guess

who

tried


his

first cereal?

guess who didn't like it?

that was friday... three days later, he doesn't like it any more than he did the first time. flat-out refuses it, but this morning we managed to get about two little spoonfuls down him (on accident- he sure wasn't intending to swallow!!). we'll keep trying, gently of course. his 4-month check-up was today, and he weighed in at 10 lbs, 2 oz (there's no percentile for that- he's off the bottom of the chart) and measured 23 3/4 inches (10th-ish percentile). despite his lack of weight gain, he's incredibly strong, which please dr h- he pulled remington up to gauge his neck stability, and rem just clung to his thumbs for dear life. dr h kept pulling, and then we both got a good laugh out of seeing rem just hanging from his thumbs, legs stiff as boards, tiny arms flexed so he was literally doing a chin-up... what he lacks in weight he makes up for in muscle! he's up 5 oz since his 2-month visit, and a 1/2 inch taller. that's a very small amount, so we're to bring him in for quick weight checks whenever we're near the clinic. everything else checks out fine, though- he's alert, rolling, holding himself very well, cooing, following objects with his eyes... he's keeping up fine with all that. my concern is that he doesn't like to bend his legs, straighten his arms or open his hands, but i was told that at this point, babies develop differently so there's no reason to worry. hopefully he'll chunk up in the next two months and his size will be closer to normal. he's healthy and that's all that's important for now. we always say our babies grow up too fast- remington must've heard it and decided to stretch out his "little time" :)

rice on the side, please

last post i griped about the new blogger dashboard... nothing i did seemed to make it change back. but sometime, somehow, it DID revert and now i'm oh-so-pleased. it's the little things, ya know?

anyway, we've been keeping busy in our cyber-absence:

kelvin found a curious george treasure hunt game for the kids. yes, they've got daddy wrapped around their sweet little fingers! they had a blast with it, and it's going to be great for teaching them to take turns and follow instructions. (and there goes mommy, taking the fun out of the game, hahahaha!)

remington didn't get to play, but he did get snuggles with daddy after cole and madison were in bed. i had to laugh because he looked so itty-bitty sitting there.

oh, and then the grin-a-thon started!

i think he was mid-coo during this one... and it still makes me laugh when i see it! his eyes are always so bright, sometimes i feel my breath catch. if you're a parent, you know the feeling... :)

we love bubbles here. goodness knows this little guy's been making his share lately... it's like a tiny, human bubble-machine. (sort of)

all by his big-boy self on the loveseat! his latest thing is sticking his feet up in the air and just staring at them. makes me really wonder what's going through his sweet, tiny noggin.

auntie sarah introduced him to hair "pretties" last week- they sure caught his eye! poor little baby was the ONLY guy at the bridal shop, which happened to be positively swarming that particular evening. crazy-busy for a small-town store, that's for sure. he was a trooper, though, and got plenty of attention.

we're getting serious about potty-training.

we've had a small bit of resistance, but nothing so bad that the promise of a gummy bear for a job well-done can't fix. let's see- today's stats, as of noon: two potties, two gummy bears, and if you'll excuse me for JUST a moment, the first accident (of the day). she's learning and i've found that unlike cole, who used the regular toilet straightaway and needed one of us to be with him from start to finish, madi prefers the potty chair and her privacy. whatever works- just so long as she gets trained! i think she's doing splendidly for her first few "serious" days :)

my first attempt at homemade pudding. i wanted to make chocolate, but that means NO egg whites and i though separating a bunch of eggs would be too much work. now that i've done vanilla pudding with whole eggs, i'm thinking that getting the right cooking temp for any pudding with egg whites is slightly more difficult that separating eggs. it tastes yummy, but there are little bits of cooked egg white because apparently, the heat was a tad on the high side. but still- for a first attempt, i'm happy with it! and the kids love it, so i'm calling it a success.

remington's first time in the highchair! poor baby gets banished to the floor or his carseat when i'm working in the kitchen (for safety reasons, i almost never put him in the moby when i'm in the kitchen. i'm a klutz and the moby isn't flame- or sharp-object-proof.), and he usually protests. this time he was at my level and was a bit more satisfied.

i was snapping a photo of his little legs and feet up in the air but the look on his face in the background is too funny- totally makes the shot! anyway, he's got a little more growing to do before he's able to really utilize the highchair. he'd better hurry, because i'm already getting his "big boy" menu planned out...

sunday-morning snuggles!

remi and curious george are roughly the same size...

crabby much? ;)

brothers!

cole wanted to hold his brother "like mommy and daddy do's".

madi in her sunday get-up- i found the skirt at goodwill; it was an old navy piece, size 5, but with a few strategic tucks around the waistband, she can wear it now AND when she's actually in a size 5.

sharing secrets with auntie sarah; wonder what she told him?

here's our rice! it's not on the side, but it IS finely ground and stored in a container, ready to be cooked up for remington's first cereal. i used brown rice (because it's a whole grain, therefore not refined and full of starch) and stuck it on our coffee grinder on the "espresso" setting. when our little guy is ready for his first bites, i'll mix one part ground rice with eight parts filtered water, cook it on the stovetop for 10-ish minutes, let it cool a little, thin as needed and let him devour it! or cry and spit it out, whatever. either way, it's wholesome, SUPER cheap and easy to make. and i can even make a little extra to put in the fridge so all we have to do is reheat and thin it out. remington will be four months next monday, so it won't be long before he gets his first taste :)

:) / :(

with the good comes the not-so-good. actually, it's more of a gripe this time. any other bloggers (meaning, people who use blogger) having a hard time lovin' the new blogger? i, for one, am ready to kick it to the curb. maybe take my ramblings over to wordpress. definitely not a fan of the "improvements"... who's with me? anyone? and on that note, i don't suppose there's anyone out there who knows if or how you can revert your dashboard back to the "old" version... this old lady's set in her ways. ;)

and now for the good.

it was one of the highlights of my weekend:

 it's old, beautiful, vintage, worn, full of possibilities...

... can you say, "new photo prop"?
who says the iola car show is just for cars? as my dear husband pointed out, you can find pretty much anything there... including old cars and people who maybe need to double-check their mirrors before leaving the house. yikes. that was a whole experience in itself. maybe burkas aren't that bad of an idea for some people, is all i'm sayin'. anyway, swap meet, old cars and scantily-clad old ladies aside, the car show was actually pretty interesting, and the kids even had fun hanging out at the booth (until the heat and no naps caught up with them). i even had the chance to snap a few photos of grandpa gene's restored 1932 plymouth... i'll share later. maybe. if i can ever get used to this new blogger. and since it looks like we're back to the gripe, that means we've come full-circle and it's my cue to sign off.
hope everyone else had a great weekend! :)

7/4

happy independence day!!

pools + picnic + sparklers = long post...

here i am, making up for slacking off yet again. having to "catch up" time and again isn't teaching me my lesson, it seems... so here we are with another long post. then again, there's so much we like to share it can't really be helped!!

once the weather FINALLY warmed up and the rain went away, it was time to take out the kiddie pool. daddy hosed it out and cleaned it up, then filled it for the littles. neither cole nor madi were really sure what to do, exactly, so they started with some tentative splashes, then some dramatic marching through the water...

... which escalated to jumping (madi fell backward over the side at least three times, silly girl!!)...

... and finally all-out full-body splashing. the water level went down pretty quickly, but they sure had a ball!

(i love my camera's shutter speed... catching those huge splashes is tons of fun when the shutter can keep up with them!)

last sunday after meeting we stayed at mom and dad's for a picnic. the kids haven't had one before, at least not that they really remember, so it was exciting for them. they sat so patiently at the table- or maybe it was the novelty of it that kept them entertained.

grandpa and his "princess" had some bonding time after lunch. madi doesn't get the whole nick-name thing, so when my dad calls her his princess, she replies with "no, i'm just MADI". :)

grandma and cole blew bubbles...

... and remington chilled with his daddy.

then he chatted with mommy for a little bit (thanks to kelvin for the photo!)

wednesday was our ninth anniversary, and kelvin surprised me with roses! it had been "one of those days" so they were a nice surprise. it doesn't seem like it's been nine years... in some ways it seems like just yesterday that we said our vows, but in other ways it feels like this is all we can remember (in a good way, of course). we've been through a lot and have each other to thank for getting through it. and we've learned that it's ok to fight, as long as we're fighting for each other. nine years finds us stronger, wiser and with three small, beautiful babes under-foot. what could be better??

i dug out the walk-about for remington to use, seeing as he's more alert and wanting to actually DO something these days. there's one small problem, though: he's so petite that it takes mounds of blankets to hold him in place! by the time he's all tucked in, he's already bored. or mad. either way, he's going to have to get a bit bigger before the fun factor can be figured in. poor baby!!

this past saturday (the 2nd) kelvin and i left the kids with mom and dad and took remington to minnesota. it was just a quick day-trip to take sarah's bed to chase's apartment so he has something comfortable to sleep on his last month of being a bachelor. the day was perfect for travel, but i forgot the camera so we got no photos of remington's first roadtrip. we were kind of discombobulated before leaving though- it was wicked hot friday, so the barn apartment was stifling... it hadn't had much of a chance to cool down before the big windstorm hit and the power went out. it was still out when we left (around 5.30-ish) so not only were we a bit on the warm side, i didn't get to take a shower. yuck. but we made the best of it, enjoyed a good drive, had some time together and were glad to see cole and madi when we got home.

of course, they'd made the most of their day too- fresh air, room to run, playing with grandma, grandpa, auntie sarah and uncle chase... they were on top of the world, i think! they even "helped" with cleaning; cole did a wonderful job on the door.

two kids + two squirt bottles makes for some pretty good fun!

daddy's truck even got a "washing"... they were too cute, squirting the truck with water, pleased as punch to be cleaning daddy's hemi.

poor remington had a case of the crankies, though- he did wonderfully in his carseat the entire trip, but when we got him out of it after getting back, he realized he had a lot of fussing to make up for.

last night i had a little fun in the kitchen. it involved lemons, raspberries, honey, a saucepan and a strainer.

homemade raspberry-lemonade syrup!! it's really good with seltzer water, but plain water will do just fine too. it turned out a little more tart than i'd planned, but it won't be a problem to stir a little sugar in our glasses along with the syrup.

after supper and once i was done with the syrup, we went next door to let the kids play while we waited for dark and fireworks. henry and cole had some fun with henry's swords (i love the look on henry's face!!)... definitely little boys, those two!

miss maggie wanted to hold the baby, so she got her turn with baby remington.

another couple and their two little girls came over as well, and all the kids played duck-duck-goose. cole and madi are at the age now where they can learn and enjoy games like that but there's hardly enough people with just the two of them and me. they caught on rather quickly and had a ball! it was funny to watch: 6 kids all under the age of 5, running around. they all played so well together :)

before long, it was dark enough to break out the sparklers. our kids have never seen them- in fact, this was the first year they stayed up to watch the big fireworks, so everything was really new and exciting.

cole was a little unsure but still got a kick out of his very first sparkler.

madi held hers at arm's length...

maggie looks hypnotized!!

... and madi STILL had her's out as far away as possible. she was a trooper, though, and held onto it till it fizzled out.

:)

cole got the hang of things and was willing (begging) to do more...

... but all of a sudden his sparkler was on the ground and was was screaming. he was crying and trying to keep his left foot up, but it was so dirty from running around that i had to take him back to the house to check things out.

it seems that the top part of his sparkler had fallen onto the ground after it burned and not seeing it, he stepped on it. he has a nice blister on the bottom of his poor little foot. i washed it off, disinfected it, stuck a bandaid over it, put his shoes on and back to the neighbors' we went. he wasn't interested in sparklers anymore, though. this morning when i asked him how the owie on his foot was, he squinted up one eye, held his thumb and finger a few millimeters apart and said, "it's just a little bit owie".

once it finally got dark enough, we all migrated out to the sidewalk to watch the big fireworks. it's always guess-work when it comes to how cole will react to new things, but he did great! he sat in the lawn chair the entire time watching them; he even mentioned something about the thunder, hahahahaha!

they were pretty...

... even madi thought they were neat, once she got her face out of daddy's shoulder. it was pretty cute- she was clinging to him for dear life even before the big boomers started (we had a few bottlerockets and someone down the street had a few they were setting off, which scared her a little), and even as her face stayed buried in his shoulder, she kept saying "i want to see, daddy!".

the other remington from next door came home for the last bit of fireworks, so after everything was over with, we HAD to get a shot of the two remingtons... or as the older one said, "remington squared". our little remington slept through the entire display, safely wrapped in the moby. i love that thing!

so despite our first fire-works injury (thankfully quite minimal), our little family enjoyed our very first fireworks show together... and it was fun to have been able to hang out with our lovely neighbors!! :)