Happy Halloween!!!

Jeremiah was a bullfrog...

These are pictures from our church's trunk or treat celebration on Sunday. He's the cutest darn frog, we've ever seen.

The sitter exchange

Last week was a bit tumultous in Jeremiah's world. The early part of the week was pretty standard, after a weekend away. However, he is fighting this cough/cold thing so his night's are interrupted with coughing.



On Thursday, Ms. Shelly took the day off so we took him to another lady in town. He seemed to adjust to her pretty well and do fine with her. Then I picked him up around 4 and picked up a teenager that lives across the street from Ms. Shelly to stay with him for the evening. I had a meeting and John had class. They played and I think he fooled her in to holding him quite a bit. She read a big pile of books to him. That night was when things really got tumultous for us all. At 3:30 on Friday morning, he woke up coughing but was much more difficult to soothe than any other time I remember. He was up for nearly 2 hours, at which time I needed to start my day to get to work early. Needless to say, Friday was a loooong day.



Now, I must back up and give you a few details that may or may not have influenced his early morning disruption. On Thursday I took breast milk for him to drink to the temporary sitter. However, when I brought the bag back home that afternoon it was still in the bag. I thought maybe Shelly took milk to her that I didn't know about so I didn't worry about it too much. Later we learned that someone she didn't understand that he needed breastmilk so she gave him cow's milk. I'm not sure his little tummy was ready for that much cow's milk in one day. Now, we're planning to really ease him in to cow's milk, in case he does have some sort of problem with lactose but we hope not.

The weekend was fun, including another night with the teenage sitter, while we enjoyed some grown up time at the Illinois vs. Michigan game. He was missed by some but it was just too tight in the stands to have had him. On Sunday we made sure we got outside to enjoy the nice weather (see picture of him playing in the yard) and then we went to the youth football league picnic, where he seemed to be entertained by all the kids.

Here are a few other "little tricks".

He has started giving high fives and throwing his football around the living room. This makes for fun play time with dad.

He's started becoming a bit of a picky eater. The kid that used to gobble down vegetables is more akin to bread! He's a little carb packer!

He can now pick up the toilet seat. I'm ashamed to say he has gotten his hand in the water more than once.

What was once an "empty things out" game has now added another component of "putting things back."

He can reach doorknobs and thinks they are fun to mess with.

Pretty girls and a haircut

Since we haven't reported in almost 2 weeks here are a few highlights from last week.

• We took Jeremiah to another Illini game. It was pretty hot but he was a very good boy again and the Illini beat the Badgers!!


• On that Sunday we had to usher for church so we took him to the nursery for the first time. The stinker wouldn't let the girls in the nursery put him down.


• The rest of the week was pretty standard with not too much excitement or abnormality. He did go to work with me one morning while his sitter had to do something. He watched some of my co-workers and I clean tables in a newly renovated space.

So, now on to the good stuff. This weekend we went north to a wedding and to visit Grandpa S. and some other family members. I took advantage of being back to make an appointment to have his first haircut with a special person. Heidi graciously agreed to give him his first cut. Here are a few pictures of the cut and then him with her. His baby look is definitely gone now and he looks like a little boy. We kept the hair in an envelope and I'll put it in his book.

At the wedding, he had his picture taken with the maid-of-honor, Stephanie. That was a treat. Doesn't she look pretty!

After the wedding we met Grandpa S., Kelley and Rebecca in Galena and they took him back to the farm for the night while we went to the reception. He was pretty good for Grandpa but he wasn't too thrilled about eating...that is until Grandpa let him have donut for dinner. Oh well, that's part of staying with grandpa. Kelley stayed that night to help take care of him because Grandma was out of town. He was in bed when we got home from the party. When we got him up the next morning he was wet, which isn't totally unusual. Diapers do have a capacity limit afterall. I started to strip him to change his clothes and diaper. I noticed that his diaper wasn't on so well, which can happen when he wiggles around all night. Then, I looked a little closer and discovered that Grandpa and Kelley had made things very hard for themselves. They put Jeremiah's diaper on backwards. I don't even want to think how hard that was but it made me chuckle.

Our week is off to a rocky start as Jeremiah seems to be fighting a cough/cold. The darn weather has been rough on people. Additionally, one of his new favorite pasttimes is climbing. This weekend he climbed up in to the high chair at Papa's house. Here is a picture of him on top of a box.

I-L-L-I-N-I

Jeremiah attended his first Illini football game on Saturday. We tailgated before the game and he took advantage of that time to get a nap in. At the game he was so good, as long as we kept the snacks and toys coming. He was occupied so well that we made it through the whole game in our seat, except for 2 quick diaper changes. He even surprised me with how well he behaved. And the best part is that he got to see them win. Well, not exactly. He fell asleep on my shoulder with about 2 minutes left in the game. I guess it was just too much excitement.

Here's a picture of him all decked out for the game.