Jeremiah - some highlights

I thought it might be a good idea to capture a few tidbits to capture Jeremiah's essence at this point in his life.

• He enjoys learning to spell words and sound them out. He is picking out words from signs, food boxes, and more.
• He's recently shared with us that when you rhyme with duck you have to be careful because there is a bad word that rhymes with it. We didn't volunteer when he asked us what the word was.
• He's starting to enjoy playing with his little brother.
• He makes up words AND meanings for them.
• He's using his imagination to tell us that apparently he learned many things and experienced many firsts while at Grandma's when he was a baby. This is helping us to start to talk about what is make-believe and what is the truth.

And here are a few of his recent one-liners and regular phrases.

• "Dad, do you have a situation that needs imagination?" (maybe he has been watching too much Imagination movers.)
• "Don't worry, I've got this under control."
• "Yeah, yeah, yeah"

Vacation Highlights

Both boys made our trip to the Long Lake in northern Wisconsin memorable. We headed out on Monday morning and both of them traveled really well. We stopped at a McDonald's with a playground for lunch, which gave Jeremiah a chance to run off some energy before getting back in the car. We made the 7 hour drive with just 3 stops. Later that evening, Jeremiah sent his first cast in to Long Lake and also took a quick swim and tried out the slides.

Andrew's first boat ride!

Driving the boat with grandpa

On Tuesday, Andrew made his debut in the water and he was NOT HAPPY!

Andrew on day 1 in the water

Jeremiah continued to enjoy the water and was like a fish when we ventured out to a sand bar to swim. He managed to catch a rock with his fishing pole in the morning and Grandma Todd had to venture in to unhook it. Jeremiah went out for a few hours of fishing later in the evening and came back to report that "We caught nothin' " Actually, he was full of one-liners that day also showing his pleasure with his afternoon beverage by saying, "Ah, hot orange soda pop!" We had to change gas tanks in the middle of the lake and had a few challenges getting going again. With complete seriousness on his face said, "Oh no, we're going to be stuck here!"

Jeremiah learned a little something about the lake on Tuesday, when his daddy explained that he could pee in the lake. He looked at him bewildered and said, "huh?" Daddy did have to explain that you don't pull your pants down!

Wednesday brought a trip to Hayward, where we enjoyed a visit to the bakery and the candy store. Jeremiah was a bit overwhelmed with the candy store and wasn't sure where to start. He and daddy found their way to a variety of gummy candy and some jelly beans. Andrew really liked the bread from the bakery!!

Our cabin only features a shower, so we improvised a bathtub for Andrew from a plastic tub. The pictures of this are on Grandma's camera.

We enjoyed more swimming, fishing and boating over the next few days.

Jeremiah fishing from the dock. 1...2...3..cast!

Jeremiah took a liking to the slides, and really liked Grandpa catching him when he came down the big slide.

Jeremiah was quite the chatty fisherman, asking everyone if they had caught anything on nearly every cast. He also took a "break" for snacks and resting after about every third cast. On Saturday morning as we were preparing to leave he noted, "I'm really good at catching grass, seaweed and nothing!"

By Friday, Andrew had finally decided the water wasn't complete torture. We were able to coax him in to his floater for a few minutes.

Andrew on day 4 in the water.

This was after being exposed to the water by nearly everyone in the group. We even put him in a big inner-tube while at the beach one day.

The boys were pretty good travelers on the way back home. However, I think we were all ready to be home when we were trying to hammer out the last 60 miles. Andrew was pretty whiny by then! We did take a few minutes to talk about our favorite parts of vacation with Jeremiah. He said he liked fishing on the boat and swimming. Then, he added that he thought Andrew's favorite part of vacation was eating. Actually he was probably pretty accurate!

4th of July

We had a fun 4th. Jeremiah rode in the parade with a local historical group. He was dressed as a kid at an Independence Day picnic in the 19th century.

Andrew was a great parade spectator. He jumped just once from the sirens but otherwise wasn't bothered.

It started raining just before dusk so we watched the fireworks from the patio of one of daddy's chamber members. Daddy had to hold Jeremiah's ears the entire time. Andrew watched intently, not seeming to mind the noise, and then promptly fell asleep.