So much to share

This is going to be a long post but bear with us because there is so much excitement to share.

We spent last week on vacation in Wisconsin with The Todds and then traveled through Elizabeth to visit with the Schnitzler side of the family.

However, the excitement began nearly a week before that when we went to Effingham for John's friend Karen's wedding. We stayed in a hotel and gave Jeremiah a chance to test out his new baby floater in the pool. This was his first time in a pool, but as suspected, the kid who loves bath time loved the pool.

We came back home on Sunday and Jeremiah decided that we couldn't have a day without a little excitement so he graced us with a bath-worthy diaper. Well, it wasn't exactly in the diaper, which was part of the problem.

On Monday, I stayed home to get ready for our trip north to Wisconsin. I noticed Jeremiah making a strange face. I thought he had managed to pick something up off the floor and put it in his mouth but I couldn't find anything. As I dug around in his mouth, I discovered that what he was playing with in his mouth was a tooth. We have since experienced a bit of crackiness but nothing too severe related to the teeth so far. I think I can feel another one right next to this one on the bottom of his mouth.

We hit the road on Tuesday and he traveled pretty well, getting to meet the Wisconsin Fairest of the Fairs when we crossed the border. Then, he got to meet another fair little lady. We stopped in Madison to meet his future wife, Emily. We've been excited about her arrival for a long time and it was great to get to meet her. We arrived at the cabin just in time for Jeremiah's dinner. He did get a little cracky during the last hour on the road so he was glad to be out of the car.

While on vacation, we discovered that we really don't need to buy toys for Jeremiah. He found great thrill in a large spoon from the cabin and a Leinenkugel box. I promise to share pictures of the Leiny box but they are on Grandma's camera so we have to wait to get them from her.




On Wednesday, he enjoyed his first boat ride, wearing a new life jacket that Grandma bought. I'm including the picture of him in the first life jacket so you can see the difference and what he looked like in the "stuffed sausage" jacket. We also introduced him to the cold lake water that afternoon. He didn't like it much at first, but then adjusted just like the rest of us. Grandpa held him until he got used to the temperature and then he enjoyed being in his float. That night we went out on the boat to watch fireworks. He wasn't too excited about being in his life jacket that long without the boat moving so I ended up singing songs to keep him occupied. I'm sure the rest of the family got quite the kick out of this.

The highlight of Thursday was going to the beach, where he managed to eat sand. We also put him in the lake at the sand bar. That night we rode the boat across the lake to eat out for John's birthday. He was a trooper during dinner, even earning accolades from Grandma for being a good little eating out companion.

On Friday, he enjoyed some time without us to be with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma took him for a walk and then they fed him lunch. I'm not sure if Grandpa managed to give him more cake, as earlier in the week but that's what time with Grandparents is for, I guess. That day he fell asleep while we were at the sandbar so we let him nap on the boat while we enjoyed some time sitting nearby. It's our guess that this is the first time the boat owner had a baby nap on his boat.

We hit the road again on Saturday to come south to be with the rest of the family, but before we did that he shared a new little trick with all of us. He pulled up on the coffee table in the cabin. He had done something close to this at home but this was deliberate and repeated. Now he's pulling up on everything. Since it was in the 90s on Saturday, we quickly headed for the pool at Grandma and Grandpa Schnitzler's house. Then, we let him go to the barn. He smiled big when he met a Charolais heifer face to face.

He enjoyed time with some of his Schnitzler cousins on Sunday for a birthday party for Dylan. He and cousin Karl got to play in their own private baby pool. Sorry, no pictures. Then, the dreaded car trip came again. He napped for a while and then we stopped to feed him, arriving home around 7:30.

Because his babysitter is gone this week, Aunt Ann arrived on Monday afternoon to watch him this week. Their first day was a little rough but they seem to be doing better now. We don't think he was too keen on the idea of us being away after being with us for nearly 10 days, not to mention getting teeth.

Sorry for the long post but we wanted to be sure to share all the great things going on at our house! Hopefully we can post more pictures when Grandma shares them with us.