hello good buy

My faithful Nissan Altima has been a great car for the last 5 years, but we sold it this week after just a couple days of listing it in the classifieds. Since we found several nice used vans online in Louisville, Lewis and I made the trek up on Thursday evening to check them out. Lewis got to spend some quality time with his grandma (Martha) while dad and I went all over on Friday.

Oddly, the van that we picked was the first one we saw on Thursday night when we first got to town. It's a 2001 Honda Odyssey with low miles. The Odyssey was by far the van most recommended to us by other parents out there. It's going to be wonderful and we got a great deal in our price range. And because we are getting a nice tax refund and sold my car we get to avoid the dreaded car payment.

Lewis did not have a good night on Thursday night when we stayed with my sister, Ellen. He had a terrible time getting to sleep and woke up around 2 a.m. upset. He was up off and on until 4 a.m. when he finally gave up and got to sleep. It felt like I had just fallen asleep when the earthquake hit. I was so delirious by that point that I was rather unsure what was going on, especially since that is the first earthquake most of us ever experienced. I was afraid the painting on the wall over the bed was going to do some damage, but just as I got pretty worried, the shaking stopped. What a weird thing!

Van shopping is not that fun anyway, but being so exhausted made it worse. Still, looking back over the week......selling my car, finding a van, getting the price we can afford, and several other details that worked out in the nick of time.......it is obvious that God walked us through this process and it is a huge relief to move on.

We have to give a shout out to my sister Ellen, my dad and Martha for chauffeuring me around, providing hospitality, childcare and moral support. Thank you!!

Here are some pics. Goodbye Nissan!

















Hello Honda! Here are a couple of web pictures of the van. We got it from the nice people of Acura at Oxmoor.
















and the view from the front.

kangaroos + cave= fun!

We took advantage of the County Days at Kentucky Down Under on Saturday to get some cheap entertainment. Personally, I think the regular adult rate of $22 is a bit much, but the discount rate of $5 is very affordable, especially if you have a toddler who has a short attention span.

Justin's dad was driving through the area and met up with us for the fun. Here are the highlights.

Grandpa and Lewis in the cave. We made it through about 5 minutes of the tour before Lewis got tired of all the tour guide's interesting, yet lengthy rambling about cave history.



Lewis meets the dingoes.



A kangaroo takes interest in Lewis. He was somewhat scared of them, but they seemed to like him just fine!


Just hanging out with Grandpa.

lewis' shenanigans

Lewis continues to develop his creative side, coming up with his own fun games. This week in particular he has taken an interest in our shoes, specifically he likes throwing them in our clothes hamper. Anytime we are looking for a pair of shoes and can't find them, if we check the hamper, they are always there. Strange, but he loves it!

Lewis has also begun dragging me to the window in his room anytime he hears the train coming. He loves getting in position before the train comes into view. Then a huge smile appears when the train does. His window is the only one in the house where you can actually see the train tracks. We are going there quite often lately!

Another new love is for candy. Lewis' grandparents gave him some M & M's for Easter which we hesitated to give him. The first one sat on the entertainment center for several minutes before he worked up the nerve to try eating it. Once he did he fell in love. He even had one crying fit when he realized they were all gone (several days later). John Paul, his speech therapist, uses Smarties to get Lewis to follow simple instructions. Lewis is very motivated by sugar!

Finally, Lewis absolutely adores his "Hokey Pokey Elmo." Our friends (Brice & Julie Boyer) have one for their kids, and Lewis always insists on playing with it anytime we are visiting them. We found the same toy at a consignment sale for $5, much to Lewis' delight. He can squeeze Elmo's hand by himself which activates the dancing.......and he does it over and over and over...you get the idea.


Otherwise, Lewis continues to love music and turns our stereo on as soon as he gets up or we come in the door from being out somewhere. He can dance and shake his "booty" on command. Here's a video of his skills.

therapy news, etc.

Today we had a review of Lewis' therapy. He's been enrolled in First Steps for 6 months now, and today we looked over our original goals to see how Lewis has progressed. In the areas of gross and fine motor skills we've seen a ton of progress. It's amazing to look back to our original meeting when Lewis could not stand up on his own. He was easily entertained because if he was sitting and playing on the floor, and a toy rolled out of reach, he just had to find something else nearby to entertain him. Now he goes where he wants, when he wants. He drags us around when he needs our help with something. He's really basically caught up in this area and functioning at his age level, which is amazing!

Speech was a much different story. While he has not had tons of progress, he has gotten much older which means what is expected of Lewis is much greater than when we started. As a result, his scores in communication actually went down from where he was 6 months ago. He is vocalizing more lately, but he mainly sticks with a few limited sounds. It's hard to know how to motivate him to branch out verbally.

After discussing Lewis' situation at length, our coordinator and therapists came up with a plan to petition the state for more therapy time for him. Ideally he will end up with 2 hours of speech therapy a week (up from 45 minutes now), and an hour with his developmental interventionist. We are praying that this request will be granted and soon! It was certainly disappointing to know that our 21 month-old is communicating at a 9 to 10 month level, but we feel so fortunate to have a team of people working on Lewis' behalf since Justin and I are so limited in our abilities. Keep praying for Lewis to catch up, and for us to know the best ways to motivate him.

Regarding the next baby........here's my latest belly shot. I'm 27 weeks pregnant, which means the baby should survive from this point on should I go into pre-term labor. And I'm officially in the 3rd trimester too. Fun times.

Easter pics and other random stuff

For Easter we spent time with both sides of the family. First we went to Louisville for the Reitmeyer side of things. Here's Lewis in his Easter outfit, thanks to Justin's Aunt Emogene.





















Lewis and grandpa.





















Lewis and his cousin Mallory.
















We wanted to get some pictures of the kids, but it ended up being the kids and Aunt Ellen since Lewis didn't want to sit still. From left: Mallory, Will, Ellen and Lewis.






























Lewis mesmerized by Grandma's musical snow globe.
















We forgot to take pictures in Shepherdsville (which is exactly the opposite of what happened last year, oddly enough!). But we had a great time there too. Lewis has grown to love playing on their pool table. He is really good at rolling the balls into the pockets.

Today is actually our friend Taylor Wilson's birthday. She is 2 years-old! We went to her party on Saturday and had a great time. Our pictures are not the best, but here's what we've got.

Taylor's mom, Sarah, coaches her as she blows out her candles. She did a great job!
















Justin and Lewis explore his party favors.
















Lewis and a purple balloon. He still loves them!

BATHTIME: A Photo Essay by Lewis' Daddy

"I'm covered up, right? Make sure I'm covered up."

"I mean, seriously! Am I covered up??"


" I know! I'm so cute! I'll never wear clothes again!"

"I don't care what you say, pa! I WON'T stop passing gas in the tub! It's funny!"


"Oh, the hilarity!"

kissing daddy

Here's a video of Lewis kissing Justin over and over again. He's learned that good things happen when he gives us kisses so he has been much more willing to show his love.

march madness

After last weekend's snow, we were delighted to see it melt away by warmer weather! This week has been fabulous due to the warmth and sunshine. To celebrate, I took Lewis in to our friends at Shapes for a haircut. He did not enjoy it, but calmed down with some bubble blowing. He looks much better, just in time for Easter and the beginning of spring.

We took a family walk on the square the other night because it was light later (thanks to daylight savings!) and Lewis had a blast. He loves walking around and exploring.

It was difficult taking pictures at night, especially since Lewis was moving so fast!





















Lewis has been running around throwing his hands up in the air at random. We think it might be due to the college basketball we've been watching lately. Many of the players do this after they make a tough basket.





















Sidenote: We were particularly thrilled to see our WKU Hilltoppers win the Sunbelt Conference tournament this week. It has been a while, and they deserve it!!

Justin gave Lewis a break from walking for a few minutes. You can see Spencer's in the background. We look forward to more family walks in the square. :)

SNOW!

The weathermen finally got it right, and we woke up to quite a bit of the white stuff this morning. We know there was much more north of here, but it has been a couple of years since it really snowed in Bowling Green, and it was kind of fun!

We took Lewis out exploring. He whimpered most of the time due to the wind and how difficult it was to walk in, but he was irate when we had to go inside so he must have liked it somewhat!

Here are some pictures.

derek holt and floam

Tonight Derek stopped by before Foxhole practice and while he tried hard to get Lewis' attention, he just couldn't compete with Baby Einstein. We got some funny pictures of his efforts.

Derek juggling (what kid wouldn't like this?)





















Derek wondering why Lewis is not interested.
















Lewis confused about Derek....should he like him or not? Why is he juggling during his movie?
















Later, when the guys had left, Lewis played with his Floam. He likes it quite a lot. It's this gooey, sticky stuff that smells like glue. His therapist, Krista, brought it several weeks ago and he has been loving it ever since! It's kind of like play dough, but much easier to mold or tear apart.






















Floam is fun!

new belly shot--22 weeks

First of all, let me say--yay, it's March! We have been all over the place this week. Justin especially has been burning his candle at both ends, and Lewis and I have managed to stay busy too. Tuesday morning we got to spend some time with Julie and Madelyn Boyer (forgot to take pictures--oops!). On Wednesday we went to Louisville for a campaign fundraiser in honor of my sister, Ellen, and her bid for a Louisville Metro Council seat. If you happen to live in District 18, you should definitely vote for her. She even has a website you can check out! Lewis got to spend some time with Justin's parents while we showed our support for the candidate. It was fun!
















Thursday and Friday I was shopping and volunteering at Lil Angels Attic, a local children's consignment sale. We were hoping to find some stuff for the new baby, but mostly ended up with summer clothes for Lewis, and a dancing Elmo.

The pregnancy is going well. I am feeling much more fetal movement these days, and generally feel pretty good. Pregnancy brain is setting in, however. I've been so forgetful. The other day I got to Kroger without my coupons and list, much to my dismay. Tonight, I forgot to give Lewis a bath. He gets one every other night, and it's usually not too hard to remember, but tonight it just completely slipped my mind. I've had some solid cravings lately for jelly beans and this yummy angel food cake/fruit dessert (recipe thanks to Laurie Basham). Besides that, things are plugging right along, and I have really healthy hair!

Here's my latest belly shot. It's at kind of a weird angle, but hopefully you'll get the idea. :)

lewis learns some signs

After literally MONTHS of trying to teach Lewis some simple sign language, he finally has a couple of words down. This first video is of him doing 'more' while eating some taco casserole. He does not do it correctly by ASL standards (he's close!), but he's consistent in always using the same gesture to mean 'more.'




The other word we've been working on a lot with our new speech therapist is 'please.' So far Lewis mainly uses them in conjunction together, but he will do his own version of 'please' which is really pretty close to the real sign. You can see him use both in the next video....forgive the longness of it. We're so glad to be communicating better with Lewis, and really hope this is just the beginning!

future artist?

Lewis is finally starting to get the swing of crayons. He still likes putting them in his mouth, but is more likely to scribble on the paper. This is his first drawing without help. Every mark was made by Lewis himself (except for his name and date! That would've been amazing!).
















He's finally figuring out some of his toys too. Toys, like his Glow Worm, are finally easy for him to play with and "make sing." We've been planting his worm in his bed each night and when we hear the music going in the morning, we know he's awake. He only jabbers a little bit these days and then it's on to playing in the bed. We are lucky to have such a good sleeper, and a kid who loves his bed so much!

Eating has once again become a challenge. He seems to want store bought baby food the most, and his constant staple, homemade yogurt. He's eating more veggies than fruit, oddly enough, and tons of beans. They say beans are the perfect food--protein and starch. Anyway, if he's going to be picky, we're glad he's eating beans.

He's also signing his own version of the word 'more.' He uses it for everything though, and seems somewhat confused that it doesn't mean 'please' and other things too. Still, if we ask him if he wants more, he consistently makes the same sign. Progress in small doses is good!

Here's a photo we forgot to post of Lewis and his Grandma on Valentine's Day.

it's a..........

boy! Well, we had our ultrasound today, and we are having another boy Shepherd. I was told specifically not to drink anything caffeinated and as a result did not get a great view of all the "parts" as the baby was not really moving a lot, but our radiologist assured us that it is definitely a boy. Here was the best picture of his manhood. Good luck!
















Here's one of him sucking his thumb (or so it seems).

















Pray for us as we try to think of boy names!

fun with corrie

Check out some pictures of Lewis hanging out with his friend, Corrie on the Powells' blog. They're pretty cute!

happy birthday, natasha!

And happy Valentine's Day to you! We often do not mention birthdays on our blog.....not that we forget, but it's hard to keep up with it once you do one. But my friend, Natasha, who lives all the way over in Belarus, has to share her birthday with the day of love. And since she is so far, and i always forget to plan to send a gift far enough in advance, I wanted to post a little something for her before her birthday is over (which gives me only about an hour since it's 11 p.m. there right now!).

We became friends in the fall of 1998 when I moved to Belarus for the first time. We were not best buds right away or anything like that, but it's a friendship that has grown over time, and now I have to say she is one of my closest friends, in my heart anyway. She is funny and real and not afraid to share her thoughts and opinions which is something we Americans hold back all too often. Besides that--she has an incredible life story--growing up in one of Russia's "secret cities" and coming to know the Lord through meeting a believer in an aerobics class of all things. This woman just continues to grow and endure the twists and turns of life. I guess you could say she's one of my heroes (those of you who know Nate Jones may have heard a hero speech here or there). I'm praying for this to be an incredible year for you, Natasha. Thanks to skype, hopefully we'll be able to have many conversations through the wonders of the Internet.

This photo was taken by Natasha when she was visiting and I love Lewis' hairdo. She really captured him at a great post-bath moment.
















Before Natasha went back to Minsk, she spent some time in California. Desperate to meet a celebrity, she went looking in the Los Angeles area and found none other than:

















Chelsea Clinton!! She posted this picture on her Facebook account and it absolutely cracked me up. Here was her caption: "i wanted to take picture with a celebrety...somebody cool and handsome but all what i got is Chelsey Clinton." Natasha sure has connections!

We love you, friend! Hope your birthday was a blast. :)

bubbles, snow and the Gap

We finally got to meet Lewis' new speech therapist on Friday. John Paul (Logsdon) is a very enthusiastic fellow and hit it off pretty well with Lewis. He blew bubbles and had a ton of other fun toys that lured Lewis in. These items proved to be good motivators to get Lewis to respond. Hopefully in time we'll see him communicate through signs and/or sounds to express his anger or desire for "more" bubbles etc. We have hope that this will be a good match for Lewis.

This weekend we went to Louisville to see my family and so that Justin and I could visit the Gap Clearance Center near the Cincinnati airport. I had some gift cards to redeem which go a long way at this place. I found some great deals on maternity stuff while Justin stocked up on a wide variety of shirts. Our best deals were for Lewis--shirts for 49 cents and socks for a quarter a pair!

Our visit also gave Justin an opportunity to work with my sister Ellen on some campaign materials. If you haven't heard, she's running for a seat on the Louisville Metro Council to represent District 18. It's pretty exciting! I have to say that we're more excited about her race than the other elections this year. :)

We forgot to take lots of pictures this visit, but managed to get one of Lewis and Grandpa before we left.
















Side note: We did have a bit of a tricky ride on the way home in the pouring snow. Traffic was slow and there were some accidents (mostly on exit ramps), but once we got past Sonora things cleared up. We got home without any trouble and found that there was no snow in Bowling Green!

happy super tuesday

We don't get vote or anything special today, but we are enjoying the outside temperature! The unseasonably warm weather has allowed us to spend more time outdoors. Lewis enjoyed going to the park the other day when there was still a chill in the air.





















Since then he's actually gotten to go out without his hat a few times. He loves the play equipment at the park, but especially going up the steps,
















and beating on the big sturdy posts they makes those contraptions with.





















We also cut his hair again over the weekend. It has grown so much in the last six weeks! It was even starting to curl up after his bath.





















Now he looks like this.
















At the request of some of our faithful readers, here's my first side shot at 18 weeks pregnant. Not huge, but certainly bigger than at this point the last time around.





















My doctor says I'm growing right on schedule. The baby's heart-rate yesterday was 159 bpm. The poor nurse had a hard time figuring that out though, because the baby was moving so much. I'm only feeling small motions here and there, but this may be a wiggler! We scheduled our ultrasound for President's Day. This baby is sure to be a true patriot--due on the 4th of July, in an election year....it seems like every milestone is on some sort of holiday. Hopefully we'll get some cooperation and find out the sex. :)

We also get to meet Lewis' new speech therapist this Friday. We are excited to see what his approach will be. Lewis does seem more interested in communicating lately, even if that means screaming to get his point across. Hopefully John Paul will have some techniques to motivate him.