Auntie Abby's Visit

Abby came for a quick visit from Sunday night to Tuesday evening to help us out while I finished up my plants class. She got to enjoy 2 whole days of one-on-one time with her favorite nephew! And believe it or not, after more than 48 hours of intense instruction and tutoring by Abby, Jeremiah STILL will not say "Abby" or even "Babby." He CAN say it, because he has done it before... he just refuses (even telling Abby "No" when she asked him to say it).

So, when they were not doing summer school, this is what Abby did with Jeremiah:

E.T. phone home.

And we wonder WHY he didn't want to say "Abby"?

He did still enjoy his time with Auntie Abby, and was very sad when it was time for her to leave. Thanks for coming all the way out here to help us, Abe!


And, in honor of Abby, here is a cute video of Jeremiah. I like to call it "Saying animal sounds and refusing to say Abby."

What We've Been Up To!

My first week and a half of summer vacation has been great! Jeremiah and I have settled into a nice routine. It was SO HOT last week, so most mornings we ventured out to either the Ankeny Splash Park (FREE from 10-12, close to home, but WAY TOO BUSY AND CRAZY!) or the Splash Park at Ashby Park in Des Moines (FREE, further from home, but WAY nicer for toddlers!).

Jeremiah loves going to the Splash Park MUCH more than playing in his own pool! Usually after we arrive around 10, Jeremiah wanders around the pool and plays a bit (I learned my lesson the first time we went-- I now bring buckets and trucks for him to play with!).


After he plays and wanders around for about an hour, we go sit in the shade and eat lunch!


Yes, Doggie enjoys the Splash Park, too!

After lunch, I change J into his clothes and we head back home and usually he is asleep before we get there. He goes down for his nap and sleeps for a good 2.5-3 hours! Also this summer we have fit in some trips to Hy-Vee, Target, the park, and the library.

This week was a bit different-- I am taking a class through Iowa State and the National Science Foundation. It started on Wednesday and ends this Tuesday. The class is called "Plants in Society" and I have learned far more about monocots, dicots, plant reproduction (we actually watched a movie called "Sexual Reproduction of the Floral Kind." I'm not kidding.), and biorenewables than I ever thought possible! It is actually pretty interesting, and surprisingly enough I have learned a lot and will have some new ideas for my classroom in the fall. Oh, and I actually get PAID to take the class (which is WHY I even agreed to do it)!

On Wednesday (my first day of class), Jeremiah went to daycare, and then Grandma and Grandpa Wiers came to spend Thursday and Friday with him! He loved all of his time with "Bapa" and I'm sure he loved his time with Grandma, too, but he just doesn't say it! :) Unfortunately I took very few pictures while G & G were here (well, I was in class for 2 of those days!). But some of the highlights were:

--Thursday night we went to a Calvin Alumni gathering at Principal Park and enjoyed the first 4 innings of an Iowa Cubs game! Then it started raining and hailing and they called the game (which turned out okay for us because we had a tired little boy on our hands!). It is always fun to get together with other fellow Calvin grads who live here in Central Iowa.
--Grandma and Grandpa did this with Jeremiah A LOT:

Apparently they each read "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" SEVERAL times.
--Friday night we hit Olive Garden for dinner-- YUM!
--This morning we checked out the Ankeny Farmer's Market. It's a lot smaller than the Des Moines one, but there is still some great stuff there! Plus, Jeremiah got to see some miniature horses!

Unfortunately, after that it was time to say good-bye to Grandpa and Grandma. :(

Jeremiah was pretty sad when they left... but then Adam decided to mow the lawn, and that cheered him right up! He just LOVES to watch daddy mow! This is what we do while daddy mows:

We sit on the front porch and watch and practice saying "mowing."

Tonight we enjoyed a fun BBQ at Jeremiah's daycare provider's house. I think this is such a great idea-- we are able to meet and get to know the families and Jeremiah's little friends. And J had a blast!

The Lonely Pool

I'll be honest. This spring when I was counting down the days until summer vacation, I was envisioning spending my days sitting out in the sun while my dear Jeremiah splashed nearby in our kiddie pool. And since this week we have jumped straight into summer, I just knew that my visions would soon be reality!

Memorial Day was forecast to be like 90 degrees-- so we inflated the pool and set it up in the morning to allow the water time to warm up a bit. Jeremiah was ready to play!

"Come on, where's the water?!?!"


He played in the pool a bit that afternoon.

Trying to drink the water-- just like in the bath tub!

But now, apparently the excitement of the new pool has quickly worn off. This afternoon after J's nap, I got him all changed into his swim stuff and slathered with sunscreen....

...and the pool sat empty.

Jeremiah is MUCH too busy to sit in the pool and would MUCH rather be out doing this:

Every once in a while he does venture back over to the pool to check it out and splash a bit.


But then it's right back to the trucks.


Oh well. We bought the pool on sale, and it does make for a nice place to put my feet while I'm sitting out in the sun watching Jeremiah play trucks.

He's a cool dude no matter what! :)


In other news, we had sweet corn for the first time on Memorial Day! It was definitely not late-summer-bought-from-a-farm-stand corn, but it was still pretty tasty. I couldn't wait to get a picture of Jeremiah chowing down on his first ear of corn!

But.... he refused to even TRY it and spent the majority of the time squeezing it with all his might (trying to get the corn kernels off? Who knows!). We'll make him into a sweet corn loving Iowa boy before this summer is over!

Happy Summer and 15 months!

"Girls Dig Me"

It's the official beginning of summer, folks! Wednesday was my last day of school, and yesterday was "pack up your entire classroom and move it all down to the gym" day. My school is doing a bit of remodeling this summer (don't worry-- nothing crazy like getting doors or windows in our classrooms, just new carpet, ceilings, cabinets, etc). So, a lot more packing was involved this year than in years past. I am crossing my fingers that all my carefully packed and labeled boxes and belongings make it back to the right place in August. Of course, there have been no contracts given out for next year, but I have been told by the Superintendent that I will be returning to 1st grade next year and can expect a class size of about 22 or so (um, that would be almost TWICE the size of this year's small group!). Anyway, if a different, more convenient, better school just happened to call me and want me to work for them I most certainly would not turn that down. But, if nothing better comes along before contracts are handed out, then I will be returning to United for another year (my 10th year of teaching!!!).

For our first day of summer vacation, Jeremiah and I headed to the Doctor's office for Jeremiah's 15 month check-up. And the stats are..... 27 lbs 11 oz (90th %ile), 33.5 inches tall (100th %ile!!!!!!!). I knew that Jeremiah was getting taller because he is now able to reach things on the counter top, and his feet kick the passenger's seat when he's in his carseat! But yikes! He obviously does have SOME Wiers in him, because he is going to grow up to be a tall boy. :) At 15 months, he is the size of the average 2 year old. What happened to my baby?

And a surprise at the Doctor's office? Ear infection! Sheesh! I feel like a horrible mother-- he has not shown any of his "normal" ear infection signs, except for a bit of crabbiness. And the crabbiness we attributed to his right molar trying to come through (it is almost there!). So anyway, now he will have Augmentin 2x a day for 10 days.... and another check-up in a month. She said that if it still looks infected or hasn't gone away 100% in a month, then it might be time to head to the ENT, since this is Jeremiah's 4th or 5th ear infection since November. So, hopefully it will be all gone and we can have a summer free of ear infections (and tubes!). He also got 2 shots-- tetanus and something else. He took them like a champ, though, and stopped crying as soon as I picked him up!

Some of the things J is doing at 15 months:
*He says da-da, ma-ma, dah (dog), melmo (Elmo, or any other DVD), go, no-no, cah (car), gama (grandma) and ba-pa (grandpa), more/mow, bah (ball), bubu (bubbles). He also says "yah-yoh" when we sing E-I-E-I-O, and says "doo!" when we count 1,2 (doo),3.
*He can point to his head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, tummy.
*Knows animal sounds-- dog, kittycat, elephant, pig, cow, monkey, lion.
*He RUNS everywhere!
*He's very into his cars and trucks and pushes them around making his "bbbmmmmm" sound.
*He's also very into pulling his wagon around behind him (usually full of his cars and trucks.
*He's a PICKY EATER!!!! Wonder where he got that from? Getting him to try anything new is a huge fight, and his staples are chicken nuggets, cheese sandwiches, yogurt, cheese, and applesauce.
*He LOVES his blankie, paci, and doggie (yeah.... getting rid of the paci is going to be traumatic!).


He's also my re-decorator-- candle pedestal turned into a sippy-cup holder (he's all about convenience).


He has started undressing himself in his crib.... I am afraid the diaper will be next!

Enjoying Spring!

Springtime here in Iowa can be kind of a roller coaster, with days of warm temps followed by big drops in temperature and chilly days. But, the weather has finally warmed up and STAYED warm, the trees and grass are GREEN (thanks to rain the past few days), and we are thoroughly enjoying spring! Jeremiah LOVES being outside, whether he's playing on the deck or riding in the stroller. And he cries just about every time we have to come in!

We even have had some 90+ degree days in the past couple weeks.


We let J play with a big bucket of water out on the deck-- he had so much fun! Mommy and Daddy did not have as much fun, since we had to fill it about 5 times because J was strong enough to pick it up and dump it! Don't worry, since then we have bought a baby pool for him to enjoy this summer-- can't wait to break it out!

Jeremiah loves watching Daddy mow the lawn, too!

He picked up the word "mow" quite quickly one evening when we went for a walk and just about everyone was out mowing. However, whenever he sees someone mowing the lawn, he says "mow" and then he does sign language for "more." So, we're not sure if he is confusing the words "mow" and "more" or if he just wants to see more mowing. Here's a little video of Jeremiah playing outside and watching Daddy mow.

Another great thing about spring and summer evenings???

Ice cream! :)

This is Mommy's last week of school, so pretty soon we'll have lots more time to enjoy the weather and play outside!

Adventures in Feeding Yourself

Mashed potatoes...








MAD when it's time to be all done!!! :(

Even though it may not look like it, he is actually doing pretty well with the "boon" (as Jeremiah calls it). Normally we let him try putting a Cheerio or Goldfish cracker on the spoon and putting it in his mouth, and he is quite proud of himself when it actually ends up there! We'll keep letting him practice-- and he'll keep having fun making messes! :)

Blessed to be Jeremiah's Mommy

So last Mother's Day was definitely the best, because it was my FIRST Mother's Day, plus we celebrated Jeremiah's baptism!



However, this Mother's Day Weekend ranks right up there! On Friday I was able to go to the "Mother's Day Tea" at Jeremiah's Daycare.

As you can see, I had no fancy hat or gloves to wear to this elegant affair. :(

The kids did a cute little performance, and Jeremiah even participated a little! Sorry about the crazy auto-focusing the camera is doing-- SO annoying!!! As you can see in the video, Jeremiah is quite proud to be doing "big kid" things at daycare! :)

And these are the gifts that Jeremiah presented me with at the Mother's Day Tea:


Saturday morning (after we Skyped with G & G Wiers!) we headed down to Pella for some Tulip Time!

"Come on Mom and Dad-- Let's go!!!"


Unlike last year, the weather was absolutely PERFECT-- sunny and 76! It was heaven! The tulips were beautiful, of course.



Being Dutch is the best!


This was the best pic we could get of J by the tulips... he's not much into sitting these days. And he was just dying to grab those beautiful bright tulips (apparently that's frowned upon). But he was smiling (not at me, obviously)!


We continued last year's tradition by eating lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Pella (hey, there was no line or wait!).

Jeremiah can't resist dancing to the mariachi music!

We spent a good amount of time in the little Kiddy Corner, where they had slides, riding toys, balls, etc.... $5 for a day pass was money well spent. Jeremiah loved it!



And of course, Jeremiah zonked out on the way home. :)


Then in the evening we grilled and ate our yummy dinner outside on the deck. Adam and Jeremiah presented me with cards, roses, a book, a Willow Tree figurine, and my FAVORITE chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's! Yes, I know I am spoiled! :)

Today was another gorgeous day! We enjoyed a wonderful church service and witnessed the baptisms of 2 of our friends' babies (soon to be Jeremiah's buddies when they get a little bigger!). Then later this afternoon we met G & G Wissink in Carroll (it's about half-way between Ankeny and Sioux City-- plus, there's a Pizza Ranch there!). We spent some time at a park, which Jeremiah loved, and then we had dinner. Adam and I were reminded yet again of what a good boy Jeremiah is. He barely made a peep on the hour and a half drive there OR back (and he was awake the entire time!), and he sat in his high chair and ate like such a big boy. We are certainly blessed to be mommy and daddy to our little fella!