big blue eyes, giggles and auntie sarah

i admit it- i am completely obesessed with photographing my kids... but what parent isn't, right? am i right?

i mean, how can i resist these eyes??


or these??

anyway, auntie sarah came and spent the night last night. it was fun to spend some time with my baby sister! and i just realized, then next time we do this, she'll be done with high school! wow...

madison got a good case of the giggles watching her big brother get bounced by auntie sarah. it was too precious!

in other wonderful goings-on, little mason is finally here! congrats to my cousin al, her hubby chris and to big brother shaun... and the rest of the family, of course. we've gotten a few photos over the phone from levi. he's not at all proud... hahaha! from what we see, he's a major cutie!! oh yeah... stats: 7.15 am (as in this morning), 6 lbs 10 oz, 19 inches. sweet little peanut- can't wait to meet him! congrats again, you guys~

boys and their toys

the waupaca county atv challenge was on saturday in bear creek- i guess it's an annual event, and this year both kelvin and ted entered. the kids and i went for a couple of hours (make that a literal "couple"... two was enough for them this year!) to watch. we missed ted's event but saw kelvin's.

kelvin heading into the mud...

the kids in front of the safety fence were a hoot... there was this one girl (the one in the pink and white ball cap) who was obviously a veteran of the event and equally obviously influenced by the atmosphere. not real girly, to say the least. case in point? she got a good splattering of mud (which was the sole ambition of all the kids, it seemed) and this is what she said: "oh crap, i got mud! (pause, semi-genuine gasp) oh shoot, i have to be at a wedding this afternoon!!! (this was said with feigned horror) (slight pause...) eh, that's ok... i pretty up real good."

i laughed.

hard.

uncle ted... he took home a 2nd place trophy. way to go ted!!

toothpaste first, THEN kiss, thankyouverymuch.

his face says it all...
way to go, guys!!

miss madison and a few other randoms

our silly little squish has recently discovered her delectable little toes! the other morning i heard her chattering away bright and (too) early; i found her on her back, chewing on her toes, telling stories to her mobile. cole was fast asleep in his bed about four feet away... don't have to worry about him waking up when madison's making noise!this is her other goofy trick- paci in, tongue out...

yummy tootsies!!

*so i forgot to water down cole's apple juice this morning... i belive that's what may have caused the explosive mid-morning blow-out. thank goodness it's "diaper day"... the bumgenius' are out on the line, so they're in huggies for awhile. whew...

*we are definitely in the middle of the picky eating phase (for cole)... this kid picks and nibbles at anything except for graham crackers. those he'll eat with plenty of enthusiasm. is there such a thing as o.d.'ing on graham crackers??

*i need to start writing down cole's funny things; he's just chattering away these days, carrying on a conversation with whomever will listen and chat back. he'll tell stories to himself, too. he's trying more words and put two words together again. he was playing with his legos a few days ago and dropped one under the chair- he said "uh-oh. uh-oh, meh-meh (mommy), uh-oh!". serious as could be. i about died laughing. he's also got a few more words: "ghuk-ghuk-ghuk" for duck (he got a find-the-duck book at the library), "haaaaaan" for hand... there's one or two more that i just can't remember right now.

*cole still won't say 'truck'; he says "CAHHH!!!", followed by a hearty "phfffff". airbrakes. (not much escapes this kid...)

* i finally got ahold of lynne this morning to schedule my next therapy session. she asked how it was going with the brushing/compressions; i told her i thought it was working because i was able to let our neighbor do my hair without feeling the overwhelming urge to run like heck. (just to clarify, i was still a little uncomfortable, but at least it was manageable). she screamed into the phone and said "you're kidding! that's awesome!!"

yes, lynne, you rock!

funny cousins!

this one is for sasa, logan and coy:

cole was watching blog videos of coy this morning and i HAD to get his reaction on camera... he'd sit there with an anticipatory smile on his face and then giggle hysterically when he heard coy laugh!

i forgot to post this one last week; we went to gordman's and they had a bunch of clearance stuff marked an additional 33% off, so we meandered around to see if there was anything we could use. i spied this cute shirt for cole- 2T, so i figured he could wear it this summer (and next summer too). i looked at the tag and saw that it was a two-piece set, but there was only the shirt. there were no more like it on the racks, so we thought that maybe we'd get an additional discount because it was only half an outfit. no such luck- our cashier asked an employee to look for shorts to go with it and after about 5 minutes, she came back with a pair of denim board shorts in the same size. the next day, when i went to take the tags off, i noticed on the back of one of the tags it said "khaki", so we definitely have the wrong shorts. oh well- denim or khaki, they're WAY too big for him!! at almost 2 years, cole's still wearing some 18-mo clothes, some 24-mo and a few 2T here and there. funny how sizes range so drastically... anyway, our clearance outfit will definitely fit next year. good, because we think the shirt is just too cute!

memorial day in green bay

we packed up the kids and were out the door before 7.30 on monday morning. we had places to go, people to see and things to do! our plans for the day were to get to kandace and duey's so that we could leave their place by 9 and get decent parking for the parade at 10. we were successful! it was both cole AND madison's first parade, so i took way too many pictures... *sheepish grin*cole waiting for the parade to start- he started getting a bit antsy after awhile!

miss madison safe in her carseat, wondering what mommy and daddy dragged her out into the wind and noise for...

daddy helped cole get a flag from one of our nation's bravest.

he also got a tootsie roll- what's a parade without candy? we were right on the curb and managed to snag a grand total of three pieces. more on that later...

this is what cole thought of the parade; he was so absorbed into watching everything go by, it's like he was shocked into silence! he's never been that still for that long while conscious. i think he enjoyed it!

and this is what madison thought of the goings-on: need i say more?!

and what about uncle duey? what did HE think of all the excitement?
zzzzzzz.

after the parade we went back to kandace and duey's for lunch.

he ate plenty of jello salad! he had it all over... his shirt, his hands, his face, the tablecloth, the floor...

... and after he was cleaned up, he crashed. he took a nice long nap, almost three hours. and when he woke up, he got off the bed by himself, jiggled the doorknob to let us know he was awake and met us with a big smile. that's my little man!

did madison nap? only a little- she was wide awake!!

now, about the parade candy thing. it's like, half the excitement! but here's the problem: greedy kids. seriously. we were next to a bunch of kids between the ages of about 7 and 12, and when candy started being tossed, those kids went NUTS. i mean, grabbing and diving without any thought of people around them, or even their own siblings/ friends/ whoever. yeah, kids get carried away sometimes, i get that. but this was kind of ridiculous... they'd have overflowing handfuls, stuff them into their candy bags and then go for more, taking from anyone who didn't have a death grip on theirs. it was crazy. the worst part? their parents were ENCOURAGING this behavior! they even told the kids to run ahead so they could get more. meanwhile, there were smaller, more timid and definitely more well-behaved kids standing around with one or two pieces, looking a little disappointed. i wasn't upset that cole only got a tootsie roll (we snagged it for him); i felt so bad for the other kids that were deprived and to be honest, i was embarrassed for the greedy ones and their parents. embarrassed because if it were MY kids doing that, there would be apologies and sharing with others. these parents were not that much older than us- they'd have been raised in the same generation and yet their idea of proper behavior and ethics is the total opposite. i remember when we were young that we never really went to any parades, but at birthday parties that involved pinatas, we were always the ones who got a few pieces. maybe we were disappointed for a little while, but the next day, it was a distant memory. seeing those kids yesterday and the way they've been taught, well, it makes me that much more thankful that i was raised by parents that taught us to be humble. i only hope that we can raise our kids with the same mindset, that greed never gets you anywhere. really, despite the fact that seeing kids being so selfish it literally turned my stomach, i feel sorry for them. they're going to be SO disappointed when they realize that they're not always going to get the most and the best in life!

bring on the heat!

now that we got a kiddie pool, it's cold. go figure. on friday we went to appleton to look around... i'd been wanting to get cole (and madison) a pool for this summer and i figured one of those inflatable two-ring pools would be just fine. i forgot to check that idea with daddy. he ended up getting the kids THIS pool instead:daddy took it as an excuse to use the air compressor. actually, it wasn't really an excuse- we don't have a tire pump or anything and neither of us would have had enough breath for the pool AND the slide!

cole HATES the air compressor...

...but got over it pretty quick when he saw his pool!!

i don't know how much "swimming" he'll be doing in it this summer, since this was what he did all evening. he had a blast!

daddy even hung him upside down and got his head wet... but the water on his shirt is mostly from him trying to carry handfuls of water over to the flowers by the corner of the house.

cole got in once or twice with a little help from daddy; he didn't stay in too long though! as soon as it warms up (hello, it's the end of may....!!!) and the water is a little warmer, i think he'll have plenty of fun! between the pool, bubbles and lots of sidewalk chalk, i'm hoping he stays somewhat occupied this summer!

more to come!

we ARE still around... we've just been too busy, it seems. with madison more adamant about what she wants, it's getting harder and harder to blog as often as i'd like. such is life... to recap the past 1/2 a week: kelvin had off on friday (he was working 4 10-hour days) so we scooted down to appleton to look around. found a few deals and got a kiddie pool to boot. sarah came and got cole on saturday to take him and his overnight bag to the farm... he's stayed overnight there himself only one other time, when madi was born. but i was too preoccupied to really think about it too much. i was hesitant to let him go- i trust mom and dad fully, but i know how my very busy and spirited little man can be...! i thought for sure i'd at least tear up, watching him ride away, but i didn't; not that i didn't miss him (i did!). it was a nice day for us- we just had madison, and she was SO good all day! we drove down to oshkosh for little j's birthday party and then decided to sneak in a dinner out, just the (almost) two of us. we were going to go to olive garden but didn't feel like waiting the 30 minutes or more for a table so we went to outback steakhouse instead. i'd never been there since i'm NOT a steak person. about 2 bites will last me a year... so i had a baked potato and ceasar side salad and that was great plenty. it was SO good!

we hit the memorial day parade in green bay with kandace, duey and kelvin's parents today... i took way too many photos. again. but in my defense, i was playing around with a few settings, so... :) since they're all on the olympus and we don't have a card reader, it will take f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to upload the photos; i'll plug it in tomorrow while i do dishes or something and well, you'll just have to pop in tomorrow sometime!

*i think i've just committed myself to posting tomorrow- whups. happy kids or not, i guess i'll have to do it!*

and it's not even noon...

i'm always mystified as to how two kids can wake up perfectly happy and zoom to screamin' demons in less than two hours. how does that happen? our morning started out with two happy kids, up bright and early, ready to eat and then play...the early festivities included a nice round of "cole, where is your cup?", which concluded in the little tikes kitchen. as it turns out, the cup was in a skillet on the "stove", next to a lego train car. nice combo, huh?

then we had miss madison, who was happy as a clam in her baby papasan. both kids had breakfast, we played for a while and then madison had her nap at 9 (we're working on getting a real schedule going... somewhere in between the newborn-sleep-all-day phase and now, life got super busy and we just never got a real schedule going). since she was asleep and cole was surrounded with toys and books, i decided to sneak in a shower. that's where i went wrong, i guess. the screaming started... instigated by cole, of course. he's the champion screamer. after a few time-outs due to the throwing of toys and hitting mommy (uh-oh), it was time to change that diaper. madison's too, since she was now wide awake. diapers changed (mommy cheated and used huggies because it's hot and sticky in the house and the kids are screaming and well, one time won't hurt. it's for mommy's sanity.) and off to play some more. there was one happy, quiet stretch that allowed for some pretty sweet photos...

heehee! my munchkins!!


cole's SO proud to be holding his "a-na-na" by himself, while "a-na-na" is seriously considering taking a chomp out of the rocker.

i dragged out the rocker i had when i was small, since cole's about big enough to use it. maybe having his own "grown up" chair will help settle him a little. i've come to the conclusion that he's not always naughty- sometimes it's that overwhelming curiosity. he can't just sit still and observe. well, he can, but it's very rare. he's got to be right up in things and checking them out. he's one busy boy! in his quest to explore and learn everything, he gets into trouble... so really, he's not always naughty, per se, just mischievous. we're not always on the same page, he and i. but he's my baby, so i love him immensely.
continuing on: our happy moment in the rocking chair quickly dissolved into two sets of screams and tears. why? no clue. just happened. one of those great unsolved mysteries, i think. needless to say, the past few weeks have been this frustrating, noisy, chaotic blur that is made a little more intense by the fact that our central air unit is sitting outside waiting to be hooked up. i know- logically, it shouldn't even matter, since we've gone the past seven years without it. it's the anticipation of having a semi-cool house, methinks. after yesterday the place really heated up and even with the windows open all night, it's still pretty warm in here. the heat always makes me more on edge, which makes the crabby child ordeal that much worse. looking at it from an outsider's perpective, i think i can say that this whole stressed-out mommy thing is mostly my own fault. i can't change the weather or how kids are, but i CAN change the amount of patience i have (or in this case, DON'T have). it's not easy, and sometimes i wonder just what made me think i could ever be a mommy. there are days, too many days, where i can't stand myself and just want to escape; but at the end of the day (yes, even THOSE) days, i look into the sweet and innocent faces of my sleeping babies and wonder how i, in all my imperfection, was ever chosen to raise and care for them. the man upstairs must have faith in me... if i were him, i wouldn't let me do it. and so it goes- cycling from utter love to utter frustration to self-doubt, i realize that this chaotic, stressful, blissful rollercoaster is parenthood. and i'm lovin' it.

wait, there's more!

in addition to creeping, our miss madison has another new skill:holding her bottle! i don't think cole held his own bottle until he was about 6 or 7 months. this little girl never fails to amaze me!

~

*ps- we made it through the last two nights with no playing in the wee hours!! we're shooting for day 3.*

little creep

this precious little wonder can now creep across the living room. she only goes backward, but she moves! yikes!! her daddy thinks she'll be walking at nine months. as much as i wouldn't mind a brilliant and accelled child, i really don't think i want a nine-month-old walker... but if she does, then she does.

this was on sunday- we went to see kelvin's dad in the hospital. don't worry, he's alright- he had a bout of pancreatitis and will be coming home tomorrow. kelvin's grandparents came up to visit, so we made sure to be there when they were there, since they hadn't met madison yet. cole was pretty shy on friday afternoon when we first went to visit but on sunday, he was happy to climb up (and down and up and down and up and down and...) onto his grandpa's neat bed! he even wanted to share his chocolate milk with him. i guess that's only fair, since he helped himself to grandpa's jello.

cole put his jacket on all by himself yesterday. can you tell?

and just recently, this little munchkin has started doing this when he's upset or in a time-out. he screams (or just cries) into his hands... i have NO idea where he picked it up, but it's kinda funny. yup, life is rarely dull here!

4 months!

at 4 months, madison is:

13 pounds, 13 ounces (55th %ile)

26 inches (97th %ile)

weight-for-length: 2nd %ile

she is funny...

...likes to watch her big brother...

... gets and "gives" lots of kisses...

... and is just so gosh-darn cute we can hardly stand it!!

her appointment was today and everything went well- she got her shots (*sniff*) and was declared to be a healthy little girl! cole did pretty well... i didn't use the sling or stroller (for the fact that one: he gets a bit heavy after 45 minutes, and two: double strollers don't fit well in tiny exam rooms!) and so we had a "stay by mommy and don't touch things" experience! he only escaped once and got one time-out for trying to play with the computer. this was after several counts to 1 or 2 and finally a refusal to cooperate. anyway, madison's healthy and has surpassed the developmental milestone recommendations, so we can assume she's just fine!

hatch open, will eat

i've come to the conclusion that our baby girl is simply growing too fast. but she's still small enough to sleep in weird positions and still wake up happy and refreshed...

on thurday night, madison had cereal for the first time!! she did really well- i thought i'd give it a try, see if maybe she'll sleep through that 3 am "play" hour. so far it hasn't really affected that, but at least she likes the cereal!

cereal, anyone??
i caught her mid-blink- really, she's not about to scream, i promise!

hmmm- she ate the cereal, tried her thumb, ate a little more cereal, then thought her bib would be great for dessert. do we have a small goat on our hands?

oh, she looks so small in the highchair!!

we got video and photos of the whole event, and it brought back memories of cole's first cereal. he was SO good- from that first cereal until now, he rarely got his hands dirty... no carrots-in-the-hair-and-peas-on-the-face feedings for this little guy! madison's the opposite- she had to feel every bite that went in. she wanted to sample her fingers, bib, thumb, you name it in between bites. she even grabbed for the spoon! funny how siblings can be so totally opposite! now i'm a bit nervous about her eating baby food- i have NO idea how to handle a messy eater because cole was so neat! oh, i can't believe my baby is old enough to have cereal... where does the time go?

i'll post photos later (maybe today yet, we'll see) of the classic car show and carnival we checked out last night. it's all part of clintonville's 'pigeon river days' weekend. we just walked through the carnival so cole could see the lights... it was after his bedtime already and besides, he was SO content to sit in the stroller and watch everything. maybe next year we can get him on some of the toddler rides or the big huge slide.

new video

just wanted to note a video of "hope for resolution" posted on the header... originally done by the willamette singers from willamette university in oregon, sarah's choir sang it the other year for their holiday concert. it was beautiful and brought tears to the eyes of almost everyone there, choir members and audience alike. this is the best version i could find on youtube, so i figured i'd post it to share (and because once i find something i've been looking for, i tend to want to keep it handy, so the safest place for it is probably the blog!).

*enjoy!*

(ps- if anyone can tell me how to post this to my sidebar without it being half cut off, that would be great... i tried a video bar, but ended up with lots of other junk showing up half the time. thanks!!)

rainy days and the like

first off, i have to start by saying that this photo of madison is directed at my mom... does the thumb thing look familiar?? she started that on her own... like mother, like daughter!

cole and his lego table; he LOVES the legos, doesn't always remember that they can be used on the table and almost never likes putting them away. typical little boy! he gets the biggest kick out of the legos that have wheels... why, i'm not sure. he's got plenty of little boy toys with wheels, but the lego ones are his favorite.

i'm not sure either (but it's cute!!).

mommy and madison

it was SO gray and damp yesterday... no fun at all. cole's getting to the age now where the weather can affect his disposition, apparently. he was not the most pleasant child to be around!! the morning was fine, afternoon was a bit testy and by supper, well, let's just say we stayed home from meeting because we knew our chances of sitting down with either kid were non-existant. madison was pretty touchy too... just NOT a pleasant evening. cole still doesn't have his eye teeth, so i think that those are S-L-O-W-L-Y making their way through and he's been intensely picky at mealtimes too. and miss madison? well, she's been fairly good-natured... with the exception of a few normal cranky spells here and there. right now the big thing with her is her urge to get up and play in the very wee hours of the morning (like, between 1 and 3 am). no fussing, no acting hungry, just rolling around, kicking, cooing... cute, but not when it's still dark out!!

one other thing... the library has the tom pease albums that i couldn't find, so i checked them out, ripped them onto the computer and made my own cd's. now we have (almost) the complete collection for cole and madi! it was fun to hear some old favorites; i was amazed at how many of the lyrics and tunes i remembered!! yes, elissa, we have "banana slug"... and "many cows". good thing we didn't have a cd player in the van when we were young, or we'd never have made it past "many cows" on account of ted's obsession with farms then... oh, the memories!! :)

cole goes to school

yes, cole went to school- high school, even! wow... and from what i hear, he did really well. he got to see what auntie sarah does all morning, and auntie sarah got to see what happens to your everyday life when you have a little one to worry about. cole even got to see grandma (as a lunch lady). my mom called this afternoon after she was done with work and we were back home, and reported that sarah had brought cole by the cafeteria several times and each time he was just babbling away, all excited about something!!this was cole before we left the house... he was up bright and early at 5.30; i heard the sound of him falling out of bed (first time!!) while i was in the shower. he seemed fine- happy to be up and going "byyyyyye" in the "cah"!

cole and auntie sarah before starting the day... he had other things on his mind. like running around the parking lot. or something similar...

and this is cole after going to school! he was SO tired- we had lunch with dad at culver's (sarah too) and then dropped sarah back off at school. we were about a mile away from the school before he passed out in his carseat. of course, once we got into clintonville, he woke up and had no interest in resuming his nap (he really could use the other half... or more...). now he's happily scattering legos all over the living room.

while cole was giving auntie sarah a taste of parenthood, madison and i had a little "girl's morning out". we we went to kmart, then to mainstreet marketplace. we wandered goodwill to kill time before some other shops opened. she ate, then we went to dragonwings bookstore and a cool little place called embellishments. if you ever get to waupaca and want to see a really cool store, i recommend dragonwings... all kinds of books and kid/baby books and toys, not to mention an AWESOME reading corner... they have music, too. maybe those of you from my generation remember a local musical sensation (from amherst) named tom pease? he was THE coolest way back when; we used to get as many of his tapes as we could from the library whenever we went on long trips, and we knew all those songs by heart. i remember dad singing along too! well, dragonwings had a few of tom's albums on cd, so i got one titled "wobbi-do-wop". i forgot how fun (and a little dorky on occassion) his songs were!! the album i really wanted wasn't there, but i know i can always get it online. but it's such fun, and good clean music for kids that we really enjoyed when we were little, and i want cole and madison to be able to enjoy it too. (i have to admit that i still like the guy... laugh if you want, hahaha!)

i'd like to know what my readers think- did you ever listen to tom pease? what was your favorite song? was there another kids' artist or group you just had to listen to because it was the coolest? c'mon... dig back into the memories of your childhood that have been pushed aside by the cares and responsibilities of adulthood and tell me what your favorites were!