security pillow

last christmas mom gave vaughn a really cute stuffed cat, and vaughn really loved it. he'd snuggle with it almost every night and even carry it around after he got up from his nap. josh has started to let him sleep with one of our 'soft' pillows, and vaughn has become extremely attached to it. two of the three soft pillows are in yellow cases, and vaughn's is in a blue one. he won't sleep without his 'blue pill.' when he gets out of bed at night he carries the pillow down the hall to out bed with him. he also gets upset when mason is on his pillow, although he's become more lax about that. when we went to alabama for a wedding i took it with me, and vaughn had a huge smile on his face when he saw it in the car, and exclaimed, 'blue pill!'

being the selfish mommy i am, i wanted my soft pillow back in my bed. i ordered two pillows from company store and put them both on his bed. he wasn't fooled. so i put the blue pillow case on one of them. he knew it wasn't the same pillow, but he accepted it anyway. i had a spare blue pillow case that i put on the original pillow and but it back in our bed under the blanket. vaughn took a nap in there one day and pulled back the covers to discover it. 'blue pill! where was it?' i don't know how he knew that it was his original pillow even without feeling it. now all the soft pillows on my bed have yellow pillowcases on them, and vaughn is content with his fake.

five month old

it's hard to believe that it's only been five months since mason was born. it usually seems like a lot longer. he's started to roll over from tummy to back, and i expect him to go from back to tummy very soon. he's been on solids for a month now, and he likes everything i've given him except peas and green beans. i can't say i blame him. i like both those vegetables, but the smell of the baby food versions make me want to gag. he's still chewing on everything he can get in his mouth, with fingers and mortimer the moose being his favorite. vaughn never really liked that moose, so i'm glad mason is getting some use out of those giant antlers.

when mason is tired and i'm feeding him a bottle, he'll spit it out and turn his body toward me so he's in his usual sleep position. he seems like he's instantly sleeping and ready for a nap at the drop of a hat. but i think he's like that with all his demands. 'i'm hungry, now! i need a new diaper, now!' so sometimes it's difficult to anticipate his next requirement. he is getting better at sitting up by himself. i think that his bumpo has helped with that. josh likes to fly him around in the air while singing the superman theme. mason loves it so much that he smiles and giggles in anticipation when ever josh starts singing the song. mason loves vaughn, and everything vaughn does, too. sometimes if mason wakes up from a nap and vaughn is still sleeping, he will cry until he wakes vaughn up. he's still sleeping only three to four hours at a strech at night. his naps are still short, sometimes only consisting of a cat nap during a bottle. just when josh it getting ready to pull the bottle out of mason's mouth and put him in the crib, he pops his eyes open and is awake for hours.

even with his apparent lack of sleep his is still a very happy baby. he only cries if he's hungry, needs a new diaper, or sleepy. sometimes his cry is more like a shriek that i find very disturbing, but i suppose that's the intent. he makes that noise when i'm feeding him solids, since he can't wait for me to reload the spoon in between bites.

i'm a real dragon!

vaughn has been really interested in dragons since mom took him to see 'how to train your dragon' earlier this year. he loves the dragon part in shrek and has to watch it at least three times whenever we watch it. and he's asked to watch hiccup almost everyday. so i thought the perfect costumes for the boys would be a dragon and a knight. we found the dragon costume online and mom volunteered to make the knight costume for mason. i found a velveteen hooded sweat suit at once upon a child, and got some red fabric for a tunic which mom painted a gold dragon on the front. we were planning on making a shield, but thought since mason has started to move his hands a lot more we would skip them. i think they look great!

josh and i had a small party on saturday. catherine and mom were a tremendous help with the preparation. catherine make her signature cheese mummy, but was forbidden from making her paper crafts (stupid rachel). but i think even without mice the house looked pretty creepy. josh hung spider webs all over, including over half the front doorway. vaughn even helped put fake spiders in the webs. catherine made leaf filled ghosts that josh hung from the trees. i think the party went well. it was cold enough to really enjoy the bonfire and i bought the giant marshmallows to make s'mores.

after the party it was off to bed in their striped jammies!

3 months and 3 days of mason

mason is already three months old. he's started to smile a lot more and even laugh when we make silly faces at him. he still clutches at fingers, but has started to include my necklace, shirts, and even the dreaded tiny hairs on the back of my neck. we've had to put away all of his three month clothes since he's been growing like crazy. he still eats about every three hours and drinks six ounces at almost every feeding. he was sleeping through the night, but now he needs a late night/early morning snack during the night. he's also started sitting up, but we still have the boppy or pillows around him for support.

trip to DC

it's only been three weeks since our trip to washington, dc to see josh's cousin mike and my cousin abby. so i thought i should write a post about it. mamsis watched the boys so josh could pack up the car and we left directly after work on thursday. thank goodness we have the sub, because it was pretty full. both boys were asleep when we left, and didn't wake up until we were almost in ohio. they were both pretty good on the first leg of the trip. we brought the laptop so vaughn could watch movies. he really like watching shrek, and wanted to watch the 'dagon' part over and over again. it also led to him saying this during the gingerbread man part:

"where that cookie? it bad cookie, throw in trashcan."

vaughn and josh went swimming at the hotel, but i don't think vaughn liked it very much. here he is in his new spiderman swimsuit.

we borrowed my father-in-law's tomtom, and that got us to mike's apartment without incident friday afternoon. we pretty much vegged the rest of the day. on saturday we went to the national zoo. there were no giraffes, which was of course what vaughn really wanted to see, and the 'underts' were no where to be found either. we did see an alligator which vaughn loved, and a cheetah. but the best was the panda. the keeper was throwing pears to him, so he was really close to us. vaughn was so excited he kept touching the arm of a girl next to him and pointing out the panda to her. i did get to hear a woman quizzing the keeper all about panda reproduction if anyone wants to learn too, just let me know.

sunday we walked around to see all the monuments. i didn't bring milk for vaughn, and he was pretty cranky for most of the day. every time we asked if he wanted to do something, he would reply, 'no, i don't.' we saw the capital building, where mike worked, the white house, and both the lincoln, and washington monuments. the distance between those monuments is a lot longer than it seems on tv, especially with a crabby two-year-old.

abby was out of town for the weekend, but she was willing to come over sunday night for some pizza. it was nice to see her, i just wish we'd had a longer visit. on the way back home, we surprised aunt carol with a visit, only giving her a half an hour warning. we had to sleep on un-pressed sheets as a result of it, so i suppose i should have given her more more advanced notice ;). she was an excellent hostess, even for the short time we were there, and i think vaughn enjoyed playing with his cousin robert. we'll just have to plan a longer trip to see her.

tuesday morning giggling

this is the first time that mason has laughed, and we were lucky enough to capture it on film. and yes, he's wearing a baby hoodie.

duck wrangler

since mom has an over abundance of duck eggs, we we're going to try to sell some ducks at the sale next week. i was only getting four eggs from seven ducks, so josh and vaughn quarantined a few to see which ones weren't laying. today, however, we got six eggs! i think they know that they might be headed for the chop and have increased production. vaughn was helping to move them around today.

philadelphia

mason has been with us for six weeks now, and i'm really surprised how well vaughn has reacted to him. the other day the boys were in my bed, and i made mason a bottle and put it on the bed. then vaughn wanted milk, too, so i went to get that. i heard mason start to cry, and then stop. i ran in expecting a pillow over his face. vaughn had put the bottle in mason's mouth, and told me, 'vaughn help mason, not crying.' vaughn makes sure i know when mason is crying, saying, 'poor mason, not happy.' or 'mason need pas-ire.' he's even figured out how to climb into mason's crib and put the pacifier in mason's mouth, or put more blankets on when, 'put covers on mason.' (that one really scared me!) but vaughn also says, 'aw, mason cute,' and 'i wuv mason.' so i don't think he was trying to smother his brother.

and she almost trips...

the garden has been growing (mostly the weeds) like crazy. i decided to plant watermelon and pumpkins this year, but i really should have followed the planting guides in regards to spacing. the pumpkins invaded the gourds, sweetcorn, and even through the fence and into the beans. we've already had quite a few that are ready, and many more that are coming. mom and i are going to freeze the puree so we can make pies. tell me which 'punkin' (as vaughn says) looks like two children sleeping under a blanket?

past his primes

vaughn can count to all the way to twelve, but he always skips five, seven, and eleven. seems like he doesn't like prime numbers. he also can say the alphabet to f, but skips d and e. he still loves trains. often stealing cars and engines from mom's house and sharing his dinner with them. he knows the difference between steam and diesel engines, and most of the names of the thomas the tank trains (percy and james are his favorites).

vaughn's vocab and grammar are getting better, too. he has starting using pronouns. when vaughn pretends to be a baby elephant and mom will grab his the bottom of his shirt, vaughn will say 'let go my tail.' we went blueberry picking the other day, but vaughn did most of his picking out of everyone else's buckets. when dad protested, vaughn replied, 'let me have those berries.' i fear we didn't pick enough since vaughn has to have berries almost every day.

mason is two weeks old now. he's a pretty good baby, only fussing when he's hungry. he even sleeps in four and five hour stretches at night. it's surprising how well he sleeps during the day since vaughn is always talking loudly or trying to kiss him. he can already hold his head up for a little bit, and i've had to clip his fingernails a second time.

nakes!

josh and i got some sidewalk chalk for vaughn a few months ago, and he really liked drawing with it. so much in fact that he's drawn on doors and a rug of mom's with it. when aunt carol came to visit last week, she thoughtfully brought vaughn a present of sidewalk chalk. not only did he love it because it was chalk, he also loved the 'wittle box' in which it came. it was small and light enough for him to carry and even had a handle. vaughn has inherited his mother's (sadly not his grandmother's) talent for drawing. after i draw something for him, usually elephants and cows, he draws the only thing he can on top of it. after mom drew a picture of mason, vaughn covered it in 'nakes.' thank you for the chalk aunt carol, vaughn insists almost everyday that we, 'draw vaughn chalk.' and thank you and aunt beth for the delicious coffee cake that was delivered early yesterday morning by fed ex. there's nothing like having breakfast waiting for you on the doorstep at 8 am.

boys in hats

vaughn continues to be very attentive to mason. yesterday he insisted that mason needed to wear a hat. so he got one out of the drawer, and while i was putting it on mason, vaughn got another one (the exact same kind from when he was in the hospital) and had me help him put it on. he then exclaimed 'one two boys in hats.' i was really surprised that it still sort-of fit him.

catherine and rachel sent us a package yesterday, and it was filled with handmade gifts for mason. catherine made him a baby quilt with a flannel backing. it's so soft and warm, i may have to steal it from him. and rachel made him an adorable winnie the pooh and christopher robin birth announcement.

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.

i'm driving the hell out of this garden tractor

vaughn has spring fever, just like his dad and grandpa. so he decided that the garden needed to be tilled again today. maybe we'll plant some sweet corn tomorrow.

sunday suprise (chicks and a post!)

mom and dad got a call this morning from the lafayette post office saying that the chicks were here and they'd be delivered today. luckily, mom had cleaned out the coop last week, and we put out the heat lamps, feeders, and waterers yesterday. however, we didn't have chick feed or bedding, because we'd forgotten to get any the previous week. dad and josh went to town and the chicks came while they were gone.

we did manage to keep vaughn from 'dump'-ing the chicks out of the box, so we could dip all the beaks in water. vaughn liked the chicks, and really liked to squeeze them. he even snuggled with them, (at least they were mostly clean).

vaughn also helped build the raised bed for the strawberries. josh got some old railroad ties from his dad, and we filled it with peatmoss, manure, and freshly tilled dirt. although vaughn was sleeping during the actual planting, he did help prepare the bed and make it smooth with his rake.