i hate crying.  i always have.  especially in front of other people.  you know how there are always those people who look so elegant and sweet when they cry?  and people are always like, "oh you poor thing...  there there..."  not me.  when people see me cry they run away screaming.  i am not a pretty sight.  my face does that whole scrunched up stupid thing, my nose runs, my eyes are red, i can't talk properly cause i'm doing those big gasping sobs.  it's terrible.  and the worst part?  i'm a crier.  i cry over everything.  always have.  probably always will.  my hubby says it's one of my endearing qualities.  and believe me, if anyone should have been scared away, by now it should have been him!

i was frustrated today.  frustrated with the student loan people who are all going to be burning in hell while i am relaxing in heaven.  ((man, that's not a very Christian thing to say, is it?))  jason and i have some pretty massive student loans from university, and we would love to make payments on them to just get the idiots off our backs.  alas, they do not want our money unless it is their specified sum.  a sum of course which they have deemed us "capable" of paying.  of course, this amount is taken from our gross income, and does not take into account ridiculous luxuries like rent...  diapers...  food.  how dare we try to feed our children on a daily basis!

anyways, the united way credit counselling guy was, as always, totally amazing, and he got us more answers than ja and i have gotten in about 2 years.  hopefully that'll all be straightened out soon.

on the upside, how adorable is my son? (click on the pic for more)...  he looks like some kind of adorable little fat cheeked pumpkin...

this was taken thanksgiving weekend in waterloo at this fabulous park they have.  we went to see Glenna's new apartment and have some family time there.

and how cute is this?

both the kidlets like to sleep the same way...  gotta have their lovies on their heads.

hopefully they'll be prettier criers than their mother!

while in a bubble bath tonight...

keyzia:  hey!  my bum makes bubbles too!

me:  it does?

keyzia:  yup.  watch out, momma, it's going to be stinky!

me:  ephraim, what does your lion say?

ephraim:  rooooaaar!

me:  good boy!  what does a duck say?

ephraim:  kack, kack, kack

me:  yay!!  what does a cow say?

ephraim:  rroooooaaar!

me:  a cow says moo!

ephraim:  rroooooar!

me:  what does a horse say?

ephraim:  rrooooooar!!

me:  a horse says nay!  what does a horse say?

ephraim:  roooooaaaar!!

is there really any point in arguing with a one year old?  all animals but ducks say, "rrooooaaaar!" i guess it makes it easy to remember, hunh?

well, it seems as if the colder weather is upon us.  time for bundling up and extra sweaters...  even hats some days. 

now, the problem with children is that they grow.  they seem to grow continually.  and since last year at this time, ephraim was only 2 or 3 months old, he has outgrown his hats from last year, forcing us to go hat shopping.

of course, the first place that i went was walmart.  ahhh walmart, you let me down.  i was not happy with the hat selection at walmart.  (but, quite frankly, our walmart sucks.)  thankfully, as luck would have it, there is a children's place in the mall and after a quick look at the puppies, we dashed in to see what hats they had.

i'm quite particular when i buy things for the kidlets.  especially new things.  i think i may just be too cheap....  but, they did have hats, and they should fit the kidlets next year too...  i wanted them to tie or attach under the chin in some way, because, as you will see, ephraim hates hats.

first we did keyzia.  she was easy, her coat is pink, so she wanted a pink hat.  easy.  there's even room for pigtails if we need it!  ephraim's coat is yellow, and they actually had yellow and blue hats.  great.  keep in mind here that keyzia is happily sitting in the back of the cart, with her new hat on her head, and ephraim is sitting in the front.  i pick out what i suspect will be his size, put it on his head and....

"bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

flop.  he completely flopped over backwards so that he was hanging into the back of the cart, with his arms sprawled back.  totally limp.  apparently there is some kind of poison in that particular hat that attacks one year olds and instantly kills them.

okay, no problem.  i took the hat off him and he sat right up, flirted with the sales girl, happy as can be.  put the next hat on him.

"bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

flop. 

take the hat off and he's up and back to smiling and laughing.  these hats must only affect boys with some kind of a temporary paralysis of all the limbs causing them to go limp and be unable to move until said offender is removed from the head.

i did get him a hat.  and he has worn it.  without going limp...  most of the time. 

i think the only antidote to the hat disease may be the coming of spring.  is it too soon to start looking forward to that?

my son.  my darling angel son.  okay, okay, so he was NEVER really an angel...  what with the incessant screaming and all...  but, my son has started talking.  he has figured out that when he says, "mo" we will shovel more of whatever we have been eating into his open mouth.  when he says, "booobbbbbblllleeeee"  in that pitiful little "how could you deny me anything that i wanted," voice, then he gets a bottle or a cup.  he has also added, "zia" "buppy" (puppy) and a few others to his list.  he'll actually try to say just about anything!

so, all of this has resulted in the need to add a new category.  much like konversation with keyzia, we now have ephraim's exchanges where i can record all of the wonderful things i am learning from my youngest child.

momma:  what's your big name?

keyzia:  keyzia micah dawn wolters

momma:  great job!  what's daddy's name?

keyzia:  jason

momma:  hooray!  what's momma's name?

keyzia:  honey.

keyzia:  i love auntie glenna.  she's pretty great!

momma:  hey keyzia, auntie jessie is coming to our house tonight!

keyzia:  oh!!  we can take her to the zoo!

not too sure of the direct correlation there....