The McPherson Chronicles

We had a dinner for Nana's 70th birthday party a few weeks ago. It was at the Spaghetti Factory and all her kids and grandkids, some of her siblings and a lot of her friends were there to join the celebration. Sarah put together an awesome slideshow that we started off with. After dinner there was some mingling before cake time. There was another large party in the restaurant that sang Happy Birthday right before we did but we showed them up with our extended McPherson birthday song. It was so fun! We are glad Nana had a fun night surrounded by her closest friends and family celebrating her life and what a blessing she is to those around her.

There's been a whole new morning and evening routine now that the girls are in school. It was a bit hectic at first as we tried to balance everything and figure out how to fit it all in but we're getting there. The morning's are pretty easy now. We lay clothes out the night before, get backpacks and lunches ready and the girls know everything they have to do as soon as they get up. Andrew's been sleeping in a bit longer which helps us have time to get all ready before we go get him up and ready for the day. Kevin takes Andrew on his way to work and I take the girls which also helps break things up a bit. My parents take and pick the girls up from school. Olivia's having an easier time adjusting to school than Lucy is. They both like school but Lucy is having some separation anxiety in the mornings. She cried at drop-off the first few days and wants my mom to stay at the gate with her until the bell rings and then walk her to class. She doesn't want to go play ...

4 teeth size 4 diapers 12 month clothing 22lbs  crawls (with right foot on the ground, rather than on his knee) pulls self up to standing and cruises on furniture, test his balance by letting go, walks holding our fingers babbles nonstop 2 naps and sleeps uninterrupted through the night gives high-fives Bites loves his rocking pony that sings and he dances

I'm terrible about editing and uploading videos, I'll admit it. So, to entertain you on this rainy weekend, here are 3 short videos from the past few weeks. Enjoy! 1- Chasing each other around the house. Notice how they work together to ensure no one is sneaking up on them. 2- Practicing soccer skills with Daddy and Aunt Sarah 3- Walkers! I need to get a video of them being crazy in their high chairs. They love to entertain and mimic each other.

Where did these days go? When did naptime turn into playtime? The girls have begun regularly sitting and standing in their cribs. Now, when we lay them down for naps, rather than quietly playing on their own for a few minutes before falling asleep, they sit or stand up, laugh and play with each other and eventually, cry . This requires at least 3-4 trips in there to lay them back down with blankies and pacis . The cycle repeats itself for a good 30-45 mins before one eventually give in and goes to sleep. Then finally, after one last freak out, the other usually follows shortly thereafter. By that time we're exhausted as well. I'm in the midst of one of these cycles currently. They're both exhausted and I'm convinced they would sleep if the other one weren't in there. I need to figure out some way to split them up for naps here like they are at my mom's. In completely unrelated news, we're making an attempt at supplementing with formula. Lucy is allergic...

Last week we had 5 straight days of rain, wind, thunder, lightning, tornado warnings and more rain. I think at one point it rained almost straight for 48 hours. Is this not sunny Southern California? Having always lived here, I was sure rain came in spurts of no more than 2-3 days at a time, if that. Don't get me wrong, we are thankful for all the rain but were seriously beginning to miss the sun. Welcome back sun (even though it's not supposed to be for long). To entertain the girls, and ourselves, we spent the week playing patty-cake, practicing walking, chasing each other around the house and just generally making messes. So fun!

Now that we have our night-time sleeping back on track (finally!), we're moving onto food. The girls still primarily eat breastmilk and baby food with some cheerios or baby cookies here and there. Every time we try to introduce something new, they refuse. I think primarily it's a texture thing so our next goal is to introduce new foods to them more consistently and try to adjust our eating schedules so we're all eating at the same time and some of the same stuff. We're ok with bread, cheerios, baby cookies and puffs and yogurt (sometimes). We seem to enjoy pancakes and scrambled egg yolks. We've tried and hate bananas, whole peas, avocado and cottage cheese. Up next to try are waffles, pasta, cheese, tofu, steamed veggies and other protein. The dairy thing has been touch and go since Lucy has broken out in hives twice now. One time was after a different variety of yogurt and the second was an attempt at milk-based formula. She was ok after the cottage cheese though ...

I don't know what is going on with the girls sleep patterns anymore. Last night was a mess and the past few nights before this haven't been much better. Ever since we added more solid food to their diets, the girls have been much gassier and woken up almost every night at least once with belly aches, due to gas and/or because they need to poop. Sometimes they can cry themselves back to sleep after a few minutes or even a little bit of cuddling/rocking can do the trick. More times than not though, I end up nursing them so they'll settle back to sleep. It's a vicious cycle. Last night they ate well at dinner, played for a little while, then off to bed around the normal time with no fussing. Perfect, right? Wrong. I was alone since Kevin went to hockey game with my Dad and was enjoying my quiet night when Olivia woke up. She started with a belly ache, fell asleep after some rocking (and tooting) and when I laid her back down she screamed bloody murder until she woke up Luc...

First, here are a few pictures for Aunt Sarah of the girls getting lots of use out of their fantastic Vans. How cute are these! I was finally able to get good photos of the girls that show their 2 teeth. They both still just have the bottom 2 but I'm sure there's more to come soon since they've once again taken to shoving things in their little mouths all the time. Now, I'll leave you with this. I can only imagine what went on all night to leave Lucy looking like this the next morning. Kevin thinks this resembles some celebrity mugshots over the past couple of years or a bad DMV photo. Poor Lulu, our little mad scientist in the making!