if i NEVER step on another cheerio....it'll be too soon

i've got enough cheerios on my floor to feed a small island nation ...

or one red-eyed 8 month old.

Elijah at 8 Months

A handful of super cute Elijah pictures. He recieved a great outfit from my Aunt Cindy and family, which he is wearing...........and they just happened to drop off some of my cousin Justin's old toys and of all things, there were a couple dinosaur bone models in there. Too cool.

And the obligatory Elijah and Sydney at the same age comparison photo.

little miss sydney, the helper

We had finished lunch a were cleaning up, when we hear Sydney saying 'open yer mouff.' Wayne and I then saw the cutest thing ever. Sydney had grabbed up Elijah's unfinished applesauce and began feeding him.




She even helped wash his hands...which he didn't seem to like, did you see his face?

a thing for stickers

I am getting ready for a garage sale that I attempting to have. I've got price stickers and markers all over the place.

Sydney apperantly found my pricing stickers.

So pretty.

upstairs bathroom finally complete!

Finally.......we started this project back in February with my parents...and now it is finally done.
Let me tell you, we had the hardest time figuring out how to hang our shower curtain. We literally purchased and returned items for 3 or 4 different methods of putting up the complicated bugger.
It was always fun going to the local home repair stores and trying to explain what we were trying to do and why the various ideas they suggested just would not work.


We ended up getting an extendable closet rod...don't know how we missed that after literally going to Lowe's 20+ times. We needed something to extend the entire length of the bathroom because there is no wall at the foot of the tub, just open air until you hit the wall two feet later.


And, I finally got to do my awesome color-wash...thank you Paula for the idea. Of course, the color looks more intense in person...my camera tends to wash-out the colors. But it looks so sweet!


Kinda like a faux venetian plaster...........ooh...aah!

all better

Elijah had his tongue-tie surgery last Friday.



It had been an exhausting day. His was the first of the day, so we arrived at the hospital at 6am. It is beyond me why we have to get there an hour and a half before the actual procedure . . . it is just more time for mommy to get anxious and Elijah to get hungry and crabby as he usually sleeps til 8:30.

The surgery went fast, though Elijah had to have three stitches put in. Which lead to much trouble. He refused to nurse or even drink from a bottle until Tuesday. I gave him applesauce (which I figured would feel nice and cool on his sore mouth and be good for him since it has a lot of liquid in it) and more applesauce. I'm convinced he has lost a little weight, but now he is doing great.

Thank you everyone who prayed for Elijah's surgery.

elijah vs. the inflate-a-ring

gotta go work

Sydney is a great copy-cat. We were getting ready to head home after a visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Sydney had apperently said her goodbyes and was ready to go. I had left the driver's door to the car open and in she hopped, declaring, "gotta go work!"

She remembers her daddy saying that whenever he leaves for WalMart. She is so smart and clever.

ankyloglossia

Elijah has a little surgery scheduled for next week Thursday. We noticed at birth that he was tongue-tied. That is, that the little bit of skin under the tongue is too tight and attatched closely to the tip of the tongue. This can cause latching and feeding problems as well as speech problems later on.

We decided not to have it clipped at the hospital when he was born. (We just didn't know enough about it at the time and were told that it was possible he would not need it clipped.) But, it has not improved greatly, so next Thursday is the big day.
The skin under the tongue is called the frenum or lapial frenulum depending on what website you look at. The procedure is called a frenulectomy.
.
.
Say that ten times fast...
frenulectomy
frenulecktummy
frenuluminum
fren-linoleum
fren-aluminum-linoleum
fren- i give up . . . ium
.
.
.
oh, and the medical term for tongue-tied is ankyloglossia...but I don't know how to pronounce it or therefore how to rhyme it.

just torch it

So I want to take a torch to my kitchen.

It is the one room (ok, one of 3) that we (ok, I) cannot seem to keep or get clean! No matter how many times I think, today is the day!, it still ends up not quite as clean as I would want it.

Yes, this is part of our kitchen counter. Were you confused by the gloves, power sander and plant in the foreground?

I feel like I don't have anytime. Right now? I'm very busy! I'm blogging (obviously), eating an excessively late lunch, putting Sydney back down for her nap (for the second time), and checking the tv to see if there is anything on. (there is not, which by the way is an entire other post waiting to happen...the Retro TV Channel? seriously!?!)

Sydney and the Worm

Sydney likes digging in the dirt.....usually where the nice flowers are. :) She was getting up clumps of dirt and dumping it on the sidewalk by our house, when she found a worm. She watched it crawl around a little and then wanted to get it back in the dirt. But she didn't want to actually touch it. She grabbed her little shovel and held it next the worm and told it to "get on here, worm..... come on... go home....get your home, worm!" I quick ran to get the camera.

Easter Egg Hunt

Sydney enjoyed her little easter egg hunt. I filled up a couple dozen eggs with a couple m&ms each and a few with pennies. She was super excited about her chocowaits and really liked holding her poins (she mixes up coin and penny).

ooh, aah......EGGS!

elijah in sydney's easter hat

ooh...I like your hat. May I try it?


Oh, I feel so fashionable. Except, I can't see a thing.




ahh, that is better.

so cute.....even without the hat.

Easter Sunday

Just a few pictures of the kiddos at church on Easter Sunday.

Death of a Clothes Line Post Remover

So, Wayne nearly died trying to remove the clothes line post in our back yard.

It started out simple enough. We have a clothes line post in our back yard...we don't want the clothes line post in our backyard...so we need to take it out. Simple, right?



Wayne dug and dug and dug. The post would barely wobble. Down, Down, Down, deeper we went but the post was very secure...and long! While it was utterly exhausting, we were having a pretty good time. I took this video clip of Wayne after we had been digging for about 20 minutes.


Not 30 seconds later...wham, Wayne was flat on his back. We were both trying to lift that stinker out of the ground, when Wayne's knee popped out. Wayne has injured his knee before and missed some college because of a impromtu wrestling match (thank you Brice [just kidding]) in the college's gameroom (thank you Rich for egging them on [just kidding]). He literally keeled over and I thought, how am I supposed to get both him and the kids into the car and drive him to the hospital?



After the initial pain and shock...and several minutes lying in the dirt...we started laughing. Hence the above picture. Here lies Wayne Anderson...the post can be his tomb marker, cross shaped and everything.
Seriously though, he was laying there for several minutes, just kind of resting up his knee. Once I was sure he was better, I kept on digging and then I saw a mom and her son walk by on the sidewalk. I could just imagine what she was thinking. Hello, police? Yeah, I saw this woman digging a hole and some guy lying there dead next to it. ...I know, I can't believe she would try it in broad daylight and everything!
Wayne started to feel better, though sore, so he rolled over and just started digging with his hands...poor guy.


I'm not lying, that same lady walked by again with her son and I could imagine her thoughts again. Oh, thank heavens, that man is not dead. but wait...what she doing!?! That crazy woman is making that poor man dig his own grave now! (what can I say, I am a Fletcher, and all Fletcher's have over active imaginations and can pull the craziest stories out of everyday events).

Anyway, we finally got that bugger out. What an ordeal! That post was literally buried at least four feet down. That is our shovel in the picture below showing how deep the hole is!

Mastodon bones revisited

I took some better pictures of Lincoln High School, you know, where the mastodon bones are from. (check down a few posts if you dont know what I am talking about.)

The two pillars came from this high school. Apparently one of the adult sons of the previous owner had been on some board at the high school. Some of these pillars were falling off, so he took two home! I am assuming they took all the old ones down and replaced them with newer more modern materials. The school was originally built in 1923...pretty cool, huh?

I took the above (and below) picture myself. Does this not look amazing? Other than the odd post and yellow marker dealies on the field, the lighting is supurb! The sun is setting behind me and it is reflecting in the windows of the school. (the picture looks more amazing in full size, but I felt like bragging a little.)
Here is a close up of the tower part where I am assuming the little pillar guys came from.

looks kinda like Notre Dame or something, doesn't it?

I love Manitowoc, it is so full of historic buildings with amazing architecture.