another week, come and gone!

here i am, posting for the past week again.

i've really gotta get with it...

anyway, last week wednesday (cole's third birthday), the kids and i went to the farm for part of the day. mom and i had some beans to can and the kids got to play.

since it was gray and damp AND it was cole's birthday, he needed some new stuff to entertain him. great-grandpa gene and great-grandma barb sent him a book, and i got him a little something to open on his actual birthday as well (we're going to have a small party when kelvin's home, but the poor kid shouldn't have to wait till then!!)

i wish i'd have had the camcorder, because his reaction to this big book of machines was priceless!!

he had to look at every page right away.

i've never seen this kid SO excited over a book...

great-grandma barb, you chose well!!!

cole got a little race track from us.

his daddy has mentioned a hotwheels track a few times, but he's not old enough for that yet, so this will have to do.

he doesn't seem to think it's half-bad, and enjoys the racing cars as well as the noise.

(when those batteries go ka-put, i am NOT replacing them)

madison made do with a bucket and a few beans for her entertainment.

the little stinker- it wasn't too long before she flipped the bucket over to climb on it.

amazing!

this is the child who manages to find every wall and doorframe even remotely close to her path;

yet when it comes to balancing on a bucket, she does it perfectly the first time (and the second and the third...).

monday, it was back to the farm for more picking and canning; this time, the weather was perfect for playing outside.

(the grass was damp most of the day, so the mosquitoes were abundant- cole's little forhead is all bit up!)

cole and madi played SO nice together!

in the playhouse!

mom and i canned two batches of beans... i LOVE home canned beans!!

today sarah and chase came for a visit, the last one before she heads to college.

before they came, though, cole had a creative moment.

he's always had a fun time drawing- crayons, pencil, magna-doodle... he's a little artist.

BUT...

today was the first time he drew something recognizable!!

he told me it's a tree (the middle line going up and down and the big arc over it- my guess is a willow tree), and then he drew figures underneath it. he told me one of them was his auntie sarah, and i didn't get an answer for the other one. i was impressed... i wish it was on paper, though, so i could save it.

oh well- a snapshot will have to do!

*

tomorrow night kelvin comes home!!

we're excited and anxious to have our daddy home... he's flying in pretty late, so i'm going to put the kids to bed at mom and dad's and then go get kelvin. cole especially will be SO excited to see daddy in the morning!

and then, we have three whole days with him, before he flies out again early monday morning.

*

this baby is an energy vampire. i don't remember being THIS exhausted with cole and madi.

but that's ok- it'll pass, and it means the little peanut is growing.

tired, on-and-off nauseous, bloated, hormonal, i love it all. some things are mildly irritating, yes, but they pass. and it's all SOOOO worth it by the time the nine months is up.

and people who don't show until 16 weeks or later?

lucky.

my wonderful sister sent me a box of her maternity clothes to borrow (instantly quadrupling my maternity wardrobe. it was pitifully small.), and i didn't think i'd need them for quite awhile.

i think i was wrong.

it's mostly bloat at this point, but my normal clothes are already getting a bit uncomfortable. i know- it's "way too early", but by the third pregnancy, most women show earlier. i had a bump at 12 weeks with cole and between 10 and 11 weeks with madi so i'm fairly certain that this one will be earlier still. the problem with being short-waisted is that when things expand even a little bit, we don't have room for everything else to compact before growing outward.

nope!
we start rounding out right away.

i'm ok with that- i mean, if i'm going to feel pregnant, i might as well look it, right? the "in-between" stage comes sooner and passes in the blink of an eye for those of us who are a bit short in the waist. :)

3

18th august 2007

18th august 2008

18th august 2009

18th august 2010

~*~

from a tiny little boy who entered the world at 2.58 am on 8/18/07 to the precocious, sweet, energetic person he is today... cole, you've blessed us with three awesome years!

happy 3rd birthday, sweet boy- we love you SO much!

li'l pigtails!

maybe i'm overdoing it on the pigtails thing, but a girl's very first hairdo is a big thing. especially when it's been 18 months in the making. since madison's little pigtail 'do went so well on sunday, i thought it would be fun to give it a try again yesterday.

she was less than impressed, but as a mom, you learn to gently and effectively wrangle your offspring.

so i wrangled.

 the result was cute.

success!

 as you can see, she's not nearly as happy about those things sprouting out of her head as her mommy is...

... but someday she's gonna love 'em.

time flies so fast that before we know it, she'll be spending too much time in the bathroom fixing her hair and stomping her foot over bad hair days.

*

i was looking at one of my pregnancy books this morning, and cole wanted to "read" it with me. he saw an illustration of a baby at about 4 weeks gestation (or 6 weeks into pregnancy, which is where we'll be tomorrow), and he asked what it was. i told him that it's what a baby looks like before it's born, and that's what our baby looks like right now. he looked at me like i was nuts, so i said, "it doesn't look much like a baby, does it?". he replied without missing a beat, "mama, looks like-a eh-lah-phant".

i laughed so hard i cried and nearly wet my pants... that's the thing about small children. they tell you how they see it!

~

my energy level has flat-lined, i think. the thought of doing much of anything is tiring... but it will pass soon, and really, it's quite tolerable. the queasies are pretty minor too, thankfully, and the bathroom breaks? well, those are another story.

ahhh, the joys of the first trimester.

no, really.... i love it! how can i not? it means there's a little life in there, and if it makes me tired, sometimes a little nauseous and bladder feel like it's suddenly the size of a pea, then i consider it a blessing.

~

tomorrow cole turns three.

i want to cry.

(even without the hormones, i'd still want to cry. he can't be three already!!)

paradin' 'round

every year on the second weekend in august, clintonville has it's annual firemen's festival.

now for the most part, i'm not too excited about it because it means live music in the park (two blocks away) until midnight or later... the thudding bass keeps me wide-awake till then.

now that the kids are more aware of their surroundings, i thought it would be fun to take them to the parade.

so we strapped all little persons into the stroller and away we went!

cole wasn't as content to sit back and watch as he was a year ago.
i told him that he could stand as long as he stayed right next to me.
and he did.
(--> shocked face here <--)

he lit up as soon as the parade started;
he saw the police cruisers with their lights on way up the street, so the closer they got, the more excited he became. and the cruisers were moving at a snail's pace so there was a good amount of shrieking and exclaiming from the little guy.
the people next to us thought it was a hoot. :)

i love old firetrucks... they're so cute!

then came the big rigs, lights and sirens a-blazin' and a-blarin'.

this was madison's reaction!

(can't say i blame her!)

this was the view from my angle;

if only mommy had six hands, we'd all have had our ears covered.

madi had her one ear in my shoulder and my hand over her other which left cole to fend for himself. he figured it out pretty quick!

then there were tractors...

.... which pushed cole to the next level of excitement.

i think it was a test of potty-training in disguise; i was afraid he was going to piddle, he was THAT wound up over the big green machines.

and then there was this.

(at this point, he was about to pass out, i think)

cole did incredibly well, even when they started throwing candy. i was a tad nervous about what would happen, since most of it he can't have. tootsie-rolls, fortunately, are safe for him, so for a little while, he'd pick up whatever tootsie-roll came his way. then he saw other kids picking up the "pretty stuff", so then he started going after that too. lucky me- i talked him into putting it in the stroller basket so it would stay safe (hey- the explanation worked for him!), and i kept the tootsie-rolls when we got home. he did well, not running into the street, and even sharing with a little girl a few feet down from us.

the fact that he shared was heartwarming for me... not that he doesn't know how to share, but to see him do that while the other kids were fighting to cram as much as they could into their own bags.

i hope he never loses that sweetness!

this is from my phone: madi's first pigtails this morning!

i found a package of 600 tiny little hairbands from dollar general for $1.

*

other random stuff that we don't have photos for:

cole has kept his underwear dry during his nap the last three days. i've been putting plastic pants on him (torture or motivation- i'm not sure. both?) and reminding him that he's got underwear on before laying him down. three days... that's pretty good, i think! i'm going to have to make a naptime potty-chart for him.

~

we're almost to week 6 of growing peanut #3. having the little faith that i do (partly because due to the circumstances of the past two months, it blows my mind that this happened), i bought another $1 test from dollar general and used it yesterday. that positive practically glowed.

~

does anyone else think it's a little bad that the school bands didn't play and march for the memorial day parade, but they made it out for the firemen's festival? from what i gathered, they assumed that nobody really was interested, so they just didn't show up for memorial day this year. there were some upset veterans; i wonder how they felt seeing them turn out for THIS parade? made me a little mad.

~

madison's started talking in sentences. her longest so far: "shoe... on... mama........... peeeeeeze?"

not bad for 18 months!

zucchini bread

zucchini season is here... which means oodles of the green things. i took home three from the garden last friday and they sat on my counter for a few days. i grated them and got enough for 4 double recipes of zucchini bread. i made two loaves and froze the rest.

what better way to kick off the season than chocolate-chocolate chip zucchini bread?

"like it, mama!"

*no comment due to full mouth*

madison likes it too... then again, she'll eat almost anything.

seriously- when else can you sneak veggies into a desert?

(well, besides carrot cake, and i can't stand that stuff. ick.)

~

alrighty. here's the deal: most of you know we have our house for sale. and if you didn't know, well, we have our house for sale. it's been on the market for about a year, which in today's economy is not long. i know that the market is slow pretty much everywhere.

i'm going to take a chance and wonder if there's anyone out there who knows of landlords that might be looking for another rental property (clintonville area, of course). we're desperate: with kelvin out of state all the time for work and now a baby on the way, it's incredibly important that we all be together. we don't have the time to be landlords ourselves, so that's not an option, especially if we're ALL out of the state.
we'd be happy to sell it for what we owe on it, no profit.

i know- it sounds SO desperate, because it is.

if you know of anyone that might be interested, pleasepleasepleaseprettyplease pass our name along (or email me).

*

in other very recent events, cole found our bottle (almost new, only a few doses used) of calms forte for kids. guess how many are left? two tablets. he and madi better be super calm now.

wish they'd have left some for me, because i'm a tad riled about $6 worth of tablets being gone in the blink of an eye!

you're so corny!

the corn is ripening just about everywhere you go, and my dad's sweet corn patch isn't excluded.

the kids and i went up to do the first batch of frozen corn yesterday. we did two rounds, and wound up with 34 cups. and then we had corn on the cob with dinner.

madi really liked the spinach-ham-and-swiss cheese quiche i whipped up (cole did too, actually. it shocked me.)

cole really went goofy for corn. he helped mom and i husk some, then helped with the blanching process. he helped with the end part, since that involves cold water... we didn't need anyone's little fingers getting burned! when we started cutting it, though, he REALLY had a ball. he was eating it as fast as mom could cut it off the cob. i had to cut him off (i felt so bad because he obviously loved it)- i was afraid he'd get sick from eating so much corn!
i think he takes after my dad... they both can make an entire meal out of fresh corn.

and this is crazy, i know, but i'm still in a state of half-disbelief...

four days, four tests, four positives.

it just blows my mind.

see, when it comes to this, i'm a "doubting thomas". even when i was first pregnant with cole and then with madi, i never completely believed it until we got to hear their little heartbeats. same with this one... since that's weeks away yet, i just had to test twice more, to be extra-extra sure. if these things were free, i'd test every day for peace of mind.

i guess i'm not entirely sure why i don't let myself just be satisfied with the results of the first two- maybe it's because i'm afraid (now that i'm head-over-heels in love with this itty bitty person) of losing him or her. everything went smoothly with cole and madi, but they didn't the first two times- yes, that must be it. fear. but even with that niggling worry, i'm still enjoying this.

even the nausea/hunger.

pregnancy has got to be the ONLY time a person can feel yucky and absolutely ravenous at the same time.

(and when i say "yucky", i mean mild nausea... i've been fortunate enough to not have ever had the puking that lots of people get. i'm pretty lucky!)

paint job

about 22 years ago, grandpa pheifer built a playhouse for us kids.

i remember him building it in the shop one winter, and when it was almost complete, he hooked it up to the tractor and pulled it out of the shop and into the yard. ted and i sat on the benches (which grandpa informed me are made of cypress, which lasts next to forever) while grandpa slowly pulled the little house to it's destination.

it's sat there ever since, and has been played in by us four kids, the cousins and our friends. it's been "house" to us girls and our babies, taken over by the boys, and many a kid has jumped from the roof. we've even sought refuge in it when our feelings were hurt or we knew we were in trouble for something.

and for the past 22 years, ever since it's establishment, it's been the same familiar white with black trim and a shiny red door. it's been repainted several times, but always the same colors.

my mom mentioned in passing a few times over the last couple of months that the playhouse should really be repainted. of course, i figured that meant the same white, black and red.

so... when mom and dad left for a vacation, i decided it would be a nice surprise to paint it for them so they didn't have to do it when they got back.

i took a chance and changed it up a bit.

and it doesn't look half bad!
that would be tea leaf green, cocoa creamy trim and magic stone floors.
the door? colonial red.

once it was done and paint was dry, madi made herself right at home.
now the new generation can enjoy it, all spiffed up.
our cousins' kids, and now mom and dad's five grandkids, as they get old enough.
oh... did i say FIVE??

why, yes... yes i did.

(---> insert big grin here <---)

two faint but positive tests plus the occasional but intense vertigo that comes (for me, anyway) only during early pregnancy.

i haven't been to the doctor yet, but from my guesstimate, we're due sometime around the 15th of april.

yay!!

we're still here!!

my apologies... it's been a busy summer! right after we got back from tennessee, we were off and running with more to do.

saturday (the 24th) we drove up to my parents' for ted's birthday. actually, shannon and brooke came up too, so it was kind of like old times. since ted and shannon share a birthday, there were quite a few joint celebrations when we were younger.

sharing the famous birthday hat...

... lighting the candles...

... and is that tedly looking sadly resigned to the fact that he's now a quarter of a century?

(kidding- i have no idea what he was doing there)

little mister cole got a cupcake... although here, he looks like he got caught swiping it.

"sawah!!"

madison tried on my helmet before kelvin and i took a spin out on the four-wheeler.

then she moved on to grandpa's boots.

she has this "thing" about sticking footwear on her hands and crawling around on the floor that way. strange little lady...

playing with pillows... she calls them "buh-lows".

i guess it's THAT funny!

mom and dad left for vacation the next day, and per our joint gardening effort, i'm doing the garden while they're gone. last week i had kelvin home (he took a week off before leaving for south carolina) so he was able to watch the kids while i worked in the dirt.

one of the days that we were up, i was putzing around by the asparagus patch and heard what i thought were baby birds. the sounds were coming from the tall grass, so i started looking... i found what i thought was a bird nest upside-down; i figured that if i was careful enough, i might be able to flip it upside-right so the poor things wouldn't suffocate and starve.

these are the strangest looking baby birds I'VE ever seen...

yes, i know- they're baby mice. i felt so bad, wrecking their little nest and sending the rest of the litter scrambling blindly into the grass. now i'm not a fan of mice- if they're outside and not causing trouble, i'm fine with them. but these little guys were SO tiny and helpless. guess it's the mommy in me that took pity on them. after all, they ARE just babies!

cole got to see a baby mouse up close (we all washed our hands afterwards, of course!)

they were so tiny and delicate and just plain helpless. i'm sure these two probably didn't survive after i put them back. poor little babies!

the weekend found us back at mom and dad's- even though they were still gone, ted and suz came up and we grilled out for supper.

cole "drove" the gator around the yard...

with a little help here and there from daddy.

(fear not: daddy was running the gas and brake!)

before supper the guys did a little close-range target practice. they got me out there, and i took a pop with kelvin's 7mm mag.

he filled this jug with water and told me to aim.

so i did.

this is the garden... i used the hand-cultivator on the entire thing. it took two days, but i did it. maybe it wasn't necessary, but the rain and storms had packed the dirt down SO bad, i thought it wouldn't hurt.

suz keeps tedly in line, hahaha!

cole got a quick ride from uncle ted...

does this look like a sick face to you?

if you said "yes", you'd be correct.

the poor little man barfed in the van not long after this. we had no indication- he didn't eat much for supper, but given the fact that he'd been running around all day, hadn't had half of his naps that week and well, who wants to eat when they can play outside, we didn't suspect anything.

ted discovered it, actually... kelvin and i were in the house looking high and low for madison's giraffe (which we came back the next day for and found under the willow tree, soaked from the rain); all of a sudden we heard ted saying, "umm, guys? come here...".

puke is my phobia.

but when you're a mom, you do what you have to. thankfully kelvin, ted and suz jumped in to help and between the four of us, we got it cleaned up in no time. kelvin rode on the floor next to cole's seat all the way home with a bucket handy, just in case. poor cole fell asleep within minutes, and by the time we got home, he was acting slightly perkier. he was chipper enough to sit up and listen to his bedtime story, then promptly fell asleep. he didn't move a muscle for about an hour, then woke up crying. fearing the worst (as in, more puke) we went into the kids' room- he was clean, but had a raging fever. we moved his mattress down to the living room, where i stayed on the couch next to him. sleep was elusive- he was restless, waking up every hour, and i was worried about him so i wasn't dozing much. he was better in the morning, had a low-grade fever for a few days, and now has congestion and some coughing. probably the same bug madison had- our last two days in tennessee, she had a fever, one really bad diaper, and then the runny nose and cough. they're both on the mend, so all's well!