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!

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!

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... :)

A beautiful winter day...

Finally, after several cold, gloomy days, it was bright, sunny and warm enough to head outside. We grabbed a quick lunch at Chik-fil-a, which was kinda a disaster at first... I didn't want to bring the stroller in, figuring Jeremiah could just walk and I could hold Jesslyn. Well, as soon as we walked inside, and saw how busy it was, Jeremiah's legs turned to jello, and he ended up on the floor. Thankfully, he didn't scream, just sat there, waiting for me to pick him up... except, I had Jesslyn. I *could* have picked him up, but I don't really want to encourage him to do that in public... My chiropractor would kill me if he knew I was picking up a 34lb toddler while holding a 23 lb baby... The employees there were AWESOME, though! One gal brought a high chair for Jeremiah to sit in while I was still ordering [it had wheels] and another brought our food to our table, and even helped strap Jesslyn into a 2nd high chair! So great--we'll definitely be hitting them up for lunch again if we're grabbing and going.

After Chik-fil-a, we stopped at Target so I could get more painkiller for Jesslyn. It's become a necessity if you want her to nap more than 30 minutes... I swear, those teeth had better come in soon, or else! I don't know what else. Maybe I'll punch 'em in the face! The teeth, not Jesslyn. Of course, I don't know how you'd punch the teeth in the face (ummm... especially since they don't have faces??) without hurting Jesslyn even more. So we'll just hope and pray they come in soon, before she becomes addicted to Childrens Tylenol (is that even possible??? ya never know....)

Anyways, Jeremiah was not excited to be at Target. He knew as well as I did that it was an outside-playing worthy day, and didn't want to spend it perusing the clearance racks for stuff Mom would *have* to buy because "it's 75% off!!!" But he was cool with it once I grabbed a Spider-man placemat for him from the $1 section (we're trying to encourage him to use the booster seat, so Jesslyn can use the high chair, but the tray on the booster isn't very big, and we don't want him to get our nice, new table all mucked up. Spider-man, to the rescue!)

I just have to rant about this real quick...

[ rant ]
Attention parking lot drivers! I cannot be looking for you 100% of the time when backing out! I don't have 360 degree vision, especially when looking over my shoulder! If you weren't there when I started backing up, then you need to WAIT until I'm done--not race past me, honking your horn annoyingly, because I was making sure the other side of the car was clear! Seriously, if the car is in motion backing up, STOP! Is it really going to kill you to wait 5 more seconds until I/we finish pulling out?!? I know it was worth it for you, crazy lady in the blue SUV--you got to that stop light before I did! Lucky you! I hope you didn't mind me starring at you the entire time the light was red, flashing the most sarcastic smile I could when you finally glanced over... You looked slightly uncomfortable.... why was that??? ;)

Same to you, crazy Chik-fil-a "I need to zip past this person backing up so I can get in line in the drive thu!" I'm sure the gentleman next to me really appreciated you being such a jerk when he was just trying to leave, too, probably to go back to work as well.

Stupid Reston-lunchtime drivers. These are probably a lot of the same people who make attending the Mclean Bible Church Tyson's campus, on Sundays, so stressful. I don't understand how people can leave church after worshipping, and hearing the word of God, and then honk at people as they speed along past instead of letting them backup... Thank God for the Loudoun campus! :)

[ /rant ]

Okay. And now.... pictures!

"That??" Yes, Jeremiah, we have a garage... "That??" Yes, Jeremiah, our neighbors have garages, too... "That??!!" Wash, rinse, repeat.... everyday... What can I say... he's obsessed with garage doors.

First bloom of the season! In the most unlikely place, too--under the big bushy evergreen in front of our house! I didn't know these things came back every year... Always thought they were only good for a season. Isn't that why the malls always replant them every year?

The denim kids! I actually bought Jeremiah's jacket for Jesslyn (it's a 2T) but the 12M size I bought her fits just fine. So they can both where their jean jackets together! And yes, Mommy wore hers, too.

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!

Jesslyn LOVES to bounce!

This girl is a motion maniac! If she's not bouncing in her "play thing" she's bouncing in her bouncer we put up in the doorway. Or on your lap, which is especially cute.

She doesn't bounce that much in this video... kept getting distracted by the sun. But when the camera wasn't rolling, she couldn't stop!

Yet another active child! I don't know how we did it. :) Didn't get it from Mommy & Daddy, that's for sure, but now it'll force us to be more so. Not a bad motivation to get up and moving!

And here she is....

LOST is BACK!

Well, kinda.  Wednesday, Jan. 14th, at 9 p.m., ABC will air the season four finale, for those of you who've forgotten (heck, it was, what 8! months ago!)  According to my "sources", the first two episodes of season 5 (of 6... yes, next season after this, 2010, is the LAST season of LOST!  AAAAAAHHHHH!) will be heavily "time-travel" centric.  And from what I understand, many questions that fans have been pondering during Season 5's gestation will be answered.  

Seriously, has there ever been a more thought out/provoking/frustrating/awesome show on TV???? EVER?!?!  No.  And for the haters out there, well, my guess is you haven't watched from the beginning, because, yeah, if you pick it up mid-season, and especially, MID-SERIES, it ain't gonna make a whole lotta sense.  But wow... it's gonna be awesome, come Fall 2010, to be able to sit down and watch all 6 seasons [preferably in Blu-ray,] back to back, no commercials and see exactly what kind of genius came up with such a masterpiece!

Okay, I may be going a tad overboard... then again, if you don't agree, well... then you haven't seen it.  Or you don't "get" it (you do have to invest at least a little effort to follow what's going on--the depth is part of what gives the show its "power of awesome."  Something Heroes lacked, unfortunately.  You can't just "watch" LOST.... just like you can't "skim" a book to truly "read" it.)

Anyways, the season premiere is next week, and I'm [we] are lookin' forward to it!  So let us know if you're on board--it's always fun to have other folks to chat with about it, share theories, figure out what's going on...  Part o' the fun!

Don't feel like you have to comment if you aren't... [I'm looking at you, Ali.... ;) ]  Playa's ONLY! [which means instead of 1 comments, we'll have 0 or -1 comments... if that's possible.  Seriously, you people don't know what you're missing... but I digress...]

I don't know if I'll be getting around to posting epi synops this time around...  We'll see how things go...  If this season is as awesome as all the spoilers have shown thus far, it's going to be hard to NOT say anything.  

By the way, Jeremiah's talking a lot more now.  :)  He's been saying, "that's like this, too!" or something similar, whenever he sees two of the same thing (like if we're both having oatmeal for breakfast, or he's looking at the fan in the breakfast nook, and will point to the fan in the dining room, etc...)  He also likes to say, "E," "T," "S," "C," "ice," "dank ooo," and a few others that I'm still trying to translate.  What a guy!  :)

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Fun times with Daddy.

Notice how Jeremiah is trying to get away (he managed to get pretty far, considering all he could do was rock back and forth...)  Yeah, it was pretty late, and both kids were ready for bed.  But they made the best out of it.

Getting dressed.

Now that Jeremiah's a toddler, I try to give him as much independence as I think he can handle.  So for a while, he's been "picking out" his clothes, with a little leading from Mommy of course (usually I'll let him pick a shirt out of two I've already picked out.)  

Today, I told him we were going to pick out his clothes, picked him up, stood in front of the closet and asked him, "What shirt do you want to wear?"  He proceeded to "flip" through all of his shirts (like he sees Mommy doing at Target, trying to find good deals on the clearance racks!) and then pointed to one towards the end.  "Am-pa! Am-pa!" he said.  Turns out, he was pointing to a short sleeved plaid shirt that looks a lot like something his Grandpa would wear.  :)  When I pulled it out and asked if that's what he wanted to wear, he got a HUGE smile on his face and started speaking in his little language (that we have yet been able to translate...)

He was very proud of his choice of clothing, especially since it was similar to something "Am-pa" would wear.  What a little kook.

Turns out it's a little small... But that's okay.  :)  [I added the long sleeve tee... hey, it's chilly around here!  That certainly didn't help the fit, though...]

Obligatory silly Steeler hat poses...

The fun stuff.

In more interesting news about his visit, he's still just shy of the 30 lb mark, weighing in at 29 lbs, 14 oz--almost too big for the scale! I'm sure next visit he will be.

He's also about 34 inches tall, and still barely on the charts, stat wise. 96/97+/96 were his stats (weight/head/length) I guess Dr. Atiyeh feels he's growing just fine, so he's having us switch him to 2% milk. And, "he can eat the same things we eat, but still avoid nuts (ooops), and shellfish, like shrimp (ooops) and lobster..." Well, I'm sorry, but peanut butter and honey sandwiches are his favorite (on whole grain bread, no less...) And while he doesn't have it often, I have given him small pieces of shrimp without any kind of reaction (he's had worse reactions to apple cinnamon oatmeal...) so I think he's alright.

His favorite things to eat are cheese (any kind, really, though he's never had American, as far as I know... maybe at a restaurant, but we don't buy it. We prefer cheddar or muenster, both of which he loves,) veggie cream cheese on toast, turkey, freeze dried fruits (I think he prefers them to the real thing, at least in the case of bananas...) peanut butter, any kind of fresh citrus (he makes Daddy share his grapefruit with him, every time...) oatmeal, miso soup, scrambled eggs and milk, of course.

There're lots of things he likes to eat, but he's more picky about when he'll eat them, like corn, tomatoes, cheese quesadillas, chicken, ground beef, hotdogs, rice, cooked red peppers, umm... that's about it for now. He's really become a "picky" eater, compared to what he used to be (used to eat anything! Not so much anymore.) Makes getting a balanced diet in a little tough, but he's growing just fine, so I guess he'll make up for it more later. Maybe it's time to break out Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, and start hiding veggies in foods (though the veggies that you hide in the foods he would eat, like squash in mac n cheese, he'll eat on their own, so it's not necessary to 'sneak' them in.) I think I'll start making my own veggie cream cheese--at least I know there'll be plenty of real veggies in it, then. Might get freeze dried veggies, too, since he likes the fruits so much. Looks like we need a trip to Whole Foods!

The doc kinda freaked us out a bit, when he asked us how many words Jeremiah was saying. "Usually around this age, they can say 10-15 words." Ten to fifteen?! Jeremy: "Uh, yeah, he can say about 10 words." Oh really? Hmm... I only count 4 or 5... Mama/Nonny (for Mommy), Dada, "o'er dere" (over there or outside... usually he's point to the outside when he says it,) "o dat" (what's that? or can I have that?) and that's about it. He did say "duckie" once, as I mentioned in a previous post, but that's all... So yeah, I was wondering where "10" came from. :) Dr. Atiyeh: "Wow, if he can say 10, that's really good." Jeremy: "Well, actually, I guess it's only 5." lol

And that's about all. I need to go sort stuff I'm going to sell at the sale this weekend, and run a few errands before the "6 days of rain" shows up (opening this weekend! YAY! <~ Sarcasm...)

@ the farm...

Took Jeremiah to Frying Pan Park this morning, before naptime. It's so nice out, but all the kids around us are in school or daycare, so we headed across the street to look at the animals instead. He had a great time! We've taken him before, but this was the first time he seemed genuinely interested in the animals we were seeing. He found the turkeys funny, wanted to play with the goats (he probably thought they were dogs...) and was especially interested in the "duckies" (one of the few words he can say now! Though it kinda comes out like "dook--eees")

I think he was a bit confused at first, since the duckies he's used to seeing are all yellow, and these were black, brown and gray, but he warmed up to them, and kept trying to stick his fingers in the cage.

After a quick stop at the country store, we headed back home. He was pretty relaxed, and I thought he had fallen asleep. Nope! He's asleep now, though, and will probably take a nice long nap (hopefully!) After naptime--Walmart!

"Hi, Da-Da..."

The exact conversation went like this:

Jeremiah walks into the bedroom part of our hotel room...

Jeremy: "Hi, Jeremiah."

Jeremiah: "Hi, Da-Da."

Yes, he really did say that, and no, we're not just wishing that's what we heard. It was *the* cutest thing he's ever done!

And he probably won't do it again for a long time... But we both remember it! So for now, it's all we've got.