the spirit of christmas

Hope your Christmas was just as wonderful as ours.

tidings of great joy

Abby had a sound booth test today where they tested what she could hear with her implant on (with her hearing aid turned off.) Across the board, from 500hz to 4000hz, she responded to tone bursts at 10-15 decibles.

That's a whisper, a bird whistle, the rustle of the trees!

Abby, who is COMPLETELY deaf in her left ear, can hear at 10 decibles with the aid of her implant and after only having it for four months.

That is a miracle, people.

i've held my tongue long enough

I just came back from a late-night milk run at Walmart. It's 12:30 am. As I was waiting in an excruciatingly long line, a lady got in line behind me. She had her mom with her and her two children. One of them was probably four or five, and the other was about eight years old. The grandma asked what time it was and the mom looked at her phone and passively said, "it's 12:00." No biggie apparantly. I looked at the eight year old and she was laying her head on the shopping cart with her eyes closed. The little boy was acting up and her mom said, "why are you being like this?" and other comments like, "Santa is watching everything you do, so you better be good."

oooohhhhh.... I was so close to saying, "lady, did it ever occur to you that maybe he's TIRED, and that's why he's acting up?!"

Okay, yeah, I understand that some people have different schedules because of their work, and so your kids sleep when you sleep. But 12am? Really? And I also know that sometimes there are extinuating circumstances where it might be necessary. But this was obviously not the case. These kids were visibly tired and needed to be in bed. I just don't understand why the grandma couldn't have stayed home with her kids and put them to bed while she shopped.

And this definitely isn't the first time this has happened. EVERY single time I make a late night shopping run, there is someone there with their kids. And its never a single parent with kids. It's always a couple of adults with the kids. For heaven sake, one of you STAY home and put your kids to bed.

Yeah, I'm far from being a perfect parent, but you will NEVER see me at Walmart at midnight with my children. But if I ever do, and I get in line behind you, just turn around and slap me.

movin' on up

Brian got promoted!

He has worked SO hard.

I am so proud of him.

still lost

We haven't found Abby's implant yet, but her teacher pulled all the surveilance videos and, although very grainy, it's pretty clear that she had her implant on at school. Somewhere between 10am in the activity room and 12 noon thirty feet away in her classroom her implant got lost. Mrs. Adams has searched the school like a mad woman to no avail and several other teachers have looked as well. I think the next step is to send a letter home with all the students and hope that one kid saw it laying around in the activity room and decided to take it home. There is still a possibility that it got flushed down the toilet, but Abby is too attached to her implant to send it down the drain.

This is all so madening! Please pray that we find it! For our sanity's sake more than anything.

abby's first published quote

There's a house close to us that totally decks out their entire house and yard every Christmas. This isn't the house, but it looks a lot like it.

Anyway, we took the kids to see it tonight and as we pulled up to it Abby said, "Oh, that's a mess!"

They call it like they see it, don't they?

the death of me

Abby lost her cochlear implant today. I put it on her this morning and her teacher called me at noon to say that Abby didn't have it on. Somewhere between then she lost it. Abby told her that it was in the car, so I searched the car high and low and didn't find it, and the teacher tore apart the school looking for it.

I really have no idea where it could be. There's a pretty good chance that wherever it is, its safe, and we just need to locate it, but there is a slim possibility that Abby discovered that its magnetic and stuck it on the outside of the car, and if that's the case, its long gone. But she's never done that before, so lets hope that didn't happen.

She's only worn the thing for three months! There is a ONE time replacement for it, but after that, we're screwed. We have a back-up implant, but it takes disposible batteries, and its a pain. We're using it until we can figure out where the other one is, so its not totally the end of the world that she lost it. But I swear, if my kids keep losing their hearing aids, I'm going to go crazy. And to think I have 16 more years of this.

*sigh*

But to end this post on a positive note, here's a picture of Abby and Anna in matching $2.50 Children's Place dresses. I'm not sure which is harder to believe; that we got these for $2.50, or that these girls are cousins.

why i don't blog anymore

I feel like I hardly blog anymore. I'm never short of random things to talk about, its just that I don't have much gumption anymore. I've been doing a lot of photo shoots lately, and with that comes the editing process of the pictures, which, for a person like me who is still new at this whole thing, takes a long time. I'm getting faster at editing, learning some tricks and such, and I'm also *trying* to get better at taking pictures so I don't have to do too much to them. But I've also realized that I really need to try not to edit when the kids are awake, because I feel guilty taking time away from them. And since my kids don't take naps, that means I'm editing late into the night sometimes.

I know it will get better. I will become more proficient and efficent and find a balance with the most important job of motherhood. But I have learned in the past nine months that there's no way I could ever give this up. I love it too much.

So here is an example of a "before" picture that could use a little editing. It was too dark, and the contrast between mom's face (sorry, Carrie) and baby was too extreme.



So with a little work, here's the finished product.

dear self

You just unloaded the dishwasher in 5 minutes flat. Why then, do you procrastinate unloading it every single time it's clean?

5 minutes, self.

5 minutes.

geez.

enamored

We recently started talking with Abby and Carter about Santa (I don't think Abby remembers much from last year) and now both of them have become mildly obsessed with him. The movie, The Santa Clause, came on TV the other day and we recorded it, and now that's all they want to watch on TV.

true colors

When we had Abby were were enamored (and still are) by her gregarious charm and her easygoing, happy disposition. She slept through the night at 5 weeks, (I know!) played easily by herself, and was really low maintenance. I loved her like I've never loved anyone before, and I just knew that it would be impossible to ever love another soul as much as her.

But then this kid came along 17 months later and he stole my heart. I never believed it when people said that the relationship between mom and son is different, but it SO is. And maybe it helps that he's cuddly and affectionate by nature, but he makes my heart melt every time I see him. Truth be told, (okay, yeah, I've told you this before) Carter is NOT a happy child. He's grouchy maybe 75% of the day. It took him forever to sleep through the night and he still has problems with that sometimes. And the terrible twos for him have just magnified his grouchiness. He's big into tantrums lately, and when he doesn't get his way, he'll yell and growl like an angry bumblebee.

But despite his grouchiness, he is loving, and sweet, and a really cool kid. I recently read a blog post here and could totally relate. Carter is my best bud, and so grateful that he's still small enough to cuddle up in my lap. I will miss it when he doesn't crawl up on me and lay his head on my shoulder. I will miss it when he one day stops grabbing my legs and howling for me to pick him up. I will miss his littleness. But he will always be my little boy.

the arteeeest of the family

I really don't like bragging about my kids, but because they are behind their peers in speech sometimes I am just grateful that they are excelling in other ways. Like Abby, for example. This girl can draw. She's been drawing people since she turned three. And her drawings have become more intricate as the year has passed.

She did this one back in June. She was watching Charlotte's Web a lot, can you tell?


Here's one from October. Don't you love the flowers on the shirt?

She sketched this one out a long time ago and I was so suprised by the proportion and detail down to the dimention in the ears. This was also during the Charlottes Web era.


She did this one last week at school. Its a girl bear. She colors inside the lines really well.


And then a few weeks ago at church after their Primary program, she drew this in her class (with no guidance by her teacher). Its got a staff, music notes, and people singing. That really blew me away!

baby hungry

I have this problem. I have four photoshoots that I need to edit, and today I did a couple of short shoots with two ADORABLE babies. Problem is, they are SO cute, that I immediately ditch what I should be working on and instead go straight to oohing and ahhing over these beauties. Does that mean I'm baby hungry? Maybe, but I'm beginning to think that if I could do strictly baby and children's photography, I would be one happy girl.

abby likes lipsitck

a LOT.

we had a little scare today

It's benefits open enrollment time at Brian's employer and so we were reading over the details of medical coverage for the coming year. We knew our monthly contribution was going up, but then we noticed that it said hearing aids wouldn't be covered next year! So then we looked at this year's coverage and it ALSO said that hearing aids weren't covered. What the what?

So Brian called HR and had them check on it, and meanwhile he called our insurance company to find out what our current coverage was since we hadn't gotten hearing aids in 2009 and honestly didn't know. Cigna said hearing aids were covered and so we had a hope maybe the sheet was just wrong. So then the HR lady called back and said that we weren't covered for hearing aids and we wouldn't be covered next year either and Brian was like, well Cigna just said we were. So the lady made so more calls and she called back and said that we were in fact going to be covered for hearing aids, and she was "mortified" because she's been telling people for years that our company does not have hearing aid insurance coverage when they really did. Wow.

So no worries, we're still covered 100% for hearing aids and cochlear implants, and all is right with the world.

phew.

last chance

Update: The slot has been filled.

My last set of mini-sessions is this Saturday and I have one remaining slot available at 4:30pm. This will be the VERY last time I offer the 30 for $30 special, which includes a 30 minute photoshoot, 10-15 pictures on CD for $30.

The location will be Maxwell Creek Linear Park in Murphy.

If you're interested, please email me at brianmandie@gmail.com. First come first serve.

To see pictures from my recent mini-sessions, visit http://mandiemcmurdiephotography.blogspot.com/

serenity

Having two opinionated, independent, active pre-schoolers can get pretty hectic sometimes. Especially now since Abby and Carter seem to have made fighting with eachother their favorite past time. But there are moments like this; when they're sitting side by side quietly watching the ducks swim by, when I can breathe deeply, enjoy the moment, and thank God for my beautiful babies.

Halloween

On Friday we went to a Trunk or Treat sponsored by our church. There were TONS of people there and Abby and Carter had lots of fun trick-or-treating at all the cars. Abby was, of course, a princess, and Carter was a pirate. On Saturday we went to the McMurdie's house and had one of our monthly family parties. We carved pumpkins, hit a pinata and then dressed up the kids and had a mass trick-or-treating excursion. Oh, and the kids played on the trampoline. Carter loves the trampoline. Can you tell?



All the "kumpkins" as Abby and Carter call them.


Here's the girly-girl cousins Abby, Maren, Mikayla and Tava. They are great friends and I love seeing them play together.



I put mascara, lipstick, blush and lots of glitter on Abby and she was in heaven. What a cheese.

my favorite time of year

When I saw this street today, Mom, I thought of you. We love you.

surfer girl

One day a few weeks ago, Abby and Carter were both on my lap as I was working on the computer. This happens a lot, and it usually ends with them fighting over the mouse and scrolling to look at pictures of family and such. So that day I gave up, and decided to teach Abby how to use the computer. I found a toddler website and with Brian's help, she was surfing the site in no time.

And now I'm fighting my three-year-old for computer time......I just can't believe how fast she's growing up!

Question though, does anyone know of a site with toddler appropriate material that shuts out the rest of the computer so they can't access anything else while they're on that site? And maybe something that disables the right click would be nice too.

poop

After almost a YEAR of potty training, Abby has FINALLY pooped in the potty. She had the #1 part down for a while (although I admit she was pretty off and on about it) but for some reason she has had a strange aversion to pooping on the potty. We've been very patient with her, taking advice from our pediatrician and family and friends that have been there, and with the help of her angelic teachers at school, I think she finally got the guts to do it.

I have to admit, when Mrs. Adams called me during school to tell me that Abby did it, I got a little teary. It's just SUCH a relief.

So we cheered, and hugged, and danced, and cheered some more. I took her to the store and she picked out some Fancy Nancy shoes. We called the Grandmas, the family, and they cheered with us, and the whole time Abby was beaming with pride. She thrives on praise, and I want Abby to be proud of this accomplishment so that she'll want to continue to do it, and if it means making complete fools of ourselves, I'll do it. She has since pooped in our potty as well, and she hasn't asked for a pull up in a few days. This is the turning point I have been waiting all year for, and I hope its smooth sailing from here.

Now it's Carter's turn.

world peace

I think that the way to create world peace is to give all the bad people in the world a pacifier.

As babies, my kids would calm right down when I gave them one, and even now, I know the best way to get Carter to chill out is to stick a pacifier in his mouth. I could even plug him in the middle of a tantrum, and everything he was complaining about would be immediately forgotten.

So I propose that we stock the prisons of the world with adult sized pacifiers, create anger management programs using oral fixation techniques, and create an "Operation Binky Drop" to drop down pacifiers in war-torn areas of the world. And while we're at it, maybe they should have madatory pacifier breaks during all government sessions and every major world-wide conference. I'm convinced it would make the world a better place.

Sure, the majority of the world would have gappy buck teeth and we'd have some serious speech issues, but at weasht we would all wove eachothew.

oh baby

I am so grateful for my friends that are trusting me to practice on their families. Sofia was born last week and her mom called me up and asked me to do a newborn shoot. I was like, uh, yeah! This is my first ever newborn shoot and I loved it. Although it has its share of difficulties, its much more calm and peaceful compared to every other shoot I've done. Here's one of the shots I did. You can see more here.

found

We found one of Carter's hearing aids! After we searched every possible nook and cranny in the house for a week, I opened up the clothes dryer and there it was. Well, at least part of it. And believe it or not, it still works. Kinda. Turns out that Brian put it in his shorts (you know the kind with like ten huge pockets) when he was putting Carter down for a nap, and he forgot about it. He even wore the same shorts again that week and it never crossed his mind. I called him and said, Guess where I found the hearing aid? And suddenly he remembered and he said, "In my pocket." I was like, um, why didn't you remember this a week ago? BEFORE I washed and dried it?

But I really can't be mad, because I lost the other hearing aid and we never found that one.

Good thing is, because we found the hearing aid, we can get it repaired for free under warranty. We've learned our lesson and will be much more cautious from now on.

sassafras

I'm worried. Admittedly, the hip shaking is pretty cute, but she's only three! Maybe we need to stop watching "So You Think You Can Dance."

one of THOSE nights

Abby and Carter were in the tub. I left the room for a minute. I come back in. Abby points down at the tub and said, "Carter went poopoo." I looked down and gasped. It wasn't just a couple of floaters. It was EVERYWHERE. So I stick them both in the shower to disinfect and go into the kitchen for cleaning supplies. I reached for something and knocked over a cup of yogurt, which drops to the floor and EXPLODES all over the floor and cabinets. I sigh and race into the bathroom to clean up the grosser of the two messes first. After a few minutes I stop the water and hear the beeper going off in the kitchen. Afraid of how long the timer was going off I ran back into the kitchen to grab the brownies out of the oven, praying that they weren't burned. Because I can handle soggy poop and yogurt explosions, but burning the brownies would be tragic.

i got a new lens

and I like it.

how is it

that we can find Abby's lost hearing aid in the OCEAN, but have managed to lose BOTH of Carter's hearing aids within a month?

We lost one earlier this month, and after tracing my steps, we think it got lost at Sprouts. So I called them and they said they were pretty sure they saw one, and that they would go look for it and call me back. They called back and said that the manager searched high and low and it is nowhere to be found. So either they really didn't see one, or THEY lost it after we lost it, and the thought of that drives me crazy. So we ordered a new one. Luckily there is a one-time free replacement of $100. BUT THEN the other one disappeared on Saturday and we can't find it anywhere. I'm so afraid that Carter flushed it down the toilet. So that's another $100. I don't even want to think about how much it costs to replace a replacement, so I'm going to guard these puppies with my life!

have you ever...

...counted the number of times your toddler has cried in one day? I think I need to do that. Then I'm gonna write it down. Then I'm gonna put it in their memory boxes. Then when they're older and they come complaining about their own children, and I'll get it out and show them. Then I'll tell them what goes around comes around, and they probably deserve it.

...and Mom, I know I deserve it.



.

one-pose-pictures

Our family went to the Dallas Temple a couple of weekends ago and while we were there we did a really quick photo shoot. Here's the best shot of each family. Man, it was sunny!

how to woo the mamma

by special guest blogger Carter McMurdie

Hey toddlers of the world, you wanna know how to get your mom in the palm of your hand? Well you've come to the right place, cuz I've got it down to an art.

1. Tilt your head down and peer up at your mom through your hooded big eyes while giving her a flirty half-smile. And don't forget to show the dimple.
2. Take multiple breaks from your busy day to crawl into your mom's lap and give her big hugs.
3. NEVER turn down a request from your mom to give her kisses.
4. Talk with a deep husky voice.
5. After getting into trouble, repeat options 1, 2, 3 or 4 or all of the above.
6. Charm the strangers when out running errands.
7. Perfect your free throw.
8. Sneak into your parents bed in the early morning and cram your little body into your mommy's side. She says she doesn't like it, but she secretly loves it.
9. Let your mom rub her face in your stubby, soft, peach fuzz hair.
10. Three simple words: " I luh loo."

cousin keira

Cheeky. Cuddly. Soulful.

cousin mikayla

smart. beautiful. feisty.

***UPDATE***

Saturday the 17th is completely booked. I still have two slots available at the red barn, but if there's enough interest, I will open up another date for a photo shoot in Las Colinas.

long overdue

This is a little project I've been working on since we got back from our family reunion in July. It's a collage of every single person that was at the reunion, I think 78 people. I've yet to put a pic of me in there so that's why there is one empty spot. Man, I hope I didn't forget anyone.



So what do you think?

meet patrick

Say hi to Patrick. Patrick was a boy in Abby's class last year, and one of her favorite friends. This year he moved up to kindergarten so Abby doesn't get to play with him anymore. But that hasn't stopped her from pretending he's here. I guess you could call him an imaginary friend.

This friendship started last week, so I'm not sure if Patrick is here to stay or not. Some days he's around a lot, other days he's not here at all. On this particular day we went to the park and she played with him the whole time, helping him up ladders, holding him like a baby, swinging him, and making me pick him up when he fell off the jungle gym.




I mean, look at that face! It's like he's really there!

what are you thinking, little girl?

and now...

Abby has the croup too. Woo hoo!

At least she takes being sick better than Carter does.

mr. cling

Mr. Carter has the croup. He's mostly over it, but still has a runny nose and cough. You would think that he was dying the way he's been acting though. He won't let me go! He's always been a clingy boy, but ever since this weekend he has been more like this:

Yeah, its sweet and all, but he's wearing me out. Today he fell asleep on my shoulder as I was making a huge batch of pumpkin muffins and cooking dinner at the same time. I couldn't put him down because he already freaked out once today when I tried to put him to bed. You should have seen me filling the muffin cups, putting them in the oven and boiling potatos all with a sleeping two-year-old on my shoulder.

Probably not very safe, but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!

inquiring minds

It's been a while since I've put up a poll, so I thought I would put up a new one. I really want to know what you think about this topic!

keepin' it real

Recently I've had a whole new mess of hair grow in, and now its about two inches long. It's curlier than my hair has ever been before, and if I don't do anything to it, THIS is what it looks like. It's driving me crazy. This picture was taken in my 10:30pm glory, but it's not much better any other time of the day. My hair is changing, and it's really weird.

I hope it grows fast, cause the Richard Simmons look is not my thing.

Abby's ABR

I keep forgetting to post this. Abby had her ABR on Friday and these are the results.



As you can see, the data she got isn't as bad as the booth test results, which is good. But this machine has a 15 decible margin of error, so it could be as bad as what we got in the booth. We are going to do more testing in the booth to get a better idea of how she is responding with her hearing aid and without, and then we'll go from there.

rain water

It was more than she could take. Abby sat at the dinner table and stared out at the almost overflowing swimming pool and announced that she was going swimming. Ignoring my protests, she hopped out of her chair and took off towards her room in search of a swimsuit.

Carter took off after her, and I surrendered. Abby and Carter have been like tornados the last few days, destroying everything in their paths, and it was obvious that they needed to get some major wiggles out. The swimming pool had been emptied before the weekend, but the continuous rain these past few days had filled the pool to almost full. I figured 70 degree weather and a pool full of rain water wouldn't hurt too much so I let them play. They lasted only 20 minutes, but they had some crazy fun.