a few stories

i haven't been taking any pictures lately, but here are a few stories for your enjoyment...

- mason loves to brush his teeth and wash his hands. even if he isn't washing his hands he will pretend while you wash yours and then 'dry' them off before leaving. he does the same pretend type of thing for teeth brushing where he tries to 'spit' while you brush your teeth.

- mason comes running when i blow dry my hair. he loves to have me blow on his hair too.

- mason's favorite song is currently "itsy-bitsy spider". i sing it over and over while i change his diapers and he does the motions. it is really helpful for keeping his hands out of the way and keeping him still.

- his penis is his favorite body part after his belly button and madelyn has noticed. next week is her last ballet class and parents are invited to sit in the studio and watch. i told her that daddy was even going to come! she was very excited and asked if mason was coming too. when i said, yes, mason would watch too she asked if he would bring his penis! where did that come from?! i told her that, yes, his penis is attached to him so it would be coming too. oh geez...

- madelyn has been big into telling us that she loves us lately. she will kiss my belly and tell me that she really loves the new baby too. we were riding in the car and she started to tell me that she really loves ariel (the little mermaid) which was a first. then she said, "mommy, you love God all the way and i love ariel all the way." i explained that you could love more than one person/thing at a time like how mommy loves God, daddy, madelyn, mason, and the new baby too. she now declares that she loves "our whole family, God, Jesus, ariel, friend, and the new baby too."

- madelyn has picked up "sure" from me. i can't think of an example of why this sticks out but her uses usually make matt and i laugh. it is usually along the lines of - "i sure did, mommy" or "i sure think that's a good idea."

- mason has started trying to tickle madelyn. he is so gentle about it; much more gentle than she is when she tries to tickle him back. they are really very lovey with each other most of the time.

in other news, i am feeling better than i was the other day. it seems like baby boy has moved lower and is off the nerve he was resting on causing me so much pain. my maternity leave/vacation starts next wednesday and then i am ready for him to make his appearance.

trunk or treat

i took the easy route this year for costumes. the kids went as bob and larry from veggietales in just t-shirts i ordered on clearance last year. madelyn was excited because the faces glow in the dark. she had already worn her's to school on wednesday (and did not want to have her picture taken then) but this was the first time we tried mason's shirt on him and the 3t i ordered last year was much more snug than i had hoped. this was the best picture of the kids together - we tried.

tonight we were heading to the third annual trunk-or-treat at our church. madelyn has been talking about it for months and could hardly contain her excitement! last year it was very, very windy and we were freezing. this year it was just cold. it was 45 tonight and we were not dressed warm enough but the kids were not bothered in the slightest. mason was just trying to figure out what was going on between all the costumes and people sticking things into his pumpkin. at the first couple of cars he would back away when someone approached to give him candy. by the end he was a pro and would go up to pick out a piece of candy from the bowl and put it in his pumpkin. he would stop now and then to set his pumpkin down and see what he had in it before picking it up again and continuing on his way. he was more into the sights than the treats.

madelyn slowed her pace long enough to toast a marshmallow for a s'more. mason was happier with a plain graham cracker and madelyn wanted to hand her's off to me so that she could get back to her truck or treating after just a few bites. and we had more good eats inside the church when we were done with all the trunks. we had hot dog, nacho, and carmel apple dinner - plus some warm drinks for daddy and me.

we weren't done yet. now that we were all warm and full, we went to wait in line for the hay ride. madelyn is an old pro at hayrides now, but it was mason's first time. from what i could see it looked like he was enjoying his ride sitting with daddy. madelyn and i were facing the other direction.

here are two of my favorite trunks from the night. love.

38-weeks

there has really been no change since last week. i am still 1-cm dilated. i gained no weight - i might have actually lost a few ounces - and my belly still measures 38-weeks. the biggest change is that he has settled onto a nerve in the left-side of my pelvis that has dramatically slowed me down. i am out and out limping at times and almost crying from the pain. unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done. at least laying down for 2-3 hours gives me some relief so i generally wake-up pain free for about an hour. my doctor and i are both thinking that this boy is going to be the largest of the three, but we will see when he finally comes...

people never cease to amaze me. i was limping across the crosswalk to the doctors' office, pushing the stroller and a car raced up and cut me off. we were the car's width from the entrance and i had to stop short to not get hit by the car! she was dropping off an old man, but she never even looked at us! i was nervous about walking in front of her car because i was moving so slowly and she still hadn't looked up - i didn't want her to hit us. and then at the elevators i told madelyn to wait for the people getting off before she got on and they let the doors close on us so that we missed the elevator! it's funny too because people almost always hold the door for me when i am by myself, and not pregnant, but it is like the sight of kids and pregnancy make people run in the opposite direction or try to ignore our existence.

we were glad that there wasn't really any change in my progress because matt has been gone since sunday and just got home about an hour ago. he took a trip and was around 6 hours away (more time than it took for me to have mason). we were both a little nervous about him being gone but i wasn't due and i didn't want him to miss something because of "maybe".

i am hoping that i will go one more week, but then i am really, really ready to have this kid! love.

full term

i am considered full-term now that i am 37-weeks. i went in for my weekly check-up this morning. for the first time, in any pregnancy, i measured bigger than how far along i was in the pregnancy. he must have had a major growth spurt in the past week! i was measuring 38 or 39 weeks and last week i measured 36 weeks. i think that i am up like two pounds for the past week too.

i am 1-cm dilated. the doctor assured us that she didn't see any reason for matt not to take his scheduled trip next sunday, monday, and tuesday. she said that if i was 3-cm she might recommend that he not go but she thinks i will make it another week or two. matt and i are a little concerned about his trip given that i wasn't even dilated the day they admitted me with mason and he was born in about 5 hours. but i just looked back at my 39-week post with mason and i was 2-cm dilated 6-days before i was admitted. the doctor said that if i have a lot of contraction activity this week she would be happy to check me on friday so that matt could make an informed decision about his trip.

i am really feeling this pregnancy, physically. it is really limiting my usefulness beyond supervising and feeding the kids. matt and i are both really ready for the baby to be born but i am hoping to make it past halloween - ideally until november 3 when my vacation/maternity leave starts. i have had a few periods of decent contractions but nothing too concerning. funny enough they seem to come on sunday nights.

the picture is from today. i was spent and anxious to lay down. matt had just gotten home and was trying to eat some dinner but i was determined to get a picture since we didn't take one after last week's appointment. love.

where there is a will, there's a way

what can i say? he is a resourceful little booger... love.

girls' day at the pumpkin patch

our small group (aka church bible study group) met for lunch and then headed to a local farm for a hayride and pumpkin picking. just madelyn and i went because mason had not been feeling great and we were meeting at his nap time. matt volunteered to stay home with him.

madelyn was really excited to be meeting and eating at "happy meals" (her recent name for mcdonalds). what was even better was that the happy meal was a pumpkin handled halloween bucket with mr. potatohead on it! madelyn thought that this was the greatest thing ever; although she was a little disappointed that there wasn't a toy inside too.

the farm we picked is known for its painted hay bales. the one in the picture was by far not the cutest, but it was the most convenient for having all the kids pose in front of for a group picture.

we went on the hayride first. it was actually a pretty long hayride - maybe 30 minutes or more - and we got to 'feed' the cows ears of corn. i thought that it was pretty neat and so did madelyn. she wouldn't stick her arm out far enough for the cows to reach her ear of corn. she just kept calling the cows over to her but there was a wire fence and they couldn't get any closer. she finally just threw it out to them.

madelyn wouldn't let me take any pictures of us together for who knows what reason. but some of our friends took a few pictures and said that they would email them to me so maybe i will post some later.

here is another painted hay bale as a spider and madelyn out picking a pumpkin. she finally settled on a smaller one that was still green striped on one side. it's not going to make the best jack-o-lantern but it was the largest one i could get her to even consider. she was too excited about the mini-pumpkin she got to pick out after the hayride. she had brought her happy meal bucket with her because she wanted to get an "itty-bitty" one that would fit in her bucket.

it was a wonderful fall day for pumpkin picking and madelyn and i had a very nice time together. she said that we were "on an adventure". love.

good-bye, lady

lady has a new home. we just haven't told madelyn yet.

matt took both dogs to the vet in the morning to get their shots up-to-date. when i told madelyn she said that she won't have the dogs any more when we move to our new house and started to whine/cry. (we started talking with her about the possibility of moving a few months ago when matt decided that he was going to start looking for a new job. it's a story for another post.)

given her reaction we decided that it would be better for her not to be home when his co-worker came to pick up lady a few hours later. we didn't want them to feel bad about taking lady. so madelyn and i walked down to the park just before they were set to arrive. they had just installed the new picnic table so we just sat there and talked for almost an hour! it was a beautiful afternoon and we just talked and watched the wind blow the fall leaves off the trees. it was so nice to have some quiet time with just madelyn. matt called when it was safe to head back home.

lady has a good new home but it is a little weird not to have her here any more. we still have maggie - for now. we haven't decided what to do with her but we are most likely going to find her a new home as well. it will be very, very hard to say good-bye to her. we have had her for 9 years and she was our first 'baby'. change is hard some times. love.

twosome

i left the kids playing to make a phone call. i could hear them playing the whole time and they were playing nicely. of course i came back to cous cous all over the floor so maybe they were playing a little too 'nicely'.

the kids were more than willing to help vacuum it all up. they actually did a pretty good job too.

they were busy being best buddies for most of the day. they usually get along pretty well most of the time and really enjoy each other. some days just have more individual play or actual fussing at each other. thursday was just a good day for together play for both of them - with the exception of the cous cous.

later in the afternoon i found them riding the rocking horse together. and, yes, they are still wearing jammies (or nothing in mason's case) in the afternoon. thursdays are generally an at home day because i have meetings starting early every thursday. you might notice in the video that mason seems to not mind when madelyn falls off...

after work it is time for ballet. madelyn was not interested in going at all and cried most of the way there. i bribed her with a 'treat' if she didn't cry all class (she was telling me that she was going to cry during class - no reason). she loved class and was very happy to have gone. she just gets in an odd mood sometimes where she likes to pretend that things are scary or sad for no real reason.

mason likes to sit in the plastic chairs and wait for her to be done. this week he was so cute wearing his hoodie, swinging his legs, and happily looking at the picture of he and madelyn on my phone that i had to take a picture. i think he just figured out that it can be fun to sit and swing his legs this week because he has been doing it a lot and laughs about it. love.

mommy's home and daddy's off

this is just a crazy week. i left on sunday afternoon for kansas and flew back on tuesday night. and then matt flew out this afternoon and returns around midnight on saturday. madelyn has been pretty sad about all this travel but only when she is already in a sad mood.

i had a note from the doctor to travel and a copy of my medical records just in case. it was a great trip and i am so thankful that i was able to get down to the office one last time before going on leave in a few weeks.

that is all i have for now. i am ready to go to sleep but had pictures that needed to get posted. oh, and mason got his last molar in the past week. he is a much happier boy to be done with teething - for a while any way. love.

wind challenge

saturday morning we headed out to run a few errands including stopping by home depot for the kids workshop. it wasn't a warm morning but we were not dressed warmly enough to be outside in the wind. the kids workshops are normally indoors but it was 'safety week' and they had a fire truck and other safety vehicles come. i think that there were going to be lots of other activities but we were there as they were still setting up.

for some reason madelyn really wanted to do the project with mommy - we built a fire boat. matt loved watching me struggle to keep all the pieces while the wind whipped around. i could barely see what i was doing through my hair and the small nails and other pieces kept blowing around if i would set them down to check the instructions. he thought that it was so funny and kept laughing while he took lots of pictures.

madelyn kept telling me that she was shivering and my ears were hurting from the cold wind. thankfully mason waited patiently in the cart. won't be too long before he gets to join in the fun too.

i cranked out some work work while the kids were napping and daddy was working in the yard. mason only slept for an hour or so and we decided to go out and join daddy in the yard. the kids were both pretty excited about the yard tools. while it was still very windy, it wasn't nearly as cold as it was when we went out that morning.

it was a nice way to spend a saturday morning/afternoon. and then i had to get to work. i worked several hours that night and several more hours on sunday morning before heading to the airport. i was heading off to kansas to spend a few days in the office before my doctor wouldn't let me travel any more. love.

park friday

last friday was so gorgeous that i decided that the kids and i should do something outside for the morning. i was thinking the zoo, but madelyn only wanted to go to the park. she finally decided on imagination station instead of just going to our neighborhood park. it was a really great morning to go too. there weren't too many people and madelyn and mason actually had a lot of fun playing with each other. they were trying to slide together but mason couldn't get himself situated with madelyn sitting on the slide too.

they spent a lot of time on the see-saw. i think they tried every possible seating possibility. it was more because madelyn really wanted mason to try every seat more than that mason wanted to try them.

not only is this another sample of their seating arrangements but it shows mason's reaction to seeing/hearing an airplane (or goose or sometimes a cloud).

daddy got to golf friday afternoon after a very long and stressful work week so the kids and i had a long day together. after dinner i took them to the park down the street for a little while. we all walked for the first time. mason did really well. he got distracted a few times but did a pretty good job of staying with us on the sidewalk. after the park the kids got to have a bubble bath. this is something we do as a treat when we are on the early side of bedtime. i don't have a picture of madelyn because she was making faces so crazy and unattractive that they will be used as blackmail some day... love.