Easter and after

For Easter, we went to visit Justin's cousins who hosted many of the Shepherds at their home. It was a fun time. Owen slept through a lot of the festivities, but did get to pose with Grandma,


and Grandpa,


and Grandpa and Lewis,


and all the Shepherd men.


Lewis got to hunt for Easter eggs, but since he stopped and opened each one, we left them empty which he seemed to like just as well. Olivia helped, but he did really well finding all the brightly colored eggs. He got some jelly beans too, and a fun squishy ball from his aunt Jeanne.


The next week we got to get out to the park for some fun. Owen has become quite photogenic.


We also took him to a Bowling Green Hot Rods game. It turned out to be a cold and rainy night which led to both of us getting ear infections. It was a really nice ballpark though, I have to admit. Being a baseball person, I was pretty distracted by the constant advertisements going on everywhere and couldn't focus on the game much. But again, we don't know anything about this team yet so it's hard to get too emotionally involved. It does seem to be a fun event for groups and families to go to this summer. Maybe Bowling Green does need something like this! Time will tell.



We're off to visit my sister (aka Aunt Beth) this weekend. We'll surely have lots of stuff to post from that trip.

louisville zoo

We took Lewis and Owen to the zoo with my family on Good Friday. Lewis enjoyed seeing the animals, but struggled to see many of them in their natural habitats.

They did have a neat exhibit where they let us feed a giraffe. Lewis seemed a little afraid, but I had fun.


There was also a very intense gorilla.


Lewis waved and tried to get his attention.


Owen was along for the ride.


Lewis also enjoyed waving at himself in the reflective glass which caused him to miss out on some cool animals, like the alligator.


By far his favorite animals were the penguins. They were very active and swimming around. He got very excited watching them. It was the most excited he was all day.


The train was his next favorite part. He cried when we had to get off. He had never been on a train before and kept signing train and smiling really big while we rode around.


Here's a short clip of Lewis watching the penguins. I missed his best moments, but this is what we got:



All in all, a good day!

owen's growin'

Owen is getting bigger, and his little personality is starting to take shape. He's developed some stranger anxiety recently, and certainly distinguishes between familiar people which is great, but it does cause some trauma here and there. We finally got a picture of his teeth. The top ones may be coming in soon too.


One thing is certain: Owen loves eating. Every time we give Lewis a tasty gluten free snack, Owen gets that "I'd love to eat that" look. After turning up his nose at some baby food peas the other night, Owen ate quite a lot of au gratin potatoes. He couldn't wait to get more of that normal food. Then we took him to the Taj Palace for some Indian cuisine. He ate a ton of naan (bread) and enjoyed the flavors of chicken tikka masala, and some other dishes. He mostly just got to eat the sauce, but he was very interested in trying new foods which is a great start.


Owen has also started waving. Here's a video of him waving and having some lunch.

words, on fire

We have blown through the last week or so of our lives. Lewis is making some progress on his verbal attempts. Here is a video of him with one of our volunteer therapists, Aimee Games. Aimee has a background in speech therapy and has done a great job motivating Lewis to speak. Having five kids of her own doesn't hurt either! Watch her in action here:



Lewis has been fairly consistent saying "duck" in his weird way, and also in saying "go." We know he has a long journey ahead in unlocking his voice, but we are glad he's trying.

Owen has been doing well also, and has welcomed his second tooth onto the scene.

Justin has been a workaholic putting in his full time hours at the paper, and 30 hours a week at Spencer's. We are all sort of exhausted, which is why I shouldn't have been surprised when I got a stomach bug yesterday after a lunch out with friends. Maybe it was food poisoning? I don't know. But regardless, I am happy that these things don't last long. I've had a pitiful diet of frozen waffles and plain rice along with Gatorade to try and keep me from getting dehydrated.

I was too tired today to take notice of a house fire just behind us. From Justin's pictures it was pretty bad, but everyone survived including their yippy little dog. It sounded like every ambulance and firetruck in town were in our backyard, but we are happy everyone is okay.