G) at Grandma's house. Yes, Grandma put Grace in the pink dress so my "dressing twins by colors theory" does not work for this picture... I was much more traumatized than the girls - who never noticed.

Emily's (patent pending) Dressing Twins by Colors Theory:
Peyton: Pink or Purple (purple being the default color)
Grace: Green or anything but purple

Yes, I'm sure I'm scarring them for life but at least I can tell them apart while it's happening.

At Chilis and super-excited about sharing corn. Yes, this could very well be the first evidence of swine flu being transmitted between sisters (the results are still at the lab - kidding! or am I?) but daddy only had one ear of corn on his plate. Hence the need to share if only to combat what was sure to be an onslaught of dinner ending tears complete with leftovers that would have sat in the fridge for days before being thrown out.

AKA - we didn't want to be THAT family that ruins your dinner. You're welcome.

If the photo above isn't proof enough of our daughters tremendous capacity to share... here is video proof as well.

Meet Baby Mallory!

We went over to the Choe's house to meet Baby Mallory with the girls. Both girls wanted to bring a couple toys to "show" Mallory. Peyton brought a stuffed dog and a cat-in-a-cage thingy we got from McDonald's. I wonder what intern at McDonald's came up with that toy? Grace brought a stuffed dog (copycat) and Farmer Elmo. Mallory LOVED the toys (as she slept quietly).

Here are Peyton and Grace trying to give Mallory her first cold!
How sweet!

The best part of the evening was when I asked the girls if they wanted mommy to have a baby. They didn't really seem too excited. Then I asked if they wanted mommy to have FOUR babies and in unison they said "Yeaaaaaaa!"

So I told them to go ask Daddy.

School

I couldn't help but take pictures this morning before we walked into "school". They looked so cute and were so happy. Can't wait to pick them up this afternoon!

Grace is taking "cheese" to a whole new level here!

Peyton's in pink shorts and Grace has on the blue ones.