Jesslyn's B-Day Party!

On Sunday, September 6th, we had a 'little' birthday party for Jesslyn. I say 'little' because it was supposed to be a simple party with cake and just some family & few friends, but it morphed into something.... bigger. :) Not too crazy, but I just can't keep it easy. 'Twas goot times, though, and we're still eating leftovers. :) Here're some highlights for ya!

Mommy & The Kookie post-nap at her party!

The Kookie's "smash" cake, courtesy of Miss Merry.

"Our" cake, courtesy of Costco. :) 'Twas quite yummy, too.

Staring down her cake... I don't think she liked the candle.

"Hmm.... not too sure about this. I'd better try another bite."

"MMMM! It IS yummy!"

Now, Jesslyn SMASH!!

After....

And now... some video highlights!!

Jesslyn vs. Her Birthday Cake

"Hey, it's not so bad after all..."

Jesslyn SMASH!

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...

Interesting Facts

Most of you with whom I keep in contact regularly know that we've adopted a "low carb" lifestyle recently. This is something my family has been talking about for YEARS, but I've never been convinced to the legitimacy of it. Then we saw "Fathead", a sort of follow up documentary to "Super Size Me" and it really started to make sense. I've been perusing their blog in recent weeks, and thought I would share their "No-Bologna Facts" with you. Emphases are mine.

• There’s never been a single study that proves saturated fat causes heart disease.
• As heart-disease rates were skyrocketing in the mid-1900s, consumption of animal fat was going down, not up. Consumption of vegetable oils, however, was going up dramatically.
• Half of all heart-attack victims have normal or low cholesterol. Autopsies performed on heart-attack victims routinely reveal plaque-filled arteries in people whose cholesterol was low (as low as 115 in one case).
• Asian Indians - half of whom are vegetarians - have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the entire world. Yup, that fatty meat will kill you, all right.
• When Morgan Spurlock tells you that a McDonald’s salad supplies almost a day’s allowance of fat, he’s basing that statement on the FDA’s low-fat/high-carbohydrate dietary guidelines, which in turn are based on … absolutely nothing. There’s no science behind those guidelines; they were simply made up by a congressional committee.
• Kids who were diagnosed as suffering from ADD have been successfully treated by re-introducing natural saturated fats into their diets. Your brain is made largely of fat.
• Many epileptics have reduced or eliminated seizures by adopting a diet low in sugar and starch and high in saturated animal fats.
• Despite everything you’ve heard about saturated fat being linked to cancer, that link is statistically weak. However, there is a strong link between sugar and cancer. In Europe, doctors tell patients, “Sugar feeds cancer.”
• Being fat is not, in and of itself, bad for your health. The behaviors that can make you fat - eating excess sugar and starch, not getting any exercise - can also ruin your health, and that’s why being fat is associated with bad health. But it’s entirely possible to be fat and healthy. It’s also possible to be thin while developing Type II diabetes and heart disease.
• Saturated fat and cholesterol help produce testosterone. When men limit their saturated fat, their testosterone level drops. So, regardless of what a famous vegan chef believes, saturated fat does not impair sexual performance.

Hmm.... sounds like a lot of the opposite of what we've been told all of our lives.

Oh, and it gets better. Here's an interesting article about---exercise!

Exercise Bologna--

The USDA came out with their recommendation to do 60-90 minutes of aerobics for fat-loss in 2005. The first ever research study on the efficacy of their advice didn’t come out until late 2007. Do you know what the study said?

Men who did moderate to vigorous (think your target heart rate zone) exercise for over 60 minutes per day, 6 days per week, for an entire year lost only 6.5lbs of body fat! That is a half pound per month, for more than 6 hours of exercise per week. Women barely lost 4lbs! (1)

So, if you’re a woman with 20lbs to lose, all you’d need is 20 hours of aerobic exercise per week and you’d be set in 12 months!

You'll have to read the article to get more details, but the gist is that exercise that doesn't build muscle isn't going to help you lose weight. That's not to say it isn't good for you--but killing yourself at the gym on the elliptical machine isn't going to equal pounds shed. So maybe we could all go back to a more primitive form of exercise for better health--walking, jumping, and PLAYING! That sounds like more fun to me, at least. Though I still kinda wanna take a belly dancing class. :)

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. :)

On the mend...

For the few of you not on Facebook, I had the awesome luck of having surgery yesterday to remove my gall bladder. Since Jesslyn's been born, I'd been having these weird pains, which I've learned are actually "gallstone attacks". Apparently, gallstone formation is very common after pregnancy, and the attacks can be triggered by fatty foods and dairy. So if you've had a baby recently, and get a really bad stomach ach after eating, you may have gallstones!

Had I actually gone to the doctor the first time it happened, I may have been able to control it with dietary changes (avoiding fatty foods and dairy products,) as I tried to do once the diagnosis came in. However, while waiting to meet with the surgeon in his office on Thursday, I had another attack, despite not eating any junk. This attack was not as severe as the prior attacks had been, but since I had it while meeting with the surgeon, I went ahead and scheduled the surgery for the next day (they were kind enough to "squeeze" me in...)

So yes, I feel better now, I guess. There's some lingering pain, but that's to be expected after any surgical procedure. I've got some pain meds, and have been able to do some stuff around the house, so I'm on the mend. The only downside to recovery is that I can't pick up my kids, which SUCKS! Poor Jesslyn... she kept crawling up to me this afternoon (her and Jeremiah had been at Mee-maw & Poppy's house yesterday and today, so she missed me....) and I couldn't pick her up. :( I probably won't be able to do so until I see my dr. again in a week. But the Lord is good, and He has blessed us with amazing family and friends, so hopefully it won't be an issue.

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... :)