How Do You Like Them Apples?

We have discovered that the girls like apples. Not pieces of apples, but biting into entire apples. Usually some one holds the apple for them and they bite into it.

That seemed to be working until Maddie decided she wanted the apple all to herself. She proceeded to steal the apple and take it to the other side of the room to munch on, all my herself.

This of course did not go over well with Ruthie, who proceeded to have a complete breakdown over not being able to bite into the apple any more. After we took the apple back from Maddie, she proceeded to have a breakdown that she had to share the apple. So, then came the solution.

Maddie would hold the apple and allow Ruthie to occasionally have a bite of it. Notice the look of contempt on Maddie's face that she has to share her apple.

Too Much Fun to Be Dangerous

If I ever lose custody of my children it will be because I post things like this on the internet.

Some may see a scarf as a strangulation hazard for their toddlers. I see it as hours of entertainment. They love this scarf. They wrap themselves up in it every day. For added entertainment, they dont realize they are attached and one will begin to move, with the scarf still attached.

I guess this would be the strangulation hazard part.

This just proves my point that anything can be a toy for them....with very careful parental supervision of course.

Put 'Em On Your Head!

Mark's family (and I mean entire extended family) does a bizarre thing every year at Thanksgiving. Mark's grandmother, Ruth, gets all of the sons and grandsons boxers for Thanksgiving. When they get their boxers they all chant "Put 'em on your head" and then they all proceed to put the boxers on their heads. After being at several of these Thanksgivings, it has become less weird to me. You can imagine my reaction the first time I witnessed this while we were dating. Anyways, I still dont get it, but whatever. This is the family I have married into.


This mantra of "Put 'em on your head" does carry over into other aspects of life, besides Thanksgiving boxers. Every now and then, at odd moments, the chant begins. So, of course Mark felt the need to pass this tradition on to our children.



I had left a pair of bloomers out on the floor, only to walk into the room to this....

Look familiar?? Maybe something like this.....

Anyways, now she is obsessed with putting these bloomers on her head. She brings them over to us to put them on her head, mainly because she cant figure it out herself yet. Then comes the glamour shots.

So, what does a naked baby do once she has her bloomers on her head? Why, of course, she grooves to the classic rock station on the radio. (I was trying to get the shot with out getting her lady parts on camera. Due to this restriction you cant get see the full grooving she was doing. Sorry. This is a public blog and all.)

Prepare for Cuteness

I feel as if you should be warned that the next 90 seconds of your life are going to be bombarded with unadulterated cuteness. The kind of cuteness that could possibly make you want to puke. I'm sure that other people have cute kids, and I am happy for them. But, I firmly believe that the two of these girls combined, trumps them all.

I recently have let the girls get on our bed and play. They LOVE it! Whenever they can get into our bedroom, they run to the bed and start yelling for us to put them up on it.

Then I joined in the fun....

No words. Just cuteness.

When at first you dont succeed....

Yes, that is duct tape.

Eye Patches, Socks and PlayHuts

What is harder than keeping an eye patch on a 14 month old? Keeping socks on the hands of a 14 month old to prevent her from pulling off her eye patch.

Medical science has figured out how to stop the beating heart of my other daughter to make repairs on it, and the best they can come up with to keep an eye patch on is socks? Something is seriously wrong with that.

If you havent figured it out, we are having some issues with the eye patch. She started out doing really well with it when we started about a month ago. The past week has been very difficult. I have gone through 50, count them, 50 eye patches in one week. That is a box of patches. That is $15 every box.

As for their sock solution. Apparently none of the children they have tried it on have teeth. Or, maybe their other patients are not as talented with their teeth as Ruthie.

She just pulls the one sock off with her teeth, and then uses her hand to get the other sock off. Then, off comes the eye patch.

She has also enrolled the help of an accomplice in this dirty deed.

This is Maddie in their PlayHut. It has tunnels they can crawl in on both sides and then a little fort thing in the middle. A good percentage of the time, this is where the patch pulling occurs. They will both crawl into the PlayHut and Maddie will pull of Ruthie's patch. Of course I can never get in there quick enough.

Just this morning, they both crawled into the PlayHut, which is my cue that trouble is brewing. I go over there and Ruthie's patch has been pulled off. Ruthie knows once she pulls the patch off that she is going to be in trouble. So, she tried to put her patch back on, but she put it over the wrong eye. Good attempt, but not good enough.

I feel as if the plotting has only just begun....

Why I bathe my children every night

I have heard from some people that you shouldnt bathe your baby every night because it dries out their skin. Then, Dr. Oz on Oprah said that we shouldnt wash our hair every day unless it is actually dirty. None of these people have Maddie for a daughter. For some reason, the girl is obsessed with putting food in her hair.

There were a lot of things that disgusted me before I had kids that now are just in my normal every day schedule. Poop, drool, pee, vomit...all normal to me now. Even before I had kids, I couldnt stand when they would smear food all in their hair. I still can not stand when my own children smear food all over their heads. What about putting food in your hair feels good? Why does she continue to do it at EVERY meal? Maybe she knows something I dont, but when food is in my hair, it just feels gross. This is why I bathe my children every night.

Mom=Problem Solver

Now that the girls are getting older and interacting more with each other and the things around them, it seems I am having to use my problem solving skills several times a day. They seem to get themselves, and other objects, in places that they just should not be. Since they do not know how to remedy the situation yet that is when the screaming usually begins, alerting me to an issue. Kind of like the Batman signal in the air or the church bells ringing for Zorro.

Problem#1:

Solution: This one was easy. I was alerted by the crying, as you can see. Ruthie had gotton into Maddie's box. It is barely big enough to fit 1 of them, yet alone 2 of them. I promptly removed Ruthie from the box and everyone was happy again.

Problem #2:

This is our Playskool ball popper. The girls love this toy. Ruthie has just learned how to press the red button and make it pop the balls all by herself. She is very proud of herself once the music starts and those balls start popping. Since it is self-titled a "ball popper", one would assume that it will only pop balls that are put in it, and that all other objects will only clog up the ball popper. See below.

Notice the un-round objects that are clearly not balls inside the ball popper.

Solution: Alerted by the annoying music of this object and then crying is the usually signal for this problem. I have to turn the entire ball popper upside down to remove shape pieces, puzzle pieces and today I even found an eye patch that Ruthie took off. It is always an adventure what we find in the ball popper. Once it is cleared of all objects, other than balls, the fun continues.

Problem #3:

This is our Fisher Price Shapes Cookie Jar. The girls dont put the shapes into the cookie jar through the shape cut outs around the cookie jar yet. They prefer to pick up the lid and take the pieces out this way. Every night I put all the shape pieces back into the cookie jar and empty out whatever may be in there. Like this.

Clearly there is not a nasal aspirator shaped hole on the cookie jar, so this does not belong. It is also common to find puzzle pieces in here, along with the animals from their Farmer Tad Fridge Magnets.

As my sister has stated several times about my nephew, Jamison, I am slightly concerned about how much we are going to have to pay for their education if this continues.

Update on the Box

Apparently the box wasnt the perfect seat as is. Maddie decided to get out of the box, grab her sippy cup, and bring it back with her into her box.






A sippy cup, $5.00. A box from Target, $7.00. DVD of the Wiggles, $15. All 3 together...priceless.

Best Seat in the House

Despite the fact that we have kiddie sized chairs for the kiddie's, they are not always the best seat in the house. I walked into the family room to this.

Maddie had climbed into the box of toys and was just sitting in there. She was having a grand 'ole time in this tiny little box.



It was easy for her to climb into because it was filled with toys, so she basically just crawled up on it and sat down. Then began the unloading of the box.


With a little help from her sister, they managed to unload the box, while Maddie was still in it. Soon, the floor was covered in toys, and Maddie was stuck in the box, since she had unloaded everything out of it.



She stayed in there for a good 30 minutes. Oh, to be so easily entertained. As I type she is actually trying to get back into the empty box, which is not going as well as she had planned.

Question for the Ages

I tend to be thrifty. Mark says I am cheap, but I like the word thrifty better. I am all about store brand items, unless they are ketchup ( I will only buy Heinz) or soda (I will only buy Coca-Cola). The girls got Publix brand formula in their bottles. They dont get Gerber snacks, they get the Walmart brand. Once I discovered Steve & Barry's here in Nashville, I have a hard time paying more than $8.98 for any item of clothing. I cant think of the last new toy the girls got, that I got for them, that was not bought at a consignment sale. The girls car seats, stroller and even a bedding set were all bought on ebay. See? Thrifty!

Where Mark gets upset is when for things like Christmas I ask for my groceries to be paid for the week. Or, for a birthday, I ask for the car to get an oil change. I just have a hard time buying things I dont necessarily need when there are so many things that we actually need. Kind of takes the fun out of it.

So, I was thinking about getting the girls a bubble maker for Christmas. Now that they are walking they can chase them and reach for them, etc. I thought it would be a great idea.

But, then I discovered Maddie's new trick. Just to give you a time frame. She did this long enough for me to realize what she was doing, go into the other room, get my camera and still catch her doing it.

My question is, am I being too thrifty if I just use Maddie as the bubble maker and save $13, or am I being a good steward of the talents that God has blessed my children with?

One of these things is not like the other..

Some of you may already know that according to modern medical science, Ruthie and Maddie are identical twins (I will take a moment for most people to say, "What???!!!") I have the DNA test to prove it, although I firmly believe that they screwed up the test. Anyways, there are times they look alike, but most the time I dont think they look anything alike. As you also may have noticed, I tend to dress them alike. I'm sure it will cost me thousands of dollars in therapy bills when they have identity issues when they grow up, but I will continue to do it.

This is what my children looked like before we left for church. They were having a little snack before we left. Notice the matching outfits.

So. Any ideas why when I picked up Maddie from Bible class she looked like this?

I asked her teachers why she looked like Huckleberry Finn and when Mark came in he asked why she looked like a redneck farmer. Apparently there was a little diaper incident and I forgot to pack a spare outfit. She looks like a happy little redneck though....

Me Too, Momma!

Well, a month after Maddie has started walking, Ruthie has succumbed to the peer pressure of walking. While Maddie is walking 95% of the time, Ruthie is still crawling quite a bit. She has got the basic moves down though!



Exciting times in our house!