not our christmas card photos

the lu had little interest in our christmas card photo shoot this year
we saw a lot of this
and more & more of this

as the shoot went on.

special thanks to my fabulous friend amanda who humors me every year by capturing my crazy family. it's always one of the best christmas gifts i receive and probably the only one i'll cherish forever.

(unless those diamond earrings are coming this year honey. i promise i'd cherish those too ;)

g @ 11 months

g notes at 11 months...

-he waves. at every.thing. and every.one.

-he sort of claps (he bangs his hands or objects together)

-he gives the sweetest open mouth kisses. mostly to me.

-he reaches up & plays with my dry, nasty ole hair whenever i'm holding him. he rubs it between his fingers & i can hear it's nappy texture. thanks for the reminder g ;)

-he has 2 bottom front teeth, and two top teeth coming in...the two on the outside of the top two front teeth.

-he's in 12-18 month pedipedi shoes, 12-18 month pants and mostly 18-24 shirts (long torso like his sissy), and 18 month pjs (maybe 12 month if they are all stretched out)

-he sleeps in footie pjs & a medium sleep sack

-he wears size 4 huggies & still uses sensitive newborn wipes (target brand ;)

-he will stand up in the middle of the room with nothing around him and cruises with the best of them. but no independent steps as of yet. and he has no interest in walking while holding our hands. he'd rather stand by himself or crawl, thankyouverymuch.

-he loves to open cabinet doors & pull everything out and bang it against the hardwood floor

-he LOVES to pound on things & bang things together. must be a boy thing?

-he eats like a champ. chicken, turkey, beef (he LOVED grandma myrtle the great's roast beef), toast, yogurt, blueberries (we are still working on raspberries), sweet potatoes, grilled cheese...pretty much anything i give him he'll at least try. it took a few attempts at blueberries, but now he's a BIG fan.

-when given peas & carrots, he eats the carrots first, and then if i don't give him any more he'll put back the peas. but he really prefers those carrots.

-he has 6oz bottles 4x a day...Enfamil ProSobee (soy)

-he drinks water from a sippy. and ALWAYS wants lu's sippy.

-he puts play phones up to his ear like he's talking

-he loves him some sissy. he lights up when she walks into a room
-dad is officially his favorite big man pal. he LOVES to play wrestlemania, pillow fight, and baby bulldog with dad & luci. he loves rough horseplay...i'm not excited about what this might mean for the future!

-i'm not sure how much he understands. he does understand, 'where is your cup', 'wave', 'where is dad/sissy/mom' and 'shake', but doesn't seem to get lots of things we do all the time like bye bye and eat. i'm wondering how much of it is me...i'm soo less likely to use consistent easy words with him because i'm usually busy talking to luci. so maybe he does understand & i just don't take the time to notice or to haven't given him opportunities to show me he understands? not sure. but i'm going to make more of a concerted effort going forward.

-his moods are even more extreme these days. when he's happy he just radiates joy, and when he's not he screams all holy moly!

the problem with time out

lately is that more often than not she's in time out for not being kind &/or gentle to her brother. his tears from her rough behavior soon become tears of sympathy and distress that his favorite playmate has to go sit in another room. without him. i'm still not sure if he's upset that she's upset or if he's just upset that he can't go sit with her.
see her 'resting' on the time out mat? he bangs on the doors until we let her out. or let him in.
adorable, cute, and annoying...all at the same time.
sigh :)

thankful

for all sorts of things this year. m'girl, m'boy, m'man. the rest of m'family. m'friends. our health.

we had a wonderful afternoon at the oswick household. our fourth thanksgiving in a row with our local family of friends. we had a record amount of food this year, which means a record amount of leftovers. this is good.

lulu is getting to be SUCH a big girl. we didn't see her for more than a few minutes all afternoon...she was so busy off playing with her friends. it was so fun that she cried when i announced it was time to leave. when we were getting into the car at 7p she asked if we were going to open presents when we got home. we explained it wasn't Christmas yet...that today was a day to be thankful for all of the things we already had.

she seemed annoyed.

then we got home. walked in the door & she LOST it...saying we forgot her treat bag. i replied, 'no, your trick or treat bag is still on top of the fridge - we didn't take it anywhere' (we are still eating halloween candy...1 per day) and she said, "NOOO!!! the bag from eleanor's house that has my name on it!"

then i got it. she had so much fun she thought it was like a birthday party and she was asking about her goodie bag.

yep, our thanksgiving was so fun our 3 year old thought it was a party. hope your thanksgiving was a party too :)

oh come all ye faithful

in the last week lu has come home from school singing all sorts of new songs...i'm guessing they are preparing for their upcoming Christmas program.

just a sampling of her take-away from oh come all ye faithful...

at first it was: "oh come, all ye fate-ful. joyful and try-on-it."

then later, "born the burger ki-ii-iing."

and even later yet, as she even more absentmindedly sang..."oh come, all ye fate-ful, juu-uuuly and au-ugust."

should be a great program!! ;)

alarm clock

this morning i woke up to the sound of my kids, as i always do. 'cept today it was different. they were laughing. together.

i checked g's video monitor.

i saw g standing in his crib, totally cracking up at the lu...who was playing peak a boo with him...all around the crib.

giggles, smiles + squeals of delight to start my day.

talk about the best alarm clock EVER.

g back @ 10 months

m'boy. i'm so sorry. we are so close to your 11 month birthday that i can't remember back to 10 months. what i can tell you is that you've been sick since mid-september. i thought you were finally feeling better, then teething hit & now today you woke up with yet another snot crusted face. but you did sleep through the night, so thank you for that my love.

-you are still anemic. and you hate your iron supplements. but aunt brooke tells me not to worry so i'm doing my best.

-your little fingers are ALWAYS busy. seriously...so dexterous. can't wait to see what you do with those capable hands as you grow.

-you wave...sometimes in the right context, sometimes not. but super adorable regardless.

-you cruise, you stand up on your own for as long as you want to & do it with incredible balance.

-you love your sissy. and you are already starting to act like the stereotypical little brother...pulling lu's hair, taking her toys, pushing & poking her in the double stroller or cart at the grocery store when you are bored. cracks me up....not so much her.

-you also are SUCH a lover. when i put you to bed at night & we rock you reach your arms up & just hug me. you reach up & play with my hair so sweetly...i just melt. i could rock you & love on you all night. if i didn't need to sleep, that is ;)

we're back...and behind

this crazy mama & her high maintenance kids survived a trip to iowa without dad. the kids were really terrific travelers. as for their mama? not so much. i won't be traveling again without him for a few more years. maybe when our youngest is three.

i have tons of catch up posting to do. and laundry. and work. ya know, fun stuff.

g was diagnosed with his first ear infection at that 8:15a appointment last monday...two days before we left for iowa. that said, he travelled super well. i took him back today and his bad ear has cleared up but the other one now has a bit of fluid, but not enough to treat at this point. he's been a fussy boy since we got back, but between the travel craze, ears, cough, and two new teeth clay discovered poking through today (top lateral incisors...the teeth on either side of his top two front teeth...which are not out yet) i guess a bit of fussy is to be expected.

and now, despite all of the things i should do, i'm going to go to bed. 'night.

ps. sweet boy...i'm sorry your 10 month post is going to be at the same time as your 11 month post at this rate. photos have been taken, but post has not been written.

pps. and i forgot to take my camera to iowa. awesome. luckily aunt baylee took some photos with her camera that i hope to share soon.

sick of sick & the most beautiful girl in the world+

these photos are totally unrelated to my post. but i just wanted you all to see m'girl. just before church this morning. cause she just looked so darn pretty.
she's got this new thing she's doing...constantly chewing on her fingers or clothes or hair...no idea what prompted it...maybe gus chewing on things? anyway - we're working on it. showing me her tap moves...

more tap...

i can't even begin to tell you how ready i am for this household to be well again. it's not like we've got major health concerns and for that i am very grateful. but since september 23rd it has been one thing after another...starting with g's diarrhea, moving on to the rest of us, then to a cold for clay & me, a sinus infection for me, then a stomach bug for me, then to a cough for the lu, to vomit to sinus infection for her, then last saturday g woke up with the cough and now the last couple of days he's had a low grade fever & isn't happy unless he's being held by mom or distracted watching baby einstein or his crazy sister. and he's waking at night & not napping well.

really it's been mostly manageable (except for the 8 hour barfing binge i had). really i'm just selfish...because i sooooo want to go to the gym. but the coughing fits & green snot crusted all over the faces of my precious babes aren't welcome there. i mean, i still find them adorable...but i suspect it's in the way only a mother can...

oh, and the kids & i leave this week for iowa. flying solo with the two of them. Lord please help me. clay has a long stint away so instead of missing him here we're going to go spend some time with the rosonke/halvorson clan. it's g's first time up there and our first time to meet cousin austyn, just in time for her first birthday. hopefully we won't get the sweet birthday girl sick.

luckily on friday i had enough foresight to think maybe i should make a pedi appointment for monday in case g isn't better....just to get them both checked out before we get on a plane & skip town. i called friday & scored two 8:15a sick checks for both kids with our doc. i figured i could always cancel them but if i waited till monday to call i'd never get in (the line is usually busy the first 30 minutes after they open on monday). sure enough, g woke up with a fever on saturday. but i have the appointments...so at least something is going my way!!

ramblings

clay's been home a.lot. over the last few weeks. cause that is what happens when mama barfs her brains out right before he's supposed to start a trip. it's been nice (not the barfing part, the having clay home part).

and so now that it's just me & the kiddos again, i have lots of random thoughts throughout the day that i'd like to share with another adult.

like...
"g's up. it is 6:18a. what to do? i guess we could clean under our bed...since it's been like 4 1/2 years..."

and
"it's 8am and the kids are running around the playroom like crazies. i'm too tired for this. why did i think cleaning under our bed was a good idea before coffee? seriously, the kids are bonkers. somebody is gonna get hurt."
and then 15 minutes later...
"told ya. lu just slammed g's finger in the play oven door. but she was SO, SO.SORRY." (her words)

or...
"holy cow. we went outside today after lunch & it was so nice & chilly i thought i should run in & get the kids' winter hats. then i checked the temperature & it was 70 degrees. when did we become lizards?!?!"

or...
"i don't feel like cooking. wanna go to chick-fil-a for dinner?" actually, i did say that to my 3 year old and she readily agreed.

and...
"so the lu is afraid of 'ghost-es-es' now. d*mn halloween. she wants me to stay in her room with her all night. since when did she become afraid of things!?! luckily i'm quick on my feet & told her that daddybear & Jesus will keep her safe. and that ghosts aren't real, they are just pretend. she seemed skeptical at best, but she did fall asleep."

and...
"i hate the night before the best cleaning ladies on earth come. seriously. it is so much work to pick up. ev-er-yyy-thing. but i'm not complaining...no, really, i'm not. i'm spoiled & they are great & i'm grateful. what would i do if they didn't show up at 8a? how would i keep stuff picked up throughout the day?"

and finally,
"it's after 10p. at 6a when the goo is up we are going to wish we had gone to bed at like 8p. why is this a lesson we have to keep re-learning?!?!"

so yeah, thanks for listening. er, reading. and if i'm really honest, i know why you are all here...and it's not because of my ramblings. so without further ado...i proudly present...thecutestkidsever.

he eats half of his meal once he's down & out of the chair.

Happy Halloween!

my loves...spooky fog! my princess
my skeleton
my man in uniform (i wish it was only a costume!)
the lu & her buddy eleanor...all smiles as trick-or-treating came to end

we had a great halloween.

it was clay's first year home to see the lu trick-or-treat.

let's just say he won't be missing another one.

he's really a softy...once you crack that hard shell.

there may have been two sets of teary eyes when we recapped how much we enjoyed the night, each other, our children & our neighborhood.

life is good.

even if poor g did throw up on himself twice due to coughing fits. didn't even realize until we got home. it's his turn to battle the upper respiratory bug. he didn't take an afternoon nap, stayed up late, and was an angel the entire night. alert with big eyes - happy as could be just checkin out all of the eye candy.

life.is.good.

ps. happy birthday to aunt brookie today :) love ya sis.