The Accidental Boilermaker

I have so much to be thankful for this year and I'm especially thankful we were able to spend some time in Decatur with my parents, grandparents, and sisters for Thanksgiving.  I am thankful to my mom and dad for all the ways they support us, including taking our picture and trying to get my kids to smile. I'm thankful for the blessing of Jameson to our family! I'm thankful that Evelyn and Jameson are such good kids and we can take them on car trips and stay at other people's houses without too much worry. I am thankful for my Aunt Martha and the loud, obnoxious wonderful Christmas toys she gives my children. I'm thankful for my sisters and how much love they show Evelyn and Jameson. I'm thankful for my new brother-in-law Jeremy and how he takes time to play with Evelyn and Jameson. I am thankful for Nate and all he does for our family.  Including wearing 22lb Jameson around the park. I'm thankful for sweet...

Jameson is 10 months and 1 day old.  He is mostly back to his normal sleep schedule after a few rough weeks.  Jameson cruisers now along the futon and walls and really likes to walk using the walker. Jameson has four teeth.  Two came in just after he turned 9 months and the last two just showed up yesterday.  His favorite foods are bananas and yogurt, but he continues to eat most anything offered to him.  Probably least favorite food is peas. Something about the way Jameson watches Evelyn and other older kids makes me think he just can't wait till he is bigger and can do more stuff.  He loves to try and "play" with Evelyn.  He also is starting to show more interest in books beyond just putting them in his mouth. 

Yesterday we went to a baby shower in Munster, IN for Nate's high school friend Claire and her husband Peter.  South Bend wasn't really on the way, but we decided to stop by and hang out with Meredith, Jeremy, and Puddles for the morning. We walked in the snow and wind to a coffee shop downtown. Jeremy, Nate, and Evelyn played Candy Land.  Virginia Tech played Notre Dame on Saturday so Nate chatted up all the VT fans in the coffee shop. The baby shower was so adorable.  The theme was woodland creatures.  Probably the best part of the party was the amazing dessert table. Jameson did very well at the shower.  He mostly stayed with Nate and people watched. Evelyn was also well behaved.  She made a few new friends and really enjoyed watching Claire and Peter open their presents.

It was another beautiful day so after nap we went to the park. Evelyn really wanted to swing with Jameson on the double swing.  Then she wanted to me to sit and for her to push.  

Jameson had his 9 month check-up yesterday.  The doctor thought Jameson was doing well and right where he should be developmentally.  Jameson weighed 22 lb (81st percentile) and was 29.5 inches long (83rd percentile) which means we need to get a new car seat soon. After the doctor Evelyn, Jameson, and I voted.  We waited about 40 minutes and Eve and JJ both were very patient. There were no stickers so we got donuts instead. Today we went to Target to fill our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.  Shopping apparently wore Jameson out because I took him, asleep, out of the car and laid him on the floor while I fixed Evelyn's lunch.

We took a short trip up to Michigan this weekend.  On Saturday we visited the critter barn. The critter barn is such a fun place.  It has all your favorite farm animals.  Evelyn really liked the cows and the goats were fun to pet, but the donkey was too loud. Sitting in the bunny pen was neat too. The weather was absolutely perfect this weekend.  Joshua and Evelyn enjoyed playing outside on the deck Saturday night. Sunday morning we just relaxed.  Evelyn and Isaac had some storytime with Grandpa. Although he did not sleep well, Jameson seemed to like exploring a new house and putting new toys in his mouth. It was too nice not to take a walk outside before we had to get back in the car and head home.