Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Holy moley…a real update to the blog? Could it possibly be? Yes! It is!

Just in time for Lindsey’s birthday, I decided to post an update to the blog covering the last, wow, 6 months… That’s pretty ridiculous but here we go…

So, the last time we were together, Molly had just gotten out of the hospital for a fun RSV infection. It was not much fun for any of us but it leads us to some more fun a few months later. More on that in a minute.

So, the weekend after we get Molly out of the hospital, it decides to seriously snow in Chattanooga. We ended up with something like 8” of the white stuff for the girls to play in. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

You’ll notice grandma in that last picture. She was able to come down before the weather got really bad. She was solo since gramps was baking in the sun down in Guatemala on a coffee tour. Rough life…

Next up was Valentine’s Day. This was really the first time the girls were able to open presents for themselves and kinda understood that this stuff was for them. They got a bunch of new books as well as their then favorite snack Goldfish.

The first of March brought our 15 month checkups. The girls stayed pretty much right on track. Molly was 22 lbs 12 oz (50%), 31.5 in tall (75%) and McKenzie was 20 lb 10 oz (10-20%) and 32 in tall (75%).

Here’s something new for Molly. She started sleeping like this for some unknown reason…

At least she looks relaxed and comfortable.

One other thing to notice about that picture is the pacifier. I’m pretty sure that is the last picture we have of either girl with a pacifier in their mouths. As a birthday present to me, Lindsey decided that the girls were going to lose their pacifiers. Now, looking back on it, the whole process went really well. There were just a few loooooong nights of crying but I think we only gave in one night. They still notice other kids with pacifiers but I don’t think that they really miss them.

Next it was time for Easter. We spent a few days up in Maryville hanging out with friends and family. The girls got to go to the cabin and have an Easter Egg hunt. Here are some pictures of the fun.

We also hung out with my family a bit. The week before Easter, the girls did their first real Easter Egg hunt. Didn’t really know what to do with the eggs other than pick them up. Who cares about the candy? Molly did really well by finding a prize egg that got her some sidewalk chalk!

By the end of March, we graduated from our high chairs to booster seats. Now we can all et at the table and make huge messes everywhere!

Check out McKenzie’s strawberry. It’s bigger than her fist!

The girls continued to do strange and weird things. Here they are all tarted up in ballerina pajamas and wearing our crowns.

McKenzie tried out a new hairdo…I’m not sure if it was successful or not.

Molly eating greens...

About this time, we’ve made it all the way to the middle of April. We discovered something interesting about McKenzie: apparently, she feels no pain…

One of the kids at their daycare decided to bite both Molly and McKenzie. Neither one of the girls cried. McKenzie got 3 bites to show for it. Still slightly bruised even today. The last time we were in Maryville a few weeks ago, McKenzie got stung by a wasp on her wrist. She just kinda shook it and never made a sound. Tough kid…

The end of April had Molly going back to the hospital for her testing with Dr. Screws and Dr. Ledbetter. She had a few scopes done and then spent the night to have a pH probe test done. We won’t talk about how crappy of a hospital stay this was…

Here are some pictures of Molly getting ready for the procedures…

And a movie of her on the happy juice…

And a picture of her after all the procedures and with the pH probe and monitor. She’s really happy here…

The results of the tests really didn’t tell us a whole lot. Just more watch and see what happens. She should grow out of it, in a few years. The only issue is that it will make her more susceptible to colds. This is part of the reason why she ended up in the hospital back in January.

Fast forward and now we’re in May. Warmer months mean sprinkler time!

We also got to go on a boat ride! Gramps and grandma came down and we went on the Southern Belle Riverboat. It was a lot of fun and we got to cruise the river for a few hours.

We had our 18 month checkup the middle of May. Everything still looks pretty good. Molly was 24 lb 4oz (50%) 32 in tall (50%) and McKenzie was 21 lb 8 oz (10%) and 33 in tall (90%). Tall and skinny for McKenzie.

The end of May was Memorial Day. Our Sunday School class did a retreat up at Camp Lookout. I would say that the girls had a pretty good time. They are definitely outdoor babies. They wanted to be involved in everything that was going on. Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

And now we’re all the way to June…

We went to Maryville the middle of the month to visit with a bunch of Lindsey’s family. Most of them live way far away and had not even met the girls yet. We spent a weekend hanging out at the cabin. It was much cooler up there on the mountain. The girls had a lot of fun playing with everything and going swimming in the lake. Trying to get them to sleep at the cabin was rough. McKenzie figured out that she could use the bedspread on the bed next to her pack and play to pull herself out. That was fun.

We also had our follow-up appointment for McKenzie with Dr. Oakes in Birmingham. We had a CT scan and met with the doctor for a bit. He still thinks everything looks fine even though the place where the cyst was is still very apparent. Here is a short video of the CT scan.

He says we can come back in a year but if everything looks good they might not even do a CT. I’m not sure I want to drive to Birmingham and back just for a 20 minute doctor’s appointment.

This past weekend, Lindsey’s parents and sister came to town for a visit. We went downtown to the Aquarium and got to play in the fountains. Here are some pictures of that fun…

And finally, that brings us to now. It was Lindsey’s birthday yesterday. We all decided to go out and have some ice cream to celebrate. Here are some pictures of the girls enjoying their first rainbow sherbet.

And that’s it for now…happy birthday to Lindsey! Look forward to some more timely updates as the summer goes on.

Til later…