Our babies are growing up!

Well September 1st... Today Mason is 6 months old! Crazy how fast that has gone..... And our little Madison is going to start preschool on Tuesday. She is so excited to go to "stool". Still working on that "sch" sound.

Sweet boy... I still love to just look at him while he sleeps.

Madi getting ready for daycare.... I'm learning to let things go and let her dress how she wants to... doesn't really matter does it? While many times it goes against every fashion rule that I have (and lets be honest, we all know I don't really have much fashion sense) I am learning to let it be.

With Mason hitting 6 months here are some milestone markers:
He rolls over! Yay... seriously started consistently doing it 5 days ago... Really dude? I was a lot concerned but I am trying to remind myself, he is a lot more easy going and passive than Madi was. And no 2 kids are the same... as cliche as that sounds I am finally learning this.
Mason started eating pureed food... that is always a fun thing to start! Well the facial expressions make it fun...

This is my own pinterest moment.... (I make my own baby food - cheaper, less chance of chemicals and garbage getting in, whatever) BUT... i hated trying to get the sloppy mess into the ice cube trays... well simply pour it into a ziplock, cut the end off and voila! I was proud of myself... I'm sure someone else has already thought of this... but I came up with it all on my onsie... Made my life much easier. :

Avacado...... Ya it took a week and a half before he liked the texture of the food...

 So as of today, Mason has eaten yams, avacado, apples, and pears. Pears are the favorite, but I think it has to do more with getting used to the texture, because he was pretty anti yams when he started, but doesn't think they are all that bad now. :)

The last couple of weeks have been so chaotic but we somehow survived... I started my new job at St. John's and I love it. I couldn't have asked for better co-workers or patients/residents. It is so great, and I feel so very blessed that I found it. But the first 2 weeks I was in training so I worked every day... Normally I will only do 2 or 3 days a week... It pretty much kicked my trash.

This is a glimpse of the grounds where I work. This is the pathway to a cottage. Each cottage has 12 rooms, each room is private so the resident has their own bathroom and doesn't have to share. There are at least 7 cottages, and then there is the main building that has assisted living, long term care as well as transitional care. It is divided up into wings, and I am unsure as to how many rooms are on each wing... but I would guess 14-20 rooms, some are private and some are shared, and there are 7 wings maybe? And a whole other building that is independent living and our rehab team has a gym and space for the home health that is provided. There is also an outpatient building that is south of all the cottages.... I haven't made it that far yet... Still learning my way around, the campus is large... if you catch my drift. :)

The grounds crew does such an amazing job, the whole campus is beautiful and well kept and just so nice!

Did I mention that the flu hit our house my first week of work? Oh ya... it was a pretty intense 24 hour bug that wiped us all out.. one by one.

Not fun when your kiddos aren't well.... :(

Over all the first 2 weeks went well but I think we were all ready to be in a more normal routine.
I was so exhausted and the M&M's were feeling the strain of being at the care of someone else for 2 weeks. Well... Madi I don't think minded it too much, in fact every morning she asks me if she gets to go to "the place with the boat and the animals". Her daycare/ preschool is called Noah's Ark, so the building has a fence around the outside that they have made look like a boat and then they added animals all over. It's pretty cute and she really likes going to play with kids. She is so worn out by the end of the day... we are trying to keep her up so she can just go to bed and 7:30 or 8:00.. but it's hard to keep her awake past 4. :) Madi's daycare is in Hardin, and Brian goes to get her around 3:30 when he gets off work, and because they don't take kids under 2 Mason goes to Billings with me and I found a great lady who has a home based daycare, and he gets to hang out with her. As far as I can tell he likes it... he is so easy going, and she does a super job with him. But alas it was a lot of daycare and very different from what we were used to... so we were all excited to see the training period end.... :) So onward and upward from here.

As for our house...

Here it is- Ta da!! It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath and we are loving the space and the backyard!
We are still not unpacked and we are gradually getting settled in, but I feel we have quite a ways to go still. We did go furniture shopping last weekend and got a few things. Hopefully our couches will be here tuesday. For a month we haven't had anything to sit on except for a piano bench, kitchen chairs and our beds... Well we do have a rocking chair in Mason's room...
But we are pretty excited to have couches and somewhere nice to sit... (fingers crossed it happens tues!!) I did score a deal on a butchers block and a papasan chair. I've always loved the papasan chairs and now I have one! I have high ambitions of making a cover for the current cushion or making a whole new one.... but we will see if I can actually make that happen.... I am setting the bar of expectation low, so that if something were to happen it would be a pleasant surprise. :) So as we get more into a regular routine.. (little Madi does have school now! Every tuesday, wednesday, thursday... so we won't be able to run amok as much, kinda excited) I will post pictures of our house as we personalize it to be our home... right  now there are a lot of empty book shelves and boxes. Oh yes and lots of plain walls... hopefully we can change that. :) We are really excited about our house and look forward to it being our home base. :) We have been pretty transitional and so it feels good to have a place to go to call home... Even if the walls are bare right now. :)

Last but not least the latest Madi-isms :)

On a road trip, it was towards the end, "Mommy!! (screeching mind you) Mommy! There are no stretches coming out. My stretches aren't getting out!!!" I hear ya kid, I hear ya...

"When I get older, I'm going to buy a new mommy" :( Obviously I wasn't the favorite at the moment.

We were driving past a farm with some sheep  "Oh sheeps! Oh sheeps!! (Brian and I kinda chuckled) NO! It's not funny! It is just oh sheeps!"

Okay no judgement on this one:
"Mom what does the poop say when it's inside me?" "Uhhh... I want out?" "Mom what does the poop say when it gets out of me?" "Uhhhh... I'm finally out?" "Does the poop want out so it can see its familwee(family)? Mom do you look at your poop?" "No Madi I don'......" "I look at mine, I like poop." "Well I think poop is gross and it belongs in the toli......" "Well I like it. My poop is happy now she is with her familwee".
*I didn't really know how to respond. :)

We have a pretty good routine with Madi that when she is done with a meal she takes the leftovers and puts them in the garbage and the plate and utensil go in the sink... Well one day I put lunch out for her, she was on a little toot and upset because it wasn't popsicles and cookies, so she picked up her plate  looked and Brian and I proceeded to walk over to the garbage, scrape it all off and throw her plate and fork in the sink... all while frowning the most furrowed brow a 3 yr old can make. Both Brian and I trying not to laugh... but Brian asks, "Madi, why did you throw away your lunch? Mom made that for you." "It's otay dad, I'm just going to make myself different food." "What are you going to make yourself?" "Mommy will make me a yogurt." (I'm having a hard time containing myself at the sink, my shoulders are shaking and madi comes up behind me, "Mommy are you sad? What's wrong? Don't be sad because I threw the food away, you can just get me new food... It's otay, I'll give you a hug. I didn't want that lunch, I wanted a snack. Can you get me a yogurt?"
Needless to say she didn't get a yogurt and then she got more grumpy.. but wow... too funny how matter of fact she was about the whole thing. It made us laugh... But we had to try and pretend it wasn't funny and you can't just throw away food you don't want to eat.... ohhhh she's too funny.
Another one on this note, just last night we were finishing up dinner and she had eaten pretty good, still had some veggies and potatoes left, and I asked her if she would like to help me make cookies later for dessert, she hops down from the table quickly takes her plate to the garbage and scrapes off the food and throws the plate and fork in the sink. "Ya mom! I'm ready, can I eat some of them?!?" It was so fast we didn't even have a chance to ask her to finish her veggies... so I asked her, "Did you finish your dinner?" "She looks down at her feet and all around, then says "yep! I ate it, and I put the rest in the garbage! So my dinner is all gone... so I can have a cookie" (Mind you she is nodding her head up and down in the yes like fashion as she is speaking.)  Huge grin on her little face.


Last one: Just this morning - She likes to come and sit on the bathroom counter while I get ready... She makes funny faces at herself in the mirror.. Well she is pulling her eyes down and all of a sudden gets real serious and looks at her eyes really close (which I'm not sure how she could see real well, ususally that distorts the view, but apparently not for her) and she says, "Mom!! Do you see the cracks in my eyes?!?! My eyes!! Look at them! They are just like a dinosaur."
Hmmmm okay then. :)
That is what we get to laugh with everyday.
We are blessed and we try to be ever grateful. Until next time!