My First Baby

I can't believe my boy is turning 9! Didn't he just start kindergarten yesterday? When you have a child I think the first year flies by, especially since pregnancy seems to last about five years. And then after they start school, time goes into warp speed. You're so busy with homework, projects, and after school activities that three months seem like a week. I find myself having thoughts like, "Oh gee Christmas is next week. Didn't school just start?" or "Twelve days left of school until summer break. Didn't they just have spring break?" Having Caroline brings back a lot of memories of Jonah being little. David asks me all the time if Caroline is the cutest baby I've ever seen. I do think she's adorable but I remember another baby that made my heart melt too.

Jonah's first birthday. This is the first time I realized Jonah has a serious sweet tooth.


This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Jonah. He's about 18 months here.


Here are a couple of pictures of David and Jonah right before Jonah's third birthday when David had come down to visit us in Florida.


Jonah with a couple of his buddies at his fourth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.


To celebrate his ninth birthday Jonah had a sleep over with a few of his best buddies.

The boys were a lot crazier than David and I anticipated. I think they could challenge any frat boys' partying skills. After staying up until 5:30 am it took the whole family to get Jonah up.


Happy Birthday JB! We love you!

A Man Obsessed

A couple of weeks ago Caroline took her first steps. I wouldn't really say she's walking yet but she'll take a step or two. She's even taken as many as five a couple of times but then down she goes. David is absolutely bursting with pride and is constantly trying to capture her walking on video. As most parents realize sometimes it's next to impossible to capture kids on video whenever they do something cute or exciting. Camera on. Kid done. David certainly gets an "A" for effort though. Here are a few of his attempts...





Then he makes me try to get her to walk.


Then he tries again on a different day.

Okay. That's enough.

Mmmm! Lunch!

Kids love spaghetti (or ravioli in this case). Parents hate the clean up.

Practice Makes Perfect

The sun came out today. Yay! So I took Caroline out to practice her skills. She's getting there.



I used to do the same thing with Jonah.













Wasn't he cute?! I can't believe that was 8 years ago.

On Valentine's Day...

we found out that Caroline likes chocolate. Really, really likes it.

Perspective

What is going on with the weather lately? I know Kentucky weather can be pretty strange but this has been ridiculous. Last week we had severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings. We all woke up in the middle of the night when the weather alarms went off in our neighborhood. Luckily we didn't have any damage (Thank goodness! We just got a new roof because of the hail last spring.) but our power was out for half a day. Two days ago our gas meter actually froze due to the cold temperatures. We didn't have heat until sometime that afternoon when the gas company fixed it. Then it snowed that evening. Then the temperatures went up so it rained. And rained the entire next day. Then the temperatures dropped again. So the rain turned to ice and then to snow again. Insane!

I can't begin to tell you however how much this awful weather has made me appreciate being home full time now. I don't have to find Jonah alternative care since the schools have been closed. I don't have to bundle Caroline up and drag her out in the nasty weather to take to daycare. In fact we've had a pretty enjoyable couple of days. Jonah's been out all day playing in the snow with the neighborhood kids. Caroline and I whipped up some chocolate chip cookies for them to snack on (She loves watching the mixer!). All in all it's been a classic snow day that all kids dream about.

And none of this would be possible without my husband. Poor guy is out hard at work in all of this misery. For us. Thank you honey. We love you!

Caroline contemplates her first snow.
Jonah shovels the sidewalk. He's turning into such a little man!

Back inside. Attack of the static!

Pinewood Derby II

Saturday was Jonah's Cub Scouts' annual Pinewood Derby. If you're not familiar with Cub Scouts and the Pinewood Derby, I'll explain. Each scout is given a kit which contains a block of wood. The boys are to transform their bocks of wood into racing vehicles not weighing more than 5 ounces. This is the third year Jonah has participated. The first year Jonah, or well David really, had no idea what he was doing and came in dead last. The second year Jonah's, or well once again David's, competitive streak shifted into high gear and won first place on Jonah's actual birthday (you may remember the blog entry). This year Jonah, against David's better judgment and drive to win, decided to go outside the box and designed a skateboard for his block of wood. Thanks to David's friend Rob's tools it turned out really nice. Do you see the red skateboard #27?

Each car, or racing vehicle I guess, competes in three races or heats. Jonah's skateboard, or Skating Flame as he named it, did really well and won each of his three heats. Here's my poor attempt to capture it on video.



Jonah didn't place this year but that was okay. David wasn't too upset. We all had a good time.

Jonah, yes I really mean David again, is already planning on how to recapture the first place title and trophy next year.

Daddy's First Blog

Uh-Oh!