blue

it's funny how the closer your ultrasound gets, the farther away it seems.

i slept a total of two hours last night.

way too excited to sleep!!

here's our little man...

yes, man!

we're having a boy!!

and cole couldn't be happier, since he wanted a brother.

(actually, he's still learning the word "brother". last night i asked him if he wanted a boy baby or a girl baby... his reply was, "ummm... a baby with a pee-pee!")

baby looks good, weighing about 11 oz and right on track for growth. he's a mover, too. it took longer than usual to get measurements and all, since he wouldn't sit still. but he's cute so he can get away with it, right?

i'm a tad bit bummed that we didn't get any 3-d ultrasound this time. we had 3-d photos for madi, but they just got new machines and the hospital didn't have enough in the budget to get the probes that go with the machines. oh well- at least we know this little one is healthy, and that's all that matters :)

zoot-suit riot!

ok, so maybe it's not REALLY a zoot-suit riot, but some days it sure feels like a riot of some sort.

oh yes, my friends... stay-at-home parents are never bored!

am i right?

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madison may be on the verge of potty training.

MAY be.

this past weekend she started disrobing and saying "potty?" several times, so i happily obliged her at each request.

she never actually went in the toilet, but i think she was telling me that she'd already gone. so it's a step in the right direction, and i'll let her take it at her pace, of course.

(i won't tell her that mommy would be really impressed if she were day-trained by the time the baby's born.)

for now, sitting on the potty is such a novelty :)

i decided to get the kids out of the house and look for a few things in appleton on saturday. my errands were done fast and most of what i needed was either cheaper than i thought or on clearance, so we had both time AND a little money. wow.

anyway, seeing as how the kids were already strapped in the stroller, i thought it might be beneficial to take a quick walk around the mall.

i'm very glad i did, because i checked out this new store (fairly new- in any case, i'd never been in it) called "crazy 8". kids clothes. CUTE clothes.

awesome prices.

(well, a bit thriftier than other places...)

this is what i found for cole.

i didn't intend to get anything, just look.

but this suit coat caught my eye, so did the price, then the pants, and the price on the pants as well....

and before i knew it, i spent $28 on a brand-new suit.

cole's first suit!

i didn't think the price was bad.

in fact, i was pretty pleased.

so was he, because he wore it proudly on sunday.
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no other big news here, at least not till tomorrow.

i can't wait till tomorrow!

i really can't...

there's no way i'll be able to sleep tonight!

it's funny: when we were expecting cole, we were so excited for our ultrasound. when we were expecting madison, i wasn't any less eager.

now this time, for some reason, i think i'm even MORE excited.

i'm bummed that kelvin will miss it, but i can still share it with two very special people.

my grandma and my sister-in-law are coming with, so it's going to be fun :)
**edit: i did forget one small exciting thing... cole got to feel the baby move today! it was just a little wiggle, but i had his hand pressed tightly in just the right spot at just the right moment. i wish i had a photo (or better yet, video!) of his reaction- i've never seen a kid's face light up like that!

guesses, anyone?

the big ultrasound is 8 days away (scheduled for 11/24).

assuming "itty-bitty" cooperates, we'll get to find out if this sweet little person is a boy or a girl.

do YOU have a guess??

(18 weeks & 6 days)

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feel free to leave a comment with your guess... :)

*untitled*

eh, no "clever" post title this time... too much work to come up with one.

but as usual, i'm posting a few days late.

(which, i suppose, is better than a week or more, which HAS happened. because i'm getting lazy with the blogging thing. because i am single-handedly running a household, wrangling two toddlers and growing another little being while constantly worrying about whether or not my dear husband is working himself to death. that's why.)

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both sarah AND ted were up at the farm this weekend. the kids thought that was pretty great, obviously!!

we're attempting headbands with miss madison.

it's slow going... but she kept this one in long enough for a photo!

horsing around with uncle ted?
what could be more fun?!

:)

uncle tedly spoiled the kids: madison got her first camo hat (please pardon the cup hanging out of her mouth and the "after-dinner" look; yikes!)...

... and cole got a shirt. i forget just right off hand what's on it, but it IS hunting related and if you really must know, i can pull it out of the dryer.

really, i'd do it just for you.

because i'm nice like that.

hahaha!

neither child wanted to take off their new things; madison loves her hat and cole cried when we had to wash his hunting shirt!

auntie sarah's pretty good for horsing around too, ya know.

come to think of it, so's grandpa!

(hm. i'm sensing a pattern here, possibly genetic?)

i don't even remember what i told her to stop doing, but this is the face i got in reply.

so after a long weekend, mr cole was a bit on the growly side sunday night. not long before bed, he got sent to his room for a time-out. usually he's chomping at the bit to come down ("i behave, mama!") or if he's quiet, he's getting into (more) trouble.

poor little man had so much fun, he fell asleep mid-punishment.

easiest bedtime ever.

18 weeks (minus a day)

today was my 18-week prenatal exam.

(if you want to be really technical i'm 17 weeks and 6 days...)

i'm measuring at 17 weeks, so a tad on the small side, but nothing to be worried about. funny, since i was certain i was going to measure way ahead!

baby's heart is thump-thumping away at 150 bpm, and he or she got sassy- "itty bitty" wound up and had it's way with the dopplar. we definitely heard THAT kick! :)

as for weight gain, we've got a grand total of 4 pounds. i lost 5 between getting pregnant and my 10-week exam, so i'm back to my "before" weight (and i'm not telling what that is, hahaha!). again, a bit on the low side, but not dangerously so. personally, i'm fine with it, since i gained too much during my pregnancies with cole and madi... this one is definitely different!

oh, and strict instructions to not take any more road trips by myself.

(but i figured that one out on my own...)

so, everything's great, and now we wait for another two weeks for the fun appointment: the ultrasound!

it's definitely a monday...

that's been my thought all day.

no denying it's a monday.

we've had a big dose of "monday" here...

and since it's MY blog, i'm going to complain. because i can.

these pregnancy hormones have given me a headache pretty much every single day for the last 4 months. it's driving me nuts. that and the nausea still hasn't gone away entirely- it hits randomly, whenever it pleases. and now my spd is in FULL swing, making everything less tolerable. touch, sound, smell... arrrgh! of course, cole's new attitude isn't helping any- he's become mr defiant on a whole new scale. to top it off, i'm doing it all by myself 24/7. yup, i'm officially frazzled.

*

alrighty... pity party's over.

i just had to get that all off my chest.

and now for the rays of sunshine in my life (even if sometimes they're responsible for brief thunderstorms, lol!):

madison's become quite the little entertainer- her most recent thing is walking half-crouched with her hands on her knees, giggling like a lunatic.

not sure where she learned it, but it cracks me up!

cole and his sister have begun REALLY interacting. like, on the same level. of course, since he's older, he likes to dictate what they're pretending, but she seems to have no problem with that.
yet.

miss madi got her first hair trimming on saturday night.

we were at mom and dad's for the weekend (mom did a lot with the kids so i could take it easy and get my braxton-hicks back to normal. they're much better today, almost normal.) so after madi's bath, her little "rat tail" in the back finally got too tangled to just comb out. i'm sure i could have worked it out, but a 21-month old has no time or patience for the comb and i'm sure it would have hurt. rather than deal with it and know that i'd just have to struggle with it all over again in a day or two, i decided to trim it off. i loved that the very back of her hair was long enough to almost reach her shoulder blades when wet, but it was such a small section that was that long, and it was starting to show some damage from the tangling.

unfortunately, i'm no good when it comes to doing hair, so i'm not totally happy with the bob look she has going on, but at least it won't tangle so bad. it lays better, swings a little when she's running, and it'll grow out quickly, i'm sure. i did save the trimmings, just like i did from cole's first hair cut.

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tomorrow is my 18-week appointment with dr h... i'll be 18 weeks on wednesday, but at this point, a day doesn't make much of a difference anymore, right? mom's going to come up after work and watch the kids while i go to the clinic, and i'm anxious to see what he says about my size. personally, i don't think i'm showing quite as much as i did with cole and madi, but i have a suspicion that i might be measuring a little ahead. we'll see...

i'm not sure i've got the patience to wait another two weeks for our big ultrasound, though. i can NOT wait for that! :)

good friends, good times!

our time in georgia got cut short... so we only stayed a week. it was hard to leave kelvin behind, but i guess that's how it goes. at least he has work! we also had to leave behind some awesome friends, both new ones and ones we've reconnected with.

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outside "pizza joint" on thursday night, waiting for some special friends to show up!!

here they are!
the griffins (most of them, anyway)
when they were in wisconsin so many years ago (anna was just a baby), we got to spend some time with them. they had thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents' house with us.
those are some awesome memories!

friday we went to the park by the locks and met cheryl. she'd suggested meeting up somewhere so of course i jumped at the chance. after all, it had been YEARS so there was some catching up to do!
big boy on the slide!

and (little) big girl managing the steps.
(amazing how she can maneuver her little legs around the play equipment... there's no stopping her, that's for sure)

the kids were more interested in the puddle at the lookout point than the actual view itself.

(photo credit goes to cheryl)

spanish moss... it makes things seem almost magical!

the kids took a liking to cheryl, or "showull", as cole calls her!

checking out the river...

and the kids with mommy!
(again, photo credit to cheryl...)

this park is just beautiful...

miss madi

(and her wet shoes)
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i can't put into words how much i appreciate these wonderful people who have made kelvin feel at home while he's away, and who showed us the same kindness while we were visiting. thank you for the meals, the conversations, the laughter- we leave part of our hearts with you there!

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the trip back went well, fairly uneventful. the tomtom decided to "forget" to follow the same route coming home as we took going to georgia, so there was one time where we got a little turned around. luckily, we didn't go far from our route, so we didn't really lose any time. the kids did so well again- i'm lucky to have such wonderful travel companions!

we discovered a store called "earth fare" while we were in evans... there i found the gummy bears i haven't been able to find anywhere here. we stopped at the earth fare in chattanooga on our way back to get more gummy bears... normally i'd never dream of spending more than a few bucks on candy, but this is what cole can have, so we got a nice big supply! now we're set for awhile...

i've discovered that this trip will be the last (definitely the last one by myself) until after the baby comes; i must've overdone it. yesterday afternoon i started cramping and having some pretty intense braxton-hicks. the braxton-hicks are nothing new for me- they started around 18 weeks with cole and 16 weeks with madi. or thereabouts. this one's no different, they started VERY early, but were mild. i called the on-call nurse, who recommended that i make an appointment. i told her my next appointment was less than a week away, so could we just wait till then if it's not an immediate emergency and she said that was fine. i do have to take it REALLY easy though: off my feet as much as possible, minimal activity, watch for warning signs and go in to the e.r. immediately should anything get worse. as long as i'm sitting still, everything feels fine... once i get up and start moving around, then the contractions start. normally i'd be happy for an excuse to be lazy, but i'm no good at that- i feel like i should be doing SOMEthing. hopefully things will be back to normal in a few days and i can ease back into daily life. thankfully, cole can go potty all on his own, madi's diaper changes are pretty infrequent and both kids play well without me having to chase them all over. a few strategically placed baby gates and we're good to go. er, sit. whatever.

sigh.