trampoline danger

gus gus can now climb....let the danger fun begin!!



no babies were harmed in the making of these photos ;)

my girl.

halloween cookies...round 1 of many, i'm sure.

she started to fade after decorating the first sheet of cookies.

i'll be honest...after i caught her eating spoons full of sprinkles i was relieved to have some less sugar coated sugar cookies!

my boy.

his daddy wants to cut that precious hair over his ears.

i just can't let him do it yet.

i know i'm biased, but could he be any cuter? as the lu would say, "i want to EAT yourself!" translation? we think it is her interpretation of one of my favorite phrases (you're so cute...i just want to eat you up...which is usually followed by lots of kisses).

strange interpretation, i know. it cracks clay & me up every time.

behind, again

my goo is officially 9 months old. got lots of great photos to post of him and some notes, but not enough energy tonight to tackle said post.

so, just wanted to say all is well. kitchen brainstorming/looking for items/shopping has been consuming me. i've purchased 10 used kitchen chairs in the last week. for a combined $110 ;) i love them all, but both sets need work. it seems everything needs work! and of course i have the 6 old chairs to sell....

i'm busy making pelmet boxes for the kitchen windows with this fabric. got one done tonight, but not hung yet (that is a job for the man ;). last night i put these cabinet knobs up. power tools don't scare me...although maybe the possibility of ruining our cabinet doors should have! i still have the island hardware & all drawers to finish because i'm thinking i'll mix up the hardware for those items. and of course i still have a laundry list of other things i'd like to get accomplished...yesterday!

[ ]

trying super hard to pick myself up by the bootstraps these days. clay has been gone a lot. like a lot, a lot. like 12 of the last 16 days. and it'll be 16 of the last 20 before he's finally home again. for 2 days. before he leaves again for 3. and then so on & so on & so on.


not sure why it feels like he's gone so much more. maybe because he is? maybe because luci is old enough to really understand he's not here & feel his absence? she is very emotional when he's gone. and when he's home (who am i kidding?) maybe she picks up on my stress? maybe it is her own stress? maybe a combo? she sobs for him. literally sobs. then he gets home & all she wants is mommy. which hurts his feelings. and frustrates us both. and then just when she finally warms up to him again it's time for him to go.


the week started out rough. kitchen renovation contractors showed up at 8:30a on sunday with a solo (at least, solo + kids) me not feeling well. no body seemed to know what they were doing. finally by tuesday the kitchen was at least put back together.


gus has been teething all week, up every 2 hours at night. diarrhea every diaper. thought it was just the teething. till last night. when lulu was up every 2 hours with diarrhea. so both had diarrhea today. and then lu vomited all over the dinner table, gus & me tonight. like out her nose vomit. then she had more diarrhea in her diaper while i was reading her a bedtime story (she still wears diapers to bed). after the diaper had been changed i went to put it in the diaper genie. runny poop flew across the room. onto the dresser, carpet, inside the diaper genie...but not on the plastic throw away part, of course. meanwhile gus was screaming his head off next door.

so after the poop was cleaned up i went to quiet the screaming head. i tried with all of my might to just relish in that sweet, cool chubby cheek next to mine.

we had a family health scare this week. found out yesterday that all is well...don't worry. while i was rocking with that chubby, wet cheek next to mine i started to think about my parents. cleaning up after me all those years. wondering if they know how much i love them. if they know how much it breaks my heart that my kiddos don't get to spend much time with them. how very much i wish my whole family could live in the same town. and then i wondered why i don't say such things more often. and why it seems easier to say on my blog than over the phone or in person. seems wrong. but better said here than left unsaid, right?

so i love you mom & dad. and i love you dear husband. here or not here. and of course i love my kids too...screaming, poop, vomit, & all.

wordless wednesday

the haps (part 2)

well the kitchen update that was planned (at least, by us) for today has been pushed back. there was a miscommunication & now the granite will be installed on sunday (cause of the mistake). and backsplash on monday. and faucet & dishwasher & disposal on tuesday. whatever. it is what it is.

3. the gym. oh...the new gym, how i love thee. mama is a MUCH better mama when she gets some alone time during the day...with music from the 'dance & dj' genre (per itunes) blaring in her headphones at a volume that is most certainly not healthy. sweating a bit. actually, who are we kidding...sweating a lot. i have such a flat learning curve...why have i not been working out for the last 4 years? i've worked out most of my life...why did i ever stop? i feel SO much better...physically, mentally, emotionally. it's good. and gusgus is doing better at childcare - he usually cries during the hand off but i haven't been paged to return before i'm ready in over a week. he's got a few of the ladies wrapped around his finger & they seem to adore him. duh, who wouldn't ;) he even naps there if he's tired! and the lu? she loves it. usually doesn't want to leave when it is time to go. she "climbs, cooks bacon, and makes things in art".

4. this is a big one. i think i'm ready to wean gus. i started doing one bottle of formula a day (he gets it at the gym...convenient, right?) a few weeks ago, and now i'm up to two. next week i'll go to nursing him just once a day. and then however many times he eats a night. right now it's two times but i'm not making my almost 9 month old bottles in the middle of the night. he's old enough to get what he needs during the day so he'll just have to change his habits when when the mama milk runs out. i'd always planned that i'd nurse him for a full year, but i'm finding i have a huge need to own my body right now...and i didn't anticipate that. i think it's the working out. he's had it for 18 months, so i'm trying not to feel too selfish about wanting it back. one of my favorite motherhood phrases is what's good for mama is good for baby...so i'm just going to keep going with what feels right. and what feels right at the moment is taking control back and owning this nearly unrecognizable body.

5. the lu is rockin school these days. sure she often says she doesn't want to go (but she never wants to go anywhere), but yesterday she actually told me she wanted to go to school or to the gym. apparently i wasn't as entertaining as usual ;) her goofball sense of humor is in full force these days as she picks up things from other kids. it is weird to have her being influenced by things outside our home. singing songs i don't know, saying things i didn't teach her...it is very strange for me...yet somehow i know the time is right for her to gain some independence. but strange, nonetheless. we've thrown a LOT of change at her in a pretty short time, and she's done really well it. i'm very proud of my pea.

6. i realized the other day i've finally gotten used to having two kids. i actually waited to pick up luci from school to go grocery shopping with both of them rather than go with just gus. we are at some strange point (maybe with gus having more mobility?) where having them both out somewhere is actually easier than being at home. at home gusgus follows the lu around while she taunts (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) him with things that he can't play with. either because he'd choke or because she doesn't want him to 'mess it all up'. and to say she's usually a bit too rough with him would be an understatement. i need to figure out a new tactic to deal with the too rough behavior because what i'm doing isn't working. suggestions?

i think that's about it. overall i'm pretty happy with our new 'busier' schedule. and i'm super glad the carroon drama is over. and will be even happier when the kitchen is done! stay tuned for some before & after photos!

things the lu says

the lu says the funniest things these days. i think she's picking up bits & pieces from friends at school.

lu: i'm gonna SMACK your footie!
me: you are gonna smack me?
lu (laughing): yes, i wanna SMACK you!

me: how about pasta for lunch today?
lu: no thank you. i'm not hungry. maybe after dinner.

lu: i want to scratch your feelings!
me: you want to scratch my feelings?
lu (laughing): yes. they have BARF ALL OVER THEM!!!

and this one is probably tmi, but it made me laugh so hard i have to record it...
me: my tummy hurts. i have to go potty...get those poops out of my tummy.
lu (with the most concerned, disturbed look ever): MOM...you ATE your POOPS?!?!?!?!?

the haps (part 1)

life has been dictated by some significant happenings lately. this is part 1 of a 2 part post. cause i should be working right now...

1. the kitchen update.
our kitchen is 12 years old and it's starting to really show its age. since we'll (hopefully) be selling in less than 2 years we knew we'd need to do something before then...cause grout is falling out of the ceramic tiles that make up the counter and our faucet is about ready to blow. like clay showed me how to turn off the water source ready to blow. the electric COIL cook top only has 3 burners that work...and our dishwasher is so loud it sounds like the el is running through our kitchen. have i convinced you we need an update/upgrade yet?

well we convinced ourselves...but given our struggles with design choices in the past, we decided to hire a designer. fancy, right? um, turns out not so much. 3 weeks + $600 later they presented their design in about 10 minutes. they picked the same granite we had in chicago (that we picked out by ourselves), and some seemingly random photos of a sink, dishwasher, cook top, faucet & drawer/cabinet hardware. and an awesome stacked glossy glass tile back splash...which i had asked for. the problem? we gave them a budget and they came in 68% over. um, yeah.

so we called our realtor to confirm that updating to granite is something we really need to do. she says yes, yes it is. apparently people expect granite in this market. she also gives me the names of some other folks...who come out & tell us they can give us pretty much the same thing for about 20% over our original budget. done. the biggest value? new dude tells me glass tile is RIDICULOUSLY hard to keep clean...that water spots are bonkers bad unless you are constantly wiping & cleaning it.

seriously fancy designer ladies? did you not see the state of my house when you came over? did you not see my two small children? cause you certainly did NOT think to mention that maintenance of glass tile is NOT very functional. what a let down! but, in the end we picked out some different granite that we liked, described a backsplash look we wanted and we think we'll be happy. we picked out a new cook top & dishwasher, and in a few weeks we should have an updated kitchen!! the designer folks said our kitchen would be out of commission for 3 weeks. this new guy said 2 days. now that's what i'm talkin about.

2. the caroon saga.
ugh. so like five weeks ago or so we realized we had something living in the wall right under where the breezeway connects to the house. we've left our garage open for the last year since tallulah moved outside (cause she's an inside pee-er-all-over-er), and in the last few months a raccoon (or a caroon in luci speak...although today she kept calling it a kangaroo) decided a wall in our house would be an excellent place to live. and if i were a wild animal i'd probably agree. we had a trapper man come & set two traps...baited with honeybuns. the caroon was too smart & said no thank you. trapper man said it was probably a smart young male & we were lucky it wasn't a mama with babies. we thought (s)he was gone.

till a tuesday. we heard a ruckus, and sure enough (s)he was back. and we decided it was in fact a she...now a mama with babies. NOT.SO.AWESOME. after some googling we decided to try applying a concoction of chili powder, cayenne pepper & hot sesame oil. clay quickly realized that it wouldn't really work because we couldn't get to where mama + babies were, and if we sprayed it at their entrance he'd be spraying all of the electrical wiring of our house. but the clever man did think of drilling a hole in the wall above where the caroons were and blowing in chili powder & cayenne pepper with a straw. and it worked. immediately we heard mama rustle her way out of the wall. two hours or so later i saw mama leave with a baby in her mouth. we thought that meant success, that she'd surely come back for the other babes. and we thought she had. till today. when i heard babies at lunch. OH NO. so i promptly called mr. trapper man back. he came this afternoon & cut them out of the wall. apparently she was a young mama and he didn't think she'd be coming back for the other two. there has been no sign of her since tuesday when i saw her take a babe away in her mouth. i had read that if you put the live babies in a trap the mama will go in every.time. so i thought he'd do that. but sweet coon peas were too little to leave in a trap...only 7-10 days old. they'd be too cold. so he was going to take them to a rehabber who will raise him them until they are old enough to be released into the wild.




see the orb below? that's the orb that was here, watchin to see if i respected another mama's babies. yes God/universe/whatever you happen to believe...i respect life. no baby bloodshed in this house thankyouverymuch. this is a place of love & life. just preferrably not wild-life.

now we just have a bit of drywall repair to take care of....

k...i know you are all riveted by the details of our life, but i really need to work now ;)

i need some water

she says, handing me a dry towel. i tell her to get it wet in the bathroom sink. bad idea. 6 wet rolls of toilet paper later (basket o toilet paper on the floor) she's got water dripping EVERYWHERE. she's hysterical when i ring the towel out. she tells me she needs water to clean the floor... like cinderella.

i'm not one to say no to someone willing to clean my floors...

think this means i can get rid of our cleaning helpers?!?!? ;)

ps. notice her hawkeye colors? yes, it was intentional. go hawks!

sooooo big

so our boy came home yesterday from the gym with a new trick....

he's getting soooooo big ;)

(pardon my ridiculous encouraging mama voice)

home day

the lu has declared today a "home day". she's pretty excited about having nowhere to go and nothing to do. nothing but "play all day" that is.

here she is early this am...

so much dancing she needed to rest!

later, eating a banana dressed as another princess...

and this afternoon...playing 'little friends' in nothing but her cinderella big girl panties (her favorite) and black cinderella home slippers.

the friends go from home to school all day in the school bus. the 'milk feeder' is the teacher. she stays at school while all other little friends get to go home. funny enough she's always proclaimed the lil friend dressed as a queen as the mom. this 'milk feeder' we named 'nurse nancy'...cause lu assured me she was NOT the mom.

and the boy appears to be happy at home too. he needs to catch up on some sleep...not much luck so far today. he's too busy discovering that this newly mastered skill of crawling can take him into the kitchen....
woohooo the kitchen!!! here i come!!!

and this one cracks me up. he grabbed the lu's wand...and was SOOO proud of himself, it was the cutest face. as i attempted to capture said cute face, he gagged himself with the wand. i promise the camera was in the process of being dropped as i retrieved the wand from his mouth...see the goofy exposure in the background to prove it?!?!?

G @ 8 months (and 3 year stats for the Lu)

Big boy is 8 months old today. I can't believe he's 8 months! His months fly by so much more quickly than they did with the Lu.

Here are some stats from their joint 6mo/3yr well baby checks...which occurred at 7.5mo & 3 years and 15ish days...cause I only go to the pedi for well baby checks when I can get the first appointment of the day (I'm not very good at waiting for hours & hours with two kids)...and this time I had to find the first two appointments of the day to save myself a trip!

7.5 month stats (his 6mo well baby visit...45ish days late):

weight: 18lbs, 11.2 ounces; 50th-75th percentile

height: 28 inches; 75th-90th percentile

head circumference: 17.5 inches; 50th percentile

And 3 year stats for the Lu at 3yrs and 15 days:

weight: 31lbs, 4 ounces; 50th percentile

height: 38 1/4 inches; 75th-90th percentile

bmi: 10.24%

Notes on the boy...

-he officially started crawling...headed right for contraband. think cords, the dvr, and any dvds left within reach. whatever room the lu heads for he's sure to follow.

-his dexterous hands put everything in his mouth

-he gives AWESOME big open mouth kisses

-he HATES babyfood. his menu is pretty limited at this point...i try to give him food that i know he'll eat. his absolute FAVORITE food is bananas. he also likes avocado, mango, peach, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn and sometimes peas. i usually buy frozen steamable veggie packs, microwave them, and then either mash them with a fork or put them in my food mill. he can pick up steamed peas with his pincer & get them to his mouth about 30% of the time.

-he is still a terrible sleeper. i'm lucky to get 1 nap at 90 minutes, the other one is usually 40 minutes or so. then if we are in the car he might fall asleep for 20-30 minutes around 4 or 4:30p. he goes to bed around 6:45 and usually cries about 30 minutes on average before falling asleep. he's been getting up to eat 2x again now for the last month or so. he's up for good most mornigns during the 6am hour...should be fun during the time change this fall.

-we just started to giving him baths in the big tub with luci. i have yet to do that on my own...and i probably won't for awhile yet.

-he LOVES cords & nearly pulled one out of the wall plug-in today.

-still in size 3 diapers...we switched to huggies...they just seem to fit lil boy bottoms better.

-size 12mo pjs are in their last days because he's so long. he wears 12-18 month or 18-24 month clothing - again, because of his length. unless the outfit is separates...then he can wear 9 or 12mo (like shorts & a t-shirt).

-he makes all sorts of sounds....mamamamama, daaaa, daaamomm, luu, boouuf...he seems to be much more verbal than I remember luci being at this age.

-he is still mostly crying for the entire time at the new gym. poor boy. he just loves him some mama.

-he sleeps in a medium sleep sack.

-he nurses 4x a day, and usually 2x at night. he eats 3 meals of solids.

-he's a super snuggler. waaaaaaaay more snuggly than the lu. he loves me, is happy to put his arm around my neck, nuzzle me at night, give me open mouth kisses, smushy faces...the whole bit. he'd hug me 24/7 if he could i think.

i sure do love you sweet boy!

week 1

we survived the first week of our new 2010-2011 school year schedule! sure there were a few tears, but shed our fair share every week...and now that i'm thinking about...i really think this week had less cumulative tears than we've had each the last several weeks. so that's something!

lulu has done well at school. no tears on monday and just a few on wednesday when i picked her up...and same thing today. each morning she tells me she wants to stay home & play all day and that she'll "very miss my mommy", but her teachers assure me she does great while she's there. she tells us quite imaginative stories about things that happen at school and i have no idea if there is truth in any of them. today she came home talking about a lobster & a spider. a gray lobster. and a spider who was going to eat me. but then we all 'lived happily ever after'. i'm guessing that she's repeating bits & pieces of imaginative games that she plays with her friends on the playground but i can't be sure. i'm so grateful that she has so many friends there...that & being another year older has made ALL the difference.

clay took her to her new gymnastics class (she's a rockin roller now instead of a mighty munchkin...she started out as a diaper daredevil) and after a bit of a rocky start he assures me all went well for the last 90% of class. she's had the same 2 teachers for the nearly two years we've been going there until now so i wasn't surprised it was hard for her, but am very proud of her for getting through it.

we also started dance today and after a bit of 'but i'm going to very miss you' she walked right into class to stand on the green dot next to her buddy margeaux. she was totally motivated by the lollipop her teacher hands out at the end of class...which she remembered from her two attempts at dance last winter. i COULD NOT believe she remembered that! seriously! the kid loves her some lolli. at first i had no idea what she was talking about but then i started to remember something about a lollipop...and sure enough the lu was spot on. what a nut!

and if that wasn't enough change we threw the poor kid into the childcare area at our new gym for at least 30 minutes nearly everyday. she usually fusses just a bit before walking in, but then often isn't ready to leave when i go to pick her up! what a change!

we were blessed with a visit from grandma & grandpa pierse to boot, so it has been a big, big week for a certain three year old. as i reflect back on the week i think she did marvelously given everything we threw at her. i'm thinking next week will present a different challenge as the newness wears off, but hopefully she'll really enjoy everything...cause with the exception of the gym (which is good for mama and therefore good for her) we really just want her to be happy & have fun things to do with other kids. the girl has A.LOT. of energy and clay & i are going to forever be challenged to channel that energy in a productive, constructive way that is good for the whole family.

and then there is poor gusgus. he cried at the new gym pretty much 20-30 minutes everyday (although there were two good days in the middle). and he's just tired. we did a lot more running around this week than he's used to. a lot of having to be places at certain times...i used to plan our whole day around his naps and now i'm planning his naps around our whole day. i know he'll be just fine, but i do feel bad when he's so clearly tired because he didn't have his sleep needs met due to some scheduled luci activity. although he did officially start crawling this week so i guess he isn't too messed up from the big change in schedule. yay gus!

that all said i really think what we've got going is best for the family as a whole right now. and after we get into the flow of the year if we discover what we've got going isn't the best fit we'll just change it!

good job sweet girl. i knew you could do it...and you did! and my sweet boy? we'll get there. i promise all of those tears have been shed for good reason. the treadmill is definitely the best place for mama to burn off her steam...that way no one gets burned!

First Day of Preschool

the sunscreen makes her face nice & shiny :)

and "Luci's School Day Checklist"...we had a checklist...just like Dad has checklists...

what a difference a year makes!! holy cow!! our AM went pretty smooth overall...largely thanks to my 'Luci's School Day Checklist', if i do say so myself ;) that & the m&m i used as a reward. i once swore i'd never use food to motivate...i guess the lesson is to never say never. but anyway. so the am went smoothly. she had a few fake tears & some fake drama as we were turning into the school, but then they stopped when we actually parked & got out. we arrived before the kids could walk to their rooms so we had time to chat with our friends and that seemed to help. we walked into her room where she was happy at first, but then started to fuss when she saw her teacher miss l. but just as quickly her friend allie walked in & the two of them were off putting on dress up clothes & having a tea party! she seemed pretty indifferent when i finally told her good-bye...not even really looking up from her kitchen busywork.

she was happy to see me when we picked her up, but no tears - just happy to see us! she did cry when we got in the car though...i asked her if she had gotten the little note i put her in her lunchbox...she said yes, she did (but not very convincingly), and then she told me she wanted to see it...but it had been thrown out & she just lost it when i told her that. i told her we'd make a new one together but the waterworks had been turned on. we headed out of the parking lot but then i saw her bestie clara so we stopped & she got out to give clara a hug. and then all was well again.

"we sat & talked about numbers! and shapes! and i just played! um, i played with eleanor! and talk about ABCD!" i asked if she had gone potty, "i did! just all by myself! just one potty." in response to the ? what was your favorite part..."circle time playing with numbers for a little while."

super g

so g didn't have a good bag to take the gym. both g & lulu need their own bags because they are in different areas. i had some plain tote bags & inkjet t-shirt transfer paper leftover from lulu's birthday party goodie bag project...so i spent two days searching for the perfect gus image. finally, i settled on this one here.

then i spent all day coloring it in because i couldn't pick a color scheme. this was the winner.

and here is super g's new bag!!

i like it :)