Back to School!

Here are a few pics from the first day of school on Tuesday. Max and Tyler are in their last year of preschool before starting kindergarten next year and Maisie is in a Parent's Day Out toddlers class at the same school. M&T go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Maisie just goes on Tuesdays. It's the same school they were at last year (and the year before for the boys), so it was an easy transition back to school and everyone is happy to be back!

Don't let Maisie's appearance fool you... she may look old, but a few minutes after these pictures were taken, she threw a major tantrum because she wanted to keep her "pack pack" on in her car seat.

Max, Maisie, Tyler

Max

Tyler

Side note: for those of you who have a hard time telling Max and Tyler apart (which, I'd say, is about 90% of you...), this should make you feel better. The boys and I were flipping through these pictures on my phone and they had to look at the color of their shorts to decipher who was who! Tyler looked at the first pic and said, "That's me" and then Max said, "No, that's me! I was wearing red shorts." So don't feel too bad... Max and Tyler can't even tell themselves apart sometimes :)

Miss Maisie

Best buds

Pack pack and lunch bag

Pic outside school

And another side note: it took several tries to get that smiley picture of Maisie above. Whenever we tell her to say cheese, she scrunches her forehead, squints her eyes, and makes a confused face slash smile.

Here I was tilting my head and smiling to try and get her to smile, but she just mimicked my moves instead of my smile

Another slightly confused look

And one more pic with her crazy "smile" from a few weeks ago. She also insisted on wearing her brothers' spider-man shoes, which are several sizes too big.

Works of Art

More like pieces of work! Andy was home with the kids last night and sent me a picture with the caption, "Markers + quiet kids." Apparently we didn't learn from Max and Tyler's adventure in the fireplace that quiet kids = bad news. Here's how it all went down:

Maisie pointed to to the markers on the counter so Andy gave her a piece of paper and the markers and set her up at the little table in the living room.

Tyler came to Andy a few minutes later and said, "Dada, Maisie is drawing on herself like a picture. We're going to have to hang her up on the fridge!"

Andy looked in the room and Maisie was coloring a tiny bit on her hand, but it looked pretty harmless.

A few short (and quiet) minutes passed and three works of art were created! When asked what they were doing, Max and Tyler both said, "Now you'll have to hang all of us up like a picture!"

Thanks to washable markers (and considering the fact that some of Maisie's food turned blue from the markers rubbing off), it was a pretty easy cleanup in the tub!

Serious-faced Tyler (because he wanted to look like a painting), Max, and the girl who started it all

Trouble

Killer mustache and beard, Max

Serious Tyler, also with a killer mustache and beard

Balance

At the risk of abandoning this blog completely, I figured I better post something! There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done, so I guess this blog has taken a backseat to some other things... like park dates and swimming and work and house projects and the grocery and dishes and spending a few minutes trying to relax at the end of the day. Balance, right? Anyway, we've had a good summer and the kids have been able to see all of their cousins (which is very rare), so I figured I'd post some cousin pics plus a few others. Hopefully I'll be back sometime before Christmas (although I can't promise anything...) ;)

4th of July in South Bend with Andy's side of the family: Max, Olivia from Denver, Tyler, baby Marin and big brother Alex from Kansas City, and Maisie

Nana and Grandpa Sam with all of their grandkids

Big Jim with his grand kids on his birthday in June: Nick, Braeden, Caitlin, Maisie, Tyler, Max

Cousins again at Nick's 5th birthday party (plus a neighbor friend)

Max (left) and Tyler at their last tball game in June

Our neighbors gave us some old toys, including a bag full of costume jewelry. Maisie loves them and always asks for her beads.

 

 

 

 

Sitting on the porch

Blurry pic from my phone but cute one from the Children's Museum

Crazy Max in white at the splash park

Maisie thinks she's going to melt if the water touches her

One of the Boys

Maisie's main mission in life is to do whatever Max and Tyler are doing. She imitates what they do, tries to repeat what they say, and follows them around everywhere they go. Max and Tyler are really sweet with her too (for the most part) and she makes them laugh a lot. However, she knows exactly what she wants and screams bloody murder when she doesn't get it, so she has definitely made them cry a few times too:)  Here are some pics of our three peas in a pod (or two peas and one wannabe pea) from April and May!

Maisie, Tyler, Max (obviously from a cold day in April since it's almost 90 degrees here today!)

Digging in the garden before we planted the veggies

Tyler, Maisie, Max

Making and eating PB&Js

In a fort in the living room

After a t-ball game (more pics to come from that)

Signing Maisie's cast (which is already off after 3 weeks and she's doing fine!)

About to ride the train at the zoo

Also at the zoo

Guess who....

...is in a cool purple cast!!

Who, me?

Early last week, we noticed that Maisie was walking kind of funny and seemed to be putting most of her weight on her right foot. She was also acting really grouchy and irritable, but there were no obvious injuries and she was still walking and playing a lot. After she didn't seem to be getting better, I took her to the doctor on Wednesday to get checked out. The pediatrician moved her legs all around and everything was fine, except she flinched and cried a little when he pressed on her left calf. He told us to keep an eye on it and come back in a day or two if it was any worse. She was about the same on Friday, so we decided to give it the weekend to see if it improved.

Sunday she was really grouchy and clingy and didn't want to walk much at all, so we knew something was wrong. The doc sent her in for an x-ray this morning and it turns out she has a sub-acute fracture of her mid-front fibula! In other words, she's been walking around on and playing with a broken leg for over a week! And the strangest thing is that we have no clue when or how she did it. The doctor says it is pretty common for toddlers to fracture a bone and not show many symptoms (something about their bone structure and lots of other medical terms...), and many parents are in the same boat and don't even know how it happened. The x-ray showed that the bone was already healing, so she only has to wear the cast for 3 weeks. It's completely waterproof and she was already starting to move around on it pretty well tonight, so I think we'll survive!

Who would have thought we'd make it 4 years with two boys and no major injuries, but our girl gets a broken bone at 18 months! Considering the fact that she has been to the park and to school and keeping up with her brothers with a fractured fibula, I think it's safe to say she's going to be one tough cookie...

What is this thing?

The nurse gave her a little dog so she barked for a good 5 minutes as we were leaving (she's getting some mad animal sounds skillz)

As soon as we got in the car, she kept trying to pull it off. Hopefully she'll give that one up quickly!

Still Here

I have been horrible about taking pictures lately, so here are about the only ones I could find from the past month. Everyone is doing well and excited for summer! (not that we really even had a winter though...) Maisie is walking all over the place and trying really hard to talk. She says Mama, Dada, bye (actually more like die or guy), Tyler (yes really - but she can't say Max), ball, and shoe. She's starting to repeat just about anything we say, so I'm sure it won't be long before she's a full-on blabbermouth. She also does sign language for "more" and "all done." Her main mission in life is to do whatever her crazy brothers are doing, which has made her pretty fearless in order to keep up (and has given me more than one heart attack!). Max and Tyler have their first t-ball practice next week - their team is the Giants and it's a coed group of 4-year-olds. Back when I was a parent of only babies, I always said we were going to wait as long as possible before putting the boys into organized sports. I mean who wants to spend their Saturdays watching 4-year-olds "play" a sport? But then I realized what weekends are like with two 4-year-olds who have nothing planned and not a lot to do besides annoy each other (and their parents)... so we signed them up immediately :) Should be fun!

The benefit of having two skinny boys is that three kids can easily fit in the single stroller when necessary! We walked to the park at the school across the street from our house, but M&T got too tired to walk back, so I pushed them all.

Gonna be a fun summer! Maisie, Tyler, and Max in our sandbox the day before St. Patrick's Day

Where's Maisie?

Peekaboo!

Love Well Live Well

My older sister Molly recently started an inspirational wellness-related blog called Love Well Live Well. Since she summed it up so eloquently on the About page of her blog, I won't even try to explain it myself:

On this site, you will find tips on having a healthy mind, body and soul, with the core being LOVE. You can find reminders about loving yourself and having unconditional love for others, especially those closest to you. You can read simple tips on topics such as positive living and parenting, following your intuition, keeping your family well, incorporating more exercise into your life, healthy eating, living green, meditation and much more!

I have always had a passion for wellness, and followed that onto an undergraduate and two graduate degrees in the field. Although I am armed with knowledge, I have struggled over the past several years to practice what I preach. Having 3 babies in 4 years, a husband with a demanding career, and a pattern of loving others more than myself has contributed to the neglect of my own wellness. Experiencing the negative effects of not making my well-being a priority has made me appreciate living well in an entirely different light.

I decided to start this blog because of my love of wellness, my love of myself, and especially my love of my family. Hopefully, I will be able to pass this love along and it will be a small source of inspiration for Loving Well and Living Well every day!

My younger sister Courtney did her first guest post today, so I thought it was the perfect time to introduce the blog. Yes, I know... I have some pretty cool sisters. Take a look and check back often!

Four

On February 4th, Max and Tyler had their golden birthday and turned 4 years old! They are currently obsessed (I mean, obsessed) with superheroes, so we had a superhero-themed party with family. Nana and Grandpa came in town from South Bend, Molly and the kids came in town from West Lafayette, Courtney came in town from Chicago, and of course Big Jim was there. We had a great time! See below for some pics.

I have told this story many times, but when Max and Tyler were about 4 months old, Andy and I were walking into the grocery in Nashville (each carrying a baby in a pumpkin seat), and this woman stopped us and said, "Oh, I have twins. It gets easier when they're 4." I remember being so annoyed by this at the time because here we were with infant twins -- and life was far from a walk in the park -- and she's telling us we had another 3 1/2 years before it got easier.

I have thought about that conversation a million times since that day. Many moms of twins told me that it got better after the first year -- and I agree (to a certain extent) -- but every stage brought new challenges, and it really never seemed to get any easier. I know this is true for parenthood in general, but there are some very unique challenges that come along with having two children who are going through the exact same developmental phase at the same time. Anyone who has dealt with 2- or 3-year-olds knows they can be irrational and emotional and sort of like a bipolar, ticking time bombs. Now put two of them together -- keeping in mind the intense relationship they have as identical twins -- and just imagine the types of fighting, screaming, and whining that you can get. Oh, and did we get it.

Anyway, back to that lady. Now that our twins are 4, I think it's time to admit that she was right. In the past month or two, it seems like Max and Tyler have really grown up and things are actually a bit easier for us! They are still wild and nonstop and tiring (and boys!) and they definitely still have their tantrum-ish moments, but overall, 4-year-olds are pretty cool.

Now to anyone who has young twins (or is expecting them) who might be reading this, I do think it gets easier along the way -- if for no other reason than you learn how to adjust to your new crazy life! And with the risk of sounding like that annoying lady at the store, I am here to say that it does get easier at 4. So hang in there!

Now for some pics. Happy Birthday, Max and Tyler!! You've come a looooooong way, boys. We love you!

Max (left) and Tyler right before the party

4 years old! (Tyler in blue, Max in gray)

I made them all superhero capes with their initials (even Maisie got one!) Braeden, Nick, Max, Tyler, Caitlin, Maisie

After they got their capes, they attacked the villians (Granpa Sam and Big Jim) with silly string

Spider-man pinata!

Spider-man and Iron Man tattoos too!

For a month or two before their birthday, Tyler kept saying he wanted a monkey cake and Max wanted a race car cake. Of course they changed their mind the week of the party and wanted Spider-man and Iron Man cakes, but Nana had already special ordered the ice cream cakes from DQ, so that's what they got. Adorable though! And sooo good.

Aunt Kooky got them superhero underwear... and told them they should all wear them on their heads.

Spider-man and Iron Man costumes from Big Jim. Happy Birthday, Super Heroes!!