weekend away

amelia pulled off some 'firsts' while we were away at her grandma & grandpa gerbick's house this weekend.

1. sat in a tub unassisted
2. went underwater (oops! it's a funny story: every time we would squirt her with a water toy she would laugh so much that she would lose concentration on her sitting abilities & then crash into the water)
3. banged her head into the side of the tub (ouch; again, oops, which quickly ended the bath time due to loud & incessant screaming)
4. ate pinto beans like her life depended on it
5. ate shredded (mexican flavored) chicken like her life depended on it
6. watched part of a 'dora' video on a tv screen that makes dora bigger than amelia herself (maybe even bigger than adeline?)...that grandpa & his tv's!

well, that's all i can think of right now.

picture of amelia sitting in the playroom--errr--tub with her big sis.

millie & her great grandma beard. amelia had lots of smiles for her.

adeline throwing & catching some balls that great grandparents lute got for her for easter (in addition to the quacking ducks on the floor. they are a kid favorite so far today).

& DANG IT. what is this all over addy's face?! i have about had it up to *here* (my chin) with weird rashes that come & go on her. really, does anyone have any ideas? (allergies to food or pollen?). i know it's not eczema b/c i have that & adeline has it in other spots, so i know what that looks like. this is just something that comes & goes & this time it has been itchy enough that she scratched her face bloody a few times.

LOL, it probably doesn't help that i THOUGHT i was putting this prescription ointment for dry skin (from her ped) on her face & then wes tells me a few minutes later that it was this stuff for her diaper rash from about a year ago. sorry kid, didn't realize i was putting butt cream on your face! & we parents wonder why kids scream & flail around sometimes...

here's a closer look. oh my, she was so tired, this was right before bedtime after a long day...

this is our mulch, soil, fertilizer (manure!), & stone (for under the hop hut) load that was dropped off today. if you look very closely, you can see the snow that is flying today. thankfully, it's not sticking. i am very much not into snow & cold right now. but it's freakin cold outside today!

millie trying to ingest her first grass. (a-hem, easter grass, that is)

just a goofy picture of adeline

another wrestling match takes place

a picture of what an entire roll of toilet paper looks like in a toilet bowl at one time.
*sigh*

that's it for pictures.

wes & i were able to go out with his brother & sister in law on friday night...& had a great time! i even ordered a 'right russian' (meaning i had a large beer right before that & couldn't fully pronounce 'white russian' correctly...silly mama who hardly ever gets to have alcohol!). we had a fun weekend & adeline has now memorized every nook in her grandparent's house. she was running around like crazy there...i think her favorite spots would be the piano & then the life size tv & also the corner 'o' toys. maybe the kitchen, too.

as i mentioned earlier, amelia had a few firsts...we were eating out at a mexican restaurant, yum yum! adeline was throwing a fit & then calmed down nicely once i had a *DING* moment & ordered her some whipped cream to dip her quesadilla in. then it was quiet for about a minute & then millie started the crying & flailing about in her high chair routine (that she learned from her sister, i might add). she had just scarfed down baby food rice cereal & peas & had a bottle right before we left...she was reaching for my plate which had yumminy chicken flautas & pinto beans. so i put some out in front of her to see what would happen...totally expecting a gag reflex to take place. but nope! not our hungry bear. she ate pinto beans & shredded chicken (her first taste of chicken ever, or any type of baby-vegetarian lifestyle food) like mad for about 15 minutes. these were baby eating bites of course, but she was so ferocious about it, grabbing the food & then shoving it in her amazingly wide open mouth. hysterical! so we had the preschooler eating chicken quesadillas dipped in whipped cream & ketchup & then the almost too small for the high chair 7 month old scarfing down chicken & beans.

what i find so interesting about babies & kids: they are so different. obviously, but think about it...we know some folks in boise (shout out to the brandts & parsons!!) who have a -gasp- 10 month old (already so old!?) who is a champ sleeper... i was so envious of her sleeping abilities & couldn't help but tell amelia things like "emily in boise slept through the night at this age...why are you waking up every 4 hours still?" & then i tell adeline things like "well, you know that tiny audrey started peeing in the potty regularly even before she was 1 & you are double that age". (btw: i don't use a condescending tone of during these moments of comparison. more a matter of fact tone; which leads me to believe i am not sending my kids to therapy yet b/c of my parenting choices...). yet either the parsons or brandts just mentioned in a blog post how neither of their girls would eat or liked pinto beans over the weekend. so, we have the non sleeping, non potty trained kids who will eat nearly everything (with the correct condiment, of course). kids are so strange! so how is it possible for there to be standards & milestones & books on developmental peaks when kids are so obviously different?

as for today...we had nearly nothing in our fridge except condiments (ya know, jam/jelly, ketchup, mustards, etc) & i had planned to get groceries this morning...but i was awake nearly half of the night with IBS problems. & then this morning i was still sick & ready to puke & was dry heaving (it takes a lot for me to puke) b/c of IBS. so no trip to the grocery store...but that didn't slow addy down from eating 3 snack bowls full of cereal & then 3 doughnuts given to us by wes' mom & then 3 chocolate chip cookies, also given to us from wes' mom. i was feeling so bad laying on the couch, i didn't even care what she was finding to eat. at least she was eating & happy! adeline also got to watch a total of 3 1/2 hours of dora episodes today...this is not one of my stellar days as a mama, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do when the mama is sick. thankfully wes took a long lunch break & i took an hour nap & feel a bit better now.

nothing exceptional to say today, i guess. just life going on & on!