this, that and the other thing

blogging has sort of taken a back seat to the rest of life, lately... between spending time with the kids, making hats, going to biolife twice a week, other random happenings and now a new job, it's kind of been pushed to the side. my dear, sweet husband pointed that out... :)

so, once again, this is a catch-up post!

cole found a new use for the exersaucer. you should see him when he stands up to walk away- talk about loopy!!

now that madison's doing more (like, walking while holding onto our fingers) he's starting to show a bit of jealousy. lately he's been mimicking her when she cries or babbles- perfectly normal, but i've started reacting to him the same way i react to madi just so he doesn't feel left out. it won't be long and he'll tire of being "babied", i'm sure!

daddy and madi playing tug-o-war with madi's paci!
within the past two weeks, madi's new thing has been 'sharing' her paci with us. she does it quite forcefully, but she's SO proud of herself when she succeeds at popping in into our mouths.

kelvin got some photos of me and the kids- just spontaneous snapshots. cole was NOT in the mood for it, unfortunately....

... but madi was! she's almost always game for being in front of the camera. she really knows how to work it!

monday evening there was a small dinner at mom and dad's for sarah- she, mom and dad are on the way out to montana right this minute. for those who don't know, sarah's moving out there and is staying with elissa and logan for a little while, getting her residency and then going to school. that's the plan, anyway... so monday evening was in her honor!

the kids and i got there before lunch so we could spend a little extra time with her.

what better way to spend a few last hours with auntie sarah than going for 'rides' in the laundry basket?

madi wasn't left out- she was in something a bit more size-appropriate: a plastic storage container. she didn't quite get the concept of playing in laundry baskets (or storage containers) so she mostly fussed. we tried.

she did enjoy a little quality time with uncle "tid", though!

(*that's how cole says it... and on a cute side note, every time we go past the billboard with a one-legged runner on it by bear creek corners, he yells "TID"!!!)

love it!

cole had fun playing with his cousins... he's still getting the hang of playing with others. he's not quite old enough for organized activity but he's outgrown the whole "do-you-own-thing" thing. sorry, kristian! you put up with cole really well- gold star for you!!

the "girls' night" girls

poor cole was trying so very hard to blow out the candle that wasn't on sarah's cake.

maybe he thought if he blew hard enough, it would magically appear.

who knows.

goofy-cute!

while it's SO hard to say goodbye to sarah, i know that this is her adventure. this is a good thing... and she'll do well. miss her like crazy already!

cole had some fun with his bath crayons from auntie elissa, uncle logan and cousin coy. i know- he got them for his birthday and didn't use them till today. that's my fault... i was dreading the clean-up. it wasn't as bad as i thought, but it definitely won't be a sunday morning ritual. he had a blast: "bath! colors!!"

yesterday was my first training day at the brick oven. i LOVE it!! i never though making pizza could be so much fun; since it's carry out/delivery only, there's no dining room or customer dishes to worry about. i've already done the waitressing thing and didn't care for it at all, so this is really nice. i had a flashback to a recent home-made pizza episode in our own small kitchen: i was making pizza dough (from a jiffy mix- good stuff, by the way) and cole was watching me try to get the dough off my hands so i could knead it. he stood and watched, his little face one big question mark, then finally said dramatically; "siiiiiick!". i think i fell over laughing! anyway, daddy and the kids did just fine without mommy home to hold down the fort- everyone ate well at supper, went to bed well, etc.! it makes me feel a little less guilty about missing out on the routine that i've been a part of for the last 26 months. i discovered today, though, that my patience was in slightly greater supply, so maybe the "break" is good. i'll miss them on nights that i work, but i can rest easy knowing that they're at home with daddy.

oh- there is one bad thing: the photos on our old harddrives? well, they're most likely gone forever. a HUGE thank you to stephen for trying hard... if you don't get them, it's ok! maybe i'm being a big baby about it, but i've cried over the thought of never getting them back. if they weren't of the kids, it wouldn't matter much... an entire summer (including sarah's graduation, first parades for both kids, several 'firsts' for madi, fishing with kelvin's family, cole's second birthday party and many other things) is probably gone. that's a hard one to deal with... but i guess it could be worse. at least i've still got the kids :)

pssst!

my mommy wants to tell you something...my mommy got a job! just a little one... and only after daddy comes home from work. she's going to make pizza, pasta and other yummy stuff at the brick oven. in case you were wondering, mommy doesn't really want to leave me and cole in the evenings, but she says it's a necessity. not really sure what that means, since i can't even say it, but whatever. mommy's excited (to tell you the truth, she's kind of looking forward to interaction with other grown-ups) and she doesn't have to feel TOO guilty because daddy will be home with us.

she starts next week tuesday...

later,

madison

~*~

in other news around here, cole cut his chin open and got a nice little streak of a bruise on his cheek and eyebrow... it happened at biolife yesterday! they had to fill out a report because he broke the skin; apparently cole had been playing and stumbled over a toy on the floor and fell against the table or one of the chairs. i think it bothered them more than me... he's a boy. it comes with the territory.

one more thing: i think i set a record for selling on etsy! i listed a winter wonderland hat this morning and in less than three hours it was sold. wow! now, if i could have that sort of luck EVERY time i try to sell something... :)

madi's 9-mo check-up

we have weight gain!! it's good news and we're excited!her stats for 9 months:

14 lbs, 4 oz: >1st percentile

27 1/4 inches: 40th percentile

so- she's gained a little weight- 7 ounces since her last weight check at 7 months. of course, she had her clothes, diaper and shoes on because by 9 months, they figure an extra few ounces shouldn't make a big difference. that is, unless the wee one is pretty petite. for madi, we consider ounces to be a big thing. dr h is pretty concerned about her weight because even though she's gained a little, she keeps falling further off the chart. he mentioned the possibility of an absorption disorder but said that if that were the case, she'd have constant diarrhea, which she's never had. if she's not climbing back up (her percentile) at her 12-month visit, then he'll want to run some tests. also, apparently her outie belly button is actually a small hernia... dr h says it's harmless and will go away eventually. as for everything else, he's happy with her development and progress. other than being quite tiny, she's healthy and on-track. still, i can't help it... i'm scared. what if there's something wrong? for now, dr h doesn't see any reason to not wait and see what she'll do in the next few months, but still, i'm worried. she didn't get any shots today, which is nice... with cole on an attitude streak, the last thing i need is a crabby baby.

bapa's boots!

my mom had a HUGE amount of apples she wanted to make into applesauce, and on saturday we went over to help out. kelvin and dad cut and hauled wood while the kids and i stayed in with mom and the apples.

they were oh-so-excited to see bapa walk in... can't you tell, from cole's little acrobatic move?

in normal cole-fashion, a few apples were well-washed.
last time we did this, cole spent hours (literally. HOURS.) at the sink playing in the water with a few apples and various utensils. i learned quickly to strip him down first!

being in the nude (almost), the poor little guy was forced to fend for himself when it came to clothing. for him the obvious choice was bapa's boots!

or maybe sawah's shirt? they didn't really "go", so it was one or the other.

in the end, he wound up with the same outfit he'd had on in the first place...

and then it was on to the next thing: coloring with auntie sawah!!

madi helped herself to a crayon too... of course, the first thing she had to do was taste it.

that inspired a flashback- total deja vu!

rewind to 17 months ago...

yup- i thought it looked familiar too!

looking through all those photos of cole at nine months made me laugh and cry (a little; what happened to my baby who made the funny squishy-face?!)

i couldn't help it- seeing such a tiny person in a tub made me giggle. and grab the camera.

rub-a-dub-dub, teeny person in a tub!!

we have some madi-developments! she's been saying "mama-ma-ma" in response to us saying it first, but last night, as she was crawling around just before bedtime, she made her way to where i was sitting, grabbed my pj pants and said "mama". she's also been saying "hiiiiiii" at increasingly appropriate times, like when sarah walked into the house last night. she's also started taking some steps while hanging on to my fingers. the whole standing/walking thing is slow going for her, since she doesn't have the freedom that cole did. rather, she's impeded by the constant threat of a toddler attack. eh, once she's REALLY on the move, he big brother better watch his back!

oh, and for cole? well, he's able to repeat every single letter of the alphabet. until a few days ago, i hadn't done much with him with letters, nothing that would really 'stick', so i was flabbergasted when, while singing the alphabet song to him late last week, he repeated every single letter along with me. not only that, he'll point at letters and attempt to identify it. sometimes he's right on, most times not so much.

oh, my babies are growing SO fast...

10/15

i didn't post anything yesterday because i just didn't want to. normally, i would have, but for some reason, october 15th hit me a little harder this year. maybe it's the occassional question in my mind: "if we hadn't lost taylor and london, would we still have cole and madi?"

simple question, but i don't always like to think of what the answer might be. i can't imagine life without my babies...

so in honor of october 15th, for parents with angel babies, here's to remembering our sweet little ones.

standing ovation

i got this cute shot of all three of the loves of my life...muahh!

cole begged till he was blue in the face for a bite of what daddy was having for supper the other night...

side salad.

he loved it.

he ate a lot of it.

crazy... most two-year old's i know don't care much for salad.

drumroll please.................

we have standage!! yes, madison pulled herself to standing in her pack-n-play a few days ago!

i think her main motivation was to have something to chew on.

"hey, i can see my feet from here! actually, that's about ALL i can see... this bar's in the way."

she was rather proud of herself!

so was cole- he even showed her the finer points of chewing on the rail.

and for those of you not on facebook, there's another new addition to the green*vanilla baby store: the winter wonderland hat! hop on over and check it out...

cole-isms

our little man has been so vocal lately... not just loud, but full of stuff that makes us laugh.

things that take us completely by surprise.

things i need to write down immediately so i don't forget them.

yes, cole is quite the chatterbox lately!

for example: this morning he saw his daddy's tennis shoes and said "daddy shoe. wheh daddy go?", obviously a little confused that daddy wasn't in them. so i told him that daddy went to work. right away, he asked, "shoe?". i told him that daddy wears his boots to work... to which he replied, "NO!! bapa boots!"

guess grandpa's the only one allowed to wear boots...

there's other things too, like how he hollers "WAIT!!!" at the top of the stairs when we're leaving the house (i tell him to wait while i stick madi in the van; he can yell it but can't do it), or how he said "azul" (spanish for 'blue'), or even the non-verbal feat of timing his little cop cars just right so the sirens go off at the same time.

that's our little man!

*(ps- that's one of the only photos you'll see me in for quite awhile, so enjoy!)*