The little Monkeys

I know I've said it about 100 times before, but Mary Louise and David are absolutely some of the most determined and avid climbers I've ever seen. They have uncanny flexibility and upper body strength - and boy, do they every use both!

The First Toddle play mat / gym has come in quite handy - especially on dreary or cold days when we just can't play outside. It has grown with them and I've changed the form a number of times to keep things interesting for the babies.

Today, while I was doing my mid day pump, they busied themselves...David was the spectator most of the time - as was I when I realized just what the little Miss was up to...



xo,
Heather

A little left of center...

Well, we've reached all new levels of sleep deprivation in this house. It may be more aptly described as all new levels of activity - thereby causing more severe exhaustion...and you know Mary Louise and David aren't sleeping any MORE than usual - so...in short, Brent and I are, well, tired.

Brent's new job is going well. He's still getting a feel for things and working out a routine. That will take some time - months - but he has been received incredibly well and I've noticed a grin or 2 that might not have been there before. We get to see him most mornings now which is something I haven't had since, well, pretty much since Brent graduated from college! ha!

We are having quite a bit of maintenance done on the house right now too - early morning painters started coming today. We are having an interior room painted as well as the exterior of the house. Some carpentry work is being done too as a few spots of siding and a window sill or 2 need some repairs. It's definitely busy around here - but we're excited to get these projects done and behind us...

It has been difficult - to put it mildly - just to get contractors to show up for the jobs however. So I've been on the phone quite a bit getting quotes and assessors to our house for work. Mary Louise and David have been wildly patient with the whole thing - grinning (or hiding) when workers come by, and for the most part staying out of harms' way while people work.

Mary Louise has developed quite a little pseudo mommy role around here. She gives David tissue to blow his nose. Today, she attempted to clean his ears after his bath - and wipe his mouth after he ate. I've posted photos before of her "chatting" on the phone but the other day she just out did herself when she attempted to imitate what I was doing - talking on the phone with an ink pen in hand. I've got to hand it to that girl - she doesn't miss much! She got things *almost* right - but instead of a phone, she said, "hello" into the baby monitor...and instead of an ink pen, she perched a tampon at the corner of her mouth in the "I'm thinking" position.

(it's ok - go ahead and read that last bit again)

This evening, Brent and I were cleaning the kitchen after supper - in an exhausted stupor. I was collecting my blessed horns (the equipment for pumping), when Brent announced, "ok, I'm gonna go pump and go to bed."

Oh Brent - you have no idea how many times I've wished that could be the case - just for a little while!

Here's hoping for a good night's sleep, and a perky and "with it" tomorrow!!

xo,
Heather

MaMere's photos

From our recent visit...

March visit 2011

xo,
Heather

to grandmother's house we go!!

pretty typical car ride with the babies...



We had a very long - but really good ride to MaMere and Pop's house today! Looking forward to a wonderful visit!

xo,
Heather

and CHECK!

Mary Louise and David had their LAST Synagis shot today!!!! AHHH!! this moment has been 2 years in the making! I'm thrilled and nervous about truly being "cut loose" of just about all of our day to day - or month to month preemie ties. We are going for wellness check ups with the pedi next month (ummm - can you believe these guys will be 2. years. old?!?!) - but we haven't been (for wellness)since Mary Louise and David were 18 months old. We'll see the cardiologist in a couple of years, the opthamologist in a year, and the audiologist in a year - but otherwise, we are truly done done done with the physical "extras"!!! (note***their expressive speech is still notably behind and therapy may or may not be recommended, but as I've said before, we'll cross that bridge if needed...)

Brent worked the morning in his home office and was done early enough this afternoon to accompany us to the park and fountain by the lake. Mary Louise and David had a BLAST!!! The weather has been gorgeous and we've been making very good use of our back yard play area (thank you for the millionth time to Mere and Pop!!) but sometimes, a field trip is just in order...















xo,
Heather

Imaginary Play...

Mary Louise and David might not say much that we understand - but they are making great progress with their communication just the same. Mary Louise is really getting into her "other" voice. She makes a different sound when playing with something now - David on the other hand, doesn't quite get why, when he takes the toy and does the same motion, the toy doesn't "do" the same for him...

A video taken by Uncle Kyle last weekend...


xo,
Heather

HUGE photo purge...

This is just a fraction of what I have on the camera - it seems that during the holidays and through the month of January, I took a staggering 2500+ photos...(this album is just under 600)

Christmas, half relay, Lumen Christi Jan. 2011

I'm not sure what's happening with Picassa - not only is the first photo one of David around last Easter on Dad's bench, but the album is out of order - I'll do my best to organize things later, but for now, thought I'd give access to what I have...

xo,
Heather

SURPRISE!!!

Our weekend project:

That's right!! MaMere and Pop's Christmas present came in last week! (The first one we'd picked was on back order forever, then discontinued, so after milling around for awhile, this one was chosen...I'm pretty sure the g'parents hit a big fat home run with it too!!)

"Hi!"


About to crawl in the tube!


Fun all 'round!


Please excuse the quality of these photos and video - they were all taken with my phone. We have had a motherload of issues with our wireless and I am having some problems purging my camera. That and time constraints have left things uploading at less than a snail's pace around here!

Brent's first week doing his new job is going really well so far. He is setting up and servicing the Louisiana territory for his company. I was able to clear out "the office" here at the house with Uncle Kyle's babysitting help this past weekend. So, Brent set up his desk and is getting all of this paperwork, computer and scanner system and contact information organized and ready to launch! Today was his first day "on the road" and as of a few minutes ago, things are going well.

xo,
Heather

Rockin' out!

Mary Louise and David have been super fans of rocking chairs for sometime now. So, when we spotted an old Cajun man selling children's cypress rockers on the side of the road, Brent and I grinned at each other, said, "why not", and stopped to take a look. They seemed solid and really beautifully made so we loaded 2 up with the babies sleeping away in their car seats and went on with the rest of our 3+ hour ride home from Mommom's.

We set the little rockers up on the patio, lifted Mary Louise and David down from the car, and waited. They spotted the Easter egg colored fun immediately - and went to a-rockin'...





We've missed the past 2 days of rocking with the weather being so nasty - but plan to be right back out there this afternoon for some really good fun! And little do those wee ones know, but Pops and MaMere have quite the surprise on its way at the end of the week! (More on that later...)

xo,
Heather

Hey Mister Postman!

Brace yourselves - this post contains nudity and subject matter that may only be suitable for adults. bahahaha - I'll keep it relatively clean...

It's rainy, it's Mardi Gras, and what does one do with a rainy, Mardi Gras, toddler filled day you ask? Oh that's right. One cleans chandeliers of course! So I bought some Sparkle Plenty...so our light fixtures would in fact...umm...sparkle plenty (no I haven't been drinking)...and as we were stuck inside on this parade filled day, I decided to give it a try on our FILTHY fixtures. Seriously, these things have been driving me nuts for quite sometime and the Sparkle Plenty spray, regardless of the ridiculous name, is supposed to work wonders in very little time. I set up towels under the chandeliers and took to a-sprayin'.

Since our lights were well coated with about 100 years (literally) of crud, I decided that they needed a second treatment...

Have I mentioned that the babies are climbing like circus performers lately??? hmmm? David used the drawer pulls in the kitchen today to attempt scaling the counter - I caught him on drawer pull number 3...

Anyhow, I second coated the dining room light then moved on to the foyer. I put the step ladder back out, climbed the steps, told the babies to spot me...ha...and did a quick spray. David decided that those steps on the ladder were just. too. tempting. He toddled up the first one...but I was almost done.

He made it up the second step and was moving to the third when things went awry. I had finished treatment 2, was just beginning to back down while David was pushing up, and he. grabbed. my. ELASTIC WAIST PANTS LEG. HA!! (and in case you're wondering, I'm not really a fan of the granny panty - and we'll leave it at that...)That kid totally pants me in our foyer while I was on perfect display through our glass front door...

but oh, it gets better...

I turned around, rather surprised, pants at my ankles, just in time to catch our sweet postman, Mr. Otis, standing there getting a bit more than he'd bargained for when he strolled up to our front porch to deliver the day's post.

Apparently, the mail does run on Mardi Gras...and in the spirit of the wild and crazy holiday, I unwittingly mooned our poor post man.

Thanks David. Thanks alot Bubs.

xo,
Heather

Needed: a 42 hour day

Because seriously, that's what it would take for me to get things done around here. Life seems to be moving at warp speed and I feel as if I'm standing here trying to catch my breath...

Brent is beginning a new job next week!!! After 7 years with his current company, he has been offered a completely different position with a completely different company. We are excited, nervous, scared - but keeping our smiles! All of his hard work and networking certainly seems to be paying off and we are very hopeful that this will be the best way for us to move forward.

Mary Louise and David are wild. Yep, wild. I don't know what else to say about them. They climb, they fuss, they pull each other's hair. They are absolute fashion divas - seriously - they are now choosing their own clothing in the mornings and Mary Louise in particular will pitch such a fit that it's not even worth it to me to argue with her. (nevermind that arguing with a 22 month old is, in itself, ridiculous right?) She actually went to church last Sunday in a size 2T dress...yes, it was too big for her - but it sort of stayed on - and it's what she wanted - so we went with it. The shoes she originally chose rubbed between her toes as they had a thong in the front. So I got her some nice buckle sandals instead - and hid the others. Why? because that child insisted on wearing those shoes that hurt her feet - sideways so as to avoid having the thong between her toes - for a full day until I put them in a closet while she was sleeping. 3 days of fits later and we have successfully switched her shoes. Phew!

Today was "Uh-oh" day for her. She would drop something, say, "uh oh!" and pick it up again. Usually she uses the term appropriately...but (you knew there was a but) - today, she reached up to a shelf she hasn't cleared before (think above her head, hand on shelf, clean sweep back and forth - previously, it's been the bottom 2 shelves - so I just keep them clear, but those darn kiddos seem to have grown again! (ha)) she pulled a loaf of bread off of the shelf and threw it on the floor..."uh oh!" "Now Mary Louise," I said gently as I signed and put the bread back, "that is not an uh-oh and you guys will have to start learning that this isn't a play area." I turned my back - I know, moronic - "Uh oh, Uh oh UH oh!!!!" I turned back to see what she was doing...bread on the floor, tortillas on the floor, and she was pummeling and wadding a roll on the shelf into a little ball...

This afternoon, David attempted to climb that same shelf as if it was a ladder. Unfortunately, said shelf is built in (so no, Mom, I can't move it, turn it around, or otherwise).

In the bath tub this morning, I poured their bubble bath in, turned the little heater on and got the room nice and toasty. Mary Louise and David turned the cold water on and took turns dumping cups of it over their heads while shrieking with utter glee and surprise.

At any rate, I'm quite sure we've crossed the threshold into toddlerhood - officially.

We spent the weekend in Houma and had a really nice time. Brent and I were supposed to do our first race together, but it was cancelled due to terrible weather. So...we had a WONDERFUL date!!! We saw our first movie in almost 3 years! Ha! Then we went to dinner - which was fabulous!

So many changes - I can hardly wrap my mind around it all!

xo,
Heather