The McClelland Family

‘Tis the season for Oscars, Golden Globs, Grammys, and…Beautiful Bloggers!

Fellow mommy blogger Emmie Bee nominated me for a Beautiful Blogger Award.  ::blushing::  I “met” Emmie through the blog of a friend of mine from high school, Mandy.  This hilarious lady lives in San Francisco (so jealous!), has an adorable baby boy name Hudson who just turned 1, and she’s 34 1/2 weeks pregnant with b/g twins Truman and Sawyer!  I can’t wait until those bebes are born so I check her blog daily to see if there’s any news.

Seriously, I never win ANYTHING, so this was pretty thrilling.  Thanks Emmie!  And yes, I am enough of a dork that a cyber award kind of made my day.

As with any award (so I’ve heard!), there are a few strings attached…

1. Thank the person who nominated me for this award
2. Copy the award & place it on my blog
3. Link to the person who nominated me for this award
4. Share 7 interesting things about myself
5. Nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers

So, I guess it’s time for me to share seven interesting things about myself. Hmmm….interesting…seven things…I’ll try my best.

1.  A loooong time ago, I invented some games that I play when I’m bored (stuck in traffic, waiting in line, attempting to clean, etc).  A few of my favorites are “Book to Movie” and “Lottery Top 10.”  To play “Book to Movie,” you simply pick a book you’ve read (one that hasn’t already been made into a movie), go through the characters in the book, and think of which actor/actress you would cast to play their role in the movie.  I’m currently reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and I’ve cast Oprah Winfrey as Aibileen, Jennifer Hudson as Minny, and  Natalie Portman as Hilly (but she’ll have to pull a Renée Zellweger and put on a good 50 lbs before shooting begins).  My other favorite game, “Lottery Top 10,” is based on the premise that I’ve won the Powerball.  I mentally divide the money in half and I “spend” half of it on 10 selfish things (hiring a personal chef, moving into a house on the West Slope of Queen Anne, buying a helicopter to help cut down the commute time from my house on Queen Anne to my job, opening my own bakery).  With the other half of the money I imagine the top 10 things I’d do “for the greater good.”  Every time I play the game the top 10 changes.  When I was driving home from work the other day, I mentally spent $5 million dollars flying Haitian orphans to Seattle to live in a renovated home on Lake Washington with child psychologists, teachers, and nannies, where they attended private school and then went on to earn degrees at UW.  Some of the other games I’ve created are “Last Meal,” “What if I had been born in _________ (fill in the blank with another country OR era),” and “Perfect Day.”

2.  Chocolate is fine and all, but if I had to pick my poison it would be a blend of straight sugar, food coloring, and citric acid.  We’re talking Gummy Bears.  Gummy Worms.  Sour Patch Kids.  Swedish Fish.  Skittles.  A few years ago, my students gave me about 10 pounds of various gummy candies for Teacher Appreciation week and I was on a sugar high for a good two weeks.  It was awesome!

3.  If I could wish for one natural talent, it would be the ability to sing like a star.  I just can’t imagine how satisfying it would be to sound like Kelly Clarkson.  Well, actually, I can imagine it.  And in my imagination, it’s pretty freaking amazing.  (For the record, Kelly Clarkson came to mind because I’m watching American Idol right now, fantasizing about being the next undiscovered talent trying to convince Simon, Randy, Kara, and Ellen that I deserve a recording deal).

4.  I am a huge reader.  Seriously.  I have about 18 books stacked on my nightstand right now.  At any given time, I usually have at least three different books going.  A book for every mood is my motto!  You never know when the mood will strike for something light-hearted, a good love story, something deep and thought provoking, a mystery, or some historical fiction.  I now also have about 180 children’s book memorized from reading to M&L.  Plus, a perk of my job is that I get to re-read all of my childhood favorites year after year to my students (Ramona Quimby Age 8, Shiloh, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Little House on the Prairie, anything by Roald Dahl…).  And then throw in the blogs I read now…jeesh!  All this reading sure cuts into my TV time!

5.  I wouldn’t complain if my school switched to uniforms and teachers were forced to wear them along with the students.  Seriously, picking out clothes to wear to work every day is enough to give me a migraine.  Somehow, no matter how many shirts/pants/sweaters/shoes I buy, I just never have anything cute to wear.

6.  There’s something wrong with my internal thermostat.  During the winter, the heater in my car is kept at a balmy 85 with my seat warmer on max.  I’m contantly running my hands under hot water, sneaking the thermostat in our house up a few degrees when Kevin isn’t looking, and fantasizing about a trip to Hawaii.  In the summer, the AC in my car blasts 65 degrees on full, I’m constantly drinking iced coffee, and a few years ago I convinced Kevin to buy a window-mounted air conditioner for our bedroom that we use from July-September.  All the while, my husband wonders why I can’t keep things at a steady 70 degrees year round.  Sometimes he is FAR too rational, no?

7.  Hmm…I’m really running out of interesting things to tell you about myself.  Let’s be real…I ran out of interesting things by item #3.  So, this last one is kind of a cheat…it’s a little bit about M&L as well.  When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I started to cry, and I’m not going to lie…they weren’t tears of joy.  I grew up with twins and knew how much work it was going to be.  Actually, Kevin and I both grew up in families with four kids, so we’d planned to have our first baby and then wait 3 or 4 years before having another, giving our first kiddo a chance to be an only child for a while.  So, finding out that we were having #1 AND #2 was not only a huge shock, but it changed our family plans in a big way.  However, now I think I might just be the luckiest woman on earth to have these two precious little girls and I think that if #3 turns out to be JUST #3 (and not #3 and #4), I will be greatly dissappointed.  Really, to go through the ordeal of pregnancy  and delivery and only come home with one baby?!  (and by the way, #3/#3 & #4 isn’t/aren’t on the horizon for another 3+ years so don’t go getting any ideas!)

Soooo.  There’s a little bit about me.  To be more specific, there are seven of my many quirks/oddities/obsessions.  Now, to award a few bloggers that I enjoy reading…

1.  Jamie is a fellow twin mom in my PEPS group.  Her little girls Cassie and Leah and darling, wonderful eaters, and seem to hit milestones on the same schedule as M&L so I’m always getting good tips and ideas from her blog.

2.  Molly is my cousin, mom to beautiful Brennan, and a wonderful photographer with a great sense of style.  Her and her husband have lived in so many exciting places (including Ireland!) and her blog is always chock-full of incredible photos.

3.  Heather is another mom from my PEPS group and is also a talented photographer.  Her kiddos Emmett and Magnolia are a few months older than Mary and Lila so it’s always fun to see what they’re up to and know what I have to look forward to!  Also, Maggie has beautiful red hair and I’ve always secretly wished that I had carried recessive red-hair gene that would produce a red-headed baby.  No such luck this time, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  Oh, and Heather is moving to Portland soon and I’m bummed about that…but glad that she has a great blog to keep everyone updated!

4.  Courtney is ANOTHER twin mom.  She was the leader of my PEPS group and still keeps in touch/hangs out with the group.  She has two adorable girls, Madi and Emma, and also used to teach 3rd grade.  The kicker?  We live about a mile away from each other.  Small world, huh?  Courtney is super generous and is always loaning out her girls’ baby toys to our group, which we certainly appreciate!

5.  Katie…yes, another twin mom.  From my PEPS group.  There’s just so many great ladies in this group!  Not all of them are bloggers, so I can’t nominate EVERYONE, but they’re all certainly deserving of the recognition.  Katie’s cute kiddos (seriously, I was going to say babies but I really need to get over the fact that our group is full of toddlers now!) are Chloe and Carter.  I love seeing their family pictures, because I think that Chloe is the spitting image of her mom but Carter looks just like his dad.  Funny how genetics work, huh?!

6.  Terumi is of course another twin mom.  From my PEPS group.  Do you see a theme going on here?  She has two sweet little boys who are called, for blogging purposes, Bean and Goober.  She’s doing a much better job of protecting their identities from the internet than I do for Mary and Lila…whoops!

7. Heather is a member of an online group of twin moms that I joined when I was pregnant with Mary and Lila.  She has three daughters, 3 year old Josie and 1 year old identical twins Violet and Josie.  Her girls are just beautiful and it amazes me how much Josie and Violet look like their big sister!

So, that’s it for Awards Season 2010.  Check back later this week for more of our regularly scheduled programming (meaning, copious pictures of Mary and Lila, and possibly a few videos as well).

Mary and Lila received a huge package the other day from Grandma Julie and Grandpa Don.  Inside were two boxes…one for each girl!  I decided to put M&L’s gift opening skills to the test and let them tackle the boxes on their own.

After about 10 minutes of this…

Open…

Close.

Open…

Open…

Open…

I decided to intervene.  I lifted up the tissue paper to show the girls that there was actually something more to this gift than the box and the ribbon.

What’s this?!  (I love how you can see Mary’s little fingers holding the box open for Lila)

A Baby Stella doll!

Lila loves the magnetic pacifier.

Mary holding her new baby…I dubbed her “Stella 2.”

Playing with new toys is fun!

Mary also liked the note that came on the box.  After I took this picture she tried to eat it.

Lila, Stella 1, Mary, and Stella 2 snuggle up in their boxes.  M&L love climbing into containers and boxes!

Cuteness

More cuteness

The cuteness continues

After about 5 minutes of playtime with the new baby dolls and the boxes, something funny happened.  Mary decided that the box and the ribbon were fun enough for now and she didn’t need Baby Stella.  So, she set Stella 2 down and played happily with the box.

Mary enjoying her box and her ribbon

Lila saw this and was distraught.  Being a good auntie, she took in Stella 2.

Lila juggles the demands of twin-mama-hood while Mary lives the carefree life over in her box.

Every few minutes, Lila would try to hand Mary Stella 2, as if to say, “Hello…did you forget about your child?!”

Mary would ignore her, and then Lila would turn her back to Mary and give Stella 1 and Stella 2 a big hug.

And somehow, things got even cuter.

Lila decided that it wasn’t enough to just sit in the box and hold the babies.  Clearly, they needed more protection.

So, she got out of her box.  She put Mr. G, a cell phone, and both babies into the box.

Then, Lila proceeded to climb into the box and sit on top of Stella 1 and Stella 2 (and Mr. G and the cell phone).  Like a bird in a nest.  Lila Bird.

Then, Lila snuggled up with one of the babies (I can’t tell if it’s Stella 1 or Stella 2…I think they’re identical) during bottle time.  After she finished, she put the Stellas back into her box and put the bottle in there with them.  Just in case they got hungry during the night.

And Mary?  She’s just not ready for motherhood quite yet.  Lila is helping her take care of Stella 2.

The girls had so much fun playing the boxes that we decided to keep them for a few days.  The next day, as soon as the girls and I got home, Lila rushed over and climbed into her nest box with the babies.

Lila Bird and her Stellas

And some totally-unrelated-but-equally-cute pictures…

Mary waits for naptime to start (meaning, Mary waits for me to finish getting Lila ready for naptime!)

Mary, Puppy, and Ducky

Baby Bear

Blurry but so cute!

Patient Mary and Pants-less Lila

Mary kept throwing her lovies on the ground, and the Lila would pick them up and hand them back to her.  It was precious!

Lila Bird

…but I’m posting them anyways!  When I was sorting through all the clips in iMovie, I found so many gems from the past month it was hard to choose.  What’s disappointing is that some of the most adorable/hilarious/surprising things M&L do aren’t even on camera…it’s those things that make me run to get the camera and start recording, and what I actually get on film doesn’t even hold a candle to the real shenanigans that go on in our house!

If you’ve only got a minute or two (or just don’t feel like watching 18 videos of my kids!), might I recommend “Peekaboo Part Deux” and “Laughing Lila”?

Don’t Bite the Baby!

Sock Collector

Cell Phones

Baby in the Toy Bin

Peekaboo Part One  (actually, this one won’t be on here today…it’s still on the camera and I’m too tired to walk upstairs and upload it to the computer)

Peekaboo Part Deux

Peekaboo Part Tres

Laughing Lila

Swings

Giddyup

My parents got a new camera for Christmas.  It’s not that they didn’t have a camera before…and not even that they didn’t have a digital camera.  What they did have was an a.n.c.i.e.n.t digital camera that took batteries.  Approximately 18 batteries, to be more specific.  And somehow that camera managed to go through all 18 of it’s batteries after taking about a dozen pictures.  If you do the math, you can see that the camera took more batteries than it did pictures!  Needless to say, my parents didn’t have a functional camera.

So now that they have a decent camera, my mom can take pictures of Mary and Lila while I’m at work and I get to see what they’re up to during the day!  Here are some of the pictures taken at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, between Christmas morning and this morning, when we went over for brunch.

Mary on Christmas morning.  Those adorable little curls of hers generate some awesome bedhead!

Enjoying a bottle…

…with Otis.

Laycie came over to play!  Sometimes Laycie and her niece Ryan have playdates with my mom, Mary, and Lila.

Not to be outdone by Mary’s bedhead, Lila brings you…static head!

Grandma and Grandpa have lots of drawers to climb in.

A drawer built for two.

Mary gives Lila a ride.

Pretty Roo

Pretty Bear

Both girls love Bella and Otis’s dog bed and toys.

Sometimes Grandpa works from his home office and gets to see M&L.

Lila, Grandpa, Mary, and Mommy on a Friday afternoon.

M&L have cups, bottles, cribs, diapers, food, highchairs, and anything else you’d need for a day in the life of a toddler over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Here’s Mary sipping her milk at brunch this morning.

Lila and Grandma.  They look pretty well coordinated, don’t you think?

Mary and Grandpa

A few times a month, Uncle Jacob and Becca visit from Wenatchee.  In this picture, Mary’s making her kissy face at Uncle Jacob.

Llama, Horsie, and Lilaroo

For some reason, I wanted to call her Punky Brewster when I saw this picture.

Maybe I went a bit overboard with the clips today…sometimes I just can’t resist!

Grandpa reading Lila my favorite childhood story…The Bernstein Bears and the Perfect Picnic Spot.

Farmer Mary

Taking a break from her farming duties to listen to the story

Becca and Lila look at M&L’s baby pics

I used to worry that Mary and Lila wouldn’t like each other…as infants, they’d both cry if the other one touched them, they didn’t pay attention to one another, and I think they both wished that they were only children.

Now, however, it’s different story.  A story that I couldn’t have written any better myself!  (Note: You know how really good friends fight occasionally?  Mary and Lila must be really, really good friends!)

Some kind of complex trade appears to be happening in this picture…I’m not quite sure of the terms.

We ♥ reading

Perusing a recent Pottery Barn catalog

Snacking on the catalog

On a rainy day like today, this is about as close as they can get to playing outside.

Mary anxiously awaits the next ball…

…and then lets Lila have a turn.

Friends like to do each other’s hair.  Oh, and at our house, friends also really like to pull each others hair.

When I saw this picture, it made me think of an eclipse.  What’s even cuter than this picture itself is the fact that in this picture, Lila is giving Mary a kiss.

Even though  M&L are so different looking, sometimes they’ll both have the same expressions on their faces.  I also think that their side profiles are very similar.  What do you think?

And, even friends spend time apart…

Mary carries this bucket (and another red bucket we have) like a purse.  She’ll walk around, and keep hitching it up if it slips.

Mary has a little lamb.  (Or, according to the rap on Sesame Street, Murray has a little lamb.)

“Heart.  Rrreeeeeedddddddd heart!”  That’s what this puppy is saying right now…you’ll notice the lit up red heart.  Trust me…I’ve heard it enough times to know.

It’s kind of hard to see, but in this picture Mary is making her kissy face.  I’ve started calling her Miss Kiss.  She scrunches up her nose and mouth and makes a loud smacking kiss noise.

Three bears.

♥

Now you see her…

Now you don’t!

Here I am!

Curtains are fun!

Nose.

Contemplative.

Lila loves to do this…doesn’t she look like she’s trying to do a headstand?

Every time she does this, she giggles…she thinks she’s pretty funny!

That new little trick of hers really works wonders for her hair, huh?

Lila was sitting on me and pressed the camera button here…so I’d guess you’d call this a self-portrait?

Shutting doors (the laundry room door, the baby gate, the closet doors, the bedroom doors, and even dresser drawers which technically aren’t doors but are still apparently fun to shut) is the newest trend at our house.  All the cool kids are doing it.

The problem with babies shutting doors?  The grownups who try to open said doors risk knocking over the baby(s) standing on the other side.  My new motto when opening any door is “proceed with caution!”

And I must say, there is something undeniably adorable about Lila and the baby gate.  When we let M&L in the “grownup” (aka not-100-percent-baby-proofed) side of the house, we open the gate and let them walk through.  Lila takes a big step over the threshold of the gate, walks about one foot forward, stops, turns around, and gently closes (never slams!) the gate until it latches.

Mary plays gatekeeper to the girls’ bedroom. (Since they’re walking now, I guess you can’t really call it a nursery anymore, right?  Or maybe it’s still a nursery as long as there’s a changing table in the room?  Hmm…any Emily Posts out there know the protocol on this?)

Lila was granted entry, but mommy wasn’t.

1 1/4 years.  5/4 years.  That’s a lot of fourths.

I can’t believe Mary and Lila are 16 months old!  In the past few weeks, they seem to have aged 2 months.  Their hair has grown about 2 inches, they’ve gone from 75% crawling/25% walking to 1% crawling/99% walking, Lila has started tantrum-like behavior, Mary points to her “owies” when she cries, Lila mimics us by trying to close the baby-gate behind her everytime she passes through it (nevermind that 99% of the time she’s trying to slam it closed as Mary’s trying to pass through), they’ve started pointing to things in books as I say the word (for example, if I say “Where’s the cow?” they’ll point to the cow on the page)…really, it’s too much to even record here.  It’s amazing.

How many more days until summer?

Mary alternates betwen pushing and lifting this toy to carry around with her.

I can’t wait until they’re old enough to pick up their own toys!

Yummy Yucky is one of our favorite books!

Important life lessons in this book…”Soup is yummy!  Soap is yucky!”

And who can forget the old adage, “Burgers are yummy!  Boogers are yucky!”

Mary wants a burger.

Lila does some stretches.

I love it when they dig through the toy bins, looking for something…so intent!  This wasn’t it…Lila tossed it aside after a second and kept digging with Mary.

Playing with their ball popper

Hmm…I think we know who’s been clogging up the ball popper (blocks, socks, Little People, etc.)…

…both of them!

Mischief makers!

“Hey mom, can I borrow the car?”

“I am 16 today, you know!”

Just last week, M&L finally figured out how to put these blocks together, rather than just tear apart blocks that Kevin or I put together!

Mary was trying to put all the blocks away, but Lila kept taking them out to play with them.

Back to back

After Kevin got home from work, we took some pictures with Big Pink.

Toothy grin from Mary

Serious Bear

There’s a smile peeking through!

No crying, and one out of two looking towards the camera…not bad!

Lilaroo

All alone on the chair…that’s what happens when you throw Big Pink on the ground!

We gave her this toy, but she just wanted Big Pink back!

And, that was the end of the Big Pink photo shoot.  Lila was trying to dive off the front of the seat, and when it was Mary’s turn she was trying to climb up the back of the chair.

As soon as we let Lila down, she grabbed Big Pink and took him over to the toy bins in the corner.  I couldn’t tell if she actually wanted to play with him, or if she was annoyed with him and was trying to put him away.

Nothing rounds off an evening like raiding the dresser and throwing clean bibs on the floor!

Part of our weekend morning routine includes going for a W-A-L-K.  We don’t actually call it a “walk” because if you say that word out loud at our house, Pearl and Morris are likely to have a coronary before we make it out the door.  So, we call it a W-A-L-K.  Maybe Mary and Lila will be early spellers.

When we go for a W-A-L-K, the common destination is our neighborhood Starbucks.  We’ve started bringing a snack for Mary and Lila in the snack cups that are supposedly “spill-proof.”  We clip the snack cups to the stroller straps with binky clips because M&L have a tendency to throw things that aren’t securely attached to them.  Ingenious, right?  It works pretty well, but we usually manage to leave a trail of cheddar bunnies/Kix/raisins behind us wherever we go.

A new part of our routine is letting Mary and Lila out of the stroller to walk.  Usually we do this in front of our house before or after our W-A-L-K, but yesterday we let Lila out mid-walk and she held my hand and walked a few blocks on the sidewalk.  It might seem inconsequential, but to us it’s a pretty big deal!

Lila enjoying her snack outside Starbucks

Mary chowing down

Trying to set a world record for “Most Kix crammed into mouth at one time”

Pearl and Morris patiently waiting for their snack (aka the Kix that Mary and Lila drop in their laps)

W-A-L-K-ing

Proud Mary

She might be toddling, but she’s still my Baby Bear.

Hitching a ride on Daddy’s shoulders

“Hi there!”

And where was Lila during all this fun?  Napping in the stroller.

I love playing with M&L right before they go to bed…for some reason, they act particularly silly!

Twin in the toy bin!

Can you tell she’s having fun?

Snuggles

Pack her in tight!

Mary takes a water break.

For dinner last night, I enjoyed a meal of beef jerky.  From a vending machine.  A vending machine in the ER.

That’s ER as in emergency room.  The place I took Kevin after a solid day and a half of puking, accompanied by chest pains and fever.

Rewind back to yesterday morning.  When I arrived at work, I got a phone call from my mom as she was puking in the bushes on the side of the road while M&L sat in her car.

Don’t worry folks, it’s not the swine.  It’s the PLAGUE!

Thankfully, Kevin and Grandma are on the mend.  Mary, Lila, and Mommy have all been spared the misery (knock on wood).

Despite all the sickness, the cuteness continues.  Here’s another video clip from the archives of the past few weeks that I’m trying to work through…

(despite appearances, no babies were harmed in the making of this film)