Jeremiah Update

Jeremiah has turned into such a boy!

• He loves playing outside, sticks, slugs, building  guns out of blocks
• Has figured out how to petal his bike
• Know his left and right (in the context of his hands and feet)!
• Blueberries are his favorite food
• Is my helper whenever I'm cooking
• Counts, "1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10!" Every time. We'll get 5, 6, 7, and 8 eventually.
• Is potty trained, except for number 2. He always waits till he's in bed in a diaper.
• His imagination has taken off! Yesterday he built us goggles so we could look for fish in his room, I said something about an octopus. He started jumping trying to reach it. Apparently it was too high because he built a plane, then flew up and caught it. :-)
• Is so sweet to Ephram. When he hears Ephram crying Jeremiah gets Ephram's silky and then talks or sings to him.
• Singing is something he's just started doing
• Recognizes all the basic shapes
• Has just started saying crazy, disaster, and awesome

 

I asked him to show me the gun he built. Yep, he's shooting me. :-)

Workin' his hat from Aunt Shannie in Austrailla

My sweet boy. Pictures like this are hard to come by!

9 month pictures

Wreaths

Hello. My name is Megan and I have a wreath obsession. I didn't realize it till recently. I find myself looking up different kinds of wreath on Pinterest, thinking up new ones to make and how to repurpose ones I already have.

I made this one for Christmas. I loved how it turned out! It whimsical and has the Christmas colors but is fun. The best part was I didn't have to buy a lot to make it. Just the foam wreath, the W and a few pieces of felt. So easy too! The flowers are just circles in a variety of sizes stacked on each other.

One bad thing about loving wreath is I fell the need to have a different one for each holiday. I don't know why but I'm all about Valentine's Day this year. I wanted a Valentine's wreath without having to start from scratch.

I decided that my Christmas one was close, if only it had pink instead of green...

The flowers from the Christmas wreath were hot glued on so they weren't coming off (I tried). I thought about gluing on top of what was already there. But I didn't want to ruin the Christmas wreath. What to do...

Straight pins! I ended up making felt roses and using straight pins to hold them in place. If you look closely you can see a little bit of green poking out around the edges.

25 cents and an hour one evening and I was able to come up with this! It makes me happy.



Even more so

When I was a teenager the main family I would  babysa\it for had three kids. The oldest was Megan, then D.J. and Zack was the youngest. Before I would start sitting for a family I would always go over to visit to get a feel for the family.

While I was visiting with Ms. Kathy, the mom, she told me "Little boys are different. But D.J.... He's even more so." She told me lots of moms had told her that, even moms of other little boy. I didn't fully understand what she meant. Then I started sitting for them. D.J. wasn't a bad kid be any means! He was just full of energy, extremely curious, loud, so sweet and maybe a little mischievous.

Sound like another little boy I know. My very own, Jeremiah!

I have had other moms tell me the same thing Ms. Kathy was told about D.J. "Little boys are different. But Jeremiah... He's even more so."

It's taken me a little while to come to grips with what this mean.

Honestly, at first, it made me judged. Jeremiah loves to run, yell and be wild. I would see looks from other parents like I couldn't control my child. So I would try to get Jeremiah to behave the way other people thought he should. It just made things so much more stressful. He didn't understand why he couldn't play or explore and would become frustrated. Which just made him louder. The result would be more looks and cycle would continue.

Then I became defensive. Who are these other moms? What do they know about my son? i was ready for a smack down. Not a good thing to be prepared for.

I was left struggling, Trying to figure out what to do.

Over Christmas Matt's uncle and aunt were so encouraging! They just really praised Jeremiah for his energy, his curiosity, sweetness, and even the loudness and mischievousness! They shared that one of their kids was the same way, and he outgrew it!.

After the encouragement, lots of prayer and talking to Matt, I now have a plan! I'm not going to try to force Jeremiah into a box that other people think he should be in. I'm going to let him run, yell and play. I'll be there right there with him running, yelling and playing. Showing him that he's loved and isn't expected to change. Teaching him that it's good to want to explore and even be wild in the right setting. How to control himself. Even harness his curiosity and apply it.

9 months

How is it that Ephram is 9 months old? I'm already starting to think about his first birthday party! Yesterday morning I looked at the clock at 10:44. It was strange to think that nine months ago he had been born yet. Then I started to laughing thinking about the exciting car ride we had going to the hospital and how grateful I am that he wasn't born at 10:44!

• Sign "all done" and every now then he signs "more"
• Can clap. He loves to sing If Your Happy and You Know it. He claps through the whole song.
• Is a book worm already.
• Not crawling yet, but has started rolling to get places.
• Waves occasionally.
• Sleeping much better! Still not through the night but so much better!
• Splashing in the bathtub is one of his favorite things to do. Slashes almost as big as Jeremiah's
• Loves being outside.  
• Has 4 teeth!
• Shakes his head no. Awesome.
• Dances. It's a lot like shaking his head no, but to music
• Wears size 12 month.
• Weighs around 23lbs according to our scale. I take him for his 9 month appointment in a few weeks. So we won't have the official weight till then.

There's no picture yet because he has horrible diaper rash and is super cranky. Hopefully I'll get one in the next few day.

Meals

I really enjoyed cooking so much this week! It was wonderful just needing to get the meal together without first figuring out what I was going to make.One thing I learned is when you cook a lot, there are leftovers! So this week I'm going to be cooking meals that I didn't have a chance to make last week.

My favorite meal last week was the Alfredo! Nummy! I've treied a few different Alfredo recipes in the past, but they never turned out right. This recipe took longer then I thought it would. But so worth it! If you make it, make sure to give yourself pleanty of time!

Sunday: Honey Garlic Chicken and rice with mixed veggies. Already in the crock pot.
Monday: Chicken Marsala over pasta with roasted veggies (I was so bumbed I didn't get fix this last week! Can't wait till dinner tomorrow!)
Tuesday:  Sheperds Pie with rolls. I'm determined to figure out how to bake bread!
Wednesday: Left Overs or a quick meal, like brinner
Thursday: Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup and salad
Friday:Roasted Chicken with roasted green beans
Saturday: Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

8 Months & Frist Christmas

Meals

Something I'm hoping to get better at is meal planning. In an effort to accomplish this, I thought I would post me meal plan here. Got the idea from my friends Brit. I'm also hoping to try some new recipes. It seems like we end up eating the same meals.  There are a few new ones this week that I'm pretty excited about! I'll let you know how they turn out.

Sunday: Honey Garlic Chicken and rice with mixed veggies
Monday: Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup and salad
Tuesday:  Chicken Alfredo with broccoli
Wednesday: Stuffed pork chops with roasted green beans
Thursday: Fajitas with onion and peppers and black beans
Friday:Spaghetti and meat balls
Saturday: Chicken Marsala over pasta with roasted veggies(I can't wait to try this, I love chicken marsala!)