Walking!

Jeremiah has been fine tuning his walking skills! His first choice is still always crawling, but he is getting braver and braver every day, and walking further distances before falling to his knees. I finally got some of his walking on video. I found that it is not that easy to take video of a moving target, while also trying to move myself and also keep the dog out of the way. So, sorry for the shaky camera action. Also, you may want to keep the volume off to avoid hearing my voice and high pitched screams (seriously, I am not kidding). Oh, and watch for Jeremiah's celebratory paci flip at the end of the video. :)

Here it is.

P.S. I watched this video first with Jeremiah, and he mimicked my screams and also clapped for himself at the end. :)
P.P.S. Yes, his shirt says, "I do my own tricks."

Birthday Weekend!

What a weekend! Jeremiah had a fun and busy weekend full of food, family, friends, and fun. Last night he was in bed and asleep by 7 pm... just exhausted after all the festivities!

Friday was Jeremiah's ACTUAL 1st birthday. He celebrated by wearing his "Birthday Boy" shirt to daycare and bringing a birthday treat to share with his friends. Honestly, not MY ideal way for him to spend his birthday, but what can you do? I know that he had a great day-- this was him at 6:30 am.

THRILLED to be the birthday boy!

Friday evening we let Jeremiah open one present from mommy and daddy, and then it was bath time and bedtime. Saturday when Jeremiah woke up, Grandma and Grandpa Wiers were here! Then, when he woke up from his morning nap, Grandma and Grandpa Wissink were here, TOO! THEN, when he woke up from his afternoon nap, Auntie Abby was here! So exciting to wake up and have more and more of his favorite people here!

Saturday evening we had a little party for Jeremiah. The Grandmas and Grandpas, Auntie Abby, and several of our friends from church all helped us celebrate!


Jeremiah was ALL about the presents. Several of the gifts got an "Ooooohhhh!!!" from him as we opened them!



His very own "Blackberry"! Text me if you want his digits.



After presents, it was time for cake! I'm afraid that by the time we had cake, Jeremiah was just not that hungry anymore. Nevertheless, he dug right in!


Listening to everyone sing "Happy Birthday"!


"Give me that cake!"




Sunday morning we got to enjoy Grandpa's pancakes for breakfast! Jeremiah was a big fan!


Then we went to church and had lunch at Panera (of course!). Jeremiah tried out his new placemat from Uncle Matt, Aunt Cheryl, and Josie!

I just realized that several of these pictures feature Jeremiah feeding his face.... huh. Maybe this is why my arm hurts after carrying this big lug around?

After lunch it was time for Grandpa and Grandma Wiers to head back to Wisconsin. It was interesting watching Jeremiah as he watched them leave... he waved, and then tapped the glass on the screen door, and then looked to be getting kind of frustrated (clenching his fists!), and then as the car pulled away he started crying! :( He's starting to understand more and more.

But, Auntie Abby got to stick around until Monday! So Jeremiah had fun playing with her in the afternoon. She gave him a laundry basket ride!


Today was the big 1 year check-up with the doctor. I took a sick day so I could spend the day with my fella (and also Abby, for a while!). The pediatrician says that he looks perfect! Jeremiah even did some of his tricks on command, so she was very impressed. :) Auntie Abby even came along to the Doctor's appointment (but she didn't look when the shots were given)!


Jeremiah's favorite part about going to the doctor? Ripping the paper on the examining table!

We have a healthy little guy, that's for sure. He weighs 25 lbs 2 oz (80th percentile) and is 31.5 inches long (95th percentile). After seeing both me and Abby together, the doctor understood that Jeremiah's height does come from somewhere! He is slimming down a little in the weight department, though (but you would not know it by looking at his cheeks!).

We are so thankful for out happy, healthy 1 year old little man!!!

I'm not ready....

Nope. I'm not ready. Mentally I am not ready to accept the fact that tomorrow my baby will be ONE. (Physically, yes we are ready and prepared for the big birthday bash on Saturday.) But really, I can not wrap my head around the fact that last year at this time I was on maternity leave waiting for our baby boy to arrive. And 1 year ago tonight was when we met our friends Travis and Celeste at The Pizza Ranch for dinner and THAT NIGHT was when my contractions started (making our scheduled induction unnecessary). Oh, and I really do think it was The Pizza Ranch that started it all.... Anyway, how can a year go by so quickly? It kinda makes me sad. And now, silly me, I went looking through our youtube videos and found this one, which I had taken on March 11 when Jeremiah was just 22 days old (and way back then I had not figured out how to post videos on the blog correctly).

And this picture?

I can barely look at it-- just look at that sweet newborn baby!

And this one? What am I doing to myself? I have to stop this!


Okay, just one more.


And now I have to stop.

How has this little baby turned into this little man?


Though it honestly does make me a bit sad that my baby is growing up, it is SO FUN to watch Jeremiah learn new things! So far his tricks include:

1. The "no no" finger wag.
2. Talking on the phone (and using any object for a phone... a bottle, one of Molly's toys, etc. He's pretty flexible about that).
3. What does a doggie say? And he responds with, "roo roo roo roo" or something like that.
4. What does a piggie say? And he responds with this crazy grunting sound that only he and his father know how to do (seriously, I have tried... and Adam has tried to teach me... I physically can't do it).
5. "Bbbmmmmm, bbbmmmm, bbbmmmm" is his truck, train, car sound (or even the sound he makes when he is pushing an old Cool Whip container around).
6. Saying "Buh." Which means "ball" and also "balloon."
7. Saying da-da-da-da-da A LOT.
8. Saying ma-ma-ma-ma-ma sometimes... when I ask him to say it, a lot of times he starts to and then it turns into smacking his lips? Not sure why.
9. Crawling REALLY fast!
10. Taking some steps! On Sunday we saw him take his first "official" steps from a dining room chair to the freezer. Adam also saw him walk all the way from the coffee table to the TV. But if we set him down and try to make him take a few steps between us, he thinks it's a joke and pulls his legs up or goes straight to his knees. Funny guy.

I'm sure there are more that I can't think of right now. Anyway, we have quite the weekend of celebrating ahead of us! Tomorrow Jeremiah will go to daycare with his "Birthday Boy" shirt on and will share his birthday treat of "dirt cups," which mommy will make tonight. And Grandma and Grandpa Wiers will arrive tomorrow night! Then Saturday, Auntie Abby will arrive and Grandpa and Grandma Wissink are coming for the day. And then in the evening we will have Jeremiah's party! So fun to celebrate with family and friends! I will be sure to post pictures of the festivities and Jeremiah enjoying his cake! :)

It's Spring!

Okay, so it might not actually BE spring, but today it sure felt like it! It got into the 50's today-- maybe that groundhog was actually right! Well, a girl can certainly dream, right? And it looks like all this week is supposed to be just as nice (and then it's supposed to sink down into the 30's again, just in time for the weekend and Jeremiah's big birthday bash). We broke out the stroller for a short walk this afternoon, which was nice (except for walking through all the rivers and lakes from the melting snow). And either the stroller got smaller, or the little guy got bigger since last fall. I guess it's probably the latter, huh?

It was SO nice out today that we even opened up some doors and let some fresh air in the house! I never knew that looking out the front door would occupy Jeremiah for so long!


Jeremiah continues to be quite the little stinker...

This is his "I know I'm getting into something I'm not supposed to" smile (in this case, it was the magazines).

He has also become an escape artist. Michelle (our daycare provider) has her living room "gated" off with baby gates so that the little guys can play safely in there. Well, Mr. Stinker Jeremiah found a way to wiggle between the wall and the gate and managed to climb up the short stairway to the kitchen (it's a split-level house) where Michelle was cleaning up after lunch.... and he did that twice! Then the next day she said that she was sure that she had the gate fixed so that J couldn't get out.... except he did get out one more time. I blame all of this on his father, because I certainly never did anything like that as a child.

And Jeremiah has picked up a few dance moves. It's not quite like his cousin Josie's (or Aunt Cheryl's) one foot stomp, but he's still got some pretty sweet moves! :)

Can't believe that 1 year ago we were waiting for this little guy to arrive!!! Where has the past year gone???

Jeremiah's Activities

So, yes, Jeremiah is 100% back to normal after his little sickness. But, what's normal for Jeremiah? Well, let's just take a look at some every day activities that Jeremiah enjoys:

Watching Dad shovel. Yes, unfortunately this does happen rather often. Jeremiah REALLY loves it when Daddy stops and waves! And yes, he is shoveling the back deck... Molly needs a path shoveled, too!


Reminding Mom and Dad why they bought those annoying outlet covers.


Playing "Peek a Boo."


Looking through all the nice cards that people sent to us when he was born.


Getting an owie. Yes, Jeremiah gets bumps on the noggin frequently... I guess because he was not blessed with the Wiers coordination. This scratch between his eyes was pretty bad-- it even bled a little and can still be seen a few days later. This is what might happen if you are trying to stand up next to the couch while holding a rectangular magnet, and you fall down and the corner of the magnet gets you between the eyes. Ouch. For all the times that I say, "Be careful!" you'd think he would listen once!!!!


Talking on the phone. He just started doing this one, actually. Whenever he picks this toy phone up he puts it to his ear (or the back of his head). I think he just made a fuel sale in this picture (just like Daddy!).


Playing in the Tupperware drawer! He does this many times a day.


We often hear (like when we pick Jeremiah up from the nursery) that he is just SO good and plays so nicely! We do agree-- he plays very nicely all by himself OR with his sister Molly. Here's a video to prove it!

Back to the mischief

Well, there is no doubt that Jeremiah is back to normal! He has been up to his old tricks all day long today, which was very good to see. Yesterday Adam stayed home with him, and he was still very lazy and cuddly for most of the day. He also still had that darn fever, which finally went away in the late afternoon/early evening. And he definitely perked up then! But since he still had the fever yesterday and he should be fever-free for 24 hours before going back to daycare, I had planned to take a family sick day today. With the impending blizzard approaching, I was hoping for a snow day, but no such luck. They did dismiss at noon today, though, so I guess throwing those lesson plans together yesterday was worth it. So, it felt a little weird to be on a family sick day with a little guy who was feeling fine and acting normal. But that's okay! It's looking more and more like tomorrow will be a snow day, so I'll have to enjoy that day at home with Jeremiah as well! :)

Since I stayed home today, I was able to capture Jeremiah's every waking moment on video. Well, not really, but I did finally capture his "No no" finger wag.

His other fun activities today included getting into the zip-lock bag drawer and pulling all the bags out of the box (and when I grabbed the tin foil and saran wrap out of there and said "No no," he did his finger wag at me), playing in the Tupperware drawer (his favorite place to play!), taking 2 incredibly short naps (apparently he got all of his napping out of his system while he was sick), and playing with Molly and a box. He is such fun to watch-- go go go all the time! :)