The McPherson Chronicles

We've learned a lot about babies, ourselves and each other since the girls were born. Here are a few important things we've come to realize. 1) Pulling an all-nighter has an entirely different meaning with 2 newborns 2) We can function on much less sleep than we previously thought 3) The babies cannot be trusted to go diaper-less from the changing table to the bathtub no matter how full their diaper was 4) Diapers must be checked for leakage after even the most minor toot. Oftentimes that was more than just gas. 5) Things like showering and brushing your teeth are luxuries 6) When both babies are sleeping, EAT and eat well. You never know when you'll get a chance for your next meal (lunch at 10am is not uncommon in our household, neither is 8 or 9pm dinner for that matter). 7) Do not put the babies in their "good clothes" until right before you leave or upon arrival, or else it is sure to get pooped or spit up on (or both). 8) Do not put on your o...

How do we entertain 2 almost-6-month-old babies you ask? Answer: constant rotation Exersaucer- we can get anywhere from 15 mins to 45 mins out of this. The girls mostly want to bend all the toys until they can get them close enough to lick or gum. Play Mat- early in the morning they love this thing and could play for an hour rolling all over the place. The giraffe and monkey are their favorite hanging toys. Bouncer- a new found convenience as they were not fond of it when they were younger. Lucy's more of a bouncer girl and loves holding onto the zebra and giraffe toys. Swing- we have 2 swings but we mostly use this little portable one. They love batting at the swinging toys and watching the lights on top. Olivia loves to fall asleep in this. Free play on the blanket- usually a good thing when they're getting tired but want to play a bit longer. We can easily give them their blankets and paci's when they tire out and asleep they go! Of course, there ...

We have successfully mastered getting the girls to sleep without swaddles! They finally completely outgrew them last month so Sarah spent a weekend working on training them to sleep unswaddled. We first had them sleep in "sleeping bags" that still controlled their legs but allowed them to have their arms free. Finally we just completely switched to jammies and blankets. It really only took one weekend and a good week with Aunt Sarah's help to get them on board. Now that we're not getting up to swaddle them or insert pacifiers multiple times a night, we're all much happier. The girls sleep 7-11, eat, then sleep until 6-7am. They nap better and most of the time even put themselves to sleep when laid down. No more walking, rocking and singing over and over until they drift to sleep. It's heavenly. Our favorite time is early in the morning when they are both awake laying in their cribs cooing and laughing at the ceiling fan and each other. They're ...

We decided it was time to venture a little farther out of town for a day trip. We drove down to Newport Beach hoping it wouldn't be too cold and overcast and it was perfect! We walked up and down the boardwalk and then as close to the water as the asphalt would carry our stroller. The girls loved looking at all the people who passed us on the boardwalk (almost as much as all the people loved checking us out- are we ever not going to be such a spectacle to people???) They were so happy in their stroller, especially in their big girl seats. Normally we snap on their car seats instead of the regular seats just for convenience sake, but we decided to give them a bit more freedom in the normal stroller seats. Check them out! It was a nice day trip to get out of the house and away for a couple of hours plus it satisfied Sarah's beach withdrawals. Next year they'll be walking (gasp!) so we'll be chasing them all over the sand. We can't wait!

Recently, the girls have become acutely aware of "strangers". Unfortunately, nearly everyone falls into the "stranger" category- grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, etc. They are pretty much only ok at our house with us. We hate that they freak out when being held by other people and want to help them get over this as quickly as possible. If you are one of the "strangers" in our life, please don't take it personally, be offended or think our girls hate you. They react like this for virtually everyone and we are doing our best to help them overcome it. It might just take some patience and being a little more hands-off at least at first when you're around the girls. They will eventually warm up to everyone and grow to love you all as much as we do!

We are often asked about sleep- if we're getting any, if the babies are getting any, how we do it, etc. The babies are on a great schedule now where we get a decent amount of sleep nightly. I almost wrote plenty of sleep and then thought of all the hours of sleep we got prior to the girls' birth, and decided to change that. Their Nightly Routine: The girls go to sleep sometime between 7:30 and 8:00pm after baths, storytime, prayers and sometimes a feeding. We get them out of bed again for a feeding at 11pm (they generally don't even open their eyes for that one). Then it's straight back to bed until they get up in the morning. Lucy usually wakes up sometime between 4:00 and 4:30am to eat and go back to sleep. O livia makes it until 5 before she needs to eat. They're up for the morning sometime between 6:30 and 7:30. So overall, even with a few brief wakings to reinsert pacifiers, reswaddle escaped arms and/or move babies back to the cen...

We were able to take advantage of a great deal at The Picture People in order to get our first family pictures taken. We've often heard when you want your kids to be on their best behavior they usually aren't. Well, we tried our best to make them happy by feeding them and giving them naps before we went but they weren't in the mood for much smiling unless the camera lady wasn't trying to take a picture. We did manage to get some good shots though. Here are a few of the best shots (nevermind the watermark).