Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 14

dear jasper,

another month, come and gone. as usual i am amazed at how quickly you are growing up. i'm also amazed at how different you are than your sister. to be expected, i suppose, but i only knew ONE kind of kid and now suddenly you come into the picture and you are a whole different kind of kid and i'm just at a loss. you don't want to eat real food, you hate sippy cups, you don't want to walk, you like to throw, you have a poop face (see below), etc. all of these things about you are different from how your sister was...and i love them all. yes, i get frustrated when you throw your toast on the ground - because who doesn't want toast??? - but i also love it about you. and nothing is funnier to me than watching you have your daily constitution. i'm sorry to have to publish that, sweetie, but it's too good. and that doesn't do anything to capture the redness of your face, the way you stretch your legs way out and grunt, the way your toes curl...ok i'll stop.

you are a big boy sitting in a big car seat now. you seem to dig this forward-facing thing and you've grown fond of making endless raspberries while we're in the car. you can't seem to understand why i wouldn't constantly be looking at you, so you make raspberries and giggle in an effort to get me to turn around. then you giggle louder. it's too funny. stay tuned for a video, i'm going to try to capture it on film, er, memory card.

you are becoming more vocal by the second. i think you've expanded your vocabulary to include: cracker, papa, and the silent-but-effective nodding of your head when asked if you'd like another graham cracker, banana or bath.

still no interest in walking, though you are doing much more cruising around the furniture. you love doing circles around mama and papa's coffee table, throwing things off the table as you go. you tried to turn around once and grab the sofa but you stumbled and got a fat lip from meeting up with the table. oops. blood and everything, but you rallied through it. no big whoop. i think in another month or two we'll be seeing those first steps.

for some reason, i have had a number of people come up to me and ask "how old is she?" or say "oh, she's so cute"...i don't know why people think you look like a girl. i mean, you ARE pretty, but come on. i hope it doesn't hurt your feelings. it just annoys me, but only a little. it must be your lovely blonde locks that have people confused.

who cares. i think you are the most handsome, perfect, boyish looking boy i've ever seen and i love you so much. and at the end of a long day, you get all snuggled up in your jammies and you drift off to sleep with the silk part of your blankey stuffed in your mouth and it's just the most precious think i've ever seen.

love, mommy

Thanksgiving Rewind

i'm behind. i know this. i'm sorry. it's hard for me to remember/take the time to update the blog when i'm out of town and therefore out of my routine.

in any event, thanksgiving was a delicious, yummy, family-filled and fun day. as is the tradition, my mom and dad hosted the meal. we got up, turned on the macy's thanksgiving day parade just like we always do, and sat around in our jammies drinking coffee and pointing out all the cool floats to annie. can you believe she actually missed the dora balloon? oh my goodness, i can't even believe it. she didn't seem to mind though, since she got to see Blue, Snoopy, Scooby, Big Bird and all the other awesome ones.

folks started arriving at around 11am, i think i was on my 2nd blood-o by then. mmmmm. we ate lunch at about 1pm and believe it or not, it was a smaller group this year at 23. we're usually teetering around the 30+ mark. as i said earlier, neither cory or jay could make it, so there is 7 peeps right there. we did have one brave new soul enter the fray this year - my cousin ashley's friend cesario (how badly did i butcher your name?)...anyway, he was awesome and fun he nestled right in to our family. thanks for coming, cesario, you are welcome any time! annie once again, kidnapped my cousin kirk and they were kindred spirits all day. they just wandered the house together, annie on his shoulders, and would stop to chat with folks for a bit before annie made kirk go back downstairs and play in the playroom again. it was so cute to watch. poor kirk, i think he got to talk to a few adults, but i'm not sure.

the feast was, well, a feast. it amazes me every year how much food there is, how much of that food is white, and how much of it i can fit into my stomach. and the wine. mulled wine, regular wine, boxed wine, not to mention the beer, blood-o's and booze. good lord, someone call the prohibitioners and tell them they could hit a jackpot at the mcmahon farm.

some things never change - year after year - and i take comfort in this. since i've been annie's age, i can count on two things after thanksgiving dinner: this and this. god bless uncle craiger and uncle steve. it's hard work eating all that food.

i don't even know what we did on friday, we were all still in recovery-mode from thanksgiving day. oh, wait, that's right, we went down to riverview christmas tree farm (love that place) to get mom and dad's christmas tree. annie still wasn't fond of seeing santa there, but she loved the petting zoo, loved the free hot cider, and was a great help picking, cutting and carrying the tree. here is japper looking very lumberjack-y and perfect for cutting down a tree:

and then here he is wondering what the heck we are doing in the ffffreezing cold:

even addison and i got in on the fun:

on saturday, we took a trip up to brandon to have dinner-christmas with the rogens. shally made us a pork tenderloin and those ridiculously yummy potatoes with cornflakes on top, peggy brought her world-famous buns and we stuffed ourselves silly...again. it was good to see the nelsons and rogens and boy did annie have a good time giving grandma hell. or maybe grandma was giving her hell, i'm not sure. there sure were a lot of giggles, though.

good times, all around.

Another 1,500-odd Miles Logged

well, we made it. with the dog. 2 kids, 1 dog and one crazy mommy. after a one-hour delay at the doctor's office on monday, we finally made it out of town at 10:30am. at 12:30 jasper had a melt-down. at 1:00 we stopped for lunch and i was sure we'd never make it to topeka before the next day. but, we forged on and made our goal by about 8:45-9pm on monday night. i was never so glad to get to the hotel and we got all checked in, loaded in our stuff with jasper in the stroller, annie sleep-walking and ferris pulling at his leash only to find out we were on the 2nd floor of a hotel with no elevator. what?! don't ask. i don't know. we ended up downsizing to a one-bed room on the first floor but it was fine. ferris only woke me up twice to go outside and still he didn't actually pee until the real morning. sigh.

we hit the road again at 8am yesterday morning and made it to the farm by 1:30 so we made great time. jasper didn't even have diaper rash when we got here. heee heee.

we survived the 50 degree temperature change and donned all our new winter gear today for the first time. 27 degrees on the midwestern prairie today. yowser! that sure does feel cold when you don't get to ease into it. course, it was in the 60s here til we arrived, so sounds like no one got to ease into anything. annie keeps talking about the snow, so we're hoping to see a little of the white stuff while we're here. i'm fine with it as long as it's good and clear by the time we have to hit the road again.

we're off to pick addison up at the airport in an hour or so. if i don't get to post again before tomorrow (and i probably won't) i hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving. so much to be thankful for. shout out to my brothers and their families - neither of which are getting to make the trip home this thanksgiving. i guess i'll see you guys next year at christmas?! love you so much, hug yourselves for us.

French Fries...Not Bad

now included on the list of acceptable foods jasper will feed himself: french fries.

added to graham crackers, bananas, peaches, puffy cereals and - oh wait, that's it - you've got 5 edible foods on your menu now. wow. and so many nutrients. now wonder your poo is the color of, well, all the above mushed together.

slow and steady.

speaking of slow and steady, jasper is also finally starting to cruise the furniture. no more standing still at the table. now we circle it. he may walk yet, folks. stay tuned.

Celebrating the New Fort

no words are needed.

Birthday in Review

i think the 3rd birthday was a success. annie got cake, got some pretty cool toys and got to have steak for dinner. can't beat that. we put her steak in front of her and she says "i love this meat!" she's a johnston. she even likes it RARE. aw yeah. course, it's not like she has a choice there.

so wednesday night we got together at the cooper house to have a little impromptu birthday celebration for annie since the gang (including mama lola and papa jack) were all leaving bright and early thursday morning for jamaica. we had pizza and cake and annie received the first installment of her presents. she got her first tricycle and she got most of a kitchen set - what more could a girl ask for? maybe:

or:


or maybe:

or there's always:

she did alright.

i swear yesterday morning when we went to get the kitchen put together, i was having just as much fun playing with it as she was. it has a working clock! the fridge came with magnets! it's just really cool. we have already made many gourmet dishes. she even knows to use her potholders when taking things out of the oven. i mean, come on. girl is smart. and observant. even jasper was doing a great job as "tastetester". he thought it all tasted pretty good.

yesterday we - as i said - played with the kitchen, played with the new dora playdoh (thank you aunt shally), went to the library and got a couple of books, took a nap, baked her cake, played some more, had steak, had cake and opened more presents. all in all a very good day.

i know you won't believe me, but i actually made this. or maybe you will believe me, because if you look closely you will see the construction is not that great. i was pretty proud of myself though - it was my first foray into fondant. that stuff is weird. i don't like it. i will probably never use it ever again. i don't know how those ace of cakes people do it. but, it worked out well enough that annie thought it was pretty awesome, and that was all i cared about. addison took this picture so i could "prove" that there was really a cake under there and i didn't just buy some weird cinderella doll with a gigantic rubber-looking dress. don't you just love to see those feet sticking out the bottom? mmmmm.

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 36

dear annie,

today you are 3. you're 3! oh man. i look at these pictures of you and it's impossible for me to wrap my brain around the fact that this is you - the same little girl that took me 3 hours to push out and then finally you arrived and your head was all bent at pretty much a 90 degree angle. amazing. and look how cute and round your head is now. the same little girl who took her very first steps 2 years ago next month. the same little girl who spoke few words that only i could understand...

and now you're 3. and you say a LOT of words. and EVERYONE can understand you. you now say things like "that's kinda perfect" or "this is kinda really yummy". kinda. it's kinda your new word.

this is you one year ago. your voice even sounded different because of your crazy adenoids/tonsils. but you still see this dress and say "it's my birthday dress". i bet it still fits.

oh my goodness how much you've changed in one year. crap, i'm getting weepy again. just sentimental. i just can't believe it. it really does seem like yesterday your daddy and i brought you home from the hospital and set you down on the floor and then looked at eachother like "now what?". since that day we have been endlessly entertained, tested, panicked and generally just up to our eyeballs in ooey, gooey, slimy, delicious love for you. you have no idea the joy you bring us. you probably won't know until you have children of your own someday. being a mommy to you and jasper is hands down the most rewarding thing i've ever done. i. love. you. to. pieces.

ahhhh, what else? i've already mentioned how much you've grown this year. over 3 inches. 3 inches in one year! that's crazy, girl. doc actually referred to you as "tall" when we went in last week. tall. it might be the first and last time you ever get to hear that. i can't help but wonder if your bones hurt. it must hurt to grow that much. i mean, it's like we put you on one of those medieval torture stretching devices. owie. like in princess bride. which you haven't seen yet, but oh-my-goodness honey, when you are old enough we are on it. your daddy and i love that movie so much. we will have family movie night and we will sit there and you will try to watch it but daddy and i will be quoting every single line from it and you will be so annoyed and say "hush!" - just like you say to me now when i start singing to you - and it will be awesome. then you will love it too and you will start to say "as you wish" whenever we ask you to do something.

oh wait. i just woke up from my daydream. silly me. you won't be saying "as you wish", you'll be just like princess buttercup and you'll say "farmboy, fetch me some chocolate milk now"...or something.

anyway, you're the best. you complete me, kiddo. hee hee. another movie reference you won't understand for a long time.

happy birthday, baby girl. i hope you have a "kinda perfect" day.

much love,

mommy

I'm A'Livin' in a Box...I'm A'Livin' in a Cardboard Box...

it really is true what they say - you could spend millions, but all you really need is a big box and a couple of blankets and you've got one happy kid.

And Now, Presenting Crazy Head-Shaking Boy

...nevermind that i'm trying to get him to play peek-a-boo and instead he is performing his other tricks...

The Yodeler

one of my favorite new things annie does is yodel. i find it very, very entertaining and i could listen to her do it for hours...which sometimes she does.

Later, Rinse, Repeat.

just when you think you're in the clear...BAM! japper barfs all of his breakfast up.

...and the saga continues...

Outbreak II: Coming for YOU

another one bites the dust.

annie went down today at approximately 5:15pm. i think the barfing actually commenced closer to 5:45, but i noticed the change in her at about 5:15. maybe even 4:15. she got awful crabby when we were in the line at the walgreens driveup dropping off her script for her ear drops. then, we went to home depot and then to fill up with gas and then to the grocery store and she was totally normal at all those places. but then, when we went back to walgreens to pick up the script, she got real quiet and looked really sad. we were waiting 17 lifetimes in that stupid slow drive-through line and i looked back at her at one point and i said "how are you feeling" and she just frowned.

"do your ears hurt?"

she nods.

"we'll be home in a few minutes, hang in there...do you have to go potty?"

nodding again. then yawning.

"can you wait just a couple of minutes, sweetie?"

more nodding. LONG yawn.

and then, a few minutes later "does your tummy hurt?"

nod.

so finally we get our stuff and i race home and i go to get annie out of the car and she is practically limp. i'm not even sure if she can walk, so i pick her up and she's just dead weight and puts her head on my shoulder (RED FLAG) and we go inside. i set her down and tell her to go potty, that i'll be right in once i get jasper, so she goes and i hurry to get jasper because now i'm pretty much sure of what's going on.

we get into the bathroom and she sits there and she can't go and i say "does your tummy hurt" and she nods her head yes and then she comes and hugs me and goes "hurt! hurt!"...and that's when the barf comes.

enter chaos:
so addison is standing there in the shower, ferris is standing by waiting for his go at the barf, and jasper has just started to full-speed-ahead to the barf pile while i'm trying to help annie. addison yells "jasper, NO!" and comes bounding out of the shower as i reach over and grab jasper. then ferris starts licking the grossness and i'm like "ferris, NO!" and trying to shoo him away. all the while poor anniepants is just standing over the toilet wishing she was doing anything but what she was doing.

so, we head to the bath and she's laying down in the bath practically falling asleep so we get out and she can't even stay standing for me to dry her off. but then, in a strange twist, i say "annie, let's get in bed, honey" and she says "supper!". just like that. ready to eat. so we try. she takes one bite of a banana and says "i'm done with my supper". that's what i thought.

so. sigh. addison is at the store right now getting things like chicken noodle soup, Pedialyte, saltines and ginger ale and clorox wipes because lord knows we're not leaving tomorrow and lord knows i will probably be going down next. awesome.

oh and another thing! when we were leaving to go do those errands this afternoon...ferris barfed all over his kennel. so...WHAT IS THE DEAL?! is it like the doc said and it's just a "nasty thing"...or is it something more sinister? like addison said "if i were House, i'd be thinking this is NOT a coincidence that the kids AND the dog all puked in a matter of hours from eachother..."

me? i'm just hoping to make it through this without losing my own lunch. i probably have some "mom shield" to cover me while the kids are sick, but as soon as they're better i bet that's when i'll go down. oh man. this is our first real "family sickness" where you actually SEE it spread from one person to another. ick.

I'll Take "Ear Aches" for $1,000 Please, Alex

so annie had her 3 year (!) checkup today and then both kids had to get their flu shots...it was all very good timing since a.) japper has something going on, b.) annie has weird bloody-gooey ears and c.) i have no future in internal medicine because i never know what is wrong with my children. i can hardly even venture an intelligent guess.

what i do know is that the doc told me there is a nasty little diarrhea thing going around that starts with a day or two of vomiting and ends in a week or 2 of diarrhea. suddenly, my own stomach is starting to feel a little queasy...hmmm, go figure, as i'm sure i inadvertantly ingested some of my son's vomit in the past couple of days. pleasant, i know. welcome to parenthood.

annie has an ear infection. in case you're counting that - i believe - is number 5 for her lifetime. maybe 4. i guess it's not uncommon for kids with ear tubes to still get ear infections...but i still think it sucks. for annie. she won't tell me that her ears hurt, but i think she knows she'll have to go to the doctor so she just says they don't hurt. i should have known when she started shoving her finger in her ear that something was up. or the smell. this morning addison said "annie's hair smells like poop" and his hypothesis was that she wipes her bottom with her hand after she goes poop and then puts her hands in her hair...??? that just makes me giggle. but he's right - it does smell like poop. infected ears smell like poop. anyway, i guess i thought the tubes were going to put the kabosh on future infections...again, no internal medicine for me. so yeah, she's got one infected ear and one ear tube that is completely plugged. so, we're getting some fancy drops in lieu of more antibiotics (thank you, doc) and hopefully that'll do the trick.

jasper's ears are still infected, even after a week of antibiotics. and again, if you're counting, this is #3 for the little man. i guess that's not all that uncommon either - doc says they could stay cloudy and whatnot for a couple of weeks and therefore we should wait on another round of antibiotics. this is why i love this doctor. he doesn't just push antibiotics at the drop of a hat. i have a weird thing about antibiotics. even the flu vaccine freaks me out, but i'm getting over that one...anyway, i take japper back in on the 19th to re-check his ears and make sure he's a-ok.

annie's stats are thus:

weight: 30lbs. - 25%

height: i can't remember, i can measure her upstairs, but - she's in the 85%!!!

what? where are our kids getting this TALL gene?! hee hee. it's funny though, annie has grown over 3 inches in the past year. the jeans that she wore in this picture last year, she can still wear, only they are not cuffed and as such, are only going to fit for a short time. isn't that crazy? she was such a little twerp last year and now suddenly she's getting - in her words - "bigger and bigger". sigh.

anywho, the babies are fine. hopefully annie (or addison or me) won't get the pukey thing, and hopefully japper won't get the diarrhea thing and we'll all be good from here on in. thanks for all your good thoughts for japper, though. he hasn't puked since yesterday morning, so we're doing good. oh, and i did make it back to target today, and much to my disbelief there wasn't a "Wanted" picture of me posted on the door that said "bad mother leaves her child's vomit in aisle 7". thank god for small favors.

Don't Tread Puke on Me

i lied. you're not done puking, jasper. we just had to bail out on target, where soon the employees will find a very banana-y surprise waiting for them in the towel aisle.

i'm so sorry your tum-tum hurts...

my goal for the remainder of the day: not getting puked on for the 3rd, 4th, 5th time in 24 hours.

it's the little things.

Jinx

i jinxed myself. no, i take that back, i jinxed jasper. about a week or so ago, i said to my mom "i can't believe that jasper hasn't thrown up yet in his lifetime"...and then last night it happened. sorry, jasper.

oh you poor thing. i almost came down last night to blog because it was so sad and so fresh in my mind all those feelings you feel - as a mother - when your child is sick and you can't do anything about it. you feel so helpless. and you, jasper, you were so lethargic and shivering and just forlorn. i remember your sister's face when it happened to her - it's this face that says "what is going on and why, why, why is it happening and please, please, please can't you make it better, mommy? so confused. anyway, i just want you to know, i will always - always - be there for you, even if i can't help make the hurt go away. i will be there for you and your sister. no matter what.

so at about 9:30 last night you started crying. daddy had just gone down to bed and i was up watching "the real housewives or orange county" because it makes me laugh. i heard you cry and i jumped up to go check on you and even daddy came running up the stairs. you NEVER wake up crying, so it was obvious something had to be wrong. i was thinking foot stuck in the crib slats...but when i got to you and you were sitting up in bed, i could see - through the darkness - that the sheets were covered in your dinner. i picked you up and you were still heaving and of course you barfed all over me, but honey, i don't care. i just want you to feel better and if that means you need to lay your head on my shoulder while you throw up in my hair and down my back, that is just fine. i love you that much. more, even.

i took you over to your sink and you threw up a little there and then we scooted over to the tub - because you were definitely going to need your 2nd bath of the night - and you threw up there, too. then finally you seemed to be ok and we rinsed everything out and i plopped you into the tub and you had such shivers! oh you were just sitting there all hunched over and legs clenched tightly together, hands in fists and you just shivered. you didn't even kick and squirm when i layed you back to rinse your hair. that's how crappy you felt. we got you all dried off and in new warm jammies and daddy had changed your sheets but first i brought you to the rocking chair and just cuddled with you a bit. it seems a bit awful, but i do love when you are so cuddly. i hate to say it, because you are your cuddliest when you're sick and i certainly don't wish for you to be sick, but i do love a good cuddle. we rocked for a few minutes and when your breathing began to slow, i put you back in your crib and did "round and round the big, fat moon..." a couple of times and you fell asleep.

then a half hour later you were up sick again. repeat above. only this time i skipped the bath part, thinking we were in for a long night so i just kind of rinsed you off this time - it also wasn't as messy as the first round - and put you back to bed.

half hour later...again. this time i took you downstairs and put you in the portacrib in our room where you fell asleep.

2am-ish...you woke up for the last time. pretty much just dry-heaving this time. i got you a little water and you went back to sleep until 6am.

you woke up at 6 this morning just crying. so sad. i don't know what was going on but the only thing i can figure is that you were STARVING. you had nothing in your tummy and you were NOT happy about it. i tried to give you juice - which worked for about one sip and then you started screaming again. finally, i resigned myself to the fact that the day was starting at 6am, and i took you out and put you in the highchair where you inhaled a banana and a thing of applesauce. i think you still wanted more even, but i was too scared to give you more, so i gave you your juice back and this time it was acceptable for me to do so.

you are napping now. it's good. i think you are on the road to recovery. whether or not you'll be able to get your flu shot tomorrow remains to be seen, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

i love you, boo-boo. feel better.

Pickle?

i don't know where it came from, but one day annie started saying "Pickle!". and not as in "i want a pickle" or "this cheeseburger needs a pickle". no, she started using it as a response to certain things i say to her. let me clarify: things i say to her that she doesn't like to hear. for example if she is messing around at the table during dinner and i tell her to sit still and eat, she will blurt out, "Pickle!" and then she'll kind of giggle and go back to eating. if she is watching tv and i say "we have to go run our errands now", she looks at me with her brow furrowed and growls, "Pickle!". if she is acting naughty and i tell her she's about to go to time out, she will point her finger at me and say "Pickle!" and then run away because she knows she'll probably get in trouble for that.

i have no idea where this came from. maybe someone at school has been saying it? that's my only guess. i know what she's watching on tv and nowhere in dora, wonderpets, franklin or pinky dinky doo is anyone saying "Pickle" let alone saying it with as much vehemence as annie does.

it's hard to get mad at her though, because it's not like it's a naughty word or anything. not like "butt" - which is the latest addition to her vocabulary. i hate it so much. it sounds just wretched coming from a 2 year old's mouth. she's a master of using innocent words and word combinations to voice her disdain for me. yesterday she was mad at me because she was supposed to be having quiet time and she came out of her room and when i heard her door open i said "annie, get back in your room" and she shut the door - hard - and said "you're a silly butt, mommy". emphasis on the "butt". WHERE is she learing this?! i mean, if she were learning from me she would be saying far worse things than "butt". i'm guessing there is a culprit in her class at school. it's probably that little boy with the super-annoying mom who asked me my name four times in 10 minutes. and yes, that really happened. i bet it's him.

well, anyway, that's what's new in our house. oh, and speaking of children saying naughty things...addison and i have JUST realized that we now have to watch what we say around annie, because she just decided to start repeating much of what comes out of our mouths. for instance, last night addison was giving the kids a bath and he was singing his usual goofy songs and this song went something like "and noooooow we waaaaaash japper's ballllllls"...and immediately after he sang it, annie sings in return, "weeeee wash japper's baaaaallls".

so i'm sure her class will be in for a big treat tomorrow at school when annie is moseying around singing about her brother's balls.

SD comes to TX

finally after all these months my mama and daddy came to visit us. sigh. it was so so good to have them here, to get to show them our home and honestly i think annie was just relieved that mama and papa were finally staying in "mamapapa's bedroom" and using "mamapapa's bathroom". sheesh. i think the first time bergan came to visit us and stayed in the guest room, annie was like "this is mamapapa's room" and bergan was like "okaaaaay, do you mind if i use it for now?" so funny. honestly, she came up with it all herself, i think it was that she recognized the bedding and furniture from the guest room in our old house and really the only people that ever slept there were mom and dad. so i guess it stands to reason that she would think that it sort of belonged to them. or something. it makes me laugh. just another annieism that cracks me up.

anyway, we had a great time. it's amazing how busy you get when you know you only have 4.5 days to get stuff done. mom and i tried for two days to get some shopping done - we even drove down to the galleria (holy craziness), but only ended up going into about 2 stores because when you have two babies with you, it's just not easy. we took them with us there and the next day to the woodlands and still we weren't getting any good shopping done. finally on sunday we left the babes with papa and then we managed to get more done in 4 hours than we did in the previous 2 days combined. it was fun.

the best thing that got done over the time they were here is i got the hardware for all my cabinets and drawers in my kitchen. yay! you have NO idea how awesome that is. i can not thank my folks enough for doing that for us. i was figuring it would be a couple of years before we got around to getting that project done and now it's totally done AND we have hardware for the kids' bathrooms as well. thank you, thank you, thank you so much! and just in case you want to see what the finished product looks like...

here is the before:

and here is the after:

and here is a close-up view of what they look like. aren't they neat-o? i love them. here and here are japper being papa's little helper. he just stayed right by dad the whole time he was installing the handles. he really had his eye on that drill - particularly the cord. jasper has some weird fascination with electronics and cords...hence his mild electrocution a few weeks back.


so we had a good time. the kids were spoiled as usual and completely worn out by all the action. we went out for BBQ one night and jasper could barely hang on through dinner. annie was silly with daddy, but as soon as we got home, both of them were quick to snoozeville. when i went to do my regular check-ins with the kids, i found them like this and this. my favorite though, is this one of jasper. you just don't get cuter - or more comfortable - than this. it looks exactly like one of the sonogram pictures i have from when jasper was about 10 weeks old. seriously - same EXACT position in the womb. it's what had me suspect he was a boy. i figured only a boy could be kicking back like that in the womb - his foot all using my uterus wall as an ottoman. and now, it's his crib instead of the uterus. i wish i had that sonogram pic on the computer but i don't. anyway, here he is:
is that a comfortable baby, or what?

anyway, it was such a fun weekend. it went too fast, but before you know it we'll be in sd for thanksgiving. in the mean time, we've got annie's birthday right around the corner and more spoilage on the way from mama lola and papa jack who will be here for that in just a couple of weeks. right after that, we're off to make the trek back north for thanksgiving and then - holy #($^&*#%@ it's going to be christmas! what?! when did that happen?

More Halloween Fun

well, halloween was a BIG hit with annie. yes, she was a little shy when it came to saying her line, but she always remembered to say thank you, which is all i really wanted from her. it was a riot. we would ring the doorbell, remind her of her line and then when someone opened the door she would just turn all her focus on to the giant bowl of candy. sometimes we could get her to say "trick or treat", but sometimes we had to say it for her.

it was kind of nice to tool around our new neighborhood and meet some of our neighbors. at one house we got to chatting for a couple of minutes with the woman there, and the whole time we were chatting annie just kept taking pieces of candy out of the bowl. then, i'd say "ok annie, that's enough" and she'd stop - though not for one second would her eyes leave that bowl - and then as soon as we started chatting again, there goes her little hand right back into the bowl. she was bold, too. not just grabbing at any old piece of candy. no, she was examining each one to see if it had the potential to be something she would really like. she must have left that house with no less than 12 pieces of candy.

even though she was shy at the outset, every time she got candy in her pumpkin bucket, she would say "we go to the other house now?" and off we'd go. at one house, a 10-year old devil answered the door and annie was like "up". just like that she was over it. smart girl though...i mean, it's just common sense - if the devil offers you candy, you shouldn't take it. right? if she has that figured out at age 2, then maybe i can already stop worrying about her teenage years. yes!

we started the evening over at the cooper house. we used it as annie's practice. i have a video so you can see how it went down. let me just tell you this: you can barely hear it, but instead of annie saying "trick or treat" she kind of hums this little tune and goes "doo do doo-doo do" and i was laughing so hard at that because all week when we've been talking about the trick-or-treating and what do we say, etc. annie has always maintained that "i'm going to say boo and scare everybody and make them laugh!" and then she would hum this little tune. i had no idea if they had learned a song in school or something, but she always, always hummed it when we would talk about trick-or-treating. so then last night, when we get to niki and larry's house and the boys come to the door, annie just stands there - confused - and then you can barely hear her hum her little tune. it's right before cody puts the candy in her basket - you'll have to turn your volume way up. it was one of the funniest things ever. i love that girl. somewhere back in her mind she was like "you can do this. be scary and funny. the song! hum the song!" and then she did. and it was funny.

so, without further ado, here is annie's first real trick-or-treat:

here is a picture of my little geisha:
...and my little ninja:
and here is a good action shot of the cousins - cody is also a ninja, pres a red power ranger, annie the geisha and japper the ninja. together they are representing the far east - isn't that so odd?! anyway, i like this shot because annie is actually carrying herself very geisha-like. the placement of her hands and the tilt of her head. it cracks me.


all in all we had a good time. annie has way too much candy, japper was a rock star and we even got a decent showing at our house which was fun. good times...until jasper woke up at 2:45am with a 102 fever. little booger. i'm not sure if it's teething, a bug, an ear thing or what, but he was so sad. i gave him some tylenol, rocked him and then put him back down in our room in the porta crib. he finally went back down at about 3:45 and today he feels much better. he's been crawling around, giggling and playing and the fever is gone. hopefully it will stay gone. honestly these two. annie has been having gross, oozy blood stuff coming out of one of her ears. i know. the nurse assures me it is probably her ear tubes making their way out. ew. no one prepared me for blood. i thought her brain had liquified or something. blood coming out of the ears only means one thing to me. yikes. anyway, she's not hurting at all and then yesterday i was looking in there and - ew - there was a big ball of something grody just setting in there waiting to fall out...which is must have, because now it's gone. and so is the blood. how's that for some halloween gore?