and then there were three.

i can say it's been an adjustment to go from two little ones in the house to having three. it has been four days now that i have had my children home with just me (during the day while nick is at work), and i can say i am so very tired by the end of the day!

i'm am trying really hard not to wish these day to go by fast,
because in all the chaos there are these moments,

that i am so happy to be able to be here to see:)

wordless wednesday

it's crazy to think!

i can't believe in less than a month my little boy is going to be two! since max has started walking (19 months! go max go!) he really has been picking up lots of other things,

he is signing consistently

"more"

"eat"

"bye"

"na-night"

"all done"

over the weekend he was playing with my dad, max kept putting his shoe on my dads head, then my dad would say wheres your shoe max, max would then take it off his head, he would do this over and over. then with out being prompted after my dad said shoe max did the sign! all by himself! it seems to be all coming together for him,

and today lilly and i were reading a book on the couch, max climbed up with a toy dog and handed it to lilly and patted his own chest over and over. i realized he was trying to sign dog, just in his own way(with signing, dog is normally patting your leg)!

he has vocally said the word more a few times now:)

he shakes his head back and forth for "no",

and up and down for "yes",

he copies almost every sign if he is in the mood, and now will hum along with you:)

max is always on the go, but we have found with his therapists is that if he is a little bit tired he can focus more on tasks like shape sorting(he is getting very good at shapes and sizes).

he has figured out how to open the gate to the upstairs so we had to come up with a way to jimmy rig it.

max now knows what gentle means, he seems to be kinder to his big sister, he no longer bites and only occasionally pulls hair.

he loves to hold his little brother, he looks at him in such a sweet way, then i ask him if he wants to hold him he needs to sit in the corner of the couch, he climbs up in the spot and holds him:) only for a second though and then seems to get board with him and pushes him away (we are working on signing all done for that).

here is a picture of max sitting on the stool. the last few weeks he has been climbing up and down them, but now at dinner time he wants to sit with the rest of the family to eat(not in his highchair). it's so cute he just sits and eats like a big boy!
you can tell he is so proud of himself:)
yes, he is still the trouble maker with climbing onto the counters!

i can say the whole family is so proud of this little boy who is almost two:) to think back two years ago and the things i read about having a child with DS, and the things a 2 year old would do "could do", it makes me wish i could find every new mom out there and say, don't read those things, don't believe those things. your child is going to amaze you by everything they do:) i feel the moments seem even more special because you can see how hard he tries to do something, how he doesn't quit and continues to try. so then when he gets it... wow... like i said AMAZING!
great job max! keep it up:)

fall at the cottage.

we went up north this past thursday night, nick had taken off of work on friday so we were lucky to have a nice long family weekend:) my mom road up with us on thursday, my dad joined us on friday after work:) lilly and grandma elrick in one of the many leaf piles!

max outside having a great time:)

daddy and greyson:)

lilly and max were having such a great time in the leaves.

daddy and max.

family picture in the big leaf pile:)

grandma and baby grey:)

baby grey wide-eyed.

lilly liking the bowl after making brownies...yum:)

now that's one messy face:)

wordless wednesday

fun on the farm.

on saturday nick, the kids and i spent the day with three of the cousins, aunt val, uncle nate grandma and grandpa pingel at a local farm/petting zoo:) the kids had so much fun together:)

lilly and her cousin admiring the yummy carmel apples:)

lilly and grandpa!

to cute:)

max in the chicken coop.

yes i caught that with my own two hands! those things are fast.

lilly was a little scared at first but then she took charge and wanted to hold one on her own! go, lilly go:)

max walked the almost the entire time on his own:)

next up was the sheep.

and there are two little goats:)

then there was a hayride.

max and daddy:)

lilly on a pony ride:)

max got his turn:) doesn't he look like a little pro holding onto the handle like that:)

and at the end of it all we got to pick out our pumpkins:)

wordless wednesday

you would never guess!

i'll give you three chance to tell me how or what you think i woke up to this morning.

1. full of spit up from baby grey?.... nope.
2. on the floor?.... nope.
3. with a sucker stuck to me forehead?....nope.

i woke up to this...

a police officer in my upstairs hallway out side my bedroom door yelling... this is how our conversation went...

police officer #1: "is anyone in there?" in a very firm voice.
at this time is when i actually woke up.
me: "umm... yes"
police officer#1: "this is the police department is everything alright in there?" "i need you to come out" again, in a very firm voice.
me: "everything is fine, just wait a second i need to put something on." not that i was fully naked but i'm pretty sure the little chute police department wouldn't like to see a lady that just had a baby 2wks ago in her underwear.
police officer #1: "i need you to step out right now."
me: "just a second"
police officer #1: "now mam."

i opened my bed room door and sure enough there were two metro cops in my house... in my upstairs hallway... right outside my bedroom door! our strange early morning conversation continued.

police officer #2 "is everything alright mam?"
me: "yes, it's fine?" at this point i was really very confused, i thought maybe there was a gas leak it was really cold and smelt strange outside of my room, kind of like... umm, if you live around here the way kaukauna smells.

at this point baby grey is making some noise back in my room, police office #1 looked very concerned like he was going to pull his gun out!

me: "that's just my baby." i went back in the room and picked him up.
police officer #1: "mam we are her because a neighbor was concerned your front door has been open for a very long time this morning."
me: "oh, i'm sorry my husband must have left it open when he left for work." i then felt like i had to explain more, for taking up there time. "see i just had a baby two weeks ago and nick, that's my husband has been bringing the kids to my mother-in-laws or my moms in the morning... see it's not his usual thing to do... so he must have forgotten to shut the door." i felt like i was in school trying to grasp at any logical excuse that i could think of.
police officer #2: "so, everything is okay here?"
me: "yes."
police officer #1: "we just need to get your information, then we can go."

wow! what a way to wake up:) after they left i never laughed so hard!

my neighbor a crossed the street then called to apologise. she said that she left to bring her kids to school and the door was open, and after an hour or so she came over and knocked and yelled for me but i didn't hear her. she was concerned that something happened to me and possible max and lilly got out of the house. then she said she thought that maybe i was mad. told her no way and i appreciated her watching over our house and our family like that.

she then went on about how bad she felt, and told me that when the first cop got there he went around the outside of my house checking things then went back to his car and put on gloves then another cop car came and she saw them get there guns out! she felt so bad that they brought guns into my house. she didn't think they would take such precautions, but i can totally see why they did.

over all i feel safe that i have such a close neighborhood:) and now i have a great story to tell!

little mommy:)

lilly has become quite the little mother with baby grey. she is there to help every second of the day.

here is a picture of his first bath at home.

he did not care for it at all:)

such a sweet big sister:)