Olbrich Botanical Gardens

 

It’s starting to get really cold here in Wisconsin…the high tomorrow is 20! We’ve been trying to find some fun activities to do because we just all seem to have a better day if we get out of the house. It does Zane good to run around and get out his ‘many energies’ and it does my sanity good to talk to other adults and to have a small break from his very repetitive questions. Today we joined our neighbors, Skye & Siela, at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. Siela is 19 months old, so she has a good time trying to keep up with Zane and she LOVES baby Hollin. And Zane definitely likes going places with a cute little girl!Currently they have the atrium set up for Holiday Express. It’s filled with Christmas trees, poinsettias, bird houses,  and TRAINS! Zane was intrigued! You can see Thomas going by behind Zane and his cute shirt that was made by one of the sweet nurses that Matt works with (and Z’s goofy grin).We also went into the Observatory which is full of exotic plants and flowers, birds, fish, and a waterfall. Bonus…it’s really warm in there!

This little doll was a perfect angel the whole time we were there. I think she really enjoys the sling. And I think she also enjoyed all of the attention from the ladies that worked there.I’m glad we’ve found another fun place to visit this winter. Another bonus: it only cost me $5.50 ($3 to get in and $2.50 for Zane’s ice cream)!

Smiles & Frowns

 

“You mean this guy is gonna bring ME presents?!”

Get ready for picture overload because ohmygoshmybabygirlwasgivingmethebiggestgrinstoday andshe’sthemostpreciousthingeverandI’mOBSESSEDwith her! phew. Seriously, though. She’s cute.    Ok, so while Miss Hollin is all smiles and loving her current role in life (what’s not to love about eating, sleeping, pooping, getting 1000s of kisses a day, and being dressed like a little doll?)….her big brother had a rough morning.

Enter frowns:

Here’s why: We watched The Polar Express last night. And apparently we should have had a talk about when ‘Ho Ho’ delivers presents. This morning I hear Zane jump out of bed and call from the top of the stairs, “HO HO come! HO HO COOOOOME, Mama!”

Um, he did?

Z runs down stairs, looks around, and begins to wail. So I try to explain that Santa comes on Christmas Eve and leaves presents for Christmas morning…in about three weeks. And that he would bring presents to DeeDee’s house and Nana’s house because that’s where we would be at Christmas.

“Ho Ho not come to my NEW house?!?! WHAAAAA!”Looks like I’ll be making a call to the North Pole to ask Santa to make a special delivery to ‘Ane’s new house’ on December 16th.

I think our trip to the children’s museum cheered him up a little. Until it was time to leave, of course.

Freeze Frame Time

 Sometimes we laugh,

And sometimes we cry 

Some days it’s hard to figure out our way in this life

But it’s moments like this that make me wish

  That I could freeze frame time. *lyrics by Brandon Ryder (click here to listen)

It’s his potty and he’ll go where he wants to

We’re working on potty training at our house. Basically, if Zane has on a diaper, he’ll go in it. He’ll even tell you, “I like to tee tee in my dy-cer”. Let him run around in his birthday suit and he’ll go to the potty every time.

Today he yelled, “I need to tee tee! Baff room door locked!” Somehow he had locked the door. Matt told him just to go outside and opened the front door for him. He was kidding. Sort of.

So Zane just stood on the front step and did this…We were laughing hysterically and told him to go in the bushes! 

Folks, it was 29 degrees out there. But that’s one less diaper I had to change.

Hollin’s Nursery

I had Hollin’s room perfectly arranged before she was born. Perfectly arranged in my head, that is. In reality, I brought this baby girl home to an unfinished nursery! Very unlike me. I’m not sure why it wasn’t finished…I went in there everyday and ‘nested’, I guess. I would spend so much time in there folding clothes, hanging them in the closet, rearranging, but not actually fininshing the room. I had everything in the room, just not hung on the walls. We finally finished it before Matt’s parents left. They left on Saturday (29th) and we stayed up late on Friday night getting everything finished. I still need to get curtains, but for now it’s finished. The wall decal is from etsy and is really cute….but NOT easy! The letters were one of my craft projects. The view from the doorThe crib, rocker, night stand, & changing table are from Zane’s room. DeeDee got Hollin the lamp & recovered the lampshade. The mirror was in our house in Little Rock and hadn’t found a place in the house here, so we ‘bronzed’ and ‘antiqued’ it to match the room. I’m in love with the canvas that Dayle made! Matt found this rug on clearance at Target!Our beautiful Hollin Bell     

the one with the pumpkins & costumes…

 

On Friday, October 28th (the day I was scheduled to have Hollin) we took the kiddos to the pumpkin patch. Matt had to work, so his mom and dad took me and the kiddos to Schuster’s Playtime Farm. Next year I will buy a season pass! This place was AWESOME! There was so much to do that Zane could’ve played forever! There was a hayride to the pumpkin patch, barrel-train, bouncy pillow, pumpkin cannon, fort, general store, school house, petting farm, playground equipment, bakery, corn maze, and probably lots of other stuff that we didn’t even have time to see!

Since Zane was leaving the next day to go to Arkansas with DeeDee & E (and therefore trick-or-treating in Arkansas), we dressed him up in his Woody costume so that I could see him in it. I found it odd that he was the only kid dressed up there, but I loved how all the other kids just acted like it was normal. They would run passed him and say, “Hi, Woody! Where you going, Woody?” He looked so cute! I’ll let the pictures say the rest… For those of you that have never been to Madison, the background of this picture is what most of it (outside of the city) looks like. Corn fields everywhere! It really is a beautiful state (what I’ve seen of it) and we’ve had an especially beautiful fall.         

to remember…

Just a few silly things that I want to remember from Hollin’s birth….

*Matt and I were sitting on our bed, him trying to convince me to call the doctor, me trying to remember how close the contractions are supposed to be before you call… We got my phone to look up the clinic’s phone number on the internet. I typed in “Madison Women’s” (for Madison Women’s Clinic) and my phone autocorrected it to “Madison Wieners”. We were laughing so hard! And it hurt to laugh during a contraction.

*Matt was on call, of course. We heard a pager during the c-section and I asked Matt if it was his. He said, “Oh, well if it is! They’ll just have to wait.” Turns out it wasn’t his…luckily!

*Matt asked me during the surgery how I was feeling and I said, “I’m fine. I’m just in a strange mental state.” That cracked us up for some reason.

*My doctor told me to feel free to talk to her during the procedure, so at one point I asked her if I had a lot of scar tissue. She said she wasn’t that far yet, but she was sure there was probably just a normal amount. Matt said (sarcastically), “You’ve just got a really average uterus, Sarah.” Dr. S said, “Oh, I’m sure your uterus is extraordinary!” I don’t know why (maybe the strange mental state?) but I said, “That sounds like a great facebook status! ‘Doctor says that I have an extraordinary uterus!’” We all got a kick out of that!

*The first thing I said when they held her over the drape was, “She’s so SQUISHY!”