oh, the places he'll go...

... our brilliant son.

uh-huh, i'm a wee bit biased.

that's my job.

cole wearing "bapa haht"

(translation: grandpa's hat. kelvin got it from dad... see, cole can already read- he knows it says "snap-on"!)

when i said cole will go places, i'm thinking of his future. the way he puts things together (that's a recent development) and the way he's always studying things, i wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being an engineer of some sort. his lego 'building' is proof... see the little lego guy at the edge? it looked like he was sitting at a desk. yes, cole quietly built this dr suess-reminescent dandy and walked away as if it were no big deal.
and just for clarification, neither kelvin nor i touched any legos during the construction... that was all cole's doing!

and miss squish? well, she's been up to her own thing. today she crawled almost all the way across the living room! ever since she first crawled, way back six weeks ago or so, she's taken to doing the army crawl, but today she decided it was time to give her tummy a break. she's also been more active in pulling herself up onto her knees... yikes.

one of her quirky habits that i never really catch on camera is her burp-rag thing. most babies like to cuddle up with a blanket... madison opts for her burp rag,

hmmmm.

could it be because it's a permanent fixture for her? yes, that's how bad the spitting up is... she thinks burp rags are for snuggling with!

i scheduled an appointment with a chiropracter here in town for madison- she goes in next week wednesday. it came as a suggestion from several mommies, so we'll give it a try.

another sneak peek- check it out at green vanilla baby (link is on the right)!

cole's learned a few new things... he can now muster up the strength to open the fridge door himself. he also lasted an entire (short) trip to dollar general without sitting in the cart... he helped push it, carried the laundry detergent out to the van and behaved himself amazingly. wow!

we, as a family, headed to appleton after kelvin got home from work. menard's has entry doors on sale this week and it's high time we replaced ours. actually, we have three (four, if you count the one between the porch and living room) that need replacing, but since they're not cheap, we're doing the one that needs it the most. the door by the driveway is the worst... when it's windy in the winter, the snow drifts into the house. crazy. kelvin got some weather stripping the other weekend, intending to seal that door. it was a great idea, in theory; the door wouldn't close once the stripping was on and we could still see through the crack between the door and the house. our new door has a window and will be painted red. red doors are supposed to bring good luck, and who couldn't use a little of that these days? it's a nice, rich colonial red (that's what the label calls it). we also picked up some concrete blocks and mortar mix- kelvin's going to take out the old "casement" (if you could call them that) windows along the foundation and fill them in with brick and mortar. that should help insulate things better.

anyway, after our trip to menard's, we grabbed a bite to eat at ihop. cole learned to say "ice" and was insistent on drinking my diet pepsi for me. he also was more interested in my plate than his grilled cheese; mine had fries.
"fyh, mama"

two words together; yay! actually, the other day, he put three words together: "weh daddy goh?"... i love this stage!

one last thing before i sign off for the night: after we were seated at ihop and had already ordered, an elderly couple sat down in the booth behind us. shortly after, cole (who was tired, hungry and close to a melt-down) started fussing for his cup. it was empty (our drinks were on the way) and of course, being only two, he doesn't yet get the concept of time so we couldn't pacify him by explaining that if he waited for a minute or two, his chocolate milk would come and then he could have his cup. mind you, it was minor fussing. the older lady behind us immediately started complaining and asked their waitress if they could be seated somewhere else. about that time, cole's milk arrived and all was well. she told their waitress to never mind and went on to complain to her husband how horrible it was that children these days were allowed to whine and cry in public. oh, she didn't mind tiny babies that didn't know better, but children should know better. wow. it was all i could do to keep from turning around and speaking my mind. i wanted so badly to tell her that if she was going to eat at a family restaurant, she better be willing to tolerate children. they're inevitable at family restaurants... that's the point of a family-oriented food establishment. of course, if cole had been running round the dining area, screaming at the top of his lungs, bouncing off the walls and all, then i could understand her complaint, maybe even sympathize. but lady, he's TWO... toddlers aren't perfect. nobody is.

now that we're home and all, i feel a little guilty for being angry at the old woman... now i just feel sorry for her, because all she did that whole time was complain. she must be pretty miserable if she can't find joy in anything.

me, i have my kids- even though they sometimes frustrate me, they're still the greatest joy... i'm a lucky girl!