It has been a long week

It started out with a visit to the doctor because Belle's breathing sounded like Darth Vader. Fortunately, it was only head congestion and not in her lungs. But the nurse used a larger-than-life nosey-sucky thingy to clear her out, which she HATED and then gave us instructions to keep her upright as much as possible, which has made sleeping (sleeping-- she sleeps!? ...not at night!) challenging.

It all started because Jackson had a cold and he shared it. His congestion did travel down to his lungs, which causes him to vomit when he coughs at times. It's awful. So, we've been doing breathing treatments.

We have a good system-- he sits, and watches the Backyardigans and after the full treatment, he gets a peice of candy. 

Derek was teaching Julie tips on fighting. 

(disclaimer: he didn't actually hit her!)

Sunday night the terrible tornado hit Joplin, which is just a couple hours south from us. Derek spent the weekend down there and headed home just earlier that morning. We've definitely counted those blessings. We weren't really affected by the storms on Sunday night, but we had our own storms on Wednesday.  This is a view of downtown Kansas City during the storm.

Mom and I were headed to take Jackson bowling when Derek called to tell me about the tornado watch (in our defense... the weather had called for rain all morning and it never happened, so we just decided to go out!). I immediately tried to contact Julie to tell her we were on our way home and to take cover in the basement. My phone picked a great time to stop working and so I never got a hold of her on our fifteen minute ride back. I rushed in to find her crouched in the back corner of our basement, wrapped in a blanket, crying. Denmark does not experience this kind of weather, so hearing the sirens and after hearing the devastation about what had happened in Joplin while being home alone-- she was scared to death!! Poor girl. Fortunately it passed; the storm was over as quickly as it came in!

Funnel cloud over Belton 

We finally put Julie to work to cover her living expenses!!

Ha, not really. She was practically begging to mow. Have you ever seen anyone so excited about yard work??

Tomorrow we are going camping so we spent the evening packing up and getting ready. I am super looking forward to it. I think Jackson is gonna love being outdoors.

And here's hoping next week doesn't feel so crazy so that I can find time to shower before I end up going 2 and a half days without one. Ick!

The other side of the text

We visited my parents yesterday and Jackson ended up staying with them to spend the night. I got a series of text messages from Dad this morning that totally made me laugh out loud. I am constantly sending them pictures of Jackson making messes (like this, this, this, this, this, and this... and those are only the ones I actually blogged about) and so it was so nice to be the one receiving the texts instead of sending!

Entitled: this is what happens when you don't get up with a two year old....

Yes, that in an egg mixed in each of the yogurts! 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

(this would be far less funny if it was at my house)

I've experienced the two-year-old with yogurt, which explains why I have dried yogurt on my couch... but thank goodness he can't reach the eggs in my fridge. He *loves* to crack eggs when we cook together!

Entitled: He's cleaning up the mess from which he dumped out a package of shredded cheese.

Well, at least he is cleaning it up himself!!

Ha ha ha ha ha. 

(I am humored by this far too much.)

The lesson to learn: The few extra minutes of shut-eye that you may receive while nodding off and allowing your toddler to entertain himself for awhile is hardly ever worth it!

Ha ha ha ha ha

(yes, I am still laughing)

Today at a glance

We got Belle giggles!!!!! This little cutie happens to be super ticklish- her neck and her feet, especially. It was so super cute. I am a bit relieved to have found a way to get her to giggle without having to flail about like an idiot, as was required to get laughs from Jackson. She's sleeping now, but I am almost tempted to go wake her up just to hear those laughs! Okay, I would never wake a sleeping baby for that... but I am totally looking forward to more giggles tomorrow!

Derek left for drill tonight. After packing all 50 million pounds of gear, he raided his tootsie-roll bank to score some change to feed his caffeine addiction over the weekend. You can tell he's done this a time or two before as his pile is mostly bronze. I may check him in to Dr. Pepper rehab once he starts taking 104 pennies to QuikTrip.

Right now, I have a group of teenagers in my basement watching Titanic. I totally thought it was a weird movie choice, but it turns out that there are several who haven't ever seen the movie. Americans-- you should be ashamed of yourselves! I mean, even the Dane, German, and Israeli have seen it. Geez! How can this be?! Even worse... most haven't seen Grease either. 

Even though this was yesterday, I'm still including it! In attempts to occupy Jackson without using the television (he asks to watch tv every second of every day and sobs when I say no... so I have to be creative!). He totally had fun. His favorite "toy" was the medicine measure spoon.

He also liked to play "where's my feet?"

As you can see, this was a pretty messy activity. Derek was home for a few minutes in mid-morning and when he left, he remarked "have fun!" in a total "yeah right" sort of way. So, I asked, "is he climbing on the counter? is he crying at my feet? No? Well then I *am* having fun!" Who cares if I find beans around the kitchen for the next 5 years?!

Three Months

Dearest Belle,

You are three months old today! And ohmigoodness you are SUCH a cutie. Everywhere I take you, people stop in their tracks to look and tell me what a precious baby girl I have. You of course, put on a show-- batting those beautiful eye lashes and flashing that beautiful gummy smile. Daddy tells me almost every day how pretty you are... proceeded by how he dreads the day when boys start to take notice! But we've already had lots of conversations about how real beauty comes from the inside, so stay a sweetie! You have started "talking" quite a bit these days and making all sorts of delightful sounds. It's music to my ears!

You never really caught on to the whole nursing thing, so I'm pumping instead and you take a bottle. You eat about four ounces every three hours, though sometimes it takes a lot of effort for you to even eat that much! You will sleep from about 8pm- 7am, waking up twice to eat an ounce or two. We go back and forth on the swaddling. You don't particularly like it, but you are just way to wiggly to sleep otherwise!

This night you spent the night away from the both of us for the first (and second) time. You went to Grandma Linda's first when we had a NyQuil party. Then last week, you went up to Grammy's so Daddy and I could go, and actually listen, to Julie's choir concert. Getting a full nights sleep was fabulous, but I was anxious to get a super cute smile from my baby girl!

We always hear about how much you look like Jackson.

(all pictures taken on three-month "birthdays")

I am sure that there will come a day when you might want to deny him as your older brother (like when I remind you of the time that he was using your foot as barcode scanner to "check" out his books from the library-- he made it beep and everything!), but I'm not so sure you that you will be able to pull it off! You do have lots more hair and you are much cuter in pink! We love you so very, very much!!

Our favorite walk

Spring has brought us nice weather (most of the time) and we have been outside soaking it up as much as we can. One of our (mostly Jackson's) favorite thing to do is go on a walk to look at the trains in downtown Belton. These are old trains on inactive tracks, so it's not dangerous to let him explore and look-- they are there for show! There are several different types of cars and calls each and everyone of them "Thomas." 

He stops to literally look at the trains every time we go!

He loves to touch the trains too! 

"Mommy, I touched it!"

It's the perfect distance for a nice walk from our place. If we have time, I'll pack a little snack and we'll take a break before our walk home!

Even Belle enjoys it! Despite the bumpy ride on the gravel, she can still offer a smile!

Then last week, when Uncle Phil came to visit, Jackson invited him to check out his favorite place. And then, it became even MORE fun because Uncle Phil helped him climb and explore the trains!

We seriously walk to the trains at least two or three times a week. We are looking forward to the summer months when you can buy train tickets on the weekends for a short ride and have ice cream during the ride! Jackson will just love it. And when we take our next trip to Branson, we will be staying here.

Uncle Phil

No, not the stern, middle aged, large black man that Will Smith went to live with in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air... Our Uncle Phil is a little white guy. He's only 29 and doesn't have butler.

Phil graduated last weekend with his Master's in Health Administration from UNC. My parents drove out for the ceremony and he hitched a ride back here to Kansas City so he could meet Belle and hang out with his little buddy before he starts med school at the University of Virginia next month.

Jackson had fun with Uncle Phil today... but not while riding up high on his shoulders! He got scared and wouldn't let go of Phil's forehead.

Phil and Belle both enjoyed a nap... and I'm fairly certain they both enjoyed the cuddle time!

Both kids headed out with Phil to go up to my parents house for the night. We spent the evening at Julie's choir concert and it's just so much easier (and enjoyable) to go to those kind of things without kids in tow! Unlike everyone else in this house, I didn't get a nap today so I'm looking forward to a full night's sleep tonight!

Julie's Graduation

Last night was Julie's graduation! It was such a good time. On the way home, Julie said to me "Tonight was just perfect" and it really, really was! 

With friends before the ceremony

Walking in

Julie receiving her piece of paper that says that grades and diplomas will  be released at a later time diploma

 The slide show!

A very talented girl from their class played the guitar and 

sang an original song. It was so good!

The tossing of the hats!

Then onto the reception! 

In my unbiased opinion, Julie had the best table. 

Here's a collection of some of the stuff she's done over the past year- sporting tickets, museum passes, birthday invitations, plane ticket here... she's been busy!

Lots and lots of pictures with friends!

(I told Julie that she was Kate Middleton today and I was her paparazzi. To which Derek replied, "Who's that?! ... uhm... has he been living under a rock!? )

My parents and sister came down and Granpda came too!

These two are funny together.

Julie and I have fun together too. I am going to miss this girl!

It has been a super fabulous, albeit busy, week with making graduation posters, attending final concerts, and getting her all situated to finish the school year and all ready for graduation. It was all super fun and I had a great time with it all, but there is a part of me delighted to know that I won't have to do this again for another 16 years.