Summer Fruit

Today Mary, one of the ladies from church, stopped by the house to walk around our yard and clue me into some of plants I have growing in my yard.

We found spearmint, rhubarb (too bad the season's over already), some wild flowers, a bunch of weeds and trees saplings, and the best thing ever, Blackberries! I was over the top excited about them.

You see, last week Laura blogged about picking strawberries and I immediately started to find a pick your own farm we could go to. But strawberry season here is on it's tail end and other berries are not quite ready yet. But my blackberry bush had quite a few that were ripe and many more that will be soon.




We picked all those that were ripe and tasted quite a few, Max had a handful when he woke up from his nap and loved them, and the rest were made into Blackberry Basil Iced Tea using the basil I've been growing. YUM! You can smell the basil each time you go to take a sip. Delish and refreshing for these hot summer days. instead of adding lemonade, I added 1/3 c sugar while the mixture was still warm to help it disolve and added 1/3 c lemon juice to the pitcher too. Not too sweet, just the way I like it.




I also have made a watermelon fiend out of my child. Yesterday he had his first taste and today we got one at the grocery. The watermelon was as big as he was, and we sat it next to Max in the cart. He hugged it and gave it kisses, and high fived it while we did the rest of our shopping. I even caught him once or twice trying to bite it.

When we got home I started to cut it up and had Max like a little bird at my feet with mouth wide open and squaking for bites. So the total count of watermelon is some for dinner last night, some for lunch and dinner today plus all of it he got from the counter today. Gladly will I split a watermelon with him though, gladly.

We've finished the playroom this weekend. Putting away toys and books and all those fun things kids like to play with (especially LEGOS). It's nice to have one more thing finished at the house. My last project up there is to make picture labels for the built in drawers so the kids and see what's in the drawer without having to open them all up.

Here are Chewy and Superman posing for the Action Figures Drawer.

Fun Day!

Today's been a fun day so far and it promises to be more as the day goes on.

We had lunch on the town square with friends (Max decided he'd rather eat rocks than lunch) and then popped into the little antique shop (no finds today).



(yes that's my new scarf, it worked well to absorb sweat as it's 90+ degrees out today)

This afternoon during nap time, I worked on VBS music cds to give to all of the kids at our church and then was feeling a little crafty.

Max loves to cuddle with blankets and pillows so I decided to make him a pillow for his crib. I know normally safety called for nothing to be in the crib, but I figured he was big enough and lately I've found him using stuffed animals as pillows. I've always loved the toddler pillow from PBK, but I also know they cost $16 and that's without a cover. So I decided to make my own.

I have a lot of leftover sheeting (from curtain lining and other random things) and so I used that and some stuffing to make the pillow insert. Then I wanted a pillowcase that I could wash, easily put on, and looked finished. I made a pocket pillowcase with an overlap on the back and made two (this is for the kid afterall) and viola! cute kid pillow! (Fabric is vintage-y space theme that was actually a table cloth at one of my baby showers.)


Tonight Adam arranged a babysitter for Max so we could celebrate our anniversary a little late (it was last Friday) and I know we are going to Lariat Steakhouse and who knows after that, Adam's been trying to convince me to see Transformers, but I don't think I'll go for it. :)

Everything's new

Max
There seem to be periods where everything is new around here. Max learns so much, it's hard to keep track of.

This week Max seems to be learning everything at once. Such a little sponge. The other morning I was getting him dressed in the morning and asked him if he wanted to eat. Max went ahead and signed "eat," then "more," then "eat" again. We've worked on baby sign language for a while, specifically "more" and "all done." Max will use those signs when asked. I tend to sign a few more words to him just out of habit and sign "eat," "please," and "thank you" but have never showed him to sign those. I was quite shocked when he signed "eat" repeatedly and has continued to do so. So now we are actively working on "please" and "thank you."

Also his new favorite thing to do (besides dancing) is spinning. He will just stand in the middle of the floor and spin until he falls over, which he finds hilarious and stands up and does it again. Especially if you laugh at him. He is his father's son, if you laugh, he'll do it again, and again, and again. I didn't have video but a succession of pictures should give you the gist.



I'm not sure where he learned how to do it, but it's super fun.

He's also to the stage where we can leave the house and get to the car without me having to pick him up except to put him in his carseat (although we are still having instances where he thinks it's ok to stand and dance on the stairs and then falls down them).

And finally the haircut pictures. Max wouldn't even let me hold him for the haircut, he wanted to sit in the big chair and loved when Ms. Mandy got out the hair drier. I can't believe how big he looks now, especially from the back.



Crafts
I'm back on a yarn spurt, I made a slew of little baby hats for some winter babies that have been announced and I'm working on a crocheted blankie to go with one of the hats.

I mentioned finishing the scarf, here's a couple pictures of it.





After a field trip to the yarn shop this morning, Max came home with some yarn for his own scarf. This one is to be a little more manly. I got to it right away.

This week in random notes

We're back up and running. I've been immersing myself in VBS planning and Max has been running around like the crazy toddler he is.

I finally finished my first started knitting project (I've done one or two in the mean time, but this was the one I started during the class I took). I was watching a program on knitting and they ended up talking about crocheters that learn how to knit and how continental knitting is sometimes easier than English style. That got me to thinking and I tried it out. Wooooeeee I was zooming once I got the hang of it. Since I'm used to holding yarn in my left hand for crochet, keeping it there for knitting makes it much more comfortable and has less movement. After I finished the scarf this afternoon Max wore it for an hour and a half without taking it off. Good thing it was a "summer" scarf, so he was atleast in the right season.

Speaking of which, Max is definitely all about the accessories. He loves belts, ties, scarves, and hats. He could care less about shoes though.

Next up for my needles, I'm going to make a scarf especially for Max. Which means he'll probably ignore it and still get in my closet to pull mine out.

Since Max was sick he was off milk for a few days and was refusing all forms of food and liquid. So in the process he weaned himself from the bottle. I put the last of them away yesterday. He's now solely on sippy cups. It was a little sad to leave the one last "baby" thing behind, but I guess that means I'll just have to have more babies to make up for it right?

Also since he wasn't eating he lost some more weight. This means that now he's a skinny little thing running around without the little leg fat rolls that were so cute and no more belly peeking from the bottom of his shirts. He's actually almost gone down a size in clothing. I'd put away most of his 12 month stuff and now 18 month stuff is looking a little large on him.

Also, I meant to mention that I did get to see Chimney Rock on the way home. They light it up at night and we could see it from about a mile away (in the picture we were less than a quarter mile from it).

Tomorrow Momma and babe are getting haircuts. This will be Max's first hair cut and he needs it badly. Just one more step out of babyhood.

Nebraska Wrap Up

We've been home a couple of days and everyone's recovered. Especially Max. He's back to his old cheerful, healthy self. Here's a day by day Kipp wrap up of our week (not necessarily the group wrap up).

Saturday

We drove all night Friday night and finally made it to NW Nebraska. I kept seeing signs for, and really wanted to visit Chimney Rock. You see I grew up playing Oregon Trail on Apple II Es and wanted to see it in real life. Here are Adam and I in front of Chimney Rock.

What? You can't see it? Yeah, neither could we. This is the "scenic view" and it was too foggy to even see it there. I was pretty disappointed.

We got there and work was already started by the early birds. So we jumped right in.

Adam and I decided to explore a little more and headed to the next town over of Chadron for dinner (nothing special just Arby's, but Crawford doesn't have any fast food restaurants). And we loved the landscape as we drove through.

Sunday

We went to services at First Congregational Church and almost set an all time attendance record for the church (started in the 1880s), if only our youth kids were already there, we would have. It was awesome to worship with like minded believers. We didn't know each other, but knew each other's hearts and that was sweet.

Little did I know that during worship trouble was brewing downstairs in the nursery.

I went down to go pick Max up after services and I picked him up, he looked at me, took his binky out of his mouth, and promptly threw up all down the front of me. Oh, the joys of motherhood. He did it again before I could get myself cleaned up, and he had a slight fever, so I took him back to the parsonage where we were staying with the pastor and his family (4 little girls!) next door and put him down for nap with some ibuprofen in him.

He woke up worse and there started the downward spiral we spent the next few days in. But we did go over to check the progress on the church.

He didn't sleep well and threw up repeatedly during the night, nothing like doing laundry in a stranger's house at 2 am.

Monday

Max wasn't any better so we decided to take him to the town clinic the next day, there wasn't a doctor on duty but they had a nurse practitioner. They looked in his ears and tested for strep (although it's rare for infants to get strep, but his throat was red) and all those came back negative. We were just to monitor him and come see them the next day if he didn't improve.

On the bright side, we did have our new camera and even newer telephoto lense, so Adam and I got to play with it a bit.

The group of workers worked hard all day and were all tuckered out by late afternoon.

Tuesday

Max seemed a little better in the morning, even well enough to play a little with Cherish (born just a week after him) but still had a fever and soon faded fast back into lethargy, so back to the clinic we went. This time they did a blood test which came back with his white counts and plateletts low (meaning he was definitely fighting something) and they sent me home with the orders to get a urine sample, just to make sure it wasn't a bladder infection (very rare in boys). How are you supposed to get a urine sample you ask? There a little back with a whole with bandaid like adhesive all around the opening. You are supposed to attach it to them and hope it catches the urine. It was quite an experience, but after two tries I hoped they had enough to test. All tests on that came back negative. So again I was to monitor him and come back the next morning if not improved.

Our home away from home away from home - Legend Buttes Health Services Clinic
Again, we played with the camera (we took a lot of shots of work being done too!)

Wednesday

Max seemed to be doing a little better but I was worried that wouldn't last again. The youth entertained him for a little bit during the morning devotional.

We took Max back to the clinic and they drew his blood again, though his numbers were better, they were still low. This time when they pricked his finger he threw a fit! The nurse wasn't prepared for how strong he was (or how "well" he bleeds) and he ended up yanking his hand out of her grip and getting blood all over the three of us (me, him and the nurse), he also yanked off two gauze bandages, and had to have a third one taped on so well it took to of us later that afternoon to get it off.

In the afternoon, Adam took the youth to Mt Rushmore. They said it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, but it was neat.

That evening Adam and I snuck out after Max was asleep to have dinner at Ft Robinson. Adam had Buffalo Roast (delish!) and I had poached trout. We then took a scenic drive during sunset, and saw a lightening storm off in the distance.

(If you click on this one to make it bigger, you can see the lightening)

Thursday

That morning Max woke up with a blotchy rash covering his whole trunk and neck. I thought to myself, I'd seen this before. He had roseola. It's a virus that includes a high fever followed by a rash. I took him over to the nurses from our church who were on the trip with us and we all agreed. Finally he was improving and the fever had dropped. Just in time for the trip to be over.
We went to go "help" work in the morning.

We walked about town that day taking pictures.

Here's a picture of the church (not sure when)

And here's a picture on the day we finished

Here was our group of 28.5 (Max counted for .5)

Only a few moments

We are here in Nebraska and every one of our 29 people arrived safely. Max, though, has come down with something and has had a pretty high fever 102 during the day and spiking higher at night for 36 hours or so and has been vomiting. We went to the small town clinic today to see a nurse practitioner as I thought it would be an ear infection again, but it's not and they aren't sure what it is. They tested him for strep throat (it was negative) and want to see him again tomorrow to check him out. Needless to say I've been useless the past two days and pretty sleep deprived (so has Adam, but he's still been working with the group during the day).

We are seeing A LOT of progress at the church and have been blessed here as we help others. The congregation of this church, though small, has a huge heart andvery welcoming arms. We've been having great fellowship with the pastor and his wife and four little daughters since we are staying with them in their house, I just pray that Max hasn't gotten the girls sick.

If you think of it, pray for Max tonight. It's so hard as a mom to see your little one sick and not be able to do anything about it and especially be so far from home.

We're ready to go

The key to getting me to blog is to have really important stuff that needs to be done right away, so that I'll procrastinate and blog.

Our bags are packed and ready to go into a really messy and dirty car that needs to be cleaned out. Guess I should do that.

About three years ago Adam and I were at Disney World (I think) and we saw a two year old being wrangled by his parents with a harness and leash. I was absolutely appalled. I couldn't believe that a parent would have a child in public who obviously wouldn't listen enough to stay with their parents and not wander off. At least put the kid in a stroller if that was the case.

This morning, I tried out my favorite new kids accessory....

the back pack is actually a harness with a leash attached....

Don't judge me.