Two in the Nest

Playing catch up-Chris' dedication

2010-10-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

So learning how to balance work, 2 kiddos and the house has been a learning experience so I'm more than a little behind on my blogging. So it's time to play Catch up. In August we had C dedicated and hosted a meet-n-greet after Church. One fish, Two fish, Red fish, New fish was the theme.

Here's a picture of us with our Pastor, it was her last day at the Church. That was the best shot we had of the wiggle worm known as M.

Here is a picture of me and C under the sign I made for the party.

Our new addition to our nest

2010-08-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

On July 29th we welcomed our newest addition to our nest. C affectionately also called Piglet by his mama.

Isn't he a cutie! (not that I'm biased).

And for more awww factor here he is with the proud big brother:

Life is sure to be exciting with two boys :-)

My little book worm

2010-05-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

Books have become little man's favorite thing lately. Every time we are going somewhere in the car he picks a book (or two) to take with him. On the particular day we were headed to a midwife appointment. Little man was ready first and had his book of choice. He wondered off with it while I gathered my shoes and such. I caught this picture around the corner, he was sitting in the kitchen "reading" his book out loud.

28 weeks with C.

2010-05-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

So another progress picture for you all :)

Here's me 28 weeks with C.

Mother's Day- Part one

2010-05-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

We had a great extended mother's day here. Wednesday through Saturday we visited our hometown where Gran, Grandad and Nana all live (and of course Daisy).

M and I went to the park with Gran and played with bubbles and side-walk chalk with Nana. Z got a chance to hang out with some friends and I got to shopping with my mom. My mom and I also went for pedicures, a blessing since my feet seem to be getting further and further away lately. Saturday before heading back home we all went to Chevy's for dinner and gave the grandmother's their cards and gifts.

Here's a few pictures from that (pictures of park outing and bubble play will be in a second post, having fun with some edits!):

We gave M's gran a stone for decorative stone for her garden. Though she said it just might be too pretty to put in the garden.

For Nana a picture frame to use after C is born, it's wood with the word "The Boys" decorating it.

Sunday Z, M and C spoiled me with flowers and a card (for Z) and a willow tree from "the boys"

25 Weeks with C

2010-04-21T08:47:00.001-07:00

Two posts in one day, yay!

Thought I'd share a picture of me, 25 weeks along with C.

zoo trip

2010-04-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

So Z and I took M to the zoo to get one final use out of zoo pass before it expires. We love having it but renewing isn't an option at the moment.

I snapped a couple good pictures that I thought I would share.

This is M enjoying watching the quail run around.

And this is M hiding behind Z when a road-runner came up to study the little boy peering through the bars.

here's a few edited pictures of M enjoying the playground at the zoo (his favorite part of the day I think)

And here's my favorite Z and M watching the tiger.

Dying Easter eggs the natural way

2010-04-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

So this Easter we decided to dye eggs naturally. It was fun, fairly easy and natural! So above you see our basic supplies (minus the pots and utensils). We dyed 6 eggs using beets (for red), blueberries (blue), ground turmeric (yellow) and spinach (for green). Also above is some white vinegar.

First I put some water, in I chopped up the beets and the blueberries, beets by hand and blueberries in the blender. Once the water was boiling I put the fruits/veggies/spices in the boiling water. I let them boil for awhile and then took the pots down to a simmer and added the eggs and 2 tbsp of vinegar to each pot. M. picked which colors eggs went in. Below is the pots boiling.

And this is our finished eggs. The blue turned out a little blue-gray, but still pretty. The red didn't take all that well (the first red egg I rinsed, big mistake). The yellow turned out perfectly! And the green did not work at all.

Below is M checking out our eggs.

Next year we'll do it again but with some changes on the colors, maybe blueberry juice or ground up blueberries for the blue. No rinsing for the red/pink and hopefully finding something that works for the green.

The sort- day one the living/dining room.

2010-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hey all. I promise a big update post after the next two weeks. But in the meantime we've got a pressing cleaning engagement at our apartment.

Z and I have decided it's time to weed out. For the next week we are going through every room, closet and drawer and sorting things into keep, sale, toss and donate.

I'm going to use the blog and my camera to track or progress over the next week of sorting (and then another week of deep cleaning).

Today we are tackling the living room. Already we went through the big living room book shelf, all the movies, and the video games.

We have so far ended up with:

- a box and 3 shopping bags of books that are headed to the library
- a small box of dvd's which are being sent to AMVETS DVD program (read about it here)
-a pile of video games that are going to resale for store credit at the gaming store
-old and broken gameboy and sega hand-held that are going to be taken to electronics recyling (probably through best buy, along with the old broken laptop [hard drive removed of course])
-a pile of gaming books which are either going to a friend, craigslist or freecyle (in that order)
-a old, but working scanner, which is going to craigslist and then freecycle
-a small pile of blankets which are going to the salvation army (first place I found that is taking used blankets)
-we have a box of batteries to recycle next time we go by IKEA.

All in all a very successful day of weeding out.

Still ahead is the blanket stash. Z argues that there is no such thing as too many blankets but I think when they no longer fit in your storage space a problem needs to be addressed. We'll see how that sort goes lol. Edit a few blankets were weeded out and will head to the salvation army tomorrow.

Oh and S. thanks for the tip about magazine holders and sheet music. I ended up using one to hold the small beginner books that I'm saving to use with M. :)

Tomorrow we tackle the kitchen!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween weekend. My mom came up and we took M to downtown in our 'burb. They have a little parade for the kids (they walk around in their costumes) and then they can trick-or-treat the downtown stores.

We also decorated our pumpkins from the orchard plus two (one from my uncle and one from my mom).

We carved the larger two into bob the Tomato and Larry the cucumber from Veggietales. We wanted to carve the bumpy one into my Lunt (also from veggie tales) but the pumpkin was too hard to carve so I drew the face on. Here's a picture of our pumpkins before and the three largest after.

We let M color the white pumpkin with markers. He also helped scoop out the small orange one. I carved that one into a cowboy to go with his costume.

Here are a few pictures of M the Cowboy.

We took him around apartment complex to trick-or-treat for UNICEF. This year he totaled $20 to send in. We traded him his box for a bag of treats when we got home. Since M has a peanut allergy we bought some candy from peanut free planet to give him. I also included some stickers and small things from the dollar section at target.

A trip to the orchard

2009-11-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

While in town for my grandfather's funeral we took a trip to the orchard I went to as a kid. My mom, uncle and aunt joined us. M. had a blast running around, checking out the animals, sliding down the giant slide, taking hay-rack and pony rides. We also went and picked pumpkins.

M. loved the giant slide.

He wasn't so sure about the pony ride at first but warmed up to it quickly.So of course he wanted another ride :)

He also got to play musical laps during the hay-rack ride.

He also loved pulling and riding in the wagon.

A great loss

2009-11-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

Our family recently suffered another loss (after the passing of Z's great Aunt earlier this fall). This time it was my grandfather he passed away at 94 and a half (because he always said after 90 you get to count the halves). He was much loved and will be much missed.

A visit from Gran

2009-10-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

A few Saturday's ago M's Gran came up for a visit. (I'm just a bit behind on my blog) We went her to Sweet Tomatoes for some lunch and of course mini-ice cream cones.

The day before a friend had brought some roses over for me and M had lots of fun making sure everyone got a whiff of them for the next few days.

M is all set for winter.

2009-10-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

With the weather turning here it was time to get M a new coat. We bought one on sale last year for about $15 but it's still far too big. I've had my eye on one from the Children's Place that is a 3 in 1. It's a puffy outside with a fleece inside. You can unzip the fleece and use each separately. I also bought a matching hat and mittens. We're holding off on the snowpants until it's a little colder.

Here's M. in the fleece.

Here's the puffy part of the coat.

Here is M in the fleece and the coat.

Here's the matching mittens.

And as a bonus these are the adorable boots we got at Stride Rite for M and his big feet, size 9!
They're waterproof so they will work as snow boots.

Smelly socks

2009-09-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun video of M and his daddy being goofy. M loves to "make" people smell his "smelly" socks. He really loves the exaggerated reactions he gets.

A purple child and other happenings in our house

2009-09-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

Z and I have a friend we call Elmo who we don't get to see as often as we'd like to. We finally got him up here for a visit and just happened to be the weekend after his birthday. Elmo is a big star wars fan so I decided a cake was in order. We debated and debated on what this cake should look like.

Finally we picked a less ambitious design than the ones we had started with and I purchased the supplies. Among the supplies was some black icing dye, as many of you may know this dye turns icing black but skin and most other things a lovely shade of violet. At some point in the decorating process I stopped to talk to Z. M. walked over to see what we were talking about and when we looked down we discovered that we had a purple child. We also had a purple spot on the carpet the tablecloth and the wooden chairs. M was quickly put in the bath where he seemed to get much amusement out of the lilac colored bath water he was sitting in. We got both child and house un-purpled and I finished the cake.

Here are some pictures.

This is a picture of Elmo's cake. We did the title screens from star wars but with changed wording. It says "A long time ago in a hospital far, far away..... Star Wars Episode XXIX (because he was turning 29), Elmo's Birthday"

This is a picture of our very purple child.

Over Labor day we traveled down to house and cat sit for Z's parents and visit family. It was a great visit and probably our last one until November due to CPE starting this week and classes starting on the 28th.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, not sure why, but I did get a cute of M in the truck on the way home. Usually he's in the car but this time we needed more space and took the pickup. I snapped this one of Micah enjoying the added foot room.

An eventful weekend

2009-08-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend we made a trip south for Z's mom's birthday, a few weeks early since I'm getting my wisdom teeth out the weekend of her birthday.

We drove down on Friday, late afternoon. Saturday morning we all went for M's haircut. He had quite the audience for his first haircut. My mom, Z's mom and dad, his Great Uncle L and his Great-Grandpa R. (my grandfather). We went to the shop and the barber who has been cutting my Grandfather's hair for 35 years! He did a great job with M though, very patient but quick at the same time. Here's a before and after plus a few other pictures.

After M's nap he, his Gran and I went to the aquatic center and had a ball. It's zero depth with various sprinklers and a small frog slide for the little kids. M was in love with it.

Later we had a birthday dinner for M's Gran (Z's side). I made these little cakes for the dessert. They are chocolate cupcakes dipped in chocolate candy melt. Very yummy. We also discovered serving the on a wine glass is handy. You eat your cake, flip it over and have some ice cream in the cup.

Then she opened her cards and gifts, Micah tried to help from behind a few times. We ended the festivities with a phone call to M's Aunt S. in California who couldn't be with us in person. M did some talking himself this time, but no hanging up thanks goodness.

a budding gamer or the best way to distract dadddy?

2009-08-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

So Z was playing a online game the other day and M decided he wanted more of daddy's attention before bed so he crawled off my lap, where he had been nursing, climbed up on Z's and preceded to block the screen in such a cute way I had to take pictures.

He then decided that he could push buttons as well as daddy and went to it. Z looks a little concerned about what's happening here. (mostly his character was saying a lot of gibberish and running into a wall).

Whether he wanted to try the game for himself or wanted daddy's attention he got both :)

Trip downstate, Indiana and the Zoo

2009-08-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

So M and I took a week long trip downstate to see family, after Picking up my Aunt at the airport. My mom, Nana, was so happy to have us down she picked up a pool and a sandbox. Both of which M enjoyed.

We also took a trip to the town pool with Z's mom, M's Gran. It took M awhile to warm up to things but then we barely managed to get him to leave.

We also got him a cowboy hat to go with his rocking horse. He won't leave it on unless he's riding. (Family can email me for a cute video of him).

We also popped over to Indiana to see more family at their new house, which was very nice. While there we went to a fair and explored a petting zoo. M was amazed by a mama goat nursing her baby, scared of a loud billy goat and equally loud donkey. He got to fee a carrot to the bunnies, and follow the goat around as they chased some older children who had brought food for them.

When we arrived back home we took my aunt and mom to the zoo. It was drizzly and cool, but fun anyway. There was a wedding being set up for at the fountain and we all felt bad for the couple. They probably planned a beautiful July evening wedding outdoors and they got jacket-weather and rain instead. We finally got a chance to take a look at the Dino exhibit at the zoo, M wasn't afraid but not that thrilled either.

Our 4th of July

2009-08-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm only a month late in getting this on here :)

Our fourth of July was very, very boring since I was sick. We just stayed home. Z did take M to the pool on the fourth. The fireworks were rained out.

July 5th Z convinced me to go to convenient care since I couldn't even swallow water anymore. They put me in a bed, set me up with an IV and ran some tests. Turns out I was quite dehydrated, no surprise, and had a nasty case of strep throat. They sent me home with some antibiotics and a few days later I was doing great.

I did manage to get a couple pictures of M in his 4th of July shirt though. Photographer mommy takes no breaks :)

Summer Fun

2009-07-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

So the past few weeks have been hectic. Z was out of town, then I was sick, then I was out of town. So the blog is more than a little outdated.

But now I'm back in town for awhile I hope. And I am over my strep throat.

Before all the busyness we had some summer fun with M in at the park and in the pool. Here are some, adorable, pictures. Enjoy. There are more updates to come.

help pic M's 18 month outfit

2009-06-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

M's 18 month pictures are coming up and I can't seem to pick an outfit. I know I'm putting him in overalls with a red shirt for the few pictures we are doing with my mom's dog Daisy (or Day-seee as M says) but I can't seem to pick an outfit for his solo pictures. Here are the choices, email me or comment on your favorites.

Oh and since the tee shirt are hard to read: left to right for picture one.
Green with olive trim, says going green and has a variety of animals on it
Bowl of soup with chop sticks says "miso cute"
Black with white faux layered look with red and white electric guitar
For the second picture.
Brown shirt with blue, brown and white print. Says "conserve water, drink chocolate milk"

Day-trip to the zoo

2009-06-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today M and I went to the zoo. Instead of bringing the stroller, since it was just M and I, I picked up on of those backpack/harnesses that looks like a cute stuffed animal. M's is a monkey. Some people don't like them but I thought it was great. M wasn't stuck in the stroller when he is perfectly capable of walking around and I didn't have to worry about him straying to far.

M walked from the north gate to the south and covered the smaller part of the zoo. We saw tigers and other big cats, bears, seals, dolphins and visited the Childrens' zoo. Micah espcially liked the roosters who were quite noisy while we there. It was a lot of fun. By the end he was one tired little man and road to the car in the sling.

M's favorite animals to look at roamed their habitat in matching shirts with older ones leading them. They called out to each other loudly and mimicked all the other animals. M thought they were great fun. We eventually found out that they were several varieties, who could be differentiated by the different colors of their plumage, of the same species: day-campers.

M's least favorite "animal" at the zoo was the very large animatronic dinosaur in the fountain. He smiled and pointed until it moved and then he did his best impression of a baby monkey and practically climbed up my legs to get into my arms faster. We walked away quickly but had to walk past it again on the way out. We weren't that close when I snapped the pictues below and you can still see his doubtful expression.

Planting flowers

2009-06-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

Now that I, J., actually have the time to care for them (since school is on break) we planted flowers in our two medium sized pots out back. we picked out something that is, hopefully, hard for me to kill.

Z and M did most of the dirty work while I caught it all on film.

And one of my favorites.

Memorial Day weekend

2009-05-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry the blogs been so slow, I've been swamped completely by school and still have two more weeks to go. But a quick update before I dive back into my school books.

We're all doing fine here (though I'm stressed for some reason lol).

M. has added climbing to his list of skills and surprised mommy by climbing onto the coffee table while she was on the phone with Nana. This summer we're going to start working of potty learning, and spend many hours at the zoo making use of the family pass we purchased this spring.

Z. is also doing well, and just had a four how praise team meeting recently to help figure out what to do with all our (the churches) students gone this summer.

I've got two more weeks of school left, come on June 4th. I've got a lot of work to do in the next not-quite two weeks. all three of my professors are, sadly, leaving after this quarter, for various, reasons so extensions really can't be expected.

This past weekend we traveled down to St Louis to visit Z's grandparent's aunt, uncles and cousins. There are two new editions since we made the trip last year. T. who is a year and A. who is about 6 months. All of us greatly enjoyed the visit, if not the 6 hour drive. While there we all, seven-teen of us in all, went to JcPenney's to get a professional family photo done. That was a trip and a half, but went well thanks to some talented and very patient photographers. I can't hardly wait to get my pictures in the mail.

I had my camera but didn't get very many pictures, I know Gran caught more on her camera than I did. Here's the one I did get of the three littlest cousins. M is in the middle and T. turned her face right as I snapped the photo.

Enjoying the weather, promised big boy pictures and M's first car

2009-04-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

Friday we had a wonderful temperature spike. It hit 81 degrees here, so we spent a lot of the day outside. M discovered bubbles, the joys of using his little wagon for collecting twigs and nuts and how to climb stair until your parents drop. It was a prefect way to spend an afternoon and I got some great pictures.

I also finally caught some pictures with M in his "big boy bed". He is in there with every single one of his stuffed toys, which he'd tossed in there and then proceeded to toss out again. Enjoy.

Today we I found the toy car we'd been thinking of buying for M on sale at the toy store, for $15 dollars cheaper than usual. I bought it and Z put it together with some help from M. I of course took pictures all the while.

M found the whole process exhausting,

Finally the car was done and he could enjoy, if only he could figure out some other direction than reverse.

Easter

2009-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely Easter here. My mom came up for the weekend and all of us went to Easter services at CCC Wheaton where I intern. I didn't have a role in that days sermon so I got to sit back and enjoy it all for once :) For breakfast that I made Italian Easter Egg bread the night before. Also on Saturday M and I dyed eggs, while my mom and Z laughed and got photographic evidence. Micah's first egg is the one in the middle of the basket. And yes the two orange one have I-L-L AND I-N-I written on them in blue, and yes it is my doing.

After church M hunted Easter eggs for the first time in the back yard. Then he got his basket, which has 23 years on him (it was my first Easter basket). Mostly small toys this year instead of candy. We bought things in certain colors for it though to go with a story book (the colors in my Easter Basket) which uses the colors in the basket to tell the Easter story.

Later we had my friend and M's sitter over with her friend and future roommate. I cooked way too much food but everyone enjoyed it.

The menu was:

Company Ham (basted with orange marmalade, bourbon and pineapple juice and junks)
Augratin potatoes
Rolls
Green Beans
Orange Sweet potato cups

and for dessert
Flourless choclate cake with vanilla bean ice cream and raspberry sauce.

I bought white, pink and deep red tulips and arranged them in a vase for the centerpiece and had a mini basket with some chocolates at each place setting, the napkins were off white, tied with shiny off white ribbon and a white tulip. With all the cooking I didn't get a good picture of the table.

Enjoy the pictures.

Our trip to California

2009-04-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

We made a quick planned trip to California to see Micah's Aunt S, thanks to Z's parents paying our way.

It was wonderful, most of all because S was there but also because it was a new state for all 3 of use to visit.

We got to see where S works, enjoy California classics (just as In and Out and Wahoos). We went to the board walk and beach in Santa Monica and then up Malibu. We also got to visit one of Z's fighting friends and they got to fight together at a weekly practice. Also included in our trip was shopping, amazing milkshakes, the hollywood sign and lots of time just hanging our with S.

It was a wonderful trip, we've all missed her a lot and getting to see her made spring break perfect.

Here's a few pictures:

updates galore!

2009-04-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

So to answer the promised questions:

M's response to his "big, boy bed" aka his crib converted to toddler daybed.

He has taken to it like a fish to water. I'll try to get pictures up later. He's sleeping much better in it, we also got him a new sheet that so, so soft, he'll just lay there and pet it. M is growing up so fast!

How the Ash Wednesday and Good Friday services I am in charge of went.
They both went really well, every one said they really "got something out of it". Even the hard to impress were happy with it. My mom made it up for the Good Friday service and was very proud of her "little girl".

M's 15 month checkup and pictures
Micah's 15 month checkup went well. He was 25 pounds and 32.5 inches. Doing well in everything. The doctor was amazed that I was still nursing but at least this one didn't tell me it was time to wean, thank goodness. He didn't even cry for his shots, he gave one little whimper and then just looked very sad. On the way home we got groceries at trader joes and he got a balloon, so he was instantly a happier little boy.

2 more update posts to come, Los Angelos and Easter.

Giving up the internet for Lent

2009-02-24T10:40:00.001-08:00

This year for Lent I will be giving up "fun" Internet. What this means is no online gaming, no message boards, no google searching and no blogging. I will still be checking my e-mail once a day, and of course doing my online course work. So this will be the last entry until Easter, but look forward to a good and picture heavy update after Easter.

Some things that will surely make the update:
M's response to his "big, boy bed" aka his crib converted to toddler daybed.
How the Ash Wednesday and Good Friday services I am in charge of went.
M's 15 month checkup and pictures
and much more :)

"see" you all in 40 days.

update post three

2009-02-08T15:43:00.000-08:00

One last update post. With the warm weather we decided to spend some time outside this weekend. M tried his trike outside, though he still isn't sure what to do with it. Then we walked up the road to the park. M loved the slide, I think Z did too. After climbing, sliding and swinging for awhile we headed home for bbq chicken, yum yum.

Here's a few pictures from the park. The last one, by itself not in the collage, is my favorite.

update post two or what happens when baby trips on air

2009-02-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

So this was the big drama since the last big update. Micah tripped on air and rapped his chin on our coffee table. Usually this is no deal since it is padded just for such occasions. Unfortunately this time his tongue got in the way and he bit it pretty good. Mommy to whom he was walking looks up and see M standing there with blood on his teeth and lips and panics. Daddy helps her calm M and her down while finding out that it is nothing that needs medical attention. We got him down to just a onesie (so as not to stain anything) and gave him cold water and it helped a bit but the bite just did not want to stop bleeding. We decided, on my mothers advice to try a Popsicle. Well seeing as it is now 9 pm Z runs over to the 7-11 and buys the closest thing to a Popsicle the had, a sherbet push pop. He then sits on the kitchen floor with M and "helps" M eat his first ever Popsicle. Here are a few pictures of the results (most of the red is Popsicle though a little was blood).

update post one

2009-02-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since I updated, we've been a busy bunch lately. For the most part there have only been a few post worthy things and a lot of things-as-usual, which is just fine by me.

In January I, J, had a chance to visit with a college friend/roommate who I had not seen since the same time the year before. She is out in California for awhile longer. We had a great visit, and she got to see the whole family (me, Z and M). We had lunch out, though we all ordered breakfast. Micah was quite taken with her, as the pictures below show.
We also had an exactly-one-month-belated birthday party for our friend and M's babysitter. She is related way back to Blackbeard the pirate and has a "small" obsession with all things pirate. I did her cake and the table cloth was fabric and her gift. Here's a few pictures of the cake and her reaction to it (as it was a total surprise to her). In case it's not clear the cake is supposed to be a treasure chest.

Also in the family news I am in charge of putting together and designing worship for our church's Ash Wednesday and Good Friday services. The music is already partially set up for the Good Friday service and is the choir plus a hired string octet. I am also largely in charge helping bring the visual arts into the services throughout Lent and Easter. It is a lot of work but I truly enjoy doing it.

Happy

2009-01-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

We have had a good week here. I am in the middle of homework but wanted to let everyone know about three great things from this past week (or so).

1) I have found an internship. We are still hammering out details, as it is also a class I am waiting to meet with an adviser.

2) Z. show was on Tuesday. I did not get to see all of it but we have a copy being mailed to us so soon I will hopefully.

3) I finally got my etsy store up and running. There are only 3 things on it right now but it is a start. I can be looked up under sellers as blessed5312.

What happens when you don't watch what you put in the recycling

2009-01-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

Last week Z threw a box in the recycling bin, it was from an order of bread sticks. He never checked to see if the sauce container was still inside it, it was. While I was reading for class M discovered it, here's what I found.

"Don't worry mom it's just pasta sauce!"

A re-mopping of the floor, which of course had been done the night before, ensued. The picture is tucked away for embarrassing him later in life.

Z's tv debut

2009-01-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

The show Z was a part of will be on tomorrow on discovery.

Here's the info:

10:00 pm

(60 minutes)

Wreckreation Nation
Demolition Derby
TV-PG (LV), CC

Dave participates in a blind-folded demolition derby with a family who's been wrecking cars for 30 years. Then he joins the ranks of Romans, elves and Orks at Dagorhir: part war game, part fantasy role playing, part mixed martial arts competition.

Since we don't have cable Z and M will likely be watching at a friends apartment while I (J) am in class.

new news

2009-01-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

We've had a productive and sleep deprived weekend back our home. Z and I are trying desperately to meet my goal of having the house cleaned and organized again before classes start on the 12th. Not to go into details but this involved Z doing 7 loads of laundry in one night and me having difficulty folding finding time to fold them. Even more so since M love laundry folding time, the sounds of frustration mommy makes when he unfolds things faster than she fold them are great fun!

We finally were at home to go back to Christ Community (our local church). M's friend was there (there's a 3 or 4 month difference in their ages) today. M always has fun when there are others around that are just his size. He let his friend know he was glad to see him by doling out 8 hugs during Children Church.

We have a busy week coming up with getting back into the school swing of things and Z's work party out of town this weekend so another entry may be a few days in coming.

God Bless.

J.

M's one year appointment.

2009-01-10T13:06:00.001-08:00

M. had his one year checkup this week. The stats are: 24 pounds and 32 inches.

We fed him wheat for 2 days before the appointment and no rash, so far no rash today either so it looks like he's outgrown that one. But is allergic to strawberries (full body rash toes to face).

So told us to push the finger foods and not worry about milk until he nurses less times a day (he's at 4-6 times currently).

About the night waking she said it's normal for him not to be sleeping through yet and that there's nothing wrong with nursing him then if he wants it. She said he's obviously just not ready to sleep through the night and that's fine.

He chattered away at her and walked for her, she was happy with all his development. And kept pointing at her stethoscope and saying "dat, dat" till she let him play with it a bit. He was all flirty with the nurse that came into give him his shots but boy did he give her a "you-betrayed-me" glare after she gave him his 3 shots.

Belated Christmas back home

2009-01-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we celebrated a belated Christmas with both Z and J's families back home. J was so busy keeping M focused and from trying the stairs that she has very few pictures of the events. But Gran and Nana both had their camera's out and firing so pictures aren't lacking in general.

We had a great visit with both families and M brought home quite the hall. It all now has found a home in M's newly organized room. We spent a day moving things around to accommodate our big boy.

As usual here's a few pictures.

Here's M's great-grandpa (J's maternal grandfather) opening his gift.
A framed picture of three of us.

Here is M's granddad opening his new hunting gloves and hand warmers.

Here is Gran opening her gift.

Trip to Seattle

2009-01-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

Most of readers know that we took a trip to Seattle in December to visit J's family. We had a fun time though the snow, more than they've had in a hundred years, threw a wrench in many plans there and back home. We finally got home though, safe and sound but six days later than expected.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

M asleep on his first plane ride.

M and Aunt C in Washington.

Z backpacking M in Seattle, on our way to the space needle.

A picture J took of the space needle.

M celebrating his first birthday in style, 520 feet above the ground.

The view from the space needle.

M and his chocolate birthday cake.

M and his chocolate birthday cake, close up.

J and her mom getting pedicure.

M with his first snowman.

M's first time "sledding". By which sledding means sitting on a plastic garbage bag while mom helps you "slide" down a barely slopping driveway.

M on Christmas