Welcome to Meltdown City...

Population:  One

Town founder: Ashton Cooper Coates

Town Motto: I HATE GRAVITY! It is the stupidest thing ever. I'd rather just be floating in space! At least then all the towels wouldn't fall down when all I want is just one towel. UGH!!! And now I just have to pick everything up! AHHHH!

Town motto founder: Ashton Cooper Coates, upon the unfortunate events which unfolded after reaching for a towel at the bottom of the stack. 

Family Love!

I've said it more than once, and I'll say it again. If you are in Topeka and want fantastic family photos look up BellaRay Photography. Fantastic...every time! (that said...also look up Brad's aunt and uncle at Wichers Photography...they are also amazing!)

Here are a few of the photos that were taken:

11 months continued...

After Syphr's doctor appointment this morning he has been added to the Asthma club with Talan. Dr's don't like to throw around the word asthma in kids this young, but I know it is, and his doctor gave him a 'I'm 99.9% sure this is what it is but I can't call it that' diagnosis. Boo!

I'm not sure how Ashton lucked out so much that he missed the asthma gene, but I did decide on the way home that if I'm ever pregnant again I'm going to eat puffy cheetoes and peanut butter m&m's all day because the one pregnancy I did that I popped out an asthma free kid. Probably not linked, but it might give me an excuse to eat junk all day one day.

In other news...Sy is 23 pounds. Slowing his 1 pound weight gain per week just a bit to half a pound a week.

Happy Easter!

We lucked out and missed the 70% chance of rain which threatened to move our egg hunt indoors. Instead we had warm weather and blue skies. Good thing the weathermen were totally wrong....for the second time this week. 

I casually asked Ashton Friday night if he believed in the Easter Bunny. He just gave me a look and said, in a 'I can not believe you just asked me that' voice,  "(sigh)...I believe there are ADULTS who hide Easter eggs and pretend to be the Easter bunny...(sigh)." So sorry to insult your obvious intelligence of imaginary holiday creatures. 

We had a fantastic day of sleeping in (sadly, I call 7:45 sleeping in) and waking up to presents (it almost makes me want to set up a present in front of the kitchen every day seeing how much happier and less whiny the kids are in the morning when stumbling upon goodies), followed by church (today I learned Ashton needs pointers on having snacks at church. He was eating goldfish by the handful as if he were in the movie theatre with a  bucket of popcorn), a super awesome egg hunt with cousins, fantabulous dinner, and an annual silly string fight amongst the cousins. Love Easter festivities. 

                                       

Talan was the only kid brave enough to get the eggs by the trash cans.  

 Ashton's highlight of the day was finding the only golden egg. He has been caught up on this egg ever since he shoved it full of goodies Friday night when, due to his infinite knowledge of imaginary holiday creatures, he graduated to the fill all the eggs party.

11 months old!

Likes:

• food! favorites include, but are not limited to: cookies, strawberries, bananas, peas, noodles, chunks of meat, goldfish, Gerber snacks, string cheese, and anything that he has to hold in his hand and take bites of.
• being outside
• climbing 
• anything having to do with his body being thrown in the air, flipped upside down, or dropped (but we always catch him before the ground)
• binkas! we are almost to the point of insanity where he needs one binka in his mouth and one in each hand. I better keep my eyes open so he doesn't pull a Talan and start hoarding them.

Dislikes:

• being fed. He loves food, but would much rather shove it in his own mouth. Its much messier that way, and what baby doesn't love a good mess!
• Talan. I'm sure he loves him because I do catch him laughing hysterically at Tal occasionally, but those two seriously fight ALL THE TIME!  It's not one sided either. Talan invades Syphr's space, Syphr screams at Talan, Talan doesn't move, Syphr grabs him with his razor nails, Talan cries, Syphr cries. Most of the time Talan starts it, but yesterday Talan was sitting nicely on the floor making his animals talk to each other, and along came Syphr with a personal mission of climbing up Talan's back (with his razor nails) grabbing Talan's ear and pulling him to the ground. For the record, I much prefer the five and a half year age gap! 
• anything having to do with him sitting still. examples: diaper changing, getting dressed, putting shoes on, being strapped into/rinding in a car seat. (that last one should make for a super fun 19 hour car ride in a month. stoked for that!)
• cake! I just learned this tonight. I'm happy to know now so I can find something equally messy for him to devour in 30 days.

Talents:

• Walking only holding one hand! He's still pretty wobbly, but he's getting closer! Adding to this I must announce that Ashton has officially won the 'walking brother contest'. He walked at 10.5 months, Talan at 11 and since Sy is not walking today he comes in third. Ashton wins bragging rights. 
• growing teeth. He now has two pearly white teeth on the bottom. So nice for chewing. Not so nice for biting fingers.
• Every baby's favorite game: drop something on the ground, adult picks up object and gives it back - repeat 10,000 times. It never gets old for him, and I'm counting all my bending as exercise. 
• Throwing. Sy loves to play catch. He doesn't so much like the catching as much as the throwing. 
• Shaking his head 'yes'. Finally!! That said, he still mostly shakes it no. 
• screaming. Not crying screaming, but someone is chasing me screaming. The boy loves to scream. He screams when he doesn't want to do something. He screams when he's angry. He screams when he's happy. He screams when he has nothing better to do. 

Special thanks to my super awesome niece and nephew for taking care of this 11 month old baby photo shoot!

Amelia Badelia should have been his name

I asked Ashton to babysit Syphr while I made dinner. 

So, in a nut shell, if you are trying to make dinner and your child is screaming because you won't let him touch the raw chicken in the extremely hot pan just call Ashton. He would be happy to sit on your child. 

Living in tornado alley has its perks

I would like to express my deepest gratitude for funnel clouds, 80 mile an hour winds, the threat of car denting size hail, shingles flying through the air, trees splitting in half, torrential rain downpour, and strobe light lightening for allowing a basement sleepover and ultimately making this picture possible.

I suppose I should add this:

Yes, Ashton is wearing jeans....and a belt. He does not like to wear pajamas apparently, but I call too lazy to change on that one. However, it doesn't effect my sleeping comfort, so I am letting it be for now and plan to apologize to his future wife if this becomes a life long habit. 

Never-ending sports

Talan is a little over half way to four and that means the world of sports is opening up to him. Today was his first day of soccer (on a basketball court....welcome to Kansas), and for the next six weeks we will drive 20 minutes every Saturday morning to watch him run and kick. 

I had high hopes. Talan seems to be my more athletic child and loves playing soccer. I, however, did not take into account his Talan sized attitude. We talked all the way to the community center about how I would sit on the bleachers and watch him, but he got to do all the fun running and kicking stuff. When we got there he ran straight on the court with his little ball and was so excited to be making goals. Its much easier without a goalie and other three year olds standing in the way. Then class actually started, and I suddenly had a Talan attached to me who would not let go, wanting nothing to do with soccer. 

Finally, I offered up a prize for his participation. A trip to the dollar store after practice to pick out a balloon. He agreed, but only if I also gave him a cookie. That started a game of: if you offer Talan a prize, he will negotiate a better one.) At this point he stands with the other kids and the coach offered him a turn to dribble the ball. When Talan reached for the ball with his hands, his coach very nicely said, "can you try using your feet to dribble?" I just waited, because I knew what was coming next. Talan dropped to his knees and put on his best pouting face offering no response to his coaches encouragement.

To add to his dislike, he has now realized his photograph was being taken.

 I reminded Talan of his super awesome balloon and cookie waiting for him if he went with his class. He thought about it and said, "but now I just want four balloons and just one cookie." The ante had been raised. After I agreed, because even though I am aware it makes no sense, $4 at the dollar store is worth it to get my $26 worth of soccer,  he went to join his class again.

He actually did pretty well with the participation after that until have way through the scrimmage. He decided he was done and gave the best poses that I find Talan in often, that truely capture his Talatude.

Hopefully next week is better.