back to school.

cole started MDO today.  we decided to put him in two days a week this year, which was a great decision since i now dread running errands with him.  i am already trying not to carry him so much and just lifting him in and out of the car is so tiring.  so this gives me time to get lots done without him.  

anyway, here he is when we are leaving for school.  i made him wear his backpack for a minute and he kept trying to take it off and tell me it was heavy.  

clearly we need to start weight training. 

so in my 5 1/2 hours without my little man, i ran ten errands, watched two episodes of Alias, and ate 6 cookies without interruption.  it was glorious.  it has been a long time since i have had a good amount of time to myself (other than when i am sleeping which is usually interrupted by the babies anyways).  

cole only napped for 45 minutes at MDO, so i put him back down at 3:30.  i decided to lay down too.  i woke up at 5:27.  we were supposed to meet dinner with friends at 5:30.  

i guess cole and i both were worn out after our day of play. 

it was a good day.

the first haircut.

we finally decided that cole needed to get his haircut.  i went back and forth for a long time because i loved his little curls and wispies.  but honestly his curls in the back were getting really fuzzy and not really looking like curls anymore.  plus one side in the back grew faster than the other and so there was some funky stuff going on back there.  

 so here is a last picture that i took where cole's hair was looking cute and curly.

a friend told us about a great place to get kid's haircut (thanks amy!) and it was perfect. 

he sat in a car and drove (which is his favorite thing to do in the whole world) throughout the whole haircut and never cried.  they also had a tv going with a disney movie on which also was a great distraction.  overall, it went well but i am a little sad that we have already reached this milestone.  what happened to my teeny tiny baby???

so here is a picture of cole on the way to getting his haircut (see what i mean by wild?):

and here is a picture from our ride home:

he is such a big boy!!!

pregnant with twins: how we found out

so i know that i have been unusually quiet about my thoughts on the twins.  

i guess that you can say that i am still in shock mode.  

but, the idea that i am going to have two babies in six months is slowly beginning to sink in.

so i think that it is about time to tell you the details about how we found out about the babies.

i found out i was pregnant on the 1st of july.  brenner left for duty in boston on the 5th so we did not have time to go to the doctor before he left.  we wanted to go together so we waited and went the day after he got back in august.  

i had obviously been much sicker for the past 7 weeks than i had been with cole but the thought of anything more than one little nugget swimming around NEVER crossed my mind.   when we got to the doctor, we immediately did and ultrasound and this is what we saw:

one healthy baby.  the doctor confirmed my guess that i was 10 weeks along.  (this picture is way better than my first one of cole which was done when i was 6 weeks pregnant.  he looked like a lima bean, this actually looks like a baby)

anyways, we hear the heartbeat and he is taking measurements and cole keeps talking about the turtle on the screen.  

then, the doctor moves the picture over a little bit and says, wait a minute, "what is this?" and stops at this picture.

we all just kind of stop and look.  after a few seconds, brenner says, "is that a mirror image?"

to which the doctor laughs, and says, "no, that's another one." 

my first thought was, "another what???"

brenner and i just sat there.  literally with our mouths open.  we didn't say anything for at least 30 seconds.  the doctor kept measuring and said something like they both look great and are the same size.  cole continued to desperately point to the screen saying "turtle!" "turtle!" 

we were silent.  i start to cry.  mostly out of shock.  and because i am pregnant with double the amount of hormomes of a normal crazy pregnant woman.  

finally brenner says, "are you sure?" and the doctor humored us in our states of shock and said "yes".

  the rest of the appointment is a blur.  we talked about due date, prenatal vitamins, C-sections and identical versus fraternal.  he says it is too early to know, but they took a picture of the line dividing the two sacs so his guess is they are fraternal. 

one of the funniest things was that both the nurse and the doctor made jokes about us having twins before the ultrasound.  seriously.  the doctor later said that he never makes jokes about twins and he doesn't know why he did this time, except maybe i was giving off a twin aura.   

we got in the car and our minds went through a thousand thoughts.  we need a new car because mine is too small.  is this really the time to downsize our house?  i am going to be so fat.  can i nurse two babies at once?  we are going to have three kids in college at the same time.  my parents are moving to texas for at least two months....maybe two years.  we have to buy an extra everything.  what is brenner has air force duty when they are due?  

my mind was going a million miles a hour.  

but i keep coming back to this:

what. a. blessing.

there was a time when we weren't sure i would be able to have kids.  

and now look what God has done.  

what. a. blessing.

  

randomness.

a few days ago i said to brenner, "i think i just look fat and not pregnant yet" to which he 

replied, "whatever you say".  not the response i was hoping for.

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i took this picture:

i love taking pictures of old tractors.  and on my granddad's farm, 

there was never a shortage of old tractors. 

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i got mad at cole today because he would not go and play with his toys.  i was trying to eat a cookie in the kitchen without him seeing me since he knows what cookies are now and asks for them.  

fabulous parenting moment.

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scooby!

scooby turned 10 this summer.  he is getting gray around the muzzle. 

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cole is getting his first hair cut later this week.  i swear the kid's hair grew 1/2 inch while we were in oklahoma and it is a little o.c. (outta control)

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i got a little people noah's ark at a garage sale. 

i liked to line up all the animals.

cole liked to try to fit in the ark.