The gender has spoken...

And it confirms my belief I'm destined to live a life of all boys. We are having another boy. The ultrasound tech told me the baby was a boy and I just started laughing wondering what I'm going to do with 3 boys. The idea of another boy has grown on me in the last couple hours. I already know what boys bring to the table, we already have a lot of clothing and gear (even though it is all in VA still) boy related, and when they are teenagers I won't have the annoying boyfriend coming over. My boys will be going to the girls house and being annoying. The drawback is we're back to square one with names. I've exhausted all my acceptable boy names, so it should be interesting. For now we will continue to call him Smalls.

Here's his little body with his arm above his face. His profile is similar to Talan's.

Here's a look at his face. A little alienish still, but he should be gaining fat soon.

Now I want to know which three of you thought Small's was going to be a boy! Fess up!

Christmas and beyond......picture style...

If you're noticing some extra coloring on Talan's face you are not mistaken. He found my 6 year old nieces purse which contained her precious lipstick. Talan wanted to be beautiful for Santa. As I mentioned last year I really get annoyed with the idea of Santa and all the work it brings for me. So, this year since Ashton is fully aware of the myth of Santa and Tal is still little I elected not to leave out cookies. Plus we didn't have milk in the house, and I wasn't buying any because Tal was having the beginnings of an asthma attack and hacking up a lung and thought water or juice would be a better choice for him. It is absolutely impossible to tell that boy he can't have milk if it is in the fridge. Out of sight out of mind.
I was telling Brad it didn't look like we hardly had any presents in front of the tree. We have a rule that the boys only get 3 presents because Jesus only got 3 presents and they aren't better than Jesus. Only this year alot of things were big things and not wrapped, making the tree a little bare.

As soon as Talan rounded the corner Christmas morning he yelled "Choo-Choo!" It was really hard to tear him away from his train table and he insisted that some of his trains be in the picture as well. Not going to fight with morning Talan.

Wahoo! Guitar picks!

Talan was convinced that Santa was bringing him candy this year. If that fat man didn't deliver we would have problems.

It was a good lazy Christmas day. We had a massive snow storm Christmas Eve which made even going a mile to my sister in law's house difficult. The snow drifts were definitely taller than little Tal, and even Ashton in some spots. Luckily we have a Jeep with 4 wheel drive that can handle the snow.

Sunday, Ashton and Brad went out to play in the snow and made this super cute snowman on our front porch.

And some sort of face plant snow angel.

Talan, being unable to go outside because of his not so pretty asthma attack, (which I would like to add did not result in a hospital trip! yay!) all the sudden he insisted on giving all his diapers to baby Carson and wearing underwear. Weird because previously he was deeply offended if you asked or even mentioned anything having to do with him putting on regular underwear. The only catch is he insists on putting them on himself which most likely ends up inside out. No big deal, but he doesn't quite grasp yet the idea of pulling them ALL the way up his booty. I spared the booty picture, but just FYI his underwear are half way down his booty and if you try to pull them up he once again gets deeply offended. So, we just take pictures instead. Potty training lasted until 1:00 the next day. He is now back in diapers for the time being.

Notice right...

Tuesday is the big day to hopefully find out the gender of Smalls. Vote for which team you're rooting for. You have until 2:00 pm CST on Dec. 29. Sometime after that I'll be making the announcement.

May the best gender win!

A week ago I was thrown into the world of duct tape crafting. You can make practically anything out of it. Ashton has his hopes set on a duct tape backpack for 3rd grade. I don't know that I'm that skilled, but a little intrigued to try.

Anyway, I asked my neice, Lyndsey, if I could make her a duct tape prom dress, just joking really. Before she could answer both parents said NO. Bummer! Then for some reason I was given permission to make a bra out of the crafty tape. If anyone thought in my blaze through 2 rolls of duct tape (which also included several different kinds of flowers, and a couple wallets) didn't include some sort of clothing item they were mistaken. Wether they were joking or not Lyndsey was getting and wearing that bra.

Today, Lyndsey, who had no idea any of this was happening, received her new bra and was appropriately excited.

Just to add....I was also given permission to post this on the blog.

Today Brad fell asleep and Talan decided he looked like the perfect place to put all of his stickers. I guess that is lesson not to sleep in this house unless Tal is also sleeping...

Meet the artist posing with his subject...

Victory!!!

Notice anything? Something missing perhaps...

Earlier today I explained to Talan he was a big boy and it was time to stop having a dinkdi because dinkdis are for babies. He gave all his dinkdi's to baby Carson (fyi Karolyn--Carson just inherited 23 of Talan's closest friends) because he loves baby Carson. There were only two instances of utter devestation tonight until I offered to let him listen to music because, you know, music at bedtime is for big boys. Ashton is also thrilled because the musical choice was Jonas Brothers. I guess after night one has been accomplished there is no turning back. We are holding high hopes for night two.

Here is what Small's likes to eat....

Sonic Grilled Cheeses. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for the next 24 weeks. So yummy.

Sonic ice water with lime slices. Sometimes Small's wants to switch it up and go with lemon slices, but we definitely prefer limes.
Here's the new one. Tonight I ate baked beans with a dollop of cream cheese. It was fantastic!

In other Small's news....

I am now 16 weeks.....heartbeat has been consistant at 150....my pre-smalls pants no longer fit, but neither does maternity....I can't sleep well on my stomach anymore.....and Small's pretty much doesn't like Talan to jump on him/her.

Next update: Dec 29th where we will find out if Small's is a he or she.

I feel pretty...oh so pretty

I happened to leave my tote of daily primping items on Tal's level which he noticed immediately. No one else, however, noticed until we realized we hadn't seen Talan in a while, and it was quiet. Here's what he was doing....

He is so proud to show daddy how beautiful he looks.
After looking in the mirror and realizing he did truely look gorgeous he would not take the lipstick off.
And just because this is how we roll with the black mail photos in the Coates house, we added a headband.

I love when they wear these hats. And if it was fashionably and socially acceptable I would be wearing one too. Sometimes I want my nose to be warm too.When does one acquire so many stuffed friends? It seems as though it happened over night. Talan needs every one of his friends sleeping either on or next to him every night, and he knows instantly if there is one missing.

If you can find Talan in the above picture please take note that he is down to one....yes ONE dinkdi. He now knows he can in fact live a happy and normal life without three. Now we just have to convince him he can be equally as happy with zero. After this dinkdi experience, Smalls will get none!

All about Ashton...

Here's a couple fun things going on in this 7 year olds life.

He's finally lost the other front tooth. That baby tooth put up a good fight, but sadly (or not so sadly) was no match for that gigantic adult tooth. He was excited that he could want his two front teeth for Christmas, but we've had to change the words a bit. Now all he wants for Christmas is one and two-thirds teeth. (and every toy he sees in a commercial or magazine of course)

He's also getting to be a budding guitarist. Since his first teacher moved out of the country we have a new teacher who I like to call Jack Black because of his striking resemblance and tendency to always be wearing the same thing every week. Hopefully it does get washed at some point. Despite that he is a fantastic fit for a teacher for the crazy kid. After Ashton learned the fundamentals, Jack Black had him pick his favorite song off his ipod, which without question was a Jonas Brothers song called That's The Way We Roll. He's spent the last month and a half or so learning parts to this song which has been great because it is something he WANTS to play.

Here's a link to the actual song in case you don't know all the words and haven't listened to it in the car 37,000 times.

That's The Way We Roll

Next monday he has to bring Jack Black a new song to start learning. Last night we scoured Itunes, had a bit of a dance party, and ultimately Ashton picked his next song...

Slow Ride

Audio only Video---turn up those speakers!

I'm going to have to appologize to Tal's future wife for his loud sleeping habits. Though it is cute now, I'm certain it will only progress into something far less cute.

Such sweet little snores...or so I thought. Turns out those little snores should be taken as a warning an asthma attack is near. We've been up to our eyeballs with inhalers, nebulizers, steroids in the liquid and inhalable form, and one very cranky toddler. Those sweet snores are no longer welcome.

Random text of the day,,,

"Meaning that you gave mom money and you should get it back. And what was wrong saying that its going to be hard to get rid of it-Kim"

The slow demise of the dinkdi's

Tonight Talan had to go to bed with two dinkdi's instead of three. It did not go well. He believes his life is officially over.

Surprise!

It looks like Ashton and Talan are going to have to share the spotlight on this blog. That is right, my friends, and fellow random blogger readers.....I'm pregnant. Baby Coates #3 (aka Smalls) will be here around May 22nd, making me about 13 weeks now....and yes, Brad has been home that long. This baby does not belong to the UPS man.

We are all really excited. Ashton's comment was actually "oh great, another one to get all in my space." but he is excited. Talan knows where the baby is, but probably doesn't totally understand what is going on. Brad is thrilled. Probably because he now has an explanation for my irrational irritability. Poor guy. I'm getting more excited. I was on the fence about wether I wanted another addition or not since it is so incredibly sanity sucking when Brad has to be away from us, but I know everything will work out.

Stay tuned for more Small's updates. :)

6:39 AM

Talan:"Ashtee." "Ashtee." "Ashtee." "Ashtee!" "Ashtee!!!"

.

.

Ashton: sigh. "what Talan"

.

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Talan: "TWOOOOOO dinkdi's"

.

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Ashton: "That's nice Talan. Good job."

.

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Talan: "Niiiiii dinkdi's. No Ashtee."

.

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Ashton: "Yes, Talan. Those are your dinkdi's. Can brother go to sleep now? Brother is still sleeping."

.

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Talan: "OK"

.

.

.

Looks like I've found the culprit of my early weekend morning. When is it that kids start sleeping until noon?

Halloween 2009

SANITY SUCKING PROJECT STATS:

Total trips to Joanns for Jayhawk costume making needs: 4

Total time spent hand sewing Big Jay and Baby Jay: 17 hours

Total meltdowns by me: 2

Amount of time it took Talan to work up the courage to put on his costume: 3 days

Total attempts to get the snug costume off Talan's chubby body: 5

I always have good intentions, thinking to myself it will be easier and cheaper to make their costumes than surf the net to find one. This year Ashton wanted to have a coordinating costume with Talan. We ended up coming up with Big Jay and Baby Jay (the KU Jayhawk mascots). I don't like when the boys are wearing a costume that someone else is wearing. We scored a point on that one because we spotted no other Jayhawks, and it did work to their advantage when ringing the bell of a fellow Jayhawk fan. Extra candy is awesome! Even so, I vow never to make a halloween costume ever again.

Talan learned a new word

The word: suck

He is actually saying sucker, he just refuses to say the 'er'.

Talan has had the occasional sucker before, since that is one candy he can definitely have. He has not, however, had the exciting experience of trick or treating and having his plastic pumpkin filled with his beloved sucks. Boo At The Zoo brought in about 35 between the two boys. Multiple times a day Talan runs into the kitchen and yells, "Suck tease" (sucker please).

Then the word started escalating. He would walk up to each person in the house and say:

"Mom Suck"

"Dad Suck"

"Ashtee Suck"

I always found it a little humorous, but I think the meaning of the word has changed in Tal's mind. Earlier this morning the boys were playing in their room. At some point Talan felt threatened and one of his sons defended him. (aka-he threw Tusken Raider at Ashton). Brad summoned Talan to come talk to him about not throwing his children. Talan never came, but we did hear him yell:

"No dada! Dada Suck!"

What could be cuter!

I'm a grandma

Talan has apparently become a father. He has taken a sudden interest in Ashton's starwars bobble heads. In fact, he is has given himself the impression that they are his....not only his toys, but also his "sons."

Here is how our evening of bobble head discovery went.

Talan declares that Darth Vader, C-3PO, and Tusken Raider are his "sons." Not sure why he thinks his offspring are three plastic spring loaded non-humans, but okay.

See here we have classic sibling rivalry. C-3PO just took out his Tusken Raider brother, and is about to do the same with Darth Vader. Darth doesn't really have a defense when his lightsaber is attached to the unmovable part of his body. Good thing dad was there to solve the issue before further escalation.

You would think C-3PO would be the one in time out. I mean he did knock out one of his brothers. I guess Talan has a different way of parenting...first one down is in trouble. Sorry Tusken Raider.

After about 10 seconds Talan retrieved his other two sons, and they all decided to be in time out. After all, no one actually won the fight.

When time-out was over they all made up with a big hug.

Later that night they all watched Itunes, then it was off to bed. Today offspring number four joined the brood. His name is stormtrooper.

Scary Talan

A little bit frightening, and sort of came out of nowhere.

I hope she doesn't read my blog

FYI: I have no doubt that Ashton's teacher is a fantastic second grade teacher. She seems knowledgeable enough to teach the parts of a sentence, grammar, subtraction, and history basics. No concerns over Ashton's second grade education.

I only have one issue with Miss Stitt. Its not a life threatening issue, although it did almost cause me to give myself lead poisoning. I first noticed on meet the teacher night. Actually the first thing I noticed that night was the really short skirt I thought was inappropriate to wear when meeting the parents of your future students, but that is beside the issue.

During meet the teacher night we all sit at our child's desk and hear from the teacher what the kids will be doing during the year. After 3 sentences I noticed a pattern. Miss Stitt apparently loves to use the phrase "and stuff"." Not being smart enough myself to bring a spiral notebook with me to record my personal issues with the teacher like someone else I know (not naming names), I did the only thing I could. I have no idea what Miss Stitt said that night. (except when she said parents are not invited and stuff to birthday celebrations and stuff in class.) All I know is that I used Ashton's number 2 pencil to tally on my palm all the time she uttered the annoying phrase during her 15 minute speech. I had 26 tally marks on my hand.

Last week was the dreaded parent teacher conference. Not for Ashton. He's awesome in school, and always "makes his day" (still not sure what that means. It was probably covered on Meet the Teacher night.) Upon arrival in the Farley Elementary parking lot Brad and I made a friendly bet as to how many times we would hear "and stuff." The prize was nothing more than bragging rights. We figured conferences only lasted about 20 minutes at the most. Brad guessed 13, and I guessed 17. We entered the room and sat down with Miss Stitt. This time Brad caught on to something different. Maybe she can hear our thoughts of annoyance at her overused phrase, because now she is saying "and everything". Not one "and stuff."

Then it happened. Because you know I have amnesia child who doesn't remember anything about his day once the clock hits 3:45pm, and I was too busy giving myself lead poisoning on meet the teacher night to hear the schedule of the kids during the day. So I asked what the kids did every day. Miss Stitt went into a 10 minute talking binge, possibly without even breathing. That 10 minute speech gave us our champion.

Brad won. She said it 12 times.

Beware of "The Phog"

One blue hawk:

Three family members dressed in Jayhawk gear:

4 hours of fantastic fun with 16,000 other Jayhawk fans at Late Night in the Phog:

Last weekend we ventured out to window shop where Ashton saw this hat:
He then looked at me and said, "AWESOME!!! Is this like one of those pimp hats that you wear to the side? I want one!"

I then explained to him what exactly a pimp was and he no longer wanted the hat.

Here's one for the books...

Ashton is attending a newly built school this year because his school had been overpopulated by 2nd graders, and how often do you have a chance to go to a brand new school. The drawback to this is I have to drive him about 3/4 of a mile since we don't actually live in this schools boundaries.

He has recently decided he would like to walk home from school because, you know, he's in 2nd grade and he is pretty much 7 years old, and if that doesn't scream responsibility I don't know what does.

Today, his aunt picked him up from the bus. He was persistant on his desire and absolute need to navigate his own way home. She explained to him that it wasn't necessarially him that I would worry about, it is people that might try to steal him. To this he replied:


"If I could just have a knife I wouldn't have any problems. I would just whip it out and show them and they would not take me."

When cautioned that he could not take a knife to school he insisted he would not technically be taking it to school because he would keep it in his backpack. I guess I better start checking his backpack every day.

The pharmacy is now open...

Something new has happened to our family. Talan has maxed out our deductible for perscription medicine for the year making all perscriptions for our family of four free. He's so thoughtful!

I just thought I would show in the above picture how much medicine it takes to keep our small clan up and running. Keep in mind, 99% of this is Talan's medication, and 1% is mine. The other two must be the healthy ones. This also does not include the nebulizer (the mask is representing for Nebbie), and the two medications used in the nebulizer every 2-4 hours when needed, or any of the medicine in the medi bag carry with me everywhere (epi pen, hydrocortisone cream, hand sanitizer, benadryl, and claritin)

On a side note....2 days ago Talan had wheezing. Much like the wheezing that would send us packing to the hospital. I am pleased to say that with a breathing treatment every two hours, and cough medicine every four hours, we have successfully handled an asthma attack at home...by ourselves. A task I thought impossible.

Taking the vibes for a spin

If you happened to be on the 2 mile stretch which twists around several streets between 21st, 25th and Kingsrow tonight you may have passed this:

What the heck is that?!

If you said 'alien' you are close. The picture is caused by the massive amounts of reflective wear Brad and I suited up in, to try and out-do each other in dorkiness. Just to be fair...Brad started this when he came upstairs wearing a light on his head expecting 'ooohhhs' and 'ahhhhhs' when instead he received 'holy crap...do I have to go outside with you like that?' If you can't beat em, join em...so, I decided to join in on the dress up party with this super awesome reflective vest.

My back was more reflective than all of Brad. (Okay...maybe not...but don't tell him) I believe he is jealous.
This is what we looked like when we were running. I thought it was awesome because the cars could see us a mile away. After viewing the pictures, I think it would be a distraction. Brad's light makes him look like he has a snake coming out of his head. Who doesn't get distracted by that?!

I'm happy to have my running partner back. (although Lyndsey was a good fill in)