Things can happen at home on rainy days. . .
Roscoe - a Pembroke Welsch Corgi that your dear husband found for free on craigslist. He mentioned it to me the other day saying a lady was giving one away for free. I assumed (silly me) that we would discuss it more - weigh the pros and cons, etc. Turns out, the lady called Erik today (conveniently while I was at the Y) and when she found out where we lived, what we did, and how Roscoe would be treated and loved, she told Erik, "I'll meet you in Cranberry Twp. He's yours!" Apparently, Roscoe previously lived on a farm and his owner had to leave said farm. She has been keeping him caged in her new place and he was just sad to live like that. 
Before . . .
Oh - look at this scraggy ragamuffin! I've been struggling with what to do with Will's hair for many months now. It was too long and Will ALWAYS puts his food in his hair wreaking havoc with any styling I try to do. Will's first haircut
Well, I broke down and did it. I almost made it 18 months and 1 week. After the kids had their shower tonight, I was combing hair and as I pulled the comb through Willie's baby hair, I noticed I was combing almost to his mid shoulder. Not so appealing for a baby boy. So, I cut his hair. Maggie & Walker sat enthralled watching me comb the hair over and over as I marveled at how Will has changed so much in such a short time. I am one of those Mom's that is hair attached. I knew his hair was long overdue for a cut, but, I clung to it seeing that wispy mess as the last of his babyhood. When I cut off that hair, I cut off the last of my baby. Boy hood has been fast approaching since his birthday, but I try to avoid it. Out of uncertainty, I suppose. Part of me knows things are so easy right now - we can gather up and go with little effort, no bottles, nursing, etc., to worry about. But part of me wonders if a baby might still be in our future. I'm not saying it is - I'm not saying it isn't - I just know that keeping Will as a baby allowed me to stave off that internal discussion for a while. Now I will really have to examine my feelings and how it would affect our family.
But, for now - Ode to Willie! He is a big boy and getting smarter, stronger and FASTER every day. My biggest enjoyment with him right now is to watch him run. His little feet go so fast - they almost look like paddle wheels- like those Flintstone cartoons where the feet would paddle wheel and the legs and body would stay still - his favorite game is to get his brother or his sister to chase him and run. Luckily they all enjoy that game.
Will is really starting to talk now too. He says the usual, "Momma, Daddy, ball, baby, Mimi" and he tries to say Walker, but usually says, "Bubba" and I'm not sure half the time if his "Ma" means Maggie or Goat. A few weekends ago, Erik took Walker and Maggie to my Dad's for the opening day of fishing season. I was home alone with Willie and the first night we were home alone, I had fed Will supper and bathed him and was going to put him to bed. I was playing with him, smelling his arms and legs saying "Mmmm - you smell good!" So he imitated me by trying to smell me. I laughed and said, "Ooh - Momma smells stinky!" He sniffed at me again and said "Stinky" So now we can say, "How does (insert name here) smell?" and he will sniff at them and say, "Stinky!" It is very funny.
Maggie turns 3
We celebrated Maggie's birthday on Sunday at my moms with my family. It was a lovely day. We shared the day with little Livy who turned two and Maggie & my mom share the same birthday of March 16. My sister coordinated a great little party complete with all the girly girl fixins. Everything looked great and I think everyone had a great time too. It was a beautiful day so the "big" boys were able to skip the girlie party things and play hunting outside.
This picture looks so unnatural, but I love it. It just is Maggie. She brings such joy to my life - like all of my children do. I don't feel the urgent sadness of her growing up as much as I do the boys for some reason - my guess? Because of the saying, "A daughter is your daughter for all of her life, a son is your son until he takes a wife" - I am confident that Maggie & I will always have a strong relationship.
I was so excited that Maggie allowed me to curl her hair and get her all gussied up for the party. I even painted her toenails to show through her peep toe shoes - she was thrilled! I didn't paint her fingernails because I planned on taking her to have a manicure on Monday - her actual birthday - but typical Maggie, she refused to go once we started on our way. Instead, we went to Walmart, did some shopping, and bought polish and did home manicures. As I kissed her goodnight last night, she hugged my neck, her warm breath on my cheek, "Thank you, Momma, for buying my finganail poldish." Melts my heart that she found that to be so special to thank me.
The last two days, she has been going through her new clothes and removing the tags and trying everything on. She spent most of yesterday and this morning in a bathing suit. Every day is a fashion surprise with Maggie May.
Happy Birthday, angel. I love you bunches!
I hate it when everyone stares at me!
Maggie isn't quite sure what to do with everyone singing to her.
My little lovies
I love these little buggers so much! I could kick myself every day for not taking more home movies of them - or not writing down all the wonderful and funny things they say.
Today, after the Y, we were driving home and Maggie asked me, "Momma, will you help me grow up?" It was so sweet.
Will is starting to talk more. He can say "please, thank you, excuse me, drink and stinky feet." He can say more, but that is really what I hear him say most days. We started a funny ritual of every time he has his diaper changed, he pushes his feet up in my face and I smell them and say "Pew! Stinky Feet!" He giggles every time. It never gets old for him.
Maggie is quite a pistol. She challenges us every day, but can still be quite the sweet heart. Her most adorable moment so far this week - she has a play baby harness - like a Snugli - that she puts her baby it. Each day of the week she has a new baby that she plays with. The last two days, she has put the ducky in the baby carrier and taken it on all of her "shopping expeditions" and last night and today at her nap she put the ducky in the carrier and gone to sleep with it.
Walker continues to grow up despite all of my efforts to keep him a little boy. I've faced facts - he's now a "big boy!" He had a blast in Kentucky with Erik at the National Farm Machinery Show and tractor pulls. He even got to buy a replica pulling sled and now we have regular tractor pulls here at the house. Today he was a great help at the grocery store and when I asked him if he would volunteer to get out of the shopping cart (we always get the fire truck shopping cart) and give it to Will, he did so willingly. I was able to hand him the groceries and he would put it in the cart. He was such a good boy.
Things are pretty slow around here on the farm. We've had some decent weather - no snow - so Erik has been working on projects around the house. His priorities and mine are a bit different, but he's getting them done - hopefully all will be done by spring when it is time to go back to work every day!
We're hoping to have some goat babies born soon too. Time is marching on and it will be summer before we know it. I'm looking forward to it, but am also apprehensive as this will be Walker's last summer before he starts school.
I'm going to go sob now . . .
First tooth lost
Well, it happened - two weeks and one day after the discovery, Walker finally lost his first tooth.
He's so grown up!
He was outside helping Erik cut firewood and said to Erik, "Hey dad, look at this!" and he proceeded to push his tooth out with his tongue onto his bottom lip. Erik responded with, "Well, if you can do that, it's time to pull it." He grabbed the tooth, and it came right out. Walker is very proud to have lost a tooth and was very excited to find what the tooth fairy would bring him. (she brought him a note about brushing his teeth and how proud that he was cavity free - and three dollars in quarters).
To celebrate, I decided to take Walker out on a date - we had to run an errand to Sam's club first, then ate at one of Walker's new favorite restaurants - Long John Silvers. He was very concerned about eating without his tooth, but I convinced him that it was easy - just like eating with a tooth. He really enjoyed his fish and I even allowed him to have Dr. Pepper with his meal. He told me, "It tastes just like Dad's Cherry Coke."
After our glamourous fish dinner, we went to the Mall cinema to see "Marley and Me." Walker found all of the dog shenannigans very comical and I loved hearing his little laughs. For those of you who have not seen the movie and don't want to know the end, stop reading now. At the end of the movie, when Marley is in the vet's office and John is preparing to put him down, Walker began to understand that something was wrong with Marley, and asked me about what was going on - I told him that Marley was very sick and the Doctor was going to try to make him better. He didn't say anything more until the part where the family is saying goodbye to Marley at the gravesite - then he looked at me with tears welling in his eyes, "Momma? Is Marley dead?" As I nodded yes, crocodile tears dripped from his big brown eyes. I felt horrible taking him to see that movie, but as we gathered our stuff to leave, he reassured me that Marley had had a great life and just like our dogs, Marley's family loved him very much, and maybe they could get a puppy now. I told him that I thought since they loved dogs so much they probably got a new puppy too and that really made him happy.
His favorite part of the movie? The fact that Marley got to sleep in bed with one of the boys. It was a 15 second scene. Think he's trying to tell me something? We've tried having our dogs inside. Chloe is too jittery, she prances and follows you everywhere and is always under MY feet. Maverick likes to be inside to sleep, but is getting older and with his hip dysplasia, he is wary of the kids climbing on him while he sleeps. He has never nipped at the children, but I don't want to put him in the position where he injures one of the children because he is reacting to them hurting him accidentally. Rocco - well, get real! He's GINORMOUS and would not be content in the house. Plus, his barking drives me nuts from outside - how would I deal with it in the house? Dudley has been adopted by a neighboring family - he comes home occasionally, but really prefers their house - they have pre-teen aged children that play with him daily. Plus, I think they do allow him in the house all the time! This is sad for Erik, but he has always said he doesn't want a dog that doesn't want him. Dudley is an affection and attention seeker, and really resents the fact he has so many others vying for his attention. He is better off where he can be played with more regularly and be the only dog being paid attention. So that's our dog story. I'm sure a puppy will be in our future as the kids get older and can take more care of it. We'd love to rescue a dog, but because we do allow our dogs to live outside, we doubt we will be selected as an appropriate candidate.
Our next dog I would prefer something smaller than what we have now. A welsh-corgi comes to mind, but I'm open to suggestions.
Say goodbye to this smile
We were getting ready for bed tonight and I was helping Walker floss his teeth. We use those handy little pre-flossed picks for the kids, and as I was wiggling the tool back and forth, I came to the front teeth on the bottom and as I inserted the floss, his bottom center right tooth wiggled. I almost dropped the tool and I placed my finger tip on the tooth and pushed back and forth and the tooth went with me.
Maggie
Going for 6!
The children pose for me real quick before the playoff game last night. Walker was reluctant - but he gave in. Maggie ran around the house yelling, "Here we go Steelers" and Will just chased her with the "terrible toddler towel." Papa would have been proud.
more pink cheeks
We've been busy the last week! With all the snow, playing has been a great desire, but the freezing cold temperatures (below 10 degrees most days and that's not factoring in wind chills) have kept us indoors most days. Especially because Will does not really care for the snow. I'm sure this is due to several causes: Snow clothes are bulky and hard to walk in, they don't make snow boots his size so we layer him in socks and put him in the only boots we have that are not weather proof, and, most importantly, it is really stinking cold out there!
Maggie braved the cold - she wouldn't sled ride, but she watched Walker. They also managed to get in a quad ride one late afternoon. We took a trip to the PA State Farm Show in Harrisburg January 15-18 and had a blast. I've included some photos from the trip.
As always, if you want to see more photos of what we've been up to, check out my album at www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferschwalm - or clicking on any of these photos will take you there.
To those of you that subscribe to updates, so sorry I junk up your box every time I add photos here. If it helps, I've linked the blog to facebook, so you can find updates there too.
Love and warmth to you all!
Will is on breakfast duty
The griddle isn't hot - it is many many minutes after breakfast has been served, the griddle is cool and Will decided he was done playing with toys and was going to cook himself some lunch. This kid is too smart!
Howdy Partner
We turned Walker into a cowboy this weekend buying him new cowboy boots, a hat and a new belt for his birthday coming up in a few weeks. he was so absolutely thrilled to get all of this stuff. However, that thrill didn't translate into a pretty photo. Not sure what this pose is, but it was the best of the bunch!
He really does look like a cowboy - especially because he's so skinny he doesn't fit into his clothes!
