The McPherson Chronicles

The girls get crazier by the day! Sometimes I think they try to out do each other with the random, yet clever ideas they come up with. Waiting for Mama to get home in our snow hats even though it's 70+ degrees out. Lucy added her princess bracelet and tiara. The homeless crazy lady look is complete. Cuddling up with our blankets to watch Sesame Street. Where or who came up with this idea we don't know. They were very quiet while putting them on and oh so proud to show off their new hats. Daddy asked the girls to put their books away on the shelf. We didn't know they could reach this high. We were thoroughly impressed with their budding architectural skills.

The girls would play outside all day long if we let them (and if someone were permanently stationed to push them on the swings). Thank goodness it's spring, and hopefully it will start to feel like it soon to match! We know this summer is going to be so much fun since the girls love being outside and have so many fun things they can do now. They love their slide and swings at Grandma & Grandpa's house and their tricycles. Plus now we have the wagon to go for walks and the park has long been their favorite place in the world. There's always the added summer bonus of the beach and swimming pool too! We're so excited for warm weather though even the cold and rain don't keep the girls from begging to go outside all the time. I can't wait to put them in their swimming suits and see their little legs and nene's!

Is this the terrible two's? That didn't take long! At this point, it's really only Lucy who seems to be having a rough time. She is starting to throw temper tantrums. She's tried a few times here and there before, but lately any number of things can set her off. This week it was the fact that Olivia got to wear the pink jacket to grandma's and when she couldn't have the blue spoon at dinner. Mostly we just ignore her and focus on other things going on or carry on with dinner or whatever else we were doing and eventually she calms down or gives up. We don't give in. Ever. At least that's out plan for now. So far we've learned: 1) Lucy's a head banger during a tantrum 2) We can ignore her screams, kicks and fits for longer than she can carry them on 3) There are a few ways to avoid a meltdown Don't get her overtired Anticipate decisions and issues that may create a meltdown (jacket color, spoon color etc) and avoid or diffuse the situa...

I had this written for quite awhile but the website was being awful with my pictures and kept deleting or rearranging them and it took me 4 hours to get this published. If there's anything wrong with it don't even tell me, I'm already frustrated enough. Now that we've recovered from the big birthday weekend, here's the party wrap up. We had all of our friends and family meet us at the park by my parents house for an afternoon outdoors. The girls LOVE the park so we figured this was the best and easiest place to have everyone and let the girls run around with people who don't get to usually take them to the park. It was a blast! The girls were so excited when they got up from their extra long naps and I told them we were going to meet Daddy at the park. They had seen us pack up their wagon with everything for the party earlier which Kevin set up for all by himself (my hero). Since Kevin left with all the stuff the girls had been asking about their bubbles ...

The girls talk a LOT these days and it's for the most part understandable, well at least to me. Here are some of my current favorites: -Come on Mama!- when they want me to go somewhere to play with them -Sit down, Mama!- to read a book, do a puzzle or watch a movie -Poop coming- this is Lucy's favorite thing to say over and over again as she waits for the inevitable. -Shhh, listen- Lucy just started with this one -I get you- an oldie but goody. Olivia loves to "get" her sister, dad, me and toys. It involves her sneaking up on you and then putting her face into your stomach or back and growling. -______ (blocks, books, shoes etc) away- my current favorite as they decide to clean up one thing so they can get something else out. They tell us what they want and don't want to eat, what toys they want to play with and when they want to go outside or somewhere else. They tell us when they have to go potty, love to sing songs (Olivia sings "That's Elmo...

We're fairly certain the girls had a great 2nd birthday and we had just as much fun! Kevin and I stayed up until well after 1am the night before blowing up tons of balloons (a birthday tradition we started last year), decorating and assembling/wrapping presents. Here's what they walked out to bright and early yesterday morning. We got the girls a Radio Flyer wagon, a Sit n Spin, some books, clothes and 2 fake microphones. They were so excited about everything! Lucy noticed the giant Happy Birthday sign right away and then they played with the balloons before digging into their presents. They were pros at ripping off the wrapping paper now too! They would ooohhh and aaaahhh over everything they opened up too which was pretty funny. They kept telling me how "pretty pretty" all their new clothes are. The girls spent a good portion of the morning running in and around all the balloons. It was a total hit! After breakfast and getting dressed, we decided to head to the S...

Happy Birthday to our 2 wonderful ducks! I can hardly believe it's been 2 years since I first met you. I still vividly remember your first cries and seeing your tiny little faces for the first time. The first thing I did when I finally got settled in after getting out of recovery was ask your Daddy to unwrap you from your swaddles so I could see you. I will never forget holding 2 tiny swaddled sleeping babies in my arms. This past year you've gone from walking to running, climbing, jumping and dancing. You sing the ABC's, count to 10 (or more), say please and thank you, ask for what you want and are potty trained. You both love books more than any toys. If we would let you, you would watch "Buzz Woody" (any of the Toy Story movies) or Blue's Clues all day long. Music and dancing of any sort nearly always cheers you up. We love to watch you shake your nene's (and you do!) You are truly best friends. You look out for one another, are concerned for each...

First things first. Night 2 was a complete success! The girls didn't have anything to drink after 4pm and we woke them up and took them to the bathroom 2 hours after they went to bed. Poor little things were such zombies on their potties and Olivia even almost fell over when she fell back asleep sitting up. Neither of the girls went to the potty then, but 5 minutes later Lucy had an accident in bed and we got them both up again and they went to the bathroom and then right back to sleep. Olivia was dry all night and Lucy must have peed right when she woke up. So overall, we know they are capable of doing it and are very pleased since I was dreading the nights most of all. Today was awesome! There were 3 accidents total. That's it! Every other time the girls gave plenty of notice, stopped what they were doing and ran straight to the potty. They are amazing. I can hardly believe we are already at the point where they don't wear diapers anymore! They still seem so little to u...

Done and done. We just put the girls down to bed and I am exhausted, relieved and mostly proud. I'll start with a night 1 recap. The girls were as exhausted by the end of yesterday as I was. I didn't realize how tiring all that constant monitoring, running back and forth to the bathroom and cleaning was going to be. The girls went right to sleep as usual. When I went to check on them before I was going to bed around 10, Lucy was soaking wet and laying curled up around a puddle, sound asleep. Olivia was still completely dry. I woke up Lucy and took her to the bathroom, cleaned her up and put on new panties while Kevin changed her bed. Luckily she was so out of it she went right back to sleep. Olivia woke up crying sometime in the middle of the night with an accident of her own. It was the largest amount of pee Kevin or I had even seen in our life! With did the same routine with her and she went right back to sleep. This time, Lucy was still dry. Lucy then woke up promptly at 6...

Ok so 1 day down. Not bad, actually! I will admit the beginning was a bit rough. There were 12 accidents and 4 successes in the first 4 hours. After a load of laundry and lots of spot carpet cleaning, it was naptime. They didn't go potty before I laid them down so I was expecting fussing or waking up wet. I was amazed when they slept for over 2 hours and were dry when they woke up! I immediately put them on their potty's when they got up but they still didn't have to go for at least 1/2 an hour.  The girls seemed to catch on pretty quickly, it was just a matter of them making it to their potty's in time. There were plenty of accidents but I it didn't take them long at all to realize what was happening. With almost every accident this afternoon the girls were either on their way or right at their potty's when it happened. This at least showed that they knew what was happening and what they needed to do. I was patient and positive about the whole thing even acc...

The girls did this  and this so they could do this They pretend to be asleep  on the shelves complete with fake snoring noises (this is Olivia's "I'm pretending to be asleep" face). And yes, those bookcases and shelves are securely bolted in anticipation of these types of shenanigans.