little bad wolf

vaughn has been watching the three little pigs. now when asked what the big, bad wolf says, he responds with this:

mason cole

mason was born on thursday afternoon, only a day overdue. i must admit that i thought he would never come, considering vaughn was so early. even though he was a day late, he made up for lost time by being born, cord cut, and dried off before the doctor came in the room. i felt bad for the nurse, apparently she'd never had a woman go from 7 to 10cm in only 15 minutes. and she was the one who told me i could start pushing. it was pretty amazing to see how quickly five more nurses came into the room after they realized the baby was ready to be born.

he weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz, and is 21 inches long. and had several visitors over the two days we were in the hospital. we were at the new st. e, which was pretty nice. they let you stay in the same room from check-in until check-out, so you can unpack and not worry about changing rooms in a few hours.

so far vaughn seems to really like his brother. each time he'd come into the room, he'd ask, "where mason be?" he wants to hold him most of the time, and is pretty gentle when he's touching him, plus he got to spend several days being spoiled by josh's parents. this is the second night we've all been in the house together, and so far so good. although i think vaughn is starting to realize that mommy has to spend more time with little brother and less time with him. luckily mom is next door and more than willing to play with vaughn or hold mason for me, so i can spend some time with vaughn. vaughn has been regressing back to baby-hood though, sucking on the pacifier and stealing the boppy when i'm trying to use it. he also tries to climb in the infant car seat. he looks enormous compared to mason, and it's hard to believe that vaughn was ever that small.

walls of insanity

i wanted to paint the walls of the nursery gingham, but the paint just looked like checks on the wall. josh and i stupidly decided to paint plaid on the wall. josh came up with the pattern and i helped him and mom chalk, tape, and paint. after about two weeks of having our house in a shambles, staring at all of the mistakes, and then deciding that sleep and sanity were more important that having the lines completely straight, we finally finished the walls and got the furniture moved in and all the pictures hung on the wall. josh, orrin, and dad even made a new door.

si-as and em

bridget and her family came down for a visit and vaughn has really attached himself to silas. every morning he asks to go to grandma's house to see 'si-as and em.' emmet and vaughn are now frenemies, complete with take downs and groin kicks. they've gotten along pretty well, though, sometimes coming over to our house to play or going over to mom's for trains. here's a picture of all three getting along.

pet, bay calf

this year's calving season started out a little discouraging. one of the cows showed signs of being close to calving even though she was a month early. we managed to get her in the barn and watch her for a day before we went out to discover a dead calf.
last week dad called me at work to tell me that another cow had finally calved, both of them doing well.
we, with no help from the cow, had a hard time making sure that the calves stayed out of trouble. josh even had to fish one of them out of the cold, ditch water. but they now seem to be doing well, and are staying close to their mamma.
we tried some new breeds this year, one being a murray grey from australia. dad called me at work again on friday night to tell me that another calf had been born. vaughn could hardly wait to 'check cows' the next day and 'pet, bay calf.' it was a little tricky to get this picture since the mother was pretty protective.
number four was born tonight. josh called me and mom on the radio shortly after we had left to pick up the pizza, saying that one of the heifers was calving. dad, josh and bill (who was helping josh paint) managed to get the cow up into the barn by the time we got home. after a bit of a struggle pulling, the calf finally came out. for being a mini-hereford, he was rather large, but luckily alive.