madi's bad hair day and other very short stories

in about 10 years or so, mornings like this are going to be a disaster:

and we'll have to keep from telling her that putting it up,

like this,
just might not do the trick.
sure, it's cute for the majority of the day, but come bed-time...

... it just might make the whole thing worse!
i think this lil peanut has her daddy's hair- the only time it's not nearly stick-straight is when he has bed-head. seems that the same is proving true for her, too.
but that's okay- at least it's not every-which-way frizzy like her mommy's!

cole got messy today.
not "peanut-butter water" messy, thankourluckystars...
he got to help daddy "make a mess" in what will be his new room!
(well, new to him anyway)

it doesn't look like much now, but it's more than it was.
there were no outlets or even a lightswitch in there until today, just a fan with a pull-cord.
that's the way it's been since it was built.
crazy.

maybe he'll be like his daddy and become an electrician when he grows up?
according to the report from daddy, he can already use the tool for finding live currents.
see? he's halfway trained already!

the highlight of the day, though, was a visit from uncle duey...

... and auntie kandace!

they came to spend some time with the kids and have pizza with us for supper.

(and chocolate chip cookies!)

cole, of course, has not yet outgrown his fascination with phones, and has a knack for figuring them out rather quickly. he wasted no time in acquainting himself with uncle duey's android.

*

as for the project in cole's new room, kelvin plans to rip out the carpet tomorrow. that will make our house carpet-free, finally! the floors in the kids' room and our room were un-carpeted (if that's not a word, too bad. i used it anyway, hahaha!) and painted with white porch paint shortly before cole was born. i recommend never painting floors with a belly that size. which is why we're going to leave cole's floor the way it is for now, and then as soon as we can, we'll have them sanded and finished. and who knows- maybe after THAT, we'll have our bedroom floor done too! slowly but surely... and i still hold on to the hope, be it quite small, that someone will spare us the work and buy the house before we can get all this stuff done. i'm not holding my breath, of course, but a girl can still dream, right?

*

i've got two projects to keep me busy during the nights when i can't sleep. it's pretty much every night... but i seem to do ok on very, very little sleep. we joke that once the baby's born, even with the night feedings and whatnot, i'll be able to catch up on my shut-eye. anyway, since trying my hand at knitting (gotta love the world-wide web; photo tutorials are not hard to come by, so it wasn't hard for me to learn the basics. still can't read patterns, but that's ok...), i've come to really enjoy it. my crocheting has fallen by the wayside for now, abandoned for an almost-completed blanket for a certain little baby boy, and an idea for another store item that's been circulating in my head. something other than a hat. something i hope will turn out well enough that i can take orders. something girly. something that will take a little bit of time (since it's larger than a hat) to turn out. should it NOT come to fruition, i'll have to share my vision, but on the chance that it goes right, i'm keeping mum for now. anyway, the blanket for the baby is super-soft, made of bamboo and acrylic blend. normally i steer clear of any artificial fibers, but it's just so very soft, and it's not completely unnatural. i can't wait till he's here so we can cuddle our soft sweet baby in his soft silky blanket!

and that's how i spend my nights... just me and my knitting projects.

if i MUST be awake, i might as well be productive :)

in which i eat my words

these words are easy to swallow, thankfully...

minutes after hitting "publish" for the last post, kelvin walked through the door with flowers.

guess the lizard wasn't the only surprise after all!

and no, i never once hinted at anything for valentine's day... like i said before, we were all together, and that was just enough for me. :)

but they're still pretty... i'm not above being wooed by bunch of beautiful blossoms!

this was madi telling me she was ready for bed the other night.
(it would be nice if she'd do the same THIS night... she's babbling away, an hour after lights-out. sigh.)

i couldn't resist sharing this shot of cole- i love his "giggle face"- it makes my heart skip a beat!

this is a fairly common sight around here lately: madi walking around with one (or both) of her socks on her hands. she'll put them back on her feet, usually inside out and sometimes with the heels on the top of her foot, but she can get them on by herself none-the-less. it's also resulted in a no-socks-in-bed rule (put in to enforcement tonight) because she takes them off, can't see in the dark to get them back on and throws a tantrum as a result.

the house that cole built

(with daddy's help)

madi was picking "strawberries" out of her dinner tonight.

hey- whatever it takes to get her to eat, right?

yummm!

we didn't tell her, but the "strawberries" were actually black beans.

i made chicken chimichangas and used beans in place of half of the chicken. you know, to stretch it out, because at $7 for a package of three boneless/skinless pieces, i'm totally into making it go as f-a-r as possible. anyway, kelvin and i like our chimis on the spicy side (think: several tablespoons of ground cumin and hot picante sauce), so i doubted the kids would eat it.

they did.

and i don't know why i doubted madi's ability to eat it- she's our one offspring that dips her grilled cheese (or anything else she can get her hands on) into salsa when we're out for mexican.

anyway, i mixed it up a bit and put a layer of cream cheese inside the tortillas and used a mexican-blend cheese instead of sticking with the original recipe.

(which, by the way, i got from my mom, and it's even better when she makes it... even if she makes them pretty mild!)

and cole ate the beans too... took a little coaxing, but he ate 'em.

then again, he DID have the promise of a cookie if he ate well.

*

today was my 32-week visit with dr h... 32 weeks already!?! it hardly seems possible. i gained less than i thought, my feet/legs/ankles have no swelling, i can still get my wedding band on and off without any problems and i'm measuring 2 weeks ahead. that might explain why i feel like a beached baby beluga...

since cole was 3 1/2 weeks early and madi was a few days ahead of schedule too, dr h thinks that this one might take a cue from his older siblings. but of course, there's no guarantee on that. he'll come when he's ready. and if he comes a bit before his due date (as long as it's safely so), we won't complain. he IS head down, so he's locked and loaded :)

*

cole was watching some rc car racing videos on youtube with kelvin this morning... he saw some rc cars mud-racing and piped up loudly, "hey!! those cars are in peanut-butter water!".

i laughed so hard i had a contraction.

valentine's day surprise

first of all, happy valentine's day to our dear family and friends!

where ever you are, whatever you're doing, we hope you know that you are all very loved and very dear to us!

no roses here... how about a carnation as a virtual valentine instead?

now for the valentine's day surprise:

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NOT what you were expecting, eh?
me either!
turns out, kelvin had a stow-away on his trip back home from georgia/south carolina. these little guys are plentiful down there- we're thinking that maybe he climbed into kelvin's truck, then into a box or tote and got in to the house that way. however he managed to do it, he did so undetected, and has survived unseen in our basement for almost two months. i suppose it's comfortable down there for him, although i'm sure the local cuisine isn't quite what he's used to. i wonder how our spiders and bugs taste compared to the stuff he ate back home?
neither kelvin nor i are fans of creepy-crawly things, so keeping him was out of the question... and on the same token, neither of us had the heart to stick him outside where he'd inevitably freeze to death. so we called a friend of ours, who happens to be accepting of all sorts of creatures whether they be cuddly, crawly or anything in-between- she said we could drop him off at her place.
(many thanks, nicole... from both us AND the lizard!)
*
so there was no romantic surprise for anyone today, but that's ok. who says valentine's day needs to be extravagant to be good? in my opinion, it's the sentiment that counts... i couldn't enjoy a big, fancy dinner out, a dozen roses, etc., if i knew it wasn't affordable or convenient. not that i'm anti-hallmark-holiday... secretly ever girl loves to be surprised, spoiled and pampered every now and again. i'd rather take it when it's least expected.
*
madi and i are STILL feeling pretty run-down. cole's got some congestion and coughing, but no fever, and he seems to have more energy than us girls. also, madi and i have white "blisters" on our tongues... i called the on-call nurse, but didn't get any real answers. she just said to avoid citrus, drink lots of water and make an appointment. you know, basically what the computer obligated her to say. so technically she did her job. :) every now and again (and we don't call that often) i get a nurse who doesn't just rely on the computer, who is chatty and friendly and treats her callers like they're in the room with her. one who gives valid advice other than what the database says. anyway, i have my prenatal appointment on thursday, so as long as there are no other symptoms that come up (besides the obvious current respiratory stuff), i'm going to wait till then and see what dr h says. now i know why madi's been so insanely, over-the-top crabby... her mouth really hurts! my ice craving kind of numbs mine a bit, but it's still pretty uncomfortable. and any healthcare readers out there, feel free to chime in on this if you know anything about it... :)

mail and other miscellaneous stuff

to continue from the previous post, we're still fighting this respiratory bug... it's moved on to cole and me. madison still has it (minus the fever, thank goodness!) and is a total bear. but i don't blame her- if i'm feeling this icky, i can't imagine how miserable she must be. she spent most of the night coughing last night- i think she slept through most of it, but i didn't. i've gotten a grand total of about 3 solid hours of sleep in the last four nights (a little of the blame goes to hormones and third-trimester discomforts). at one point, she must've awoken enough to get mad and let out a loud protest; she sounded a bit like a squirrel scolding the living daylights out of someone. thankfully it only lasted a few seconds and then she was back to a fitful sleep. poor baby...

so, thanks to these colds, it has NOT been a quiet household here.

but...

a little something special in the mail can make things so much better (even if it's only for a few minutes): the kids got valentine's mail from grandma and grandpa! boy, were they excited to pull some special handmade heart garlands out of their envelopes!

cole's has puppies and stars on it...

... and he had fun playing a gentle version of tug-o-war with daddy with his heart garland.

madi took hers for a walk around the house...

miss cookie-face.

poor peanut hasn't felt like eating much in the last few days, so i wasn't surprised when she wanted nothing to do with lunch today. we were at perkin's and as usual, the kids split a grilled cheese and fries. madi was so miserable and in a MOOD that i ended up waiting with her in the van for kelvin and cole to finish their lunch. we saved the cookie that came with the kids' meal and while the boys went to run an errand (after we got home and had naps, of course), i gave it to madi in a last-ditch attempt to appease her. i didn't think she'd eat it, since she's shown little interest in anything, but she devoured it in about 3 minutes flat- ran at me with arms outstretched like a starving orphan, sat right down on the floor and attacked it.

literally.

she was happy for five minutes afterward, so it was worth it- eight minutes of peace and quiet! :)

*

• we had a house showing today- first one since switching to our current real estate agency. while we're not holding our breath, we're at least a little hopeful that we'll get an offer out of it. when the timing's right, it'll happen... sigh.
• i've got all the newborn and 0-3 month clothes, burp rags and blankets ready for the wash. i even have some of cole's tiny things that have slight staining in a separate pile to treat with the miracle soap we have left from when we had our cloth diapers. that's my upcoming project, once everyone's feeling better and i don't have tiny, goobery little people clinging to me.
• kelvin got trim for the kids' room and stuff to wire up the spare room so we can move cole into it. a few weeks ago i found a quilt and shams for the bed he'll have once the room is ready... it was on clearance plus an extra 30% off at pamida, and that weekend they happened to be giving an extra 10% off any purchase totaling $30 or more, and it was just a tad over that. jackpot! it's nothing exciting (although he's pretty anxious to be able to sleep in it!), no licensed characters or anything, just a pottery-barn inspired multicolored striped set that will go with whatever he wants in his room. versatile, since i'm sure his tastes will change several times over the next 15 years.
• i'm making meals out of icecubes and pineapple. those are my cravings right now, and since they're both reasonably healthy (as in, not fried and definitely hydrating), i'm indulging. oh, and english muffins here and there to add a little variety. everything else tastes SO bitter, even pancakes made from scratch. guess that's what's keeping the weight gain to a reasonable number.
• we have 8 1/2 weeks left, and i have a feeling that this baby might take after his big brother and make his debut a little early. i have my 32-week check next thursday, then another month and we'll be doing the weekly visits. it's crazy how it seems that just a few weeks ago we were still waiting to have our first prenatal visit, and now we've got two months left. at the same time, another eight weeks seems like an eternity. guess it's all relative, eh?
• cole had his very first sleep-walking incident thursday night: he fell asleep almost instantly after being tucked in (that pesky respiratory bug was making itself at home in his system, so i knew he wasn't completely himself) and after sleeping soundly for an hour, he let out this panicky screech. usually that means he's about to, or already has tossed his cookies, but when i heard nothing but quiet whimpering afterwards, i figured that wasn't the case. i went in to check on him after a minute or two and his bed was empty. i could hear him still fussing softly and in the near-dark i saw his feet and legs (from the knees down) peeking out from behind the blinds and curtain. apparently he was disoriented, got out of bed and got stuck between the window and the blinds- no idea why he headed there, but after putting him back to bed, i waddled back to MY bed as fast as possible so i could let out the giggles that i'd been holding in. i felt so bad for him, but at the same time, it was hil-AR-ious!!
• we're ready for spring- anyone else feel the same way?? :)

daddy says he's an artist...

... but mommy says not so much.

yes, folks, that would HAVE to be sharpie.

he had to go out of his way (meaning, pull up a chair and make an effort) to get it instead of using a more accessible dry-erase marker.
there's no photographic evidence of mommy's face, but let's just say it looks something like this:

\ /
o o
___

(daddy also got a text at work saying that we need mr clean magic erasers at home...)

for my mom...

happy, happy birthday!!!

even though your birthday's in the middle of the week, we hope it's still a pleasant day...

love you so much!!

totally untitled

right now, i'm totally uninspired.

or uncreative.

(or maybe just plain exhausted... )

it's been a long week and a half-ish.

a few days after the last post, our sweet grandma erna passed away. it wasn't unexpected- we knew it was coming eventually. still, we'll miss her! i have so many memories from so many years: all the visits up to medford to see her and grandpa, them coming to see us, taking trips to north dakota with them, and after they moved up by mom and dad's the time we spent in the trailer home with them. it was grandma who taught me the basics of decorating cakes, and probably would have taught me to make frosting roses... one of us ran out of patience and it wasn't her. :)

her service was wonderful, and i hope that i can have even a tiny bit of her humility and patience in my own life- she left a fine legacy and example for us all.

*

this is where we found madi the other night before bed.

she'd disappeared and was quietly sitting in the chair taking the tops off of the bottles for her baby dolls, putting them on, taking them back off, switching them around...

... i think she's starting to show that "little girl" side we knew was hiding in there somewhere, behind her love of cars, trains and whatever 'boy' things her big brother happens to be playing with.

my parents gave this rose to the kids (from grandma's funeral)

and we got this lovely arrangement.

i also got a peace lily from the funeral- i have one from grandpa's funeral 5 years ago, and it's been just barely clinging to life for the last year or so. i don't have much of a green thumb, so how it's survived this long, i haven't the foggiest. when we brought grandma's lily home, i gave grandpa's some water (by this time the leaves were so limp that they were just hanging over the edge of the planter) and set it next to grandma's. in the morning, it was far perkier than it had been in a long time; i'm fairly certain it has something to do with having a companion, because for months, not even a good drink of water had that sort of effect on it. once it's a little healthier, i'll plant both of the lilies in a larger planter so they can be together... oviously, it's meant to be!

"daddy-n-madi" snuggle time!

photo credit to kelvin- he's the one that discovered madi's rather shocking hair-do!

what, you don't eat your crackers in a "sandwich"?

seems it's a time-saving measure, although i have no idea what reason she would have to be in a rush.

this is one of the few times the tables are turned and cole's copying his sister instead of the other way around. come to think of it, wearing those hats was instigated by her too.

again, thanks to uncle tedly for the camo hats- madi rarely takes hers off these days!

see? her lid's still on!

this is from this morning, after the second clothing change. poor madison seems to have come down with a nasty cold... lots of congestion resulting in regurgitation of said congestion.

poor baby... she perked up mid-morning, ate some cheerios, played for awhile, had a light lunch (she probably would have eaten more, but since i'm the one that gets to clean up the mess, i gave her toast and a little banana), then went down for a nap. she slept well, woke up miserable- fever, more congestion, no appetite (not even for juice!), just laying lethargically on the living room floor... poor peanut! i hope it passes quickly for her; being sick is no fun! i think at this point, it's the fever that's affecting her the most- i can see it in her eyes.

this shot's for cousins coy and 'blentey'... cole added a "water tower" to the train tracks you gave him! :)

(in case you don't QUITE get it, the water tower is his cup...)

*

i was supposed to see dr h today for a prenatal appointment, but for obvious reason, rescheduled it. i figured the best place for madison was at home today. so if everyone's feeling well next week, i'll go then. which is fine with me- i'll be 32 weeks then, a more normal week for a visit. then after that, no more monthly visits; wow, it's hard to believe we've hit that point already! i keep thinking i'm jumping the gun, making lists of what i need to put in my bag, in the diaper bag, things like that... but in reality, our due date's 9 weeks (and one day, if you want to be technical) away, and it's going to pass quite quickly, i'm sure. it's already gone by at lightening speed... and ironically, even though i've gained a fraction of the weight with this baby as i did with the other two, i'm bigger around already. crazy. most of the awesome clothes that my sister lent me have gone back to her because my belly doesn't fit in them anymore. again, crazy...

oh, and i quit facebook. maybe in the future i'll be on it again, but for now i've done away with it. i thought it would be a good way to free up some time (because let's face it- it's not impossible to waste a considerable amount of time there!!)- i thought i'd have a little more time for other things, including blogging. hahahaaaaa... it took me three days to get around to posting!! oh well- i miss being able to socialize with everyone all on one convenient site, but i feel a certain sense of freedom and peace by NOT having it. so- if you miss me there, i DO have email, and you can "visit" us here anytime! :)