Hello everyone,

I hope all is going well with you. We had a busy month of February. Jeremiah and I were both sick with the flu. Luckily his only lasted about 12 hours. He just couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t give him more food after he got sick. At least he slept a lot, so I don’t think he realized he was as hungry as he was. It took a good 2 weeks until his appetite was back to normal. I thought we had entered the “picky-eater” stage, he would only eat fruits for 2 days. Then he added veggies and finally meats a couple of weeks later. It was not fun!

My mom and dad also came to visit the end of February. We had a lot of fun. That has taken us another week to recuperate from all the running around we did. Jeremiah loves being outside, so we went to the beach and Wild Animal Park and outlet mall and parks. It was fun to see him with them. We can’t wait until we can see the other “mam-ma” and “bap-ba”.

We have started working on names of people. He will try to mimic any name. He does a pretty good job with names, especially if we see the person a lot or look at their picture a lot. We have gone to see Isaac several times since Reece was born. So now when we get in the car he has to say “Iii-sac” over and over. We got to Costco the other day and he was disappointed that Isaac wasn’t there. He was sure that is who we were going to see. Our friend Eddie, moved to Florida last month and now every time the phone rings Jeremiah starts yelling “eeh-deee”. And now he has to use our phone to “call” Eddie – he just pushes the buttons over and over. Eddie sent us a picture over the Xbox and we have to look at it every time the TV turns on.

The weather has been so nice here (sorry for all of you still in snow – come visit!). We have been to the park or on walks several times a week. Last week we went to the pond and fed the duck. Sarah watches two little ones, Charlie and Connor, so they went too. They are about 6-8 months older than Jeremiah. So they actually threw the bread. Jeremiah ate it! We played on the slide and Jeremiah has figured out how to go down by himself. He will hold my hands and walk – yes walk – up the steps to the slide. He has figured out how to lean forward just enough to make himself start down the slide.

We are also working on animal sounds. He loves animals!! He can make more of the sounds than say the names of animals. We finally started to “meow” this week. So great-grandma should be happy! He has woofed for months, but he just would not meow. He can also make the monkey, elephant, bear, owl, cow, donkey (sometimes) and sheep sounds. We try to get him to quack, but he only says duck or duckie.

I think we are starting to realized that not every food is a banana – although they are by far his favorite! Every once in a while he will say bagel and apple. He says something like strawberry now. We had them for the first time this season and he LOVED them. I think they might give bananas a run for their money. We ran out of bananas and didn’t have them for 2 whole days. He kept looking at the spot we keep them and saying “na-na” and doing his sign for please. I hope there is never a banana shortage! Auntie Katie came down this weekend and got him banana ice
cream with bananas in it. He loved that!!

Jeremiah has started to make up his own signs too! He will put his hand to his ear when he wants the phone (of course saying Eddie the whole time). And he will “strum” his tummy when he wants to play with his guitar or wants Andy to play the guitar on Rock Band. He loves music. When the band at church pauses between songs he will look at us and say more. He has started to learn to pray with us. He will grab our hand when we say lets pray. Right now he thinks it is funny to watch everyone else bow there heads and close their eyes. We had to pray 3 times the other day at lunch.

He is getting better at helping us pick up. He will put his hands out in front of him so we can hand him the blocks to put in the bag. It is quite funny. I guess we will have to work on him picking them up off the floor. He is very particular at times about where things need to go. In the middle of play he will stop and put a truck in the spot where it needs to be or put the blanket on the couch. The other day he went running – yes running- into the living room to play. He stopped turned around and had to go shut the gate before he could keep going.

So there is that side of him and then there is the “2 year old” side. This last week he has been touching everything he knows he is not supposed to touch. After he does it he turns and runs and laughs the whole time! I don’t know that I am ready for this stage yet, but I am pretty sure I don’t have a choice. He has also been turning the computer off, usually right in the middle of an e-mail. (He is napping right now so I think I am safe!)

So that is our son. A year and a quarter old and acting like a two year old. In completely other news. I am going to start working at New Venture this July. Actually I will be working from home. They are going through the accreditation process and I will be doing the computer work for all of the curriculum guides. It is a great opportunity. It will be nice to have the added income, but sooo nice to be able to do 99% of it from here. I realized a while ago that I keep updating you on Jeremiah, but never on us. Andy is doing well too!

Ok, my time with out “little fingers” is running out. Sorry this is soo long. Let me know how you are doing!

🙂
Nichole