Christmas Book

Mark and I both shared a favorite Christmas book when we were youngsters. It's the Smells of Christmas book, and it's a wonderful scratch and sniff book. Mark's sister Krissy bought it for us a few years ago, and last night we got it out for Markus to look at. He LOVED it. I have never seen one book hold his attention as long as this one did. He really got into the sniff parts, however, we realized that he was trying to lick the yummy treats on the pages instead of smelling them. I guess the kid knows what he likes! You can see his tongue in quite a few of these pics.

OHCM

A while back Mark and Markus and I traveled down to Olympia (only about 20 minutes from us) to go to the Olympia Hands On Children's Museum. It was fantastic! We were there for two hours and Markus had a ball the entire time. There were all different sorts of theme rooms for him to play in. His favorite was definitely the water room, where kids can place animals and boats and such in a large table filled with water and with a running current. He also liked playing with the big "dump truck" that he could sit in and "drive". It was a super fun place, and we are hoping that Santa will put a year long membership to the museum in Markus' stocking this year so we can enjoy it year round while mommy totes around his little sister! Enjoy the pics!

When did he get tall enough...

to grab things off of the kitchen counter? And why did the first time I noticed that he is tall enough have to be after he had already pulled down an open container of kosher salt? Was tempted to grab the camera and take a pic... but it wasn't worth the possibility of kosher salt being trekked all over the house. Photo has nothing to do with this, but I liked the pic so thought I would include it today. Reading books is definitely Markus' favorite thing right now. Yeah!

Markus and his girlfriend

Markus loves other kids. But no one like Grace. He gets so excited when we see her and they play really well together. He can even say Grace (sounds a little like grr, but I know what he means). There is a possibility that they may be moving soon, which would break both Markus and my hearts, but we won't worry about it unless it actually happens. As much as Markus loves Grace, I love his mommy, Lisa. She has become a dear friend to me. Sorry the pics are so blurry, but it is impossible to get a still shot with these two and my point and shoot camera cannot capture action. I need to get my Christmas present out soon and start playing with it- Mark and I bought each other a Canon Digital Rebel XT that will be able to capture these active kiddos without blur!

First burn

Last night some girlfriends took me out to the Melting Pot for my birthday (they have amazing happy hour prices). We were having a fantastic time, when the hostess came up to the table and said, "Which one of you is Kelsey Wilkening? Your husband is on the phone.". I knew immediately that it had to be something with Markus. I cannot put into words the instantaneous sick feeling that overtook me as I walked to the phone with the hostess. Sure enough, it was something with Markus (but nothing terribly serious). Mark had taken him to a friend's 2nd birthday party and Markus reached out and touched the fireplace. Praise God it was only with his index finger. Mark said he was consolable, and really only lost it when Mark was on the phone with me. He could hear my voice and he started that wonderful, "mama, mama" cry. It broke my heart that he was hurting and I wasn't there with him. But I knew that he was in the care of someone who loved him just as much as I do! When I got home Mark and I went into Markus' room so I could take a look at his finger. We had lights on, we peeled the bandaid off, I inspected the finger and we put another bandaid on. All the while, Markus slept and never moved. The trauma of the evening must have completely worn him out. Big thanks to Dr. Dave and Drams for talking me through on the phone what we should do for him so I didn't have to spend time in the ER :). Today the finger has a nasty blister but Markus seems to be doing fine. He is fascinated with the bandaid today.

Thanksgiving Wrapup

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving at Abu and Papa's house. We celebrated with Abu, Papa, Boo, Dawn, Katie and Dawn's dad, Tom. The food was the best it had ever been (despite the gravy fiasco in which my mom used what she thought was stock, but really was just water that she had put in the pan she had prepared the stock in to clean out the pan after she placed the stock in the fridge to use later...) and our time together as a family was simply fun. Markus and Katie are really starting to play together and it is a delight to watch them. It's neat to know the gap between them will just get smaller as they get older. We anticipate them being good buddies when the babies come, since the two little girls will be just 7 or 8 weeks apart. We'll hopefully have two little sets of good pals amongst those cousins. I only got my camera out for these shots (busy in the kitchen, you know) but aren't they precious? Markus can point at the stars on his jersey when asked as well as the number nine. He also can say Romo. The kid has about 10 words, and one of them is Romo. Whatever.

Bonus Post

Since I feel bad for those of you who really only look at the blog to see the dude (and maybe catch a glimpse of my rapidly growing belly which have yet to take a single photo of) here are some shots from our Christmas Tree Farm excursion yesterday. There's a great farm just down the freeway from us a couple exits. They have a wonderful pumpkin patch in the fall and a great tree farm in the winter. We walked around in the cold yesterday (maybe that's why Markus has such a runny nose today!) and found the perfect tree. Markus LOVED running around amongst the trees, and had no fear walking far away from us and getting lost in the trees. It was so much fun to watch him. We picked out a gorgeous tree and our house totally smells like Christmas now. Enjoy the photos!

Starting a new trend...

hopefully! I can't believe I took a whole month off of blogging. Can we say, life is insane? But my goal is to blog every day during the month of December. Might be more dialogue than photos, but I would like to use this as a journal, too. Today has been a weird day. I am starting to get really easily emotional (I know, moreso than normal) and things that normally would kinda bug me are really bugging me, etc. We are in such an awesome stage with Markus. He is learning and growing leaps and bounds every day, and he makes me laugh all day long. He also is becoming a toddler in every sense of the word, which means we are having to discipline a lot more. I hate it. I know it's what's best for him, but I hate it. There is nothing worse than hearing him cry "mama" when he is in timeout. But he is in a hitting stage, and I know that we simply cannot tolerate it. But you add the fact that my emotions are running haywire, I'm not sleeping well and I'm getting uncomfortable (and I still have 10 more weeks...) and it makes for some really hard moments. But right now as I type, he is down for a nap, it is snowing huge flakes outside, my kitchen is clean, I am listening to Clay Aiken sing some Christmas music and I am getting ready for a night out at the Melting Pot with my girlfriends for my birthday. At this moment, things are looking up :). And I have an amazing husband who will be taking Markus to a friend's birthday party this afternoon so that I may have some time out with my girlfriends. Really, it's a good day.

Numbers and a little background

The chef outfit came about because Markus' favorite thing to play with at Abu and Papa's is the kitchen. He beelines it for the kitchen every time we visit. And lately, Abu has been putting the hat and the apron on him while he cooks- and he has never tried to take it off. He has some of his own kitchen utensils to play with at our house, and typically will spend the entire day carrying around either the wisk, the spatula or a spoon. So it was no problem getting him in that outfit last night or getting him to hold on to the wisk. We did lose the wisk at Costco today (I had no idea when he dropped it, but he did) but as long as we still have some of the other tools I think he will survive.
On a different note, I just have to get down his numbers from his 18 month check. 24 lbs 5 oz and 32 1/4". He is now in the 50% for height and 25% for weight. His head is still off the charts :).

Halloween Pics

Giggly boy.


Someone actually told me that it was a cute idea that I dressed as a pumpkin????


Another shot of the kiss attempt.


Markus going in for a kiss.


Could they be any cuter?


Markus' girlfriend, Grace.


Playing a game with Daddy.


Would love to know what he is thinking here.



Our little Chef.

Happy Halloween

We will be celebrating at our church's Harvest Carnival this evening with my whole family and our good friends, the Molites. I'm sure I will have some great pics to share!

Life just keeps on going

It never seems to slow down, does it? My word. It is the start of a new week- thank God. We are hoping to get through this week without any trips to the Dr's (like last week when Markus had to have a head laceration glued back together)or to L&D (yes, I went again a week ago today. That's trip #3. This time it was due to rapid dehydration thanks to the stomach bug Markus passed onto me and contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart). But how about a cute Markus story? The other night when Mark was snuggling with Markus in the rocking chair before bed, he asked Markus to pray with him. Markus lifted his head off his shoulder, looked at Mark and folded his hands to pray. That is not unusual- we do that every night and every night without fail that is his response. Mark finished praying, but then decided he wanted to pray with Markus for me. Rather than ask Markus to pray again (his little head had already returned back to daddy's shoulder) he simply started saying "Lord Jesus..." and wouldn't you know it, but Markus sat up, looked at Mark and folded his hands to pray. He knew! Isn't that the cutest thing? What a tender moment for Daddy and Markus to enjoy together. Speaking of the two of them, here's a couple cute shots from one of our many trips to the pumpkin patch this last month.

He's Growing Up

Just a cute story from today that shows that my little dude is in fact growing up. He finished a snack of dried blueberries this morning. He carried his bowl, completely unprompted, from the living room into the kitchen where he proceeded to stand on his tippy toes to attempt to put the empty dish in the sink. I have never asked him to do that, nor have I even purposefully showed him that. It was so cute. He was pretty frustrated that he couldn't reach the sink, but I was so proud of him! Here's one pic from our day at the pumpkin patch from last weekend- more to share later.

My goal...

apparently with this pregnancy is to visit labor and delivery as many times as I did with Markus before I actually delivered (which was three). Today was trip #2... and I am only 23 weeks. I took a nasty fall on the wood floor last night. Was immediately in pain on the left side of my abdomen (and my knee :) ). Waited an hour and a half to feel baby move again. Scary. But baby kept moving throughout the evening so I thought we were in the clear. Until this morning when I started cramping and getting stabbing pains. I called my OB and her nurse told me to come in. Mark, Markus and I headed out to the office, only for her to tell me that I should have in fact gone to the hospital (last night!) and not her office. So off to labor and delivery we went where I spent the day strapped to monitors and had an ultrasound. Baby girl is fine, I am fine, and the cramping is subsiding. We were sent home with instructions to return if the pain increases, there is bleeding, etc. The best part of the day- when I got to see my baby girl (and I had the tech double check to make sure she is in fact a girl) sucking her thumb on the ultrasound. So cute. Soon I will upload pics of our fun times at the pumpkin patch this past weekend with Boo, Dawn, Katie and my mom. Meanwhile, I am going to eat some cereal and head to bed and get the rest the OB nurse told me I need to get.

Mom of the Year...

Just in case anyone was curious, I am still in the running for mom of the year. Here's the story. We use a booster seat with a tray for Markus instead of a high chair. We love it. The best part is, it's portable. So we took it to Abu and Papa's yesterday so MJ would have somewhere to enjoy his meals while we were there for the day. This morning, I heated up some leftover pancakes for the kiddos (we are currently watching Ellie, our friends' 4 year old for five days) and sat MJ in his wonderful booster seat, being sure to buckle him in and secure his tray. I turned around to set down Ellie's plate and I heard the crash and the scream. And the tears. I turned to look and there was Markus, faceplanted on the floor with the seat on top. You see, those seats are great as long as you remember to strap them back on the chair after you take them someplace else. Which, obviously, I forgot to do. I picked up Markus and the seat to find the front of his place totally bloody. He had a bloody nose, a fat lip (which was also bleeding) and the beginnings already of a bruise on his forehead. Definitely one of my more stellar moments, don't ya think? Please don't call CPS.

Do you have a guess?

Any guesses out there? If you thought PINK, you were right! We got to see her today in our 2nd ultrasound. She is healthy and growing well- about 1.2 lbs today. We are rejoicing that Markus will be getting a little sister.

Our favorite time of the night...

Tired jollies. They are the best. This man and this boy warm my heart to no end. Make sure you have your volume on.

Update time

So it's been awhile since I blogged. Sorry! We returned home from a fantastic trip in Iowa to the start of a couples' small group in our home, the start of MOPS (where I am a table leader this year), the start of my ladies' Bible study (we're doing a study called "Mothering Without Guilt"), a visit in Seattle with friends from Montana, a memorial for the son of our dear friends, a doctor's appt for me and a huge church banquet where Mark and I both sang special music and he led worship. Can we say crazy? We are settling into this nutso life called fall well, however, and are excited about all the new opportunities God has brought our way this year. Tomorrow we go in for another ultrasound so stay tuned. In the meantime, here's some pics of the dude in the bath the other night. I like all of them because they highlight many different things- Markus' amazing suntan on his face and arms, his first black eye (thanks to falling off a chair into a coffee table the night before we flew home from Iowa), his love for clapping, his love for water and those amazing brown eyes and long eyelashes. Enjoy!

Cowboys fans