Look who's gotta tooth

This is my little doll head baby. She's been drooling like ca-razy lately.

She turned 6 months old a few weeks back....and mastered the gummy under bite look.

It finally came. After gnawing on my shoulder for weeks....it has popped through. Her first tooth.....bottom left, pearly white, teeny tiny.. has arrived!

Quote of the day:

I'm currently about 47% potty training as of late. I thoroughly understand that 100% effort on my part has to be put forth in order for success to be achieved in this beautiful coming of age. Truthfully, I just don't know if I've got it right now. Both my older boys were good to go (literally) at 3 1/2. Brody just turned 3. Perhaps my 47% is just a little too much (or too little) right now.

Just picture my utter delight upon first finding then cleaning up his POO this morning. He decided that the CARPET in the hallway was a good enough place for him.It didn't help AT ALL that our carpet is a lovely shade of brown. grrrrrrrr

As I'm wiping I'm firmly discussing the importance of using the toilet and and not the floor....dogs use the floor......we are not dogs....gross....we don't want to be gross......toilets.....toilets are good......eye contact....firmness...........

"Can I have a piece of gum, not Cole's gum but udder gum?"-"And I need socks."

Rethinking past purchases and the Hives incident

I have always wanted a girl. Ever since I can remember I have envisioned myself with at least one daughter. Incidentally, during all those years of "envisioning" I was also purchasing various clothing items that were at the time- "too cute to pass up"- Poor Kyle. I fully admit that before I was even married I had a smaller sized bag containing little girlie items that I had collected here and there over the years......hoping to use one day. So as Jack came along, then Cole, then Brody...my bag of girlie stuff seemed a bit useless. Useless U-N-T-I-L.......I pulled out this little antique from Gymboree circa...oh, maybe 1998!! Can you hear it.....the circus, the circus has come to town! I remember at the time thinking that this frilly yellow get up was just to-die-for. Who wouldn't want to snuggle up and sleep amongst the ruffles?? My cute little good sport clown Kate has worn this a few times so I can justify my idiotic purchase way back when.

Now on to this guy. Isn't that a pathetic face? Poor kid. This was my very first introduction into the lovely world of hives. These pictures really don't do it justice either. Long story short: We went sledding up in the mountains-Brody fell asleep in the car on the way home...Kyle puts him straight into his bed. He wakes up the next morning and as I'm dressing him for church notice a few splotchy spots on his body. Hmm. Go to church, return from church, nothing out of the ordinary. By 5:30 he comes downstairs and says that his ears hurt. Well by golly my ears would hurt too if they were as big and flat and red and stiff as his were. I took off all his clothes and he was covered. I felt like such a good mom...you know, really aware of her kids and all. So I call the nurse hotline and she asks:"Does he have swelling around his neck, face, head?" Well yea, his ears are gigantic and swollen and his face is starting to swell. She says I should bypass the insta-care (cause they are closing) and she would send me to the emergency room anyway with head swelling. Sweet! Kyle takes control at home and Brody and I head to the ER....the disgusting, inefficient, germ infested, ER. I don't know what was more awesome: Standing in line holding my swollen 3 year old for 40 minutes just to check in, Listening to the stoned with completely red blood shot eyes addict behind me talk to himself while snorting mucus every 10 seconds or so.....or......Having thee only triage nurse try to take Brody's temp. using an old school under your tongue takes 30 seconds thermometer with no success and then threaten (while he's screaming in her face) "If I can't take it hear I will have to insert it into your bah-dum...do you want that?" I asked if they ever considered using those speedy quick head scanning kinds...'no" was her response. Anyway, 3 hours and a $75 dollar co-pay later, it was determined that he had severe hives. Plan of action: go to the store-get Benadryl. Thanks doc.

So you live and learn. I've never been around hives before. I wouldn't have gone to the ER hadn't the nurse advised that any swelling on his face and head was bad news. All was well again with Brody by day 4. The hives are gone and we are thankful. The clown suit is still here and we're thankful for that as well

It's late...but I have to share

I am so thrilled...I nonchalantly found these pictures at 10:00 pm when I should have already been in bed but I was so surprised to find them that now I guess I'm blogging. How 'bout that for a run-on sentence?! Come on, it's now after 11:00. I'm having technical difficulties with the whole new camera/old computer thing and I didn't know these made it into my files. I guess making a disc at Costco and then loading it onto one's computer really does work!!!!-huh

Back to my story at hand. These are my dear friends Emily and Molly. Molly is the lovely bride in the middle. Emily, the hottie to your left. We all grew up together on the eastern half of the state and for the last 2 DECADES have remained friends, been college roommates, and all around kindred spirits. Molly's big day of eternal bliss finally arrived and we wouldn't have missed it for the world. Might I say that it was such an honor to witness Molly's big day, especially with Emily by my side.

My sweet husband drove the entire crew across our fine state for the big event. We made a weekend of the whole thing complete with swimming at the hotel, playing with cousins, and actually eating AND playing in the germ infested play land at Burger King. All Thomas family members were excellent sports and the weekend was a roaring success. Are you loving Kate's headband or what? It's the polka dots....they get me every time.

To top things off, Emily and I (via facebook ) got some of our favorite people from high school together for a little reconnecting dinner. It's the funnest thing to literally talk for hours with friends you haven't seen in 5-10 years. So much to say. Good times ladies...good times!

Merry Christmas!

*cookies-CHECK.....carrots for reindeer-CHECK...chubby baby in polka dots....CHECK....

Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas!!

Thoughts from this very Tuesday

Would it surprise anyone to know that this kid right here is playing me? He's so capable of being "A Big Boy" with the whole using the potty and all and yet......today, he's back in diapers and totally cool with it. I think he's on to the fact that his mother is tired and sleepy and a tad bit exhausted and frankly not in the mood to check on his bladder status every 15 minutes or pay for super cool and super pricey pull-ups.We'll pull out the big guns again when we're both serious about this delightful issue. And so, we'll try again another day.

On another note: Guess whose $6.29 container of cherry tomatoes opened and spilled while she was loading her items at Costco leaving 1/2 its contents either on the parking lot floor or strewn throughout her shopping cart....gingerly hanging between each individual plastic criss cross hole and randomly dropping onto the ground below before they could be salvaged? Yup, MINE.

It was Awesome!

The late in coming.. getting warmer review

Here it is, Dec. 11th and I still haven't posted a thing for weeks. Everyday, literally, everyday since last Thursday there has been something that someone in this family or all, have had to attend. Insane craziness and I'm sure you all can relate. This post probably has a few too many pictures but come on....its been weeks, weeks full of juicy juicy tidbits and goings on. Here's a little review:

BRODY:

I'm starting with this little guy because he is now officially 3. Yes, December is his b-day month and he couldn't have been more thrilled. It's all documented fully on my new beautiful camera. My new beautiful SLR camera that I have been wanting for years but couldn't bring myself to purchase due to sticker shock. I must admit with the surprising addition of Chance the wonder pony into our family...the sticker shock wasn't as shocking....hmm. My beautiful SLR camera that I cannot (nor can my completely computer literate pal) figure out how to retrieve my pictures. I know the answer lies somewhere deep inside the user manual but I literally haven't had time to figure it out. . Sooooo, in the meantime I'm taking lots of fun and fast pictures and hoping one day to see them in print. I'm thankful for my slow as molasses point and shoot AND my darling sass a frass of a 3 year old!.

(Oh, I could just eat them up. I love having 3 darling boys!)

Kate: Speaking of eating your children.....this little gal is delicious! She's having an awfully hard time letting me blog at this very moment but man she's adorable. Latest tricks: -staring at the ceiling fan...oooooohhhh

-rolling over, 6 oz. bottles..are you kidding me, sleeping through the night, finding and sharing her darling little voice, and blowing out her pants on a daily basis. What's with little ladies and diapers? I cannot find one that shall we say "controls the leakage." It's so grody and annoying and not very lady like. Totally, totally, totally, loving her.

Cole: This kid kills me. Here he is in all his kindergarten glory last night at the school Christmas snooze/sing a long. I admit that a major Thomas flaw is tardiness. Not 15 minute tardiness but like 4 minute tardiness. Lame none the less. So last night we show up at 7:02 (if that) and the kindergarten kids were already up ON stage and singing. All be darned if my kid was gonna miss singing "Mousey in the snow." So picture me with 3 clothing layers and a puffy vest,(it's like 15 degrees outside) my gigantic Mary Poppins bag, holding Brody's hand and herding Cole and Jack up to the front to get that kid on stage...pronto. Now I'm weavin and bobbin through a stuffy packed house until we make it to the front of the auditorium. It's go time. "Cole, when the song is over, walk up on the stage and go stand next to that kid." And this is why I love Cole. He obediently waited allllmost until the song was over and just walked up...right across the stage and just found a spot to stand. The 2 minutes late Thomas' have arrived. I had to document his coughing spells. Coley has seasonal asthma which is quite annoying..is that bad to say? He coughs, and coughs, and coughs. They're not big deep clear your throat and make progress coughs. These sound fake and wimpy....thus annoying. Anyhoo, I laughed to myself as he sang through the last song and every 10 seconds or so...cough...faa laa, la, cough, la la mousey in the snow, cough! Out comes the nebulizer.

Kyle had an awesome time at the sing a long. He got stuck in the back back with Kate, a bottle and no burper cloth. See it was all up with crazy 2minute late mom and her Mary Poppins bag.

Jack: Let's see, what to report with this guy. He's either uber helpful or the spark that gets everything/one annoyed. I'm trying to focus him on being helpful without being the parent....fine line Jacky pants. Can I tell you that this kid is a fantastic speller?! It's so fun to quiz him throughout the week and then get his test back with 100% . He's a funny one who really really really enjoys watching tv and who's really really really observant. He's not to pleased that I control the remote and cartoon network is not an option. Ah, to be 7 1/2 ..so rough.

Chance the wonder pony: It's Fa-reezing here, bone chilling cold. Thrilled would be an understatement describing the fact that Chance now has his blanket on. I'm not a pet person, I don't want to think about animals outside in the cold. I know that's the way they're made....it's natural and all that. I just don't want to be responsible for a cold animal. With blanket on and backyard fence built, Chance the wonder pony is a happy horse. Kyle is almost done building an enclosure for him to protect him even more during the winters. It's a good thing cause we've ALL been a bit too chilly around here. Which leads me toooooooooo:

Heaters: See this little beauty, she's been running non stop for 2 days, helping me thaw out. In a nutshell the downstairs of our house has stained concrete floors. We love them. At least we thought we would love them. Then the temps outside hit ya know, 15 degrees and real quick it got real chilly inside. Now our floors have radiant heat to stay warm in the winter but nothing was happening. It was 58 degrees in my bedroom and 62 degrees in the rest of the downstairs. You know how annoying it is to be constantly cold??!!! I had Kate in 3 layers with tights and hats on, just ridiculous for being INSIDE. Anyway, Kyle brought home heaters while he figured out what was going on/not working. Finally yesterday he did some tweaking in the control room and just like that....you can feel heat under your feet and it feels soooo good. We are officially back to loving our WaRM concrete floors.


Finally......(my apologies to anyone who is actually still reading) this is for my sister who wanted to see my decor this year. We're still not completely settled and moved in but pretty close. I do love Christmas time as it is most appropriate to use red and green (my personal decorating faves) like crazy! Now I just need to restring the tip of my pre-lit Christmas tree which decided to go dim a few nights back..sAweet.

Whew, that was a good blogging session for me. Thanks for listening. And if you're really lucky your Christmas cards should be out come March.