Greetings!

Hello from the beautiful Northwoods of Minnesota! We apologize for our lack of blogging this past week, but we have been very busy relaxing in Brainerd, MN. Our action-packed week has included visiting the beach, a gorgeous sunset pontoon ride, meeting lots of new relatives (including Uncle Nate and Aunt Alissa and Great-Grandma Studer), bonfires, walks to the park, and plenty of time on Grammie and Papa's back porch. We have had a fantastic time, and will be sad to head home tomorrow. We'll be back soon with lots of pictures from the week!

Maguire's Melon

It's been a hard-knock life in some respects for our little Maguire. He had the tougher time of the two babies in the hospital, which is normal for a second-born twin, they tell us. He's only got one kidney (which is functioning perfectly, by the way), he was tongue-tied and had to get that clipped, and recently he had to be evaluated by a specialist for (get this!) having a big head. Yep, the little dude has got a big melon. However, when you combine the gene pool of the Eieslands (hello, giant and/or tall, narrow heads all around) and the Studers (hi, Daddy's big forehead) it's no surprise.

Our pediatrician wanted to rule out a condition called craniosynostosis, where the sutures in a baby's skull grow together before they should. This prevents the skull from growing wider and it only grows longer and narrower. And it's only correctable with surgery. Please don't be dumb enough to Google or WebMD this condition like I did -- it will only send you into an unnecessary panic about brain damage, seizures, and developmental delays. So, a few weeks ago Maguire and I went to have his head examined (hee hee).

The facility here in town is very state of the art, and they basically put the child into this contraption that looks like a box without a lid and a laser scans through their head to generate an image on the computer. I wish I had thought to bring my camera, because it was quite a process. Maguire was a complete angel for the whole thing, smiling and laughing, laid still when he needed to. The physical therapist who did the scan did let me take home the little cap they have the babies wear during the scan, so I could take a picture for posterity. Here is Maguire modeling his super-cool headwear -- basically a tiny skullcap that ties under the chin. Goofy, yet adorable, don't you think?

Well, the great news is that Maguire's head is considered to be within the "normal range" for his age. We followed up with our doctor's office and had an x-ray to confirm that there are no skull bone fusions, so praise God for that!Our boy may have a big old head, but at least we know now that he just comes by it naturally!

Here's a copy of the scans that they gave us -- it's like a mini-robot head of Maguire, complete with his little chubby cheeks and everything! And finally, a little video to showcase his infectious giggle. He may be the most good-natured baby ever!

Lunch Time

"What is this foul stuff, Mom?"

So, solid foods are going great at our house! I know, we are only a few weeks into the cereal, veggies, and fruit, but the boys couldn't seem to care less about eating anything from a spoon. Here I thought that nursing two babies was going to be my biggest challenge -- I'm finding out it's a breeze compared to choreographing spoon placement, fending off four little hands, and dodging flying food from two babies' mouths who love love love to blow raspberries!

Way to Go, Ellie!

For the past few weeks, Ellie has been working her hardest on this little sticker chart. We'd been having a little problem with being nice to the babies (like, hugging a little too hard, or "accidentally" stepping on a hand when walking by a baby on the floor). Fun stuff like that. So, for every morning and afternoon that she treats the babies gently, she gets a sticker. Or, as she told our friend Sarah, "I get a sticker for every day that I like my brothers." And for every princess sticker she makes it to, she gets a reward for good behavior.

Well, the chart is complete and she picked going out for ice cream as her big treat. There is a local ice cream shop that serves strawberry soft serve, so of course to go with her love of all things pink, here's Ellie celebrating with her treat of choice.

They even have this banana split table that kids can sit in. It kind of doubles as a car (see steering wheel and tires?), so it bears some resemblance to the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. But who doesn't want to eat their ice cream in a giant banana split?

And below is a little video of Maguire -- he is such a chatterbox. This clip doesn't really do his babbling justice, but he was a little distracted by the camera.

Forward March!

Yay -- we finally figured out that formatting video from our camera is much easier than doing it from our video camera! Here's a snippet of Alex crawling -- he is getting better by the hour, if that's even possible. I have never in my life seen a child crawl before they could sit independently. The crazy child has to be in motion at all times....

Now that we've figured out the video thing, be prepared for lots more footage of the kiddos in action!

Random Cuteness

More Pictures from Grammie's Visit

We did manage to squeeze in a little fun time while Grammie was here last week. My birthday was on Sunday, so we celebrated with Dairy Queen cake -- my favorite. Ellie got into her head awhile back that my favorite color is purple (?) and despite my best attempts to convince her otherwise, she insists that I love all things purple. So here I am with my purple-decorated cake. Evidently I also love dragons and half a container of purple sugar sprinkles on my cakes, too. :)

Me and the kiddos celebrating the big 3-1. I know Ellie and Maguire aren't even looking at the camera, but Alex's smile in this picture was so cute I couldn't resist.

Ellie loves to dress up like a bride, so Grammie and I hit the clearance bins at our local Lewis Drug and found the makings for a veil. She now wears it daily around the house and has asked to wear it a variety of places such as the Dollar Store, the grocery store, the library, and church. So far, it hasn't left the house since I think it looks a little too First Communion-ish for public wearing.

Here's Ellie with a self-portrait she whipped up, complete with hair, eyes (with eyelashes!), nose, mouth, arms, and legs. But what's that spot below her mouth, you ask? Her belly button, of course! (I was thinking maybe she drew herself a goatee like Papa's or something.)

The boys had their first joint bath together while Grammie was here. We weren't sure what they'd think of being set loose in the big tub, but they LOVED it. They slid and splashed around in there -- it was hilarious! They could not get enough of it -- they kept bumping into each other and trying to climb over each other. If I can figure out how to load video on here, I will try to post that soon. Apologies to Alex for cutting off part of his face, but I figured Maguire should get one good shot since he wasn't even looking in my birthday picture.

Meet Me at the Fair

Ah, cheese curds. Last night we took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the Sioux Empire County Fair. Here in South Dakota, the fair is mostly about the farm animals (go figure), so a good portion of our visit was spent walking through the animal buildings. The babies were angels -- our only challenge was navigating our beast of a stroller around all the cow pies.

Ellie wasn't too keen on the big animals, but she loved the baby kittens and bunnies in the petting zoo. Great....that's one more thing we need at our house, right?

This was just a photo op waiting to happen -- only in South Dakota, people, can you find a handwashing station (outside the petting zoo) in the shape of a cow. The water actually came out of fake udders and into a bucket. I wanted to take a closer shot of the whole apparatus, but I figured that would be kind of weird.

Ellie and Miss Sioux Empire Fair (hey, anyone with a crown is cool in Ellie's world)


Ellie and I getting ready to ride the little roller coaster.

And finally, here's Ellie with the lovely blue dolphin she won at one of those (not at all a rip-off)carnival games. However, the carnie lady who was running the game was nice enough to tell us that Ellie was going to get a big prize no matter which kind of duck she picked out of the tub because she had two baby brothers -- score! I tried to get Ellie to stand next to the carnival lady and take this picture, but no luck. In Ellie's defense, I don't know if I would have wanted to get very close to her myself -- she was a little scary.

Trading Spaces

Okay, so remember last week, when I posted about how our first night with all three children in the same room was bliss (yes, I believe that was my actual word choice)? Well, each night following that one got subsequently worse. I think "chain reactions of tears and screaming" more accurately describes the nights that followed. All right, maybe I exaggerate just a tiny bit, but there definitely was screaming (Ellie and Alex, I'm looking at you) and a few tears (same culprits, plus me).

So we put out the call to Grammie (she is still on summer vacation and Papa was in Sturgis), and she sped down to Sioux Falls for our very own Trading Spaces attempt. So there were no gay interior designers involved and we certainly didn't have $1000 to burn, but we did manage to cram most of the work into a 48 hour period with some pretty decent results. And also corraled a three year old and two 6 month olds during the entire process. That might have been harder than all the painting and cleaning!

Alex, getting in on the painting action. Man, can that kid move for not officially crawling yet!

We worked like maniacs to move Chris and I to the downstairs bedroom while Ellie moved next door to our old bedroom, and the babies stayed put in the original kids bedroom. Whew. Grammie blessed us with her painting, organizing, and cleaning skills and the end result is a vast improvement from all the kids in one room (and why did I think that was going to work, anyway?)

Of course, we forgot to take any "before" pictures, but here are some "after" shots of the kids' bedrooms.


Ellie in her new pink bedroom (she picked the color, of course)

The boys' modified digs, now complete with rocking chair (previously banished to the basement)

Thanks to Pat and Dale for the second crib!

"My All-By-Myself Vacation:" A Picture Commentary by Ellie

This is Grammie and Papa and me, taking pictures on their back porch. I had a really fun time.


This is me playing at the park with Grandma Studer. I'm peeking out of the slide. I went to her house one night and we ate ice cream and played puzzles. And Big Legos.


I got to play Fireman Princesses with Papa's toy firetruck. That was my favorite part. I told you that already, Mommy.


Me eating Captain Crunch in a pan, so I don't spill. I got to eat my breakfast on the back porch and watch Clifford.

Me and Grandma Eiesland and Grandpa Eiesland. They came over to Grammie and Papa's and we had a picnic. Then I went to their house and they gave me suckers and some toys for Alex and Maguire. A plane and a car. It was fun to see them.

Making purple play-doh with Papa. We made cookies and a family of balls with the Play-doh.

This is me with pudding all over me. Grammie and I made chocolate pudding to finger paint with. I got real dirty.

Thank you Grammie and Papa for me staying at your house. I had fun to visit everyone by myself.

While the Cat's Away!

The mice will have so much fun playing with all of her toys! I didn't get around to snapping any pictures of it, but Alex and Maguire had a blast chewing on all of Ellie's My Little Ponies and baby dolls while she was at Grammie and Papa's. They also moved out of our bedroom due to a sudden need to wrestle ALL THE TIME while in the same crib. Time to separate the little hooligans.

So now we've got all three kids in the same bedroom. Crowded, yes, but for the time being necessary. Last night was our first time with all three in there, and it went surprisingly well. I think it helped that Ellie was exhausted from her vacation and didn't move a muscle all night. The boys did wonderfully, too -- slept from 8:30 to 4:00 without a peep, ate, and went right back to sleep until 7:45. Bliss!

Here are a few pictures of the boys in their new separate cribs. It is funny, they seem to start out the nap/night in the middle (grateful to be able to spread out, I'm sure), but by the time morning rolls around, they migrate to their normal corners of the crib.

"Ah, freedom to sleep without fear of being kicked in the head!"

Alex has also decided he needs to master crawling ASAP, so he has been busy rocking back and forth on hands and knees, launching himself forward and generally scooting everywhere. Yikes -- someone get us a whole lot of baby gates, stat!