madison's first birthday

** warning: photo overload! **

cole and grandma got festive with a paper cupcake project. she even got out glitter and made heart-shaped confetti! cole's cupcake has found residence on our fridge... he did a great job!

throwing on the glitter; nothin' like a sparkly cupcake to make your day.

cole had a ball feeding gus treats... with great-aunt mary and great-uncle dale's supervision, of course.

kelvin and levi... or "off-eye", as cole calls him. he even said "hi, off-eye!" when levi walked through the door. too cute!

rainbow chip cake with cherry frosting and chocolate accents.

yum!

cherry chip cupcakes to match!

ahhh... the infamous birthday hat. it adorns the head of all who visit my parents' house on (or near) their birthday! it's tradition :)

in madi's case, there was enough room for at least one more in there, hahaha!

"mmmm, cake!"

notice the shoe in her hand? silly baby!

high-fiving the occassion...


... and graciously letting daddy blow out the candle!

oooh, cupcake!

we gave her a cupcake instead of a piece of cake- we thought it would be slightly less messy, plus it was just her size. i was at a loss for words, seeing her pounce on the poor sugary treat. it didn't stand a chance- madi may be a little pipsqueak, but boy, can she flatten a cupcake in record time!

hahahaha! that's all i can say for this shot- just makes me laugh!

cupcake facial, anyone?

she couldn't possibly be enjoying it more, you think?

not to be left out, cole thoroughly enjoyed HIS cupcake too! he'd been hinting at one for awhile... his sweet little voice pleading, "cup... cake?"

damage control!

auntie sarah surprised us all with a visit! ted brought her from the airport and they got to the house just after we'd finished lunch. i was retrieving cole from the laundry room (he sometimes likes to get into mischief. mild, usually, but there's the whole "he's-out-of-sight-and-quiet-and-it's-not-naptime" thing...) and we got back to the kitchen in time to see sarah run through the door! it was the best part of the day... thank you, sarah! :)
anyway, after a little warming up, cole picked up where he and sarah had left off... best of buddies!

madison got her first pair of cowgirl boots from auntie elissa, uncle logan and cousins coy and bentley. they're SO cute- when her feet get a little bigger, they'll be adorable on her!

i love the way she's sitting...

this girl knows how to open presents!

little miss squish and her two babies.

this little girl got two dolls (which is awesome, since she's surrounded by toys that are more for her big brother); she's just now starting to show some interest in girly toys, and is fascinated with the faces on her babies. when she opened her cabbage patch doll, the paper was only partly torn off, and a small corner of the plastic window on the box was exposed. she bent down and peered through that little corner for awhile, as if she was satisfied with the knowledge that there was, indeed, a baby in there. (mommy helped take the rest of the paper off that one...).

cole got a little something too! we got him one of those wooden "jacob's ladder" toys, and he got his first remote control truck from great-grandma and great-grandpa. it's a firetruck, and i kid you not, he had the driving techniques all figured out within a minute or two. it kept him occupied for quite awhile. he loves it- if we let him, i'm sure he'd take it to bed with him! you know, so george can play with it if he gets bored in the middle of the night (that was a reference to his beloved curious george, fyi).

cole thought madi should eat the candle too...?

madison had a wonderful time- thanks to our wonderful families for helping her celebrate this milestone!

or course, like most parents, we found ourselves "comparing" her and cole. bad, i know...:)

we remembered cole's first birthday and realized that their looks are where the similarities end. rather abruptly, i might add. at cole's first birthday party, when we all sang "happy birthday". he just sat stock-still with a reproachful/confused look on his face. didn't move a muscle. and the cake? he tentatively and gently poked it, scraped a little frosting off, gingerly tasted it and never really made much of a mess, beyond what normal one-year-old's make at any given meal.

madison, on the other hand, hammed it up to the tune of "happy birthday" and completely jumped her cupcake. you saw the evidence... oh, and presents? cole didn't have a clue- we unwrapped them for him. madison did most of the unwrapping herself. she was so "into" it that she even smacked me in the face a few times while pulling at some paper and tissue.

kids are funny like that!

after a fun day yesterday, it was nice to have a more relaxing one today.

now the kids match- cole got his sippy sports bottle from great-auntie mary in montana this summer for HIS birthday- madison opened hers yesterday. she didn't get the hang of using it (maybe when she's a few months older...) but she was happy as a clam to be like her big brother! if i may, i'd like to do a little un-reimbursed advertising here... the sippy sport bottles are from outside baby and they are THE best on-the-go cup! the only leaks we've ever had were minor droplets from the spout, and hardly ever. they're incredibly durable, have a handle built into the lid and are easy to wash. we LOVE them- thanks, great-auntie mary!

so... now that madison's one, and all the celebrating is done, bring on year two!!

365 days ago (continued)...

... by this time last year we were holding our sweet baby girl!!

the story continues: the nurses seemed to think that there was a good possibility that dr houlihan might just send us home in the morning, since my contractions weren't changing much. but when he came in just before starting his clinic appointments, he said that i was dilated enough to have pitocin. i had stood my ground the entire pregnancy, blatantly refusing pitocin. after having it with my labor with cole, i didn't want the stuff anywhere near me. however, by this point, i was singing a slightly different tune; i just wanted to have this baby already!

the pit drip started, and it wasn't long before things started moving with my labor. shortly after noon, dr houlihan came back to break my water. by mid-afternoon, we placed a call to mom, who left sarah and cole (at our house yet) to come be with us for the big event. meanwhile, i was in the tub. when in labor, i gravitate toward water. it's a good thing- it made things bearable. i was lucky enough to be allowed to labor longer than they would have normally let me- because of the pitocin, they wanted to moniter me more closely. lucky me- i logged quite a bit of tub time. when the shift changed (just before mom arrived), our 'new' nurse came in for briefing and to check up to see where we were at- her jaw about hit the floor when she saw "pitocin", "6.5 cm dilated" and "no epidural" on my chart. she couldn't believe that i hadn't gotten an epi yet, since due to intense contractions, most women on pitocin would have been blissed out in epi-land by then.

the first contraction that hit after getting out of the water about hit me like a bus... see? the power of water during labor is so immense! from there on, the pain just increased to the point where i finally came to a stand-still- my body wasn't letting me dilate past 7.5, so they called the anesthesiologist. i seemed to take forever for him to get the epi line going; in the meantime, one of the nurses had taken the fetal heart monitor off the belt and was moving it all over, as our little girl was a wiggle worm. i know that most babies slow down a little before labor and are pretty still during the process, but she was squirming the entire time.

shortly after the epidural was going, i felt this intense urge to push. the nurse didn't take me all that seriously, since not long before i'd still had 2.5 cm to go. she checked, though, and sure enough, it was baby time! the pushing/crowning/birthing sensations were new to me- with cole, i had been *completely* numb. didn't feel a thing. and you know, even though i felt almost everything when delivering madison, it wasn't that bad.

at 8.04 pm, our little girl was born!

brand-new baby!! welcome, sweet girl...

she stole our hearts, and cole was a great big brother from the start. sometimes a little too "helpful", but she became his world.

hmmm. no paternity questions here... hahaha!

and a year later, well...

... she's a cute lil monkey!! she gets into mischief with the dainty girly flair that's so "her" and we can't seem to fill that bottomless pit that stands in for her tummy.

she's full of personality, she's sweet and cute and we're overjoyed that she's ours.

happy first birthday, babydoll!
~we love you to pieces~

365 days ago...

it's hard to believe that a year ago we were on our way to new london family medical center!

last year, the 14th fell on a wednesday. the entire week (or so) was so bitterly cold; it was the coldest week of the year, and since it was incredibly frigid, wednesday night bible study was cancelled.

mom and sarah came over just before supper. mom had called earlier in the afternoon, offering to come and stay the night, "just in case". she already knew that school would be cancelled because of the cold, so she and sarah were free to come over. i thought it was unnecessary, since we'd been timing contractions since the beginning of december, so there was very little chance that we'd be going anywhere that night. i still had three days before my due date, but felt overdue. i was huge. like a bus.

anyway, we thought that even though it was unlikely that anything would happen that night, it would still be nice to have mom and sarah here. cole was tickled pink! he went to bed a wee bit late (only a little late) and around 9 pm, i made the call to the hospital. i'd been having contractions about 5 minutes apart for an hour- i was hesitant to call because we'd been timing those buggers for so long, i was sure it was another bout of braxton-hicks trying to disguise themselves as the real thing just to get a rise out of me. (totally gave false labor pains too much credit there, huh?) the nurse said that we could come on in, she'd let the e.r. know were were going to be on our way. i wanted to take a shower first, and then we gathered up our bags, which had been packed since christmas, and after promising to call with updates, we were on our way.

after getting admitted and settling in, i was hooked up to the monitors, while kelvin crashed on the couch in our hospital room. the nurses told me to try to sleep, but i was too excited and just paced the floor. all night. i tried to lay down a few times, but couldn't sit still....

~

....come back tomorrow for the rest of the story!

:)

fun with... oh, everyone?!

i fear this is going to become a habit- putting off uploading all the latest photos and posting about them. we're into a once-a-week rut; ooops. i'll have to try to fix that... :)madi shared her ducky with grandpa dan friday night when they popped over for a visit. we have SOOOO many duckies- at least twelve. most of them are "treasures" from daycare at biolife. we have a flock of oddly-dressed ducks here- everything from a cowboy (thank you, elissa and logan- that one's gotten us through many a bath!) to pirates to a crazy duck in a white coat to santa to "frosty"... the list goes on. there's even a duck masquerading as a reindeer. a penguin too, i think. yeah, we have ducks.

~

back on track...

cole likes to 'hide' under the big blanket on the couch- he thought it was THE coolest thing to hide with grandma ruby and grandpa dan! i love how you can see just his toes peeking out...

after awhile, he was hiding grandma and grandpa and then finding them. i'm not sure who got the biggest kick out of the game: him, or them. lots of laughter, to say the least.

madison's got the best of both worlds...

on saturday we had some pint-sized company! henry and maggie came over from next door for a few hours. we had four kids under the age of four, and it was a blast! within minutes, every single toy was out of the cabinet and on the floor (thank you, kelvin, for instigating that... and for cleaning it up later!). we even tried bubbles for a little bit, but henry ended up getting an eyeful, so that put the kibash on the bubbles. poor kid- that stings!

huh. looks like it rained legos. or something...

since henry and cole are both boys (and almost a year apart), i thought they'd be inseperable, but in the end it was maggie and cole who were partners in crime. kelvin showed cole that he could sit in the empty toy cabinet, which started a whole new game.

double trouble!! :)

i didn't get any photos of it, but after the toy cabinet lost it's intrigue, cole flipped the lego table upside-down and gave maggie rides in it. now i wish i HAD been more obsessive and taken the camera out for that too. oh well- it was cute, trust me!

the kids slept like logs saturday night... and from what i was told, there were some nice long afternoon naps next door too! eh, play hard, sleep hard, right?

cole had to shave with daddy sunday morning. yes, that's a culver's spoon he's shaving with. whatever works, right?

madison had gotten a sweet little sailor dress and sweater from her great-grandma when she was first born. we'd all assumed she'd be able to wear it over the summer, but she's JUST now fitting into it. thank goodness for the sweater... and fyi, she left the headband on for two hours!

pretty li'l sailor girl!

we went to levi and kayla's yesterday afternoon to hang out. the game was on, so the guys were occupied with that. kayla's parents came over, too, which was fun... they're a hoot!

kayla and madi

madi and the "baby"! she even gave it a hug, after kayla showed her how.

cole played with the other "baby"; it's obvious that he's a big brother judging from the way he holds baby dolls. i should state, for the record, that while cole has plenty of "boy" toys, we don't discourage him from playing with babies... it's ok, in my opinion, for him to learn to be nurturing.

cole dragged the laundry basket out of the bedroom and the kids had a blast in that for quite awhile. madison enjoyed the rides, and later used it as a walker of sorts, pushing

it around all by herself.

~

we start off this week with boogery children- overnight, they've both developed runny noses and hoarse little voices. oh well- "better a nasty cold than anything with the pukies", that's my motto. i'm just glad they're coming down with it now instead of at the end of the week... madi's birthday is friday, with a small party saturday, so hopefully they'll be much perkier by then. it's been almost two months since they were sick last, so their immune systems have had a little time to recover.

now, off to wipe little noses and fill little tummies with lunch... and then some time with kelvin, while he's laid off!

it's a new decade!

it's so hard to imagine that the next time we say "it's a new decade", this little stinker will be almost 11 years old... what's the devilish grin for, you might ask?

she learned a new trick, which is why she's earned the title of "stinker".
yeah, 'bout made my heart stop too.
whew!

thank goodness the holidays only come once a year, because the photo overload is enough to make my head spin (and make me temporarily re-think blogging. it's just too much work. giggle!)
to start the photographic timeline:
we spent new year's day at kelvin's parents. the kids had (nap-free) fun with grandpa dan and grandma ruby. then i was reminded of how last year, we spent new year's day at their house as well, only then, i was as big as a house. no, more like an apartment complex.

but i digress.

cole "helped" sweep the basement floor; had i known he was so enthusiastic about cleaning ("kheen foohr! kheen"), i would have put him to work long before now!

*kidding. for now. he will most certainly learn all aspects of housework, age appropriately of course*

grandpa dan gave cole tractor rides. rather, he was instructed to give rides; he happily obliged to the insistent chorus of "wide, trahtor, bapa. now!!"

and cole kindly returned the favor.

in normal cole-fashion, there was the trying-on of grandma ruby's shoes.

*word of warning to any and all visitors or visitees: cole WILL wear your shoes, should you leave them lying anywhere within his line of vision*

when cole discovered he couldn't get his leg over the tractor with grandma's shoe dangling from his foot, he stepped back, thought for a few seconds and tried a different route. he took off the shoes, put one on either side of the tractor, hopped over the seat, slid his feet into the shoes, and off he went. crazy!! he's not quite 2 1/2, so that little demonstration of problem-solving skills totally blew my mind. rather, all our minds. we watched him in gape-mouthed amazement, unable to say a word. oh, and i would like to reiterate that he attempted to lift his foot over once. just one time. one single, solitary time, before taking the shoes off.

smartie.

the kids found a new "toy": grandma ruby's nice centerpiece.

she was gracious enough to let them tear it apart and happily bang the pinecones and assorted pretties around for quite some time. they played together. nicely. for more than 5 minutes!
('twas the day for new year's miracles, i guess)

men and their tools...

saturday we went up to my parents. they had been out to montana to see sarah, elissa, logan, coy and of course, sweet little bentley!

they were having cole-and-madi withdrawals.

they took grandma on a "ride"... like a tiny family trip!

madison endeavored quite a few solo steps and was quite thrilled about the whole thing.

her face says it all...

and last but not least, making faces with grandpa!

oh, we had a marvelous weekend... spending time with family, getting away with little-to-no napping, getting out of the house; it's hard to walk away feeling unfulfilled when you spend time with the ones you love.

i say, no better way to kick off a new year (and a whole new decade) than being with our family!