The Change of Routines

Another week has gone by, too quickly it seems. Not too much going on here at our place, just the same stuff over and over and over again. Let's recap...

Sunday, we had visitors from Maryville! John and Sue came down after church to hang out with the girls for a few hours. I had to go host an open house over in Ooltewah so I missed out on a lot of that. At least Lindsey had someone to keep her company!

The title talks about a change of routines this week and that is what we got. Lindsey went back to work for the first time since November 3rd on Monday. So, it was all me, alone with both girls.  I tried to convince Lindsey that McKenzie might still pass for a newborn in the nursery but she thought the nurses might notice. Oh well, she didn't have a whole lot of time to miss them because...

Also on Monday, Molly had an appointment with Dr. Moses at the hospital to review her hip ultrasound results from Dec. 30. We've decided that we're going to try and visit every subspecialty in the hospital. Gotta get 'em all! Anyway, Dr. Moses is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon that Lindsey actually works with on a regular basis. We had a 2:15 appointment, got seen at 3:45, and finally got out at 4:30. 

The results: no real results. Yeah, really. It's another one of those, "Well, we'll watch it and see what happens at some point in the future" things. We have some sort of magnet on us that attracts that type of diagnosis. The reason for this one specifically is related to the new policy the hospital has on requiring hip ultrasounds for all babies born breech. Since it is relatively new (maybe the past couple of years) the doctors are really not sure how many babies have shallow hip insertions. It could be thousands and thousands of them but they're really not sure. Oh well, whatever. This guarantees a future of hip ultrasounds and x-rays for the next few years. Thankfully, radiology is covered 100% by our insurance!

Since it took so long to be seen, McKenzie decided to entertain us by talking...She was pretty pitiful since she had just had a heel stick to draw some blood about 30 minutes earlier...

Tuesday was my mom's first full day with the girls. She's going to be staying with them every Tuesday so that I have time to go to my office as necessary. In this case, I had to teach a class. She seemed to do pretty well. She wouldn't let me help out with either one of them saying that she needed to learn how to handle them on her own. Ok, so be it...

I got home Tuesday afternoon and she was making dinner. Yay! Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat it with them since I have joined the Hixson Kiwanis group and had a meeting that night. It was good for lunch the next day.

Lindsey is back to work only 4 days a week and Wednesday is her day off. I'm not sure how that worked out since we have church on Wednesday nights so she doesn't even have to cook! No fair!

Thursday and Friday were just back to being with boring old dad...lame. Nothing exciting happened. There was no walking, talking, rolling over, writing a book, nada. These girls are boring!

This week has been pretty good for them smiling. Both of them will give you big smiles every once in a while. It's not exactly consistent but they'll usually give me a big smile the first time they see me in the morning. That's pretty cool.

Saturday we were out early. We met up with Brian and Cathy Decker to look at a house for them. We used to work at camp together and it had been a few years since we'd seen them. They have a 14-month old who was pretty fun. We even all went out to lunch! Exciting day. As a result, the girls pretty much slept all day long. All day. All day long...

So, all in all a pretty uneventful week. Here are a couple of pictures just to tide everyone over til the next update. Hopefully we'll have something more interesting to show you then...

Molly and McKenzie chillin'

McKenzie's so chill she's going to sleep...

Yep, exciting life...

Pediatrician = Pain!

Take me to your leader!

So, it has been another long break since our last update. It's not because we're boring or anything. It's mainly because we're just so busy I haven't got time to be all creative and funny and stuff. Besides, my writers are apparently on strike and have stopped sending me new material. Oh well, you'll have to suffer through with me...

I get to play too!

Let's see what we did this past week. Molly and McKenzie got a really neat playmat that they can lay under and watch the lights and a mirror and all kinds of other stuff that they can punch. It was a Christmas gift from my grandmother Mama Lene. It also plays music for 20 whole minutes! Typically, as long as the music is playing, the girls are content. Therefore, long playtime = happy babies! Yay!

Not so happy baby...

On Wednesday, the girls had a big day out. It had rained the previous few days (like 49 inches or something crazy) so it was nice to get out. We did it up right and went to Sams! Our main mission was to get dog food to feed our other children (Sadie and Hannah) and to look for Mylicon drops in bulk. Now, you may be asking yourself, what are Mylicon drops? Well, they're apparently a very expensive liquid that stains clothes that is supposed to stop gas. And our girls need it. Seriously...

Working on something...

We found dog food but no Mylicon drops. Oh well, too bad, so sad. I don't remember what else we bought but we still managed to spend like $200. It's impossible to get out of that place cheap. After Sams, we went home for a couple of hours in order to feed and change the girls prior to going to Wednesday night dinner at church. Another fun night for the girls!

Sunbathing to start the day...

Thursday was another slow day at home. Friday brought some excitement though. On Wednesday night at church, the girls in our Sunday School class were discussing their monthly Drunko (I mean Bunko) game scheduled for Friday night. Apparently, it was just assumed that Lindsey was bringing the girls with her to Drunko. Who am I to complain? So, my daughters went out with their mother on their first trip in the Camry (the completely paid off Camry!) There were no meltdowns and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Drunko = good!

Saturday, Lindsey and I got to go out on a date. Gigi came over at 10am so Lindsey and I could go out to lunch with some of Lindsey's PT classmates. After our lunch a Qdoba, we went and saw a movie (Benjamin Button - wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but it was 3 hours long). Yay for dates!

What?

After the movie, it was back to reality. My mom had made some homemade tomato soup and got bread bowls from Panera. Yum!

Sunday brought another first for the girls. We all went to Sunday School and church for the first time. Again, the girls tolerated being out and about fairly well. Mainly, they just slept. I wish I could have slept through the sermon, ha! (sorry if anybody from church actually reads this) After church, we had to hurry home because I was doing an open house all afternoon. It was so dang cold I was afraid that no one was going to show up. I ended up with 9 different couples touring through and several of those being interested in looking at some other stuff with me. That's always good. Hopefully, that'll get some business going.

After the open house, it was also my first Sunday night back at youth. So, Lindsey was on her own again. She didn't seem to mind since it appears that all the ladies spent the entire afternoon and early evening sleeping!

A sight not seen on Sunday: babies awake!

Monday was Gramps and Grandma's 29th anniversary. Molly and McKenzie sent them a small present:

Tuesday was a big day. The girls had their first pediatrician appointment since before Christmas. Our latest measurements: Molly is now 10 pounds 4 oz and 22" long. McKenzie is 9 pounds 6 oz and 21.5" long. Both have a head circumference of 38cm. Molly is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. McKenzie is in the 25th percentile. Both are in the 25th percentile for head circumference.

The other bonus of the doctor's visit was a big round of shots. They each got 4 injections, 2 in each thigh. McKenzie apparently tolerated it a bit better than Molly. There was some crying with the sticks but then she kinda calmed down. Molly just screamed. And screamed. And screamed some more. I'm so proud.

McKenzie being not a wimp...

So, that's it for the moment. Sorry this isn't any funnier but it's really really late right now. I'm doing good just to have my eyes open and now I have to go feed some babies...

Christmas Photo Wrap Up

Here we are, at long last, with photos from Christmas. You can all see what a great time we had!

Let's play "Spot The Children!"

Oh, there they are!

Here are the girls with their very first Christmas present! Now now girls, try to stay calm!

What is it? What is it? Ah, it's their very first Christmas ornament! Here's McKenzie with her Precious Moments Christmas ornament.

And here's Molly with her Snowbaby ornament. We mainly took these pictures so we'll remember next year which girl gets which ornament =)

Next, we went to my parent's house for Christmas with them. Here are the girls with Gigi and G-daddy. Note the tree in the background. That's the girl's tree. Yeah, their very own tree. Full sized and everything...

Here's Molly with her loot bag...

And the same for McKenzie. They even have their names on them...

Finally, we left my parent's house and drove to Maryville for Christmas with Lindsey's family. Here's McKenzie with Lindsey's diva aunt Cynthia and her cousin Jennica.

And here's Molly with Jennica and Lindsey's grandmother.

So, that's it for Christmas. We were wiped out by the end of the week and the girls were way off schedule. But, we had a great time and food. Sorry it took so long to get pictures online but you know how it is!