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...

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!

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!

OBX Slideshow

Here are the photos from our trip!


And, uh, that's it! I'll write more about it-----later! :)

Coming soon....

Herndon Big Trucks Day!

Is this right up Jeremiah's alley, or what???? The kid is obsessed with cars/trucks/anything man-made that moves! Needless to say, he was so much more excited to be hanging around big trucks than a candy store. :) Too bad the weather was kinda iffy, and a few of the other parents there (okay, it was just ONE) didn't know how to teach their kids to share and take turns (and failed to encourage such) but all in all, 'twas a fun day for him!

This was the only truck left with a working horn. Since we hit it at the tail end of the week--okay, the very last day--all the other horns were "dead." And it was LOUD! So loud that Jeremiah was on edge the whole time we were there, as most kids would just lay it on and not let up until whatever adult they were with finally talked 'em down.

"More than meets the eye..." ????

Jesslyn just kinda chilled with Mommy, taking it all in. She, unlike Jeremiah, was not fazed by the horns. Just kept smiling!

How to stop some horn-induced tears? Cookies help! :)

"HI!"

Ah... that's "the dad" that would not encourage his kids to share/take turns. Jeremy and I later saw him while in line to see Star Trek at the IMAX. Jeremy didn't believe me at first, but the more he looked at him, he realized I WAS RIGHT! How freaky is that.... glad I didn't do anything more than send some stern looks his way....

This was pretty cool--you could change the lights as you wanted. Jeremiah enjoyed doing that while waiting for his turn in one of the trucks.

Okay, seriously, am I really the only one expecting these trucks to "transform"?!?!? Don't they look like they should???? Am I really just that stuck in the 80's (and now, 00's, considering Transformers 2 comes out IN ONE MORE WEEK!!!)

Time to go! Wave bye bye, Jeremiah!

Okay, he wasn't happy to leave. He kept wanting to go back... but yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Mommy had had enough of the honking horns. :)

Mother's Day Pics

Whoops, this is a bit late, isn't it? Well, I just discovered these pics whilst cleaning out the camera. Since I finally broke down and paid for a Pro Flickr account, hopefully I'll be able to post more, sooner.

I thought I had already blogged about Mother's Day, but looking back, it doesn't appear to have been mentioned. Ooops! I tell ya, you have a couple of people make a comment about the content of your blog, and you go from blogging nearly every other day to one or twice a month. Yeesh.

Okay, then, Mother's Day! Umm.... I don't really remember much about it. :) I know Jeremy woke up, for the first time ever!, and went out to get me flowers, cards, a balloon and a little cake. I think he was going to make me breakfast, but we didn't have time, since I wanted to go to church. And since we volunteer in the nursery on the 2nd Sunday of every month, we couldn't NOT go. Yeah.

It was fine, though. Watched the kiddies, sat in the service while someone ELSE watched OUR kiddies, then headed home. My family came over in the afternoon and we did a simple cook-out to celebrate.

That's 'bout it. :) And the only pics I have are of Jeremiah playing on his swing set.

He does look sweet, doesn't he?

But yeah, that's it. No photos of Jesslyn, or me (even though I looked GOOD that day--that I remember!) Just Jeremiah. Unless I have them on my OTHER camera (that I have yet to download.) I guess that'll be another late post for yet another time... :)

POOL is OPEN!!!

FINALLY!  Jeremiah has been saying, "pool! pool! pool!" for weeks now, waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to open it so he can go in.  So Saturday, we seized the opportunity, with a beautiful, warm day just waiting for us!  

Jeremiah was so excited, he didn't care how cold the water was, he just wanted to go in!  Jesslyn, on the other hand, is a little lady, and like her Mommy, was not pleased with the temperature of the water.  Jeremy tried to take her in, and she was still crying by the time he carried her up the stairs for me to hold.  Awww...

I was quite impressed with Jeremiah's swimming skills this year.  Last year, we bought him a floaty suit thingie, so he could learn to balance in the water himself, but he wasn't quite ready for that yet.  This year, however, he's become a regular fish!  By the time we left, he was walking down the steps into the water and swimming over to Daddy like he'd been doing it all summer!  My little man--such a big boy now!  

And Jesslyn... well, she was perfectly happy sitting on a blanket with me.  :)  So the gals chilled poolside while the boys froze their bums off.  Sounds like a good day.  :)

How to suck your thumb:  By Jesslyn Wilcox

Insert thumb (left or right, doesn't matter...) into mouth.

Hand may be opened or closed--your preference.

When switching sides, be sure to gently remove thumb from mouth, first.

Commence sucking.  

The end. :)

"That?"  I think he was pointing at the boat across the pool.

Climbing out, all by himself, with a fishy in hand (it's actually supposed to help warm the water, but it was too breezy that day to use it.)

"It's not cold--see how happy we look???!"

Swimming all by himself.  What a big boy!

Jesslyn preferred to crawl around and be cute on the blanket.

"It's too cold to swim, Mommy.  Why did Daddy take me in?  It was too cold!"

"Okay, I feel better now.  The sun is nice and warm."

"Aww, c'mon Mommy, I don't wanna pose..."