I wore flip-flops on Christmas Day

We have been in California for almost 24 hours, and we are having a wonderful time! Jeremiah did a pretty good job on our flights yesterday, and we arrived safely at the Ontario airport at 9:15 pm last night.

Hanging out at the Omaha Airport before boarding our plane. PraiseBaby DVD anyone?

From Omaha to Denver, Jeremiah was awake and wide-eyed. There were lots of things to look at, and lots of people to charm!

We had a 3 hour layover in Denver, so that was a bit of a challenge. Jeremiah was sleep-deprived but would not give in and go to sleep because there was just too much going on! He just wanted to get down on the floor and crawl around!


Finally JUST before we boarded our plane in Denver, Jeremiah fell asleep (it was a fight-- and I won!). And what a trooper, he slept through take off and pretty much the entire flight. He woke up in time to land (at about 11:15 Iowa time!) in Ontario and greet Grandpa and Grandma, Auntie Abby, Uncle Ben, and Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl! Josie was in bed already, so he had to wait to see her!

This morning Jeremiah and Josie met again and got right down to business playing with toys!


The rest of the day today was spent eating brunch, opening presents, playing Wii, taking a walk to the park, enjoying the sunny day, and relaxing. We ended the day with a tour around Redlands looking at Christmas lights. It was a great day!

Dad's amazing form in Wii bowling.


A little Wii Tetris.

Opening presents...





Dad and Ben could not contain their excitement.






A walk to the park in the afternoon!


I love palm trees!

Jeremiah is having so much fun being able to go outside and play without his coat on (I think he must be a California boy at heart). :)

We have many more adventures to come this week!

Jeremiah's 1st Chistmas (Parts 1 & 2)

Jeremiah is having a very successful 1st Christmas! Apparently, he has been a very good boy the last 10 months because he is being spoiled!

Because of our trips up to Sioux City this weekend and then our trip to CA, we decided to give Jeremiah the presents from us last week. He was thrilled!

"Thanks for the new shoes, Mom and Dad. I HATE them!"

Yeah. He's not a real big fan of shoes in general.

We did give him some things that he really does like, though!

Checking out the goods from his stocking...


Not quite sure what to think of the "Sing-a-ma-jig" yet.


And he's a natural with the basketball hoop already!


Then this weekend we headed up to Sioux City for Wissink Family Christmas!

Saturday morning we did stockings...

Sweet-- Onesies!

Testing out a new teether.

Yep, it works!

Someone else was spoiled, too!


Then in the evening we did the rest of the presents!




This was Jeremiah's expression all evening-- WIDE eyes!!!

Someone else was spoiled, too!

It was his birthday on Friday, too-- Happy Birthday, Adam!

Stay tuned for Jeremiah's 1st Christmas (Part 3) after we return from California! Have a wonderful Christmas and blessed New Year! :)

Jeremiah and Molly= BFF's

It is so funny to watch Jeremiah interact and play with Molly! He absolutely LOVES all dogs (he can't wait to meet cousin Amos next week)! Lots of times during the evening when we are trying to get dinner ready, Jeremiah and Molly play around on the kitchen floor. Their favorite game involves a small red wooden ball that came from some other stacking toy. This is what they do:

They take turns batting the ball with their hands/paws and then giggle (well, Jeremiah does) and chase it around the kitchen floor. Seriously, they would do this for hours! And then Molly gets in trouble for grabbing the ball with her mouth.


Jeremiah has also been learning some important things from Molly. He has learned that if you want to carry something WHILE you are crawling, it is WAY easier to just carry it in your mouth than in your hand.


(Please try not to pay attention to Adam's shorts with black socks in the background!).

While we were making dinner tonight, Jeremiah found a friend in the oven door (don't worry-- the oven wasn't on)! He was waving and smiling and even trying to kiss the reflection!


Stay tuned for "Jeremiah's 1st Christmas" Parts 1, 2, and 3! :)

All better!

Wow. I think we finally have a healthy household! After numerous trips to the doctor last week (3 to be exact) as well as 1 this past week (because after 10 days mommy was sick of having a baby with diarrhea and wanted him to just be better!), we finally got Jeremiah back to having solid poops (too much information?). The doctor said that sometimes after having a stomach bug, babies can have a hard time digesting their regular formula... so she gave us 2 samples cans of different types to try. The first one to try was a soy formula, which Jeremiah LOVED, and the can is already gone. If that one had not worked, we would have had to try a super nasty smelling/tasting formula that was extra broken down... thankfully we didn't need to use that! And actually, the doctor also gave me everything I would need to do a stool culture because she wanted to have that done if neither of the formulas helped. So I am REALLY thankful that the formula did the trick! He has been back to normal poops since Friday, and he's even back on his regular formula. Whew. I guess we made it through our first bout of the stomach flu. Now it is really important that we all stay healthy for our trip to California!

In other news, we survived our first blizzard of the winter (actually, it was our first snowfall of the winter, too). We only got a couple inches of snow, but the wind was really blowing yesterday and it was pretty nasty out there. Molly had the right idea of what to do during a blizzard:


Jeremiah has been busy, as always. He is becoming more and more interested in trucks and other vehicles, and he even makes a little, "bbbbrrrrrr" sound when he drives the trucks around!


What would I do without my helpers when it is time to clean up after Jeremiah the Graham Cracker Monster????



One more interesting thing... I had to get glasses! Apparently I was needing them. The doctor said to me, "You have been without glasses since 7th grade?!?!?!" And I said, "Um, yeah, that's about right." And she said,"Wow. You NEED them." Huh. Who knew? I still don't think that my vision is all that horrible, and much to my siblings' dismay, I do NOT have to wear a patch (although the left lens has a significantly stronger prescription than the right!). I don't know... I'm still getting used to them. Mom, I will try not to leave them laying out on the trash can over night, and I promise not to throw them in the back of the closet. :)


Well, I guess that's about it from here. The next couple weeks will be very busy with trips to Sioux City and then California and Jeremiah's first Christmas(es)!

Rough Day

Today was the day for Jeremiah's 9-month well baby check-up! Let's just say that our visit to the doctor did not go as planned. :(

We arrived at 9:00 am and Jeremiah was delighted to see sparkley Christmas decorations in the waiting room! He was acting like his normal, happy self. Then the nurse called his name and we went back to a room, and got his height (29 1/2 inches long, 90th percentile), head circumference (18, 75th percentile), and weight (22 lbs 13 oz, 90th percentile). Then the nurse left to get the doctor, and Jeremiah proceeded to vomit all over himself, me, and the floor! What the heck?!?!?! So they tried to help me clean everything up (stiff paper towels are not much help in cleaning up vomit, fyi). Then they decided to move us to a new room so that they could clean up the floor. So we went to a new room and the doctor joined us and warned me that there is a tummy bug going around. Fabulous. I mentioned to her that Jeremiah has been fighting a cold for almost a month now, and that he has been fussier than normal the past week or so. So she checked his ears, and bingo-- ear infection! :( So then the doctor and I were discussing antibiotics and whether or not he would keep down oral antibiotics. Since this is the first time Jeremiah has ever vomited in his whole life, I wasn't sure what to tell her. And then Jeremiah gave us our answer-- he vomited AGAIN all over himself, me, and the floor. So, no oral antibiotics-- he got 2 amoxycilin shots instead! And this visit he was not supposed to get any shots! Poor guy. He did have to have his finger pricked also, to check his blood, and isn't that just a horrible experience! I thought they just needed to get like a drop of blood-- boy was I wrong! She just kept squeezing and squeezing his little finger, and he kept pushing her away and screaming! And then she stopped and said, "Oh, I didn't get enough, I'll have to do it again!" Grrrrrrr. So, finally, after the finger prick and antibiotic shots, and waiting 15 minutes to see if he would have a reaction to the antibiotic, we were able to leave. So, as I was standing at the counter paying my co-pay and making an appointment for tomorrow to get Jeremiah's ear checked again, he started vomiting AGAIN all over himself, me, and the floor. So, then they brought us back to the examining room and gave us a nice little vomit tray for our trip home.

Not that he would know what to do with it, but it was a nice thought. Thankfully he has not thrown up since then, and he has been on a diet of Pedialyte all day long (and he's been playing around and acting like his normal, happy self again). Hopefully the antibiotics will help him to feel better. The doctor did say that he might not have the stomach bug, the vomiting can also come with an ear infection, so that is what we are hoping is the case. I, of course, feel horrible and guilty that my poor baby has been in pain from an ear infection for who knows how long! How many times in his life have I overreacted and insisted we take him to Urgent Care to check his ears???? I think at least 3. And the one time he actually does have an infection, I blame it on teething and don't even bother to think about an ear infection. Way to go, me! Anyway, thankfully, we finally have a reason for the fussiness, and hopefully Jeremiah is now on the mend (he needs to get all sickness out of his system before we leave for California on Christmas Eve!!!!!).

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Jeremiah has been one busy fella! Here's what he has been up to lately:

Helping mommy get the Christmas decorations out:



Getting acquainted with the Nativity figures:


Checking out the newly decorated tree:


Helping mommmy with the dishes:


Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner!

Turkey and stuffing? No thanks... just Cheerios for me!

Those cheeks. Enough said.

Helping Grandma and Grandpa Wissink decorate their Christmas tree:



Hanging his "J" ornament on the tree:


Getting food all over himself:

Surprisingly, Jeremiah is FINALLY starting to show his dislike for some foods... and his extremely strong gag reflex. We are trying to move him up to the "3rd foods," and it hasn't gone well. Turkey and mixed vegetables almost made a reappearance before we switched to something else a little smoother.

Whew. We have an active, busy boy on our hands! And he is quite the "helper." And also, as you can see in a few of the pictures, if Jeremiah is busy, then Molly is close by also being busy. Tuesday I get to take the day off (YAY for family sick days!) to take Jeremiah for his 9 month check-up-- I'll update later this week with his stats! :)