Photos with witty captions

...is all I have the time and mental energy for this week.

With the current economic situation, families are being forced to cut back on "extras" and frivilous expenditures. Here at the Pauley household, we are insisting that Will cut down on his beauty treatments and he's found a novel (and cheap) use for his leftover oatmeal in the morning. His skin is now as smooth as a baby's you-know-what.

I don't think that camo is my color, Dad.

I'm going to punch you right in the mouth.

Which hand is going to hit you? (she's a violent baby?!) No snarky comments here - this is a picture of Will at the Martinez Farm in Fort Collins. We took a field trip there with his Montessori class on Wednesday. The kid loves animals. I can never get a shot of his face when he's this busy. Busy feeding goats!

Maybe I should abandon my dreams of Will playing football and focus on the rodeo sports. He climbed up this fence before I could get there (might have helped if Iput the camera down) and was talking to the horse and patting his face. Will wants his grandparents to buy him a pony.
Finally, more proof that you can take the kid out of Wyoming, but you can't take Wyoming out of the kid. Any guesses as to which child is mine? Zoom in to get a better view of his farmer's tan.

One more note, I'll be remembering my Grandpa Hansen this weekend. Although he's been gone for a long time, I can't help but think that he sure would have gotten a kick out of this tough little boy and the pretty little girl. Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone.

Milestones

What a week! Reina turned 3 months on Sunday and she continues to be adorable, mellow (unless she's hungry), and super snuggly. She smiles a lot now and even giggled a little bit this week. She's adjusting pretty well to the new schedule, daycare in the morning and then errands and stuff with mom in the afternoon. Most importantly, her mom is adjusting pretty well too.

Most of this week's news involves Will. He had his 2-year check-up on Wednesday (a little bit late) and he's still 95% in weight (34 pounds) and 90% in height (37 inches or 3 feet 1 inches for you literal people). I'm getting ready to send out letters to the football powerhouses to let them know that we'll consider all scholarship offers but Wyoming will be his first choice. (Sorry Bruce.)
Approximately 45 minutes after getting home from his check-up, Will hit another milestone, literally - his first wound that required professional attention. He fell out of the toybox (why was he getting in the toybox?) and bit through his lip/cheek as he hit the floor. That was fun. Nothing moves you to the front of the line at HealthReach like a bleeding toddler.

Well, Reina's squealing so my blogtime has come to a quick end. Here's hoping you have a milestone-free weekend.

Cuter than a box of kittens

Back to Reality

We're back to the real world this week as my maternity leave is officially finished. Luckily, I'm only working part-time right now so Reina and Will go to daycare/preschool in the morning and then we hang out in the afternoon. It hasn't been too bad so far and I've enjoyed seeing my office friends again and having a reason to shower in the morning.

Why am I posting such an unflattering picture of myself? To illustrate how much Reina and her brother are alike. 90% of the time, Reina really enjoys being carried around in the baby sling/front-wrap thing. I can clean and cook and get stuff done around the house with her strapped to my torso like we are tandem sky-divers. She'll coo and spit up and sometimes even fall asleep. But she eventually reaches her limit, as illustrated above. The problem is that you only get about a 5 second warning before she blows. Will has the same hair-trigger temper. I'd love to blame it on Glenn's genetics but anyone who has watched a sporting event with any member of the Hansen/Dunlap side knows who to blame . . .

Not much else going on - Will wildly alternates between being very delightful, entertaining and affectionate to being obstinate, surly and angst-ridden. I feel like we are getting a preview of the teenage years. Fun stuff. This weekend we are going to attempt potty training. He's been really interested in using the toilet for #2 and he's been doing that daily for several weeks. (Man, isn't he going to love reading this blog as a 17-year old?!) Now we just have to get him thinking about the other thing. It might be a little early so if we aren't successful this weekend, we'll just back off and try again later in the summer. In the meantime, I'm stocking up on a big bag of M&M's, lots of cleaning products and a truckload of patience. Wish us luck!

Canyon

Today's post should be all about Canyon because my dear old dog turned 14 this week. Her life has certainly changed since I first picked her out as a 5 week-old puppy the month after I graduated from college. She's been through a lot with me, living in tiny apartments while I worked two part-time jobs, moving into my first house with me and keeping the backyard squirrel-free, meeting Glenn and eventually getting to live in his house and finally being there when we brought home Will and now Reina. Canyon was never a big fan of little kids and there are times when I'm sure she wishes that she could live on her own but she's such a great dog. She's never been agressive towards the kids and she even seems to like Will a little bit now that he's able to throw her ball and feed her whatever he's eating. Will adores Canyon (he calls her Nah-Nah) and I caught him reading to her the other afternoon. Luckily the camera was close by and I snapped a picture before he moved on to other activities. Notice how he made sure that she has a few books to read in her dogbed?

Canyon's slowing down a little bit but everyone assures me that she still has a lot of life left to live. She's still spunky - especially when we spot a rabbit on our walk - and loves to ride in the car. She's brought a lot of joy to my life and I'm happy that she's still with me. Happy Birthday Canny Dog!!

In other news - we had a great weekend with Glenn's brother and sister-in-law and their family last weekend. Mark & Maria generously drove all the way over from Omaha to meet Reina and we had a great visit. We snapped a few pictures of all of the kids - here's Ben, Will, Alena and Reina:

Alena - the offer still stands for you to come out and be our free babysitter all summer!! :)

Finally - a few snaps of Reina. I've been very lazy about dressing her in anything but footie pajamas. Last week we had a few warm days and I dressed up her for lunch with my co-workers. I even managed to catch a (blurry) smile.

While Dad's away

The kids and mommy will play! Last weekend Glenn went turkey hunting so the kids and I headed down to Fort Collins to spend the night with Aunt Vicky. We were in the midst of another big spring storm so we actually had to wait for the roads to open and once we got to Fort C, we had to find indoor activities that would burn off lots of toddler energy. We headed to a place called "Bounce" or "Jumpin'" - I can't remember which - that featured several inflatable slides, bouncy castles and other things to keep toddlers running. Will had a great time as is evidenced by his big ol' grin in this picture:
Reina didn't get to participate in any of the bouncy activities but she did pose like a baby model for her Aunt Vicky.

While we were in Fort Collins, we did a little shopping and had a great time just hanging out. Vicky's turning into a fantastic photographer and took these two pictures of Reina. The first is the look she gives me when she's getting hungry. Very beseeching, isn't it?

Here's the look we get when we don't respond to her hungry demands quick enough. This baby girl has her brother's temper. Ooops.

Springtime is slowly arriving to our part of the world. With the arrival of the ground squirrels in the big pasture behind our house, comes a pretty red fox. Will is very interested in the fox and we've been able to see him several times this week. When I asked Will what the fox's name was, he told me "Bap Bop" which is Will's name for his Grandpa Hansen. Apparently it's a verrrrry old fox.

Reina - 2 months old

Our little Reina girl is two months old already and had her check-up this week. She's doing great - she's up to 10 pounds 7 oz. and that's in the 55 percentile. She's 23.5 inches which puts her in the 95% for heighth. That was a bit of a surprise - she certainly doesn't get that height from me. She's starting to grow out of some of her infant outfits but only in the feet. The kid has big feet and long fingers. I'm thinking basketball star!

We drove down to Brighton on Saturday and spent Easter morning with my folks. We had a great visit and it was awesome to have two more adults watching the kiddos. It was the first time in a long time that Glenn and I got to sit through a whole church service together. The weather was typical Rocky Mtn springtime so we had an Easter egg hunt for Will inside. I spent about 10 minutes hiding the eggs and he spent about 90 seconds finding all of them and starting to eat the candy. It's virtually impossible to get a picture of him looking at the camera right now but at least you can see his Easter outfit. We don't have a picture of Reina's Easter outfit because she pooped right through five minutes into the church service. How do babies know when they are wearing something special (and expensive)?On Saturday we visited a wildlife sanctuary northeast of Brighton. It was pretty interesting but the wind was howling so we kept our visit short. I did manage to take a picture of the elusive Smiling Tiger.

Saturday afternoon we took the whole family to the Bass Pro Shop in Commerce City. Do we know how to have fun or what?! We have a picture of Will at Cabela's when he was a mere two weeks old. Reina looks less than thrilled in this picture but I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that she was at a sporting goods store.
Finally, another picture to display at their graduation parties. It's brother and sister bathing! Here's another example of how parents treat baby #1 and baby #2 differently. When Will was this age, we had the infant tub filled with lukewarm water, the special baby washcloths and his own soap. With Reina, if there's warm water and an extra set of hands - it's bath time!