Happy Birthday, Lauren

I wanted to stop and say Happy Birthday to my angel niece. It's hard to believe it's been two years. The pain is still so deep, but we know that she is watching over all of us and has been a great Guardian Angel for my child and for Braden and Madison.

This is a very touching and somewhat personal story, so I was hesitant to put it in writing. But, I don't want to forget. For quite some time, even before Jameson could really talk, he would wake up in the morning and point up at the ceiling over by his window. After a few times, I kind of started to freak out a little. What the heck was he seeing?! Was it a ghost? A monster? A shadow? As he got older, he would point and say, "dat" or "Mommy dat" and point and smile. I was still a bit freaked, but he didn't seem scared, so I just kind of brushed it off. Finally, about a week ago, we were reading  books per our usual night time routine and out of nowhere, he pointed up and started saying, "That. Mommy look. That.". Darin was gone for the night, so I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't figure out what the heck he was seeing! I started probing him - asking him what he saw. What it looked like. Where exactly he was pointing. He got down off of my lap and walked over and smiled and pointed and said, "There. That". I asked again what he saw and he looked at me and said, "a candle!". I said, "a candle??". He said, "yeah, a pretty candle" and just smiled and walked back over to me. I realized that on his dresser he had a Scentsy burner that maybe he was referring to (that is never on), so I pointed to it and asked if that was what he was talking about and he said no and pointed upwards. I looked around some more to see if there was a weird shadow or if there was a reflection of light coming through. There was nothing. I knew at that moment it was Lauren's light that he was seeing. No scary ghost or monster, but her light shining with us always.

We miss you baby girl. Today and always.

Snow Day!!

Jameson and I were both kind of sickly when it first really snowed last week, so we just kind of watched the snow from inside and didn't get to go play in it. Now, for anyone who knows me, you know that is not something that would upset me. Buuuut, I felt bad that my little boy couldn't go outside and be a little kid and play in the snow! So, on the 3rd, I felt like we were both finally feeling well enough to venture out for a bit. My Mom had gotten Jameson some fun snow ink for Christmas, so Darin brought that out with us and helped him color the snow! Jameson had a blast. He loved making footprints - he would just giggle when we were stomping around. We started to get pretty cold, so I asked if he wanted to go back inside, to which he replied, "burr cold" and shivered. I took that as a yes and we headed back inside the warm house.

Should have known that it wouldn't be that easy to get him inside. After about 3 minutes, he wanted to go back outside! So, I volunteered to go back out and we played for a bit longer. He really loved dumping water on the snow and watching it melt...hmmm, the inquiring mind was trying to figure out how it worked! I still wasn't feeling 100%, so we didn't stay out for as long as he would have liked, but his little nose was getting rosy and I was freezing! He had a great time playing and I can't wait until the next snow when maybe we can build a snowman!!




SNOW!



Snow bunny!

Sooo exciting!

Daddy showing Jameson how to squirt the colored dye!

Admiring Daddy's beautiful masterpiece - 'Jameson' written in the snow!





Daddy showing him how it's done!



J's turn!

Squeezing out the last bit!

He had so much fun!

Little rosy nose!



Back outside for Round 2 with the cup of water!



Waving hello to whoever!



Watching the snow melt!



Oooooh, so cooool!

Happy New Year!!!

This post is going to sound a lot like last year's new year post; but, unfortunately, 2012 was another iffy year. We were hoping for some bright moments, which of course we had, but it seemed like we had our fair share of bad news. However, as I also have said a bazillion times, Jameson can always make any day brighter, so even with the bad, there is always so much good. I am, however, very much looking forward to 2013 and hoping and praying that it brings good news, joy and health to my family and friends. I, by no means, want to make it seem like I had an awful year - there are plenty of people who experienced WAY worse stuff than I/my family did. I am extremely blessed and you better believe that I count my blessings each day and thank God for all he has given me. But, I would just like to think that we have some good juju coming our way this year. Seems like it's about time :).

We decided to start the new year off with a very low key night in with just our little family. We had steaks on the grill with the fixings and then Dairy Queen blizzards for dessert! After dinner, we played with all Jameson's toys while we watched the New Year's Eve coverage. We knew Jameson wouldn't make it to midnight (and we questioned whether we would!), so we decided to have our own little countdown around 8:30. Jameson insisted that we count 1-10 instead of counting down from 10-1. It was pretty funny. But, he was ALL about yelling, "Happy New Year" and throwing the "etti" or confetti as we like to call it! After the countdown, he was running around for the next 20 minutes yelling and laughing. It was so fun to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Ljo2Ar7Y4.

After our celebration, we went upstairs and got ready for bed and then read some books per our usual night time routine. Darin and I made it to the East Coast New Year and then called it a night...LAME :). But, it was a perfect night and I wouldn't change any of it for the world. On New Year's Day, we went to Schooners for our Annual Reed/Read lunch and we all had a great time. Jameson did such a good job and had fun wandering around the restaurant. Everyone was impressed with his eating habits, as he was munching on lemon, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and raspberries! We went home after lunch and pretty much had a lazy day!


Happy New Year...may your days be filled with love, happiness and health!!

Daddy showing Jameson how it's done.

He is an old pro!





He loved the balloons as much as anything!

Mmm, blizzard!

Guess he is too big to sit on Mommy's lap, so he wanted to sit all by himself.

Now, getting comfy in his chair. Feet up, relaxing, enjoying his blizzard.   



Daddy is so funny.

Lucky little boy - he loved his M&M blizzard!

Found his Santa Hat and wanted to wear that instead of the other hats!

Time for our Celebration!

Counting down (or up in Jameson's case!).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Haha! Kid cracks me up.

Aww, New Year hug!

Stomping around in the confetti!

Happy New Year, Bean!



Enjoying his New Year's Day lunch at Schooner's

Mmm, lemon.

Happy 2013!!

22 Months!!

Two more months until TWO!!!! Although, I swear sometimes you already act like you are two - in a good way though!  I wasn't by any means talking about the tantrums :). You just seem older than you are with the way you can tell us what you did during the day, what you want for dinner, and what book to read at night!
....however, we have definintely had our fair share of previews of the impending terrible twos!

Time to report on the last month!

• You are so tall now. I swear you grew more this past month. When we measured you, you were 35 1/4 inches! I am thinking it wasn't exactly accurate, but I knew you grew!! And, I call you skinny minny now because you have thinned out so much! You have stayed about the same weight for quite some time at about 29.8 pounds, but with getting taller, you have thinned out.
• We discovered some new foods that you like: cherry tomatoes and black olives. Should have known about the black olives since you are an olive connoisseur! I have tried cherry tomatoes before and you were NOT a fan, so I guess your taste buds matured some! You also LOVE pickles. And, hearing you say pickle in your little voice is really too cute.  
• Speaking of eating, when you don't like something, you usually spit it out, hand it to us, and say, "don't like it!" or sometimes just "no like it". You amazed Grandma Debbie a few weeks ago when you handed her some food and said, "grandma, I don't like it". It's pretty funny because you make quite the face when you taste whatever it is you "no like".
• You got to make pigs in a blanket with Gma Kim and apparently really liked those too! And, had a good time helping!
• You do this hilarious laugh out of nowhere sometimes. It makes my heart smile every time
• http://youtu.be/ySqvaIuBRk0
• Hate to admit this, but you know what On Demand is on TV!!! That's where we find most of our Dora episodes, so you must have heard us saying it a few times. You also get antsy when we watch shows with commercials. You always say, "where'd it go" and then follow up with "it's coming".
• You do things for me now! Like the other night, I said that Mommy needed a tissue and you went a got me one!
• I have noticed you biting on the inside of your lip/cheek...just like Mommy does! Must be a hereditary thing...or maybe it's just some teeth coming in or something else!
• You are getting really good with colors. You still say "a bwue (blue) one" more than others, but you can identify red, green and yellow really well now!
• http://youtu.be/3bWCW3mMh00
• You have learned to bargain with us. I guess our "bribing" from a few months ago has taught you some tricks!! When we ask you to have two more bites of something and then you can get down, you say, "ok two more bites and enamems (M&Ms)!!! Daddy and I about fell off our chairs when you said that a few weeks ago...and the requests have not stopped, so you have learned how this whole bargaining thing works!!
• You now blot your pizza thanks to me! I guess you have seen me do it enough, so now you ask for na-kins, so that you can blot your own. Hilarious.
• You actually sat through your first whole movie - The Lorax! And, I guess I shouldn't say you sat the whole time, but you were engaged the entire movie and never really ran around too much. I was telling Daddy that I think maybe we will have to take you to a movie for your birthday!!
• And, I guess you picked this up from The Lorax, but Daddy was "sleeping" the other night on the floor and when you went over to tickle him, you also decided to give him CPR. We couldn't stop laughing because you did it a few times! I guess your memory really is like a steel trap!
• As I briefly mentioned, you actually make decisions on a lot of things now: what outfit to wear (except it's usually the same 3-4 outfits!), what you want for breakfast/lunch/dinner, what toy you want to play with or when you know you are ready for a nap (this is just plain awesome!).
• You tell us stories too. We ask you about your day and you will tell us what you did. Or we ask you to tell us a story and you will makes some stuff up. A lot of times it's in the same vein of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?", but it's still impressive nonetheless!! And, you usually add us into the mix - "Daddy, Daddy, what do you see?".
• You also read us stories. You will flip through some of your books and tell us how it goes (kind of!). 
• Your bedtime books of choice this month were: The Cat in the Hat, Yummy Yucky, Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. I think I have them all memorized. You also have to read Gma Debbie and Ray's Superhero recorded book each night!
• When Daddy gives you a bath - you are so good at listening for directions when he is washing you. "Turn around", "Lift up your head", "Stand up". It's been that way for awhile, but it's been awhile since I joined in the bath time fun!  
• We also introduced colored bath dropz and you think it's pretty fun to have colored water! I realized I am not a fan of the yellow drops though...
• This is sooo funny and a little strange, but one day at lunch, I heard you keep saying "daddy blueberry". I didn't understand until I saw that you had a huge blueberry in your hand and you apparently thought it was a Daddy blueberry! You proceeded to pick up a little blueberry and call it baby blueberry and then put them together and said, "awwww". I about died laughing and it really melted my heart...even if it's weird! And, now you do it with lots of fruit...you had a Daddy Apple the other day, lol!
• You had a little bit of a stomach bug - we thought for sure it was ears or something, but everything checked out OK and Dr. Emm said you were the 4th kid in the same age bracket that had been in that day for the same reasons. You got over it quickly - you were fine by the time we left the Dr.!
• You also got a mild cold right after Christmas. No ear infection or sore throat - just runny nose and a cough. Mommy got it much worse than you - or at least she acted like a bigger baby than you :).
• We had our final swim class and "graduation". You did so great during swim lessons!
• You have figured out that when your toys are not working anymore, they need new batteries. I was shocked when you looked up at Daddy and me and said, "not working, needs batteries".
• Another one of my favorite things you do right now is sing our clean up song from Kindermusik whenever you are putting your stuff away..."toys away, time to put the toys away". Love!
• You love going to Chuck E Cheese. When we go to the grocery store, you always get really excited because you see Chuck E! Good thing Grandma Debbie and Ray take you every now and then!
• http://youtu.be/k8FCDhUbuns
• You are getting very good at hanging on the bar at the Jump Spot! You are super strong!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZCfhxaaY-s
• You have also started squeezing the living daylights out of your food sometimes! It's hysterical.
• http://youtu.be/9vEo4LljUPU
• I have said it in quite a few monthly posts, but you just crack us up constantly. This age is sooo extremely fun because you just do so much new stuff each and every day! And, you are just too funny!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baa7Fru6xDc (you being a nut!)
• http://youtu.be/WoF-uYjL8es (silly video - just one instance of you making me laugh)

I want to preface this vocab section by saying that although I make it sound like you can say every word we ever ask you to say, there are a good chunk of things that require what I call Mommy Ears (or Daddy/Grandma/Ray/Grandpa Ears). There are still times when I have trouble understanding what you are saying and you look at me like, "c'mon Mommy, figure it out!!". But, overall, you honestly repeat ANYTHING we ask you to say. I love that you attempt it and most of the time say things wonderfully. You have been talking in choppy sentences for awhile now, but I would say now it's about 90% of the time that you use sentences. It's really pretty cool and it makes things a little easier now since you can explain yourself most of the time.

• Daddy and my favorite right now is "Dinner Ready". You seem to think that if we are in the kitchen at any given time, it means it's time to get "dinner ready". When you talk on your play phones, you often tell whoever you are talking to "uh uh dinner ready". LOVE. And, sometimes you will even tell them what we are having (or what you had for breakfast or lunch).
• http://youtu.be/Z4mx2AjTNy0 (you can kind of hear the "dinner ready" and then "coffee" and then you start talking about kitty cats!).
• Ready, set, go!!! - this is something you started doing shortly after last month's post. I think it's from our classes at the Jump Spot, but you will do it for just about anything and then take off running, or jump off the couch, or in your highchair!
• Porkypine = porcupine (duh!). This is adorable to hear you say. You must have seen one somewhere because just out of the blue one day, you were walking around saying Porkypine!
• Coo Coo Nana = Coo coo banana! Daddy started calling you coo coo bananas sometimes when you are running around like a mad man and you always giggle and say, "coo coo nana"!
• Jammies - you LOVE your jammies. Sometimes it's a struggle to get you out of your jammies in the morning! You like to lounge in jammie pants...just like your Mama!
• Right - this is one of my new favorites! You will say something and then say, "right, Mommy?". I LOVE that! It's so cute.
• Another one of my favorites is now you answer with, "yeah, I do" when we ask if you want something or want to do something. It is precious.
• Pway with ALLLL the toys - I wrote this on the Christmas blog, but you are so cute when you say it! And, you say it almost every time you wake up in the morning or from a nap. You want to go downstairs and play with allllll of your toys! Your eyes always get really big when you say this - too cute.
• I know - yes, you have started saying I know. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing! Just kidding. I told you something the other day and you looked at me and said, "Mommy, I know". I about fell on the floor.
• Hmmmm - this is also a favorite. When we are looking for something, you will say, "hmmm". I realized that Daddy and I do that a lot, so I guess that's where you got it.
• http://youtu.be/COnhVn0T68Q (this is also a good video of you learning how to play a match game!)
• Coco-nut
• Pineapple
• Holy Lord - probably not the best thing to have you learn, but you must have heard one of us say it...I blame Daddy.
• Probly = probably (another obvious one, but I didn't want people to think I can't spell!). I was surprised you could say this or where you even picked it up. But, I asked you one night if you were going to play with Braden the next day and you looked at me and said "probly".
• Mommy, way ahh youuuuu?  (or whoever the subject may be) = Mommy, where are you?  I love this . I will go to the bathroom or run upstairs and I hear you yell, "Mommy, way ahh youuuu?".
• Nakey tato = nakey potato. Weird yes, but one day we took off all of the parts on Mr. Potato head and I laughed and said, "uh oh, he's a nakey potato" and now you will do it and giggle and say, "nakey tato!".
• Oh goodness - this can be added to your dramatic Oh Nos. You heard Daddy say it and then you said it with such a pathetic sounding little voice.
• Maybe - Ray asked you the other day if you wanted to go to the Mall so you could ride on the choo choo and you looked at him and said, "maybe". It was so funny!
• Coos me = excuse me. You always say this now when you burp...or something else!
• Poopaste = toothpaste. Yes, we are really trying to work on this one because it's a little misleading as it is right now!
• Healp me! = help me! You crack me up, but when you fall down or if someone is pretending to come after you, you will yell, "healp me, healp". WAY. TOO. CUTE.
• ILL-INI - you are getting much better at this chant and you love to do it! Cracks me up! http://youtu.be/1H1crqbVei8
• You are starting to understand to say "me" instead of "you" when you are referring to something you did/want.
• Good boy - you will say this sometimes after you do something "good". It cracks me up because we have been saying that to you forever whenever we are proud of you, so you just praise yourself now :).

I love you, kid. You may get sick of hearing that day after day, but I will never let a day go by where I don't say it...so get used to it :).

22 Month Pictures:

Buried in toys!

Silly boy!

Serious face.

My goofball!

Playing some guitar in my boots. No big deal.

Standard picture of the curls! May be time for another cut?!

Pics from the last month!

Pulling his Diego backpack!

Mmm, steak!

This kid is a nut!

Fun with swimming lessons!

Fun at the mall with Gma and Ray! Apparently, this is where Jameson picks up the ladies.

Fun with his felt Christmas Tree!

Using my purse for a pillow!

Aww!

Cousin rockers!

Mmm, christmas cookies!

Imaginative play at its best...using the bathtub shower faucet as a phone!

So proud of their tower!

Because wearing Daddy's t-shirt is so much fun!

Just hanging out in my boots!

This kid is fashion forward...green boots and snowman/angel head pieces.

Being goofy!

Showing off on the bars!

Enjoying a Christmas cookie at the Jump Spot after class!

Just relaxing, watching some Dora.

Apparently, no tower is complete without a plug on top!

Wearing Mommy's gloves!

At Braden's Christmas program! They love each other! Or at least Jameson wants to be just like Braden :).

Checking out the first snow!

Panda Bear? Check! Popcorn? Check. Someone is ready for the Illini game!

Opening his Christmas present from "Aunt" Michelle! He LOVED his acrobat!

Sweet little face.

Monthly funny sleeping pictures.

I don't think I could ever get enough of this sight.

Just pushing my grocery cart with no pants. Totally normal, yes?!

The stare down!

Ice cream treat after a doctor visit!

Fun at the Museum with Gma Debbie and Ray!

Hmm. Which movie to choose? Decisions. Decisions. Clearly, he got my indecisive gene!

Watching The Lorax.



All of my boys!



Bath tub fun with colored water!

Just relaxing in the tub!

Ha!

Fun at Chuck E Cheese! And, you can see his attempt to blot his pizza with the entire tub of napkins!

Reading his new Superhero book, recorded
by Gma Debbie and Ray!



Building "peh-amids" and towers! Looks like Daddy is having more fun than Jameson!

All the cool kids cook in their play kitchens while wearing froggy boots!