On the Go

It's almost 8 o'clock, and I just finished the dishes after putting one extremely wound-up boy to bed. From the time he finished supper to the time he went to bed, he pretty much just ran up and down the hall. Every so often, he'd turn around to look at me as if saying, "C'mon, Mom. Chase me!" So I did. Up and down the hall. Into the living room. Around the kitchen. Tickling, laughing, carrying my "sack of potatoes." It was fun.

I don't do the chase game as well as Dad does, but he's out of town--in sunny Miami, no less, while we enjoy highs of 20 degrees! Jeremiah is at the age now where he misses Jon more. He wakes up saying, "Da-ddy!" and goes to look for him. The longer trips like this one (Tuesday through Saturday) are hard on all three of us. But we get to talk on the phone several times a day and that helps.

It also helps on our end to get out of the house if we can. So this morning we had a play date with the Thelander twins from church. Braden and Conner are 4 months older than Jeremiah. They played together very well, and it was fun to watch them teach some new games to Jeremiah. Since there are two of them, they can do things at home that Jeremiah can't--like one climbs into a cupboard and the other closes the door. They knock, giggle, and change places. Jeremiah liked the climbing in part, but he didn't always like having the door closed on him.

And along that same theme of twins, we went to the hospital to see my friend Tonya who just had a twin boy and girl on Monday. Leah and Canaan are still in the NICU, so we didn't get to see them since Jeremiah was with me. But I know we'll see them lots. Their older brother Caleb is almost 2 and is a favorite playmate of Jeremiah's.

It's quiet in the back bedroom now. My energetic little one has finally fallen asleep. But I know tomorrow he'll wake up raring to go. And I'll need to be on my toes to keep up with him!

P.S. The pictures have nothing to do with our day. They were taken during Thanksgiving at my parents' house. (The one picture is of Jeremiah and his cousin Kaylee.) But since we haven't posted in so long, I thought I'd put them up.

Getting Faster

We really like the video option for this blog. It's been fun to put videos up of Jeremiah. He sure is growing up fast. Here we have a video of him "running." He is definitely getting a lot faster.

Something New

We've had the privilege of having Isaiah and Phinehas with us since Thursday, and we've learned a few new things about each of them.
Isaiah loves the movie "Cars." He really likes to help in the kitchen, especially if it involves cooking or food. He can be pretty sensitive and is able to turn on the tears pretty quickly. It also takes the proper tact to get them to turn off.
Phinehas, there is so much we learned. He is the "quiet one," but you definitely have to keep your eyes on him. If he doesn't like some type of food, he will tell you that it's "hot." After you feel the food and assure him it's not hot, he will hold it in his mouth, start to cry, and then spit it out and tell you it's hot. When you listen to what he is saying to you, he provides the verb and a noun and you must fill in the rest. He will sometimes only provide the verb, and then you have to figure out what it is that he wants.
We've had a great weekend with both Isaiah and Phinehas. Jeremiah has also had a blast. It's been fun to watch him, watch his two older cousins. Shortly after his cousins do something there is Jeremiah repeating what he's seen.
We're taking Isaiah and Phinehas back to their parents tomorrow, who we know are anxious to be back with them. We'll miss our nephews but we've really enjoyed having them here and getting to know them better.

The First Full Day

If you hadn't figured it out already, or weren't "in the know," we are watching our two nephews this weekend. Today is our first full day with Isaiah and Phinehas. We had a very full day today. Let me be the first to admit taking three boys on a shopping trip is so much more challenging than one. I'm sure many of you are reading this, smirking and giving that all knowing nod but I don't mind, we're enjoying our time with the nephews.

The weather was also nice enough to spend some time outside today. The boys got to swing, play in the sandbox, and go down the slide. I'm still pretty psyched about that playground set purchase I made at an auction almost a year ago now. Later in the afternoon we had a fun craft time and then finished the day off with a movie night. Tonight's movie feature was, of course, "Cars." We're looking forward to another day of fun. Stay tuned!

Rainy Days

It's been cold and rainy here the last several days, which means staying inside where it's warm and dry. For me, that's no problem. In fact, it's what I prefer. But for Jeremiah, there have been some hard moments where he stands by the sliding glass door, points at the swingset and cries.

Yesterday it finally stopped raining and was a little warmer. Jon took him outside to play, and as you can see, he had a blast.

Something else that we've been doing a lot of these days is dancing. We'll come downstairs and play the stereo and just have a jam out time. We've gone to Toddler Time at the library, and Jeremiah has gotten to dance with some other kids. And sometimes he just starts dancing when we have the radio or other music playing in the background upstairs. Yesterday, we checked out a kids' CD from the library, and Jeremiah had fun listening to it. (Because I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video, you'll have to bear with me and tilt your heads to watch it. I figured a few seconds of tilt was better than me spending hours trying to figure out that one little thing.)

This afternoon, we're off to Onawa, IA (halfway between Sioux Falls and Lincoln) to pick up Isaiah and Phinehas. They'll be staying with us for a few days while their dad has shoulder surgery. So, be watching for fun pictures and stories that are sure to come!

Election

Jeremiah did his part on Tuesday--by wearing a sticker anyway!

Halloween

The Halloween costume decision was an easy one for us this year--a friend offered to lend us her son's costume from last year. So, Jeremiah was a pumpkin (and a very cute one, I might add).

He wasn't overly fond of the costume, particularly the hood. But he left it alone while Jon took him trick or treating to a few neighbors' houses. He didn't get a lot of candy, which was fine with us since we ended up eating most of it. And I'm sure he didn't really get what Dad was doing. But I hear he did get the hang of holding out his bag for people to put stuff in it.

As soon as they got home, off went the costume. But that's when the real fun started. Jeremiah loved going to the door to see all the other kids come to get candy. Every time the doorbell rang, we'd hear, "Oh!" and he'd toddle over to see who it was. Jon also had fun greeting the kids in his cowboy outfit. With the bandana pulled over his face (and with his height), he looked more than a little imposing. There was more than one child whose eyes got big and round and took a couple of steps backward before accepting their candy.