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!