Play Group at the Swan's

Although we had two Moms join us for play group, and ultimately that's six kids including Connor and Chloe the two other set of twins were a little young at 5 months old, so they didn't really play together.

Connor was fascinated with the babies. We had to watch him because he kept pointing at them and almost poking them. He thought the babies were great and laughed and giggled at them.

Chloe on the other had was fascinated with the babies' stuff. She kept digging around in the baby carriers and when one baby would come out of the bumbo seat, she went and sat in it. She never really liked the bumbo seat when she was little but now seeing other babies using it she's changed her mind.

Hopefully for the next play group will have kids closer in age to Connor and Chloe.

Daddy's Boy

A few months ago I could say Connor was a Mamma's boy, but around December this changed. Now he wants Carl all the time for everything.

Connor cries and begs for Carl to pick him up. He wants Carl to give him his sippy cup, brush his teeth and put him to bed. If Carl leave the room or goes to the office Connor follows him and cries if the door is shut.  It's super sweet, and I know Carl loves the hugs, but I think it might be wearing on him a bit being the favorite parent.

Hosting Play Group

I'm the host for our Mothers of Multiples play group this Saturday. The play group is usually scheduled for 10a.m.-12p.m. and alternates between weekdays and weekends. In the past few months, we've only been able to attend once, but it was a ton of fun. They have trouble coming up with locations and hostess on an ongoing basis so I didn't mind stepping up to host at our home.

The challenge is the time. The twins are still taking an hour plus nap in the morning and the afternoon, and the morning nap usually starts right around 10a.m. I thought I might just keep them up through their morning nap but that has been a disaster anytime we've done it with both unhappy kids and parents.

Since I was hosting I sent out a notice yesterday that we planned to move the time to 1-3p.m. in the afternoon. There are about 13 Moms invited. At the play group we attended there were 4 sets of twins including the hosting family. That was a good turn out so I hope we have something similar. I'm starting to get worried that since I changed the time we'll have low turn out. I've gotten about four emails from Moms who can't make it and only one who can.

In the big picture it's not that big of a deal and if we have only one other sets of twins over to play it's still a success. Maybe even more so since I won't be disrupting the twins nap schedule to make play group work.

I just want play group to go well. I'll update you on Monday.

Pictures Together

Every now and then I think I don't have any good, recent pictures of the twins together. I then sit them in the tan chair in the family room and try to get a couple of shots.

I did this again this past weekend. Sometimes I can get them both looking at the camera with some sort of decent expression but I didn't pull it off this time. Below is the series of shots. The last one is my favorite because Connor now knows to smile when we pull out the camera, but after awhile he can't keep his smile sincere and it looks like a crazy grimace. Totally makes me laugh.

Toys for Leo

Leo has been really great with the twins and they are learning to be gentle with him. Leo is one of the few words they can say, but they refer to all dogs as "Leo" now.

What's hard for Leo is all the baby toys look like they should be for a puppy too. It is so frustrating for him when we tell him "no, put it down," especially when the babies push toys into his face trying to get him to take it.

There are a few toys that are clearly for puppies. We've been trying to teach Connor and Chloe which toys belong to Leo, but Connor isn't very good a sharing yet.

No puppies or babies were injured in the filming of this video.

Box Heads

The twins have a box of blocks and it's one of the first things they dump out and play with each day. After they get tired with the blocks they play with the plastic tub that holds the blocks too. It's funny because they both do this.

Curly Hair

As you have seen Connor really got the curly hair. As her mother, I think Chloe is so beautiful, but I was a little bummed she didn't get curly hair too. A couple of months ago I mentioned this to one of my neighbors who has two girls, both with curly hair. She said one of her daughters had the curls immediately, but the other didn't get her curls until 18 months old.

That's all I needed to hear, I've been checking for signs of curls ever since. Not that it matters.

But at 16 months I think we've seen a few curls after bath time. I tried to catch a shot, but it's a little hard to get on film.

Curls or Not?

Please know, I recognize how silly I am.

Egg On Your Face

Nothing wrong with a little egg on your face!

Winter Hats

We've had some pretty cold weather lately. One day we had snow and I was so excited to bundle up the kids to take them out to play in the snow for the first time. However, at our house we had big, beautiful flakes for a little while and the kids were really excited about that, but we never got the beautiful white blanket of snow I imagined and our yard was just a giant, cold mud pit.

So we didn't take the kids out to "play in the snow" and we were getting a little stir crazy so we did run to the grocery store together. This gave us a chance to wear our cute winter hats.

Chloe still loves her winter hat, especially the little pomp-pomp balls.

Connor likes his hat just fine. I don't know if you'll be surprised to hear this, but he's almost out grown his winter hat already. He's worn it exactly once and his head is almost too big.

That's what happens if you buy the winter wear too early, but if I wait until it's actually winter in Dallas all the cute stuff will be gone or they'll have the spring collection out already instead.

Pink Ponies Case Study

I'm a little nervous of how crazy the kids' birthday parties can get in the future but this video made me laugh out loud, and perhaps provides a road map for successful birthday party planning.

In my business we frequently build case studies around successful programs we've implemented to show how tactics can break through the clutter, increase sales, and in today's market also engage social media and go viral.

The video below is a mock case study crafted by a Canadian ad agency, John St., based on "making Chelsea Bedano's 8th birthday party a success in an already cluttered birthday market."

Love the "theme carried to below the line executions like cake and even the family dog," stats like 40% increase in attendance from previous years, and viral post party coverage.

Click link here if you have trouble viewing the video below.

Birthday in NY

Last month I turned 40. I'm one of the last out of my group of high school girlfriends to have my birthday. For the past year we've been celebrating 40th birthdays with surprise parties and trips. My best friend Kim had both and in May we met a huge group celebrating her birthday in Napa Valley.

By the time my birthday rolled around I wasn't really in the mood for a big party. Not to mention my birthday falls right in the middle of the holiday season and I really feel like things are too busy during this time of year.

However, Carl came up with a great plan and scheduled a trip to New York to celebrate. We left on a Friday and my Mom stayed with the twins that weekend. We had fancy dinners, went to the Met, and for two mornings I got to sleep in late. It was a wonderful birthday.

Carl outside the Met

Shelley outside the Met

View from the roof top bar of our hotel Fashion 26

Visit to the Zoo of Acadiana

While we were in Louisiana over the holidays we headed to the Zoo of Acadiana. This zoo was awesome. Recently we'd visited the Dallas Zoo and although it was really great, it is so big we can only get through a small section on a single visit before the kids wear out.

At the Zoo of Acadiana the grounds are small enough to walk through in 2 hours. Additionally with the small grounds you're much closer to the animals.

It was quite an adventure.

We had to pack light, so no stroller on this trip but we were able to rent a fun wagon at the zoo

Although sometimes Chloe didn't want to ride in the wagon and preferred to walk with the rest of the girls

We could get really close to the animals

Maybe too close. Fun zoo!

Looking up to Zane

While visiting family in Louisiana the twins got to hang out with cousin Zane. Connor thought Zane was awesome and wanted to be cool just like him. He watched everything he did, laughed whenever he did, and just wanted to be around him in general.

One afternoon we headed to park. Zane is a great climber and was up the rock wall in a flash. As soon as Connor saw it he wanted to try it too. He didn't have as much luck, but his Dad helped him try.

Chloe, on the other hand, could care less what the boys were up to and was completely happy playing with pebbles.

Visit with Cousin Andrew

We had a great holiday. We made the 6 hour drive to Louisiana and saw a ton of family. The twins ended up with a bunch of goodies and are playing with everything.

While we were in Louisiana the twins got a chance to hang out with their cousin Andrew.

Connor met Andrew's puppy Murphy

Chloe played with Andrew's car, she liked it best when someone would push her around.

We tried to get a group picture of all the kids. Andrew was ready, but we could never get Connor and Chloe ready for the shot at the same time.

It was a great visit and we all had a very happy holiday.

Bubbles!

Love these shots of the kids going crazy over a bubble blowing Santa.

Holiday Outfits

I haven't done much posting over the holidays so now I have to catch you up.

When shopping for the twins I've noticed how many super cute things there are for girls but not so much for boys. I've tried to make a habit of picking out something for Connor first and then looking for Chloe so I don't go overboard on the girlie stuff and balance what I get for the two of them.

However, for the holidays I got sucked in by this super cute Christmas tree outfit from mud pie. 

Sometimes when I get the kids cute stuff it gets covered up with a bib. Since we're teething and constantly drooling we end up wearing bibs all the time. Not a problem with the Christmas tree outfit because it had a matching bib.

When I was shopping I couldn't find an outfit for Connor, but they did have another cute bib. So both babies had holiday bibs at the very least. Below are few shots of the holiday outfits.

Now that the holidays are over and I've done baby laundry I realize the holiday outfit and bibs were really a one shot deal. It was a bit of a splurge but ultimately worth it.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a great start to your new year!