Fishin'

Jr. woke up from his nap today yelling "Momma! I want to go fishing! I want to catch a big fish!" The perfect storm aligned, Ed came home from work early, Graham was in a good mood, it was sort of warm and we found the Batman fishing pole. It took us down to Spring Meadow Lake to look for some open water. No fish, but it got us all talking about spring. How amazing and awesome our lives will be once it warms up a little bit. A new boat (90% sure), getting the stroller rolling, exploring the trails, fishing and swimming at the lake 3 blocks away from us. . . . Vitamin D. . . ahhhh sunshine. more sunshine. need sunshine.


This is the shitty time of winter - it is almost over, the snow is gone and all that is left is ice. You can't want the warm weather too much or too publicly because cold wet snow will hit you like a slap in the face. The weather bimbo just announced that it is going to keep getting colder. DAMN YOU WEATHER BIMBO! DAMN YOU AND YOUR MINI JACKETS SMIRKY FACE SIMLE!

Just like a slap in the face, the camera is not doing well. Half of the time it doesn't open and then the battery dies in 5 minutes AND we lost the charger. The photos look like crapola. Ug. Time to go buy a new one. I really want a big fancy one, but I am somewhere less than an amatur. I want to take better photos and even learn someday to be a good photographer. Someday when I have more time. So that is kind of my excuse for the low blog density, bad camera, no photos.

But then who reads this blog to hear me whine. About the boys.



Graham rolls to get everywhere and wants to get into everything. He is so curious, such an investigator and damn is he cute! I mean so cute. He is such a good baby too. Always happy. He quit napping at daycare though, which is super stressful for me and I hate going to pick him up and having a sad red eyed baby - we call him zombie baby. He usually naps after work and then wakes up briefly for dinner and a bath, then back to sleep. It is hard because the only time I get so spend with him all day is those brief hours where he smiles at me behind those tired tired eyes. Aimee assures me that he will come around. I make up for it on my days off, lots of snuggles.




Jr. started his birthday list while we were at Target today. First on the list, a nerf double sided axe for "big boys". He also wanted a sweatshirt with skulls on it, a bunch of games, some toy tools and some dog bones, for Selma. Man I love that kid. I need to figure out a synonym for sassy, but that is the best term to describe him. In fact, I must tell him at least 100 times a day, "STOP SASSING ME!"

Since I started saying at home more, I get a lot more kisses and hugs. I also get a lot of him telling me I am beautiful and telling me he loves me. I have to remember that even though toddlers are a-holes, their sweetness completely makes you forget. . .


It still amazed me how much I love those two boys. It is crazy. You can't even put it into words.

Dear Graham,

Please don't quit nursing. It is way too early. Thank you.

Love, Mom.

P.S. Sorry about the constipation. I hope you know that I love you so much I actually pulled poop out of your butt. I am sure I will not fail to mention that when you are older, but please understand that it was pretty nasty.

P.P.S. I love you like crazy.

Photos

Photos from the last week.





Daycare was closed for a week so one day I got to watch Seri. She is like way dreamy. Jr. was thrilled for the company. Then auntie Liesel came to visit - the only photo documentation was a slice of beagle in a photograph. We had a nice weekend, many nights I lay in bed and wish she lived here in Helena. There was maybe - a rough estimate - 4 million baby kisses. Jr. told me one night that he didn't want to go to bed because he wanted to hang out with his friend.

Last week also started my new part time job. I was SHOCKED that the salt mines would let me cut back on a pretty permanent basis. I now only work M-W. That means 4 day weekends every week. I am going to work on my family. Work on taking them for walks and having fun.





And one photo I stole from Eric and Sarah's blog.

That is Graham, Grace and Baby Reid.

SIX MONTHS!

I know it has been a while since I rapped at ya all but I have been busy. I had to make time to post to commemorate this big occasion, and I was getting tired of looking on the blog only to see a photo of Selma.

Sigh - six months - I remember when Jr. hit six months, Ed and I breathed a giant sigh of relief. We had made it over some virtual hurdle. Things were going to change boy - howdy. We were a pair of idiots. Well, things did sort of change after six months - Cissie started getting him to sleep in his crib. I mean, babies change constantly, it was just that Ed and I needed mini time monuments to feel like we were getting through it all. Not so much with Graham, suddenly one morning we looked up and were like SHIT - Graham is six months old. Huh. What next? Our attitudes and our goals are vastly different this time around.



For example, Ed and I are working on getting Baby Graham his own crib - next step, get Cissie to come over and get him to sleep in it. . . Ha ha, not. Seriously, we talk about it all of the time and then along comes the night and neither of us puts him in his own bed. Go ahead, shake your heads, we are co-sleeping hippies and I am cool with it. Someday he is going to care more about cars, sports and girls than me and I have these nights to go back to. Besides, he is SO snugly. I mean REALLY snugly.



Anyway, six months. It is awesome and I can't believe how fast a half of a year went by.

So here is what six months is like for Baby Graham - he is so good at rolling over onto his tummy and tries to swim on the floor. This kid is aching to crawl. He is one mean hairpuller, but to his credit it is because he wants to give giant kisses. I am going to need a wig or hair plugs at this rate. He is still ridiculously sweet. He is happy and rarely cries. He does, however, let you know when he is hungry or tired. He YELLS! Oh and he laughs. Mostly at his brother, but laughs a jolly little giggle that makes you smile smile smile. He is all about eating. If he sees that you are eating without him, you will hear about it. Which leads to the chub. That kid has a tank of a behind, a big watermelon belly and cankles. I love it though. I love chubby babies. His bright blue eyes are enormous and go perfectly with his jolly red cheeks. He is a snugly little baby and loves everyone. He lets even the weirdest of my co-workers hold him. He reserves his kisses for me, his daddy, his brother, his Nanny and Aimee. Although, I bet with enough practice this weekend his Auntie Liesel will get some out of him.




Jr. is officially "almost 3". He has been telling people that he is 2.5 for a long time, but I am reprogramming him to say - when he is asked - that he is "almost 3". People still look at me like I am nuts because he looks so old, minus his sweet baby face. He is an awesome big brother. He tickles and plays with Baby Graham and is - for the most part - pretty gentle (check the vids on Picassa). Jr. is even at moments helpful. Jr. tells us all of the time that he loves his new house and that it is beautiful. He is really happy here, it is very cool. I can't wait for it to warm up a little bit more so we can explore our new end of town more. So far we have taken few walks because it is just too cold to take Baby Graham out. We are dying to get outside.



We took a trip to Fairmont over the MLK day weekend with the Moogs. Now I can brag all day long about how sweet/awesome the Coleman boys are, but damn, those Moog girls are something special. Adrienne is wicked smart and C.U.T.E and her precious baby sister Ameila is the most satisfied baby I have ever layed eyes on. She sleeps like a rock and is happy just to look around with her giant blue eyes. She never cries. It was nice to soak. Jr. was a little bit of a turd about swimming, but Baby Graham LOVED it. He just floated in his tube and stared around at all of the people taking it all in. I can't wait to go again.

Sad Day

Tuesday our great friend Mark died. He lost a battle against a brain tumor. He was a completely amazing man and we are blessed to have had him in our lives. Today was his funeral. It was terribly sad and amazing at the same time.

Thanks to the Dockter sisters for watching Jr. for us while we celebrated Mark's life.

We are going to work so very hard to take good care of Dona.

The Never Ending List. . .

. . . of things left undone.

Every day and every weekend, I compile a list of things I need to do. None of which get done. Or so it seems. I usually can manage a load of laundry, wash the dishes or on a rare occasion write something on this blog, but it is all of the other things that get put aside. Exercise, dinner with friends, rake the leaves, paint the toenails. Those thing pile up in the back of my mind until I can't take it anymore and destroy the list (in my mind). I think that weekends will be my chance to catch up, but they aren't. Weekends are when we spend more time in jammies. Spend more time playing. Spend more time doing god knows what, and then suddenly it is Monday morning and we caught up on nothing.

The one thing I always get done is baby. He is one well cared for and entertained kid.



I hear other moms lament about the lack of ability to get anything done. Slowly day by day, we will let those things go or get better at multi-tasking. Right now I am petting Selma with my foot while typing. If only I could figure a way to shower and do the dishes at the same time. . .hmmmmm.



What helps out tremendously is when my mom comes over for the weekend to help out. Thanks mom.

Adrienne Talking

I shot this video last weekend. She is the sweetest baby girl.

More Chinook

Some of my favorite photos from the weekend.

We were trying to take a pretty photo of Alana and this is what Courtney did:

So Ed got Courtney back.

Rachel is pretty much up for anything. She was so much fun to take photos with.

We climbed up to the top of this amazing glacial feature (AKA Drifter's Knob) and put all of the horse bones back in place, they roll off of the edges.

Sheree admitted later that she didn't want to touch the horse's skull, but did it anyway. The skull belongs to Brandy, my horse. She died the summer before I first took Ed to the Ranch. My dad, Miles and I hauled her skull up there to be with Drifter, my dad's horse.

Ed Jr. was trying to pinch his great grandfather's eyes.

The old three sided barn. My dad says that a surly bull knocked off the corner. I am pretty amazed it is still standing.

This is what it is like to say goodbye to my grandparents. I never want to leave them. It is so hard to say goodbye.

Chinook

Ed Jr. took his first trip to explore the land of his ancestors. 20+ miles north of Chinook, Montana. It is a pretty amazing place where no one batts an eye when you wear olive green, blaze orange and aqua, and you always smell like bacon.

Jr. had an absolute blast hanging out with his great grandparents, great aunt and uncle and cousins. He loved watching all of those kids run around.

The other big news is that he is actively rolling from his back to stomach to get after things. If you hold your hand behind his feet, he pushes off on them in sort of a scoot/crawl. We are pretty excited and kind of scared at the same time. He can move!

I would write more, but after our 5 hour drive home, I am pooped.

Ed Jr.'s Mom is HILARIOUS

Mom + Baby

As much as we hate it when he leaves, when daddy goes hunting it affords us the kind of mom and baby time that we need to truly realize our amazing love connection.

Saturday Jr. wasn't feeling so great, so we took it easy. Other than busting my buns to get a job application in the mail, we didn't do much. Thanks Grandpa Bill for taking him for a walk while I ran to the mail. The true highlight of the day was the hour long bath. We had to keep adding warm water, but by the end, the plugged nose and ear rubbing was history. We just played, laughed and took some epic naps. We wore cozy clothes and even stayed up kind of late. To watch Saturday Night Live, of course. The baby slept, but I watched damn near the whole thing.

Sunday he was feeling much much better after sleeping for an unprescidented 11 hours. His momma got a ton done around the house and when his dad got home, we had a turkey dinner coming out of the oven. He got to play, nap and nurse just about as much as he wanted, I spent the entire day just watching him and responding to his needs. I was totally on his schedule. During the week it feels like we are always running around like crazy maniacs, but this weekend we only had one thing on the agenda, to love eachother.

I would hate to put an estimate on the number of hugs and kisses we had over the weekend, but it was easily 1 million.

Just when it seemed like everything was going his way. . . we took him to see Dr. Frank today. The good news is that he is 29 inches long, 22 lbs and 13 oz heavy and his head is, well it is still quite big. All of his measurements are in the 98% for babies his age. Dr. Frank said that he is very proportionate - proportionately big! My mom says that I was always over 100% and I am sure his daddy was no small turkey. The other good news is that he doesn't have to get any more shots for 6 whole months! YAY! I hate getting his shots. He cries so much. Talk about having a case of the Mondays. To have an amazing weekend and then whammo.

He did pretty well, little to no fever and has taken a couple of serious naps. He also went to sleep at 7 tonight. I just laid with him snuggling him for as long as I could stand it. I wanted to make up for the shots by being extra sweet to him. Since I got home from work, it has been all about making him happy. Nursing for as long as he wanted, playing with him on the floor, his first banana mashed with breast milk (not such a big hit) and for dessert a DELICIOUS maple teething biscuit. We both had maple smeared all over us. Selma was the big winner when he dropped it on the floor. These are the days she has been waiting for, the dropping of the food. It really makes up for all of that being locking out.

Oh and as for daddy, he killed a baby boy deer and a little lady antelope. He has been in the garage since butchering his kill. It was Uncle Neil's first deer kill, so he is out there with him. I will spare you the gruesome details and well, the gruesome photos.

Sweet Pea

Halloween started on Wednesday for us. Ed Sr. and I carved pumpkins and I made Ed Sr.'s costume. Ed Jr. got to enjoy chewing on a piece of pumpkin carved from one of the jack-o-lanterns. Ed Sr. made a Jr. inspired pumpkin, two big eyes and two lower razor sharp teeth.


On Halloween night itself, Jr. was SUPER tired and SUPER cranky and had to take an evening nap pushing back his trick-or-treating until pretty late. We only ended up going to see Mark and Dona, Grandpa and Straganona and Aunt Kim and Uncle Jon. Adrienne was also a sweet pea, but that sweet pea was asleep by the time we got there. It is a bummer because I really wanted to get a photo of the two sweetest peas together. You know, for their high school yearbook. . . he he he. I am sure we will have plenty of naked bath time and naked pool photos to embarrass them with.

Jr. didn't get any candy, but his Straganona bought him some DELICIOUS maple flavored teething biscuits. So yummy.