Vroom!

Jeremiah made these playdough race cars all by his little self. Then I had to make a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd medal stand for them.

That orange car is always sneaking by to place first...

Jeremiah has really been into building with Legos lately (hey, he's a 5.5 year old boy. It was inevitable, right?) He's got a set of he smaller ones, but I don't like finding those all over when little ones are crawling around. I bought the kids some used duplos  and they're very happy to play with those instead.

Jeremiah wIll build all sorts of things with Legos. Planes and swords are his favorite, but yesterday, he wanted to make a hot air balloon (shown). He was quite proud of it.

Oh, and yes, that's Jesslyn trying to "photo bomb" his pic in the background there. Gotta love little sisters.

Whoops...

Looks like I've let the blog slip away from me again.  I must say, kudos to the gals with more than one kid who can keep up with their blogs---it's not easy!  Here's the latest from us:

Jeremiah ~ Jeremiah is now 4.5, just a few months away from turning 5!  He figured out the whole "potty training" thing back in the early summer, and it seems to have "aged" him quite a bit.  You grow up a lot once you stop peeing in diapers/pull ups!  With potty training came dressing and undressing, and more independence, which he has taken his fill of!  He's my "go-to" helper when I need something, usually letting Jesslyn or Judah in and out of the family room, since he can open the gate and they can't.  Or going down to the basement to bring up a gallon of milk.  Or getting his own drink of water.  He even makes his own sandwiches now!  Sure, it's just two slices of bread and a piece of cheese, but hey, we gotta start somewhere right.  Oh, and he can buckle himself in his car seat, which is a HUGE plus for Mommy!  My little man isn't quite so little anymore.  :(

Jesslyn ~ Jesslyn is now 3, going on 30, and the most "grown up" out of all the kids.  If Jeremiah can do it, she can "definitely" do it (even if she can't....) And if Mommy can do it, she's gonna try!  Last week was her birthday, and it was quite a long celebration---we had a small Chuck E Cheese party for her on the Thursday prior (since her b-day was on Saturday, I wasn't about to make that mistake again...) and that was loads of fun.  NoVA experience a small monsoon (Rainapocolypes!) that day, so roads were flooded, streets closed, and Chuck E Cheese was empty.  I made her a princess cake, complete with an edible chocolate tiara on top (she ate half of it.  :)

Then on her actual birthday, we did a movie night out on the pipestem.  Our neighbor, Sybille, shares her birthday with Jesslyn, so it was a good excuse for all of us to hang out, party, have some cake and watch a movie.  At one point, we had about 50 people there (only about 30 were actually invited.)  I had kids asking me for cake, and I had no idea who they were.  :)  But it was fun---we watched "Gnomeo and Juliet" and "Thor".  Very cool.

She's really into My Little Ponies, dressing up, toy phones, and flashlights right now, so that's what she got for her birthday.  :)  Her and Judah are also "best buds" and very close, though usually Jesslyn is WAY TOO close.  She doesn't always grasp the idea of "personal space" and hasn't figured out that Judah's whining/crying means "back off!"  But I'm sure she'll get it eventually.  Or not.  It's kinda a part of who she is.  :)  But she's very sweet, too, and always up for cuddling, and loves having her back tickled.  She's a big sweetie!

Judah ~ Judah is now 18 months, and quite the character!  He started walking back in June, while we were at the beach (we went to the OBX the first week of June.  He was taking a few steps at a time before that, but really started moving once we got there.  That wet sand is a good learning tool.)  He's a bit of a chatter box, trying to say every word we say.  Not quite as wordy as Jesslyn was at his age, but pretty close!  A short list includes car, truck, plane, train, go, open, bye bye, hi, phone, apple/applesauce, juice, milk, water, drink, oww, Kookie, 'gunco' (for Uncle), bird, cat, dog, puppy, Dora, Boots, and so on, and so forth.  It's awesome.  :)  He's also very sweet, and loves to wrap his arms around your neck, yelling, "Mama!" or "Daddy!!" or just cuddling with "Gunco James" (it's kinda weird... James'll pick him up, and Judah will just put his head on his shoulder and leave it there, for like, 5 minutes.  Just looking around with his head on his shoulder.  Only with James, though.  :)

Let's see, what else with Judah.  Well, he loves Big Fella.  And babies.  So I'm hoping that that carries over, because..... #4 is due in 6 weeks!  But a little more on that in a minute.  He's a bit addicted to his Mommy and Daddy, especially his Mommy, so I am a bit worried about how he'll take the baby taking up so much of Mommy's attention.  The other two were great when their younger sibs showed up, so this is new territory for us.  Of course, maybe we're worried about nothing, and he'll be smitten with his new brother/sister, and all will be well.  Guess we'll see!

Oh yeah,  and Judah's quite the little comedian.  He always has this big smile on his face (with dimples!  Love the dimples!) and does all sorts of silly things to get a laugh!  He's also the hamiest of the bunch, dropping whatever he's doing for a chance to get his pic taken.  It's adorable.  :)

Finally, #4!  Yup, we're expecting the next member of the Wilcox clan sometime around Halloween.  We don't know if it's a boy or a girl (and hopefully won't have the chance to find out 'til they're born!)  We're planning another homebirth, so getting things ready has been fun/exciting, but of course, there's still much to do.  The pregnancy has gone well, thus far.  No complaints.  Just some morning sickness at the beginning.  It wasn't as bad as with Jesslyn, but worse than the boys, so I have no idea what to expect based on that.  But we're very excited, and can't wait to meet this new sweet bundle that God has chosen to bless us with.  :)

Other random news:  The kids and I (Jess) now have CBS (Community Bible Study) every Tuesday, and MOPS every other Friday.  It's a nice break, and a chance to socialize in a positive way with other Moms, and the kids get to hang out with their peers instead of just their siblings.  We did both last year, and it was good, but I have a feeling this year will be even better!  So I'm excited for that.

Jeremy's job is going well, though it has its challenges at times.  But overall, he's very blessed, and his boss is great, which is always a plus, especially with new babies on the way.  Jeremy's getting more handy around the house, having replaced the faucet on our hall bath, patched a hole in the hallway, and did a good bit of painting in the dining room.  So I'm proud of him.  :)  It's the little things.

And with that, it's off to bed.  Hopefully, I'll better about updating from here on out.  We'll see... :)

Well, hello!

Long time, no chat.  Here's a brief overview of what we've been up to:

Jeremiah:  Jeremiah celebrated his 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese back in January.  We made the mistake of having his party on a Sunday afternoon.  Bad idea.  Friday night was MUCH better (when we had Jesslyn's.  More on that in a minute.)  Other new stuff?  Umm... he's about 42" tall, and last time I checked, weighed 45-ish lbs.  He still loves his trains, cars, trucks, basically anything with wheels.  He's a big help around the house, as he loves to help me cook, and is our "milk man".  He's responsible for bringing the milk up from the downstairs fridge for us, and takes his job very seriously.  :)

Jesslyn:  Jesslyn turned two in September, and we had her party also at Chuck E Cheese (hoping for a new venue for the next round...)  She requested a Yo Gabba Gabba cake, which MeeMaw and I made for her.  I did most of the cake and MeeMaw did the characters.  It came out really cute!  She's very chatty, and I would say almost rivals Jeremiah's vocabulary, so it's cute to listen to the conversations they have together.  Yesterday, she ripped off 19 keys from my laptop, and when asked why she did it, her response was, "That's how I roll."  :)  That's my girl!  Last time we checked, she was about 39" tall, and probably weighs as much as Jeremiah now (at least, it feels that way when you hold her! She's solid, alright!)  Such a little Mommy, she loves to take care of her 'babies', still sucks her thumb, and loves having a baby brother to carry around, much to my dismay.  :)

Judah:  Judah is just a few weeks away from turning 1!  I can't believe it.  Yikes!  He's super sweet, and perfect in every way.  He's very friendly/smiley with people, unless you're dropping him off with someone he doesn't know.  He loves his Mommy!  While he's not quite walking yet, he can cruise and crawl pretty well, and get pretty much anywhere he wants by climbing.  Gotta watch that one!  :)  At his 9 month check up, he was just about 20 lbs (50th %-tile) and 28"? I can't remember, but he was in the 70th for that.  For the first time ever, we have a child who actually wears the clothes his age dictates.  It's weird.  So used to being a size or two ahead!  He looks just like his Poppy did as a baby---the resemblance is quite remarkable.  We love our Cakes!

Jeremy:  Jeremy had a great year at work last year, and is on target to do even better this year! Yay, Jeremy!  We're really proud of him, especially in an area where it's tough for one parent to stay home.  I definitely do not take it for granted!  :)  His birthday is coming up next week, and as an early present, we re-did the basement while he was gone on a business trip two weeks ago.  It's now all decked out in Steelers colors, with the screen down there, seating, a table for eating/playing poker/games/etc.  I think he likes it.  :)

Jess:  Well, the most recent fun news from me is that I'm typing this on a Chrome Laptop, supplied to me free by Google.  Just came in the mail yesterday!  Woot!  Otherwise, nothing very exciting.  I'm still involved with my Mom's group, and started going to MOPS and CBS in the fall.

As a family, we've done some major things recently.  Went to the Azores in October so the kids could meet their great-grandmother, or "beezavo".  They had a great time, but I'll never do that trip again.  Wayyy too stressful to travel that far with 3 kids so young that you need to bring beds/pack n plays/strollers/car seats, etc.    Plus, there are new security searches at the airport that I'm not thrilled about (the patdowns have become far more invasive...) so I refuse to fly if I can.  If we can't drive there, we ain't going there!  :)

In October, we started getting our milk from a farmer in PA.  It's raw---unpasturedized, and unhomogenized.  It tastes so much better than store bought milk, organic or otherwise.  We also get our eggs, cheese and now chickens from them.  We've got a cow coming at the end of February, and signed up for a CSA that starts in June for all of our fresh produce.  We're living off the farm as much as we can, and I love it!  :)

More to come another time... Hopefully before 6 months from now. :)

July--in one post!

And I guess June, too!

We've been busy.  Though I can hardly remember with what.  I just remember June as a blur.  Nothing really happened, good or bad, so I guess that's good.  :)

I did have my birthday at the end of the month (as usual,) and it was a nice one.  Yummy lunch with my kiddies and Mom, sushi from G Sushi for dinner (too tired to go out) and a cake from Edible Incredibles (though I am not a fan of their buttercream... I likes me some sweet frosting, and their's is not.  Which is good for some people, but not me!  The cake part, however, was delicious!)  Jeremy got me a sterling silver charm necklace with a charm for each of my kiddies, though I quickly discovered I couldn't be able to wear it much.  Still allergic to precious metals, unfortunately, which means wearing it more than occasionally will leave me with a rash on my neck/chest.  Booo!  It's very nice, though.  :)

July was more busy than June.  Jeremy's parents were in town the first three weeks, and for a few days, we all went to VA Beach together.   I learned quite a few things while on that trip.  The main thing being, taking three kids to the beach is no vacation at all.  It's way too much work, and it's exhausting!  If we do go again, we will be sure to only go if we can stay ON the beach.  At least then, you can come and go and not feel like you have to spend hours for it to be worth it.  But the kids had a BLAST, so it was worth it in that regard.  Though poor Jesslyn got such a nasty diaper rash, which was only aggravated by the sand and salt water, so that left us on a sour note.  But she was a trooper, and usually the last one to bed those nights (seriously, I'd go to bed, and I could still hear her chatting away to herself.  Cute, but it was usually after 11 and I just wanted to yell GO TO SLEEP!!!!  But that would have woken up Jeremiah, so I just left her 'til she crashed.  She survived. :)

Judah had his 4 month check up a couple of weeks ago.  Still measuring smaller than my other two ever did, but catching up in some regards.  He was 15lbs 3oz for weight (75th), 26 in for height (95th!) and I forget what for head circumference, but he was 50th, so nothing exciting there.  He's growing so much, which is what he's supposed to do, I guess.  :)  He's got a head full of fuzzy dark blonde hair, and it looks like his eyes are going to be brown, though it's still hard to tell.  He started rolling over both ways around 3 months, and can really push himself up now.  I swear, he's so close to crawling already!  Put him down on the floor, look away, and he'll be across the room by the time to look back.  And I'm always catching him on his hands and knees, rocking, and then plopping.  :)  It's so cute!

Overall, having 3, 3 and under is still tough, but definitely manageable.  The older they get, the easier it is.  So I think I'll survive after all.  :)

Today, we began construction on the kids new swing set.  The one we had was a hand-me-down, and while sufficient, the kids definitely deserve something better.  So we ordered a new one, and boy are they a lot of work to put together!  We completely a good chunk of it, but there's still quite a bit left to do.  The kids are really excited, though!  We'll be glad when it's done.

Finally, we bit the bullet, and ordered tickets to go visit my grandmother in the Azores!  All five of us, plus my parents, will be there for two weeks in October.  I'm looking forward to it, but dreading it at the same time.  Sure, it'll be great for the kids to meet their "Avo-grande" (great-grandmother) but she's a bit of a neat freak, and my kids, well, are not.  So I know I'll be spending most of the trip just picking up after them.  But I think we'll have fun, overall.  I hope so!  We'll have to be praying about that one.

That's about all that's going on at the moment.  Hopefully, more to come soon!

Random "shot"

Wow, lots has happened in the past two months!  I guess I'd better get typing!

~Judah had his 2 month check up on May 13th.  He weighed in at 13 lbs, 3 oz, so only up a pound from his 1 month check up.  He's certainly not growing like his siblings did!  Percentile wise, he was 85th% for height and weight, and 50th% for head.  Could he actually be somewhat..... normal sized?!?!  :)

~While he still fits into much of his 0-3 month clothes (with the exception of Children's Place footed PJ's... those he outgrew weeks ago...) I think it's time to officially transition him into 3-6 month clothes.  They're still a little big on him, which is CRAZY since both Jeremiah and Jesslyn (especially Jesslyn) were rockin' the 3-6 month clothes about the time they turned 1 month!

  He can still wear a size 1-2 (they go up to 15 lbs) diaper, though!  Those size 2's are a little big on him, but good for nighttime!

~He rolled over (!) on May 21st, so around 10.5 weeks old.  I put him down for his nap on his belly, turned on the monitor when he started to fuss, and he looked like his was on his side.  Went in to get him up a few minutes later, and he was on his back!!  I was very excited, but also a little sad.... my baby's growing up so fast!

  He can also scoot around on his belly really well (or his back, depending on what he's laying on.)  His legs are really strong, and he'll stand up on your lap if you just help him with balance.  This makes holding him in a laying position nearly impossible, as he's always trying to sit up so he can look around better.  :)

~More recently, yesterday and today, I've been teaching him how to blow raspberries!  He LOVES it!  I was doing it with him last night, and he was cracking up! (That's a first "crack up" too, btw.... When the laugh comes from the belly, THAT'S a laugh!)  He sure does drool a lot, though, in the process!

~He's learning better hand/eye coordination.  The other day, he was in his car seat, and we have this crinkly soft elephant toy that hands from the handle bar on it.  He was punching that thing over and over!  And it was intentional---you just had to see the look on his face and in his eyes.... he was NOT thrilled that elephant kept coming back for more!

  He will also punch the toys hanging from his play mat (not sure how we got through two kids without that thing!)  At least, when he's not scooting all over the place on his back.  :)

~He's finally starting to EAT!  For the longest time, he would only eat an ounce or two, and he would do that all.... day.... long!  He finally started to eat 3-4 or more ounces at each feeding, and as a result, is starting to sleep better.  During the day, he's been taking three 2-hour naps, and one short nap before bed.  He's only up for about an hour in between naps, which seems really short, but that's what he's happy with.  Maybe now that he's napping longer, he'll start staying up longer (not that I mind the short awake times.)

  As far as nighttime sleeping goes, he had two nights last week where he slept from 9 p.m. to 5 or 6 a.m.!  That was GREAT!  BUT, those were days we were out late, so he did get to eat a little extra before bedtime.  On a normal night, he'll still wake up once or twice a night.  Last night, he slept from 10 p.m. (again, we got home late) until 4 and then 'til 10:30 a.m.  But the night before that, when he went to bed at 7, he woke up at 12 a.m. and then again at 6 a.m., before waking up around 9 a.m.  So it's still a little wonky.  But it's okay.  Once a night is awesome, twice a night is okay.  More than that, and Mommy has a rough day.  We're heading in the right direction, though!

That's about all that's new with Judah.  As for everyone else....

~Last week, Jeremy went to Vegas for 3 nights, so I had my first time alone with the three kids.  It went fine. We did spend one day at MeeMaw's house, and the next two days, MeeMaw came over for a little while (she had stuff going on in Herndon one day, and we all went to Ikea on another,)  so I had some help.  :)

~Yesterday was Memorial Day, and we all headed over to my parents' house for some pool side fun and barbecue!  The kids had a blast in the pool, with Jeremiah swimming around all on his own (his floaty coverall suit helped, I'm sure.)  Jesslyn had more fun sitting on a floaty and being pushed around the pool, or being carried around by MeeMaw/Poppy.  Judah did not get in on the pool action, though, and instead took a really long nap.  :)

That's all the time I have for now, as Judah's waking up from his [too short] nap.  But ya get the idea of what's going on with us!

We're here...

Just exhausted.

Judah is up every 3 hours, more often during the day, so Mommy's not getting much rest.  But I wanted to get a couple of things down before I forget them (which happens easily nowadays...)

~Judah's cord stump fell off on Tuesday!  I was changing his diaper at church, and it was hanging on by a thread.  A little nudge and pop!  Off it came!  Yay!  Tomorrow (Monday, the 29th) he'll have his first REAL bath!

~Did I mention he's up every three hours?  This is new for me.  Jeremiah was up every 3-4 hours.  But he was our first, so we were able to nap all day and all night.  Jesslyn was in the NICU for the first 8 days, so I only had to wake up to pump every 3-4 hours at night (usually 4....) and my parents were here to help take care of Jeremiah, so I had more rest then, too.  Plus, once she DID come home, she was already sleeping in 5 hour blocks.  So this whole 3 hours or less thing has been rough of Mommy.  Hopefully, it starts to spread out a little more.

~Jeremiah and Jesslyn argue over who gets to hold "Baby Judah" next.  :)  They're both head of heels, STILL!  Although last Friday, I had them all by myself for the first time all day, and they really gave me a hard time.  Not a good day.  Saturday was better.  Sunday, less so.  Here's to a fine Monday!

~Jesslyn walks around the house singing the "Baby Judah" song, which is just his name over and over again in a sing song kind of way.  :)

~Both Jeremiah and Jesslyn ask, "Where's Baby Judah?" as soon as they wake up, or as soon they return home from being away from him.  It's really sweet.

~Jesslyn loves being Mommy's little helper when it's diaper change time!  Her favorite job is throwing out the diapers.  :)  She really gets quite a kick out of it.

~Judah smiles a lot in his sleep, but has yet to "smile" really while awake.  It's so neat to see how different the kids are from each other!

~Judah still wakes up with "goopy eyes" and I spend most of our nursing time wiping them with my thumbs.  It really bugs me, and I'm sure he appreciates it, though I don't think it's ever caused him to complain.

~Judah went to church for the first time when he was 5 days old.  And no one could believe we were there.  :)  Okay, confession time, while I did want to go to church, I really just wanted to show him off.  :)  I'm a proud Mama, what can I say.

~Physically, this has been the easiest pregnancy and delivery to recover from.  I feel like a million bucks!  A very tired million bucks.

~And I don't remember being this forgetful either.  Though I guess that makes sense, in a way....  And you should see how many times I've had to backspace to re-type a word, or allow spell check to fix my errors... it's like every other word.  Annoying.

~Jeremy's going back to work full time this week, and it's a little scary..... I hope my passion for my children is matched by my ability to manage all three at the same time!  At least I don't need to worry about the house much--Jeremy's agreed to have our cleaning crew come weekly for the time being.  If only they did laundry...

~"Three, 3 and Under" is hard!  I'm waiting for it to get easier.......

~I'm so thankful for all the friends we have that brought us meals.  They've been such a blessing, and a moment of sanity in an otherwise chaotic day.

~I've been typing this, waiting for Judah to wake up to eat so I can go to sleep, but I'm beginning to think he's not going to wake up anytime soon.... So I'm going to go wake him up so he can go back to sleep and I can do the same.

~Night.

Some more Judah pics....

I keep pulling up our blog intending to write and update more.  But then I get distracted or tired or just don't care to do so!  But I'll try.  :)  I've been updating quite a bit via email and Facebook, so it almost seems redundant to update here.  But, like I said, I'll try.  :)

For now, enjoy some more Judah pics (since the only one here is just chubby-face Judah and not really "Sweet Baby Judah"  :)

About 45 minutes after birth.  Our midwife, birth assistant and student nurse-midwife went downstairs to write up some paperwork while we got some family time.  So this was roughly... 2:15 a.m.  Jeremiah had woken up from a bad dream, and insisted on sleeping in "Mommy's bed!"  So he ran in, jumped into bed on Jeremy's side, pulled the covers up and proceeded to try to fall asleep, totally oblivious to the new baby.  :) Jeremy asked him, "Umm... Jeremiah?  Did you see the new baby??" and his eyes popped right open!  Got over that bad dream fairly quickly after that.  :)

During his newborn exam.  I think he had just been measured at this point.  Lotta baby!  :)

Booty shot!  :)  They were checking his back and bum for.... something!  I think he looks bigger here than in person.  At least his bum doesn't look that big during diaper changes!

Almost done with his exam!  Just needed to put some drops in his eyes, get him dressed, and done he was!

Daddy got to be the first to dress him!  He looks so tiny when his Daddy holds him.  :)

The next morning.  Jeremiah had not forgotten about his new "Baby Judah" and just loves to hold him!  He's such a proud big brother.

Kookie giving kisses to her new baby brother.  Awww....

Okay, I lied, these were just birth pics.  I thought I had more on here, but I guess they all went directly to Facebook.  Will work on some real pics tomorrow!

In case you haven't heard....

Baby J is here, and HE has a name!

Judah Samuel was born on March 8th at 1:29 a.m.  It was a long, annoying labor (26.5 hours!) but once he was ready to come, come he did!  Once I got the urge to push, around 1:26 a.m., it was all downhill and he was born 3 minutes later, absolutely perfect!  No air bag puffs (Jeremiah) or oxygen tanks needed--just Daddy to catch him and Mommy to hold him!  I was never so glad to be done being pregnant!  :)

Jeremiah and Jesslyn are absolutely smitten!  They can't stop talking about "Baby Judah".  It's so sweet.

That's all I've got time for right now--off to cuddle with the little man!  :)

Deep thoughts, by Jeremiah...

Jeremiah has been saying some really cute things lately, so I thought I'd try to record some of them here while they're fresh!  So here we are.

~This morning, Jeremiah wanted to help me get him and Jesslyn their chocolate milk (they drink an instant breakfast in the mornings--neither is very interested in actual food first thing, but they do love their milk!)  I told him he could carry his milk from the counter to the microwave, as they have to drink it WARM!  So he went to pick it up, and it sloshed around a bit and spilled on the floor (not much, just a little.)  Not a big deal--I cleaned it up, and we put his milk in the microwave, problem solved.  A minute later, he says to me, "Me sorry, Mommy, me didn't mean to... Me sorry."  :)  He said it a few times, even though I told him it was okay, as it was just an accident, but I thought it was so sweet that he was concerned I was upset about it (even though I wasn't.)  I guess I should probably watch my reactions in the future....

~We were in the car the other day, driving home from Alexandria for my BirthCare appointment, and it was a nice, sunny day.  Jeremiah said, "Oh, it's a beautiful day!  Beautiful day, Mommy!"  Me, "Oh yeah?  It's a beautiful day?  It is a beautiful day, isn't it?"  Jeremiah, "Yes, Mommy, it is a beautiful day.  Poppy says that, Mommy."  :)  I guess my Dad comments on the weather when they're together.  :)

~Jeremy was getting frustrated this morning, because of some password situation with work, and said, "Stupid stupid stupid blah blah blah."  Jeremiah responded, "Daddy!  Don't say that!"  :)  When I told my Mom about it on the phone later, Jeremiah heard me telling the story, and he told me, "Mommy, only Daddy can say that," which later changed to, "No, not Daddy, only POPPY!"  Can you tell he's fond of his Poppy?  :)

Those are the ones on the forefront of my mind right now.  I'll be sure to add more as they come up!

Happy Birthday, Jeremiah!

Wow. Jeremiah, my little man, my baby, is now THREE!

Wow.

As with each passing year, he's changed quite a bit since turning two. The biggest change: he speaks! At his 2 year check up, our pediatrician expressed some concern about his development, since he was only saying a handful of words (his favorite being "apple.") We went through all the motions to get him evaluated, both privately and via the county, and both suggested therapy. By the time we had our follow up assessment with the county, though, he'd decided he was going to start talking, and boy did he! Five to ten words quickly went to 40-50, and there's been no stopping him since!

It's so cute, now, because he has little phrases that he'll use regularly, and it's just so sweet to hear him try to explain things. For example, he told me the other day that he was going to, "Tell MeeMaw" when we were en route to my Mom's house. "Tell MeeMaw what, Jeremiah?" "Umm.... tell MeeMaw!" Once we got there, we found out that he was planning on telling her about his playgroup that morning, and how he was playing at Cameron's house and they were playing with trains, etc. :) That was the first time he's given a report of his morning without prompting! Pretty cool.

His latest thing is saying he could do something, "all day long." And everything he does, he does, "all day long!" :) Like when he woke up from his nap, and I asked him if he had a good one. His reply was, "Yeah, me nap all day long!" Or he'll be drinking some water, and he'll say, "Mommy, me drink water all day long!" Not sure where it came from, but it sure is cute! :)

We bought him a balance bike for his birthday (if you're not familiar with balance bikes, see thisarticle.) So far, he's really been enjoying it, though we haven't had many opportunities for him to ride it outside. And when we did, he decided it was more fun to go off roading, and try to ride over snow instead of staying on the driveway (which was far less muddy...) Sigh. Oh well, I'm sure he'll get the hang of it on PAVEMENT, too.

For his birthday, we had a party for him at Chuck E Cheese. Kinda weird, since I remember having my birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese when I was young. According to my Mom, the price has only gone up $1 since then! Crazy. It was loads of fun,t hough, and everyone had a great time. My Mom and I made the cake for him, since it was the only thing we actually had to do for the party, and I think it turned out quite well (though the pic below is blurry--camera case is STILL missing, and that has the card converter so it will fit in my laptop.)

It's still hard to believe my little man is 3, yet at the same time, he seems so much older. Funny how that works, huh? :)

Happy birthday, Jeremiah! Mommy & Daddy love you lots! :) You're such an awesome son, a super sweet and cool big brother, and a blessing to everyone who has the pleasure knowing you! :)

Determination.

Well, I've slacked for too long. I've sorta lost my motivation for blogging. It no longer has the impact it once did, since I've had to make the blog private, and I also do most of my "updating" via Facebook now. But as I sit here on the eve of Jeremiah's 3rd birthday, I looked back and saw quite the history unfolding. It's sad to imagine I won't have anything further. So I'm going to try harder. At least once a week! Maybe I'll get back up to my every-other-day schedule I once held. Maybe not. But I gotta at least try!

So where to start?

How 'bout the holidays?

They. Were. Crazy!

~Thanksgiving was held at my parents' house. We had quite the crowd there, as 2 of my 3 Uncles and their families came. Jeremiah was a bit overwhelmed by the chaos (my cousins are pretty loud and rambunctious,) so we set him up with his Cars movie while the rest of us ATE! And it was YUMMY! However, the turkey was on the smaller side, so I didn't get my turkey fix, which lead to me wanting to do turkey for Christmas, as well. More on that, later.

~I do love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year, and having kids makes it that much more fun! This year is really the first year Jeremiah's starting to "get it." For a while, we debated on what to tell Jeremiah, regarding Santa, since we really want the focus to be on Jesus and His birth, and not on the gifts under the tree. For a while, we thought we'd just try to be as vague as possible, but in the end, I decided I wanted Jeremiah to wonder if Santa was "real." So I told him, "On Christmas Eve, Santa brings presents to all the good little boys and girls! When you wake up on Christmas morning, and you see the gifts under the tree, many will be from Mommy and Daddy, but hopefully, some will also be from Santa!"

One thing we did do, though, was still emphasis that Christmas was Jesus' birthday--this is a concept even Jeremiah can understand. To really hit it home, we even ordered a birthday cake for Jesus (okay, Mommy wanted an excuse to order a Costco cake. Mmmm.... Costco cake....) and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas day. And if you had asked Jeremiah, "What day is next week?" the week before, he wouldn't have said, "Christmas!" but instead, "Jesus' birthday!" I know we did our job when the very last gifts to be opened (days later) were those from Santa, but you can still ask him who had a birthday recently, and he'll tell you, "Jesus!" We'll add the more important details as the years go on, but I think we're off to a good start.

~Before Christmas, we had some fun. I had a Cookie Swap, we had our Christmas party (during the first snow storm of the year! but we still had 30+ people!) and various other things that are all a blur at this point. We gave lots of stuff away, too! All year long, I buy toys and baby things on clearance for cheap cheap cheap! Some, I intend to keep for my kids. Most, though, is saved for Toys for Tots, or some other charity during the holidays. We weren't on our game this year, so we waited for our church to put up their Angel tree and took as many cards as we thought we could supply gifts. And it was quite a bit. Even once we dropped everything off, we could have taken more cards, since most people got ONE thing for each card, whereas we had multiple items (not many bigger ticket items, but we could have probably split each one in two.) It felt so good to get all that stuff out of the house, especially to know it was going to someone who might not have anything otherwise.

~December also brought our biggest snow storm of the century! Granted, we're only 9 years in, but considering we haven't had a white Christmas since 2002 (and that wasn't very white... more like a heavy dusting,) this was huge. The forecast called for 12+ inches. Then it was 16+ inches. Then it was up to 24 inches?! Yikes!

The night before, the Friday before Christmas, we decided to take the kids out to go look at Christmas lights. We got a late start, though, since we also wanted to drop off all the cookies I'd collected from the Cookie Swap to our neighbors. And then we hit traffic on 28 (rush hour traffic? still? at 7:30??) But we found the neighborhood we were looking for, and the lights were, indeed, quite impressive. Lots of over the top stuff, but the kids loved it.

On our way to another neighborhood, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for dinner, and were surprised to find a Barber Shop group there, singing Christmas carols! They serenaded us throughout our meal, even reading the Christmas story from the Bible in between carols. It was really cool! After every song, Jeremiah would say to me, "I like that song, Mommy!" :)

Once we left there, we went on our search to find the house with the million white lights. We found it, and there really was, what appeared to be, a million white lights! Everything was covered, but tastefully so (think wrapping-tree-trunks with strands of lights, and then each branch was also wrapped...) They had several "tasteful" lawn ornaments, too, like reindeer and even a nativity scene! It was very impressive. To top it off, while we were there, it began to snow! A few flurries here and there, and by the time we left, a few had become many, so we stopped at Home Depot to get some supplies (more salt and gloves for Jeremy,) before heading home.

We did get our big snow, about 18" overall, and both kids LOVED it! Jesslyn is definitely part-Canadian, as she wasn't phased by the cold at all! Granted, they were well bundled up, but her face was so red when they came in, yet she was still smiling! I think out of the three of them that went out (Mommy stayed inside) Jeremy probably tolerated it the least! He also had the least amount of clothing on, which may have had something to do with it. ;) Mommy rectified that on Christmas. :)

~As far as Christmas day goes, we overdid everything! We got the kids WAY too much stuff (some of it is still sitting in the garage, waiting for another gift-worthy occasion,) but I kept finding good deals on things, it was hard to say no! My parents came over around 10 a.m., so that's when the fun began. Jeremiah got a Tag Reader (which he loved! though he didn't know it at the time--took us a few days to open it and get it programed,) a train table, some Thomas stuff and a bunch of other random things he doesn't care about (I thought for sure he would, too! I'm looking at you, Rocky the Robot Truck....) Jesslyn got a doll house (so cute!) a new praying baby doll, some "Mommy" gear (high chair, stroller, etc.,) but her favorite gift was definitely the shopping cart! Both she and Jeremiah push that around EVERYWHERE! At least Mommy got one good thing right! :)

After gifts, we had a yummy breakfast my Mom brought over (quiche!) and we made malassadas! Yummy! We took a couple of hours to chill (and Mommy took a nap) before cooking the big dinner! It was all tasty, but next year, I think we should just have brie chicken and maybe some sauteed green beans, or something--keep it simple!

~New Year's Eve was spent at my parents' house. We went over, ate dinner (stromboli!) put the kids down for the night, played cards, watched the ball drop and I fell asleep while Jeremy... did something! Not sure what. Probably on the computer. :) Around 2 a.m., Jeremiah woke up, so we decided to leave. Soooooo tired.... thankfully, so were the kids, and they slept in 'til 9:30 or so, which made the morning a bit more palatable.

That night, we went over my Uncle Nelson's for "Christmas". Normally, we do this part of Christmas on Christmas Eve, but they were away skiing in CO, so we pushed it back a week. It was a nice night, but really, I felt that the whole Christmas thing had gone on long enough. I was ready for the chaos part to be done! I miss the Advent part of the season. That's where the magic lies (see Christmas outing on snow storm eve above...)

Overall, we had a lovely Christmas and holiday season, but I'm too pregnant to do anything that crazy again. :) Next year, I'm going to try to simplify as much as possible! We'll see how well that goes.

And with that, I will leave you, for it is now Jeremiah's birthday, and I need to get some sleep before the birthday boy wakes up! Hopefully we'll be seeing you again soon. :)

Trip to the Fire Station!

Jeremiah, like most boys his age, is obsessed with fire trucks. He will watch the Mighty Machines "At the Firehall" (it's a Canadian production....) over and over and over and over and then.... just one more time. So when the opportunity to go on a tour came up in my Mom's group, we had to go!

And go we did! :)

Checkin' out the firestation from the inside. It was HIGH!

Watchin' a fireman suit up.

Jeremiah 'totally' not interested in watching said fireman suit up.

"Does he look scary now, kids?" Me: "Yes...." Kids: "NO!!!!!" Whoops....

Meet and greet with the 'scary', I mean, 'not scary' fireman. Jeremiah waved at him. That was it.

Woah. What's that face, Jeremiah? :)

Oxygen tanks, extension cords, and... radios? I guess so.... They didn't have THAT on the Canadian truck!

Eh. I got nutin'.

He sure does look little next to that tire!

He wanted to climb in the truck, but those steps are a bit spikey....

.....So Mommy helped him out! (He really wanted to push buttons, but was a good boy and refrained.)

Utter bliss. :)

He sat in every seat....

....in every truck.

HAHA! Okay, this is not a flattering pic at all, but it makes me laugh. :)

Yeah, so we had a great time at the fire station! Jeremiah really enjoyed it and I know he'll want to go back again someday soon! Fun stuff!

Still no van...

Now what we're hearing is that the district manager for Honda is a real hard a$$ (Service Manager at the dealership's words, not ours) and the most we can expect from him is 25% or 50% off. What... a..... COLORFUL WORD &%$&#^!%#^$&!!!! I'm so glad there's a lawsuit in the works. They lost the last one (same issue, older model years) so there's a good chance they'll lose again, which means we should get reimbursed for our costs. Not our headaches/hassles/time without, mind you.... But what can ya do. I guess better late than never, right?

What's sad is that I'm really getting used to being stuck at home. I'm sure the kids are getting anxious about not having a change of scenery every now and then. And at least the farm is still just a walk away, though not a fun one when it's low-mid 90's and muggy. But it was nice tonight--high 70's and just a tad muggy made for a comfortable expedition! Jeremiah loved every minute of it. And there's nothing like the lack of light to cue him in on when it's time to leave, not that he was happy about it.

I'd say the rest of the day wasn't too bad. There re-paving the road right behind our property, so we sat on our little hill to watch for a bit. Jeremiah LOVED that! First we watched a huge dump truck back up while another truck swept up all the debri and it went up a conveyor belt into the truck. That was cool. Then a little loader went behind that truck, and picked up more debri. Then a couple of street sweepers went behind that and scrubbed it all clean (I guess.) That was it for today, so I'm guessing they're going to pave tomorrow, which should be fun to watch. I just hope it's not so hot tomorrow, so we can go out and be comfortable. And maybe the stupid bugs'll stay at bay, too! I didn't realize mosquitos were active in the daytime.... Grrr...

Sleepiness has been an annoying problem lately. Everyday this week, I've been desperate to nap, so I have. Thankfully, Jesslyn has been feeling the same way. Either that, or she figures, "Well, it doesn't look like Mommy's coming to get me up, so I guess I'll sleep." Last week, she wasn't interested in her afternoon naps AT ALL. For a while there, I thought she was being like her big brother and giving up her 2nd nap before her 1st birthday. As annoying as it is to be stuck in the house twice a day, well, it's not like I'm going anywhere anyway! Yeah, I'm okay with it. I like those breaks in the day, especially because Jesslyn is my "needy" child. She's okay if I'm in the same room as her, but usually, she wants me to hold her. It's very cute, but there are definitely times I wish she were more like her brother and happy to play by himself, sans Mommy. At least I know I'll always have a cuddle bug!

Only a few more weeks 'til her birthday! Crazy. I think we'll have to have a little family something or other. It was quite the year!

And now, for Top Chef...

One month later...

...and still no mini-van. GRUMBLE!!!!

That being said, I'm getting used to being stuck in the house all day. And with the exception of Sunday and Monday, the weather has been favorable to short walks and visits to the farm. But man... those past two days--whooo! As my Dad would say, "It was a SCORCHA!" But we had a nice time, despite the heat.

Sunday, our friends (and soon to be married) Juanaldo (real name, John,) and Carolyn (real name, Carolyn. :) came over for a little cookout. Had some yummy burgers, chocolate chip cookies, and just a nice time hanging out [inside] with our favorite engaged couple!

Yesterday, Jeremy worked from home, which totally messes up my inner-clock. Someone mentioned Monday in passing, and I thought, "Isn't that today???" Yeah. I blame it on a placenta brain. ;) But it was nice to have him home! I had TWO meals to deliver yesterday to two new Mommies--one way out in Leesburg (it's only way out because they're Mom's from my Moms' group in Reston/Herndon, so they're a little further out than I expected,) but the other was in my neighborhood, so they equal out to about 15 minutes each way, each. There we go! :) I made some YUMMY Stuffed Peppers. I haven't had 'em in so long, and boy was it good! I used this recipe from All Recipes, in case you want to make them yourself. I did use chicken stock instead of water, was a little more generous with worchestsire sauce, and used canned stewed tomatoes instead of plain. Very tasty.

I'll make this again, but I'll use boiled cabbage isntead of the peppers. Nothing against peppers, but I really just wanted the filling, so I'll use something that's a little less in your face the next round. Oh, and I made my own Tomato Soup using tomatoes from our garden (so if you didn't want to use all of it as a sauce for the peppers, you could just eat it!) All that was was our peeled tomatoes, an onion, garlic, s&p, a few bay leaves and some crush red pepper flakes! Blend it all together, and YUM!

Back to the Mommies. So the whole meal was the stuffed peppers with tomato soup/sauce, mixed greens with strawberries and blueberries with a balsamic vinegrette (which I accidently made into mayonnaise the first time... thought I'd be clever and use my new hand blender to mix it. Yeah.... too much power. Came out yummy the second time, though!) and chocolate chip cookies for dessert! Yum! I was very pleased with it, and both Mommies seemed to be pleased as well! Unfortunately, I didn't get any baby time at either delivery, but that's alright. I'll just go steal my neighbor's baby sometime, so it'll be okay. :) Hey, she said I could. Is it stealing, then, if you have their permission??? ;)

Jesslyn turns one in a month. CRAZY! This year has gone by so quickly, much more quickly than Jeremiah's first year, I think. Then again... no, it definitely went by more quickly. :) I wonder what'll happen when #3 arrives! Will it all be a blur??? Guess we'll just have to wait and see. She's changing so much (who doesn't say that?) She's practicing standing unassisted (got it down, pat!) starting to "talk" (ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba [ball or bottle], ki-eee [kitty], etc...) It looks like we won't have any speech problems with her!

Speaking of speech, Jeremiah had his evalulation with the county last week. He's no longer developmentally delayed, just below average, which is not surprising. He adding words everyday! Just wasn't interested in talking before, that's all. I'm sure by the time he has his three year check up, he'll be right where he should be! So we're very thankful to put an end to *that* chapter in our lives.

Back to Jesslyn--I love her hair--it's so cute! It's getting really long in the back, but instead of just being long, it curls up underneath itself, so while it's been the same "length" for a while, when you comb through it, you realize just how long it is. But that's the only place she has curls--the rest is pin straight and wispy! It's too fine for hair clips, but I can put it up in pigtails all day long! I usually, do, but it's not the easiest task--I have to find something really interesting to distract her with, otherwise she tries to "watch" what I'm doing and keeps twisting and pulling away. So cute once it's done, though!

That's all for now!

Yay for good days!

In my quest to post more often, I thought I would write a short one about today, since yesterday wasn't so great.

Oddly enough, today's been a rather good day! I went to bed last night around the time I usually do (midnight...) despite my plans to do otherwise.... Hey, Top Chef Masters was on 'til 11, so, y'know, I had to watch that! Then it was "He said/She said" on 1 vs. 100 (on XBox Live) so I thought I'd play that a little while, and then it was cleaning up from dinner/getting ready for bed nonsense... Yeah, next thing you know, it's midnight.

ANYWAY, I woke up at 8 today and was, strangely, rather awake. Both kids were still sleeping, so I tried to go back to sleep, only to hear Jeremiah a few minutes later--"Mooooooooooooommeeeeeeeeee!" Since Jesslyn was still asleep, I tried to convince Jeremiah to come lay in bed with me, even trying to shush him as we walked down the hall to our room. Of course, as soon as we were close to Jesslyn's room, he shouted, "Dat one, too!" Grrr.... He wanted his blanket in bed with us. Long story short, we got a scant few minutes cuddling before, "Kookie up!" as Jeremiah would say. Yes, Jesslyn still is, and forever will be, "The Kookie"

Am I the only person who thinks that days that start off gray and rainy are good days??? I think it's because I don't have anywhere to go (and couldn't go even if I did--STUPID HONDA! Anyway--) so it's just a sign that we can take the day slow and easy, and just see how things go. So that's what we did. We took our time at breakfast, and just kinda chilled this morning. Jesslyn was a good girl, and went down for her nap on time, Jeremiah was happy to watch Caillou while Mommy showered, and then Meemaw and Uncle Stephin came over to hang out for a bit.

Since they were here, I seized the opportunity to get out of the house. Our neighbor/friends from down the street, Leslie and John, welcomed a beautiful baby boy, Matthew, into the world yesterday, and I was lucky enough to get to visit them at the hospital today! Of course, it was part of my master plan--Leslie had asked for ideas on how to make John's birthday (today) special, since they'd be in the hospital. I volunteered to bring a cake in, but of course, I really wanted to see the baby. :) Not that I minded doing that for them, but c'mon... who doesn't want to see a new baby?! When I got there, he'd been wheeled out for, umm, "boy stuff" so I got to visit with Leslie and John (mostly Leslie) instead. And Leslie's sister, Kate, so it was a nice time chatting while we waited for Matthew to return. Once he did, much cooing/oo-ing/aww-ing ensued. It was a nice time, and I was honored to be able to share that with Leslie and her family.

Jeremy's working the rest of the afternoon from home today. Well, he did, since the workday is now over. He had a "team outting" to Annapolis for some sailing. Yeah. For some reason, they made it an overnight trip. This was "okay" with me, until he decided to not call/text/email/check in AT ALL until 8 a.m. this morning. Seriously, I was sending him text messages, asking him if he was still alive. How was I to know differently??? Thankfully, he is, and home safe and sound now. He was even kind enough to run to Burger King and get me a Whopper (which has since been consumed, furthering the goodness of the day. :) But then he locked me out of the house.... I don't think he meant to, I think it was out of habit (and a good one, too! Especially since he accidently left the front door not only unlocked, but OPEN, one night last week! Yeesh.)

That's been our day, thus far. I think some Chuck E Cheese action is in store for this evening, although the weather has really cleared up and turned beautiful. But those dang tokens are just clanging around in my diaper bag, and I'm getting a little tired of it. They gotta go!

Tomorrow, Jeremiah has his eval with ChildFind about his speech. Or maybe it's just a hearing test. I'm not really sure, but I don't think they're going to do anything to help him at this point--he's been talking up a storm! But I'm no expert, so we'll see.

It's one of those days...

'Those days' always seem to occur when Jeremy goes out of town, and I know I'll be without a break until bedtime. Where did he go, you ask? He's going boating in Annapolis with his team! What the heck?! Oh well. I'm glad he's out to have a good time, but of course it means I'm stuck here at home, vehicle-less, with two young kids and nowhere to go. Thankfully, my Dad is going to come by tonight to give me a break, so I can run some errands (need to check on a friend's cats, get some milk at the store, etc...)

I think part of my frustration is due to the caffeine in the coffee I had this morning--makes me a little jittery, which I interpret as "stress." I don't drink coffee in the mornings very often, and now I remember why. I'll stick with tea from now on. Just don't have the tolerance I used to have (as if it were an alcoholic beverage!)

Life has been pretty non-eventful lately. Since we're STILL waiting for Honda to fix our van (this is getting really REALLY ridiculous--3 weeks now, and they still don't have an answer for us! This is the LAST Honda we'll ever buy--as soon as it's fixed, we'll work on selling it, and buy a Sienna instead! They've lost a customer for good.) the kids and I have been stuck at home most days. My Dad was on vacation last week, so we did take Jeremy into work a few times so we could go out there an enjoy the pool. That was a nice time, but again, frustrating without a vehicle (and Jeremy's car isn't nearly as roomy as my van...) The kids really do enjoy going to Meemaw's and Poppy's house, though--Jeremiah loves to go back and forth between the pool and the sandbox (which is right next to the pool.) Jesslyn wasn't too fond of the water either time, though when she went in with Meemaw, she loved it! What the heck! No love for Mommy, I guess. She just whined the whole time with me, and laughed when

with Meemaw. I don't get it. Oh well.

This past weekend, Frying Pan Park (across the street from us) had their annual 4H fair. They had a carnival come and set up, so we took Jeremiah Friday night. He LOVED it! We really thought it would freak him out, as he's not too crazy about the "wild" rides at Chuck E Cheese, but he really did enjoy it--he went on ride after ride all by himself! I guess that's a plus to being tall for your age. :) He wasn't very happy to leave, but it was getting late, and Jesslyn was overtired. All in all, it was a nice little outing, one we'll be repeating again next year (maybe Jesslyn will be tall enough to ride the rides herself, too!)

Jeremy's garden is doing really well this year. Although his assortment of vegetables is lacking. He's only growing 4 different things.... I don't get it, but whatever. So if you're ever in the need of tomatoes, banana peppers or yellow squash, we've got ya covered. And jalepenos, but there's only 2 of those so they don't make very much. We had a bunch more squash, but the stupid groundhog that lives under our deck ate most of 'em. Stupid groundhog. He's lucky I don't know how to use Jeremy's shotgun, or I would have taken that little pest out myself! I kid.... :) I wouldn't do that--now if Uncle Stephin were over with his bb gun.....

Anyway, I made tomato soup yesterday to use up the many tomatoes we had sitting around, and it was yummy! Jeremy really liked it. I guess that's good, since it seems like all anyone grows around here is tomatoes, so they're tough to get rid of. I was going to make it "Portuguese style" which would have meant a thick piece of toast with a poached egg atop, at the bottom of the bowl, but we didn't have any toast, and I didn't think the egg would go over well with my non-Portuguese loving family (well, Jeremy would have eaten it, I think, though he is easily weirded out by non-traditional food. Jeremiah wouldn't even eat the soup as it was, insisting it was too hot, despite the fact that it had cooled on the counter for at least 10 minutes... And Jesslyn just wouldn't have more than a few bites. It was late, and she was tired, so I can't really blame her.)

On a "lighter" note, we've been eating relatively low carb, ever since watching "Fathead," a documentary-follow up to "Super Size Me." It rebuffs many of the falacies shown in that film, and explains the science behind how our bodies process fats and sugars. Turns out, it's not the fat in our foods that make us fat--it's the sugar! [BTW... here's an interesting post about how killing yourself at the gym every day won't help you lose weight....] Our bodies just weren't designed to process the amount of sugar and carbs that the USDA recommends we consume on a daily basis (300 g of carbs, if on a 2000 cal/day diet.) Anyway, you should see it for yourself--it was really encouraging, and backs up what my family (who's been low-carbing it for a while now) have been trying to tell me for years! After a month of just cutting out most of the junk (not all of it, and we do occasionally indulge, but we definitely don't consume nearly what we used to!) Jeremy and I have both lost 10 lbs. Not that I'm at a time in my life when I'm preoccupied with losing weight, so I've actually been trying to add more carbs back in my diet, just to stem off the losing. But it's amazing how much food you can enjoy and still lose weight by just cutting out the processed sugars and flours. So come March/April next year, I'll be going at it full force again. Yay!

Finally, we're taking a break from our cloth diapers. We just can't stay ahead of the pile of clothes that keeps appearing on a daily basis, so we're using disposables for now. Although when I told Jeremy how much they cost, he said, "That's it, we're going back to cloth." Yeah, $80 for a little over a month of diapers is a bit much. And they're not nearly as cute as our cloth. :) Maybe we should invest in a 2nd washer/dryer.... It'd be cheaper than using disposables, in the long run! Crazy, huh?

Oh, and for those who are thinking, "Why don't you just potty train Jeremiah?" Well, he's just not ready yet. I've tried to get him interested, but he could care less about "being a big boy" and is perfectly happy not interrupting his play to use the potty. So we'll wait. I'm sure he'll be outta diapers by the time he moves outta the house. In the meantime, it's not really a big deal to us.

And that's that!

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. :)

Jeremiah's Word List

Now that he's officially 2.5, I thought I'd write down all the words he can say, as of today...

"Trash" (just started saying that one today...)

"Boo-foo" (Zoomboomafoo)

"Aye-yoo" (Caillou, again, new today...)

"Ow-tide" (Outside)

"I di-ii..." (I did it!)

"Dat one, too!" (That one, too. Usually said when kissing boo-boos. More magically appear.)

"Uh oh."

"No no!" (We think he's really saying, "Nwaow Nwaow" or "Meow Meow" for Big Fella.)

"Oooo... Dat!"

"Cool?" (For some reason, "cool" is always a question. :)

"Mommy"
"Daddy"

"Baby" (it is what it is. It's also his name for Jesslyn.)

"Kooky!" (another name for Jesslyn. Usually preceeded by "da" for "THE KOOKY!)

"Apple!"

"Cookie"

"Poo poo" (self explanatory...)

"Boo boo" (ditto)

"oh no, dah!" (Oh no, that. I dunno...)

"No."

"Uh huh!" (he won't say 'yes', but he'll say, "Uh huh!")

"soo-ry!" (sorry)

"Mine!" (almost always an exclamation... Usually followed by Jesslyn whining/crying...)

"Me/Me do-ii!" (Me do it.)

"Buh-bye!" (So cute! I'm glad he's finally started saying this instead of "Ah-ti!")

"Tea"

"Two!"

"Tee!" (Three)

"Joo-ree" (Jewelry... yup, he's got the important ones down.)

"Dis" (This)

"Dat?" (That?)

"Turch" (church)

"Tiarrr" (tire)

Okay... That's all I can come up with for now. He's adding new words every day, I can't keep up anymore! But you get the idea... :)

All Caught Up

June was an absolutely CRAZY month for us! First was a wonderful vacation to the Outer Banks. We stayed in a beautiful beach house, located in a Corolla Light resort, which had its own pools, game room and restaurant (we did eat there, and boy was it YUMMY!) The best part of the trip, however, was the beach.

While I had not expected the water, or weather, to be warm enough to enjoy, I was, thankfully, wrong! We had some very sunny, warm days, and while the water was a tad chilly at first, it was easy to get used to (even for a water wimp like me!) and we were "catching waves" in no time! Even Jeremiah was able to get in on some water action, though he did find the waves a little scary at first. Jesslyn, at the beginning of the week, wanted nothing to do with the water, but was perfectly happy sitting on the beach as the tide came in to occasionally cool her off. And as it is with Jesslyn, nothing stops her from sucking her thumb--not rain, nor sleet or snow, and DEFINITELY NOT sand, much to Mommy's dismay...

We did try to go crabbing on the sound side. That was my favorite part. I'm not much of a crab person, but I do like fishing, and it was exciting when one of us were successful and caught a little stinker. And the day we chose was BEAUTIFUL for it. The water on that side was really warm, too, so I was walking around in there, thinking I could get closer to the crabs. That adventure ended quickly at the sighting of a "water snake." Not sure what kind it was, but as I'm not a fan of snakes in any way, shape, or form (no, I don't even want to see them dead...) I was not going to linger to find out. We stayed outta the water from that point on...

Jeremy proved to be quit the fisherman, despite having never crabbed before. I think it was a little frustrating for my Mom, as she was supposed to be our resident "expert." But she certainly wasn't complaining later that night when we were partaking of our catch (all 9 of 'em!) It was so much fun, though, I wanted to go again later that day (according to Wikipedia, the best time to go is dusk...) Unfortunately, all we caught that time was about 100 mosquito bites between my Mom and myself (not an exaggeration. ..) So Jeremy took us to get ice cream as a "reward" for trying. :)

All in all, it was a fabulous trip, and I really felt like our kiddies grew a lot while we were there. Jeremiah slept in a bunk bed for the first time, and was climbing out by the end of the week. It was really cute to have a two year old come into your room at 6:45 a.m. saying, "Mommy?" (which, by the way, he started saying while we were there! Along with a plethora of other words. I guess it took getting away from home to convince him to start using the English language. :) And Jesslyn perfected her crawling/climbing skills while there, as well. My little babes are growing so quickly! Shame how that works, huh?

As for the rest of the month, we had Jeremy's cousin, Catherine and Kris' wedding the following week. The wedding was WONDERFUL! It had a casual elegance about it, and I'm so glad we were able to attend. It started off a bit scary--I was hauling both kids and diaper bags/purse to go take our seats on the lawn (it was an outdoor ceremony,) while Jeremy went back to the van to get camera. Jeremiah decided that it was a bit too much for him, and started running back toward the entrance. Can you guess where this is going? Well, there was no stopping him, verbally, and with a 9 month old, bags and high heels in tow, chasing after him was near impossible. Next thing I knew, he took a sharp turn around the corner, right towards the street. I screamed, and THANK GOD, one of Jeremy's Uncle's was right there to catch him. I lost it. I finally caught up to him, yanked him towards me, and started bawling, while saying as sternly as I could, "You need to listen to your Mommy! When Mommy says STOP, you STOP!" He clearly felt bad to have made Mommy cry, which made me feel even worse. All while Jeremy's extended family looked on and tried to say, "Hi, Jess, nice to see you again." Oi... Hopefully we never have to repeat that adventure...

The rest of the wedding was beautiful, though. It did start to rain a bit, but luckily, cocktail hour was indoors--after you waited in line in the rain to congratulate the happy couple. My MIL took off with Jesslyn and cut in line to get in, which left me with Jeremiah, trying to follow without being as rude. Thankfully, a nice couple let me go in front of them (I was pretty much there already, but what could I do? Jeremy was all the way back in line, and I wasn't about to keep Jeremiah outside in the rain....) The rain did provide some entertainment for him later on, after dinner. All the chairs we had been sitting in during the ceremony now each had a little puddle of water on them, just waiting for Jeremiah to tip over! And he did. Every. Single. One.... It was really cute.

Our adventures at Jeremy's family farm (a cabin on the side of a mountain...) were equally enjoyable--more so for Jeremiah, I'm sure! He really loved everything about it, so I know we'll be heading back at some point. Old tractors, lots of room to roam, an old school pump for water, s'mores, fireworks, bonfires, all sorts of fun stuff for kids/boys/crazy people. ;) Maybe he and Daddy can camp out there while Jesslyn and Mommy hunker down in a b&b (though not the one we stayed at this last time! When we arrived Friday night, we had to carry our tired babies through a "deck party", thick with smoke, drunks, and loud music... No apologies from the innkeeper, just, "oh, you won't hear it from your room." But we did. So that's the end of that.)

We're glad to be home, though. I'm done traveling for a while! Two 6+hour trips in the car with two babies, back to back, is just too much. Of course, I wouldn't have minded avoiding the whole gall bladder thing, but I guess I'm glad it's over. I do feel better now. The pain is minimal, certainly not prescription pain killer worthy, but it's nice to have just in case. It has given me a short burst of energy before making me drowsy, so that's been handy for getting things done around the house. I'm not supposed to be lifting the kids, though, so that's been tough. My brother, Stephin, has been here to help with the kids, but it was obvious he wasn't happy hanging out, so he left and I'll just try to keep the lifting to a minimum. Really, I just need to make it through tommorrow. I think Jeremy can take off on Thursday, and Friday is "the 4th" (observed) so we'll be good from there on out.

And that is that. :)