More of those Birthday Party pictures

Jeremiah had a lot of fun with all the party balloons
Here he is riding along on his birthday present from Mom & Dad
You may have noticed a duck instead of a candle, that was planned
He loves chocolate, don't we all.
Mmmmmmm good.

We don't have a Bridle or a Saddle!

Jeremiah thought it was great fun "riding" Maggie.

The One Year Birthday Party (A few days early)

Wow, are we slow at this sometimes. Ok, so it's been four days since we celebrated Jeremiah's first birthday. The last few weeks we have been reminiscing about what our life was like and what we were doing, "a year ago today." We are always amazed at how God worked all of the details out. A year ago today (Aug 27 ) we had no idea that in just two days we would get a call that would be the answer to a prayer we'd prayed for so long. Of course many of you are wanting to get to some pictures so here there are. A great time was had by all, and we are so thankful for all the friends and family that took the time to come and celebrate with us.

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.