owwwww

amber, i think you'll be able to sympathize on this one....

my poor little man had a crash-course on how to walk with socks on the wood floors. he didn't do well. it happened so fast... and in the blink of an eye, he was on the floor, blood in his mouth, blood on the floor, crying. the crying lasted all of about 30 seconds, and once we were certain that no teeth were loose and nothing was broken, mommy had to get out the camera.

in real life, his lip is quite a bit puffier... and the scrape on his chin is from the party on saturday (he tangled with the picnic table).

"oww, oww, oww, meh-meh... oww."

but since this is cole we're talking about, a puffy, bleeding lip didn't stop him from cheesing it up for the camera. that's my boy!!

for such a smart little guy, you'd think the wood floors wouldn't pose so much of a problem. seriously- maybe he's not the smartest kid in the world, but i think he's brilliant! for example: every single time he puts his shoes on, they're on the right feet (maybe not all the way on, but they're always on the right feet); he knows the difference between "on" and "off", is saying an average of two to three new words a day... so maybe he's not a genius, but he's no dummy either. i look at him and just about burst because i'm so proud of him and love him more than i could ever begin to tell. (of course, i love madison just as much, in case anyone was wondering!) my little boy- he's growing SO fast; i wish he could stay tiny and innocent forever.

grad party weekend!

sarah and suzanne's graduation party was on saturday... lots of people, fun, food, etc.!!

miss madison chillin' in the boppy.

chase, sarah and erica blowing up balloons before the party- erica started feeling a bit light-headed and proceeded to tell us that no one ever died from lack of oxygen (when sarah and chase told her to take a break). it was funny...

the awesome cake, courtesy of cindy
i'm sure it was great, everyone said it was... all i got was a little frosting because it was completely free of wheat and dairy. and yes, the frosting was delish!

the cutest grads ever...

there was football, of course. and swimming, but this lady sat them out.

there were some nifty clouds that blew in; i thought they photographed rather nicely!

cole "helped" with the clean-up...

it was a great party, in my opinion. lots of fun, good friends, good food... aunt dawn and cousins bobby and rebecca made it up to share the weekend so it was wonderful to see them! and cole, well, he just ran and ran and ranandranandran all day (with the exception of a nap), which was great. he doesn't have that luxury at home!

congrats again to sarah and suz- best of luck with your future!! :)

oh finally!!

i decided to experiment with some wheat-free, dairy-free cooking tonight. i usually don't experiment on a wednesday but thankfully everything went well and we got out the door for meeting in time...it only looks gross- it tastes really good! i coated the chicken in a rice flour and seasoning mixture (paprika, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, the usual) and made some spinach and rice. for this, i sauteed a tsp of minced garlic (about 2 cloves) in 2 tbsp of olive oil, then added a 10-oz package of frozen, chopped spinach, a cup of brown rice (long grain), 2 chicken bouillon cubes, a little salt and pepper and 3 cups of water. i let it simmer for about 50 minutes... i didn't have any onion on hand, but green onions might be especially good in it. i was sure nobody would eat it except me, but kelvin had a small helping and small seconds (woah...) and cole ate some too. the fact that cole liked it and was willing to eat it just about blew me over... he's never liked rice before, except in chicken and rice, which is off-limits for me because of the soups in it. wow- guess the spinach and rice is a keeper!
"belly button, belly button, oh my belly button, belly button, belly button..."

"... i lo-o-o-ove you..."

you guessed it- tom pease at the dinner table!

anyway, i'm SO happy to have been able to eat something other than blue corn chips and salsa (i've got to have flavor...) or whatever; on one hand, i'm happy to have found a few things that are "normal" that i can eat. on the other hand, this may hamper my weight-loss... which, by the way, got off to a marvelous start and screeched to a stubborn halt. 5 pounds and stuck... oh well. at least i have spinach! (and yes, i love spinach, as long as it's cooked)

cole's first swimming lesson!

last evening was cole's first parent-tot swimming lesson at the chs rec center. as it turned out, it was a 'private' lesson because we were the only ones there! i'm under the impression that there will be others next week; i'm not sure how many, though.

anyway, cole was excited to get into his new swimming trunks and had no problems with anything... until he got about ankle-deep into the water. after 10 minutes (or so...) he warmed up enough to venture getting off of mommy and walking around the water by himself. after that, he had NO fear!

it was the intrigue of the water rings that got him, i think!

daddy and miss carrie encouraging him to jump into the water... he wasn't buying it. he's pretty determined to sit down and scoot in. really, though, he warmed up to the whole thing rather well. by the time the lesson was half over, he'd headed for deeper water several times; in fact, he was in up to the bottom of his nose (almost- a matter of millimeters) and would have kept going if daddy hadn't brought him back! cole tried running in the water and found out that doesn't work real well. he fell and went under... kelvin got him after a few seconds, but for me, on the other side of the pool with madison, it seemed like an eternity. he was fine- he didn't swallow or inhale any water at all! he went under a second time and was fine then too, so maybe our little man will be a little fish!

and miss madison? what did SHE think of the water? well, let's just say she babbled and squealed the entire hour or so that we were in there...

yup, she loves it!

so, i think cole's going to enjoy his swimming lessons. kelvin's even wanting to take some for himself (carrie, cole's instructor, gives private lessons too), which is wonderful. i am SO glad that cole had fun, even if it started out a little iffy. he did so well and had so much fun... of course, the first lesson is mostly about getting used to the water, so he didn't do anything big. he was encouraged to jump into the water (not thrilled about that), lay on his tummy and back in the water and kick (he only kicked because he was uber-mad that daddy was making him lay in the water) and blow bubbles (he tried it once, laughed and headed for deeper water). we can't wait to see what happens next week! :)

on a side note: i'm having severe withdrawals; what i wouldn't do for a loaded taco or cheeseburger...

father's day and funny kids!

a belated happy father's day to all the dads! actually, it's the blog greeting that's late, the dads all got their cards before now.

cole and daddy

madi and daddy (it rhymes... haha)

cole thought his george would make a good playmate- he doesn't cry or drool like a little sister does!

see? w-a-a-a-a-y more cooperative than a little sister! and yes, george is wearing a diaper. don't ask.

miss madison REALLY loves her toes. as in, really really loves them. every chance she gets they go into her mouth. she does it when we're trying to change her diaper, when she's supposed to be napping, when she's playing on the floor, in the carseat... she's pretty flexible. like a tiny little gumby.

she looks so content... :)

this evening is cole's first parent-tot swimming lesson; we're pretty excited! i hope it goes well, not because of the water but because these little monkies have been getting up at the crack of dawn and taking very short naps. grr. if there's enough excitement, though, he may be too distracted to remember to be a crab. that's what i'm hoping, anyhow!

funky friday

mondays are blah, fridays can be just the opposite, as was the case yesterday! it started out freakishly well and ended up with both kids screaming before bedtime; that's another story, though. but we had a really good morning, which counts for something!

cole figured out how to make his own table and chair all by himself. he thought he was the man... if you can't tell.

madison and mommy!!

cole started entertaining madison for the first time! lately, madison's been breaking into grins and giggles when she sees cole (most of the time) but this was the first time they've ever really "played" together... it was SO neat to watch and they had me giggling too. i'm willing to bet that it was a good half hour that they were playing together. nice!

too bad it's blurry, but yes, miss squish was getting a big kick out of her big brother! he wasn't really doing all that much- just clapping and then squealing and laughing, but it sure made her crack up.

i polished the bathroom floor yesterday morning, so cole decided he'd 'polish' the rest of the floors for me. what a biug helper! if i'd been thinking straight, i could've put a swiffer cloth on it and he could have helped for real. next time... :)

we'd planned to take the kids swimming at the rec center yesterday afternoon, but they've changed their summer hours and now close at 6. we got there just after 5.30, so no swimming for us. we did get cole signed up for parent/tot swimming classes though! they start next tuesday (the 23rd) at 6 pm and run through august 4th. i'm excited- this'll be the first time we actually do a structured group activity with him! i just hope he loves the water as much as he did last year. i'm kind of missing the apartment and pool in casa grande- good times! (i don't, however, miss our upstairs neighbor...) that reminds me of heat, which brings to memory the weather we had yesterday and i've just gotta say, our 'new' central air is awesome!! of course, the upstairs is still quite a bit warmer than the first floor, especially the kids' room because there's no vent, but it's better that nothing. in fact, it works so well i've been running it only occassionally! i'm so glad we were able to get it in this year... *grin*

ugh.

so here's my little thing to ponder for today (and maybe tomorrow too, we'll see)... why do my children insist on fighting sleep until about 10 pm and then insist harder on getting up by 6.30 am? forget the meaning of life, the fountain of youth, the lost city of atlantis- this refusal to sleep enough is one mystery i'd love to solve. THEN we'll move on to the afore-mentioned head-scratchers...

*sigh*