When I Grow up...

From Ruthie:

"When I grow up I want to be just like Daddy!"

"and maybe not be a pirate...."

This is how I found Ruthie in our bedroom when I accidentally left the door open. She was pulling clothes out of the hamper and wearing Daddy's tie. You have to excuse the hair. As posted in the earlier blog, Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo was not nearly strong enough to get out the gel from last night's Halloween costume. It has looked like she stuck her hand in an electrical socket all day. If I didnt know I had them all covered in the house, I wouldnt put it past her.

Halloween Sneak Preview

Wednesday night our church hosted Trunk or Treat. It worked out well for me because I could get the girls dressed up early since I am leaving to go out of town this weekend. We went with a cliche....but a cute cliche.

Yay for Thing 1 and Thing 2! And of course The Cat in the Hat. The Cat in the Hat seemed like a great idea until it got a little dark and the girls didnt recognize Mark. They proceeded to scream whenever he tried to pick up either one of them. I guess we didnt think that one completely through. That cut our Trunk or Treating time down to 30 minutes. It was a good 30 minutes though.

Then came time to clean out the blue hair spray and hair gel. Despite what you think, Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo doesnt do a deep clean. Maybe it is the tear-free solution that ruins the deep clean. So, after 2 babies getting scrubbed down in the bathtub, this is what our bathtub looked like.

FYI...the bath is white.....so the water should be clear...which it obviously is not.

The Sounds of Silence

I took down my baby jail when the girls turned 1 (follow this link if you havent read my original post on baby jail ( http://simplysullivan.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-formal-apology.html ) I decided that they needed more room to learn how to move around. A week later Maddie started walking, so who knows how long I stunted their growth leaving them in a 6 ft by 6 ft pen. It was marvelous confinement though. Anyways, now there is no where to confine them, except in their cribs. We pretty much have the entire house baby proofed, so there are few things they can actually get into that would hurt them if I wasnt watching them for a few minutes.

I had just gotton home from Walmart with the girls. The process goes something like this. Park in the garage, get out baby #1 and go into the house. Turn on the Wiggles and put her down with the toys in the family room. Go back down into the basement/garage and get baby #2. Put her in front of the Wiggles and toys. Go back down into the basement/garage for the groceries for how ever many trips it takes me. Every trip put the groceries on the counter because if they go on the floor the kids will be all in them. I had all but 1 bag unpacked when my phone rang. The girls were being loud, so I went into my bedroom to take the call.

Any parent of a toddler will tell you that the worst nose they can hear, besides the sound of their child crashing to the floor, is silence (which is usually followed by your child crashing to the floor). I was mid-phone call when I heard it....absolutely nothing. I open my bedroom door and dont see them in the family room, but oddly hear maracas. I dont know about you, but we dont have maracas in the house. I quickly got off the phone and followed the noise to the kitchen where I saw this.



I dont know how, but they pulled my newly purchased Halloween candy (Nerds) down from the counter and managed to open the bag. They then were just shaking as many of the boxes as they could get in their hands. Needless to say, Halloween came early for the girls today.

Happy Thoughts

It was pointed out to me that every time Maddie looks down at her scar, she will see a happy face. I'm glad that she will have happy thoughts every time she looks down at her chest.

Her scar is fading quickly, so I had get the shot! I never really noticed until it was pointed out to me since I am always looking at her right side up (see below).

We are almost 2 months post-op, and very happy with the incision sight.
.

One Way Street

Meet Bailey, one of our boxers. Bailey is very affectionate towards the girls. There are some days that Bailey is playing with the girls and she gives me a nasty look that I interpret as, "If you hadnt taken my mommy parts, I would be such a better mom than you." But as it stands, I birthed these children, and not her....much to her dismay.

Bailey tends to lick quite a bit. Like I said, she is very affectionate. Both of the girls dont seem to be bothered by it. We have run into a problem with Ruthie though.

Unfortunately (of or maybe for your viewing sake, fortunately), my camera isnt fast enough to catch the problem. Bailey licks Ruthie, so Ruthie assumes she can lick Bailey. Today was a little out of control. Maybe Bailey is highly attracted to her bright blue eye patch, I dont know, but they have been licking each other all afternoon. Rationalizing with Ruthie hasnt worked either. Can you believe that a 1 year old pirate doesnt understand, "Bailey can lick you, but you cant lick Bailey" or "Ruthie isnt a doggy, so you dont lick"? She even gets Bailey to lick her by getting close to Bailey's face and sticking her own tongue in and out until Bailey licks her.

If Ruthie thinks she is a dog, I may use it to my advantage. Both of my dogs are housebroken....so I could save some money on diapers if Ruthie learned how to use the doggy door.

It's Flippin' Crazy!

So, the girls have a new trick. They love to flip! Every night after bath time they get naked and go nuts in their room, crawling/walking everywhere and giggling. Once I can wrangle them into their diapers, Mark gets on the floor and plays with them to wear them out before bed. Maddie was the first to flip the night before her surgery. I restricted her flipping for a while after surgery, but she insisted about 2 weeks after to begin her flipping again. Ruthie soon caught on.



Both of the girls put their heads down on the ground when they are ready to flip. It is kind of their cue to us to flip them. I dont think Ruthie completely gets the process though. She thinks she can flip by herself. She constantly gets into tripod position and attempts to flip. She even gets on her tip-toes trying to get the momentum to flip. It hasnt worked for her yet. She doesnt quite get that she needs to be near me or Mark for her to flip.

Notice there is no one around her t0o flip her. There are several times that I walk into the room and she is in this position, with no one around.

"I'm waiting....."

Arrrrrgggg!

Ahoy there, from the Sullivan house! No, Ruthie is not preparing for Halloween early or channeling Captain Feathersword....


she is attempting to avoid another eye surgery.

I took Ruthie to her opthamologist today because I was noticing her right eye starting to drift in a little. Turns out it was drifting in about 3 degrees more than it was at her last check up. They checked her again for glasses, and she still doesn't need them, which was a relief. Instead, we got the patch.

( This is a different patch, because Maddie helped Ruthie pull off the other one and was eating it)

We have to patch for 2 hours a day, while she is awake. The hope is to strengthen her right eye. If it isn't better for our December 1st appointment then we have to do surgery again. We got some samples from the doctor that I was trying out tonight to see which ones fit better. Unfortunately they only had boy patches in the small size, so the camo one is a little masculine. The next size up they had in girl styles and she seems to have a more difficult time taking those off. Such hard decisions to make when picking an eye patch for your child.

Getting my 1 year old to keep this sucker on should be interesting.

All I need to know, I learned from my 4 year old cousin

After spending some time with their 4 year old cousin, Lily, the girls have picked up a few things.

#1. You are never too young to be a princess. (Lily put the crown on Maddie's head and she wanted it on there constantly from that point on!)


#2. Accessories make the outfit! (My mom has all of these Mardi Gras beads, for some reason. The girls wore them all week!)

First Haircuts

As I had posted earlier, the girls were having major hair issues.  So, off to Super Cuts we went!

We started with Ruthie, since her hair was the craziest.  She actually did really well sitting and not moving.

If you can do this with your child's hair, it is a sign it is time to be cut.

Then it was time for Maddie.  She cooperated also, until the very end.  I dont think I could have asked for more.

A little more mohawk action...



Now for the problem.  Miss Ruthie has very thick hair, and the hairdresser even commented on that when she was cutting it.  Then there is Miss Maddie, who has thinner hair.  Apparently the hairdresser thought that because they were twins they had similar hair.  So, when she cut Maddie's hair, she cut it WAY too short.  Ruthie's is short, but since she has such thick hair, it still has body.  Maddie's hair has no body.  I was not very happy about the situation.  I know it will grow back, but it still made me sad.  Here are their after pictures.

Thank You, Auntie Katie

As many of you know, my sister gave birth to two bald babies.  Because of this, she is extra crazy with babies that actually have hair.  I am the first one to admit that both of the girls' hair has been out of control.  It is getting way too long in the front, and is constantly in their faces.  The simple solution of a barrette will not work, since they both pull them out.  Usually, when I am not looking.  I usually find them trying to eat them, which is not safe.  So, as soon as we walked in the door, Auntie Katie pulled out the box of goodies, filled with hair supplies.  Here is what they ended up with.



I think we see a haircut in their near future....

Monkey's Treehouse

Monkey's Treehouse is a play area here in Bellevue, that is basically in my backyard, which is great! I waited until the girls were independently mobile to take them there, and they love it!

There is an area that is for 2 and under that we always start in. It has soft blocks for them to crawl on...

and a ball pit!

It was interesting to watch the girls interact with this large play area. Ruthie decided to pretty much stay in the under 2 year old area and play with the soft blocks, crawling in and out of them. Maddie decided to explore the "big kid" area.
She founds some dolls to play with...
Attempted to go into the sand box, which I quickly stopped...
and found the train set to play with...
while Ruthie played underneath the train table.
Maddie pushed the food cart...
while Ruthie looked through the food selection at the market.
Ruthie tried to drive the car...
and had some issues, so Maddie gave her a push.

Overall, a good day!

Early Onset Bulimia

I imagine this has to be my fault some how. Maybe it was because I always called Maddie "the little one" and now she is packing on the pounds and feeling a little self-conscious. Maybe it is because she has watched one too many episodes of The Hills...I don't know. Maddie is currently obsessed with gagging herself. She normally prefers to use her fingers to see how far she can get them down her throat until she gags, and if successful, puke. Her ideal time to do this is when I am driving, and obviously cant get to her. For this reason I keep a small collection of toys in the passengers seat that I literally throw at her, while driving, in hopes of distracting her from gagging herself. It makes it a little hard to concentrate on driving when all you hear are gagging noises coming from the backseat. Sometimes she gets bored with gagging herself with her fingers, so she uses random objects to gag herself. See below. Notice the concern on Ruthie's face.

I know you probably have a couple of questions. Let me answer them. First, what could she possibly be using to gag herself?

Yes, she is using a stuffed toy attached to one of her books. I hope this isn't a commentary on how she feels about God loving babies, because that will be a whole another issue we will have to deal with.

Ok, so maybe that wasn't your first question. Maybe your first question was why in the world I would grab my camera instead of stop my child from gagging herself. Let me start with I have a history of taking pictures of children in harmful situations instead of helping them. Please refer to my sister's blog for any further questions about my history. http://whittsville.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-this-boy-thing.html . Also, please take into consideration the child does this ALL day. She laughs at me as I try to stop her from doing it, as if it is a fun, new game I am playing with her.

Needless to say, we are hiding the laxatives from her and cutting her off from her Cosmo subscription.

Bad Hair Day

Both of my children were born with alot of hair, and it has just gotton thicker and thicker as they get older. We bathe them everynight before they go to bed, so sometimes their hair can dry a little crazy when I go to see them in the morning.

I know what you are thinking, and I agree.

She does look like the lead singer from the 80's band, Flock of Seagulls...minus the pacifier.

When we can get her hair to cooperate, it actually looks very cute.

Watch out World!

In honor of Maddie's 1 month anniversary of open heart surgery, she reached another milestone. Check out these moves!

The gauntlet has been thrown, Ruthie!