It's all fun until someone gets hurt

Bella and Graydon's new thing is dancing in the living room. They put in their Worship Jamz cd, grab hands, and begin their hyped-up version of ring-around-the-rosie. This always ends with them purposefully falling to the ground, laughing hysterically.

One time, however, it didn't end that way.

Graydon ended up falling to the ground and smacking his head on the radiator. Within seconds, a goose-egg appeared on his forehead. It looked to me like a tumor coming out of his head. He, of course, was crying hysterically.

Most of the swelling is down now. This is how it looks a few days later. I really don't think that the camera does justice to how truly gnarly it looks.

But I guess he's not too worse for wear.

Nine months in. . .

nine months out!

Curtis's biggest news is that he's starting to scoot all over the place. I'll try to get some video up soon. It's too cute. (At least this momma thinks so).

Somebody had a birthday this week!

We celebrated Andy's 31 years of life and are 

thankful for each day with him. 

Happy Birthday to an a wonderful husband and father.

As promised. . .

I took some pictures of Curtis!

Eight months seems to be my magic age to get nice portraits of my kids.

It was a warm afternoon, Graydon was sleeping, Bella wanted to play outside, Curtis was in a good mood, etc. I decided to go for it. If this had been more planned, Curtis would have been wearing a nicer outfit. But since this was spontaneous and all of Curtis's clothes were in the bedroom where Graydon was sleeping, we had to make do. Such is the life of the third child.

I'm hoping to open up an Etsy shop in the next few months to sell crochet hats that I make. The money I make will go into our Disney World fund. Anyway, I wanted to get some photos of a couple of the hats. They are actually more Graydon-size hats, but he is less than cooperative with the camera lately (always).

Curtis isn't exactly mobile yet, so he really doesn't have a choice.

Doesn't he look like he's about to jump out from behind the tree to sneak attack someone with that stick.

You wouldn't believe the time I had trying to keep grass/dirt/twigs out of his mouth.

Two days later, I put up a black sheet in the kitchen to get these shots.

And here are my other two babies when they were eight months old.

Bella's was taken at JC Penney and Graydon at Portrait Innovations. 

I'm just as pleased with mine. 

And I love how much money I saved!

Artists at work

This is all I have for photos this week. Sorry. I seem to have gotten out of the habit. I'll try to do better. I really want to get some nice photos taken of Curtis. Now that I've said it here, hopefully that will help keep me accountable to actually doing it.

T & A

That's the doctor code for the procedure that Bella had done last week. Tonsil & Adenoid Removal. That's what Bella was in for. Her tonsils and adenoids were extremely swollen; negatively impacting her breathing - especially at night.

Here she is just before the surgery.

She's smiling in this picture. And I think it's the last smile that I saw for days.

When they took us back there, Bella got dressed in this get-up, chose a little toy (stuffed pink pig), and was given a cup of "silly juice".  There was something in the juice that was supposed to relax Bella prior to the procedure.  Based on its name, I thought it was going to make Bella act all goofy.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work for her.  She was just plain scared.  Her tears broke my heart and I kind of lost it a little when they wheeled her away.

After about an hour in the waiting room, they called us back.  The procedure was done.  She was in the recovery room and just waking up.  Again, this was not pleasant for her.  There were more tears in her eyes and she kept saying, "I want to go home."  She was also in a lot of pain at this point, so they added some morphine into her IV.  Within minutes, she was back to sleep.  We spent another two hours in the recovery area before being discharged.

That evening was not fun.  Bella did not want to take her pain meds.  We literally had to chase her and pin her down to give them to her.  Oh boy.  We also couldn't get her to drink anything - which was bad since we didn't want her to get dehydrated. 

The next few days were up and down.  She made her bed on the couch and took a lot of naps.

Meanwhile, my mom was in town to help out with everything. I managed to let a whole week go by without getting any pictures of her with the kids. Big bummer. Graydon had so much fun with "Gah-Ma". He was her little shadow. She has been gone for five days and he still asks me "Where Gah-Ma!" I know that he's going to be thrilled to see her again.

Monday morning rolled around and Bella was starting to perk up. This was now six days after the procedure. She wanted to go to school and we let her. This was the last day that she took any pain medicine.

She seems to be feeling much better now. She's eating and drinking just fine. I'm so glad to have my happy Bella back!

And she is breathing so much better!

Eight months old!

This is what Curtis's new smile looks like.

Open up wide! I can't get enough of it.

This little guy is mad-teething lately. His gums still feel gummy, but there's definitely something in the works.

I found a cute owl idea and decided to make one for my little teether.

He went to town.

Happy eight months, sweet boy!

Smarty pants

A few months ago, Graydon learned the alphabet song. I was pleased enough that he knew all of the letters and the order they came in. The other day, he took it a step further.  While reading a letter book, he started saying the letters before I got a chance to.  He named each of them correctly except "G" and "X".  I'm impressed!

Bella has been into "Knock knock' jokes lately.  They go a little something like this:

Bella:  "Knock knock!"
Me:  "Who's there?"
Bella: "Window"
Me:  "Window who?"
Bella: "Window - You forgot to look out your window last night"
Bella: (hysterical laughing)

Her Knock Knock jokes always follow the pattern of something that I forgot to do last night.

Well, Graydon came up with his own Knock Knock joke.  I'll let him share it with you himself.


The counting is a pretty recent development as well.

So proud of this little guy!

Spring was in the air. . .

but we did a very un-springy activity.

ICE SKATING!!!

We went to the outdoor River Rink at Penns Landing on Friday evening; the day when we reached a high of 68 degrees!

Daddy and Bella skated together all night.

Bella sustained a few falls, one that left her in tears. But she got right back out there and had a blast. At the end of the night, there were more tears - only this time because it was because she didn't want to leave.

I have a feeling we'll be back again.

"New beds"

That's what they called these boxes and pillows.  We did storytime "in bed" in the living room that evening. 

I love the imagination of a five and two-year-old.

I heard crinkling coming from the kitchen. . .

I went to investigate and found this:

I shouldn't have left the valentine candy on the counter. 

All set for Valentine's Day

I can't take credit for this idea, but it's really cute.

We accomplished it all - from start to finish - during Graydon's naptime.

Here are the teacher valentines. I learned this one from my mom way back when and it's come in handy many times throughout the years.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Baked with love

I gave Bella the option: cake or cupcakes. We baked a special treat for Daddy while he was at a meeting all morning. I hoped that Bella would pick cupcakes so that we could enjoy a little treat without waiting for Daddy's return. No chance. The little lady wanted a big cake.

I let Graydon snack on some frosting to keep him occupied (and away from the red hots that Bella was using for cake decorations). It all started out innocent enough.

But this is what happened to my freshly bathed boy.

The finished product.

Yum!

Super Bowl Champions!!!

(Photo taken two weeks ago during play-off game). 

Go Packers!!!

Seen around our house this week. . .

A little girl trying to make our house a bit more Valentine-y

Two kids and their computers

A big sister trying to get her little brother to pose for a picture.

A little brother looking up to his big brother

An adorable baby boy

A little girl and her Daddy off to go sledding.

Hope you all had a great week!

Snow Day!

I think the New Jersey folks might be getting a little upset about all of this Wisconsin weather that we are getting.  When it comes to cold weather, I'd have to agree.  But if it's SNOW - no complaints here.  Especially on a snow day such as this.  8-10 inches of snow and weather above 30 degrees.  Perfect!  I even got a little hot while we played outside in all that white stuff.

From start to finish, Bella built this snowman all by herself.  

Isn't it cute!

The next one was a group effort.

Except for Curtis.  He decided to nap this one out. 

Ta da!

I love a good snow day. 

Seven months old. . .

. . . and looking like a 9-monther. At least that's what our pediatrician said.

Curtis at 7 months

We have a tall boy on our hands.

I don't know. To me, he doesn't look a day over six months. ;)

Curtis at 6 months

Or maybe I'm just in denial that my baby is growing up.