I'm not saying anything....

...but the blog says something. :)

Anywho, life's been crazy and calm here in the Wilcox household. Nothing much has changed, yet so much has changed all at the same time. Oh, you want specifics? Well, okay...

I'm trying to think about what's been going on with us. Really, nothing spectacular. The weather lately has been beautiful, which has made for quite a few impromptu trips to the Farm across the way. Jeremiah loves it there. Other than when we're crossing the street, I let him walk instead of ride in the stroller. This new found freedom has really taken him places, literally! His new favorite spot at the farm is anywhere there are sheep. We went once, and he climbed up on the fence and just stood there, watching the sheep for what seemed like a very long time (it's also right in the sun, as are most places on the farm, so Mommy was getting warm, and Jesslyn was getting anxious.) I bet he would have stayed there all day if he could have.

One nice addition to the farm is a little eatery type thing called, "Gordon's Grill." They have hamburgers, hotdogs, french fries, ice cream, cold drinks, etc... Before, the only place to grab a snack was the little shop they have by the playground. It was fine, but unless you wanted water, juice, ice cream, or candy there was nothing else to eat. So now we can go and each get a hot dog and drink, and have "lunch out" for less than $5. Not a shabby outting in my book! Plus, on Wednesdays, they're open later, even when the shop is not, so that's nice. It's especially fitting right now, as we're a one car family for the moment (which SUCKS, but more on that in a minute,) so really, it's the only place we can go to when Daddy's at work.

Yeah... so we're down to one vehicle. At least, temporarily. A couple of weeks ago, we noticed our Honda Odyssey "slipping" while driving. As in, it sometimes forgot what gear it was supposed to be in. Originially, we thought nothing of it, but then it started happening more and more. The final straw was when I was driving the kids to Miss Sunny's house (out in Paedonian Springs, or something... it's about 30 minutes from out house,) and it kept jumping from 5th gear (I'm assuming, since it's an automatic and we were on the highway,) down to 2nd or 3rd gear. It was especially problemsome when I would try accelerating to go up a hill or merge/pass traffic. The scariest part was when I was on the last leg of the trip on 7W (out past Leesburg) and I has a tractor trailer on my butt. Couldn't accelerate. And I couldn't move over, either. Finally, it kicked in, and I was able to get to a comfortable cruising speed before needing to catch my exit, but it was at that point (and when I put it in reverse and it did nothing....) that I decided I needed to call Jeremy to come meet us out there to switch vehicles. And he did. So we did. Both car seats crammed in his little SUV. We all fit, but hardly comfortably. Poor Jeremiah has 0! leg room, and I have to sit nearly straight up when my knees touching the glove box.

Turns out, this is not an uncommon problem in our model year. Honda has dealt with this problem before for their 99-01 model years. They lost a class action lawsuit against them, and had to pay to replace every transmission. There's another lawsuit in the works for our model year, so we figure they can either pay for it NOW, or we can join the lawsuit and they can pay for it LATER. Either way, we know they're going to have to pay, so would they rather upset a "Honda Family" or shake our trust in them and force us to jump ship to Toyota. At least I have a Certified Toyota Specialist in the family who can keep it in tip top shape, should anything happen. And, they have a 9-seater Sienna, with 3 seats in the middle row instead of just two.... could come in handy...... :)

Back to the kiddies!

Jeremiah has been speaking a lot more lately, as you can see from our last post. He's trying to say more and more on his own. Just today, he started saying, "roof," and pointing to the roofs of his Matchbox cars that Daddy got him (on clearance at Giant, btw.... we are a crazy deal-hunting family!) We need to call the County back to schedule a hearing test, but I'm not really in any hurry to do so. Jeremy's point of view is that "we pay for it with our tax dollars, so might as well take advantage of what they offer." My point of view is that he's fine, just took his time starting to speak, and I don't really want to deal with scheduling of having a speech therapist come out here when he doesn't really need it. Of course, I was never really worried about it in the first place, but that's not my tendency anyway (whereas some other folks in the fam can't help but worry!) Yeah, so, I vote for "go with the flow." :) We'll see, I guess.

Jesslyn is getting more and more mobile everyday. She's standing independently more and more, so walking can't be too far behind! Jeremiah was taking a few steps here and there by her age, but she's been behind him when it comes to physical things, so no surprises here. For now, she can crawl whereever she needs to go quite easily and quickly, so I doubt she's in much of a hurry.

That's enough for today. I'm gonna go make some dinner before the kiddies wake up from their naps. I love afternoon naptime! :) Should have spent mine NAPPING, but it's all good. :)

Howdy howdy

I've discovered a new purpose for this blog.  Well, less "discovered" more "redefined."  I was reading a friend's blog which is written with the idea that someday they may not remember what their kids were like, and what they did, or even who they are!  And their blog serves as a "living autobiography" or "biography" if you will.  So I think that's what my focus needs to become.  Not that it will really change much of what you see here, but I think it will take a little bit of pressure off me to post a lengthy, well-thought out post on a regular basis.  I do try to keep things updated regularly, especially since children are constantly "updating" themselves!  But since I usually "blog" at night, after the kiddies are in bed (and the TV is on.....) it's become harder and harder to create a quality post here.  I shall try harder.

Okay, that aside, where do I start?!  I'll start the way my FIL always seems to start... "The weather has been quite interesting around here lately."  That is usually followed by a comment on how cold it is, or how much snow there is, up in the frigid north (Calgary, AB, for those keeping track at home...)  Here, though, things have been quite different.  Two weeks ago, it was absolutely GORGEOUS!  We're talking HOT (90's hot) and SUNNY!  I've got the tan lines to prove it, too!  It was a great time to enjoy the outdoors, and so we did.  Jeremiah and I washed the "cars" (neither are, but that's just easier to say,) and played with the hose while Jesslyn napped, one day.  Daddy managed to plant the garden, so hopefully we'll have some yummy veggies this summer!  I think he planted tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, squash, basil, and.... something else, I dunno.  And now that the new swing set is up (new to us, at least,) Jeremiah has something to do besides push his cars down into the street (at least it takes a little while to get down there.)

And then... the rain came.  And it came again.  And then again the next day.  And now it seems like it will never stop.  I think the first day we're expected to have solely sunshine is next Monday, which would make it rainy for, what seems like, weeks!  Yeah... And it's no fun bundling up and going out in the rain.  Jeremiah likes getting wet, but Jesslyn doesn't, and I don't want to wear shorts when it's 50 out, so my pants get all wet and blah.  But the plants/grass/animals are loving it (poor worms, though... they all drowned... the driveway is littered with little worm corpses...) 

I did head out of town sans husband/kids for two days--went up to the Big Apple (which has a really boring back story as to why it's called that... something to do with race tracks.  I'm bored just thinking about it.)  It was uber fun, but that post will have to wait for another time--can't do it justice here!

Kid wise, Jesslyn is moving too fast for Mommy to keep up!  One minute, she's in the middle of the room, the next, clear on the opposite side!  Still not "crawling" at least not by the legal definition of the word.  More like, scootching/lobbing herself forward (which is pretty funny... she crawls like a seal, I guess you could say. Heh.)  But hey, it gets her from point A to point B, so I don't think she minds.  I think we're going to have to lower her crib soon, though, as she's been trying to pull herself up.  So far, the furthest she's gotten is up on one leg out to her side... if she gets the rest of the way up, I'm pretty sure she could flip right over the side.  Yup, it's time to lower that mattress.  

Her two "teefies" are really there now.  And they are SHARP!  Yeah, just a fair warning--don't let her grab your fingers and expect to escape unscathed.  I know she thinks it's funny, too...  I suspect there are more on their way, but have yet to see evidence of such other than bogus naps... Seriously, my sweet little napper has not been interested in doing so lately.  Morning naps usually end up fine--still pullin' two hours there.  But afternoon.... forget it.  I'm lucky if she sleeps and hour or so.  Yesterday, I think she was so exhausted from fighting said nap that she ended up sleeping 2.5 hours--that's more like it!  But today, not so much.  :(  Oh well.  It's not like I was napping.  That's when I hate the short naps, especially when you get to that pre-sleep phase of sleeping, where you're too asleep to open your eyes, but you're still semi-aware of what's going on around you.  Just when your body finally gives in and then, "WAAAAAH!!!!"  

Grrr....

She's super-sweet, though.  Lots of hugs and kisses.  Loves to play peekaboo.  Loves her favorite big brother.  Loves to explore and taste every little speck of dirt on the floor (eww....)  She's been eating really well, though I think her growth spurt is over since she's not eating as much as she used to.  There was a while there I dubbed her, "the bottomless pit."  No longer.  Back to normal amounts of foodies.  No favorites, that I can dissern, but she's now tried peaches, bananas, apples, squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, blueberries, and broccoli. She gets three meals a day with bottles in between--we're using a lot less formula now!  Yay!  We may not have to buy anymore... still have 3 big things, and only 4 more months.  Okay, we'll probably have to buy one or two more, but at least the end is in sight!

Jeremiah has been handling the rainy weather well, considering how much he loves to play outside.  I went "yard saleing" Saturday, and got him some little cars that he LOVES (he also loves the little police car and taxi cab I bought him in NYC,) and he just pushes those around all day.  We've been reading a lot, too--bought a bunch of Berenstain Bear books at Dani's Duds (only a couple at yard sales... I'm still looking, though!) so we've been trying to go through some of those.  Also picked up some Mercer Mayer books, but he's not really into those yet.  I guess I bought 'em more for me than him at this point.  He'd rather look at a book with lots of trucks in it than read a story.  But someday he'll be into it, I'm sure!  If not, they're ready for Jesslyn.  :)

He's still working on expanding his vocabulary, and it's slowly building up, but definitely at HIS own pace.  If he doesn't want to say a word, he won't say it.  And if he does, he will.  So I'm pretty sure it's not that he CAN'T say a word.  He just chooses not to.  With the exception of "hello" (which comes out, "ah-woh") all the words he says are said almost perfectly.  And the rest, he just doesn't want to try.  It still just comes out, "nah nah."  But that's alright.  We're meeting with the country Thursday morning (yay...) and will probably take him to a therapist if we can find one locally that in in-network for our insurance.  Otherwise, we're not really worried about it.  Seems like a lot of boys in Jeremy's family took their time learning to speak (or choosing to do so,) so I'll chalk it up as him channeling the "Penn/Wilcox" in him.  :)

Oh, there was one thing he did which made me "oh so thrilled."  He decided to re-decorate his room after a nap one day, and tore all the Spider-man wall border off his wall behind his crib.  Awesome.  Now, I'm not sure what to do.  I know I have a little extra, but I see no point in putting it back up only so he can tear it down again.  But it looks pretty lousy as is.  I guess I'll just have to deal?  Sigh... thanks, Jeremiah! :)

What a little ham, huh?  I'm not allowed to take pictures of Jesslyn without taking a few of him, too.  :)  Not that I mind, of course. 

Awww, I loved this little dress Jesslyn wore on Easter!  Too bad it'll never fit her again...  :(

Blueberries and TEETH!  What a combo.  :)

And that's all the interesting stuff that's been going on with us.  Wooo... good times, eh?  May is turning into a busy month, though, so hopefully we'll have some fun stuff to share--a possible trip to the Outer Banks is in the works!  And then off to NY (upstate, not the city... boo...) for wedding.  yay...

Coming soon---purple hair???

Too cool for school...

And being tooth-less and motion-less!  Yup, big week for Jesslyn.  First, on Sunday (Easter Sunday) she decided to show us her skillz on the floor and lob herself forward like a baby seal... Now, she's almost got the "proper crawl" down... she just falls every time she moves forward.  But she's officially mobile!  Just not very graceful yet.

Also, her two "teefies" are finally breaking through!  Seriously, I was expecting these months ago, the way she's been acting.  They're finally on their way--has two little holes in her gums right now.  I think the right one will show up tomorrow, and the left by early next week!  It's going to be weird to see a toothy grin all of a sudden... I'll hafta try to get a few more gummy ones in quick!