Party Animals

It's July!  July is a big birthday month around here, with Bridget's birthday falling on the 11th, and now Mary on the 25th.  (And then there's me on the 15th, but who's counting my birthdays anymore?  Now that I'm 35!!! We won't be counting any more years after this!)  Much like the other three girls sharing March, I love that Bridget and Mary share July.  And, if I'm being really honest, it means we can combine birthday celebrations, concentrate the chaos, and relax a little for those other ten months!  Plus, who doesn't want a birthday buddy?

This is the most recent picture I have of our two little July girls, with their favorite guy:

We got our big July birthday bash started with a cute farm theme.  (Since Mary had a little lamb, you know.)  Luckily, Bridget loved this idea, and she loved the extra bonus of a farm bounce house even more! It's easy to justify springing for something like this when we're celebrating two birthdays at once ;)  This extremely large inflatable farm with a slide inside was the first thing to arrive on the day of the party, and the girls got jumping right away.  We needed all the help we could get in the way of child entertainment at that point.  I am always down to the wire before guests arrive, and this party was no exception.  While the girls bounced, Matt and I were setting up for over 50 people.  Yikes!

This is one of Matt's little projects before every party.  He prints out pictures of the girls on each of their birthdays, and tapes them up on the wall.  Mary's birthday timeline is on top, and Bridget's is on the bottom.  I love it, and of course, these pictures are still up on the wall :)

As for pictures during the party, I got a few between managing the kitchen and making sure I wasn't neglecting Mary too much, so we're thankful we live next door to a wonderful photographer who always has his camera at the ready.  He is the quickest photographer, too.  He emailed me this slideshow of his pictures before we'd even finished cleaning up after the party! He got much better shots, including one of me and Sara holding Tessa and Annie.  We have surprisingly few twins with twins pictures :)

Obviously, the most anticipated part of the party was cake time!  We  had lots of sweaty kids fresh from the bounce house eager to eat some of the barn that I had so lovingly sloppily created.  This cake, along with as much prep work as I could do ahead of time, kept me up until 4am.  (It took a full 24 hours to feel the effect of that loss of sleep, but when it hit me, it hit me hard.  I guess 35-year-olds shouldn't try to pull all-nighters.)  That barn is indeed very close to sliding right off the farm.  If Bridget  had blown her candles out a little more fiercely, we would have had a cake-slide on our hands.

Mary had one little candle to blow out, too!  But, amid the chaos of a large crowd all wanting a piece of some 4am farm cake, we neglected to even put Mary in her high chair for a bite of cake.  First birthday party fail!  I'll claim that as an intentional delay for the real deal, since she turns one tomorrow, officially.  She can dive into some cake then, and you can bet I'll get a good picture of it!

Meanwhile, Bridget told me that she liked the way the cake looked, but she didn't want any.  She opted for the "B" brownie that Aunt Stacy brought.  I'm just now realizing that neither birthday girl ate the cake I stayed up so late making.  Hmmm.

Before we all headed outside to the pinata, Bridget got a little upside-down time from Uncle Kyle :)

Kids were occupied for a few minutes decorating their own pinata loot bags with some cute farm stickers.  Then it was time for everyone to take their turn bashing the pinata.

What a great time we had!  I love that all of our girls have birthday buddies, and now we won't have to worry about another birthday bash for several more months ;)

Bridget in the Middle

I am so behind in posting some big events in the girls' lives!  For one, I never posted Bridget's school picture.  I figure her birthday is as good a day as any to slip it in here!  She insisted on having her hair in curlers the night before, and would have this done every night if Mommy was nice and complied with her endless requests.  Alas, she has to have straight hair...a lot.  It's a hard life in this family when you're a little diva like Bridget.

I think the picture turned out really cute, but it doesn't reflect all of the personality that Bridget usually brings when the camera comes out.  However, she turned on her Bridgety charm for the class picture below.

Just in case you didn't spot her in the bright yellow bee dress, I've blown up her little corner.  What a cute smile from our little Starlite Room girl.  I'm sure it's totally a coincidence that she has a huge smile on her face while seated next to her little buddy boyfriend.  Wait, what?!  Boyfriend? Yes, apparently Bridget is spoken for.  Well, he spoke to his mom about it anyway, and then his mom spoke to me about it.  And then I asked Bridget about it.  Are you following still?  She turned beet red when this topic came up... and claimed to know nothing.  Hmmmm.  It's a good thing these two are going off to different schools for kindergarten! Young love...

Our little July birthday girl celebrated with her classmates in May, crown and all,

and even showed off another July baby for her show-and-tell that day. A real life baby doll trumps anything anyone else brings. Trust me!

That was a good day for Bridget!  Any other day lately has been...interesting.  I know we went through this stage with Megan, so it's not just Bridget who is challenging at 4 going on 5.  But, she is extra-sensitive and feels especially caught in the middle sometimes.  She needs all the praise we can give her (and then some!), which she responds very well to.  But, the girl just can not help but get herself in trouble.  We're talking like 3 time-outs a day.  She gets an automatic time-out if she gives "the look" (picture a horrible combination of Linda Blair and Veruca Salt's expressions -- kind of evil, and very entitled!), or if she hurts her sisters in any way (Mary is spared her pinches thankfully!).  And God forbid we praise any of her sisters!  The second we say anything like, "Tessa is doing a great job eating her dinner tonight," Bridget pipes in with, "And Bridget is too!"  It is all.about.her.  I'm hoping this translates into some really high self-esteem when she's older, because I'm struggling to see any other silver lining here.

She's not all bad, though.  In fact, when she's not being "challenging," she's very very good.  She's one extreme or the other, which has us on an endless Bridget roller coaster.  She is extremely motherly towards Mary, and is beyond helpful, most of the time, with our requests for tidying up or help with things around the house.  She just gets in trouble with the other three girls, feeling jealous and picked on for a million different reasons.  Recently, she stormed out of the big girls' room where everyone was playing so well (of course that couldn't last!), and anounced, "Annie said she doesn't care about me at all! Well, she actually said she didn't care when I asked her which dolly bed she wanted.  But, what she meant was 'I don't care about you at all.'"  Ummm.  I'm so scared of the teenage years!

Anyway, today was her birthday!!  She's five now, so maybe we can leave all this drama behind us now!  She had a lot of fun today, and not surprisingly, relished an entire day dedicated to her.  She received each of her personal birthday calls with a big smile on her face, taking the phone upstairs and laying down to chat like a teenager.  She even carried on one conversation while laying down on Annie's bed, much to Annie's dismay.

And that's not all.

 She opened presents!

She jumped from the diving board at swimming lessons with no hesitation today!

She got a free Slurpee from 7-Eleven, a beautiful added bonus for our 7/11 birthday girl. 

She picked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, and even blew out a candle atop her sandwich!

Later, dinner was Bridget's decision, too.  Mac and cheese and artichokes!

She (and her sisters) made cupcakes for dessert, and she got more candles and more wishes.

May all of her birthdays be so wonderful and full of simple joys like they were today.  And, may all of those wishes come true.  Although, I have my doubts about her lunchtime wish -- to have a pony.  She does not dream small.  Her birthday present wishlist ended with a serious hope for magic dust to turn her into a grown-up.  Noooo!!  Not yet, Bridget.  Not yet!

Happy 5!

**** 

At 5, our very petite Bridget

 weighs 34 pounds (12th percentile) and is 3 feet, 4.5 inches tall (15th percentile)

****

Annie's Turn

Annie walked up to me as I was working on Tessa's post yesterday, and was horrified to discover pictures of just Tessa on the screen.  Since I am a just mommy, I immediately sat her down for some pictures of her own.  I present just Annie.  I won't be so wordy with this post.  Suffice to say, Annie can speak for herself and her personality is a pretty open book.  On more than a few recent occasions, complete strangers have spent less than one minute talking to our girls, and then pointed to "this one," and proclaimed her to be the chatty one.  That's pretty accurate.  She's also one to express herself...

As you can see, she's talking plenty in these pictures for both of us!

Just Tessa

Try to call Tessa anything else, like Tessa Bo Bessa, Tessa Bo, or even Theresa Maureen. You'll get a little laugh and then a stern, "It's just Tessa."  Just Tessa.  Almost an oxymoron around here. One of the things about having twins is the fact that we rarely experience just one of them completely on their own.  But, when they are apart, their personalities shine.

A few days ago, on the 4th of July, Tessa woke up very early from her nap.  Matt was home, and I was halfway out the door to go grocery shopping by myself.  But, when I heard her little voice, I knew I wanted her to come with me.  I'm almost ashamed to say that the last time I took her anywhere by herself was when she was maybe 8 months old.  (I remember it vividly, especially because I felt the need to tell everyone who commented on my cute baby that she was a twin!  They needed to know that information!)  I hurried into the little girls' room, snatched her up with some shoes, and we were out of the house before anyone else woke up.  She was a little thrown and too sleepy to protest.  She got to sit in the "pink seat" in the van, an endless source of arguments in the back row.  So it was novel, to say the least, that she didn't have any competition for a change.  We had some little Tessa talk back and forth from the front to the back, four other empty car seats between us.  She was a great little shopping companion, and even rode on my back in the Ergo.  For my cuddlebug, this was maybe the best treat.  She would whisper which cereal she wanted, try to arch out and grab extra snacks that were not on the list, and ask, repeatedly, if we were were almost done.  Much to her dismay, Mommy had to buy "just a few more things," every time she asked.  She even waited in the frigid cold, burrowing into my back to keep warm, as we bought our fireworks.

On the way home, my little only child admitted that, while she had fun with Mommy (said with a definite tone of consolation), she wished "her friends were there."  Who are her friends?  Megan, Bridget, Annie and Mary, of course!  Aw.  She was truly at a loss without her entourage.  She was excited to show off our pyro-purchase, hiding it behind her back as a surprise, but was so happy to be back in the fold of her sisters when we arrived back at the house.  It might be another few years before she willingly goes anywhere on her own with me again!

Speaking of those sisters of hers, she likes to remind anyone who will listen of the time when she stood up for Annie.  A "bad boy" was causing trouble in a jump house recently, and Tessa had had enough.  She bit her tongue for a few jumps, dealt with his boyish behavior, but when he knocked Annie down, she couldn't contain herself.  She jumped over to the offender and growled, "Don't you hurt my sister!!"  It was loud enough and scary enough to make me flinch, and I wasn't even standing very closeby. Yikes.  Don't mess with Tessa...or her sisters!

Miss Mary at 11 Months

Mary's inching her way to her big first birthday, without any permission from her parents!  These last few months have flown by, which is one reason I have no 10 month post for little Mary.  Her days have been full these last two months.  She was along for the ride in her Ergo as her sisters enjoyed all of their end of the school year activities.  She took it all in, quiet and docile as can be.  That all changed with the end of the school year.  Suddenly, Mary is an older, more active baby!  It's a rare moment when she sits in the carrier quietly now.  I think she knows Mommy and Daddy have time for crazy baby shenanigans now.  She is more curious than ever, and needs to be doing what the girls are doing, now.  We have never had a shrieky baby, but Mary is trying to fill that void for us.  At 11 months, she's making her presence known, as well as her demands.  She has even started biting!!  (Poor Tessa was the victim to Mary's new teeth.)  Little Miss Five is not going to let One, Two, Three and Four get all of the attention if she can help it!  I feel ridiculous trying to shape her behavior at 11 months, but some of her fussiness truly needs to be nipped in the bud.  She gets a sharp "NO" every so often, at which point a sister will rush defensively to her side, and admonish me with, "Mommy, she's just a baby!!"  Yes, she has her sisters wrapped!

But, she is cute, so that helps her cause a little bit.  These first pictures were taken closer to the 10 month mark, when school was still in session.  

She is now the proud owner of, count 'em, six teeth!  Her two front teeth came in during our OC Trip, which made her a little more cranky than normal.  Other top teeth are following quickly.  But, those two middle front teeth are pretty cute and have a little gap between them.  It's very Bridget-esque.  It's still fun to see how and when she looks like her big sisters.  She reminds us of both Megan and Bridget, which is funny because they look nothing alike!  

Besides those teeth, she has been working on some other things, too.  All of a sudden, she can now climb an entire flight of stairs, in about one nanosecond when we're looking the other direction.  The twins' toddler beds are equally tempting.  She likes to grunt and wiggle her way up on to those, and then sit up proudly and clap her hands.  She also gives high-fives like they're going out of style.  I don't remember the older girls doing this.  I love it at this age.  It's such an adorable way for her to express herself, and she gets such a charge out of it every time!

She's still saying "Dedda," "MumMum" and now something that resembles "baby," since she loves baby dolls.  She also loves anything the girls are playing with, and is constantly pulling all of the books out of the shelves in the little girls' room.  Sigh.  I can't complain about this age too much though.  I not-so-fondly recall the same stage with the twins, and I'm so thankful to have just one almost one-year-old this time to keep an eye on right now!

Did I mention she has Daddy pretty wrapped around those fingers too?

I was about ready to publish this post, but I felt bad about how few pictures I have of Mary at this age.  So, I snapped a few more this morning.  She and I were home alone while Matt took the older girls to mass, so I took the opportunity to play some peek-a-boo with her, a surefire way to get a smile!

Then we peeked out the window for some people-watching, and inspected a little unicorn.

 I call this Chubby Baby on a Horse.

There.  We officially have some 11.5 month pictures!

Miss Mary, you are a squirrelly delight! You have added so much to our family in these short 11 months.  Each of us has been touched by your giggles, your cries and your little personality that can't form words yet.  We've all learned a little more patience since you arrived, and have loved being back in babyville with you!

4th of July

Pajamas. Sisters. Fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!