Oneida County Fair

Alena got the pleasure of taking in the Oneida County Fair in Rhinelander. The kids and I were up in Tomahawk for a week at the beginning of August to help with my home church's VBS. Since the fair was going on, we decided to partake. Alena was super excited to be able to go on so many rides!! I made sure to get a pic of her on each one, like the good mom that I am (sometimes;)! Thanks for taking us there, Grandma Hawkins!!

On the train ride... she went on it twice and sat in the front seat the second tiem around.


Pulling the string for the bell!

Up in the air on a flying dinosaur!

Checking out the carousel!

On the caterpillar roller coaster before she got a totally concerned look on her face and we stopped the ride. She was the only one on it!

The infamous "horsie" ride. She loves to ride 'em!

Petting the tortoise.

Feeding the ear-less goat. Looked so funny!

Cherry Picking

Cherry picking at the end of July in Door County. We took a day trip up there while the picking was good and stocked up on Montmorency cherries for the rest of the year. It was definitely a challenge to pick while Alena ran around! She knows how to get into trouble and conveniently not listen everywhere! Levi wouldn't let us go too far away (especially Mama) so Daddy had to pick the bulk of the cherries. They are totally yummy and worth it!

Here's Alena checking what's in her bucket... or is she spitting her pit into it? We tried to make a game out of spitting out the cherry pits so she would feel less compelled to ingest them (although, in typical Alena fashion, she ate a whole bunch of pits) by spitting them out into her hand and throwing them.


And trying to help pick cherries. Most of the branches were just a bit out of her reach!

Levi supervised the whole operation from the comfort of his stroller.

Helping by climbing a ladder, just like Daddy!

Cute photo op!

Yeah, Levi got out of the stroller and got to ride in Mama's sling!

First Words

Well, kinda...

At the Manitowoc Zoo

How Young is too Young to Wear Makeup?

If you ask Alena, she'd say that she's ready. In fact, her mother has given her a "tickle tickle" of blush or eyeshadow from time to time. Not that her mom wears makeup much at all these days.

With the heat and, moreso, the humidity lately, we've been firing up the window air conditioner in our bedroom (the only window we could fit it in) and using a fan to drive the cool air down the hallway toward Alena's room at the other end of the hallway. Last night was the first night that we left the fan running and AC on a less intermittent setting. So, we opened her door so that she could partake in the luxurious goodness of sleeping in a cooler room. Eric said he'd close the door when he got up at 5:30am, so it should be no trouble, and she'd probably sleep better. She never really gets out of bed before I get her up, anyway. At least that I am aware.

I woke up around 7, thinking I was mildly surprised that Levi wasn't up yet. I listened carefully and heard a muffled cry over the noise of the fan! It seemingly drown out any noise that the kids made during the night. When I left my room, I noticed that Alena's door was still open. Without my glasses on, I peeked in, but didn't see her in bed. I thought she might have been in the pile of covers toward then end of her bed. I glanced into the kitchen, living room, and down the stairs just in case. Nothing. I responded to Levi's call, and brought him to bed with me to feed him. While lying there, I thought it was odd that Alena wasn't in her normal spot in bed. After Levi was done, I got up and checked the one room that I hadn't earlier. We usually leave the door closed in the bathroom so that the cool air will pass right on by and on to the other bedrooms. It was still closed.

I opened the door, and there stands my little mischief-maker, a tube of Daddy's toothpaste in one hand, his head for the electric toothbrush in the other, and mascara and lip gloss smeared on her face! Busted! Alena must have thought that this was her chance to sneak out of her room and into the bathroom where all kinds of forbidden toddler treasures lie! She even ensured that she closed the door behind herself (luckily didn't lock it)!

After the inital shock of being caught red handed, and frantically replacing the toothbrush and toothpaste to its rightful spot in a drawer, she knew she was done for! Being the mean mom that I am, I took photos and messaged her daddy. After an obligatory spanking and time out, I washed the adult makeup off with a baby wipe. Ironic, I know. She really did do a pretty good job considering she couldn't see herself in a mirror at all. She managed to coat her lashes and get black in generally all the right areas. It's hard to miss your nose with the tip of the mascara brush unless your experienced (I daresay she's still a novice)! I can only imagine how many times she must have poked her own eye! I'm thinking of throwing the mascara out since I really don't trust where the brush may have been :p

What a great expression in the pic! Classic Alena!

Another new motherhood badge: Makeup Defender? (I'm open for suggestions on this one :)

Alena Sings The ABC's

A Visit From The Poop Fairy

Eric was hesitant for me to post this, but I really felt like I needed to document this. Eric, however, came up with the lovely name for this post. As you can tell, it deals with poop. Yes, fecal matter. If that grosses you out in any way, you'd better just skip this post and surf on over to another post or another website altogether!


Here's the story:


Last Thursday was pretty much just like any other. Crying baby, potty training toddler. Alena had one accident that morning, but pooped in her potty after the accident. Sweet :) So I put a diaper on her, and sent her off to bed for naptime. Often, she lays in her bed and talks to herself before actually falling asleep. That day was one of those days, so I didn't think anything of it. I went about cleaning up from lunch, eating mine, and fed the baby. Levi fell asleep, so I decided to lay down, too, and catch a much needed nap. I didn't sleep much the night before because Levi was up so much!


No sooner did I lay down than Alena starts crying and didn't stop. I went in her room and I immediately smelled an overwhelming poop smell. I knew that it could only mean one thing: she had dumped in her diaper. She's done it before. So, I go to her bed to get her up and take her to the changing table when she says something about "poo poos" and holds out her hands. All I saw was a dark color, and my kid is white. Then, I turned on the light:

Yes, she had pooped. And, somehow it got out of her diaper and managed to be smeared all over her pillow, sheets, and herself. She even got some on the wall. I'm not sure how she did it, but she did! I was in shock, and, luckily, started laughing! I'm so glad I did that because I could totally have been super duper mad! I had to leave the room because I was going to pee my pants!

Anyway, this photo was taken after I started to strip the bed of things that I deemed unscathed by the disaster. I just had to take photos. I anticipate that these will humiliate her at a later date, but she's a Cerkas/DeNamur, so she'll have to get over it. There will be much worse things that she will see, hear, and experience by being part of the family.

With that in mind, I took a few more photos to really capture the gravity of this situation:

She is amazed at what happened...

Yes, that is poop hanging off of her cheek. We suspect that she may have ingested at least a little bit, which it totally not cool :(

With no other real option, I picked her up, asked her not to touch me or anything else, and ran for the bathtub! Of course she starts spastically kicking her legs as we go down the carpeted hallway, spewing a couple of little nuggets helter skelter. I threw her into the tub, hoping that she wouldn't touch much, and turned on the shower. I am that mean mom. I let her "soak" and told her to get the poop off of herself while I carefully put her sheets, pillow, Lamby, and blankets on the porch. Then, I stripped her clothes off and added them to the pile. She got an impromptu bath/shower, and then back to a freshly made bed! And she slept! And so did I... finally!

Eric thought that it was pretty kind of her to leave a little nugget in the bathtub for when he got home :) So there you have it, the craziest thing that has happened thus far for me as a parent. I realize that it will probably get worse, but this one will always rank right up there for me. Thank you, Alena, for giving me another badge on my mommy sash - poop slayer!