Jeremiah's Like List

As Jeremiah approaches the big "1" it's been fun to watch his personality develop and take note of what he likes and what he does not. At this point, there are more things in the first category, which include:

∙ Pushing chairs around the kitchen

∙ Climbing on anything he can find. Last week he was in my Sunday School room with me as I was getting ready. I turned around for a second, and when I turned back, he was sitting on top of a Little Tykes picnic table.

• Maggie. Just seeing her makes him laugh. She usually comes with me into his room when I get him up in the morning, and he squeals in delight when he sees her.
  
  
• His daddy. Yes, he loves his mommy, too, but Jeremiah is definitely a daddy's boy. When Jon goes in another room and shuts the door, Jeremiah stands outside and cries and cries. He's not very happy when Jon has to leave for work, either.




• His stuffed Weimaraner--a mini-Maggie, if you will. I don't know if that's why he loves this toy so much, but he does. He'll hug and cuddle with it, and rarely pays attention to his other stuffed animals. It's fun to watch him lie on his back on the floor with the toy dog pressed up to his face.


• Baths. Jeremiah loves to splash and play in the tub. He also likes to stand up and play with the faucet. Last night, Jon was giving him a bath, and Jeremiah turned the shower on while the water was running. It scared him, and he definitely did not like that!


• Walks. It hasn't been as hot lately, so I've been taking him and the dog on more walks. He will squeal and laugh at things as we go by. Don't ask me what, though. I haven't figured that out yet.


• Watching older kids play. Jeremiah loves to stand at our front window and watch our neighbor kids play outside. We'd join them, but they always go out in the evening right before his bedtime.


• Jammin' out to music. Jeremiah likes to bounce up and down now whenever we have the radio on. A few weeks ago, we were at a praise concert in a park, and he bopped up and down while in his stroller.

I could go on, but I thought this would give whoever reads this a little glimpse of Jeremiah. It's amazing how much he's grown and changed. He's getting better at playing by himself. The last several days he's entertained himself by playing with our tennis shoes (dragging them around by the shoelaces), bungee cords, a cardboard wrapping paper tube, pots and pans, and books. Makes me wonder why we bought him a new toy for his birthday!

In other news, we're gearing up for his first of two birthday parties this Saturday. Jon's parents and a few friends are coming over. Tomorrow's my big baking day. I'll be cooking three kinds of cake (two cupcakes and one rubber ducky cake) and some mini quiches. Jon's folks get here tomorrow night, and then his mom and I will go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning before the party. It's going to be a busy weekend, but one full of fun.

Anniversary Thoughts and Celebrations

Nine years ago last Thursday, Jon and I stood at the front of the church before family and friends and promised to love, honor and cherish one another for the rest of our lives. It's hard to believe how much time has passed since then. The people in the pictures have definitely changed, both on the outside and the inside. The faces don't look quite so youthful anymore and maybe not so idealistic.

If we could go back to that young couple and give them some advice, what would we say? We'd tell them to be more patient with each other, to listen more, to go out of their way to do what the other person enjoys, even if it's not their favorite thing. We'd tell them to be each other's champion, to offer encouragement, to hang on to faith and trust in God when life doesn't turn out exactly like you thought it would.

We've learned a lot in nine years, but it makes me realize how much more we (and especially I) still need to learn. Just think about all the wisdom of couples who've been married for 40 years (my parents next year, Jon's in three) or those who even make 75?

On a less serious note, we had a hard time deciding what we should do to celebrate our anniversary. We definitely wanted to go on a date, but we wanted to do something different than dinner and a movie. And we weren't ready to do an overnight trip yet without Jeremiah, even though some family members had offered to watch him.

So, we opted for something different, something I've wanted to do for a long time. We took a cruise on the Fremont Dinner Train for one of the Murder Mystery Nights. In our car, we sat at a table with two other people (who were from Le Mars and Ireton, IA, no less, and the lady worked in Orange City). Throughout the meal, three actors from Omaha put on a play loosely based on The Maltese Falcon. All other actors were recruited from the audience, and even those of us who didn't act had some lines to shout out together. At the end, each table (or detective agency) marked on a piece of paper who they thought was the killer. Can you believe it--we were the only table who got it right! And we won tickets to a play in Omaha.

We ate. We laughed. We laughed some more. We wiped the tears from our eyes, we were laughing so much. In a word--it was fun. We're so glad we chose to do the Murder Mystery car rather than just riding the train and having dinner. I think that would have been rather boring. And while the food was good, it wasn't spectacular.

We didn't get home until after midnight, way after our bedtime. Jeremiah was, of course, asleep, and quite awake at 6:30 this morning. So, I'm a little bleary-eyed and have a nap as my top priority this afternoon!
P.S. The photos from the train were taken with Jon's phone (not a sentence I ever would have imagined writing nine years ago), so they're a little grainy.

Little by Little

"I can't believe how big he is!"

That's usually the first thing we hear these days when someone sees Jeremiah. We know he's grown a lot, but it's hard for us to notice the changes when we see him every day.

This past year has gone by so fast. It seems like just a few days ago when he was so tiny and pretty much just slept, ate, cried, etc. Now he's all over the place, taking a few steps here and there, saying a few "words"--ba for bottle or ball--laughing, playing, climbing all over Mommy and Daddy.

As I write this, he's pushed one of our dining room chairs into the kitchen and is playing with all the pots and pans he removed earlier in the morning from our lazy susan.

When we look back at pictures, the changes are more noticeable. Our little baby is no more, and we have a little boy in his place.

Communication

As many of you know we have been working with Jeremiah on signing. We're hoping this will help with our communication while he is learning to talk. It finally appears as if all of that "one-way" signing is beginning to pay off. Jeremiah can definitely sign for more and for all done. Although he doesn't have the finesse he is sure about what he is trying to communicate. It's been great to see. Sorry no pictures or videos of this yet but we'll see what we can do.

Kaylee Pictures

Kaylee

Yesterday, we had a very important shopping trip we had to make. You see, our neice, Kaylee Del Wilson, was born yesterday at 12:48 p.m. and it was imperative that we go shopping!

Kaylee was a couple of weeks early, but she was still pretty good size. She weighed 6 lbs. 15 3/4 oz. and was 19 inches long. Her dad, my brother Dusty, said she didn't have a lot of hair, and what there is of it is light. Her mom, Brandee, had a long, hard labor and hopefully can get lots of rest now while other people wait on her hand and foot.

Dusty and Brandee combined several family members' names to come up with Kaylee Del. Kay is Brandee's mom's middle name; Lee is Dusty's middle name; and the Del comes from my dad's name, Delwin. This is actually the third person who has been named after my dad. That's quite an honor!

I haven't seen any pictures of Kaylee yet, as my parents were in such a rush to get to the hospital, they forgot their camera. I'm sure there will be at least a few in the future. And we won't get to see her for 3 weeks yet. Sigh. I guess I'll just have to be patient.

Saturday Ramblings

It was just Jeremiah and I today. Jon had a trip to Brainerd, Minn., where he'll be until sometime on Monday. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to a long Saturday cooped up inside the house with an 11-month old. But the day actually turned out to be pretty fun.

Here's a quick run-down of how Jeremiah and I spent our time. First, we went to the Farmer's Market this morning, when it was cooler. We bought vegetables and pizza crusts, sat by the water fountain (which Jeremiah was fascinated by) and drank cool drinks, and saw 2 people we knew. No matter when I go to the Farmer's Market, I always run into someone I know. And it's great when they give you tips on which stands have the best vegetables.

Then we ran to a quilting shop. I was inspired to get back to my projects a few weeks ago by a luncheon quilting presentation I attended. Plus, Kristin has this really cool purse someone made for her, and it made me think that maybe I could do one, too. So, I got a pattern and some material and hope to tackle this project in the next couple of weeks. Admittedly, this was more fun for me than Jeremiah. He preferred to play with my keys, drop them, and make loud noises until I picked them up, and then repeat all of the above 10-20 times.

Since it was over 100 degrees out this afternoon, we stayed inside. But I made a mini water table out of Jeremiah's high chair, and let him play with bath toys and splash around. I got this idea from a blog called Rookie Moms and had hoped Jeremiah would have a lot of fun. He thought it was just OK and had the most fun throwing all his toys off the high chair tray and watching Mom pick them up again. Oh, well. I tried.

Jeremiah was his usual busy self pushing chairs all over the kitchen, and climbing under the dining room table. I don't know why he likes this so much, the climbing that is, because he almost always gets stuck and then cries in frustration. Then after about 30 seconds, he figures out how to get free and all is well once again.

We played the "where's Jeremiah" game behind the living room curtains. For some reason, this really tickled him tonight, and every time I would say "There he is," he would laugh really hard. Of course, he did the same thing as he watched Maggie wag her tail and roll around on the floor.

For supper, he ate strawberry banana yogurt, provolone cheese, graham crackers, but he did not eat his mixed vegetables. When I asked him to eat just a couple of bites, he took me at my word, because after two spoonfuls, he refused the rest.

Well, those are my ramblings of our uneventful, yet enjoyable for the most part, day. Tomorrow, we have Sunday School--nursery for Jeremiah and a room full of 3-4 year olds for me. Then on Monday, Jon will be home. Let me just say "yeah!"