one of these things is not like the other

aunt emily came for a visit last weekend and while she was here, she took a walk around the farm to see the animals. she helped feed the cows and gather eggs, and saw our very pregnant goats. we were hoping that they would kid before she had to leave, but they waited until the day after she left. josh called me at work to tell me that kiora had 3 kids, but only one survived. when i got home at 10:30, i saw that rosalie had also had 3 kids. this year we've decided to quarentine the kids at night and re-unite them after morning milking. luckily the singleton is the only male, so it's easier to match them up with their moms. can you tell which one is different?

let me show you why they call me the velour fog

vaughn has been making all kinds of developments. the other day he mananged to slide down off our bed and open the door to find us after his nap. today josh saw that vaughn has also been doing this to his crib:
and when i got home from work, he was doing this:

death to the pyrogens

poor little baby vaughn is getting another tooth. that makes four on top and two on the bottom. we've been letting him sleep with us for the last two nights since he doesn't want to sleep in his crib. last night he woke up covered in sweat so we changed his pjs and brought him in bed with us. this afternoon he felt very hot (fever of 101) and spent most of the evening snuggling with his grandma. looks like he'll probably be sleeping with us again tonight. at least he has a new haircut to make him a little cooler.
mom and i went to town today and got some flowers and shrubs to plant around the house. it looks a lot better since it went from dead weeds and roofing material to this:
we planted boxwood, burning bushes (not pictured), roses, blue bells, hyacinth, mint and rosemary. when it warms up a little we'll plant some flower seeds. vaughn even helped with a tiny rake and shovel, although it was mostly by directing us from his wagon. when everything is blooming, i'll post more pictures

can you come back later? we're trying to escape

mom got vaughn some foam rubber mats for christmas so we could have a play area for vaughn. josh decided that it needed to be enclosed so he could put vaughn in there while he was doing something productive. usually vaughn would play quietly with his multitude of toys, but sometimes he would stand at the make-shift fence and cry. this led to the cardboard tunnel so vaughn could escape whenever he liked, but also go in when he wanted to play:

unfortunately, it also led to this:

one day a few weeks ago when i came home from work, i asked josh what he had done, and all he said was, "i built a fort." vaughn loves it and it's big enough for an adult to get in just in case vaughn gets stuck. that's only happened once though. here he's made in out.

Each more identical than the last

after 8 months of floating, i finally have a store! and it's the one i really wanted, too. vaughn has been crawling around like a little spider. and he's been practicing standing without any support and walking with help from me or josh. his 9 month check-up showed that he's in the 90th percentile in height and weight. as a result, we had to finally retire the infant seat and get a bigger one for him. we also had to get him some new clothes last weekend. he's eating just about everything now, even tasting some forbidden peanut butter. and if he gets very hungry, he helps himself: