recorder mason

i have been trying to get video of mason playing the recorder, but almost every time i get the camera he wipes out and cries. here is a short bit of his talents.

this also reminded me that we often call him the "drummer boy" because that is his usual instrument of choice. he just beats on the drum and marches around the house happily playing his tune.

eating utensils

daddy had a meeting after work thursday night so it was just the kids and i for dinner. we had sweet and sour chicken for dinner.

mason ate his entire dinner with a fork. and when he couldn't get the last bits of rice he would hand the fork to me so that i could feed him the last few bites. i don't think he ate any part of his dinner without the fork. and, as you saw, madelyn is getting pretty good with her chopsticks. although she did go get a fork for the last few bites.

mason often tries to eat with a fork but this was the first meal where he ate all of it with a fork. we give him a fork or spoon every night because he doesn't like for us to have anything at the dinner table that he doesn't. it was funny to see him try holding it with his right hand and then his left hand before switching back again. he throws with his right hand pretty consistently but everything else goes back and forth from left to right. we will have to wait and see what he finally settles on over time. love.

first lie

madelyn told her first lie last night. she didn't want to go to bed and was trying to stall. i had already done our bedtime routine and was reading in my bed. madelyn came in and was asking for this and that before telling us that it wasn't dark out yet and therefore not bedtime.

madelyn has a nightlight with a timer and matt and i both know that it turns on at 7:30pm. the current time was 7:48pm. (we put her down a little early since she had such a late night the day before.) we told her that it is bed time because her moon is on - go see. obediently she heads to her room and comes back telling us that her moon is not on and it is not bed time.

sometimes the nightlight will get knocked out of the wall slightly when she and mason are playing during the day and not turn on at night until we push it back in tight. so matt said that he would go in a check. "no daddy! don't go in there!" ah-ha. her moon was on after all.

it was a little funny to see her try to convince matt that her moon wasn't on and that he didn't need to check. after a little back and forth she did start to loose her straight, serious face and show the smile of someone caught in their lie. silly girl. love.

mason and me

since madelyn and daddy were at the ball game, mason and i went down to the park. no reason to just sit at home, right? going to the park with just mason gave me the opportunity to play with him and to take some video of him going down the slide on his own - only there was a chatty neighbor so i am talking through the video.

we went with daddy and madelyn the night before and he slid down on his bottom for the first time on his own. that is what i was hoping to catch on video but he wasn't as in to sliding on wednesday. we had also seen a triple/quadruple rainbow on the way home! i wish that i had my camera.

in the video we are talking about the local wildlife because this neighbor's family is new to the neighborhood and we were just watching a woodchuck in the grass near the park so the conversation led to what else you can hear and see around here.

mason is just doing all sorts of things now that i am not getting pictures or video of these days. here is another rundown:

- watching madelyn ride her tricycle has just been too appealing to mason and he had to give it a try himself. i had my phone with me and was able to catch a quick picture, but i didn't get the huge smile on his face. he couldn't really reach the pedals but he still thought that it was pretty great.

- mason has also figured out how to 'play' the recorder. this i am going to have to get a video of because he puts the entire mouthpiece in his mouth and just blows it over and over. i don't even notice it but one of my coworkers laughs that she get a serenade every time she calls.

- unfortunately, mason has figured out how to open our most difficult baby locks in the kitchen. madelyn has just gotten the dexterity to open them this year. granted she opens them by pushing the two buttons required to open them properly and mason just opens them with brute force.

- not only can he open the baby locks in the kitchen now, but he can unlock the glass sliding doors! oh geez, this kid.

- thankfully we have a lock on the water dispenser on the refrigerator. mason takes his cup over for a refill when he feels like it is empty. it's nice that he is so independent, but it can be messy...

- mason loves to color. i think that he is even motivating madelyn because they sit together and color for decent blocks of time almost everyday. we are still working on using crayons only on paper. mason seems to find it more satisfying to color on the table and chairs right now. at least he isn't coloring on the floor, walls, doors, or windows. i am also pleased to say that he doesn't break them up like madelyn used to do. as you can see, mason finds other uses for his crayons too.

- still no words. he is signing more consistently and communicates just fine for what he needs; mainly pointing and grunting. he is starting to know the names for animals too. he can correctly point most out when asked.

- his favorite book right now is the very busy spider. i think i read it 10 times last night before stopping and putting him to bed. and mason does not sit for a story he does not want to hear. i have no doubt that this is his favorite book of the moment. when we finish he points at the back cover, makes a noise that i would say means "again", and then flips the book back over to the cover before settling back into my arms - waiting.

i really need to carry the camera around more... love.

he really is such a sweet boy and full of hugs and kisses. he will be snuggled up on my shoulder and just pick his head up to give me a kiss before resting his head on my shoulder again. we just love him. love.

take me out to the ball park

wednesday night madelyn and daddy got dressed up in their brewers best and headed out to miller park for a special daddy/daughter date. (and, yes, it was cool enough that we put her in a fleece.) madelyn loves, loves, loves miller park and gets so excited whenever she sees it. she had really be looking forward to this night out with daddy. she did have moments of sadness that mason and i would not be joining them for the game.

apparently they had a really great time together! (not that there was ever really any doubt.) daddy said that madelyn was a trooper because they did a lot of walking and she never complained about it. and i know that she was good because they didn't get home until 11:00pm! and she was still awake and smiling.

she has been talking about the game ever since (daddy has mentioned how fun it was a few times too). mainly madelyn talks about her "twisty-twist" that she shared with daddy (aka a fancy lollipop she got with her pb&j 'kids meal'). apparently she cried that no one threw a ball to her like last time and that bernie didn't go down the slide (there were no home runs). she was also very concerned that a ball was going to hit her in the face - or so she told me the next day. i assured her that daddy would not let her get hurt.

surprising me, daddy let her pick out a souvenir. while he offered her a pink ball cap, bernie pillows, etc. but she chose the $5 bernie brewer pen. daddy loves how she always picks the cheapest, smallest souvenir when we go somewhere - and loves it.

i am so glad that they got to have such a great night at the ball park together! love.

two peas in a pod

here both kids were swinging in the playroom swing and having so much fun. the picture is blurry because i was trying to catch them while the swing was spinning. we were having so much fun. love.

sitting pretty

mason is really into chairs lately. i am pretty sure this has a lot to do with the fact that he has figured out how to climb into the regular sized chairs all on his own. this picture is funny because madelyn was sitting in this chair looking at the pottery barn kids halloween catalog and i sat mason next to her to look too. when they were done the catalog ended up on the floor. when mason found it later he picked it up and then climbed up into the chair to 'read' it.

he has also figured out how to climb up into his booster seat all on his own. he spends what seems like a lot of time just sitting in his booster seat at the kitchen table just waiting for the next opportunity to eat. he doesn't cry or ask for food - he just sits and waits.

mainly he just climbs on and off of chairs around the house and the couches all day. he never sits still. love.

stroller-free

friday morning i took the kids to the library and decided to try it stroller-free. and i don't carry mason, he either walks or rides. it was like he had never been to the library before. he was wildly pointing and 'talking' about everything as we made our way over to the elevator.

once up in the children's area he did much, much better than i had expected. looking back, i was really taking a chance here. one of mason's favorite activities at home is to pull books off of their shelves and now i was giving him freedom at the library! i am happy to report that he only took two board books off the shelves and we checked one of them out. he took them down to look at instead of just to make a mess.

he stayed right with me and was an excellent listener. we did have a little problem leaving the library because he didn't want to walk toward the exit. i just did to him what i did to madelyn - if you can't listen and walk, then you are just carried under my arm in an uncomfortable way so that you don't want to make this choice again. and mason is strong! i was sweating by the time i got him into the car.

it was a hot (for here) and muggy (for here) day - even early in the day. and i don't know what i was thinking suggesting that we go to the zoo after the library. not only was it hot, but i had forgotten that it was "zoo a la carte". this is sort of a 'taste of the town' event at the zoo and it is extremely popular (aka crowded). while we had a fun time, the animals were hot too and not very active or visible, and madelyn actually asked to go home because she thought that it was too hot. now before any of you think it was torture to be outside, i think that it was around 91 when we left around noon and there was an occasional breeze. i have just become a wimp after living here for so long.

sorry about not having any pictures. i did want to mention that mason had a rough night thursday night. i really have no idea how long he was crying. it was one of those cries that wasn't enough to pull me from my sleep (not a pain cry, not a scared cry, etc.) and i dreamt about it for what seemed like a long time before finally waking up and going to check on him around 4:30am. he had gotten on the floor between his crib and closet but wasn't awake. it seemed like he just couldn't get comfortable and was crying in his sleep. as soon as i picked him up he fell sound asleep and slept until 8am (very, very late for our house). i felt so bad for him but he wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. love.

28 weeks

today i had my 28 week check up for baby #3. i also had my glucose test. thankfully, i didn't get a call this afternoon so should be in the clear for gestational diabetes. and when all i crave is soda, this is really, really good news.

when the doctor walked in she asked, "how did you already get to 28 weeks? i thought that you were only 15 weeks." it is going fast. this summer has just disappeared on me!

i only gained 4/10 of a pound in the past month. don't be too impressed because i think that i gained a lot last month with all our traveling and house guests. i think i have gained around 15 pounds overall so far (my doctor doesn't really focus on the weight gain and unless i happen to see it quickly on the scale's small display i don't have any idea.)

i am measuring 28 weeks and the baby's heart rate was good so a pretty uneventful checkup.

this pregnancy really has been the easiest one so far, but being my third i feel like i am in the final weeks instead of still having 12 weeks left. this baby is just so much lower than the others and i am already having a lot of intermittent pelvic pressure, but none of this is of any concern - all totally normal. since he is so low, anything with a waistline is extremely uncomfortable. i change into super loose gym shorts whenever i get back home for a little relief (that is why i have on blue shorts in the picture instead of the khaki shorts that matched and i was wearing all day running around). and thankfully, he has settled down a little at night and i am sleeping again.

madelyn likes to feel the baby move and "play" with him. she pushes on my stomach and waits for him to 'kick' back. she also likes to give my belly hugs and kisses for her newest little brother. mason likes to hug my belly too. he mainly does it when i am pushing him in a shopping cart because the height is right. he reaches for me and pulls on my shirt until he can get his arms around my belly and rest his head on it for a hug - so sweet. of course he also likes to climb on my belly when i am laying on the couch and crush his little brother. at least the new guy has been warned... love.

i can

i think poor mason is going to lose his toe nail. the picture is from today after he dropped a can of something out of the cabinet and on to his toe yesterday. he was taking jars and cans out of the cabinet and carrying them over to the kitchen table and quite enjoying himself. and then there was crying. silence (the big inhale). and then the scream. poor mason. i got him cleaned up put a band aid over his bleeding toe. at least it doesn't seem to be bothering him any more.

not only did his toe hurt, but he has added two more teeth to the action in his mouth and appears to have had a growth spurt in the past two days. on august 14th his upper right eyetooth came through and his lower right one is so close that i can see it clearly. it just isn't quite through the gum yet.

and yesterday he could not get enough sleep. he started with a nap from 9 - 11, a second nap from 1:30-4, and was ready for bed about 6:30pm. he slept until almost 7am this morning (which is later than normal) and he was barely able to stay upright. this was always a clear sign of a growth spurt with madelyn - lots of sleep and a temporary loss of balance. usually the loss of balance only lasts one day.

few mason notes

just life as normal here. madelyn's eye is finally back to normal and she just has the bite left on her nose.

we went to the pool on friday morning with some neighborhood friends, but i didn't get any pictures because i was too busy with the kids. that was most likely our last trip to the pool for the summer because they close the pools here after labor day.

this is just a quick post to note a few things about mason.

- mason likes to sit on the couch and point the remote control at the t.v. he isn't so interested in actually watching the t.v. but he loves to point the remote and push the buttons.

- the couch is becoming one of mason's favorite places. while i am cooking in the kitchen he likes to play peek-a-boo with me by jumping up and saying "dah!" over and over. sometimes he gets a little overzealous and falls backwards off the couch.

- we were watching the "build it, rocket" episode of little einsteins (madelyn's current favorite) and mason kept trying to climb up my face every time the music for the big, bad wolf would start. he was sitting on my lap drinking his milk after a nap and would just start trying to get closer to my face every time the wolf entered the scene (it was a three little pigs episode). i couldn't believe that he was scared and he settled down by the end of the episode, but he did it again the next time we watched it too. odd.

- again, after nap we were watching "build it, rocket" while mason drank his milk. towards the end of the episode i was getting ready to put mason down off my lap when i looked down and saw that he wasn't wearing a diaper. i was really, really thankful that i found out that way and not in a wet stream. he was wearing a jumper outfit that i hadn't snapped up at the bottom when i changed his diaper before his nap and that is why i didn't notice his nakedness when he woke up - he was covered. i made a bee-line for the changing table with him since he had just finished a large cup of milk and i knew that there would be pee soon. once i had him safely diapered up i started to look for the missing diaper. it wasn't in his bed or room and he hadn't been any where else. and then i saw it - in the diaper pail! he had taken off his diaper and put it in the diaper pail.

tomorrow is a busy day so i am off to bed! love.

sensitivity

so this is how madelyn looked after school on tuesday.

i had noticed a fresh batch of mosquito bites all over her body in the morning that she must have gotten while we were at the fair (even though i didn't think that they were bad at all). including one on the bridge of her nose. since it was on her face it was the only bite that didn't get bug bite medicine before school. i covered as many of the other bites as possible with band aids so try and prevent her scratching them during the day (we have been doing this every day).

when i dropped madelyn off at school i told her teacher about her bites just so that she could be watching for madelyn picking at the band aids or scratching. then when i picked her up it was her teacher pointing out madelyn's face to me. when i saw how swollen and red the area around her eye was i decided to call her doctor as soon as we got in the car.

the office said that it sounded like an unusual reaction to a mosquito bite so they wanted to get her in for a doctor to have a look. in the mean time they suggested that i give her some benadryl to see if that helped. i gave her a dose right before i took the picture above and it didn't make any difference.

we waited about 20 minutes for the on-call doctor to come in for our appointment and she had barely closed the door behind her before she said that it was just a bug bite. since we were there i tried to ask questions and explain more of her reactions to mosquito bites, just to make it worth the trip. basically, madelyn just has an extreme sensitivity to mosquito bites. the doctor told me that poison ivy works the same way, some people just react way more than others. as long as madelyn could breathe and the bites didn't become hard, she is fine. no matter how bad they look.

and this one on her nose/eye looks bad - the picture does not do it justice. it was horrible this morning. that really would have been the dramatic picture to post but i couldn't find the camera before taking her to school. thankfully, it is looking much better tonight and is finally showing signs that the swelling is going down.

poor kid is going to have to wear bug spray every day or just stay in the house. oh well. it could be worse - at least we don't need an epi-pen or anything. love.

2010 state fair

even though there wasn't a great forecast, we headed out to the state fair this morning. matt and i took the day off so that we could avoid the weekend crowds this year. and the kids were both super excited. especially once we pulled into the parking lot and they could see the rides. even mason was pointing out the window and babbling excitedly.


thankfully, we were there early enough that the rides weren't running yet and we could get back to the rest of the fair first. that is after we waited 25 minutes at the ticket window for the staff to figure out how they were going to handle our prepaid "groupon" tickets that included cream puffs (a wisconsin state fair staple). we waited in three different lines before ending up in a line with all the other "groupon" people and some poor ticket window staff that just didn't know what to do. this lady behind me in line was getting very ugly and at 8:30am, it was just too early to be that angry. i let her go before me even though madelyn and mason were starting to cry because of the wait when we were so close.


once we got in it was great. here are some pictures with captions to share some of our day at the fair.

the day started with lots and lots of pointing. here we are gearing up in the parking lot and mason can't wait. and madelyn was so excited to see the ducklings swimming in the little kiddie pools. i wish that i had known that her reaction would be something equal to christmas morning so that i would have taken video.

there were lots of activities to do throughout the fair grounds. mason left the stroller for a few minutes to color but was too distracted by the 6 cows laying in the straw across from him. i think he was a little awestruck by their size and how close we were to them when we came through the door of the barn. madelyn was really excited that there was a dinosaur exhibit similar to the zoo's (except indoors and not nearly as scenic). and there was even a kid sized tractor pull. when the kid working this activity started loading her up with weights i wanted to laugh because i didn't think that she was going to get very far without the weight. madelyn was just excited that her tractor was red. mason missed the dinosaur exhibit because he was taking this uncomfortable looking nap. his only for the day.

and more fair fun. madelyn got temp tattoos, gave a stuffed pig a vaccine with a syringe (without a needle), and did a ring toss for another temp tattoo. temporary tattoos were by far the most popular giveaway at the fair today.

madelyn and i with the worlds tallest living horse (at least that was what the sign said). i mean why not take a picture? we were at the fair, right?
i think that there are two things that say "wisconsin state fair" to all that see them. one is the cream puff and the other is the slide shown here. matt's comment was that madelyn is braver than he thought. she climbed all the way up the stairs holding his hand (all the other kids her age/size were being carried). and here is a video of her first state fair slide with daddy:














next comes the food! anything and everything on a stick. madelyn and i shared a corn dog, we all shared sour cream and chive fries (this is one of my favorite fest/fair foods here), three grilled cheese sandwiches (wisconsin in the cheese state), cream puffs, and matt and my favorite - flavored milk for a quarter. madelyn enjoyed her cream puff, at least the part she didn't drop on her shoe. and mason gulped down my root beer flavored milk. he liked the banana milk too but the root beer one he couldn't get enough of and cried when it was gone.
madelyn said that her favorite part of the fair was the ride on the farris wheel. it is a good thing too because it cost $8 for matt and her to have a ride! we thought that was crazy expensive for such a short ride, but how often do you get the chance to ride a farris wheel? she liked that they could see miller park from the top. i was surprised that she and daddy would wave down to me from the top (when they were stopped up there for loading/unloading; that is something that i would not have been able to do.

all and all a fun day at the fair. it was nice to have the vacation time to go on a week day. and while naps didn't happen, leaving us with cranky kids, they were both in bed asleep for the night by 6:45pm! love.

more on mason

i have so many notes on mason that he needed his own post again.


- mason likes to open and close the washer and dryer doors. i can often find him just hanging out in there. he is clapping in the picture because he just closed the washer door. (the picture is pre-hair cut on saturday.)

- i have been trying to pay attention to the sounds that mason 'says' because he 'talks' almost all the time and i know that 'words' are coming soon. there have been several times in the past week where it seems like he is saying actual words. here are the ones i heard: "shoe", "banana", "more", and "downstairs".

- mason is really good at following commands (with the exception of "no" and "stop"). when i tell him to come to his room and get a diaper he follows me or leads the way to his room. then he lays down on the floor for me to change his diaper - not that he always stays there for long. i have found that putting the box of wipes on his belly and asking him to hand them to me keeps him still long enough for me to get the job done without a struggle. he hands me wipes one at a time and waits patiently for me to take the next one offered.

- mason seems to prefer zebras; at the zoo and in books/pictures.

- he now has both top, one-year molars. upper left on 8/5 and upper right on 8/7. one more eyetooth and the top will be done - for now. he has been all boogers and drool for the past week. it seems like there is always something dripping from his face that i am wiping up with a tissue.

- mason is officially a one nap kid. we have been moving him towards one nap since around 9 months when he was getting up at 4 and 5 in the morning. he would go a few days with one nap and then demand a day or two with two naps. overall, he was flexible about what we needed from him, two or one. but this week he has started counting a twenty minute snooze in the car as his nap - for the day. this has made for an interesting schedule and a lot less downtime (as in none) for me until they are both in bed at night. and he has started to get up super early again - as in 5:45am. i don't think that this has anything to do with the bed change because he was initially sleeping later, but i am hoping that it has more to do with his rapid teething and will end soon.

- i keep forgetting to mention this because it is just part of what makes mason, mason and i take it for granted. mason always leans back. if he stands next to the couch, he leans his head back. if he sits on your lap, he throws his head back. if he thinks something behind him will catch him, he leans (or throws) himself backwards. he is just very trusting. and falls down a lot.

that covers my notes for now. love.

it's done

both kids got their 'first' hair cut today. (you might remember that i cut madelyn's rat tail shortly after her first birthday.) here are their "before" pictures:

mason really, really needed to get his hair cut and madelyn really, really wanted to get hers cut. at least she did until yesterday. she found my pony tail donation that i hadn't yet mailed (i needed to buy a padded envelope) and suddenly 'missed' my long hair and became afraid that she would miss her hair or that it would hurt her to have her hair cut (because the scissors are sharp). this made me a little concerned about how today would go, because she was crying about missing her hair during lunch just before we were leaving. i told her that she didn't have to cut her hair, but she was positive that she wanted it cut "like the lady on the stage from mommy's show" (translation: like the host, cat, from so you think you can dance who had her hair pinned up like a shoulder length bob this week). and that is what she told the staff at the store/salon when we got there.

here are some pictures from their cuts in progress:
and here are their "after" pictures:

i think that mason's cut is a little unfortunate (a la jim carry in dumb and dumber"). i tried to brush his bangs to the side for the picture above because they are so short and square. matt thinks that it looks fine for a one-year-olds first hair cut. matt was just thrilled that he didn't try to jump from the chair during the hair cut.

i got a little emotional during madelyn's cut because she is going up so fast and i knew that the cut would make her look even older. (she looks stunned in the pictures because she was watching a show that she had never seen before during the cut.) but i must say that it suits her personality perfectly and i am really glad that we let her do what she wants with her hair.

it was great that daddy could be there with us today because i got a lot more pictures than i would have without him. he chased mason while i snapped away during madelyn's cut. now everyone has a summer cut except daddy, but i will take care of that tonight. love.

"all by myself!"

it was not that hot yesterday afternoon so i took the kids down the street to the park to burn off a little energy before daddy got home for dinner. madelyn talks about riding her bike to the park but never makes it more than a few houses. i will say that it is a pretty steep hill on the way to the park and most of the kids have trouble with it when they first start biking. it doesn't help that she has outgrown her tricycle. we have been putting off buying her an appropriately sized bike because she has shown so little interest in actually biking. but now that almost all her friends in the neighborhood race around on big bikes she is starting to change her mind about learning to ride properly.

yesterday was her day. she started out okay but as we got to the hill she got frustrated and kept saying that she couldn't do it. i told her to take a break and get off the bike to calm down before we continued on to the park. to my great surprise it worked really well. she would start melting down, tell me she needed a break, and would just sit on the grass next to her bike until she calmed down.

i was so proud of her and she was very obviously proud of herself. she told all her friends, "you know what? i rode my bike all by myself!" since most, if not all, of them were graduated to big kid bikes, they were not as impressed as she had hoped. but it didn't bother her for long. she told them that she was a big girl and then went off to play with them.


mason headed straight for the park. after i brought him back twice, madelyn was willing to head down too. they were the only two at the park and had a lot of fun running around after each other and playing peek-a-boo. and then they decided to swing together. they were so funny reaching for each other and laughing while they were swinging facing opposite directions.

we didn't get home quickly enough to avoid the mosquitoes and madelyn in particular is covered with new bites. she doesn't mind though because i let her cover them with bandaids. love.

basement thursdays

pretty much every thursday is spent in the basement. it is a long work day for me, usually with several meetings, and the kids usually spend the day playing in the basement and wearing their pajamas all day.

mason climbs up the stairs just fine, but he has been uninterested in climbing down the stairs. i have been wanting him to figure out how to do it safely so that i don't have to keep carrying him. i have enough trouble keeping my balance with just me, let alone with an excitedly squirmy boy (he gets very excited about going downstairs). so today madelyn and i slid down the stairs on our bottoms to show mason how to do it. i held his hand while he and i scooted down the stairs. as we got to the last ten stairs or so he figured out that he could crawl down backwards too - which is the preferred method. i took some video of the last few stairs.

and this video shows a game that madelyn and mason play together for a half-hour at a time. they both laugh the whole time too. love.

silence = trouble

madelyn and mason have been playing so nicely lately, and with minimal supervision, that i took a chance this morning. every thursday i have an 8:30am meeting that lasts any where from 30 minutes to up to two hours. i am always at a loss for what is the best thing to do with the kids.

usually, i put mason in his crib with some toys and turn some music on for him. madelyn doesn't always stay in with him. sometimes she watches a movie or just plays on her own quietly. but now that mason doesn't have a "crib" to contain him, that wasn't going to work.

my meeting was just shy of an hour and i was so pleased with how happily i could hear them playing the whole time! i had seen them play in mason's room with the video monitor for a while and could hear them moving around the house. i was going to praise their behavior as i made my way up the stairs - and then i saw them. playing with pinto beans, red beans, oatmeal, toffee bits, and a bag of brown rice like they were in a sandbox! what?!

while i wasn't happy with this i just had to get my camera for a quick picture. and then i took a little video because madelyn was telling me that she and mason had made a big mess. i asked her why later and she told me that mason made her do it. yeah, right. oh well, at least it vacuumed up and didn't leave any stains. it could have been worse. love.

madelyn and mason were sitting at the table coloring together so nicely that i had to take pictures for a post. madelyn had been playing on the computer and printed out a coloring sheet of frog from wordworld to color. mason was very interested in 'helping' her so i printed out another sheet for him to color.

mason was very excited to color at the table and madelyn was very excited to 'teach' him how to color. mason really likes coloring and did so for about twenty minutes before a crayon found its way into his mouth.

madelyn decided that they should hang their coloring sheets up in their rooms. we ended up hanging them up on the outside of their doors.



mason had a rough night and didn't have a great nap either. he woke up with a very runny nose and a super drool producing mouth (as you can see in the picture). i am pretty sure that he is just dealing with the other eyetooth and molars starting to cut the gums. by the time i got the motrin ready for him during his longest crying jag last night he had fallen back asleep. i think he woke up four times last night and every 15 minutes or so during his 2 hour nap. he never woke up enough to get out of bed. it was more like he was crying in his sleep. that is why i am leaning towards teething as the problem.

tonight we gave him some motrin before putting him down so hopefully it will be a more restful night for us all. love.

monday nights at the ballpark

matt has been playing in a church softball league monday nights for a few months now. the team isn't through our church and matt only knows one other guy on the team (his contact to join the team in the first place). let's just say that the team isn't very good - and that is putting it nicely. the kids and i come to the early games. some nights go better than others because i actually watch the game and now that mason can walk he can't stand being in the stroller the whole time.

last night we didn't get to eat dinner before leaving because i was running a little late so i grabbed a few snacks and off we went. it actually worked out well that we were snacking at the game because there weren't as many kids for madelyn to play with and it helped to pass the time just sitting and watching the game. mason even wore his sunglasses quite happily for a bit.

mason favorite thing to do now that he can walk is to 'climb' up on the fence. the picture is from a few weeks ago when he was climbing up near daddy. he usually puts both feet up on the concrete portion. for some reason it just makes him look like such a big boy to me. he does a really good job about staying near me and is just content to work his way up and down the fence. last night the umpire was scolding me for letting him hold on to the fence because a ball could get his fingers. i wanted to say that this isn't my first trip to the ball park but just ended up putting mason back into the stroller instead of trying to keep him off the fence.

matt has two more games to go in the season and only one of those is early enough for all of us to go. it has been nice to take in a game on these lovely summer nights but i think daddy is really ready for the season to be over. the skill level on this team is so low that it has been kind of painful to watch them get slaughtered each week.

and i had to get a picture of the kids in the morning looking out the window in mason's room. every morning when i open the curtains and blinds both kids race over to see what they can see outside. the view from madelyn's room includes the bird feeder and that is usually where they congregate. mason tends to get very, very excited about the view and bangs on the window - scaring away any of the birds that might be on the feeder. yesterday we even saw our first squirrel hanging from the feeder which was pretty exciting.

speaking of mornings... mason has been doing better than i could have ever imagined with sleeping in the toddler bed! this morning he surprised us by waking up earlier than normal, getting out of bed without setting off the monitor, and banging loudly on the door. and then he just waited silently for us to come and get him. hopefully, he will keep on this path of sleeping in his bed easily. love.

big boy

mason is spending his first night in a toddler bed. we took the side off his crib and converted it into a toddler bed this afternoon. mason (and madelyn) were very excited about this change. we wanted to give him some time to adjust to a 'bed' before we move him into his 'big' bed in madelyn's room next month.

we tried to put him down for a late nap this afternoon but i think he only slept for about 30 minutes - if that long. he took a long morning nap and normally wouldn't have taken an afternoon nap if we put him down so late so it wasn't too surprising. i could hear him walking around while crying, but he seemed to get back into the bed and quiet down.

here he is showing his favorite part - getting in and out of the bed.

he would just climb in, jump on the bed, climb out, run, smiling, to hug our legs, and go back to climb in again. over and over and over.

he did cry and roam around before settling down tonight. and i thought that i heard him fall out of bed once while i was reading to madelyn, but he quieted back down and when we checked the video monitor he was in the bed.

we will see how it goes. love.

the pit stop

today we were lucky enough to be the pit stop for uncle dennis, aunt joy, rachel, leah, dayton, and nolan on their way to minneapolis for a little vacation. our house just happens to be at almost the exact mid-point of their drive from indiana so we offered to host them for lunch.

madelyn decided to wake up pretty early and actually came into our room about a quarter to seven. i had promised matt he could sleep in so i got up with her. only i woke up with a migraine. i tried to suffer out waiting for my regular (aka baby friendly) tylenol to kick in, but i knew that the only relief would come if i could go back to sleep. i turned on some cartoons for madelyn, got her some breakfast and headed back to bed. i think matt got up with madelyn around 8am.

thankfully, mason slept until 8:30! by the time i got up with him my migraine had been tamed and we were all ready to work on our final prep before our guests arrived. madelyn and i ran to the store for a few last minute purchases while mason napped and, unfortunately, i was still cooking when everyone arrived.

madelyn took everyone, or maybe just nolan, for a tour of the house. she pointed out couches, pictures, etc. more than rooms but it was cute to listen to her tell about our home. while matt and madelyn led tours, i finished up lunch. and all the older kids had fun raiding madelyn's dress-up clothes. the best part was nolan walking around in madelyn's ariel heels.

we had a great visit and are so glad that everyone was able to stop in and see us! love.