The Whirlwind Weekend

Super spontaneous trip to Viroqua to see the cousins means super fun spontaneous shots of the kidlets with their favorite people in the universe: Finnegan and Leo.

Of course, Bea loves her Auntie too....

And since we are still successfully rodeo-clowning Matilda to believe that Elmo only lives on Grandma's TV (who wants to start a bet on how long that lasts), she was VERY excited to watch Elmo the second she woke up on Sunday, although slightly less enthused to share the moment with the little one....

And we carved pumpkins!!! First time for Tillie, and she was all about it. Got in there and squished the guts, and if we would have let her--she probably would have grabbed a knife and tried to carve it herself.

And then there was this amazingness that followed....love these kids...

More Halloween fun to follow.....

Hide and Seek

While Matilda's interest in the game Hide and Seek has been sparked, her ability to hide leaves a little to be desired (and usually consists of hiding in the exact same spot we just hid in). That is until today.

Daddy was raking leaves, we were out taking pictures, and all of the sudden....

Has anyone seen Tillie?

And then from inside the bag you hear: "Mama, I'm peeking. Peek me, Mama".

Kids will be Kids

What is this? Two posts in two days?

You all can thank Kira (friend, co-worker and clearly knower of all IT secrets) for this one as she helped me crack the IT code (see what I did there) to make blogging possible from this computer.

Anyway, last weekend we decided at the very very last minute (and I mean VERY) to head to VIroqua since the Keaty's would be there and Matilda loves her cousins more than life.

Nate and I were so proud of ourselves for being so spontaneous, not something that is typically associated with me......and we had a ton of fun.

Here is Matilda "flying" off of the deck....can't you tell how high she was jumping?

and the best part of Viroqua--HUGE lawns to run the kids.

Run em'. Run em'. Run em'.

The longer they run, the longer they sleep.

At least that is the hope...

The Games We Play

It's happening.

Bea is turning that corner of 'lump of flesh passed from knee to bouncy seat' to 'actual human being that does cool stuff.'

Early this week, I gave Bea a toy to play with. 

Alright fine, in truth I gave her a cap to my pumping bottle in hopes it would distract her long enough to quick clean up a few things.

But guess what? It worked.

She found that thing freaking fascinating.

In fact, it was the first time she purposefully did something over and over again for a reaction out of us. She would smack the cap on the table and then lift it up and peek underneath her arm. We would all clap and yell yeah!, and then she would bounce in her seat.

Tillie got involved (and of course needed a cap of her own), and she thought it was pretty cool.

Although, now everytime that Beatrice is in the bumbo, Tillie wants us to give her a cap and she says "Mama, Bea cap. Go Boom Boom, YAY!"

Here's the Thing

Are you looking for someone to blame for my lack of blogging? I am. And I'll tell you who to take it up with. My workplace's IT department who will not allow me to download Google Chrome on my computer. And the result is my inability and frustration in blogging in a giant paragraph. (like this one). It never used to be like this. Yes, I own a personal laptop. But the reality is that I am almost always on my work computer at night, cleaning up emails, etc. And I want to be able to JUST blog quick without having to find a different laptop, and a different charger. yes, yes I know. #firstworldproblems. So accept my excuses or not (I swear they are legit) but that is what is bringing me down. Ironic that the technology group is keeping me from my technology.

Driving Miss Tillie

Current favorite game in our house: "driving".

So while the weather lasts, and the daylight still shines, we open up the car and let Tillie drive.

 She has been known to turn the radio on, much much to loud, and then she basically starts crying/whining and yelling "its too loud' until we come help turn it off again.

She has actually managed to change my dashboard setting so that the temperature and direction no longer show up and I seriously cannot figure out how to get them back. I suppose this is just the beginning of her being light years ahead of me in all things technology.

After she is done driving, she crawls in the buckle and says: "Lets go bye bye. Grandma and Pop Pop!". The girl knows where a long car ride leads.....

Oh, and update on my last post "sick days": You people think I am being dramatic, but let me drop some Hanson reality on you....this week Bea went down with a fever and Wednesday and has been out of daycare the.rest.of.the.week. You know that that menas right? Because this child is not quite able to hang out at home by herself? That's right. Calendar roulette.

who has tips for us on how to survive the cold and flu season??? With our sanity, and jobs intact?

Sick days

Its been quite the week.

It started last weekend when I woke up and thought that perhaps I was literally dying and maybe should be rushed to the ER. Fever. Shaking. Aches. Pains. Boob pain like you wouldn't believe. Given the tip off of the pain, I figured I wasn't in fact dying, but probably had mastitis.

And I was correct. So off Nate and Tillie went to collect my antibiotics. Monday rolled around and to be honest I felt terrible but I still went to work.

Why? Not because I am a model employee who just cannot miss a day. Not because I believed the world couldn't keep on turning with out me while I was out. No, because of what happened next.

Tillie gets called home from daycare. Fever. Took her in. Ear infection. Guess who gets sent home? Yes, I know that there is such a thing as back-up daycare, and sick care workers. But you don't know my child, and I can think of nothing more unfair that putting her in a situation that she is very uncomfortable  with WHILE she is sick with a fever.

And so Nate and I spin the calendar roulette wheel and we see who it lands on.

And then I pray that whatever she has it isn't infectious because what if Bea gets it next. THEN who will stay home? I remember quite vividly when I was coming through the ranks kidless, when I would see people leave over and over again from work because "their kids were sick". "Yeah. Right." was what I often found myself thinking. Thinking it happened way to often for it to be real.

Turns out I was wrong. And turns out these little toddler creatures are really more like germ-carrying monkeys....of whom we lovingly refer to as Typhoid Tillie and Bubonic Bea. And more likely than not, they are going to be rotating getting sick all winter long.

So knowing that, I am not just going to stay home because of a little mastitis (note: by a little I mean it was the worst pain I have ever been in). No. Unless I am throwing up or delirious with fever, I will be working through it because you never know when the kids will go down.

And calendar roulette played again.