bye bye Powells

Today our friends (and maybe yours!) Brian, Carrie & Corrie Powell, moved to Indiana. They spent five years here in Bowling Green, and we greatly benefited from their friendship. They introduced us to Settlers Of Catan which has added much fun and competition to our lives, among other things. We entered parenthood just a month apart and it was kind of comforting to go through that major change together.

We've joked that Corrie was Lewis' first girlfriend, though Lewis has mostly ignored Corrie's 'advances' (she likes to hug him and dance with him sometimes). I'm sure someday he may change his mind, but she probably won't want to hug him then, and surely won't see him so often!

All that said, we wish them great joy, success and fruitfulness in their new home. Here's some photos of them before they departed.

Corrie's attempt at showing Lewis her book.

23 months

Today Lewis is 23 months-old. It's pretty hard to believe he is just shy of turning 2! As he's grown, his hair has gotten out of control. So to prepare him for big-brotherhood, we cut his hair tonight. Here's the before picture with daddy.



















And after:




















Another angle.

























To make the day even more exciting, Lewis used a big boy potty for the first time tonight! Our friends, Brian and Missy Howard, graciously gave us their special potty that plays music when it encounters something wet.

Since Lewis peed on the floor before his bath recently, it seemed like a good time to give it a try, at least before bathtime. So tonight, much to his dismay, we set him on the potty and within a few seconds, the music started! I have to say I haven't been so excited in a long time. The only problem is that the potty continues to play this music until it is completely dry, which is a tough task to accomplish! Hopefully our neighbors won't get irritated at the music because we'll be sitting that thing on the back porch for drying. :)

Who knows if this will become a regular part of our routine, but it was fun to have a successful first attempt.

catching up

We have been busy taking a lot of walks lately! Now that it is warm, Lewis wants to be outside all the time. We take walks in the stroller, and walks where Lewis can roam about freely. We've spent a lot of time at various parks. Oddly, Lewis loves Fountain Square Park the best. There's no play equipment there, but he loves walking around the fountain and checking out the water.

























He's also enjoying reading books. Despite his lack of speaking, he is learning a lot of things and can point out lots of animals and objects in his books. He seems to know his colors fairly well too. He consistently finds blue objects and is generally right about the other colors too. We have no idea what he's thinking about most of the time, but he's having fun.

cute boy

big baby?

Yesterday we had another doctor's appointment and an ultrasound. We were surprised that our friend, Trina Whittle, got to do the ultrasound for us. This was our third ultrasound this pregnancy and had no idea that Trina worked for our group of doctors, so that was a nice surprise for us.

Dr. Gass mainly wanted to check the size of the baby since I'm measuring "big." My weight gain is steady, but oddly enough, my belly is growing at a faster rate! At 32 weeks, which I am now, I'm measuring closer to 35 weeks. After seeing the measurements from the ultrasound, it appears the baby is already approximately 5 lbs. 7 oz.! With a rate of growth of 1/2 lb. each week, in 4 more weeks it will be 7 1/2 lbs. In 8 more weeks, close to 9 1/2 lbs. That is a scary thought! But, he assured me that because my last delivery was at 38 weeks (actually just at the end of the 37th week) that I should deliver early again this time. So that is our hope and prayer. Of course, time will tell. With Lewis weighing only 7 lbs., 3 oz. at birth, it is hard to imagine having a baby much larger, but I know plenty of women who have survived birthing big babies!

Here are the ultrasound pictures:





































One more random note. The moms from our playgroup got to go out on Monday night to see Baby Mama. It was fun to get away from the kids and have some girl time. We had ice cream afterward at Baskin Robbins and took a picture.

















L to R: Tobiaire Utt, Shelley, Carrie Powell, and Sarah Wilson.

primary season

As many of you know, Tuesday, May 20th is Kentucky's primary for the presidential election, as well as many local races. My sister, Ellen Reitmeyer, is running for the Louisville Metro Council to represent District 18. This week, things really heated up when her opponent showed up at her residence with the hopes of stirring up some trouble (or so it now appears). To see a video from the local news, click HERE. It's crazy what people will do to try to sabotage an election, but I had to mention it here in case any of you happen to live in District 18, or know someone who does. Please encourage them to vote for Ellen. She is by far the best person for this job. Most decent people have no desire to get into public service for obvious reasons, but Ellen has the integrity and commitment to serve well, and keep others on the council in check.

daddy returns

Justin made it home this morning with less than 2 hours to spare before he had to report for duty at the Daily News. We are glad to have him back, even though we haven't gotten to see him much so far. He's off the next 2 days which will give us time to catch up! It's hard to believe the Foxhole van made it across 7 states without a break down. Yet another reason to believe in God. :)

Lewis and I finished up the week much as it started--busy and surrounded by friends. Thursday is Bible study (always a highlight, though Lewis does not enjoy the childcare as much as I do!) and speech therapy.

Friday morning we had our usual playgroup. We took some pictures of the kids this week. Isaac Utt is also part of the group but was absent. Here are the other kiddos:

Jacob Wilson, 5 months:




















Jacob's sister, Taylor Wilson, 2 years-old:





















Taylor again, with Corrie Powell, 23 months (almost 2--don't let the baby swing fool you!):


























And Lewis, 22 months, hanging out with the Fisher Price farm:


























Friday night we went to Rivergate to meet up with my Minsk stint team buddies, Shari Hill Kawashima, who was visiting from Lexington, and Heather Morozov. Shari announced this week that she is pregnant, so it was fun to catch up with her and talk about the upcoming changes to her life. We forgot to take pictures! All in all it was a full and fun week. We're all rather exhausted!

the week minus Justin continued....

Lewis and I continue to enjoy our time without daddy, although we are looking forward to his return! Last night we had dinner with some new church friends, the Cahoons. Lewis has eaten great all week, and even had quite a bit of sloppy joe meat last night. Maybe having 3 small kids all eating food around him inspired him to branch out.

This morning we spent some time with Kelly Morgan and Mark, the 3 year-old she nannies. He is a great kid--very polite--and Lewis had a great time running around and swinging. He liked going down the slide quite a bit too. It was fun to be around another adult on a beautiful day.

This afternoon, Justin called as we were waking up from our nap (yes, I got one too!) and Lewis made himself comfortable on the kitchen floor while he rolled his water cup around. He rarely just sits down anywhere, but especially in the kitchen. It was kind of random, so I took a picture.


























Tonight, the ladies from church got together to celebrate a birthday. Lewis got to spend more time with the Cahoons, thanks to dad, Jonathan, for his bravery in taking on a fourth child. We have had so much going on that we haven't had time to think much about Justin's absence. And Lewis continues to be a ton of fun. He has gone with the flow all week, which is such a blessing.

on the road, again

Justin is out touring with Foxhole this week, which has meant a busy weekend and a fun week ahead. On Friday they played in Louisville at the 930. They are touring with a band called Interstates, some good friends of theirs. Here's a picture from Friday night.





















In the meantime, Lewis got to spend some time with Justin's parents in Shepherdsville. He especially enjoyed playing on the pool table. He's quite good at rolling the balls into the pockets.





















On Saturday night, Foxhole played at the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green. Here is a picture of me waiting for the show to start with my new Foxhole t-shirt on. My belly is getting bigger at 31 weeks!




















Here's a clip of Foxhole playing "Forgiving Monarch" that night.



From there, the band headed to Mississippi and on to Texas. For more info on the tour visit their myspace page.

The last couple of days have been better than expected for me and Lewis. He got to stay with his grandparents until Sunday afternoon. He had a lot of fun with them walking in their yard and riding on their tractor.

Yesterday, we had several guests from our church, Grace and Peace Presbyterian, to keep us entertained. Missy and Jayden Howard came over for lunch. Then Mandy Guss and Chie Tanaka joined us for dinner. Lewis seemed to enjoy the company, and I did too!

Today, Carrie and Corrie Powell came to participate in Lewis' therapy session. Our Developmental Interventionist wanted to see Lewis interact with another toddler, and Corrie has been the best at trying to play with Lewis. It was fun to spend some time with them, especially since they will not be here much longer! We are sad to report they are moving soon so that Brian can take a job at Purdue. We will miss them terribly, but hope to take advantage of some hospitality when going to visit my sister in Evanston, Ill.

Lewis has been in a great mood so far and has made my first days as a single parent pretty easy. Hopefully the long naps and cooperation in eating some good meals will continue.

A couple more Lewis pics from last week at the park, where we'll hopefully get to spend more time with the beautiful weather we're having.

visiting with friends

A whole week ago, Lewis and I took a journey down to Nashville to visit with our friends the Morozovs. Our friend, Tasha, was visiting from North Carolina to see a Bon Jovi concert (random!). Another friend, Yura, was visiting from Lexington so we had a little Belarussian reunion. We had a chance to catch up and try out the full capacity of our new minivan. It's always nice when my close friends gather together nearby.

Here is little Val and Lewis (who we caught chewing on a french fry).
















Heather and baby Annabella.






















Yura and Tasha in deep discussion.

















Tasha, Heather, Annabella and Shelley.

another tag

My friend Carrie Powell tagged us a while back on the profound topic of "Five things you want your kids to know before they grow up." I've been thinking on it for a while and it is a tough one, but here's a start:

1--To see themselves honestly as fallen creatures in need of a Savior, and know that Christ is the only one who can fix the situation.

2--They are not going to be great at everything, but they have a unique purpose and can take joy in what they are good at........(in addition, they'll never know if they're good at something until they try).

3--To eat a variety of foods. :)

4--The joy of traveling. Our world is a big place to explore first hand.

5--To think for themselves and make wise choices.


Tagging others is hard too, but I can tag Heather Morozov, Nicole Martin, Sarah Wilson, and Darla Oglesby--all moms of TWO babies now.

climbing!

Lewis has never been much of a climber, but the last few days he has worked really hard to get in and out of our little rocker all by himself. Here are some pictures of the proud boy.

getting in to the chair.





















turning around





















getting down





















A random picture of Lewis out and about downtown with brave escort Derek Holt. Derek offered to walk with Lewis while I got some iced coffee at Spencer's. Little did he know how fast and independent our boy can be!

Tagged

I've been tagged by my friend Heather Morozov so here is some interesting info about Shelley.

Four jobs I've had:
1. Purchasing Coordinator for Commonwealth Brands, Bowling Green, KY.
2. Campus Crusade for Christ staff doing campus ministry in Minsk, Belarus and at WKU.
3. Shipping Clerk for Spalding Group in Louisville, KY during the 2000 presidential election. Thank God I'm not doing that anymore!
4. Fast food--I did time at Chick-fil-A and McDonald's.

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. Back to the Future
2. Karate Kid
3. Fargo
4. Napoleon Dynamite

Four places I've lived:
1. Louisville, KY
2. Minsk, Belarus
3. Bowling Green, KY
4. Hampton Beach, NH

Three TV Shows I watch:
1. Lost
2. The Office
3. Law & Order SVU

Four places I've been:
1. Lithuania
2. Hungary
3. Israel
4. Switzerland

Four people who email me regularly:
1. My sister, Ellen
2. The group of moms I meet with regularly.
3. Kelly Morgan
4. Facebook

Four of my favorite foods:
1. mint chocolate chip ice cream
2. angel food cake
3. meat--I love steak and shrimp especially.
4. salad

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Egypt
2. Great Britain
3. Czech Republic
4. Austria

Five things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Meeting and getting aquainted with baby #2.
2. Lewis' first words (I hope!!).
3. A new Sixpence None the Richer EP.
4. Our new church plant getting started in Bowling Green.
5. Potty training (just kidding!).

Four friends I'm tagging:
1. Carrie Powell
2. Kelly Morgan
3. Heather Spencer
4. Glenda Jones

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!"