Papa-palooza 2008

This week, my dad paid us a visit (see, there are some perks to being laid off from your job!) and we had a blast. It was so nice to have him here -- Grammie was here for the last day of the visit, too, but she was too busy holding babies to be in any pictures, I guess!

Ellie and Papa had lots of fun playing outside, going for walks, doing a bit of nature photography.... the pink bird is a gift from Grammie and Papa. The back story: Ellie loves pink, and had a conversation with Grammie about how pretty cardinals are, "but not as pretty as pink birds." So of course, on their last trip here, they found a pink bird and planted it in our front yard for Ellie to see when she woke up. The bird has been christened "Silly the Bird," and she enjoyed a full-on photo session the other night.

We took a trip to a new park -- Ellie loved it, but the boys were less than impressed.

One highlight of our trip to the park was Papa cutting the tip off one of his fingers, while getting flowers for Ellie. Yep, always look while you cut!

Probably the most exciting thing we did while Papa was here was get out the pool and dunk those babies! They didn't know quite what to make of the whole thing, but nobody cried and I think we all know that spells a success! One thing they did love, however, was how handsome they looked in their new swim trunks.

Two little dudes, just chillin' at the pool.

Finally, we spent an evening at Falls Park. Here are a few shots from that evening. Please ignore Ellie's rear end hanging out of her skirt in the photo below. :)

Someone please tell me that we don't look this tired all the time -- right? Right???

Bouncing Baby...Sisters?

So the boys are loving the Johnny Jump-Ups these days! We like to put them in doorways opposite each other, so they can watch each other bounce and laugh at each other. Alex mostly just likes it because he can stand up on his own in it, but Maguire has the whole "bend-the-knees-and-you'll-bounce" thing figured out and bops all over the place in his.

This was the best picture I could snap of both of them -- impossible to get one of them both looking at me (or laughing at each other)!

Yep, we've got a full-fledged thumb-sucker on our hands!

And in other news, Ellie has informed me that it's okay for boy babies to wear hair "pretties," as long as they're blue. She also lovingly refers to the boys as her baby sisters when they're wearing bows. (I just re-read the title of this post and realized it sounds a little bit like we're having more babies. Ha! Be honest now, how many of you saw the title of this post and thought that? Don't worry, no baby announcements from the Studer house will be coming for quite awhile!) But I digress.....

So, at random moments we come upon the boys playing in their various "pretties" and can only assume that big sister has been at work dolling them up.

Tales From a "Geek"

So Carrie's done a masterful job of keeping up the blog lately since I took a leave of absence. Let's all give her a hand. I don't know why I haven't written in like forever, I just haven't. So anyway. Now that that's over with...

Let's start with yesterday. Some friends of ours invited us to come along to the "Hot Air Balloon Launch" here in Sioux Falls. It is what it sounds like. A hot air balloon launch. A bunch of balloons go up into the air. It was supposed to start at 6:30. But the balloons didn't go up until like 7:30. So instead of waiting for an hour with 5 month-old twins, a stubborn 3 year-old, and their two little boys, we found a park within sight of the launch and headed there instead. You can see they had fun, and could still watch the balloons.This is Ellie and Josh (our friend's kid) looking back to look at the balloons while swinging. My mom always said don't look back while you're going forward, but I suppose swinging is an exception to the rule, right mom?

Now onto today...

I had a wonderful Father's Day, my first with 3 children. Man that's nuts. Excuse me while I try and soak that in..........Alright...I've got it. So the day started with some coffee and a delicious bacon filled egg bake for b-fast. It was good stuff. Then I opened my presents. From Ellie: A card and a coffee cup with the word "Geek" on it. It was one where it had the word, and then the funny definitions of the word under it. Here it is...Obviously Ellie can't read, (unless Carrie's secretly been teaching her and not telling me, and she really does think I'm a geek. I'm guessing in about 12 years she surely will) but it was blue. And Ellie says, "Daddy, it's blue, you like blue 'cause you're a boy!" So now I have a "Geek" coffee cup, but I do like blue I guess, so it fits. [Side Note from Carrie: I swear on a stack of Bibles I did not pick out this cup. She wanted to get him a coffee cup, and this was the one she went right to at the store. Would not be talked into anything else.] Carrie and the boys got me some new cologne. Alex thinks I stink, so he suggested it. I don't blame him.

I finished off the afternoon playing a baseball game in a town not far from here. We lost though. Not much of a present. But it's always fun to be out there, and Carrie couldn't even get upset that I was gone, because it is Father's Day after all...

Alex is a little stingy with the smiles, but I finally found a way to make him laugh. So I kept doing it.


Alex taking a bite out of Maguire's forehead. Maguire could care less too. If it was the other way around Alex would be screamin' his little head off.

The boys got some Twins hats a few weeks ago from some friends. They're a little big, and they fellas don't know what to think about them just yet, but I'm sure they'll get used to it...they have to, right?

Random Fun

Maguire continues to be thisclose to rolling over -- we are convinced he will succeed as soon as he takes his fingers out of his mouth (see previous post) long enough to move his arm out from under him. For now, he seems content to lay there, 7/8 of the way rolled-over, and suck on his fingers -- every time I try to get a shot of him like that, he rolls back.

The boys, sharing a secret (or more likely sucking on each other's fingers)

Ellie and one of her favorite pasttimes -- wonder who she gets that from?

The babies have been loving this little firefly (dragonfly? who knows!) toy lately, to the point that I think we've witnessed the first fight over a toy! Here is how it typically plays out:

Alex, moving in for the kill.

What? Who, me?

Almost got it.....


And, victorious! But too tired to enjoy it....

The Boys' Turn

Okay, since Ellie hogged all of the last post (hey, the poor kid deserves it once in awhile), here are some pics of just the boys.

As you can see, Maguire is taking after his mommy and her baby habit of sucking her two middle fingers.

As they become more mobile, it's increasingly funny to see the positions they tangle themselves into. Especially in the crib. The other day, I actually found them with Maguire's legs wrapped around Alex's head in some kind of scissor-hold. I know boys like to wrestle, but already?!

So how do they go from this.....


...to this...


And then to this......and for the most part, stay asleep! I guess they got used to the close quarters a long time ago!

Ellie-isms

Ah, the three year old. Being home with Ellie has made for some very interesting moments over the past several months. I am constantly amazed at how clever she is becoming, and also what a little sponge she is when it comes to soaking up random knowledge. When you are taking care of two infants, sometimes the entertainment for an older child has just got to come courtesy of good old Disney Channel or Nick, Jr. (Well, at least in our house -- some days that's the only thing that buys me 1/2 an hour to feed the babies and get them down for naps in peace.) But as a result of all this Dora the Explorer and Wonder Pets watching, she is now a walking, talking commercial. They must show the exact same commercials during these shows every day, because Ellie has started to spout comments like "I've got Pantene hair, Mommy. It makes my hair so shiny and fresh."

She also enjoys telling me about all the "vacteria" that live on toilets and doorknobs that we can get rid of with hand sanitizer.

Apparently these commercials also provide her with some expertise on bathroom maintenance. A few weeks ago, Ellie, Chris, and I were all in the bathroom upstairs and Ellie peeks into the toilet bowl and says what sounds like "The Aspen is in the toilet." Huh? Chris and I looked at each other and just shrugged it off, chalking it up to her overactive imagination. But later that week, a toilet cleaner commercial came on TV and when the illustration of the toilet structure popped on the screen, she was quick to pipe up, "See, Mommy, that's where the S-bend is! Underneath the toilet!" Here I am thinking she's got plans to be a ballerina someday, but I obviously haven't considered her talents in plumbing as a future career.

In other random cleaning-related thoughts from Ellie, I have also been informed that she thinks Mr. Clean needs to come live at our house. I told her that if she can track him down, he is more than welcome to move into the spare bedroom.

Ellie loves it that the babies are making more noise these days, and really enjoys being their primary baby-talk translator. The other day she and I were laying on my bed with the babies after they'd just gotten up for the day. They were chattering away, and I said that maybe they were telling us good morning. She looked at me and said, "No, Mommy. Alex just said 'Hey, Maguire, I can't believe we're wearing the same blue pajamas as each other. That's crazy!'"

(By the way, these are Grammie's glasses pictured below.)

And finally, my favorite Ellie story lately: As you might imagine, nursing two babies is pretty much a full time job and requires certain parts of me to be uncovered for a good portion of the day. Ellie was interested in the process at first, but now she mostly just ignores it. She and I were laying in my bed one morning (do you see a pattern emerging in how we start our days?) with one of the babies, who'd just finished nursing. I hadn't gotten my shirt all back in order, but she didn't seem to notice as we just talked for awhile. Then all of a sudden, she says "Mom, you need to put that boob away. There are no babies around here who need that." Ah, the three year old. Gotta love her honesty!

Of All the Times....

Okay, so I (Carrie) am literally away from the babies for two, maybe three hours per week -- maximum. We're talking grocery store outings, the library -- nothing over a few hours. But guess who decided to roll over for the first time tonight during the 40 minutes that Ellie and I were at the library? Yep, Alex. Of course, I am happy that Chris was there to witness this momentous first, since I am with them so much of the day. But seriously, little dude -- could you not have waited 20 more minutes 'til Mom got home?