Name That Goat Contest

We got our new goats today. Yes, goatS. We decided to get two. This way if I kill off one, we've still got a backup. They may be able to defend each other better against the dog as well. Anywho, we need names. So get naming. The winner gets, umm, bragging rights. Yes, bragging rights! What better prize than that!

First up we have the male goat. He's mostly white with spots of black and tan.
Next up our female. She's mostly brown with a few white and tan spots.

Pat has suggested Johnny and June, and I've come up with Lucy and Linus, although I'm not sure if I should name anything ever again. With the exception of Tate and a handful of cows, everything I name dies.

Also, for those of you reading this on FB, I'm planning on stopping importing my blog to my notes. So if you would like to keep reading, just bookmark www.twopreemies.blogspot.com or add me to your google reader. I don't know if it's annoying to see my posts on FB all the time or not so I thought I'd just turn it off.

Thanks!

My Budding Artist

Cole brought this home from school last week. I think we have a budding artist in our midst! Look at the simplicity of it. The bold stroke of color in the lone piece of orange tape. Pure genius I tell you! Pure genius!

My New Do

I got my hair cut on Friday, complete with a new style. It's been probably 10 years since I've had a new style. At first I wasn't crazy about it, but after restyling it, I think I like it. Pat isn't crazy about it. It's too short for him, but frankly if he wanted a girl with long hair he shouldn't have married me. The last time I had long hair, I'm talking shoulder length, I was a freshman in high school. Not a good look for me. We also did family pics Friday evening, so I'm anxious to see how those turned out.

Almost Over

Only 3 hours remain until this horrid week is over. It started out ok, but has continually gotten worse. Tuesday I ended up with a migraine. Thursday I took Tate to the doctor, and if you read my previous post, you know that didn't go wonderfully. I also left my new migraine prescription in my shopping cart, luckily it was recovered and turned out to be the old prescription, not the new one. Anywho, I got home to find that Pat wasn't feeling well. Bad enough to go to the doctor the next day. Turns out he's probably dehydrated, something I've been telling him for a long time, that he needs to drink more water, less pop and beer. Friday went along without any major catastrophes, but today was the bottom. As the boys and I were finishing our chores this morning, we went to check on Benny and our birds and give Benny some more mineral oil to help him poop. Turned out the treatment was a day late and a dollar short. Poor Coley just doesn't understand and kept wanting to check on Benny "cuz he was sleeping". Try explaining to a 3 year old that his goat won't wake up. I was about in tears. It broke my heart trying to explain it to him. He loved chasing Benny around the goose pen. We are on the hunt for a new goat. I have one that I'm working on. Hopefully we can replace him soon. Talk about feeling like crappy mom of the year. I just killed my kids' birthday present! Ugh. Thank goodness this week is almost over!

Never Ending Worry

Tate had his one year check up today. It could have gone better. He is 18lb 12 oz (4%) and 29 1/4" (34%). That part is all fine. It's the other stuff that could have gone better. First she noticed a murmur which no one has ever heard before. I'm not terribly worried about that. However, since we have met our deductible for the year, I figured we'd go get it checked out. Of course, once I heard that my mind starts to go and I over think everything. Is he napping too much? Is he over tired? Yada yada yada... Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing she noticed. She also noticed that his right eye and ear are slightly lower than the left. What does that mean? Maybe nothing, maybe something. So now we have to decide if we want to follow through and have that checked out by a pediatric cranial specialist. Pat and I have noticed it before, not so much the eye as the ear. It's more predominant from the back. I just don't know what to do. More than likely it's nothing, but there is a slim chance there could be a genetic problem, or could cause problems in hearing and vision later on. I'm just torn. If we get it checked out are we over reacting? If we don't are we putting him at risk for problems later on that could have been fixed now? Since I know you are all going to be searching for a picture to see if you can see it, I posted one for you. I think it's easier to see in this picture. Of course, as I was cropping the pic for this post I accidentally saved it over the original. Hopefully I have it on FB since it was really cute. Anywho, here you go. If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears, crooked or not!

Coming Home Days

So last weekend was one of the local "festivals." I took the boys to the kiddie parade as goat farmers. Creative, I know. They won 7th place, which was the last of the cash prizes. Benny was a little less than cooperative. Turns out he was getting too much "chickie" feed and not enough forages in his diet and was a little backed up. He's doing much better now, but he wasn't in the mood to be drug around a parking lot. At one point he flopped over and was being drug sideways. The next morning we went in for the kiddie carnival so Cole could spend his $3 prize. He had a good time playing games and jumping in the inflatable thing.

Walking with Benny.

Putting with Daddy.

Bean bag toss. At one point he walked up and pretty much dropped it in the bucket.

Potty Training - Take III

Potty training was going very well. Last Thursday he was dry, all day! It went swiftly downhill after that. Apparently he does better on the road than at home. He does great if he has no bottoms on. He'll go by himself when he needs to. Put a pull-up on him, and he's wet in no time flat. I just hope he gets this figured out before fall or he's going to get very cold. We've only had one more poop mishap - on the playroom floor. Other than that, he's been doing better about going in the toilet. It's been very frustrating for me. I know he can do it so when he doesn't I just don't know what to do. I try to reward the good and ignore the bad, but at this point ignoring he wet diapers is getting much harder. We even tried the big bribe. He currently has a lego farm set on the dining room table that he can't touch until he stays dry in underwear all day. At this rate he'll be 12.

In other news, remember this picture? Oh who am I kidding. Everyone remembers the camel bite. Anywho, I submitted it to this website. I got an email back this morning saying they didn't want to use it on their website. They want to put it in their book! How funny is that? I haven't gotten any details yet, but I'll let you know if they accept it and use it. It still makes me laugh.

Happy First Birthday, Tate!

My baby turns one today! Can you believe that it's been a year already since we welcomed this little guy?
He sure has changed from a dark haired, blue-eyed baby to a blond haired, green-eyed little boy!

I always joke that he is a different breed of baby than his brother was. His personality is much more extreme, but he's still a fun little guy. He loves to smile and laugh, especially at his big brother. He also loves to eat and lets me know when the food isn't fast enough! He's come such a long way just in the past week. He's now decided to start scooting, is starting to get up on all fours, is sitting himself up, and also pulling himself up on anything he can find. He has no time for baby toys (too bad that's what he's getting for his birthday). He loves his brother's cars and tractors the best.

Happy Birthday, Tate! You definitely are "so big" and we love you very much!

Camping and the Cardiologist

After our trip to the zoo, we headed to the campground. We didn't really "camp" like I had wanted to, but I am so done with hotels. Nothing like spending $100 to sit on a bed and watch TV. No thank you. We were going to tent camp originally, but with the threat of rain I decided we'd rent a camping cabin instead. The bed left something to be desired, but overall, it worked out pretty well. When we arrived we grilled up some cheddar sausages for supper. Cole spent a good portion of his time chasing this little guy.
Then we headed off to the pool before it rained. I bought a swim ring for Cole and he loved it. He was comfortable in it enough to swim on his own, which was nice. He had a blast "getting that boy" that was also in the pool.

He also really liked climbing up to the top bunk. He slept on the bottom and could have used the railing. He made it until 2 AM before he fell out of bed. I woke up to a thunk and him trying to get back into bed. I made him sleep on the floor.

The next morning we made a quick visit to the playground. The boys both loved the airplane. Tate just sat back and giggled the whole time. I wonder what goes on in that head of his.
Finally a family picture before we headed off to the hospital.

Our first stop was to the hospital for some chest x-rays. Cole told the tech he had to get pictures taken of his heart. When asked how he knew that, he proceeded to tell her "cuz I'm smart!" I think he had a little coaching, but still cute. He made it through the x-rays like a pro. Pat said he was a little nervous with the x-ray machine, but did just fine. Then it was off to the cardiologist's office. After they viewed the x-rays and listened to him, they sent us on our merry way. Everything is still looking just like it should. They do want to see us again when he is 6, as that's protocol. But all in all, it was a good visit. No tears and no screaming equals success in my book.

After the Dr. we met my friend K and her little boy for lunch at Old Chicago's. Then it was off for a very little shopping. After that Pat wanted to go to the Toyota dealer. He still thinks we will be able to trade off my van next year, but we aren't sure what we want. That's another post though.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a special post on a special day! My baby turns 1!

Little monkies

Cole loved the monkies. We spent a good chunk of time "playing" with this one. Tate thought it was hilarious too. Not sure if he was laughing at the monkey or his brother, but it sure was funny.

Visit to the zoo

We headed to Sioux Falls on Thursday. Rain threatened all day, so we went to the zoo first. It was actually a pretty nice day for it. Not too hot, and very little sun. Cole had a good time and Tate, well, he didn't care too much.

There were some things I found a little odd.

"please"? What's with the quotation marks?
I have no idea what this is supposed to be, but I found it pretty inappropriate from this particular angle. Is he preg checking the whatever it is?

Oh, he's feeding? it. Still no idea what it is. We were hoping for a sign with an explanation but no such luck. I'm going with dinosaur.

Camels Bite

Really, they bite. We have proof.
Luckily, no harm was done, except that Tate will probably always have a fear of camels.

Our mini vacation/doctor's visit went well. I will blog about that later when I have time to go through pictures to post.

Not Me! Monday

Since last weeks Not Me! Monday was such a hit, I thought I'd try it again.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I most certainly have not kept my 3 year old bottomless in an attempt to potty train only to have him poop, again, this time on my mother-in-law's front step. But that didn't happen here!

I also did not take a picture of him wearing nothing but a cap and shoes while he went to feed the geese some empty pea pods.

I also did not hear my husband tell the same 3 year old to "sit down and drink your pop!" We most certainly would not let a 3 year old have his own can of pop, even if it was the 4th of July.

We also didn't make him walk all the way around the row of strawberries that we were picking so we didn't have to listen to him ask "What you doing?" every 5 seconds. Nope, not here. I love spending every waking moment answering that question.

Feel free to share your own Not Me! moments in the comments or leave your blog link.

Crabby Tate

Since everyone seems to think my kids are never cranky, I tried to catch it on video. Unfortunately he tamed it down a LOT for the video. He even screams when you aren't withholding food! Enjoy my cranky baby!

Beautiful Legs

Aren't those legs gorgeous?

Especially since they looked like this a year ago!

June Road Trip III : Jenn and Charlie's Wedding

Last weekend we packed up the van and headed as an entire family to WI for my oldest sister's wedding. The weather was looking a little leery, but it cleared just in time and turned into a beautiful day, for everyone, except me. I have always gotten motion sickness ever since I was little, but as I have gotten older and had kids, it's gotten a whole lot worse. All it took was a trip across town in the back seat and I was out. I made it through most of the wedding, but I was pretty bummed that I didn't get to enjoy my sister's day. I did make it out of the van for the end of the reception so it wasn't a total loss, but definitely not as much fun as I had hoped. I feel awful for Jenny. Like she needed to worry about me on her wedding day! Regardless, I am thrilled for her and her new husband.

The bride and groom with their five children, I mean, niece and nephews.

Water Fight! Later Tova turned on Uncle Jim.

The bride's family.

The bride's cousins. When this picture was first done, the bride was the tallest and the youngest had to be held up.

I don't have a copy of the professional pictures yet. I missed the gift opening, where they were handed out. I've seen them though, and they are great. I'll post some of my favorites when I get a hold of them.

We had a leisurely trip home. We stopped at Cabela's to have lunch and look at the fish. We were going to stop and pick strawberries, but they were closed. Hopefully we'll do that another day soon. June is over and we won't be going anywhere for a whole week! Next up is a short, hopefully camping, trip to Sioux Falls for what we hope will be Cole's final visit to the cardiologist. If everything looks ok,he should be discharged from his care. Here's hoping!

Snaggle Tooth

Tate cut his first tooth about a month ago, and it is finally big enough to see!
I know, I have the cutest kids. Anywho, he finally cut his second tooth yesterday. The other bottom one, you may ask? Nope, his left, front, top tooth. Yes, we were always hoping for a child with snaggle teeth. Ok, I'm not really sure what snaggle teeth are, but how else do you describe that? The other 2 front teeth are working on an appearance, so I don't think the look will last long, hopefully. It is making him rather miserable, so I hope they pop through soon!