Birthday Pictures

See Daddy

What do you get when you combine a two-year-old boy, a Daddy who's been gone from home for five days, and a project that keeps that same Daddy outside the entire day? One very clingy little boy who constantly asks to, "See Daddy" (even when Daddy is less than two feet away).

That was us yesterday and today. Jon was in Dryden, Ontario, from Thursday through Monday, where we could only talk to him on the phone once for about 10 minutes. Then on his first full day back (Tuesday), he needed to spend the whole day digging gigantic holes in our backyard for our newest house project--installing egress windows.

Because I knew the lure of Daddy outside, not to mention the little bobcat, would be too much for Jeremiah to stand, he and I spent most of Tuesday away from home. We went to my friend Tonya's house in the morning, home for lunch and a too short nap, then off to the zoo in the afternoon. Jon still had work to do when we got home. It was a long, long day for him. But the holes are dug, and we're ready for the contractor to come and cut holes in our basement and install the windows, which won't happen until next week.

Funny Boy

We have a funny boy who lives at our house. One who gets extremely excited about laundry, vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, and pretty much cleaning of any kind. One who is quite particular about where his toys get put away. And if any of his books are still out when he goes to bed, he can't sleep until Mommy or Daddy comes and puts them in their proper place.

This funny boy is also quite concerned about the cleanliness of our kitchen. If any tiny bit of water drops onto the floor (and I do mean tiny), he's right there with a towel that he pulled out of a drawer to clean it up. (Not sure where he got that from. It sure wasn't from his mom.)

Our funny boy likes to sleep on any bed or couch in the house--preferably not his own--but it's never nap time or bed time, and it only lasts for 30 seconds at best. He enjoys doing his "cizes" along with Mommy as she does her physical therapy. And he gets excited about picking "ma-toes" though he usually gets in trouble when he squeezes them or takes a bite.

What a funny boy we have who lives in our house! Every day has more laughs and adventures (both good and bad) than the one before.

An Anniversary, A Graduation, and Two Birthdays

This last weekend was a busy one for us in the celebration department. Dusty, Brandee, and Kaylee all came for a visit. And although my parents had planned to be here, too, there were some things on the ranch that they needed to stick around for.

On Friday, we celebrated with Brandee as she received her master's degree from UNL. She's been part of the Math in the Middle grant program the last three years, and after all her hard work, she's finally done. Friday was also our 10th anniversary. We didn't do too much for it on that day, other than exchanging cards, but have some bigger plans for this upcoming weekend.

Then on Saturday, we celebrated Kaylee's birthday (August 5) and Jeremiah's (August 29). I had a young woman from church make a special cake for them, and it really turned out well. I guess I had talked up the cake so much to Jeremiah, that when it came time for his nap, he fought it for an hour (I'd said we'd have the cake after he woke up). Then, after he finally did fall asleep and then wake up, his first words were, "Mommy. Cake!"

Brandee wasn't sure Kaylee would like the cake so much, since she didn't seem too excited about it at her birthday parties in Arthur. Maybe it was the chocolate, but she sure dug in. It's so fun to have the cousins together for things like this. Although this picture is a little staged, they really did hug (or in Jeremiah's case--tackle) each other a few times throughout the weekend.

Noise

Here's a camping story from our camping trip two weeks ago. Wow, time flies! Anyway, Friday night a thunderstorm rolled through the campground. Jeremiah and I (Jon) were in our friend's camper. They had air conditioning and it was over 90 degrees that day. We had been trying to get Jeremiah to go to sleep for a couple of hours, to no avail. The lightning and thunder got closer and closer. Then we had a bolt of lightning that seemed to be just feet away. I could see the bright light even though the camper shades were all drawn. Instantly with the the bolt of lightning was a clap of thunder louder than I have ever heard. It sounded like a loud explosion going off. It made those loud booming firecrackers, you hear on the Fourth of July, sound like a toy drum.
I must have done alright with my reaction because Jeremiah studied my face for about ten seconds. Then he pointed his arm and hand out towards the direction of the lightning and simply said, "Noise."

July Photos

When We're Not There

I think most parents wonder what their kids do when they're not around. I certainly know what Jeremiah usually does the moment I leave the room. Like two weeks ago when I was loading stuff in the car and told him not to come in the garage. He obeyed--and then promptly shut the door and locked me out. Then I heard him climb up on the kitchen stool, grab the car keys, lock and unlock the car a few times before turning on the car alarm. I had to get our extra set of keys out of our key box to get back in the house.

Then there was last Sunday as I was getting ready for small group. When I ran downstairs to grab something, Jeremiah managed to get the full pitcher of lemonade I'd just made and set it on the floor, with some spillage of course.

But we don't really know what he does with babysitters or when he's at Sunday School. Last week, his Sunday School teacher clued me in a little bit. Jeremiah gets very excited about seeing Mimi at Sunday School, a doll who helps to tell the story. His teacher said that when she starts to set up ahead of time, Jeremiah is so excited that he starts to line up all the chairs and then round up the other kids to come for storytime.

That's cool, I thought. But does he actually listen to the story? You bet, said his teacher. He's focused, one of the few kids who is.

I'm really glad he likes to listen to stories. I hope this continues throughout his lifetime.