I know, I know, a miracle must be happening, it is toward the first of the month and I am sending an update!  But a lot of “miracles” have been going on in the last 3 weeks.  Baby Merrill (Ben & Heather’s baby) is being born today at 37 weeks.  Jeremiah will have a new cousin.  A dear friend’s father passed away last night, although it is sad, it is a miracle there is no more pain!  And my parents came to visit…, but first other stuff.

So the week after I last emailed, Jeremiah and the preschool class got to go to the fire station.  They had a great time sitting in the fire truck, on the bumper of the fire truck, on the bumper of the ambulance, at the table where they eat, in the recliners they have, and at their classroom tables.  Pretty much anything they could get away with doing they tried.  We even got to hear the alarm go off and an ambulance leave.  It was a great trip!  Then today at the grocery store we saw some fire fighters and one gave Jeremiah a “Junior Fire Fighter” sticker in the shape of a badge.  So there had been much excitement about fire fighters lately!

The day after the fire station, Grandpa and Grandma Caughell came to visit (after deciding the day before to come).  I didn’t tell Jeremiah when they were coming, but he knew we had been talking about it.  We were playing at a friend’s house in the morning and left and got In-N-Out for lunch.  I ordered some to take to Mom & Dad and when we got the food, Jeremiah says “Why did they give us so much?”  I told him I didn’t know.  So then we started to go down to San Diego.  “Why aren’t we going home, Mommy?” “We have to do an errand in San Diego?” “What errand, Mommy?” “Just an errand.”  “Well where are we going to do the errand?” Can you tell he is not kept in the dark very much, nor does he like it?  So after asking quite a few times he finally says.  “Mommy, we are going to go get Grandma and Grandpa.” “We are?”  “Yes, the airport is in San Diego. Is that where we are going, Mommy?”  “I don’t know, is that?”  “Yes, is it?” “I can’t tell you.”  “Why can’t you tell me?” “I can’t”.  A few minutes go buy (he is at least stopping to eat in between).  “We are going to get Grandma & Grandpa.  That is why to can’t tell me, right?”  And so for the next half hour the conversation plays over and over.  I am still not sure he believed me until we were in the airport and saw them coming out of the gate area.

He had a great time with them.  They played a lot – mostly Legos and pirates.  We went to the Safari Park and Jeremiah played tour guide.  Then Sunday night he spent the night with them at the hotel (and we went to a movie!!). It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but good to see them.  When we took them to the airport on Monday morning, Jeremiah decided the next time they came, they had to stay 500 days.  (Not likely to convince them of that, but he has it set in his head. Everything has been 500 lately).

When they were here Jeremiah also, finally “earned” enough money for his Atlantis Lego that he had wanted for a long time.  “Magically” a couple dollars and some change showed up in his piggy bank and shoes.  But earning 4 dollars when you get 20 cents every 5 days and another 20 cents every couple weeks, takes a long time.  But he was determined.  When we set up the sticker chart I thought we would be stopping at the dollar store every time $1 was earned, but he was determined to get that $4 Lego. If you have seen the blog in the last couple months, that is why he has been vacuuming like crazy!  We are not promoting child labor.  He also pulled weeds and vacuumed my car.  When he is motivated, he is motivated, but when he is not, he is not!

Last Saturday was a great example.  He could have earned stickers for helping pull weeds and get the “garden” ready, but he already had that Lego, so there was no urgency to pull weeds.  He is quite opinionated in that way (can’t imagine why).  But the garden is all ready.  We have buckets of tomatoes and some beets that we hope the rains this week didn’t drown out.  Jeremiah also got a packet of chives in his yogurt, so he planted those.

We also figured out the motivation to get him to ride his battery powered 4 wheeler.  Daddy invented a new game called “Chase Mommy”.  But he is getting good at steering!  As long as he is looking forward and not trying to figure out who he is going to chase next, he doesn’t hit anything.  He has also been able to ride it in “high” gear, so I think it is more exciting for him. Guess I will get my workout that way now!  There is a video on the blog – if you get dizzy easy you might want to stop it before the end.

I also was able to video Jeremiah’s “Scuba Diver Show.”  Unfortunately I missed the first part of it, but the redo and the rest was pretty funny.  It is also on the blog.  The best part I missed was “Welcome to the Scuba Diver Show.  I have been a scuba diver for 98 years.”  It was hilarious!!  I guess he really was listening to the show we watched at Sea Life Aquarium, well minus the mermaid part.  No mermaids at Sea Life.  🙂  The “scuba gear” is really part of a football goal post that he took apart and then figured out he could sound funny when he talked through it. Very resourceful, that child is!

So that is our last several weeks.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up the beginning of the month emails!  (We will see)

Hope you are all doing well!
🙂
Nichole