What a holiday!!!

Wow. There were explosions alright, but not of the pretty red, blue, and white colored kind. Explosions coming out of both ends of almost all the kids. Oh what fun. It started Thursday, first thing, and it is still on-going. I don't know how many loads of laundry I've done or how many trips to the potty I've made with Macey. Sometimes you wish you were on a team where you could request a sub. Poor Miles seems to have caught the worst of it. Vomiting and diarrhea. At least the vomiting was not every hour. I'm hoping that this may be the last day of it, but we'll see. Macey just has diarrhea and I'm beginning to suspect the culprit for her may be her 2 year molars. Although it's 10am on Sunday and she still hasn't woke up this morning (that NEVER happens and she went to bed last night at her normal time), so we'll see if she's really ill. She hasn't really acted like she felt bad, just has a case of the "runs". And run do we do. She says "potty, potty, potty" and runs to the bathroom and I'm right behind her. It's the drop everything your doing and take off kind of run. I have to say I'm very proud of her. I think I can say she's potty trained and no longer training. I still do put diapers on her at night, but I don't count that. Camryn threw up on Thursday, but that seems to be the extent of her illness. She seems to have escaped this thing (cross my fingers).

Thursday was quite a morning. It started off well, but then at the lunchtime (really around 11am) is when it all went downhill. I had just finished feeding Miles and Camryn when Macey tells me she needs to go potty. I put her on the potty and realize then that she has diarrhea. So I'm leaving the bathroom, the babies are sitting in their bouncy seats right outside the door, and that's when the exorcist vomit occurs with Miles. I sit him up so he can get it all out as the bouncy seats are reclined. He seemed to stop so I'm doing triage. As I'm in the process of cleaning him up that's when Camryn starts spewing. I have to say "Thank you 1995 2 year old class of Alpha Learning Center for preparing me for days like this"!

In the middle of all the fun times I caught some cute video of Macey. She didn't know I had started recording her. Excuse her ragged appearance...day 2 of survival mode means brushing hair and a full outfit are optional.

Ok, to interpret. First she pointed to the triple stroller and told me stroller. Then she pointed to Miles who was making the clanging noise by pulling on the draw pull. She was advising me of the "no, no" that Miles was doing by getting into the draw. Then Miles puked and she was telling me "uh oh". Play be play courtesy of Macey.

She changed the tune up a bit and changed her dance to go with it.

Here's a quick glimpse of one of the many interactions Miles and Camryn have. I had given up on clothes for Miles by this point in the day. He doesn't appear sick here; it was one of the few moments that he had a little bit of energy.

It's 11am as I'm finishing this post and Macey is still asleep. Miles and Camryn are asleep as well. Their morning nap is at 9am, so I've been kid-free since 9am. I should've been resting or cleaning. Instead I took a long shower, enjoyed the hassle free time to blow dry my hair, etc. and wrote about my kids. Time well spent.

Teeth, potty, on the go...Oh my.

Camryn's first tooth has broken the surface. She wasn't phased by her first tooth, other than running her tongue over it bunches before and after it broke the surface. She hasn't been fussy, cranky, nothing. You can see Miles's teeth pushing their way up as well.

Camryn and Miles are both pulling up and at the beginning stages of "cruising". If you give them incentive to move down the couch or whatever they've pulled up on by putting a toy out of reach, they'll maneuver down to get it. They are fun to watch. Sometimes they go their separate ways to explore and sometimes they are playing together. They still sleep together in their crib at night. Nap times are a different story. We've resorted to putting Camryn in a pack n play for nap because tends to pull up on the side of the crib and protest (i.e. we need to lower the crib mattress so she can't pull herself up). We put her in the pack n play not because her protesting and flip-flopping keeps Miles awake, but because she can't pull up in the pack n play. Miles is all about sleep. He tells you when he's ready for sleep. You put him in the crib and you don't hear a peep from him. He goes to sleep. They've flipped their roles. Camryn was the one that you could just lay down and not hear a word from her. If there's one thing I've learned about dealing with twins, it's that they will switch their roles many times. Seems to me they have an inside joke going...called tag team the parents.

Yep, Macey is potty training. She's doing well so far. Well, she does well with me. Sean is a different story. With me her only accidents have been of the wet nature and only happened because I wasn't paying attention or was otherwise occupied when she needed to go. I'll leave it to Sean to give his side of the adventures in potty training.

We're having fun. There's nothing better than laying on the floor with them and within a matter of seconds having all 3 of them climbing/crawling/rolling on you.

2 and a mind of her own...

Clothes, shoes, hair bows. All things that Macey has an opinion on. Some of her decisions are quite funny. One day she wanted to wear a pair of overalls. These overalls were a size 12M, the buckles were broke (Sean taped them to make them latch), and she didn't want to wear a shirt underneath them. Uh, yes, she wore them, even went out of the house with that on. Another day she wanted to wear three hair bows in her hair. I put them in her hair, but was able to get 2 of them out before we left the house. She's also wanted to wear socks with sandals and she did. She's fallen in love with the one pair of footed pj's she owns. Which is funny because she wouldn't wear them up until recently because she didn't like her feet to be trapped in. Now she refers to them as "stuck". Just tonight I put her in a pair of pj's, sat down to read to her, and she indicated she wanted to pick out her pj's. So she changed into her "backpack" night gown (Dora=backpack).

Oh "stuck". One of Macey's favorite words. It's kinda funny how she learned it. One morning months ago I was getting ready and Macey brought me a roll of tape. I decided to be silly and stuck a piece of it on the bottom of my foot. I lifted my foot, hopped up and down, and said "it's stuck." She laughed and laughed. It made me laugh. From that day on she correctly used stuck (said with an emphasis on the "u").

Another month closer to being a year old

Miles and Camryn are eight months old today! Lots of stuff happening at eight months. Camryn is pulling up on anything she can and climbing on anything she can. She managed to climb up on the bottom step of the stairs. She thinks climbing over you, her brother, a blanket, whatever is a blast. She's perfected the army crawl; she's quite fast. Miles is going the hands/knees crawling route. He loves to stand up and jump. He's not to far from pulling up; he's reaching.

Miles is my less picky eater. He'll pretty much eat anything I put in his mouth. It may not be his favorite, but he'll eat it. Camryn is a little diva. Not only does she make the "I'm about to puke" face, but it then comes right back out and she shakes her head. In order to get her to eat green things I hide it with something she likes. So part of the spoon will have the unacceptable food and then it is covered with the acceptable food. So far so good.

Tonight as I was bathing them I thought about how much they have grown. Coming home they both weighed less than 5 1/2 pounds. My tiny babies are not as tiny anymore.

More birthday pictures

Birthday pictures

6am and opening her present from us

Dog cupcake cake

Jaden and Macey, uh, I think they were ready to dig in

Opening her Max and Ruby dolls

Me reading her the card

Opening her rocking chair from Memaw and Sissy

Jumping with Mason

Hmmm, Sean said I make that face...but I think she got that one from him

Our princess playing with her new ride on toy

Happy 2nd Birthday Macey!!!!

Dear Macey,

Two years ago today your dad and I welcomed you to the world. You were such a trooper through the entire process. Dr. Y and the nurses commented on how you were unphased by my labor. Your heart rate stayed strong through the biggest contractions and you stayed active the entire day. I was not surprised by your strength as I had witnessed it first hand for the previous nine months. You were constantly on the move while inside of me and you remain my little ball of precocious energy. In these two short years you have provided such joy to our lives. We cannot even begin to explain how much you have changed our lives.

You are absolutely in love with your daddy. Sometimes when Daddy leaves you cry like someone has cut off your right arm and kicked you. Your little heart is broken when Daddy leaves without you. It makes me feel so blessed and happy to see you and your Daddy share such a sweet relationship. He loves you more than you will ever know. We both do.

I love reading to you at bedtime. After I sing to you I look at you and whisper "It's time to go night-night, Mommy loves you and I'll see you in the morning." You get such a kick out of me whispering to you. You start grinning and whispering back to me. It's the small things that matter and you certainly make me realize that everyday.

Some of your favorite things are big dogs (small dogs are too yappy for you, you have to warm up to them first), Max and Ruby, playing outside, helping me cook, and going for walks with Daddy. You love playing with Miles and Camryn. You and Camryn have a sweet connection. You love to play with her (i.e. try to drag her around with you). Although there are certain toys/books that you don't want her to play with and you are quick to take those away from her while saying "no, no, no, no...". You can make Miles and Camryn giggle just by being you. You think that they are a set. You can't have one without the other. If one of them wakes up, but not the other, you don't like the fact that one of them is "missing". You sometimes will get so upset that you start to cry and will listen intently for any noise coming from their room to indicate that the other one is awake. Hearing that makes you laugh as you run to their door to get the other one. You run into their room saying 'Tister" as you affectionately call both of them this. You've heard me say to Miles or Camryn in a loving manner"What are you doing?" or "where are you going?" that you will lay down in front of one of them and say "What you doin?"

You absolutely love people. You say hi to anyone and everyone when we are shopping (or just in general). You will approach any child and try to play with them. You are beyond being a social butterfly. You wrote the book on how to be social. Speaking of shopping, you love to help me load the items onto the counter when we are done shopping. You have become such a big helper.

You have such a contagious laugh, one that fills the room, one that starts from your toes and goes all the way up to the top of your head. You love to jump. Your love for jumping started young. Before you were 6 months old...jump, jump, jump. Your dance moves involve lots of jumping. You don't just walk, you bounce around the room. So much energy.

One of the sweetest moments you've given us this year is kissing a picture of me while I am away. Daddy says that you go to that picture often to give me kisses. Some others are always giving Daddy a big hug in the mornings to wake him up and running to the front door when you hear Reeses bark since that usually indicates that Daddy is home.

We are so grateful to have such a passionate, energetic, beautiful, and caring little girl. We are blessed to be able to have you in our lives.

Happy Birthday baby girl.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy