Mikie says...

9/08 While Mikie and I were picking strawberries in our new strawberry bed, we encountered a GIGANTIC spider. I quickly moved away and probably screamed a little too (I have arachnophobia). Later when Michael came home, Mikie was telling him that we found a spider, and he said, "It shocked mommy." Then Michael asked: "What did mommy do when you saw the big spider?" Mikie said: "She freaked out!" It was so funny to see his face as he did an impersonation of what I looked like.

10/31/08 While trick-or-treating, Mikie really wanted lollipops. At one house we heard him ask: "Do you have lollipops, or not?"

11/2/08 When asked about his trip to Maine, Mikie's highlights were: "We stayed in hotels (and then proceeded to name all the room numbers we were in) and I watched movies in the car." Apparently, I just need to drive him around and let him watch the DVD player and then put a number on his room in order for him to have a "vacation".

11/2/08 On Sunday, Michael stayed home with Zachary while he was napping and I took Mikie with me to Kohls. He found a monster truck that he so politely asked to buy and I said "yes". As we were walking in the store he said to himself, "This is my day out."

11/5/08 Looking into the potty at his poop he exclaims "It looks like a bird with a broken wing."

11/6/08 Commenting on the wind blowing, "It's a blustery day. Not like Pooh's. That was a very blustery day." (He just watched Winnie The Pooh for the first time on our trip to Maine)

11/6/08 While brushing his teeth naked he looked in the mirror and saw his little "bumps" on his chest and said: "These are my suckers. They have water in them. Milk comes out of the girls and boys have water that comes out of theirs."



11/9/08 Mikie walked past me standing on a step ladder and said "Don't step on me!"



11/10/08 "Mommy after your done 'computering' can I type?" reminds me of when he saw Miss Amber sweeping and said "Can I use that big brush?" We now own a broomvac and he always says "Are you done brooming yet?"

11/08 He wanted a new CD put into the car player and I told him I couldn't find it. He said, "Daddy, You're Awesome. Can you find it for me?"

11/25/08 Mikie was trying to get Zachary to jump (step) over a shark toy and told him "If you step on the shark, he'll say 'Mmm delicious!' so you have to jump over him."

Little Zachary

An update: Zachary is now almost 17 months old and weighs just as many pounds. The last time I posted about him I said he was 20 lbs.....well...that was according to the scales at the allergist's and he was on pediasure back then. After finding out he was allergic to milk and eggs, we had to stop the pediasure. Now, my poor little guy is only 17 lbs 10 oz and hasn't gained a single ounce in the past 2 months, which has now earned him the label "Failure to Thrive." He is a very picky eater and refuses to let us feed him anything. He must do it himself!!!! I don't know where he gets that control issue???? ;-) Being in the high chair seems to cause him much anxiety and we don't want eating to become even more of a negative thing, so we've had to let go of our 'eating at the table only' rule and break out the vaccum on a daily basis to sweep up the cracker crumbs and pretzle pieces which stand out like dandruff on a black shirt against our burgundy rug. This also makes dinning out a challenge and we always have to get a booth so he can stand next to us and eat.

We've ruled out diabetes and celiac disease and are continuing to test him for other possible causes. He's on a probiotic and immunity boosters to help grow some good gut bacteria that has been damaged by the numerous antibiotics he has been on for all his ear infections.

Now for the positives: He loves his big brother who he calls "MyMe" and is always trying to be just like Mikie. One of the best days was watching them climb around a McDonald's playland together. Mikie would climb up the stairs very slowly and make sure Zach wasn't far behind before they both slid down the tall curly slide one after the other. Zachary is very adventurous and fearless. He loves to tumble and do somersaults in gymnastics and on the cushions of the couch at home. Whenever Mikie talks about or watches Monster Trucks, Zachary says "Vroom, Vroom". We have tickets to see Monster Jam in January in D.C. I can't wait to see their reactions! Zachary is following in his brother's footsteps and is already a fan of Thomas toys and can't get enough Barney. Lately, he has been saying more and more words, but isn't as articulate as Mikie was. You really have to know what he is talking about in order to understand the words he is saying. One thing he does do better than Mikie is SCREAM! Boy oh boy my child has a scream that can shatter glass! He loves animals of all kinds and can make all their noises. I wish I had a video of him "snorting" like a pig. It's so cute!

I did manage to snap a few photos of him with Mikie's 'fur real' pet "Wilbur". Zachary loves this thing! He hugs it and kisses it and carries it around on his shoulder smiling every time it grunts or squeals in his ear. It really is precious.

The next picture was taken at lunch time. I was talking with Mikie and turned around to find:

Poor little guy fell asleep even with Barney on T.V. ....now you know he is sick.

Halloween 2008

It's really sad that it's almost Thanksgiving and I'm just now posting about Halloween. It took me forever to write about our trip to Maine, but I'm glad I have it written down, finally!


We trick or treated with Kim and Jacob in their neighborhood for about 1/2 hour. The boys were very excited and would run to each house (we could barely keep up). Somewhere along the way, Mikie decided that the coveted candy of the evening were lollipops. He started asking at each house, "Do you have any lollipops?" and at one house he made us laugh when he said, "Do you have any lollipops, or not?" (Oops...sounds just like the words coming out of my mouth when I've asked him a question a few too many times and am tired of being ignored!)

Reluctantly, we decided it was time to stop trick or treating and drive to our church Harvest Festival for what we thought would be fun and games. Unfortunately, there were so many people waiting in line to park that we decided it would be too crowded and turned around to go back to our neighborhood. By then, Mikie had fallen asleep in the car, because despite 2 hours of laying in his bed he did NOT take a nap that day. When we got back in our neighborhood and woke him up, he wasn't very enthusiastic any more, it was a lot colder, and he wanted to be carried. We hit about 5 houses and then called it a night and went home.
Mikie as Horton, Mommy as Lazy Mazey, Daddy as the hunter, and Zachary as the Elephant Bird that hatches from the egg in "Horton Hatches An Egg" by Dr. Seuss

Lollipops and Starbursts were Mikie's favorite. Zach enjoyed smarties and lollipops, too. I was craving a Snickers and wouldn't you know it...there was only 1 tiny Snickers in the whole loot! Mikie was so gracious, he gave me a "little" bite.

I was disappointed about how the night ended up, but was quickly reminded that in a 3 year old's eyes Halloween is fun no matter what....I asked Mikie what his favorite part of the night was (expecting him to say going to the houses with Jacob) and he responded "The very last house, when they dumped the whole bucket of candy in my pail." I guess the night turned out pretty great after all!

Trip Home: Strasburg, PA (Railway Museum)

Now that I was able to visit Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire on this trip....I have visited 46 states and only have 4 left (Alaska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Ohio). I never would have thought I would get to travel and see so much of the U.S. I feel very blessed!

Our last day of the trip was spent in Strasburg, PA. We shopped at the outlet stores and ate at Panera. Then we took the boys to the Railway Museum that we didn't have a chance to visit on our Thomas day.

The boys each chose a new stuffed animal from Noah's Landing in the outlet mall. Mikie chose a leopard shark and we got Zachary a humpback whale. This is the same store that Grandmommy and Granddaddy bought Mikie his "Sharkey" (seen in the picture above). Zachary loves sharkey and I wish now that we would have bought him his own. Next time we go we will have to remember that. The animals are attacking each other...the stuffed ones...not my boys (this time anyway)

Mikie was so enamored with the model train display, we almost had to drag him away...and this was only the entrance to the museum! Once inside, he had so much fun seeing the real train engines and cars.

Running across the bridge walkway that went over top of all the trains. When we looked down, we could see inside of a troublesome truck. I just love the little outfit I found at Gymboree with the word "caboose" across his bottom.

We spent most of our time at the hands on children's exhibits pushing buttons to make all kinds of trains go around on tracks. I'm so glad we didn't come here during Thomas days...it would have been so crowded! Besides one other little boy, we were the only ones playing in this area.

Holley, I took this picture for you! Besides the usual wooden tracks, they also had the geo tracks for kids to play with. The trains just needed to have some fresh batteries...they were a little slow!

The airplanes were my favorite part. It was so nice sit on the bench and watch our boys play together without fighting or fussing. I didn't want to leave, but we had to get going so we could drive the rest of the way home.

Saying goodbye to the trains......and hello to the car seats.....



THE END / THE END (cloned)

Trip Home: Walden Pond

This was my absolute favorite part of our trip! You just HAVE to click on each picture to enlarge them for a closer view of the beautiful fall colors. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!

Once we left Maine, our initial goal was to just stop once in Pennsylvania but soon realized that we wouldn't make it that far and needed another short trip out of the car (which upon leaving Mom & Dad's started sputtering and continued to misfire all the way home). We headed to Concord, Massachusetts at sunset and stayed at the Colonial Inn in another 2 bedroom suite. This one wasn't as elaborate as the one in Bar Harbor (see prior post). But again, it was nice to put the boys to bed and then watch t.v. from our room. Before heading to bed, we ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. It was difficult to keep them quiet and still so they didn't disturb other people after being cooped up in a car all day long, but thankfully we had lollipops! The cutest part of the evening was when Zachary sat with Mikie in his chair and shared his lollipop lick by lick with his big brother. Once back in the room, they needed to work off their sugar high (from the lollipops and dessert) so it was 20 minutes of doing flips on the sofa cushions while watching a nature program on t.v. Zachary was so cute....he would pant like a dog every time he saw the wolves.

Apparently the sugar stayed in Zach's system and kicked in again at 6:30 a.m. We were up, dressed, and headed out the door with cereal bars in hand ready for an early morning short battlefield tour....which due to taking a wrong turn was then detoured to a lengthy, but stunning, walk around Walden Pond. God's plan was much better than our own that day.

Isn't it beautiful? The morning sun shinning on the leaves reflecting into the perfectly still water was like looking at the Lord's mirror reflecting heaven.

Oh, I do hope this is what it will be like when I get to walk with Jesus!!!

The water was as still as glass...wait...almost...what's that ripple in the bottom right corner?....could it be?...yep....

My boys throwing rocks in the water!

After one area of rocks was depleted, the next logical thing to do was to climb a hill.

And of course, the quickest way down is to make your own slide!

Taking the path less traveled.

My husband, my son, and my lil' cow

We found more rocks! They must go in the pond. Do you think 'Thoreau' spent any time "throwing" rocks into the water? Of course he did...he was male after all!

Just a short (ha ha) walk (only about 1/2 way around the pond) away we finally found the site where Henry David Thoreau built his home. Here we found a very large pile of rocks which Zachary couldn't wait to dig through and a sign that Mikie did an excellent job reading.

Watch the boys in the three short videos below:









And yes, he knew right were it was and they did indeed throw MORE rocks in the water!

Our incredible morning ended way too soon. Looking at the pictures, I can tell you that I in no way even began to capture the pure masterpiece of God's creation here. Nonetheless, I will always treasure the memories from this time with my husband, two sons, and God's beauty.

By now, our tummies were grumbling so we headed to a small cafe in town for a quick brunch with awesome food! Then it was time to strap in and drive on to Pennsylvania....our last stop in our whirlwind tour...last post coming soon....stay tuned.

Trip: At Mom & Dad's in Maine

We spent a wonderful 5 days with Grandmommy and Granddaddy Jones at their new house on 70 acres just outside of Easton. It was great spending time with them and the boys had a lot of fun. Without any access to the internet, it was a very relaxing time for me as well.

One evening, we prepared to carve our pumpkin. You'll notice my boys are truly fashionable... Zachary is wearing his 6-12 month (I know he's so little!) horse shirt accented with pink Italian ice while Mikie chooses to go topless after a small battle of rolling up his sleeves failed to produce happy results.

Zachary: "CHEESE"

The Pumpkin Patch Parable helps us learn Bible verses while carving our pumpkin.

"You want us to do what????"


Pumpkin guts: Mikie took one scoop out and refused to try it again. Zachary wouldn't reach in, but was very interested in the seeds we put in his bucket.

Okay.....now draw a face. Any guesses as to what Mikie's pumpkin will look like.....

(Click picture to enlarge) Surprised? Haven't you ever seen a Jack-O-Lantern with numerical facial features?

I just love this video.

(It's a little long...I don't know how to edit my videos to make them shorter)

We helped Grandmommy & Granddaddy pick out their Christmas tree.

Riding the train in the mall. Mikie just had to ride in all 4 cars...which allowed each one of us to ride around with them just once.

The boys rode on Grandmommy's "Allie"gator.

Mikie helps dig up a little balsam tree to bring back to VA.

Let's play in the leaves! Zachary was very tired and cranky, but Mikie had a great time playing hide and seek and having races down the path.

Even though our trip was cut short by about a week, we all enjoyed the fun activities and the memories we made with Grandmommy and Granddaddy. I know that in the years to come, my boys will spend the majority of our visits exploring and playing in these woods. I can see the piles of stained and ripped clothes now.