MEET THE DOCTOR

Last Monday the girls all went to meet a doctor recommended by a friend. We really liked him and made him the girls' PCP on Tuesday.

Thursday morning after breakfast, I am changing Audrey and realize that she has a major rash. b It was on her belly, arms, and diaper area. I immediately called the doctor's office and made an appointment...of course our new doctor did not have an appointment available. In the meantime, I obsessively kept checking on her rash, kept checking Brooke to make sure it wasn't on her too, and wracked my brain about anything we may have done differently.

The doctor thought it looked like a food allergy and we decided that it must be from the new brand of oatmeal that she had eaten that morning. So no more Gerber for us....of course I got the old box out of the trash so I could make a list of all the possible culprits just in case this happens again. By the next morning she was pretty much back to normal!

Part of the rash...it looked much worse in the diaper area, but that pic has just a little too much of Audrey's private area to post on the web

QUEEN OF THE THRONE

This post had nothing about the girls, but I am adding it because I am super proud of myself.

Very soon after we got home from Destin, we realized that our toilet was not working. When you flushed, there really wasn't much water in bowl or running in the tank. We took the lid off and identified that no water was running into the little pipe in the middle. So we called the plumber the next day and had them come to fix it. Luckily we had bought the warranty with our house so it was only a $50 charge. Apparently the filler was broken. The guy drained the tank and put a new one in...didn't look too hard but defintely worth $50.

The very next day, K used the facilities and pulled the handle...nothing. K was super mad. Took off the lid and examined the tank. The little plastic arm that connects the flusher handle to the chain that pulls up the stopper thing had completely broken off....I hope you are all able to keep up with all the technical jargon. So call the plumber again. Turns out it will be another $50 and they can't get here for a week.

K decides that she can fix it. Goes to Home Depot and buys a new handle that looks very easy to install...no tools needed! Turns out it was the wrong one as our handle was not on the side but on an angle. Return and have to buy a much more complicated (ie not fully assembled) flusher. After quite some time (actually a lot of time...in my defense it was not like I knew what it should actually look like when it was correct and you have to get the tension just right for it to work and there is a counter built directly above the tank which totally interferes with access to the tank) I got the stupid thing to work.

I am so proud of myself!

A VISIT FROM "THE CHICKEN"

This past week, the Haddens had a visit from my college roommate Stacy who I affectionately refer to as The Chicken. While I am not 100% sure where that nickname came from, though I think it might have something to do with the annoying Chicken alarm clock that I got to listen to for years, it is a term of endearment and used with much love. The Hadden girls had super amounts of fun with Stacy and were sad to see her leave us.

Here is a picture of The Chicken with us in the backyard...as you can see she in no way resembles actual poultry.

Here are the girls at Costco. As you can see the cart is made for two kids, which worked out well as I have two kids...in case you were wondering, with regular carts one sits in the top part and the other is in a Bumbo in the basket.

Their first swinging!!! Success... until Brooke bopped her head on her little basket...twice.

Here is a video of Audrey enjoying her swinging...I don't actually know what this sounds like cause the person who set up the computer did not hook up the sound correctly...that person was me!

MORE TEETH...

Just a quick update on the teeth situation. Brooke now has 2 teeth peeking through on the bottom for a total of 3 teeth! So in the past month the Hadden gals have grown a total of 5 teeth!

Audrey is shocked that Brooke has gotten ahead of her in the teeth count...Brooke is quite pleased to be winning.

HOW TO GROW TEETH

Beach story #1:
So as you may remember from an earlier post, Audrey decided to grow her first tooth during our transition from Houston to Fairfax over Memorial Day weekend...very pleasant for us all as we were all 4 sharing one room. Since then there had been no additional developments on the tooth front.

In Destin the Hadden clan got the master bedroom in the villa this year (yeah!!). We were very clever and made the girls their own room in the walk-in closet. There was enough room for 2 pack-n-plays and it had its own air vent, light, and door. It worked so great, that next year they will also be sleeping in the closet. Of course the closet is still in the bedroom so quarters were rather close. Which of course means that it is time to grow a tooth!!

So little Audrey grew her second tooth on Monday or Tuesday...right next to the first one on the bottom. To recap, her first tooth was the bottom right and now she has the bottom left as well.

Here is Audrey showing off her teeth!

Since April, Brooke has been acting like she is getting a tooth (yes I have read on the internet that it can take months) but recently she really seemed like a tooth was just on the verge - lots of drooling, pulling things across her gums, unexplained crankiness. So like a good mom, when it seemed like it was really hurting her, I have been applying Orajel to her little bottom gums. Imagine my surprise when we discovered her first tooth on Friday and it was in fact on the upper gums!! That's right her first tooth is the upper left tooth - completely opposite of Audrey! (on the up side, together they could chew!) And alas, my orajeling was pretty much useless...fortunately for her, D was always very thorough and applied liberally to all gums. This is pretty much a useless picture as you can't even really see the tooth, but it is there. I will work toward getting an actual picture, but in the interest of fairness, here it is:

Here is Brooke sort of showing off her tooth!

This picture is totally unrelated, but this is part of what I like to call the Bitter Beer Face:

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES...

We just got back from our annual vacation in Destin with K's extended (read 12 adults, 6 kids who are 6 and under) family. At this time last year, I was just finishing my first trimester and my cousin Kathryn said "you should do a blog." Well one year later, I have 7 month old twins, live in VA, and am still posting the adventures of A&B. Unbelievable.

So the whole time we were on vacation, I kept thinking about how clever this post would be and all the interesting things that I would put on here. Unfortunately, I remember none of that. Instead, I will let the pictures tell the story for me…..at least until I can think of clever anecdotes.

FUN WITH THE FAM...

FUN AT THE POOL...

FUN AT THE BEACH...

THE THIEF AND THE CHURCH

We are settling into a pretty good routine here. Though the house is still super cluttered. All rooms are livable, but only the playroom and the kitchen are done....except no pictures have been hung yet and that just adds to the clutter.

We decided to try a church this past Sunday, but since it was close and didn't start until 9:50 we were having some relaxing play time after breakfast. The girls were sitting on the play quilts and just being adorable. (As an aside, the girls are in massive pacifier mode lately. They love them and want them constantly. I am blaming this on teething as well) So we see Audrey looking at Brooke very intently. And then she makes her move. She lunges toward Brooke, pulls out Brooke's pacifier, and puts it in her mouth. HYSTERICAL!!! So of course I get the video camera and hope that there will be a repeat...which there was...but I don't know how to post from that camera yet, but will eventually get that posted. In the days that have followed, this trick has been repeated numerous times. However, don't feel too badly for Brooke. Last night she took Audrey's pacifier. Audrey still had the clip and a tug of war followed. Brooke was victorious.

Back to Sunday. So we get to church (early, just to make sure we have time to sign the girls in at the nursery and make it to Sunday School class on time) and get someone to take us to the nursery. The room is for 1 year and younger and there were a total of 5 kids - including our 2. Signing in consisted of putting a nametag on their backs. There was no security system in place at all. K was quite nervous. But alas, not all nurseries can be as wonderful as the one at our old church. So we get someone to take us to the Sunday School class - K found on internet - parents of young children. We get there and room is empty. The lady that brought us said that she thinks the class runs late and will start at 10 - after all it is for people with young kids and they run late. K said we have 6 mo old twins and made it fine (perhaps not a necessary comment - yet totally valid.) So we wait. A lady finally shows up and basically says that the class is not meeting anymore. K asks where are we supposed to go (apparently in a slightly abrupt tone judging by the lady's reaction). We went to the class led by the ministers to "dig a little deeper" into the sermon scripture. It actually was nice - the other 4 people had a mean age of around 70 - but not our thing. So maybe the sermon would be better. I could go on and on, but let's just say it was not. One funny thing was that the preacher would occasionally go into this little fast forward mode for a few words - K found this super funny and laughed at inappropriate times. We will not go back.

Other interesting things about Sunday: the girls tried "meat" for the first time. I use quotes because it in no way resembled any chicken that I have ever seen or tasted before. It was truly one of the most disgusting things ever. Also, D and K have actually met several neighbors who are very nice (since we go out stalking - I mean walking - every day.)

Here are just a few adorable pictures: