Hey Jesslyn...

Wanna go for a ride?

Best buddies!

They do love each other so!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, BLUE! Fish

We thought we'd try the whole "fish" thing again.  We were going to get another goldfish, but Jeremiah really liked the bettas.  So we went with a pretty BLUE male betta!  Jeremiah was really excited all the way home, and wanted to hold him, but he insisted on shaking him up the whole time, so he rode on the floor instead.

So far so good!  He certainly is prettier than a goldfish.  I think we need to get him a plant, or something, to hide in.  And maybe a mirror... Bwahahahaha!

[Me] & Goji --- A new way to "cereal"!

This is cool stuff. 

[Me]&Goji is a company that allows you to mix your very own cereal and then ships it right to your door!  They have all sorts of yummy organic ingredients from which to choose and it's sent to you in a recycleable/reusable cardboard canister (I kinda wanna order just for the cool canisters!)  They even give you a "live" nutrional information update as you add/subtract ingredients!

I'm anxious to try this out--I'm always on the lookout for yummy snacks to take with us on the road, but am getting tired of the same old Goldfish (that Jeremiah no longer likes...,) and dried fruit.

So check it out.  From what I hear, it's good stuff.  

Image borrowed from The Tranquil Parent

Happy St. Patty's Day!

'Cuz Us Wilcox's are sooooo Irish, we went all out celebrating St. Patty's day yesterday!

Yeah, that was sarcasm. I did do my best to dress the kiddies in green, though, since I myself do not have a single item of green clothing (well, one maternity shirt, but I wasn't gonna break that out! Not that we went anyways/did anything....) The moms in my Moms' group were all talking about how the "Leprechauns" visited their houses and left "green footprints" (green glitter), dyed the milk and toilet water "green" (not mixed together, though... eww...) and turned furniture over/TP'd the bathrooms/taped toys to the ceiling, etc... Uhh... yeah, my house is messy enough that if the leprechauns did come through, we probably wouldn't have noticed. And I certainly did not feel like cleaning up after them, too!

So the kids were dressed in green, and we drank out of our "green" cups, and that's about it. 'Though Jeremy and I did drink Guiness with our dinner Monday night (it even had a clover in the head/foam! Cool.....) Yeah, we're so Irish! Go us!

Maybe I'll invite the leprechauns over next year.

"Don't forget Jesslyn, Mommy!" Don't worry, sweetie, she's in the frame, too.

"I'm gonna fall on you, Jesslyn....." ;)

"Nooooooooo!!!" ~Jeremiah, as in, "oh, no, here I come!"

"AHHH!! No, Jesslyn! Don't get me!" He had it comin'. :)

Yes, I know, that blue thing isn't green. Well, I didn't put that on him. He did. It's a terry cover up I bought for him to wear at the pool when he was a baby (as in, 9 month old....) Yeah. And the lei.... well, why not, at that point.

Showing off her [non] Irish pride! (Actually, I think Jeremy has SOME Irish in him, though if he does, it's a very small amount.... like 1/8 or less. So she might be 1/32nd or so Irish. Or something.)

6 Months!

Yay!  We've made it to the 6 month mark.  What???  6 months!  Holy smokes!  Where did the time go????

So what does being 6 months bring??  So far, nothing much.  She can sit, unsupported, pretty well (those rolls on her legs are good for SOMETHING after all!)  At least, for a minute or two.  Well, until she sees something she needs to have.  Then it's on the floor!  

As far as floor action goes, we're still in that pre-crawl stage.  She can roll around to get things pretty well, spin around on her belly, scootch backwards and rock on her hands and knees.  Basically, everything BUT move forward.  It's only a matter of time... One of these days, she's just going to take off, and that'll be the last time we see her!  :)

Other stuff... well, she FINALLY started eating rice cereal.  We've been trying to get her to eat it for a while now (every couple of days for the past month,) but mostly she would just let it sit in her mouth and then spit it out.  She thought it was very funny, though--always did it with a smile on her face, as you may have seen from the videos!  So, yeah, we're glad she decided to start swallowing her food.  Yay!  Maybe in another week or two, we can try sweet potatoes, or bananas or something.  We'll see.

Wednesday, she went for her follow up appointment with the cardiologist.  As you know, when she was born, she "suffered" an "acute event" that led to as an "ASD" or atrial septal defect.  Basically, she had a small hole in her heart and that caused a lot of problems at birth!  This normally heals itself on its own, but she needed some extra help, hence the NICU stay.  

At one month, this hole had shrunk to .3 mm (in other words, TINY!)  Because it was still there, they wanted us to keep an eye on her and return for a follow up in three months.  Well, three months turned into 5, so we finally brought her back.  Of course, all is well--the hole is completely gone!  The doctor (the same gal she saw in the hospital that first day) kept saying, "She's very lucky... you're very lucky..."  No, lady, luck had nothing to do with it.  You should have seen how many people this little girl had praying for her that first week-- a lot!  And more than we even know.  There was nothing "lucky" about it--she's a very blessed little gal who has a Father in heaven who was looking out for her (and a Mommy who trusted that He would, completely, which may have translated, in some's opinion, to irrationality, in that I didn't believe the doctors when they said how bad she was.  I still think they exaggerated a bit (especially when they hear she was a homebirth... yeah, we won't get started on that again,) but I knew, I KNEW, that God was looking after her, and He would heal her.  I'm sure He used the doctors and nurses to help with that, but I found their "lack" of faith disturbing (quoteth Darth Vader...)  And the lack of faith of some of those around us (not my parents, however!  My Mom was praying the whole time we were at the hospital that first day.  I couldn't have gotten through that day without her--she was a huge source of comfort, and kept reminding me what I already knew--that God was in control.  So yes, when Jeremy brought her home, and said, "She's fine," my response was, "Yeah, I'm not surprised."

Best part--the doctor wanted to hold Jesslyn, and she kept crying.  They thought it might have her glasses, so she took them off, but nope.  She still cried.  I guess she just doesn't like people who upset her Mommy.  :)

Anyways, she's a lot of fun nowadays!  She's very babble-ly.  She loves to say, "Da da da da..." and "ma ma ma ma...."  She also smacks her lips (using her tongue, some how???) and has traded her binky for her thumb.  It's really cute--she'll just be sitting there, or more often, laying there, and next thing you know, she's got her whole thumb in her mouth, hand open, just sucking away.  I hope it's shortlived, though... I don't really want to have to persuade her to stop sucking her thumb when she's older.  Can't throw away a thumb!  

Yup, that's about it.  Oh, and she loves her big brother!  She especially loves it when he runs in her room, after she's woken up from her nap, and hops up on the side of her crib to talk to her.  Or when we're walking up the steps, behind Jeremiah, I let her try to grab his hair (not really, but she doesn't know that...) and say, "Uh oh... let's get Jeremiah!"  Usually they both laugh at that.  It's so cute!  She definitely looks up to him, and wants to do everything he's doing!  Should be a fun time.  :)

Trying to suck her thumb through her sweater...

Awww...  too tired from trying to crawl...

I was having a tough time takin' her picture... it was nighttime, and I had to use a flash, which kept making her squint instead of smile.  So this was the best I could get.  Still cute!

She loves her Daddy!  And she especially loves his beard--always the first thing she reaches for when she's on his lap!

One fish, two fish, red fish, dead fish....

Today was the last of the beautiful days for a little while. To take advantage of it, we had breakfast outside, though Jeremiah wanted me to get his jacket as it was quite windy. Afterwards, we played a bit while I tried to figure out what to do once Jesslyn woke from her nap. I should have gone to Costco, but instead decided, "Hey, we should go to Petsmart and get Jeremiah a goldfish!"

So we did.

I got him a one gallon bowl (it even came with directions!) and a little itty bitty goldfish for $.12 (just for the fish, the bowl was a little more...) Jeremiah was very excited to have his fish, and held the bag all the way home!

Unfortunately, nothing trumps the garage and what's in the garage... I thought I'd be able to get him into the house, easily, so we could set up his new fishy's home, but he pitched a fit and I had to carry him in (after he'd thrown his fishy down on the ground... poor thing.) So while he whined at the door (and Jesslyn whined in the highchair... she was hungry!) I followed the directions and filled the bowl about 2/3's of the way up with tap water, added some gravel, let the fish acclimate and then plopped the fish in!

By then, Jeremiah was happy, eating his lunch, watching his fish, and life was good. After all that excitement, though, it was naptime, so we said goodnight to the fish and both kiddies went down for their naps.

I went back downstairs to put Jesslyn's bottle in the fridge, and glanced at the bowl. "Huh..." I said, "Where's the fish?" Upon closer inspection, I spotted him hovering near the bottom of the bowl... on his side. Yes, this fish was dead. Dead, dead, dead. Not even fighting for his life, just dead.



Sigh... I scooped him up, and walked him to the bathroom. When Jeremiah woke up, I told him the fishy ran away, and that we would get him a new one in a couple of days... one that won't run away... hopefully.

In the meantime, the bowl sits fish-less, while we allow the chlorine [a silent, but deadly killer...] to work its way out of the water.

Old vids, new vids...

Some stuff from the archives...

Three months old... Wow, she's changed quite a bit since December...

Jeremiah reads to Big Fella:



Our attempt(s) at feeding Jesslyn solids [5 months]:


Okay... let's try that again...



I have another one from today, when Jeremy tried... Yeah, she wasn't feelin' it then, either. But that'll have to wait 'til another post!

No wonder everyone's sick...

We went from this....

...6 inches of snow, high of 20-something....

....to this, 50's and sunny, snow still on the ground....

[feeding the bunnies at the farm...]

[there are 5 slides on this playground... he picked the ONE that had water on it to slid down first... it wasn't this one, but as you can see, he had to work to get down it, since his butt was all wet]

...to THIS!

Sunny, high's in the upper-60's, with 70's all weekend.

Jackets optional!

Good times.

I'm behind...

A cold has been making its rounds through the household this week... And by rounds, I mean Jeremy mentioned it, and I got it.  So far, no one else seems to be affected.  But for now, I sound like a chain smoker and take 5 pillows to bed to sleep.  :)  Good times.

SOOOOO MUCH I need to write about.  But I'm not staying up tonight to do it.  Friday is a slow day, so I'll try to catch up then. 

In the mean time, cuteness abounds....

Jeremy put Jeremiah's hat on her... I think she liked it. :)

"I miss my hat..."

I was taking pics of Jesslyn, and Jeremiah, Mr. Ham, wanted in on the action.  Aww, my little man is going to be 26 months on Saturday!  They grow so fast...

I'm not sure what he's doing here... I think he was just being silly.  It made me laugh when I saw it!  :)

He LOVES his trains!  And he kept wanting me to take pictures of him and his trains... So I had to oblige. :)

Another beautiful day!

Friday, it was nearly 70 degrees out.  Not too shabby for February.   We tried to enjoy it as much as we could, with an outting and a little "off-roading."  Jeremiah really enjoyed himself, of course, and it was nice to have the warm weather around. [BTW, Jesslyn ALSO has a pair of overalls to match her big brother's!  But I haven't had a chance to snap a pic of both of them together yet.  And she's too much of a lady to wear hers shirtless.  Our little country bumpkin.]

Maybe spring is here!!  Not so fast--yesterday and today have been chilly, snow's been falling, and they've already canceled school for tomorrow in our county.  So far, it's just been threatening us-all bark, no bite.  But it looks like it's starting to accumulate, so it'll definitely cause havoc in the morning.  Yay.

At least spring is only [technically] 19 days away!