Random developments

The last month or so has flown by. A few rounds of hand, foot and mouth disease swept through our house. Oh, and did I mention salmonella visited us also?? It was super fun.

We had a yard sale and literally sold Mason's car seat out from under him. But it was time for a new seat anyway. So we made a little money on the yard sale and bought THREE new car seats on the same day. The kids are sittin' pretty now!

We found out that our 14-year old cat, Sunny, has diabetes so we've been learning how to care for him and give daily shots. Frank has really stepped up with that. I'm very uncomfortable with needles and syringes, but he works with them all the time. Sunny actually likes the attention and (after he hisses) he purrs!

In between all the sickness, we had a ton of playdates. Maddie was averaging two to three playdates per weekend....We had a very messy house and a very happy little girl.

Maddie's friend Salem has a new little sister and we met her (no pics of that unfortunately). Noah had a big birthday party. And we belatedly celebrated Stella Dot's birthday.

Enough talking. Here are six weeks worth of pics -- just the highlights, of course.


Grandmama visiting with Mason. After the trip to Germany, Mason began doing a cool downward-facing dog yoga pose and progressed to sitting up on his own.

Yup, I'm still a good looking, friendly kid....if only I would sleep!!!
Check out these "teefies!"

Noah's Birthday party. After deciding that the water-filled pool is NOT for him, Mason is tremendously enjoying the ball-filled pool.

Alas, Mason's animal magnetism draws in more kids -- Noah and Eli.

Whoa there folks, not quite enough room for everyone in here.

Sheesh! The crazy kids are gone. I'm exhausted.

Of course, there was cake time for Maddie, Stella Dot and the rest of the gang. Apparently the prospect of icing is worth screeching about.


Mason is in boot camp for table food eating these days......here's documentation of the challenges of spaghetti.

Musical "edumacation"........Mason and the banjo.

Pulling up on animate objects as opposed to inanimate objects. If there is a person to crawl on, he's literally "all over it."

We've figured out that one foot needs to go in front of the other.....

And we got car/walker envy looking at Kylie's new ride during a playdate. I had to get him a blue one. It converts from walker to a very low center car (he's fallen off about 5 times already!)
Note: He looks about 7 years old in this photo but I promise, it's only because the shirt is a bit big!

Last weekend, it was hot enough to cook an egg, or a kid. So of course we headed outside and unrolled Noah's Slip N' Slide. We grew up with these, but they are much improved. They've finally realized grass burns hurt like heck and created an inflatable stop at the end of the slide. Maddie and Noah haven't quite figured out the run and belly-flop process, so Robin helped with hurling them onto the mat. It was so funny.


Maddie and Noah had a blast. Then came the treacherous swing time. One minute, the kids were laughing while Frank pushed them on the swings, and the next, there were screams and blood. Noah and Maddie collided while Maddie was still swinging and Noah was walking in front of the swing. She had a busted lip and it was a bit traumatic, but a Nemo ice pack and ice cream later, it was all good. I was really proud of her calming down so quickly. Noah was really concerned and hurt as well, but not bloody. They both recovered and quickly inhaled the cones. Some more pics on Noah's blog.

Maddie's newest obsession besides being a princess, being a mermaid, wearing her necklace and taking her wand to school: curly hair from sleeping in braids. She won't let me pull it into a ponytail because "then it won't be pretty." What?? When did this happen? Great, she's 16! At least she sits still for curly -haired photos.

Cleaning up the kid's kitchen after dinner.

Maddie's writing exercises. We write a word and she copies it. She tried hard to write OMA as well but her interest was waning after this...Still, we were impressed enough to take a pic.

We are trying to eat better; and I ordered some exercise DVDs and new weights. Maddie immediately grabbed the weights and followed along. I think she burned more calories than I did. Then she said "I need a rest." Me too!