Farm Time

On Friday, we took a little field trip to Hutch. We met the Nislys at the Dutch Kitchen for breakfast and then dropped off the Yukon for a check-up. While we waited for the car to get fixed, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to play. Andrew had lots of energy as usual and so he ran and ran outside. He also helped Stephen and Dad fill the planter with seed wheat.

Andrew climbed in these tires while he waited for me to drop off the car at the dealership. He was laying completely inside the tire, but by the time I dug out the camera, he had changed positions.

Andrew helping Grandpa spread out the wheat to fill the planter as full as possible.

When we loaded up and headed for home, Andrew declared he was NOT going to take a nap. This is what he looked like 5 minutes after that declaration. And no, I didn't take this picture while driving. That wouldn't be safe!

Play Time

Here's a couple fun pictures from the other night. The boys were playing great together and so of course there were a couple of photo ops...

Andrew wanted to hold Jonathan. At first, all was well, but then Andrew went a little crazy and Jonathan decided this was not a such a fun game. If you look closely, you can see the silent cry for help in his eyes.

Another picture of the new teeth.


"Umm, I'm a little tired guys. Can I go to bed?"

If only children would say this to their parents!

Ever feel like this?

This was in the Sunday paper back in June and I keep forgetting to post it. I love Baby Blues. It makes me laugh everytime I read it!

Teeth!

This weekend Jonathan cut his bottom two teeth, and he seems to have a very high pain tolerance! Amazingly, he didn't have any of the normal teething symptoms - fever, runny nose, diarhea. He was only slightly fussy, but that is nothing compared to what it could've been! Now, if we can just have all of his teeth come in so easily! I tried to get a picture of the little nubbins, but they are shy.

Red Rocking Chair

Notice Jonathan's little wispy hairs? Andrew thought he needed a haircut. I assured him it was not yet necessary!


Just a picture of Jonathan's amazing eyelashes.

Here are a couple of pictures of our "new" rocking chair. I bought it last summer at my grandparent's auction and it needed some new life, so Keith painted it red this weekend. Jonathan and Andrew completely ignored it before it was painted, but now it is the best thing ever! I don't know why I don't have pictures of Andrew in the chair yet. I'll get some and post them. He wanted to sit in it with Jonathan yesterday, but they don't fit. And they did try!

Almost Crawling...

Baby Seal

Almost got it. Now how do I go forward?

Shoot. Backwards again and stuck under the coffee table.

Umm, a little help please.

Jonathan REALLY wants to crawl, but he hasn't quite figured it out yet, thank goodness! He's got rolling down to a science, and he scoots backwards, which doesn't usually work out so well. He keeps getting stuck under the couch, love seat and coffee table. And let me assure you that does NOT make him happy! Mostly he looks like a baby seal, with his arms in the proper crawling position and his legs out flat behind him. And now that I think about it, he kind of sounds like a seal, screaming for someone to help him back to a sitting position since this crawling business is just too hard!

WHY?

Why does Andrew only seem to get sick on the weekend? This weekend he had a fever and no other symptoms. He woke up EARLY Saturday morning with a temperature of 100.5 and maintained a low-grade fever all day and was running at low speed. We did drag him to Home Depot and Lowe's on the search for a new microwave - rotten parents that we are. I didn't take him to church on Sunday for fear he was contagious, but we did take him to Wendy's for lunch. We were all a little stir crazy and needed to get out! And then we went to Hutchinson last night, because Grandma and Grandpa said they weren't afraid of catching a little fever. He still had a 99.something last night when we put him to bed and he woke up seemingly fine this morning.

What causes this kind of weekend illness? Why are there no other symptoms and no explanation, causing undo stress? And why is it that he seems to have banked all of his energy from the weekend, only to try and spend it all today when I'm trying to be productive and clean the house and do laundry? WHY? He says he wants to help, but his definition of helping I believe is found under hinder in Webster's Dictionary.

And why don't my children nap at the same time? Jonathan is just waking from a wonderful 3-hour nap and I just put Andrew to bed for his nap. Why couldn't Jonathan have taken a 3-hour afternoon nap? I guess I'm never satisfied! At least he napped today!

And here's something else I've been meaning to post:
The other day, Andrew swiped my nursing pad while I was feeding Jonathan and put it under his shirt and looked all proud of himself. I asked him to give it back, but he was following the finders-keepers logic. I tried not to laugh as he kept putting it back under his shirt, obviously copying me. But it made me think - what else do I do on a daily basis that I don't think about that he is storing away for future reference? What am I unconsciously teaching him? I know, kind of deep for a Monday.

VeggieTales!

Waiting for the show to start.

Boyz in the Sink

Larry and Bob

Andrew preferred sitting on the steps rather than his seat.



We went to see VeggieTales Live - God Made You Special on Friday night. Andrew wasn't too sure what to think at the beginning of the show. I think it freaked him out a little that Bob and Larry were so huge and "alive." By the second act, he was completely into the show and dancing in the aisle. I was suffering from low blood sugar, (LBS! Jill) and was ready for the show to be over. It was cute, but a little disappointing. They only sang a few of their classic songs and Bob was "missing" for most of the show, which was troubling to Andrew. Jonathan did great during the show too, which was great considering he was a little tired and hungry.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the show, which started at 5:30, lasted an unexpected 2 hours, and for some reason I didn't pack sufficient snacks. Thus - LBS. And Bob was at the dentist, only Larry thought the Weird-o-Meter ate him, causing some worry for a 3-year-old audience member.

crazy silence

Here's something weird - my house is completely silent and it is freaking me out! I know I should be reveling in the silence, but it's a little unnerving.

Jonathan is napping and Andrew is spending some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. They've been saying for months that they want to keep him overnight and it finally worked with all of our schedules. My mom came down yesterday morning to watch Jonathan while I took Andrew to the audiologist. I don't think there is anything wrong with Andrew's hearing, but our pediatrician wants to establish a baseline due to the family history. After his appointment, we had lunch and then Andrew and Grandma went home. Jonathan took a great nap, and then we went shopping and out to dinner with Keith.

It's funny to me when I look back at when Andrew was Jonathan's age and how I thought it was SO hard to run errands with him. Now I think running errands with Jonathan is a breeze. Ahh, perspective.

And here's the truly crazy part: I had such a long list of things that I could do with just Jonathan in tow, that I didn't know where to start. It was a little overwhelming to think of all the stores that I could take him that I currently don't dare to take Andrew. You know, stores without carts and with many breakable things.

We are going to see VeggieTales Live tonight, and I hope to have lots of good pictures to post. Andrew is VERY excited, and we've been counting down the days all week!

So, here I sit, enjoying my Mocha Java Chiller from Sonic, blogging and enjoying the silence. It will end soon I know.

Craft Day

Today the weather is freaky. I don't think we have hit 65 degrees today, and after a hot summer, this feels almost like fall, or maybe a little like North Dakota. Anyway, it's a little chilly, so Andrew and I made foam, shape puppets this morning while Jonathan took a short nap. Just when I think Andrew has the attention span of a fly, he surprises me and worked on his craft for a good 45 minutes. I'm sure the fact that I let him use the glue may have helped extend his attention span.

I was scolded several times for trying to take his picture. Intense concentration was required and there was no time for smiling for the camera!


And here's a picture of our smiley baby who has found his voice and all of the dogs in the neighborhood are begging for mercy. I cannot begin to describe the noises this little boy can make, but let me just say it hurts my ears, except for when he says "ma ma ma ma ma." That is a sweet sound especially since Andrew said "da da da da da" first. I will try to post a video of all these new noises soon. Jonathan is a little stinker and stops making noise when he sees the camera and flashes a giant smile instead. Such a little ham at 7 months! (Please excuse the green peas in his neck wrinkle. This picture was obviously taken pre-bath. And we discovered he's not a huge fan of peas - yet.)

Labor Day

Here are a couple of pictures from Labor Day. You can see Keith laboring in the background working on a dry rot problem in our front window. It turned out to be a bigger project than he expected...I came out to see a giant hole where our window frame used to be. I realized I was most helpful in the house, so, I took a few pictures of Jonathan and kept the kids inside while the hole was repaired. Thank goodness I have such a handy husband! I didn't even know we had a dry rot problem!