Ponytails

One of the best parts about being the mom to girls: doing their hair. I might change my stance on this once they're all in school and we have hair issues every morning. For now, I'm enjoying doing their hair when they allow it. Megan has assured me that she'll need lots of different hairstyles once she starts preschool in a couple of weeks. Here, the girls show off their ponytails. Not the best shot of Megan's actual ponytail, but whatever.

"Mommy, what is in my hair???!!"

Pwaying in the pwaywoom

Translation from Bridgetese: playing in the playroom

Thanks in large part to my failure to get my act together and create the girls' "big girl room," we now have a very large room that currently just houses all of our toys. We can pretend that we live in a more normal, affordable part of the country where we might actually have a playroom. Ours will last for maybe another month until I decide on colors, sheets and curtains. We're enjoying this room in limbo while it lasts!

Check out Bridget's new double stroller for her dolls (thanks Aunt Sara and Uncle Tim!). It didn't come with twin dolls, but we hunted around the house and came up with something that would work:

The dolls wanted to get out and stretch their legs after their walk in the stroller.

Tessa


Tessa

Annie in her office, er, exersaucer

Bridget, our little ham, butting into Tessa's picture

And, our master player, Miss Megan

9 to 5

Since I'm not working (outside the home, that is!), 9 to 5 has taken on an entirely new meaning and signifigance. Annie slept from 9pm to 5am last night. Suffice to say, I'm thinking just a little clearer today than I have in months! Why, oh why did our first kid have to be the one who slept through the night at 3 weeks??!!

Happy 5 Months, Tessa and Annie!

It's officially been 5 months, and I can honestly say that these pictures were taken on their 5 month birthday. It just took a couple weeks to blog about it. And, we actually got 2 smiles ...

Annie (left) and Tessa (right)
and some sideways looks after a spit-up incident required a wardrobe change:

Tessa (left) and Annie (right)

These 5 months have proved to be the most stressful of our marriage, and exhausting in every way imaginable. But, it's all worth it to see Tessa and Annie developing their own little personalities, and to see how beautifully Megan and Bridget have adjusted to becoming big sisters. Admittedly, we're in survival mode around here most of the time, living for naps and bedtime, but there are great moments in between:

• Every time Bridget rushes in to kiss a baby and exclaims, every time like it's the first time, "She likes me! She likes me!"
• Megan reminding us repeatedly that there's room for one more car seat in the van. We can always go pick up another baby in the hospital, according to Megan. I guess life's not too rough for her right now if another baby seems like a good idea.
• Megan and Bridget getting along so well, and constantly giving me the space and breaks I need during the day when they play quietly together for long stretches of time. Long enough for me to actually get things done around the house or nurse a couple of babies. More often than not, Megan can be found leading Bridget from one activity to another. Bridget will tell me they're just "tending" to be princesses or "tending" they're on a train.
• Sweet hugs and kisses all day long from all four girls.

Defnitely a crazy five months, but so amazing!

Twenty little toes

I want to hold your hand

Without fail, when the babies are together on the playmat, they wiggle around and find each other, and each other's hands.

Oh, and here are the little faces that belong to those hands.

Tessa (above) and Annie (below)

Oswald and Dora and Little Bear, oh my!

On day 4 of rearranging our house (of sick toddlers and newborns who don't like to sleep) I wonder if there is such a thing as too much Noggin for our kids' little noggins. Nah.

Table for six

We officially have four little diners at our table now. Notice Annie is sitting across from Megan and Tessa is sitting across from Bridget. We're well-trained.

The babies had their first taste of solid food just shy of five months, and it was a success! Here's Annie with her first bite:
and Megan feeding her more.

Tessa works on her finger appetizer while she waits her turn:

and then she lets Bridget play Mommy, too.

I thought two kids were a lot to cook/feed/clean up after. Like a lot of other things, my perspective has changed on that point. Sometimes I think we need a dog to eat everything that drops on the floor, but then I remind myself that I would just be trading one mess inside for another mess outside.

Musical Rooms

This game is best described as a grown-up and even more cruel version of musical chairs, where someone (or in this case, something) is left without a room. The sad losers in our house are our living room couches that are making room for our newer sectional that used to be in our family room that is now our bedroom because the big girls will be in our room and the babies are moving into the nursery. (I won't make a habit of run-on sentences on this blog, don't worry!)The winners are Tessa and Annie!

So this is love

I guess love makes the seemingly unfathomable come true.

Recently, I've witnessed both Megan and Bridget offering the clothes off their back (literally!) to help their little sisters. Our girls, who ordinarily flip into freak out mode when their coveted dresses get even a teensy bit wet, now regularly wipe spit up from their babies' faces with the aprons of their dresses.

We're very lucky to have two little girls who so lovingly take care of their sisters. Let's hope this sisterly love lasts through the high school years.

They are...

Identical!

Maybe identical twins do run in the family after all :) We were pretty shocked to get the news from the DNA lab that the twins are indeed identical, or monozygotic, if you want to be all Fancy Nancy about it (if you don't know who this is, you don't have any little girls wanting to read "Fancy Fancy" all. of. the. time).

What was that I said about not blogging in Tahoe? Nonsense! I am on the slowest connection ever on an unsecure network on Matt's laptop, but I knew this was too important to wait a week to blog about :)

Now, I'm off to teach the twins everything I can about tricking their teachers, parents and boyfriends!

Megan's Many Moods

Megan hasn't seen a lot of action on here lately, so I thought she deserved her own post, especially after she actually sat still for a few pictures the other day:

Be careful what you take pictures of...It just might come true!

So, my new favorite picture of the four girls reminded me of a picture I took last year. Last February to be exact. Seems like decades ago now. But, somehow I ended up taking this picture of Megan and Bridget after Megan insisted that the dolls be in the picture. Eerily familiar, right?

Now, they each really have their own baby doll in the picture.

And, just for fun, here are some more outtakes from my little photo shoot the other day:

In the name of science

Our twin zygosity test arrived in the mail, and we wasted no time subjecting Tessa and Annie to some cheek swabbing. We wasted so little time that I wonder if we should have waited a couple of hours until after Tessa had nursed before we tried to take DNA from her mouth. Did her swab contain my DNA, thus totally compromising the test?

Yes, I realize my degree is in physiology, and I should know the answer to this question. I'll claim baby brain on this one, as I have for the last 4 years or so, since I've been either pregnant or nursing for that long. (This defense is especially appropriate when I have to really think about what month or day of the week it is. My new time management skills leave me an expert in how long it's been between feedings, diapers and naps, and completely at a loss when it comes to the blocks of time most people order their days by.)

So, compromised or not, we should get the results by next week. But, we'll be in Tahoe starting Friday, which will limit my blogging (I can sense your disappointment already!!) and our access to our mail box. We'll keep you posted!

Yay for another picture with all four girls!

Little Smarty Pants

Now that Bridget is two, she's taking some online classes and hoping to graduate from college soon.

Really, who looks this cute in glasses?

And the results are...not in

Since our very scientific poll on the twins' identical-ness or lack thereof was somewhat inconclusive, we broke down and ordered the DNA test. It will be arrivng shortly, and once we send the kit back to the company, we'll know in 7 days! Exciting! Even as an identical twin myself, I'm still in awe of the fact that these babies came into the world together, and may have started as one - amazing!

The more the merrier

I guess when you're used to sharing the womb for 9 months, sharing your swing isn't such a big deal.

When I attempted to vacate Bridget's dolls from this swing this morning for Annie's nap, she insisted they could all share. Annie didn't seem to mind, and the dolls, especially the one on the right are having a great time! Three hours (and counting) later and the dolls still haven't fallen asleep :)

Tahoe: Take One

Since I'm catching up, I want to share some cute pictures from our first trip to Tahoe this summer. It went perfectly, despite some near panic attacks on my part from not having all of my "gear" that I'm used to having at home.

**Case in point: This was the scene in our living room this morning - two babies blissfully swinging for a few hours - home sweet home!

Thanks Mop and Aunt Sara for all your help with the kids!! Hopefully we'll have an equally smooth trip when we go up for two weeks at the end of the month.

And, without further ado, and in no particular order, since I'm feeling too lazy to edit the HTML here (yeah, that's right - I 've become a little more tech savvy these days. I've managed to learn a few other skills besides tandem nursing in the last few months!):

Check out the babies both smiling at the same time for the camera!!! Now we just need to work on the blinking. Oh well!

A Belated Birthday Wish for Bridget

It's a little sad that Sara beat me to wishing my own daughter a happy birthday, but there you have it. And, her pictures were much better anyway. At the end of our crazy day, I was left with a grand total of 10 pictures on my camera. This one is the best of the bunch, with Megan "helping" Bridget with her cake (my sad and lopsided attempt at a watermelon slice):

Lopsided or not, it was yummy for the one person that mattered most that day!