Between Here and There

Jack had his first speech therapy lesson today.  She came here and will every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30am.  He warmed up to her pretty quickly.  She warned me though not to expect immediate results, perhaps 9 weeks down the road.  Our little big guy turns 2 next week!  

The kids and I just got back from a picnic of sorts at the park.  A little eating, a little playing and a little watching other kids play soccer.  There were about 5 different teams practicing.  One coach brought and set up a full size goal - that's a devoted soccer coach for you.  I think most of the teams were between 9 - 12 years old.  I think it'll be a couple years before we are doing this.  The weather is beautiful despite having to turn the a/c on yesterday. The kids are mostly well.  I took Lillian to the Dr for her poison ivy that was continuing to spread.  While we were there Wesley got his follow up flu shot and a couple other vaccines.  They didn't seem to bother him at all - after the initial 10 second cry anyway.  Of course this always concerns Lillian more, "Am I going to get a shock Mom?" Alright, bedtime for the boys.  Their dad seems to have left the state again so I guess it's my task. :) Kyle is suppose to ...

  We finally made it to our county fair.  The fairgrounds are a quarter mile from our house so it's bit of a shame that this is the first year.   Our first stop was the barnyard area.  We saw piglets, lots of them with their huge mom laying in the corner.  We petted a mini-donkey and looked at ducklings all squashed together.  Lillian and Jack went into the petting area while Wes and I watched.  I can't wait to do this again at the World Hunger FARM day in early November and then at the Homestead Heritage  Farm Day the day after Thanksgiving.  These animal strangely were from southern Oregon.   The kids did decent watching the rodeo.  We managed to stay for  45 minutes and watched bareback riding, mutton bustin', and calf ropin'.  It was fun to watch. Mostly we just walked around and saw the sights.  Lillian and I did go on the Ferris Wheel.  It surprised me how nervous I got - it is pretty high up there. ...

Jack, 11 months.  This was taken a year ago.  Poor Wes is way behind on hair.  I don't think there is anyway he'll catch up by January.  It's pretty close tie on cuteness though. Wes, 8 months.

"Come on Mom, why do we have to sit here staring into the sun when we really aren't feeling that great?" Kids are doing better but still working on getting to 100%.  No fevers though.  We just stocked up on books and movies! from our new local library for our long weekend w/o our #1 husband and dad.  He'll be at a conference at George Fox (Oregon) soaking up some rain and lots of church history knowledge.

Wes is feeling much better though he's still fighting the cold.  A new medicine is helping with the stuffiness and seems to help prevent the eye grossness.  I have yet to try him on the nebulizer though I know that would probably help out a lot.  He finally started eating baby food a week ago and thanks to WIC we have jars and jars of it.  Today was squash, applesauce and rice cereal - mixed together of course. Jack only had the fever for one day.  Monday morning he woke up fine so I didn't have the dr check him out when I took in Wes.  But now he has the cold symptoms with his old congestion coming back.  I will have to give him a couple treatments on the nebulizer in the next day or two.  The boys had some fun playing in the backyard this morning, the sun was warm. Lillian was bouncing around all day yesterday.  I convinced her to take a nap yesterday so that we might avoid her getting sick.  No such luck.  Last night sh...

With a low of 47 degrees forecasted for tonight the kids are all in their fuzzy pajamas.  (But they don't look like this anymore.) Pray for Jack and Wes who are both fighting sickness today.  Wes has a cold and it's gotten worse with drainage in his eyes (yuck!) and Jack was lethargic all day and hasn't eaten in 24 hours.  He had a fever but responded well to Tylenol.  I'm going to take them in tomorrow morning. Although you never want your children to get sick Kyle and I both enjoyed the extra special snuggle time from Jack.  So sweet.  I have a feeling he'll be back to his normal self tomorrow.  Enjoy your snuggles while/when you can.

  Parks, picnics, walks, grilling out, backyard play, and more park visits - it's FALL and time to be outside.    *thanks to kristen for the photos from yesterday's first of many days at the park.

Quick get this post up before Kyle sees.  I saw a snippet of a Discovery Health show back in March and decided to give it a shot ( raising your children in a gender-neutral environment ).  I'm really just kidding about that. Actually there is no hope of Jack escaping princesses, tutus, necklaces, and purses.  All he knows is that they are the things to want and so there are many times that we find Jack and Lillian fighting over the same purse.  She however rarely fights to play with his trucks.   Sorry, I just knew he would be such a cutie, I couldn't help myself. On another note Lillian has completely fallen in love with coloring and drawing and writing notes.  She can spend hours at the table drawing.  I know she would love it if I would just set up an area (all for her) with painting and play-do and crafts galore.  Then she really would be set.

GO Baylor Bears!

Kids had fun playing night-night one day in the dining room. Jack even tried to trick me today on the way home in the car. He has a habit on falling asleep close to 12pm if he's had an active or early morning and then it messes everything up because he hasn't had lunch, etc. So usually Lillian and I have to keep saying "Don't go to sleep Jack". When I look back today he seemed close and then I tested him and looked back again and he'd closed his eyes. He loved the trick and kept trying to do it but couldn't be quite as convincing since he was watching my reaction with half-shut, half-open eye lids.

This photo is not meant to scare Jenny who arrives tomorrow night for a weekend visit. This was taken this afternoon and the completion cannot be far off. Since then a new window has been installed. Now we (hopefully mainly Kyle?) just need to....

We were all out the door this morning by 8:30 (Kyle out at 8). Not the natural thing to do on a Saturday morning but we had things to do. Kyle was at Parent's Weekend on campus making himself available to talk with parents regarding their students/ his class. The rest of us headed to a garage sale where I found a lamp and shade, Cars bed sheet for Jack's crib, two sippy cups, and a fake pearl necklace for Lillian all for $3.10. I am always looking for sippy cups and was particularly hoping to find a lamp and shade for my bedside table. And I did. Next we were just going to drop by the Pharmacy and pick up a prescription for Wesley. Both he and Jack had their check-ups yesterday and are doing great. Wesley is 26 inches and 15 lbs. Jack is 34 inches and 24 lbs. I changed our plans when I remembered a pond and park I have been wanting to visit with the kids. It was a very cool place with lots of potential (for the fall weather). The park area was a bit neglected but the p...

Lillian is really enjoying listening to music these days and is really quick in learning a song. I switched my music to almost exclusively Christian radio awhile back so she has learned a lot of great songs with beautiful truths about Jesus and life as a Christian. One of our current favorites is Hold us Together by Matt Maher (see the video on the left side). If you haven't heard it yet check it out and you will be easily hooked on this great tune. Today after making super easy chocolate pudding with Lillian and she had some after lunch she came over to me and said "This is the best day of my life." And then with a smile, "It would not have been possible without you." The first phrase closely resembles one in the above song. The second, who knows where it came from? Her dad has been sharing some other songs with her as well. You can ask him about that...

Jack, Wes, Lillian, Mommy, Daddy

Gemma Taylor Gieser Arrived September 01, 2010 at 2:17pm 6 lbs, 8 oz. Waiting for a picture to include. Congratulations to Julianna and Jim.