Hot Tubbin'

What was once Megan and Bridget's special activity with Daddy has turned into a family affair. The babies have officially been introduced to the hot tub, and they love it! Megan had her own ideas about this change, which is part of the reason she's looking a little put out in this picture. The other reason? The "nice whale" needed to finish telling her a story. The nice whale wasn't me. Just sayin'.

Meanwhile, I had no problem getting a smile from Bridget.

Tessa claimed this little floatie and was content in there for a while.

Tahoe, here we come!

Couch Fun

The babies woke up from their afternoon nap a little early a few days ago, and they had the couch to themselves while Megan and Bridget were still snoozing. I shoved the coffee table into the corner of the sectional, and covered it with pillows, so the babies could roam a little up there without falling off. Playing on the couch is probably the most fun these girls had all week :)


With the couch up against the window, these babies are quickly becoming little busybodies, Tessa in particular!
Of course, all fun must eventually come to an end. This is Annie's favorite face when she feels she's suffered any kind of injustice. The crime this time? Removal from the couch. For now at least, they don't know how to climb back up there. Life will get even more interesting when that skill is mastered...

Musical Car Seats

Tessa and Annie have been using their feet to tell us something for a little while now. (Yes, their feet are obviously adorable, but that apparently was not the message here.) The message was, "We are one now, and we are way too tall and heavy for our infant car seats!! Just look at our feet hanging off the ends of these seats!!"


Here, Annie presents Exhibit A:

Message received.

We spent the better part of Saturday cleaning the van and rejiggering our car seat situation. Like all tasks most people might expect to be able to complete in a reasonable time frame, in our little world with four small kids, this took all day and necessitated a playpen and lots of sidewalk chalk in the driveway, and then a picnic on our front lawn. Simple things are complex here.

First, some last smiles in these seats before we shoved them into the no-man's storage land underneath our house:

I present our newly arranged minivan full of four big-girl car seats, and complete with four big girls (boo hoo!). The babies graduated directly from their infant seats to the Cadillacs of the big-kid car seat world: Britax, and pink to boot. What more could two one-year-olds ask for? These seats were given up without a second thought by Megan and Bridget, who relocated to some cheap seats that came from ... you guessed it: Daddy's car! Although these Cosco Scenera seats represent the other end of the car seat spectrum ($35 from Target compared to the $200+ we spent on each Britax), all that really matters is that these seats were in Daddy's car, and they are obviouly superior and more desirable.

This arrangement gets a thumbs-up from Megan especially, who can now easily tickle the baby sitting next to her - a bonus :) The tickling doesn't produce the desired effect when said baby is sleeping, though. And, speaking of sleeping, the best indicator that everyone's comfy with the new set-up? Kids sleeping in their car seats!

The new layout works perfectly and everyone's happy. (I'm really happy we didn't buy two new Britax seats! Just another example of the kids liking the cheap stuff we have laying around!) Three seats fit better across the back than I thought they would, mostly because the Cosco seats are a little bit narrower. We decided to have the babies sit facing forward since they're at the 1 year and 20 pound mark (okay, so Annie probably has a couple ounces to go, but who's counting?), and they're so much happier that way! We now have one empty captain's chair in the middle row, which we've stowed in the floor of the van to gain some space. It's really easy to crawl in and buckle everyone up now, without having to squeeze behind car seats, and we have a huge space to change diapers, or I can sit there and nurse the babies if necessary. Of course, our little potty has a home in this area too :) This may be the most important seat in the van!

With every change comes a new set of challenges. In this case, without the infant car seats, I'm trying to figure out a system to get the babies out of the house and into the car safely, and vice versa. When they were in their seats, they were heavy, but contained. I could carry both and a couple of bags if necessary. I could set one seat on the lawn while I plopped the other in the van. Now, I'm lucky if I can manage to press the button to open the van door with a squirming baby on each hip. And, once the door's open, I have to set a baby down and make sure she doesn't topple out while I buckle up her sister. Forget the diaper bag or two other kids that either want to be carried or need to be dragged from one location to another. I figure this will be hard for a couple of months until they're walking, and then I can walk out to the car with all of my little ducks walking behind me :)

Lastly, just becasue she's so cute: Megan all smiles after preschool today.

Happy Birthday, Tessa and Annie!

Annie (left) and Tessa (right)

Where did this year go??!!

Since I've barely found the time to make this post about the babies turning one, I'll be brief in describing these little girls' personalities.

Annie is

• smaller --- 19 pounds, 7 ounces
• the first to try new things...first to sit, crawl, take steps, and try new foods. Tessa often looks to Annie to see if she's eating something new before she dives in herself
• very curious
• more independent
• an angry cryer - it's very easy now to tell who's crying when one of them wakes up from a nap. Annie gets mad when we don't respond withing a few seconds to her demands.
• saying a couple of words : Mama, dada, "all done" in sign language. Mama is said over and over again until I notice, and she usually wiggles around in my arms until her face is right in front of mine to get my attention, and says "Mama?? Mama??"

Tessa is

• bigger -- 20 pounds, 4 ounces
• by far our best cuddler so far! She wraps her arms around our shoulders (like you want a baby to but they usually don't), and she is so happy when being held! This isn't the greatest when I'm trying to do anything with two hands, but I'm sure I'll miss these days!
• a great smiler and laugher! Her laugh is contagious. It wouldn't surprise me if she becomes our most clowny kid. She loves to do little physical stunts already for a laugh, and it's mostly her laughing :)
• saying the same words as Annie: Mama and Dada (Dada being her favorite!). We repositoned our living room furniture a little and now our couch is up against our front window. The babies both love standing on the couch, looking out the window and squealing "Dada" even if he's not out there ;)
  

It's hard to believe it's been a year since this picture was taken. Time flies!!

The Princess and the Peas

The Princess...

and the Peas

We had a Princess and the Peas themed party to celebrate Megan's 4th birthday and the babies' 1st birthday. The Princess and the Pea happens to be Megan's favorite story currently, and this may be part of the reason she was so agreeable to sharing her big day with her baby sisters. Megan and Bridget re-enact this story at least once a day, and take turns being the prince, the princess, the king and the queen.

A Princess and the Peas party is not complete without a guest appearance from a true princess, so my friend Stacey magically transformed into Princess Anastasia. We had some wide-eyed, open-mouthed little girls when Princess Anastasia entered the room!

The babies, on the other hand, weren't so sure about Princess Anastasia!

Some more shots from the day:

I think this is our first twins holding twins picture. Sara's holding Tessa on the left and I'm holding Annie on the right.

Tessa (left) and Annie (right)

Tessa

a rare shot of me and the babies

all of our girls getting ready for cake -- Bridget's little head is poking out from behind Annie's high chair

Tessa and Annie sharing a special moment before their first cupcakes :)

Megan blowing out all four candles on her amazing Princess Belle cake (no, I did not make that!)

Annie, post-cake

Tessa, post-cake

and Bridget, already planning her birthday party in July

Two For The Road

Tessa in hearts

Somehow I don't think sharing a vehicle and taking turns driving said vehicle will always be so fun for these two!

And, some more fun at the inside park: (Annie's doing the pushing)

A New Playground Coming To Town

It's official - we're getting KaBOOM!--ized!

Much to my delight, and "delight" doesn't begin to describe just how excited I am, our little neighborhood park is beng made over by KaBOOM! KaBOOM! is a national non-profit who makes it their mission to create and better playgrounds across the U.S. They're installing our new playground on May 4th, all in one day, and I've volunteered to help out in what little way I can. Keeping the babies away from power tools will be the first priority :) Actually, I'll be helping a little with getting donations for food for all of the volunteers that day. There will be nearly 300 people working on the playground for us!!

This is just so exciting for us! I mean, how often do things like this actully happen when you need them and will use them? This park is about a 5 minute walk from our house, just at the edge of our little neighborhood. I won't have to load the girls into the van to get there, and I won't have to go to San Francisco for the kids to play in a decent park. Don't get me wrong - I love exploring all of the different parks in San Francisco, but it will be so nice to not worry about anyone falling asleep in the car during the 20 minute drive home in traffic. A great playground in our neighborhood will be so....normal! Almost suburban. (I said almost!)

The current park has not been updated since the 80's, and has the solitary slide boarded up right now. It's so bad that I have been known to call it the "ghetto park." We walk right by it to go to our "inside park," and I have secretly wanted to spearhead a movement to rebuild it since Megan was born. Someone at KaBOOM! read my mind.

KaBOOM! is also very concerned about what's going on in some other little minds, specifically the future swingers and sliders in our neighborhood. We had an informational meeting a few nights ago, and they had every kid there draw their ideal playground, and then present it to the room. Meanwhile, the KaBOOM! project manager diligently took notes on every little thing each kid wanted at the park, from massage chairs for the parents (!) to ducks and chickens :) Our playground will be designed with the kids' suggestions taken into account. So cool.

Megan's requests were simple: four seesaws, one big slide, one curly slide, and some swings. Not too much to ask, right? Here she is making her presentation (I wish my camera skills were better while juggling two babies on my lap, and that I had brought my actual camera and not had to rely on my phone, oh well!):


And, here she is with her new sticker proclaiming that she's now a playground designer:

I need to take some "before" pictures of our "ghetto park" before it's demolished. I can't wait for the "after" pictures of the girls playing in their new playground!!

Oh, and does anyone want to donate food for this fabulous event?? ;)

Our Little Megan is 4

So much for four under four!

Megan is four, and I can't believe how these last four years have flown by! Where did our little baby Megan go??!!

In honor of her big day, I dug up a picture of Megan's first day:

and some birthday shots from the last three years:

One - more interested in Daddy's watch than her cupcake

Two - not sure what to make of the whole candle/song business

Three - celebrating at Grandma and Grandpa's! She's got the birthday thing down now!

Happy 4th Birthday, sweet Megan!

Oh, and before I forget a sweet Megan moment...

As she was stalling in settling down for her nap a few days ago, she looked down at Tessa crawling around, seemed to ponder a little, and said, "Mommy, I really wonder what Tessa's voice sounds like. She doesn't know her words yet, so I don't know." Not the most exciting story ever, but she says things like this all the time. She's just so caring and sweet with her sisters. She was meant to be our first-born, that's for sure!