Laughs and Hugs in the tub

My girls are total goofs. They are the BIGGEST goofs in the bathtub. My sister in law so nicely said to me that no one will ever believe that the girls are ever clothed and dry. Probably true because sometimes I feel like they purposefully get so messy they must be bathed, sometimes twice a day.

They are also really into hugging and kissing (and blowing raspberries) each other. Tub time brings this out ten fold. Tonight they were really extra loving so I had to get the camera out. What can I say? There are more on flickr, but you have to be my "friend" to see them since some may not be as censored. :)

Leah is walking!

A late walker, yes, but she is walking none the less!

She has been teetering with the idea for a little while now, but she has finally decided to show some initiative and work on this skill. She had been taking a few steps, and then falling and crawling the rest of the way.

Today she walked across the living room and dining room, and is really walking most places now. She is very stiff and not so confident at it, and when she falls she may or may not get up again and try walking. But she is definitely walking!

I did get video of it, and it is on the same video mini dvd as Hannah's walking video a few months ago, but the dvd has to be out of time and finalized before I can pull anything off of it. We have now used the end of the disc so maybe Matt will get some videos accessible for me. We shall see.

So Yay for my little Leah. In two weeks she will be chasing after her sister and I will be after them both :)

The bottle update...

As I said, I have packed up all bottles and are never going back. We made it by 15 months so I am happy about that. Both girls were taking their milk fine from a sippy cup, and now Hannah has decided she hates it. She will not drink it with any flavor in it. If she sees the milk in the cup she wont touch it. If she tastes it, she makes a face and pushes it away. I have resorted to giving lots of yogurt and putting some chocolate or strawberry syrup in her milk at night, and then having her drink it without a lid for a few sips. Then I show her that I am putting the lid on the same cup and she will drink about half a cup before she is done and wants to go to sleep. Leah is fine with plain milk, and likes hers in a straw sippy cup. Whatever works!

Hannah has really taken up with a blankie too. She cuddles with it when she goes to bed and it has become her trigger to go "nigh nigh". Very cute.

So we have made it through the rough part anyway, even though Hannah is not getting the amount she needs but I am sure she will be fine eventually...

Christmas time has come and gone

But what a wonderful time it was...

I am a little behind in my postings so this will just have to be a recap. All I can say is we have a very generous family and enjoyed the time that we got to hang out with everyone. There were several family get-togethers and lots of great food!

This year was so different than last year. The girls were involved in the present opening (even if they like bows and boxes more than presents), ate at the family dinner table, and ran around the houses. This year they were able to play with their cousins, and read books with the great grandparents. Last year they sat in their little bouncy chairs or napped, while Matt and I - still somewhat sleep deprived - enjoyed our Christmas in a tired state. Ah memories... This Christmas night we went to Matt's parents for dinner and gifts with all 4 kids and the mass chaos was wonderful. Definitely different.

The girls seemed to really enjoy Christmas morning. Though they didnt "get it" they were excited with all their new toys. Santa brought them a kitchen and a climber and both seem to be a big hit. Now toys have infiltrated almost every room of the house - including the dining room :)

It was a very enjoyable time and it is a little bittersweet that it is over. The tree is down and decorations are packed up. Now how do I get Leah to STOP saying "ho ho ho?" :)

Hannah getting another stocking surprise


Leah and her new "Vwooom" (Vacuum)


Playing in the kitchen




Reading a book with Papa


Goofball sitting in a box


What else can I say?

Bottle Free and Good Nights Sleep!

Knowing my luck, the fact that I am writing about this means that I am about to jinx myself and all good things will come to an end.

Hopefully that wont happen, but here is our latest progress...

Leah has been sleeping great. She is no longer screaming when we put her down, and she is not waking up at night. Also she is consistently sleeping from 8-8. Good news! We put a night light in her room and I think it has done the trick! I briefly had to go in there tonight about an hour ago because she suddenly cried out dramatically, but I just patted her and covered her up and then sat by the crib for a few minutes. She was fine! This is a far leap from a few weeks ago when we would have to put her in the pack n play and settle her down with a movie because nothing we did helped at all...

Hannah went a few days where she was waking up around 3am. I would give her a bottle, change her, and she went back down in 15 minutes. But that seems to have stopped now. She is also sleeping from 8-8. She is still in the pack n play in the playroom and we are trying to decide what to do about this. We have been enjoying our sleep these past few nights since Matt and I are so exhausted with everything that we have had to do lately, so we have kept them separated. But they need to be back together at some point. Well, we are going to try again. Honestly Leah just may do better sleeping on her own. So we will put them back in the same room again next week and if it doesnt go well then I guess we will have to move a crib to the playroom temporarily, Until they are out of cribs actually... We will see.

And I am happy to report that yesterday and today we were completely bottle free. They do not get as much milk as they need, but Leah will drink a morning cup and her night cup (with some carnation instant breakfast in it.) Hannah took some convincing tonight but I accidentally called it a "Ba Ba" and she decided she would drink the cup after all. Goof.

So if we made it two days, I think we can give up on the bottles. I do not want to regress and give them one in an act of desperation one day. So I am going to pack them up. I need the room in the cabinets anyway! This is a big thing for us because I did not think Leah would do well at all, and she is actually adjusting nicely. Maybe we just started a few weeks too early and now she has decided it is not too bad. Plus we have been diluting their bottles slowly for the past few weeks as well and they really were not as interested in them as they once were.

So pray the sleeping will continue! And that we do not give in on the "no bottles" clause!

A cute Leah moment

Leah is loving to give hugs lately. I love her loving this. If I say, "can I have a hug?" she will reach her arms around me and lay her head on my shoulder and give me a real hug. Ahh

So we were at the orthopedic doctor on Thursday and they were really decorated for Christmas. There were Santa's everywhere. She was enthralled with all of them. At the front desk, as I was checking out, she saw the 4 foot plastic Santa next to us and kept reaching for him. So I let her "pat him gently". Then she was reaching ALL the way to him and I realized she was wanting to give him a hug! She put her little arms around Santa and laid her head on his beard for a good little while. I laughed and asked if she was hugging Santa and her reply was "Ho Ho Hooooooo". The waiting room was hysterical. Then of course the hugging continued about 10 times.

Seriously, why could she not have done that with the REAL Santa??? :)

On the way home I was recapping the moment with some of the family and everytime I said Santa I heard a little "Ho Ho Hoooo" from the back. Gotta love it.

Just a typical week for us McCays :)

This was one of those weeks. Aside from the obvious that I am ready for Christmas, and with that, a little break, this past week was so hectic. One of those weeks that you just want to get over with.

I am sitting here writing this as I think of all I need to do to get ready for the week to come (the usual million things going through a working mommys mind) but thankful it is a new week, and Christmas week!!

Last monday started it off. I had to get a new phone since I dropped mine and it was officially unrepairable. Also, the dogs were WAY overdue on their shots and needed baths so Matt dropped them off at the vets on his way to work so they could get bathed. I had to be there at one for the actual appointment. Well my van battery was dead (again) because I seem to have a problem with leaving cabin lights on. So I had to jump the van off, which left me no time to get the phone, so I just went to get the dogs. When I got home I took Hannah with me to get my new phone and we shopped a little bit.

So, when I got home for the evening, my sister says that Abby (beagle) was acting strange and her stomach was hard. I confirmed this and called the vet and had to take her in emergently to rule out an allergic reaction to the shots. Apparently she had gotten into a LOT of water (toilet???) and just drank too much. Of course. I am glad all was ok but still... Water?

Anyway tues and wednesday I did not see the girls at all because of work. Thurs I had to drive downtown 3 separate times. I went to work early for a meeting that was actually not that morning. Then I did my case and my surgeon was an hour late. I left work at 12:30 and had to go home to pick up Leah for her orthopedic appointment. We had to get an XRAY to make sure her arm is fully healed after it had broken at birth. (Perfect by the way). Then I had to take her back home and quickly get ready to drive back downtown for Matts work Christmas Party. I missed the appropriate turn and took the LOOONNNGG way to McWanes Center. About an hour after we were there my sister, who was babysitting, called and said to come home immediately because Abby had PUS coming out of her back. WHAT???? She called the vet and we ended up giving her Benadryl and a bath when we got home, with the order to call in the morning with the update. I got in the shower with Abby at 10pm and had to wash all these pus pockets (sorry guys) off her back all the while getting an extreme allergic reaction myself to something on her back and my eyes were swollen and red and so painful I couldnt see. I just went to bed.

Friday I worked early but it was a basic day at least. Matt picked up some Prednisone and an antibiotic for Abby from the vet on his way home and we thought it was better. Oh yeah, no clue what this is by the way. Seems coincidental from them being at the vet.

The weekend has been busy with shopping and family events, but otherwise good. Abby is now losing hair and has really red spots on her back. Waiting on vet to call back and will probably have to take her tomorrow.

So, hopefully this week will have a little less drama and maybe I wont work too much! :) I just hope Abby gets better and it is not something like Mange that is contagious.

A successful Santa picture!

I cannot say that we have smiles in the picture, but at least it is not a picture of two screaming babies desperately trying to get out of Santa's arms.

The plan was to tell Santa to hide behind his chair while we approached and sat the girls in the chair. Then Santa could pop up when the time was right. The girls would never see Santa and therefore just sit in the chair unaware.

The plan worked. However, Santa, as he said does not "pop". When he tried to "pop" he pulled the chair back with him.

So the picture is sort of a startled look from the girls as the chair quickly tilted back. Also, I had given them little dissolving fruit bits as they sat down to distract them from us walking away. So they are also chewing.

The photographer was warned that it could get serious quickly and to be fast. The girls actually were happy, and probably would have smiled if they had tried to get them to, but they quickly took the picture and were done. Funny actually. So we have a picture. I do not even care :)

Goodnight kisses

I forgot to mention this, but Hannah has gotten to where she tells me Nigh Nigh and then gives me a kiss before I lay her down. It is the sweetest thing. She lays her head on my shoulder, I tell her Night Night, and she says Nigh Nigh, I give her anywhere from 10 to 100 kisses :) and she will lift her head back and give me a big kiss on my lips. Then we say Nigh Nigh again and she lays down. Those are the moments to live for...

And the twins take it! Santa goes down

Well, round 2 did not go so well today. They did great in the line, and played with some other kids. But once we got up to see the big man himself, Leah held on as tight as she could to me, and started freaking out. At which point, Hannah took her cue and also started screaming. We got a quick shot before Leah squirmed out of Santa's arms...



I did not buy the professional photo since I had this one and it gets the jest of the day. But we ARE going to try one more time. My plan is to go to Brookwood this time where the girls wont recognize the chair. Santa will hide behind the chair before the girls see him, and pop out from behind it as the girls sit in the chair. If that doesnt work, there is always next year.

For those of you who are suggesting we just get in the picture with them, I tried that today as well - even though I was in scrubs. Still did not happen. The screaming starts upon sight of Santa.

Round 2 goes to the twins...

words of our days

Everyday it amazes me what these little 14 month olds know! Leah will copy everything we do now. It makes for a lot of laughs but we now really have to be careful about what we say!

Here are some of her new favorite words - or what I can think of off the top of my head...

Thank you - "Tank ooo" she says this ALL the time, but actually seems to know the meaning pretty well. She says it every time she takes a drink and hands it back to me. Or anytime she gives me anything, or we give her anything. Its so cute.

Night Night - "nigh nigh" Hannah says this word finally - she has emerged from her "d" words!

Uh Oh -"Uh ooooo" Oh my gosh both of them say this ALL THE TIME every time they fall or drop something. I am trying to explain it is not an uh oh if they drop something on purpose

Dog - "daw" this is a common one with three dogs in the house

Abby - "Abeeee" our dogs name - this really impressed her neighbor who has a daughter named Abby

Ball - "Baw" - This is more frequently said now because of all the balls on the tree

Ho Ho Ho - "Ho ho hooooo" with her lips in an exaggerated oooooo - Teacher her what Santa says of course!

Gobble Gobble - For thanksgiving - This comes out in a way I cannot even write out.

Cracker- "Cacker" a normal snack

Duck- "Duh"

Quack Quack = "Khack Khack"

Book - "Buk"

Mama and Dada

Laura - "LaLa" but it is very mangled as she works on her L's

Hi - "Hiiii" This is said while waving

Bye Bye - also said while waving

Up - said with enthusiasm. She says this when she wants out of the high chair or when we are playing the "up down" game. They stand and sit repeatedly.

Down - "Dow" Actually Hannah only says this again while playing this game.

"Juice" - Joosh - they both say this about all drinks in general

Yabba Dabba doo! - ok not really but both randomly say Yabba Dabba all the time. No clue.

Things they just know
"Rock the baby" or "Love the Baby" - they hold a doll or bear close and rock it

"Pat them gently" - they know this means to pet the dogs nicely

"no touch" - Ok they know what this means, but sometimes they push the limits here. Like when they go to the Christmas tree and hold out their hand to touch an ornament and then look back sheepishly as we say "no touch" and we can tell they are weighing their options

"get your book" - Leah will get a book and then crawl into our laps. She would read a hundred books with us if we did not have another child taking the book from her.

The garage door means Dada - So cute. I was in the nursery getting them dressed after their bath and Matt came home, opening the garage door. Immediately they started saying Dada and going to the door so they could then go to the stairs and wait on him.

"Peek a boo" - Leah doesnt necessarily cover her eyes but they both love this game. Anything that is in their hands is an object for peek a boo

"If your happy and you know it" - they clap their hands and stomp their feet

"Can I have it?" I love that they know this because they willingly give me almost anything - especially if they have something I dont want them to have

They blow kisses and make the appropriate noise

Leah blows on her food like I do to cool it down.

They wash each others hair. I love it!



I am giving Leah a lot the credit in this post since I normally share Hannah's accomplishments. Also she may be interested in walking now! As she cuts about 6 teeth and is eating a lot more lately, I told Matt she is going to start walking too. About 10 minutes later, Leah took 6 steps. And she is showing a lot more interest. Maybe she will be walking by Christmas!

Oh yeah, and both girls are really working on learning to eat with a spoon.

Oops - gotta go. Hannah is screaming randomly.

A visit to Santa

I dressed the girls extra adorably today in their Christmas dresses and we tracked to the mall to see Santa. I was worried about Hannah and how she would react around Santa since she is a little more apprehensive around strangers. We get up to Santas little chair area and I let Hannah investigate things a little bit. We FINALLY put them next to Santa, (who was very nice by the way - at the Galleria) and Hannah sat there very nicely. Leah... not so much. She would not let me leave her at all. Santa tried getting behind the chair, on the floor in front of the girls... nothing appeased her. So we decided to try again later. Santa Vs. Twins - Round 1: GOES TO THE TWINS
I had wanted to try to get some pictures at Sears, which I will NEVER do again. I have 2 14 month olds. How much patience do you think they have??? We got there and they were in pretty good moods. I really wanted to get one of them together. Hannah just wanted to walk everywhere unfortunately so she was not very cooperative. We got some cute ones of Leah though! None of them together. Of course.

But here is my issue that I had with the portrait studio at Sears. There was ONE associate working. ONE. So when we were all in the back room trying to take pictures of 2 impatient toddlers, she had to keep leaving to answer the phone, take care of other customers, etc. She left sometimes for 15 minutes. I actually took a few pictures myself with their camera while she was gone. And its not like the associate did much honestly. She just set up the backdrop, stood behind the stationary camera and pushed a button. I was the one breaking a sweat finding props or entertaining the girls. Finally she left again for another 20 minutes at which point the girls lost it. They were done. I think we got about 5 pictures that were decent. Well, THEN she took time to tell me about the overpriced packages. I ended up getting 3 8x10s that Matt may be able to scan into the computer and we can use later, but they wont even be ready until the 16th. I did get a website that has the blurry proofs so I can at least give you some of the pictures to look at. I was hoping to get a Christmas card made but it will have to be of something else it would seem. Ugh. Anyway, we got a few cute ones, so here ya go!

A little Christmas preparation

I have this week off from work which is so wonderful. And I have been very productive thus far. Yesterday we took my grandmother shopping and today my sister took the girls to the mall all afternoon and I put the outside lights up.

This was the first year that I was in charge of decorating the outside and you can tell because there are WAY more lights than previous years. Unforunately we have 2 big trees by the house and one of them blinks and one does not. I bought the wrong lights for one of them. Oh well. Too late to fix it now. I am kind of wondering how much our power bill will be going up this month.

I also finally got some stockings. They are enormous but honestly I bought them for their cuteness, not for their possible storage area. The girls already have stuff in them. (a toy remote control and some nesting blocks).

And Matt and I are DONE shopping for the girls, Laura, and my grandmother. Hey, its a start! We got the girls a play kitchen since they love their little crawl through one. This one they will be able to grow into. They wont be able to reach some of it yet but I remember playing with our kitchen for so long. I think this one will be like that (I hope)


The other thing we got them is a climber. They love to slide and try to find a way to slide down anything, especially in the tub much to my chagrin. We can keep it downstairs until it is warm enough to play outside.



And then I found this, and I really want to get it though we have already spent enough and I know they dont need it, but it would be really cute.

According to reviews on this, kids who got this for their 1 year birthday were able to ride it. Now, I think Leah need to WALK first before getting a riding toy, but I am hoping she will start walking some day :) But how cute is that? I just see them buzzing around outside and it kind of kills me that they could be that old! But I think we will wait on this for a while since we would need two...

We are going to see Santa on thurs. Pictures to come!

2 good nights... and then we have tonight

Wow Leah is a tough one. She is cutting her top tooth so we have been giving her motrin for the last 2 nights. And the past 2 nights have actually been great. No one has been moved to the pack n play mid night and they both slept until about 8 (today they slept until almost 9).

Still gave them a bottle though. I know I know, Ill work on it I promise.

Anyway tonight Hannah laid down and was fine as usual and Leah decided she did not want to go to sleep. We let her cry for well over an hour (ok scream uncontrollably). I finally got her and tried to rock her, at which she then wanted to play. And then I laid her down in the pack n play and turned on a movie. Movie is still going but there is no more screaming. I have to say we did hear some strange noises in there though. Like she was trying to scratch or tear her way out of the pack n play. She wasnt crying at that point so we are not sure what she was doing. Now I am wasting some time before I go in there and turn the Princess Sing A Long movie off. :)

On a different note, I am reading an interesting book. It's called "The Happiest Toddler on the Block". There is also a "Happiest Baby..." book but I didnt have time to read when they were that young and my pregnancy was spent reading twin books. I am kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type mom and end up reading things about situations I am in. Rambling. So I am reading this book and it talks about different temperaments of children and how to react to situations.

Basically there are 3 types, according to this book. Children can fall in between but will normally lean towards one over the others. They are 1) easy, 2)shy and 3) spirited. I like the word spirited by the way :)

There is a little questionnaire to do if you are unsure what category your tot falls into. But a "quick test" is this - and its funny. Put your child down in an uncrowded mall and pretend you are not watching. If he stands still, hes easy. If he clings to you, he is shy. If he runs away, he is spirited. Guess what my kids do... (we were actually at Belk).

So they are stubborn, can be defiant, passionate, do not handle change well, have BIG ups and downs, etc. That describes them to a T. I am not saying I have bad kids. I think my children are perfect. But it does explain a lot of things... mostly that I already knew. And my babies definitely have big ups and downs. They KNOW how to throw a tantrum :)

I am only about 1 third through the book but I think it is interesting so far, though I think it will be more relevant for kids above 2.

I have some more books coming in that I am interested in reading, but they are mostly about sleep habits/tricks for twin tots. I dont know how it would be different than other young kids who share a room but I thought I would try it :)

Well I thought I would share that tonight. Guess I need to go check on my youngest...

Our latest trials and errors

We all have our ups and downs, and for the most part I feel that the girls are at the best age. They really are a lot of fun and I love that they just take it all in. But we are also having some definite issues.

Most nights (not all) Leah has been waking up screaming. We have no idea why. She seems to be scared by something and just screams. Of course we run in there (as this is not just whimpering and normally comes rather suddenly) and she is comforted as long as she is rocking on us. But the second we put her back in the crib she starts screaming again. Normally we have to stay there patting her until she calms down. She has to make sure we are still there a few times and then we can sneak out without her freaking out again. sometimes. I know Hannah is over there just wishing her sister would hush and let her rest!

The other night we put her down at 7:45 and she screamed until 9:30. We finally went in a rocked her. She feel back to sleep for 10 minutes. So we tried again. I waited until she was really asleep and snuck out. She screamed again in 10 minutes. Then we tried giving a bottle. She settled down again and then started up. Matt finally took her to the pack n play so Hannah could sleep and turned a movie on and let her rest. She finally fell asleep for the night at 12:30. Granted, this is not how it is every night. Sometimes she takes an incredibly long time to fall asleep and other times she wakes up suddenly.

This is all rather new, so I am hoping it is a phase. She did have her 3rd tooth pop through but I doubt it would cause all this. I guess we will see.

Which brings me to the bottle weaning. I think we are going to have 3 year olds on bottles. We have not been really consistent which I intend to work on this week. The plan was to take naptime bottles away and give a sippy cup of milk. They will not even touch cold milk, or warm milk for that matter in a cup. So I got some Ovaltine and Carnation Instant breakfast to put in the cups. That makes them drink about 3 sips more. They cry a lot longer without their bottle when going down for their naps, but for the most part they do go down. We are just bad about giving a bottle when we NEED them to sleep at a certain time so they can be awake at a certain time, and we cant handle an hour or more of crying. But I am off work this week so we are at least going to eliminate one of the 2 nap bottles.

We tried just giving them the bottle at night but not rocking them or making it dark. Just offering it before bedtime and then putting them down. Matt nixed that when we had the awful night with Leah that I talked about. Now we make it dark again and hold them for their bottle. We will work on this soon.

We may have made the mistake in giving them bottles to go to sleep but I dont think we could have survived otherwise. We are in for some big adjustments and I have to say I dont like it. My goal is to be off all bottles but the nighttime bottle by Christmas. Seems reasonable.

Anyway, I have rambled long enough. Bedtime.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving I cannot even begin to express all the things I am thankful for, but I know I love my family more than anything and every day I get to spend with them I feel truly blessed.

And I would like to say I had a ton of pictures of this day, but alas, I dont have a single one.

I was on call Thurs-Sun this past week. My surgeon was supposed to be out of town starting Saturday though and had family plans on Thanksgiving so I figured I was safe. The plan was to go to my parents house to have our feast around 2:30. I got called in to be at work at 2:30 for a heart transplant. So I helped Matt pack up the girls and he headed to Mom and Dads and I went to work.

The rest of my Thanksgiving day went as I expected. The donor heart was good so my patient, who was extremely sick, got a new heart. It was a very difficult case but the patient did fine and I left work (starving) at 2:30am. I called Matt on my way home and asked if he wanted to partake in some middle of the night leftovers.

Well, we had no leftovers at our house. Turns out, when Matt returned home that night our entire neighborhood was out of power, so he grabbed some things and went to his parents to put the girls to bed. It was after midnight before the power came back on (Seriously bad for the neighborhood - the power went out at 2:00 that afternoon! I bet that ruined a lot of meals! 2600 people out of power because someone hit something!) so he left the girls at his parents and the food in their fridge.

Needless to say I was sadly disappointed. I did get some leftovers on Friday though! So I dont really know how Thanksgiving Day went. I guess Matt can tell about that if there is anything interesting. I did teach the girls to say "gobble gobble" though.

Saturday worked out much better. Matt and I hosted a McCay Thanksgiving/Iron Bowl get together (and No I do NOT want to talk about the results of that game). Matts mom provided all the food, and we provided the house. Worked out great!!! And I finally got to enjoy the meal that I had been waiting for! The girls and their cousins played great together and they all napped around the start of the game.

Nothing terribly exciting to report here, but I thought I would at least mention we made it through the busy week!

The baby gate from ....... Babies R Us

So when the girls started moving we had to put up baby gates. We have a rather large stairway so there is only a select few that fit our landing. So we bought this one first. While the gate itself is very good, the latch was horrible and broke within the first few days. Note to self read the reviews before purchasing. So much to my wife's chagrin, it has stayed basically broken for the entire year. Before you hang me understand it still closed in place and kept the girls safe, but did not work exactly how it was intended, and over time of course it got worse.

So my loving parents kept the girls Friday night and most of the day Saturday, giving us time to finish Christmas decorations and to clean the house in preparation for hosting Thanksgiving. This also included me fixing the gate.

So on Saturday morning, I set off to get a new gate and this is about how it went.

12:00 - Leave for Target
12:30 - Leave Target defeated because they have no gates, and if they did, they did a good job of hiding them, and if they have employees that help you find stuff they did a good job of hiding those too.
12:30 - Head towards Babies R Us
1:00 - Success...find perfect gate with glass front so girls cannot shake the gate like they love to do.
1:30 - Go to Lowe's and get proper tools to hang gate so I do not have to borrow my dads tools.
2:00 - Arrive home victorious with perfect gate and begin to unbox.
2:30 - Finally decide to measure staircase width and find out that the 42in max gate we got will not fit the 50 inch opening. Sigh in frustration and defeat.
4:00 - Head out with wife to return perfect gate and get another one.
4:30 - Arrive at Babies R Us where we find not so perfect gates that will fit our 50in opening. Wife also suggests we buy mounting kit, I disagree saying it is not needed.
5:15 - Arrive home and begin to try to install new pressure mounted gate.
5:30 - After some frustration relize the gate is broken and most likely we need a mounting kit.
6:00 - Leave for dinner with parents.
7:30 - Arrive home with parents where my dad will assist me in trying to hang the other gate that we bought as a backup.
8:00 - Realize for this one we really need to have a mounting kit.
8:20 - Arrive at lowes -- no mounting bracket
8:35 - Arrive at walmart -- no mounting bracket
8:45 - Call target -- no mounting bracket
9:00 - Call Home Depot -- closed
9:05 - BBB -- no gates at all
9:20 - Arrive home in pure defeat, dreading the wife's I told you so (which thankfully she did not give me, but I know she was thinking).

So Sunday morning, set off again for Babies R Us to take back both gates we have and find another one.

12:30 - Arrive at Babies R Us and return both gates
12:45 - Find better option for gate, but Babies R Us does not carry the extension kit needed for the 50in stairway, continue to look.
1:15 - Ask customer service to call toys r us in hoover to see if they carry the part. The lady dials the number and hands me the phone (awesome customer service, I could have done that on my cell phone)
1:30 - In frustration purchase the same gate we had (hopefully not broken) along with a mounting kit ($40 frickin bucks)
2:15 - Arrive home
2:45 - After eating lunch begin to install mounting kit.
4:30 - Mounting kit and gate are finally installed.
4:31 - Realize I hate the gate and that it will have to due for now, but will in the near future I will have to install another gate.
4:35 - Both girls start to shake the gate, which is why the glass gate would have been awesome.

Next stop, the gate to our real fence outside...I will make sure to do better planning this time.

Weekly update

Been a few days since I have blogged so I thought I would type a few things as I eat my wonderful dinner of Kraft Mac N Cheese (at 10:30pm). Yes I just got home from work a little bit ago.

Anyway, What has been going on lately?

My grandmother is all moved in with my parents and seems to really like her new home. She said a few days ago that she did not feel like she was "home" at the assisted living, but now she does. My parents have the upstairs fixed up really nice for her, and so right now things are working out great. Laura took Grandmother Christmas shopping on Monday, and we all went over there for dinner Sunday. Other than that, I have been so busy with work, and they have been so busy getting her stuff unpacked I havent seen her. I hope things will settle down soon!

Last weekend Jason, Katy, Walker, and Eli came over, along with a good friend of ours, Sara, and her 10 month old Isaac. So we had five kids here ranging from 10 months to not quite 3. (And Katy is prego, so does that count as the 6th?). It was hilarious to watch the crew, and amazing to see how much the age gap among all of them has just closed in now that Hannah is walking and Isaac is crawling. They just played together. I can NOT even imagine next year when there is ANOTHER little McCay. But it was good times :)

Work has been busy, as it normally is this time of year. But I did manage to get the Christmas decorations up yesterday, and hopefully my house will be clean on Saturday! I love having the tree up, and the girls are fascinated by all the balls. Of course that is one of their favorite things, and there are about 500 on my tree. Too bad they get told no every time they go near it. Maybe they will learn not to touch the tree by the time we take it down.

The latest on the kiddos:

Hannah is walking everywhere and there is no stopping her. She has gained a little independence with this stage though, and she will actually walk out of the room that I am in. She usually comes back quickly with some kind of toy to give me but Im glad she is gaining some sense of independence. Leah will always follow Hannah so it is good for her too.

Leah is not walking but seems like she wants to. She just gets too excited when she is standing and kind of hops and then falls. Her feet are shaped a little strange, mainly they just point a lot, so she cant quite find her balance. Not something I will worry about until a little later though.

We are trying to wean from the bottle. Honestly this is a weaning process for me too! Bottles are an easy way to get the girls to sleep and though I know it is time to start working on giving it up, I do not know if we are ready :). We probably resorted to giving a bottle in too many situations but I dont care. We did what we had to do. Problem is, they will NOT drink milk from a sippy cup, warm cold or whatever. So I may have to get creative in order to get their milk intake in while we are weaning. Ive heard adding Carnation Instant Breakfast to the milk is a good idea, but then I have to wean off that. So right now, instead of making it all dark and holding them for their nighttime bottle, we just give them a bottle around 7:30 that they can drink while they play and then we read them a story and they are put to bed. Seems easy enough. Then we can switch it to the sippy cup. Well, when we give them the bottle, they just lay down on the floor or climb in our laps so we can hold them while they drink. We tried just nixing the bottle at night and giving them a sippy cup - which they didnt touch, but they cried for about 2 hours. I dunno. Im a bad mommy I guess but I need to be weaned :)

Funny things

- The other day we were playing in the playroom, and the door to the den was open. The girls LOVE the dogs and like to share with them. So Hannah took a lego block out of the room, and when she returned a minute later it was gone. She got another, and left again, returning blockless. She did this about 7 times, and turns out she was taking them all to Millie and Kody who were laying on the couch. They had a nice little pile of Legos next to them, along with a few "little people". Such a sweet girl.

- Last night Matt and I were eating some leftovers, and the girls had already had their dinner. Of course they wanted what we had though. I was sitting in the kitchen, and Matt was in the den (about 10 steps away from each other). Both girls were at my feet wanting a bite of my dinner. So they had to take turns. Bite for me, then Leah, then Hannah, ... Hannah was in no mood to wait though, so she would get her bite from me then walk over to Matt so he could give her a bite, then back to me. Leah eventually went to Matt and stayed, and so Hannah would get her bite from me, walk over to see if Leah was still with Matt and then come back to me. Ridiculous. Oh yeah, when Leah had had enough she took her bite (a noodle) out of her mouth and gave it to Kody. Matt gave her another noodle (in response to Leah's open mouth) and she did the same thing. They have a little pact going Im afraid...

- Apparently when the dogs bark or the garage door opens/closes, the girls think Dada is home. It is so cute. They go to the front windows or to the top of the stairs saying "dada? dada?" over and over again. Unfortunately the dogs bark at everything so normally it is not Dada.

Not much else is going on right now that I can think of. But I do have to be up at 5 to go to work, so goodnight!

Just a reminder

Just a little reminder that I am still trying to start up the recipe club blog, so please visit here and send me an email at allysonmccay@gmail.com to get added as an author. The whole point is to have a lot of people, so come and contribute!

6 things that make me happy

so I've been tagged by Sarah K to write 6 things that make me happy... Why 6? No idea :)
I could make this really easy and state the obvious : matt, hannah, leah, laura, abby, and kody. That's who all I live with! So instead I will try to be more creative since we are all made happy by the people (pets) we love. Here goes in random order...

Sleeping: mainly naps or sleeping in since I tend to stay up way too late. When kids come into the picture these things are never taken for granted.

Days off work with a clean house. This means I get to spend stress free quality time with my girls. Doesn't happen too often but it's always wonderful.

Christmas time. Pretty much everything about it. Cold weather and fires going with hot chocolate or a glass of wine by the Christmas tree. The decorations, the music, family, food, gift giving. It's just so cozy that nothing beats it.

Tcby. I'm obsessed. Ever since I graduated from auburn and they closed the tcby in Inverness I never get it. But it's so much better than ice cream! White chocolate mousse. Mmmmm

Changes in season. I couldn't think of what season was my favorite because I always get tired of one by the end and look forward to the next one.

The beach. Again an obsession but one that has varied since having kids. Gone are the endless hours of baking in the sun. Probably a good thing for my skins sake but I still love it. Especially when the water is clean and there is a breeze.

Ok there's my 6. That means I tag someone now huh. Ok. I tag Katy, laura g, and amy m

Let the fights begin!

The girls interact more and more with each other every day. Most of the time I find it hilarious. I love that they play peek a boo to each other, and follow each other around. If one leaves the room, the other goes to look for her. And though they have their moments, they normally get along pretty well.

A lot of times they will hold hands while in the high chairs, and give food to each other (not good when I am feeding one prunes to fix one problem and AVIDLY avoiding prunes with the other - if you know what I mean). And yet, they still share.

Until this week...

I bought these tiny Halloween pails that the girls like to carry around. I put some cheerios in one of them the other day for Leah. Hannah came up to her and wanted some cheerios. This would normally not phase Leah in the least. She would just let Hannah have some of the cheerios. This particular time however, Leah took the whole pail and hugged it close to her body, turned away from her sister and SCREAMED at Hannah. Hannah kept trying to reach for the pail, and Leah just turned more, clutched the pail tighter and screamed louder.

Second incident: If I buy them a toy, especially a larger one, they share. I am not buying 2 of everything! I got them the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Sing and Story time chair.

I have mentioned their obsession with chairs and thought they would love this. They really love it. Unfortunately they both want to be on it at the same time and we had a near miss head injury from one child pulling the other child out of the chair at massive force. Sitting on top of each other is apparently fair game. I actually went out and bought another one, and now they happily play in their own little chairs next to each other - though they do switch often. They better not get used to that...


Of course these are just two moments that are currently in my head but these little fights appear out of nowhere now and I know this will only continue. At least most of the time it is funny... as long as someone isnt being hurled to the ground!

Goodbye Granddaddy, and Hello Grandmother!

The day after Halloween I took the girls to Columbus to be with my family in this time of grief. The strange thing was, I had actually booked a room to stay in the assisted living on Thursday morning for Saturday - just because it was a good weekend for a visit. I knew Granddaddys time was coming but I had no idea he would pass away Friday and my visit would be for the funeral instead.

Matt had been working late all week finishing a project that was deadlined for Monday, the day of the funeral. So he stayed at home and worked Saturday and Sunday and planned on coming Monday only for the service.

The girls were great on the trip down. But when we got there I became a little worried because Leah was not acting like herself. She was very fussy - and it turned out she had a little stomach bug that caused some LOVELY diapers. Sadly, Hannah had the opposite problem so the two of them were quite uncomfortable.

Grandmother seemed to really benefit from the time she spent with the girls and I am glad I brought them, even in their more ornery moments. Plus my whole family got there Sunday or Monday and some of them had never even met H & L yet. Leah really became attached to my aunt, who I think reminded her of Grammy.

The sleeping arrangement was less than ideal. I stayed in the assisted living so that I could easily go back to my room for naps, and then go right back to grandmothers for our visits. But, even though I had a full kitchen, there was no microwave. I hate to say it but the girls still take a bottle (I am not willing to give it up and they easily go to sleep with it!). But Hannah will not TOUCH it if it is cold. Even though it may be a bad habit, if one of them wakes up screaming in the middle of the night I can give them a warm bottle and change them and they are back down in 15 minutes.

The 3 of us shared a room and I had the pack n plays right next to each other. Leah awoke around 1:30 and was obviously in a lot of stomach discomfort. She screamed and screamed. And did not appreciate a cold bottle very much. Her screaming woke up Hannah which caused her to scream and neither would calm down because they were provoking each other. I tried to give Hannah a bottle in her pack n play (out of desperation to calm one baby), but she wouldnt take it cold. Leah was so mad she was arching her back and would not be held. I finally heated some milk in a skillet (thats all I had) and gave it to Hannah which allowed her to calm down enough that I could calm Leah down. It was terrible. I was exhausted that next morning but awoke to the girls laughing at each other playing peek a boo with their blankets through the pack n plays. As if they had not put me through torture the night before! :) I got a microwave from the activity room Sunday just in case someth Luckily Sunday night and MOnday night were not as bad because I think they were both feeling a little better - and I got some gripe water, gas drops, and culturelle to try to help. :)

It was great to see family though even in the worst of circumstances. Matt came on Monday as planned and we took the girls to the service together. Granddaddy had a military funeral and burial, something I had never seen before. It was very moving when the military guys (soldiers? army guys? I dunno what they want to be called) marched in and placed the flag over the coffin. There were some old friends and neighbors there and I appreciated everyone coming to show support even if it had been 15 years since they had last seen our family.

Matt had to take Hannah out of the service because she just wanted to walk and would not tolerate being held down. Leah crawled along the pew and kept waving and saying "bye bye". They brought joy to such a sad day - and as my older sister said in reference to hearing Leah during the service "That's the sound of life!" At least Leah was appropriate in her word choices.

The burial was very hard. He was buried at Fort Benning. The flag was draped over the coffin and the military men sat next to Grandmother. They had a 21 gun salute and I lost it during "taps". But it was just what Granddaddy would have wanted. All I can say is there are way too many women in my family and a lot of sobbing. Grandmother and Granddad had a son and a daughter, which lead to them having 5 granddaughters, 2 grandsons, 7 great granddaughters and 2 great grandsons. Thats quite a legacy. But almost all girls so lots of emotions.

Unfortunately Matt missed the burial too because Leah had a MAJOR accident in the car on the way to the cemetery and had to have a complete outfit change in the back of the van. She reappeared dressed in a miss matched pink outfit with backward pants... Nice.

It was a very emotional day for all of us though. I adored my granddaddy and even though I knew this was coming, and he actually held on for a lot longer than I had anticipated it is still difficult.

On a side note though, my grandmother is moving in with my parents! For the past 5 years it had been planned for her to live with my aunt, but for whatever reason she chose to live with my dad. It has to do with her wanting to have some independence and at my parents she will have the entire upstairs to herself. This way she can keep her furniture, which she was very concerned about getting rid of and have her own place (without a stove). I am thrilled because she is the only grandparent I have left on my side of the family and I love the fact that my girls will be around her. Also, I now have the opportunity to make grandmothers life a little better than it has been for the last 5-10 years. Even though I know she was doing exactly what she wanted to be doing, she has not had much of a life since Granddad got sick.

There are so many wonderful memories my granddaddy gave me and I know I will remember them all forever. I think one of the strangest thoughts I had was when I was driving home and realized I have no reason to visit Columbus GA again. I lived there for about 10 years and after we moved to Birmingham in 1993, I have visited frequently. Now I have no reason to visit so that chapter of my life is closed. At least grandmother is close by now!

I love you Granddaddy. May you rest in peace in Gods glory, and the 8 people you said were waiting on you.

The good, the bad, and the beautiful

Halloween

It has been a really long week so I am just now getting to this post. First and foremost I got the call from my father Halloween morning that my granddaddy passed away. My dad had been in the parking lot of the assisted living and missed his death by mere minutes. However, Granddad did know that he was there, as if he had been waiting. But more on this later.

Of course my sister and I were very upset by this news but that really is not what this post is about. That will be my next one.

So Halloween day I happened to be home, and the plan was to meet with the neighbors at 5:30 for some trick or treating fun. The girls were not going to go door to door, but we wanted to walk around with everyone and enjoy some of the costumes.

Baby Ava came over before we walked out the door for a little photo op. We did not do too well though. Ava, though she is just a tiny thing has a lot of spunk and can hold her own to my kids. She really likes to pull hair. At least my girls are used to this from each other. But Ava was the cutest little ladybug! My girls were ballerinas. Aunt Katy made them the tutu's for their birthday and I thought this would be an easy costume to ensemble. It proved more difficult than planned though because I could not find a purple onesie to go with Leah's purple tutu. I got cream instead and it worked :)




The girls were the most beautiful little ballerinas though if I do say so myself.
(I even found ballet slippers!)


Matt and I enjoyed walking around with all the neighbors and their kids. The plan was to stroll the girls but they wanted nothing to do with that so we carried them the entire time. We needed our exercise!
Here is a group shot! A few kids refused to get in the picture though, but these are some of this kids from the street :)



We had a lot of fun though and unfortunately have way too much candy left over... still!

Hannah is officially walking!

In the last few days Hannah has taken a lot of initiative towards improving her walking skills. She has been balancing much better and when she took a few steps and fell, she would get back up and take a few more steps.

Well today she figured the whole thing out and seems to like walking a little better than crawling! That may be due to our relentless cheering after she makes it from point A to point B, but she is excited nonetheless.

Tonight she walked a good 20 feet without falling. I was so proud. And she was just walking to the coffee table, instead of coming to Matt or I. She was grinning ear to ear when she reached the table and of course I called everyone to tell them of her newest accomplishment :)

She then went through our living room into the kitchen which by her path is another 30 feet or so. She fell numerous times, but got right back up to walk some more.

The only problem is, my little Leah will go speeding past her on all fours and get right in Hannah's projected path inevitable causing Hannah to trip. Its as if Leah is saying "I am so much faster than you! Why should I walk when I can crawl???"

I officially have 1 toddler... wow

Hopefully video will be posted sometime this week.

First pair of "kicks"

The girls spent the night with Matt's parents on Friday so we could have a date night (YAY) so they decided to take them to a place called "Sykes" in Homewood to buy their first pair of shoes.

I have been anti shoes since they were born, but they are on the move now and since it is getting colder, I think the barefooted look may bring about some unwanted attention. This place was amazing. They have so many cute little shoes. And they were so busy that we had to take a number!

They measured the girls feet and Hannah is a 4.5 extra-extra wide and Leah is a 3.5 extra-extra wide. Sad I know. They will grow out of it! Anyway, we decided on these little flexible white tennis shoes so they could get better at walking. And of course we also had to get a pair of brown suede mary-jane type shoes for their dressier outfits. Yes I know they are only a year old, but they have to be coordinated on their outings!

Hannah was pretty proud of her shoes, and kept kicking her feet or stomping the ground with a big smile on her face. Leah likes to try to take them off, which hasnt gotten better as she has gotten more used to them.

The good thing is, the shoes make Leah a little taller, so she can now ride her "bounce and spin zebra" that she is normally about a cm too short for. She was VERY excited.

The shoes make the girls look so much older. I dont know why, but they do. They look like little toddlers. Speaking of which, we turned the carseats around yesterday so now when I look back I see these little girls with pig tails and tennis shoes looking back at me. I say it all the time, but they grow up so fast!

The girl's first ponytails

For as long as I have thought about having kids I have wanted a little girl in ponytails, and tonight I got it. I honestly did not think their hair was long enough. I got Hannah's hair up in one pigtail yesterday, so today I thought I would try two. Especially since I am having a hard time figuring out what to do with Hannah's hair, since it is at that 'shaggy, if she were a boy she would need a haircut but she is a girl so what do you do with that mop' phase. :)

Leah was not as easy since her hair is so much finer and shorter, and I dont think she is quite ready to pull of that look. :) But Hannah looked adorable so I had to take pictures. It's KILLING me at how fast they are growing up. I mean, if I can pull their hair up they just don't look like babies then! At least they are wearing their footed pajamas in these pics. :)

Neither girl was willing to pose for the camera, and Matt was playing with the settings, so this is the best we got.

New Recipe Club Blog

I am always looking for new recipes - but I like the ones other people have TRIED. So I decided to start one of these recipe club blogs. I'd love for anyone to be a contributor so let me know if you would like to add your weekly recipe to the blog! The more recipes the better.

just email me at allysonmccay@gmail.com so I know your email address and Ill add you :)

AT HOME CHEFS

Pumpkin Patch

Today we had a wonderfully busy day. Matt and I actually got to hang out with each other and the girls, plus the fam almost all day! It was nice to spend time together since Matt and I have barely seen each other or our kids these past two weeks.

Grin (as Walker calls Matts dad - and we are trying to make him a "dandy" but I feel like the first grandchild always names the grandparents, so I guess we have to adopt "Grin" as his name) loves trains and Walker shares his passion tenfold. So Gammy and Grin wanted to take us all on the train in Calera to the pumpkin patch. I was a little nervous because it was right when the girls normally nap but they ended up sleeping in a little so they did great.

So we got on the train and Leah became her usual flirtation self, and was completely enamored with the conductor. He was really great with her, and Leahs affections were sealed when he pulled out his conductor's watch and let her play with it. Anytime he walked by she just stared up at him. She knows she is cute. It is going to be problematic I feel.

Hannah sat in Daddys lap most of the time, and really loved looking out the window as the train moved. Of course their cousins were wonderful - I mean, they were on a TRAIN! (It is true what they say about boys and their trains and apparently they do not grow out of it - ex, Matt and his dad...)

When we arrived at the pumpkin patch we decided to go on the hay ride first. The girls were getting tired but enjoyed the short trip behind the tractor. I even got some snuggles from my Leah as she was lulled by the movement. These snuggles are rare and are deeply treasured.

They enjoyed going from pumpkin to pumpkin as they crawled around in the grass. The boys were running around picking out their pumpkins, since Walker was going to get a BIG pumpkin for Gammy. (At first he was planning on getting a big one for Mommy, but Gammy's often replace Mommy's...)

We all enjoyed the cool morning outdoors and I am glad I got some cute pictures. The train ride back was free of any tantrums, despite my earlier concerns for a lack of a nap, and we all even got to go to Cracker Barrel for lunch after! All the kids were perfect.

We went home and the girls took a LITTLE nap and then we were back out to go to dinner with the extended family to celebrate Matt's cousins return from Korea (he is in the army) and Matt's granddad's birthday. It was a VERY long day but the girls did very well and went to bed right when we got home.

On a side note, Kody is back home. He apparently got into some toxin though we do not know what exactly it was. Most likely a bug or spider or something, but his liver levels were not good. So he is on some meds to help his liver function and on a special diet for a few days. But at least he is home. And we had a little scare with Millie last night. Right after I posted my blog last night Laura ran upstairs and told me to come down fast and look at Millie. Poor thing's eyes were swollen shut and her snout was huge. She was a lot more snorty than normal (she is a boston terrier). We called our vet and he told me I did exactly what he would have recommended (1.5 pills benadryl) every 4 hours. She probably got bitten by a spider and it was completely unrelated to all the stuff she and Kody dealt with earlier. What are the odds? Anyway, everyone seems to be better now. :)

What a week...

I know I have been talking a lot about how much I am working lately, but I have not mentioned how much Matt has been working. Poor guy has had all these deadlines and has been very stressed about making them. So most nights after the girls go down he stays up and works.

This week one of the nurses I work with was out of town, leaving only 2 of us to do all of Kirklin's cases. And of course this was the week Matts deadlines were due. He told me Monday that he would be working until at least 10 Monday through Wednesday.

So I did what I always do and called Matts parents to see if they could help out in case I ended up working late. They had the flu! My parents are out of town. My sister had plans most of the week. I was stressing out.

Luckily Monday and Tuesday ended up being fine. I was home from work by 5:45 and was able to relieve my sister. Wednesday I was on call and Laura was nice enough to change her plans to watch the girls a little late. My case ended up being 14 hours long and a "little late" was 3:30am. Matt did not even come home from work Wed night and worked until his client meeting was over on Thurs. I had to get up and go back to work at 7:30, so I got 3 hours of sleep.

When I got home yesterday (thurs) I was exhausted. And of course so was Matthew. We got the girls down and we got in bed at 10:00. (There was a lot to do after being gone for 48 hours). We were excited to settle down in bed and get a good nights rest.

Unfortunately Kody (our lab mutt) was sick ALL NIGHT LONG. Poor thing is really really sick. He was throwing up all night, so we were in turn up all night cleaning it up. He was very restless and kept jumping on the bed. He threw up on our blanket first, so that was thrown off the bed. And then later we had to do a full fledge 3am sheet change. (He knows he is not allowed on the bed, but also knows when we are in a deep sleep and wont do anything if he sneaks in between us.)

So both Matt and I got up this morning exhausted again. I went to work and then had to take Kody to the vet because he was sick all day as well. I took Millie too because she threw up last night also, but it was only one time. Millie is now home, but Kody has to stay overnight. They did some blood work but it was not back at the time Matt picked up Millie. So I may know something in the morning. Kody is severely dehydrated and has a lot of stomach tenderness. They gave him an IV and stomach settler and hope to get to the bottome of this. I at least got him in the "luxury room" at the vet so he is not bombarded with a lot of other dogs and has a little bed to sleep in. During business hours I can even look in on him on the computer. Yes I know I am pathetic.

I have no idea what he could have gotten into but I am glad I took him since he is a lot sicker than I thought. Pray that he gets better quickly and he did not eat something (like a poisoned mouse) that could be toxic.

This has been a not so good week. I really hate to complain because it could always be worse so lets just say this is me just speaking of our weekly events with the outlook that tomorrow is a new day.

On that note, I am ready for this day to be over and climb into my (clean) sheets. I am VERY tired and we have a big day planned tomorrow.

Obsess much?

Leah has become OBSESSED with climbing in chairs. They have these little wooden chairs that go with a little table and she will climb in and out of those for hours. She is as content as can be if you let her sit in her chair and bring toys to her. (pitiful I know). The problem with these chairs is they are actually difficult to climb in and out of and the tend to tip over easily. If I try to take it away while she sees me she goes into hysterics. Also, if I just lay the chair on its back so she cant sit in it anymore, she also goes into a full blown tantrum. I have never seen anything like it.

So what do I do? I went to Target and found some soft chairs for my girls. They are so happy with them! Again, they are climbing in and out of them relentlessly but seem to have no problems falling out of them and getting right back in!

The climbing in and out of things is also a great joy. They like to pull out the bottom drawer of the chest that is in the playroom and then sit in it. It cannot hold them though so I had to come up with another idea. The laundry basket is not only great for holding laundry, but also for letting 2 babies lounge in.

I think the climbing is their new phase. Because we have these new chairs and I have temporarily hidden the other ones, they can now climb on top of their table! And today I caught Leah climbing out of her HIGH CHAIR! they have never tried to get out of it and so I have never strapped them in. But today I turned around for a SECOND while they were having a snack and the next second Leah was on top of her tray leaning over looking at our dog. Of course I freaked out which freaked her out, but I rescued her safely. Looks like she will be buckled up from now on!

Here are some pics. Yes I know it looks like they never get out of these pajamas but lately with my work schedule the only time I have been seeing them is after their baths when they are in their PJs. They are dressed sometimes too!