Taking the Plunge

Early this summer it was as if the girls had forgotten they'd ever been swimming in a pool. We've hardly been able to get them off the steps all summer. It's not as if they're afraid of the water because they love their kiddie pool and splashing in the waves at the beach and playing on the steps of the pool. Yesterday we finally got them jumping off the side of the pool again{wow, are my arms sore today}. They are cured!

Lunch by the pool....sloppy joes. Is there a better place to get messy eating sloppy joes than outside by the pool? Super easy clean~up!

Anna Claire and Mallory's favorite poolside snack...boiled peanuts cooked up by Papa.

Last week was pretty slow. We went to the river last weekend, but I forgot to put the memory card back in my camera so no pics {boo!}. I had to go into work Wednesday and Thursday, so the girls got to make a day trip to the beach Thursday with Granny, Michelle, Connor, and Dylan.

The tell~tale sign that the summer is quickly coming to an end is when the pool water is so warm it feels like your stepping into a warm bath. We hit that this past weekend. I've only got one more week before I have to report back, so we are trying to squeeze out every last bit of summer fun. It's just kind of hard to do when it is so darn hot outside.

No More Naps?

Anna Claire and Mallory "resting" this afternoon

It's been one week since we dropped regularly scheduled naps for the girls in an effort to lengthen nighttime sleep and {hopefully} put an end to Mallory's nighttime wakings. I can probably count on one had the number of times Mallory has slept through the night since April 12, 2010, the night she launched herself out her crib causing us to switch both girls to toddler beds two nights later. It has been an exhausting year and three months. Dr. Tillman thinks {and we hope} if Mallory can fall asleep more easily at bedtime, the nighttime wakings will stop. Well...

More recently, since late spring, the girls have been falling asleep around 8:30 {too late in my opinion, but they just weren't tired}, waking up at 6:30 {much too early, don't you think?} and napping for a solid 1-1/2 hours each day with Mallory continuing to wake up a few times a night {usually once or twice, but sometimes more}. It just sort of gradually evolved to that.

Our new plan has the girls resting on our bed for a hour to an hour and a half. Sometimes we read or sometimes we watch a Disney movie, and twice they've fallen asleep for 30-45 minutes {see picture above} and that's been OK because some days they are just more tired depending on how we've spent our morning. They are in bed and asleep by 7:30 which is really great because they are good and tired and not overly tired and fussy as we'd feared. However, they are still waking us between 6:00 and 6:30 and Mallory is still waking up in the middle of the night. Baby steps, right? For now, getting out of their room at 7:30 instead of 8:30 or sometimes 9:00 has been a major morale booster around here.

Chubby Little Cubby All Stuffed with Fluff

Yesterday, just after I had finished with the shower door/curtain, Aunt Michelle called and asked if we wanted to see the new Pooh movie. Now, Anna Claire and Mallory have never been to see a movie in a movie theater and the closest they've gotten was Mickey's Philharmagic at Disney which was a total disaster that could have had something to do with it being 3~D and spraying water in their faces {for the record, at Disney they did great with the Beauty and the Beast and Nemo live shows}.

I hesitated at first, but we watched the trailer a few times on YouTube, and I found out it was only 69 minutes long, so off we headed to the girls' first movie in a theater.

They did great, by the way. Anna Claire was a little nervous at first, burying her face in my sleeve for the previews, and Mallory sat in my lap for the first half, but they absolutely loved the movie which was very cute and were completely engaged from start to finish.  These pictures from my phone are awful, but we had to commemorate the event...

Open Up and Say Ahhh...

So, we've had a pretty busy week running errands and playing and all...but not many pictures to show for it. Monday we ran errands and had lunch at Panera with Aunt Michelle, Connor, and Dylan. Tuesday Connor came over to play so Dylan could go to the doctor. Wednesday we went to the dentist {!!!} library, my office, Daddy's office and the fabric store {whew!}. Yesterday we played at home all day, and so far today, we have removed the nasty shower door and replaced it with a nice, pretty shower curtain. All that, and it looks like we've dropped naps {omg!}.

Back to the girls' first dentist appointment...let me just say we looooove Summerville Pediatric Dentistry and everyone there {Brandon and Brig, you must take Owen there}! The experience was wonderful, the girls were all smiles {though a little nervous}, they did just great, and they are cavity free! I am a proud mommy!

Dr. Baker says Mallory has a cross bite which could likely correct itself once her permanent teeth are in, and Anna Claire is missing two teeth {e and h, to be precise}, but we already knew that. Dr. Baker says the development of baby and permanent teeth are often completely independent of one another, so it doesn't mean the permanent teeth will be missing, too, but since granny and I both have a dental history with the same two teeth...we'll just have to wait and see.

They tried to take an x~ray, but Anna Claire {brave girl} had trouble holding the film perfectly still, so we couldn't see anything, and there isn't really anything to do about it now, anyway. She'll have a routine x~ray when she's six, and hopefully that'll tell us if those two permanent teeth are there or not. Probably time top upgrade to dental plus!

Now, that shower door...it really doesn't have anything at all to do with the girls other than they were so great to play with each other contentedly and let me do it. I got the idea at the beach that we could remove the yucky, hard~to~clean, contractor~grade shower door and replace it with a shower curtain. Since we have a soaking tub and separate shower stall, I really wanted to find some fabric to make a narrower shower curtain, but I couldn't find anything I liked. I couldn't even find a store~bought shower curtain I liked enough to cut down to size. Then I remembered I had a shower curtain from our previous house in the linen closet. Well, I'm a little impatient with these kinds of things and just couldn't wait for Walter to get home from work, so I took the door down all.by.myself! That's not such a huge feat, actually...it was really quite easy. I'm not in love with this ivory battenberg lace shower curtain, but I already had the curtain, new liner, rod, and hooks, so this little transformation was free!! Gotta love that.

Life's a Beach {and then you have to come home to a heat index of 112}

We had a lovely {though exhausting} week at Edisto which included days spent splashing in the waves, digging holes in the sand, building sand castles, exploring marine life, looking for seashells, playing with cousins...and nights spent wide~awake when the Mallory refused to stay in bed and woke up several times a night. Is this the end of naps?? More on that at a later date.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy just a few memories made this past week...

A new favorite movie...Mulan. {I've got to say I love it, too. Not your typical Disney movie and a great message for girls.}

Early morning runs on the beach...

...not only are the girls having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep at night, they are awake at the crack of dawn. When you're sharing a house with others, that is not a good thing.

Our annual golf cart picture...

Mallory "playing" Wii for the first time...

Already can't wait for next summer's beach week!

Beach Bound

We'll be back soon! Have a great 4th of July!

...Anna Claire and Mallory helping measure out the ingredients for rice crispy treats.

Watermelon Pops and New Dresses

Ever since we made yogurt pops last week, the girls want everything they eat to be on a stick.

I present to you...Watermelon Pops...really just a slice of watermelon with a popsicle stick stuck through the rind {cut a slit in the rind with a knife then work in the popsicle stick ~ not so easy}.

I thought this was a great idea in that perhaps the girls would get less sticky from dripping watermelon juice, but I was wrong. It was a novel idea, though, and they had lots of fun eating the watermelon...and dripping all over their new dresses.

I whipped up these simple dresses during nap times Tuesday and Wednesday, and since I used my own homemade pattern {!!!} I think they turned out great. I have been looking for a sundress pattern with angel sleeves forever {these "sleeves" are a little shorter than I originally imagined, but at the last minute I doubled over the sleeves so I would not have to hem them}. I finally gave up the pattern search and made my own. Not too bad.