Happy St. Patrick's Day

This week for playgroup, Tennyson Magness hosted a St. Patrick's Day party! She did a great job getting all green snacks and a rainbow craft and of course a scavenger hunt for the leprechaun's treasure. Of course, my children appreciated none of it. Most of my morning was spent chasing them in opposite directions. Then came out the food, and that pretty much occupied Ruthie for a while.




Now, for those of you with a good eye, you will realize why even though she was seated and eating I still had to keep a close eye on her. I'll give you a minute to review over the past 3 pictures.....

Oh, could it possibly be that when a child would get up from the table she would get up and go to their seat and eat the food off of their plate? Ummm....yeah! She just kept rotating around that table eating every ones food. The child acts like I never feed her.

Maddie walked around throwing random temper tantrums for most of the morning. This child will be my challenge until the day I die. Although she didnt find any gold coins in the treasure hunt (since the 3 and 4 year olds were a little faster than her), she did manage to find the gold wrappers and bring them all to me.

I wish she would have used her hands, but whatever.

Then the girls found a tire swing in the back of the house. This had pure disaster written all over it.

Surprisingly they did great at holding on and had a great time on there. They swung for about 10 minutes. Every now and then they surprise me!

15 minutes

15 minutes may not sound like a lot of time to you. But, to me, 15 uninterrupted minutes is an eternity. The possibilities of what I can accomplish are endless with 15 uninterrupted minutes. I dont see alot of those 15 minutes unless the Wiggles are on. For your enjoyment I have included a one minutes clip of the soundtrack to my life.

I dont know what it is about these four Australian men that the girls love, but when they are on, this is what I walk into.

They are glued. Mesmerized. But, more importantly, not climbing up my legs!

I know, I know. TV is corrupting the minds of our youth, yadda, yadda, yadda. At least my children will learn an Australian accent while being corrupted.

Pinching Pennies

Times are tough for a lot of people, and we are pinching pennies like everyone else. So, if my daughter is entertained by an empty orange juice container for days, I feel that I have truly gotton my money's worth out of my orange juice purchase. Watch out Fisher Price! Tropicana is invading your target audience....and winning in this house!

Old Stomping Grounds

We headed back to our old stomping grounds today!

I feel like we should have an Alma Mater for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital that I make the children sing every time we pull up. This is actually the first time we have been back here in a long time. Well, I guess December, but that was just outpatient surgery. For pretty much their first year of life, I was so used to coming here at least once or twice a month. So, now that I only come here for appointments maybe once over a 4-6 month period, it seems like we are hardly here! There is a not a single time I enter this building that I do not feel so incredibly blessed to have this amazing facility 20 minutes from my house.

So, today was Maddie's 6 month check up since surgery! Hard to believe it has only been 6 months. It seems like forever ago. I thought I would take you on a cardiology visit with us. It is the same pattern every time we are there. When Maddie was born, we went every 2-3 months. Then we had a million pre-surgery things once that was scheduled, cancelled, and re-scheduled. Then, after surgery, we had to come back a week after discharge, then a month, then she was doing so well he made it 6 months, and here we are today!

Every visit starts with an echo (ultrasound).

They have a TV that she is watching. It is supposed to distract them while they are doing the ultrasound. This worked for approximately 4 minutes with Maddie since she isnt a big Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan. You have to remember, I have two very mobile 17 month olds. Sitting still is not a concept they are too familiar with or too fond of for that matter. The ultrastanographers are absolutely amazing here, and so patient. They usually got their data in 4 minute increments before Maddie started swatting, hitting, screaming, etc. I was able to take this photo before moving into the next position of laying myself on the table and having her on my lap with the portable DVD player in between my legs with Wiggles playing. That actually worked for about 10 minutes. Then there were about 4 more minutes of distraction with her playing with the ultrasound jelly on her belly. Then we had a little break.
The break did include a little fit. I wouldnt play the Wiggles for her unless she sat still while they took her ultrasound. Since we were on a break, it got paused. This didnt go over well with her, as you can see. Add another technician with a puppet to entertain her (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this place!!!) and 30 minutes later they have all of the ultrasound images they need.

Then we go off to the vitals room. No pics for that since I have to hold Maddie the entire time. She weighed in at a whopping 22 lbs and 9 ozs! Once we had her distracted with a nurse blowing bubbles, we were able to get her blood pressure and off to our room.

She was entertained by this for about her normal 4 minutes and then we had to move on....

to the trusty portable DVD player. I owe an eternal debt to the people that created these things!

This is her cardiologist, Dr. Baldwin, who I absolutely LOVE! He is such a great doctor! He explains everything so well and is so patient with all of our questions! AND, he poses for pictures which makes him even more awesome.

So, what was the verdict?

Looks great! See you in 1 year!!!! :)

You're So Vain...

you probably think this video is about you! I know it is supposed to be "song", but I thought it was catchy. So, a little while back I was showing someone the previous post with my niece, Lily, entertaining the kids. I guess Maddie heard it, and came running in to see. She watched that clip over and over and over and over again. Each time, more and more entertained. I decided to catch a video of her watching the video. I know it sounds retarded, but it really is cute.

When I stop repeating the playing of the video, a temper tantrum usually begins. I will spare you footage of that.

Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan

We are doing our best to educate our children on the current events of the day. Here is their opinion on the current economic crisis and Obama's stimulus plan.

Personally, I think her metaphor with the rubber duckie was very insightful. Ok, so I have absolutely no idea what she is saying. But, she might be saying something extremely intelligent, so lets run with that. I have no idea why I think footage of them babbling is so cute, but I do. And, since this is my blog, I will post what I think is cute and you will all be subjected to it.

Sorry for all of the bath footage, but they honestly are some of the funniest times in my day.

Anatomy 101

It is a work in progress. One of them usually gets it right! Not to mention, even I could be distracted by a rubber duckie sometimes.

Speaking of breaks, it looks like we have weathered the storm and come through alive. Tired, off schedule and a little cranky, but alive. The girls and I have pretty much been house-ridden for the past 10 days. Cabin fever would be an understatement.

It seems that the only thing lingering of the nastiness that cursed our house is a screwed up sleeping schedule. Since Maddie and Ruthie got sick at different times, they had different sleep needs. So, we are working on getting them back to napping together and not one up and one down. I think they enjoyed the one on one time and are plotting on a way to keep it up. It is a battle I intend to win!