fun with photoshop

we thought these 2 pictures belonged together:

kate's heat exhaustion

and jacob's "emergency potty"

and together, they make this:

for the books

i can't tell you how many times i've referred back to my blog archives to find out important dates and milestones of my kids' first years. i've claimed many times that this blog is more of a record of these milestones than anything else. so here is what happened to kate this past week, as she is almost 21 months old.

last sunday after church jesse had to be around to help set up for VBS, so our family went and grabbed a quick lunch at wendy's. as we were cleaning up to leave, kate decided to throw a little tantrum and plopped herself to the ground just as someone was holding her hand. immediately she started to cry, and i assumed it was just the "nap-time" crankiness. trying not to make a scene, i thought i'd distract her by showing her the firetruck outside. when that didn't stop her crying, i took her outside and she only cried harder. this is when i figured there was something more wrong with her than just a tantrum. i noticed she was babying her arm, but couldn't see anything visibly wrong with it. we loaded up into the car and noticed an EMT getting into the ambulance parked next to us. kate still crying, and not letting us touch her arm, we asked the EMT to check her out, which he did, and told us he couldn't tell what could be hurting her but that we should "keep an eye on her". kate is screaming at this point. we stop at the store to buy a paci (i had forgotten to pack one and knew this would be the one thing that would calm her down) and i picked up a PEZ for her and jacob (he needed a distraction too). hello kitty for kate and thomas the train for jacob. :) PEZ wasn't working and paci wasn't helping much. kate wouldn't even move her arm and anytime you even mentioned it she would cry "no, mommy, no! no, daddy, no!" it was so pathetic and sad. :( we headed back to church and i took her straight to the nursery, where i knew her pediatrician was serving in the 2 year old room. he listened to my plea and right away said "she's dislocated her elbow". he took her in the other room, and while i held her he straightened it back out. kate cried really hard. she calmed down a few minutes later and i set her down at the toys to see if she would use her arm. sure enough, all was well, and dr. price was kate's hero.
later on that day she woke up from her nap and tried to re-hash the story for me: "owie ... arm ... fireman (EMT) .... dr. price ... all gone! (as in, owie all gone)". at least she ended on a positive note. :o)

oddly enough, after having just paid $5 for a new pack of pacifiers just last sunday, jesse decided this was the week to remove kate's paci. (this is a point where blog archives came in handy...i figured out we took jacob's paci away just around the same age). we made her quit cold turkey. she wasn't cool with it at first. night #1 she was up for 2 hours, crying off and on for the paci. we snipped the tip off and showed her it was broken. we told her she's a big girl now and doesn't need a paci anymore. jesse even had her repeat the words "i'm a big girl" and "no more paci!".
night #2 was a little easier, and so was night #3, and also night #4. nap times were a bit harder, but got a little better with each day. and now we are at night #5 and she didn't even ask for it tonight. i think she's figured it out. :o) we're in the process of trying to figure out a new bedtime routine that will hopefully keep her mind off of the paci. kissing her night-light flower, letting her have a book in bed with her, and of course cuddling puppy too.

catching up

it's been a while since i posted anything, and since someone finally noticed, i've decided to honor that person with a big fat catch-up. so, here you go mom, a summary of what we've been doing since june 22, 2010 (aka my last post):

painting a road surface with daddy. jacob needed somewhere to drive all of his 20 million tractor and car toys.


a visit from aunt brianne and uncle kevin. i didn't get the camera out much, but we had fun hanging out with aunt brianne and uncle kevin. they took the kids to their first theater movie ever, toy story 3, and did some fishing at a local pond. kate loved her uncle kevin, but for some reason she kept calling him "josh". aunt brianne is carrying the kids' 4th cousin, due october 14, 2010. we can't wait to meet baby easton!


that same weekend i got to go blueberry picking and absolutely LOVED it. i picked 10 pounds in just 45 minutes and have been enjoying the fruits of my labor. the first recipe on my agenda, a blueberry pie for my friend's 28th birthday.



the highlight of july for us was a long weekend trip to ludington, mi, with our good friends to celebrate the 4th of july holiday. we went to the lake michigan beach, went to the town parade on the 4th, saw fireworks on the beach, rode go-carts, and played. a lot. here are some picture highlights:


after returning from our little vacation, jacob had the opportunity to take a ride on gomer the camel, a new attraction at the creation museum. he enjoyed the ride along side his buddy isabel.

last week the kids and i were invited to swim at a friend's house for the morning. this was kate's first time ever in a real swimming pool (not a baby pool) and only jacob's 2nd time (his first time was when he was 14 months old, which he doesn't even remember). we had a nice time enjoying her beautiful pool and the great company!


other highlights include a recent "smoothie night" when we had yogurt smoothies for dinner, made from local fresh-picked blueberries and blackberries, frozen strawberries from my garden, and some frozen bananas. it was delicious! (jacob took the picture of me, pretty good for a 3 year old!)

and now the kids are both sick with hand/foot/mouth and we are quarantining ourselves to the house. i like to look at it as forced relaxation. we needed a little slowing down after a busy month.

happy birthday to jackson

jackson's 6th birthday was this week, and it was a day just like any other. the kids and i were gone for the morning, came home after lunch for naps and some lawn-mowing, and as soon as the kids were awake we left again for the evening. sadly, the birthday boy didn't get much attention on his own birthday. we were home by bed time and decided we needed to at least sing to the poor dog. i had brownies left over from our small group gathering, which coincidentally, with a little powdered sugar on top, very much resembled jackson's beautiful coat of spots. :)




jackson didn't realize we were singing for him, and kate was not happy that i gave the 1st piece of brownie to jackson. ooooh, so sad. nevermind that i am giving my dog chocolate, or that my kids are eating brownies at 8:30 pm. :P