lesson not learned!

you'd think that after several weeks of procrastinating with posting and then having huge long posts to catch up, i'd get the picture but apparently, i don't. oh well. in my defense, we HAVE been a bit busy... and next week tuesday? i'm dreading it already. dentist appointments, biolife appointment, swimming lessons... all between 2 and 6 pm. yay. back on track: mom and sarah watched the kids last week friday while i had my occupational therapy session. it was short, so i got back home before lunch was over. cole and sarah were goofing around with sarah's chapstick- he'd push it into her mouth (sometimes a little too far) and sarah would pop it back out. he thought it was the bee's knees, i guess!

and madison hung onto grandma... her eyes really popped out in this photo!

thursday night we had bonita and jennifer for supper and a little visit. we really really enjoyed it, and cole was SO upset when they had to leave; he cried (screamed) and clung to bonita. i thought for sure either she would have to stay or cole would have to go with her... guess there really is a bond between the two! it started before we knew we were pregnant with him... if you don't know the story, i'd be happy to indulge you!

saturday morning story, as narrated by daddy.

(the sundress that madison's wearing? daddy picked it out and brought it home out of the blue... )

she looks intrigued but i can tell you that that's not the case. what she's REALLY thinking is how to get that whole cardboard page in her mouth...

just can NOT wait for her cereal!

last night i was taking photos of cole because he was just being cute, and he started getting up REALLY close to the lens, making faces into it... he even kissed it! usually i'm a bit anal and hypersensitive about the kids handling the camera, but all i could do was laugh... and snap away!

thanks to mckmama (see the link on the right), i've decided to endeavor potty training with cole. friday night i found him a package of "wife-beaters" (sorry, i don't really care for the term either but most people have no clue when you say undershirt...) and there were some cute little briefs, so i thought ahead and got a three-pack. i mean, he'll eventually need them, right? we're going to gently attempt this, and if he starts getting frustrated with the whole thing, we'll stop... but some kids catch on really quick. it's worth a try, i guess. if he's not ready, we'll know, and we'll wait till he is. ANYHOO... after putting plastic garbage bags over the living room furniture cushions and spare sheets on top of the plastic, it was time for cole to try his new undies! he stayed dry for about two hours... just as i was bragging him up to elissa, he came running out of the kitchen, leaving a small series of wet footprints. whups. so we had the opportunity to show cole what it looks like when he goes potty on the floor, and made a learning experience out of it (no punishment of course).

he climbs on everything... and learned today that it's not as comfortable to scoot off the table (while on your belly) with undies on as it is with a diaper on. ouch. he looked more in a state of confusion than pain, but he didn't try it again!

i do apologize for the lengthy post... there's just so much that we've been doing and not enough time to download all my photos because i take WAY too many and then there's the whole find-time-to-write-an-entire-post-at-a-decent-hour issue. yup, mama's fallin' behind here! eh, someday we'll get caught up. ha! in the meantime, my falling-behind self is really loving being a mommy. see, i can easily say that because at this precise moment, both kids are fast asleep upstairs. no, really- even though my son has been a real challenge lately, i love it. there's nothing better!

hey, y'all!!

so in case you missed it, i put a "traffic" ticker on our blog... we are always hearing from people about this thing or that that they've seen on our posts, so i thought it would be fun to see who all stops in. unfortunately, i have no idea WHO is popping in, only where you're from. i feel like you all know us so well just from reading about our daily chaos and random adventures, but don't really know who you are. i'd like to change that... i'd love to know who you are, how you found us, where you're from, etc.! for example, hello to iron mountain, mi., huntingburg, in., and places from our state like eland, shawano, rosendale, osseo... i think i MIGHT know who some of you are, but i don't know for sure. feel free to drop a comment, letting me know who you are, maybe where you're from, how you found us, whatever. you're welcome to pop on in anytime (of course) and we'd love to hear from you! :)

hoooo, boy....!!

no words needed... :)

squish's new activity... munching on her paci in very odd ways!

i couldn't resist! after a very strange and obviously painful mess in his diaper, we resorted to sticking cole in the tub to wash him off since the wipes were useless (not a sticky mess... it was literally like sand. smelly sand. no wipe can touch that!!). since his little bum was pretty sore and he'd gone potty in the tub, we figured it was safe to let him streak for a little while. he loved it! i'm thinking that maybe this whole incident is related to teething? he's got a nice case of diaper rash going on, which is something he's had mildly, and twice at the very most. poor baby!!

and what is our little sweetpea looking so happy about?

yup... hands and knees, baby! she was doing this yesterday and a little the day before. she's not even five months yet! mommy is so very proud of her, but thinks she's growing a little too fast! it won't be long and we'll have mobility, i think.

4th of july

friday night kelvin and i went out for dinner for our anniversary (we hit up o'charley's.... yummm!) while my mom and sarah watched the kids. it was SO nice to get out of the house and have a quiet meal- thanks again, mom and sarah!

after we got home and mom and sarah left, the fireworks started here in clintonville. we weren't really planning on watching them, but after a few good booms (i swear i heard plaster crumbling from inside our bedroom walls... and what's up with kids who can't take a decent nap during the day but can sleep through the fireworks being lit off a few blocks from the house?? i don't get it...) i remembered that my camera has a 'fireworks' setting and i've never tried it. i got a few shots but haven't edited them yet...

the parade in manawa was saturday so we checked it out before heading up to mom and dad's for some relaxation/run-around-outside time.

this was the best part... and it wasn't even part of the parade! some guy parked illegally (legal every other day of the year); there were signs on every lightpost up and down main st that said "no parking, violators will be towed". the funny thing is, this guy parked RIGHT NEXT TO one of thos signs! he got ticketed and then the tow truck came... he and his lady friend tried to talk the cop out of it, but the damage was done. they drove away but still got stuck with the ticket and towing charge.

miss madison, in her stars and stripes!!

playground

yesterday afternoon i took the kids to the playground. it wasn't raining and cole needed some serious distraction... think: overly cranky/sensitive, 50 minute nap, teething. yeah. it's been a real party here. so, we needed to mix things up a little, have a change of pace. the playground at the elementary school is way better than the park, and i thought that because it's summer, it would be ok to play on it. i'd been mulling it over for a day or two, because i wasn't sure. i mean, it IS a public school and we DO pay taxes on it so really, we should be able to use it. on the other hand, what if we were busted for trespassing because it's not a park? my taxpayer's thinking won out and off we went- and found that someone else had the same idea. apparently i was worried over nothing. and cole had fun!

he climbed the big slide. he climbed up. he climbed down. up. down. up. down. (notice he didn't slide? he seems to be a little wary of sliding, even on the tiny ones... but stairs he likes. good cardio!)

he rode the firetruck (one of those spring-based contraptions)... and yes, that's a small tear on his cheek. about 5 minutes before the firetruck, he decided to try jumping off the play equipment because he saw some other kids doing it. i was finding madison's pacifier and he was safely busy when i turned away (i was 2 feet away). all of a sudden i heard a whoosh and a thud... and cole laying sprawled on his back. he got the wind knocked out of him but that was it, thankfully. i think it scared him enough that he won't be trying it again. i hope.

miss madi got a turn in the tunnel!
(she thought it was pretty neat- and yes, she's sitting by herself. she started that around the time she turned 5 months...)

i LOVE this one- sheer and utter joy, excitement, happiness... the face of a kid being a kid.

miss huge eyes... feel free to click on the photo to enlarge it for even more big eyes!

since kelvin has off today, if it doesn't rain, maybe we'll hit the playground again. oh, and i have to mention that my wonderful son walked almost all the way back instead of riding in the stroller- he "helped" push madison. i was amazed, because he's got an attention span of a goldfish (what is it- three seconds?) when he's outside, but he was cooperative 2 1/2 of the 3 blocks we walked. sometimes he really amazes me...

catching up. again.

i thought i'd be able to get a 'catch up' post in with plenty of time to spare... but for some reason, my wonderfully brilliant son has taken to speed-napping lately. yah- not that great. it doesn't give me much time to get anything done and by the time he's been up for 45 minutes, he's ready for another nap. that's how our days have been going recently...cole and grandma reading a book...

the matching game i made for cole that posed absolutely no challenge for him. mommy certainly was silly to think that cole needed practice matching shapes...!

i couldn't resist- i've never had the chance to use the candlelight mode on my camera, so when cole decided to play with the nightlight yesterday, i had to try it. i thought it turned out kind of neat!

madi and daddi (it rhymes so i feel like spelling it that way...)

cole went with grandma to the glendale farms yesterday to pick up some strawberries. she told me about the face he made the first time he tried one... apparently he didn't remember what they tasted like, so when he grabbed one out of the fridge today, i grabbed the camera.

yup- same face (i imagine)!

i think it's time to either find a second crib or get cole a twin bed with a bedrail... madison's too squirmy (this morning i found her on her elbows and knees) for the bassinette in the pack-n-play. so, now that she's no longer up a little higher off the ground, we're finding a new set of challenges to deal with. like, how to keep cole from poking at her through the mesh, setting her all the way down (that's a long ways to bend down!) without waking her up at night... once again, off i go to scour craigslist for a crib or bed. at this point i don't really care- if cole can climb in and out of his crib with the toddler rails, he can get in and out of a twin bed, no problem. of course, if we got a real bed we'd have to get a nice long bedrail for it... a toddler bed would be nice, but i'm not sure that it's the most practical. he'll outgrow it in a few short years. anyway, i am keeping my eye open and crossing my fingers that we don't have too many issues before we find something!!

random thoughts and stuff

• some of you may want to strangle me, but here's my opinion on the whole michael jackson hoopla: a plastic man will never replace elvis as king. end of story.
• so i lied- that's my one random, coherent thought. the rest have been squelched by mommyhood, exhaustion and the like. but i do know that they were half-way witty, before they spiraled into oblivion. i need to write things down...
• i am craving real food. the way i see it, i've lost only 7 pounds (nowhere near enough) and madison's cheeks are the only thing that are really affected by wheat and dairy... besides, we have our anniversary to celebrate, which means having a nice dinner out. i'm seriously reconsidering my dedication to the whole wheat/dairy-free thing...
• my son is a genius. maybe not by anyone else's standards, but i think he is. for example: i made a little matching game for him (i will post a photo) and the very first time he saw it, he matched the shapes up without any mistakes. his proud grandma will attest to that (she was there).
• enough randoms- i've run out. i promise i will post a few photos before the week is up otherwise i will hear about it for sure! (*ahem, sasa... :))