Busy Day

We had a really fun and very full day today. Nicole and Kyle were here and we had a good time hanging out together, playing and shopping. The boys started off the morning in their cute matching jammies, eating bananas. As you might guess...or not...Jack ate a banana and a half while Kyle ate a nibble or two. 

After only an only slightly successful attempt at early naps we headed out for Monkey Joe's. The boys had a blast and we had only a few minor injuries. Nicole scratched Jack's head...way to go Nicole. :-) I got a floor burn on my elbow and I almost kicked Kyle in the face when I went down the slide illegally, on my belly instead of my butt. And yes, we did get "yelled" at by the referee people. Below are a bunch of pictures of the boys playing together, which as you know, I love.

I love this picture. They were jumping together and cracking up.

It is super fun to walk down the crocadile's back. They did this over and over and over again.

Kyle on the dragon.

Here's Kyle going down the slide.

This is illegal, but we let him do it anyway.

Woosh!

Jack getting reading to slide.

After Monkey Joe's Kyle had a haircut and Jack had a dr. appointment. Jack's appointment went really well. He weighed in at an astonishing 17 pounds 15 ounces. 3 months ago he was only 15 pounds 13 ounces. So from 12-15 months he only gained 9 ounces but from 15-18 months he gained 2 pounds 2 ounces!!!! Holy cow, that is awesome for him. One of his best weight gains. The doctor and I were super impressed. And he is 29 and 1/4 inches tall. He grew almost 2 inches! So this is all great and you might be thinking wow, he's getting big, surely he's on the charts now. But no, he's still not on the charts, though he did get closer. The rest of the appointment was fine. Jack showed off to the doctor and really turned on the charm and other than the four shots we ended with it was a pretty fun appointment. After that we picked up Kyle with his spiffy new haircut (and Nicole) and did a little shopping. I think that's all for now.  

Tuesday Ramblings

Going to Jack's 18 month dr. appointment tomorrow afternoon. I'm super excited to see if he's gained much weight. I know for sure he's gotten taller again, but with Jack the weight is always questionable. I'm guessing he's around 16 1/2 pounds. So we'll see. Also Nicole and Kyle are coming this afternoon. They'll just be here until tomorrow afternoon, but it will be fun to hang out with them. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll go out and do something fun. Last night I tried a new recipe for creamy sweet pototoe soup. I wasn't sure what it would be like but the results were far less than satisfactory. I'm hoping something was wrong, because otherwise that is just a bad recipe. I don't often throw food out, but this got dumped down the drain. I'm thinking I just didn't have enough sweet potatoes. Perhaps I'll try it again some other time. Oh yeah, and earlier today Jack was practicing his jumping. I'm happy to report that I could slide a piece of paper under his feet on a few of his attempts. Probably a very few number of times before today has he actually gotten air, but today it was multiple times. He fell a lot too, but he doesn't mind. Like I said,, 18 months and watch out! :-)

Picture Add On to Previous Post

A few pictures from playing at Aunt Nicole and cousin Kyle's house. I told you about this day a few weeks ago in the post Back in Palatine.

Little Architect

Jack built his first true tower today! I am so excited. I have been trying to get him to figure out blocks for a while now, and while I knew he had the ability to place one block on top of another, he was always much more interested in knocking towers down than building them up. But today, for the first time I'm aware of, he actually made a tower of more than two blocks. It stood for about 2 seconds before Jack "The Wrecking Ball" knocked it over, but he did it! And then he did it again and again. You could totally tell that he was putting thought into it too, at least sometimes. I get so proud when he does new things. I think it'll be a lot of fun to see him explore his newfound architectural skills.

Building.

Destroying.

Also, Jack is 18 months old today! (Have you noticed I like exlamation points? I don't always know how else to express my excitement.) I'm not sure what all 18 months means, but I have a feeling the next 6 months will be full of lots of learning. I think I've heard that between 18 and 24 months kids tend to do a lot of changing. So I guess we'll see.

The Past Week

Well our first week of one nap days is over and we survived. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for Jack to get used to this. We had our fair share of sleep related meltdowns and a couple of spontaneous naps while out and about. One day I even spent driving around trying to get him to take the longest nap possible, since he fell asleep early while we were shopping. But overall I'd say we did alright.
In other news this week. Tuesday we had a small group social which was a lot of fun, but really caotic. We had 6 couples there which is the most we've ever had, one of whom we'd never met before. We played a version of the newlywed game and had a lot of good laughs. Thursday I had my first actual small group for my new class, Wife of Noble Character. I think that it will be good, but most likely it will be very convicting which means I have a lot of work ahead of me in the next year. Lord knows I need improvement in wifeliness.  Friday we had swim lessons and Jack continued to do great. His back floating still cracks me up and makes me proud. He always starts off with his feet sticking straight up. But he let his ears get in the water, which is the main goal, and eventually relaxed his legs and looked around with an amusing expression on this face. Friday night Megan and Brad came to visit. Megan was playing viola in a wedding up this way, so they decided to spend the evening and Saturday with us. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. We introduced them to Settlers of Catan and went down to Frontera Grill with them for lunch today. The chef/owner is Rick Bayless, the winner of last season "Top Chef". I'm not really a huge Mexican fan, but the food was really good and it was a fun little dining experience and of course great time with friends.

Answered Prayer

Evangaline is going home! Thanks for your prayers.

In other news. As you may know from talking to me or checking Facebook, I moved Jack to one nap this week. So far he's doing ok with it, though as expected there is definitly an adjustment period. He's had several random meltdowns this week that I know have to be related to this. Hopefully after a couple weeks he'll have the new routine figured out and hopefully he'll take at least two hour naps each day. But that's probably wishful thinking. I think more likely, I need to figure out how to fill all this new time we have. But I'm sure we'll figure it out.

Anwered Prayer

She's doing better! Here's an update from Evangaline's mommy.
"Last night was big for Evangeline - she went the whole night with a temp of about 99.5 and this morning we think it finally broke as she just temped at 98.1!!!! She also has been eating throughout the night and just finished her strongest feeding! She is off the oxygen which I know she loves because she was starting to pull the tubes out of her nose, and she is down to 5 cc of fluids instead of 20. If she continues feeding and stays healthy after being weaned off fluids we will get to go home today!! She is looking so much better, much like her "old" self and we are just so relieved and thankful, knowing that a newborn beating the flu is no simple thing.

We will keep you updated, especially if she gets to go home today! (Mommy really wants to go home as she hasn't seen the outside of a hospital room in a few days now)

God is good and I am so certain that it has been all of your prayers that has brought her through this. We were in a very desperate situation and knowing that so many were lifting her up was one of the biggest sources of comfort for us. Join us in praising God and hopefully the next and last time I write it will be from our own home.

Jon and Kirsten"