obsessed with bowling

So, we mentioned previously that when we attended the Center for Courageous Kids autism weekend, both boys really enjoyed bowling. Since then it has gotten out of control at our house. We have worked on Wii bowling with Lewis, and he is quite good! The boys also enjoy playing with a couple of toy bowling sets we have.

Lewis sets it up just like Wii bowling. He imitates the characters holding one hand behind their backs and the ball in the other hand.

He also likes to put out a "scoreboard" like on the Wii with a small image of the players. Since Lewis was playing by himself in these pictures, you can see to the side, his Little People version of himself on a blue rectangle. They are always set up in the order that people are supposed to take turns. Very odd, but it kind of makes sense!

The other night, Justin and Lewis were neck in neck playing a game, and Lewis pulled out the win. Lewis plays all on his own now. We used to help him here and there, but he does great when he wants to, and if he wants to throw a bunch of gutter balls, well, he doesn't do so good. He gets amazing spares too, splits and everything.

It is a little crazy to have both boys take turns playing. Owen is happy to hold a "trigger" when Lewis plays Wii bowling, but when we play with a set of pins it can get ugly. Its good they have an interest though!

Beth found this interesting article about autistic kids running a coffee shop at school. They used the proceeds to bowl, oddly enough! It combines two of our current passions so it seemed pertinent to post it.

singing, hanging out & incubating

It's been an exhausting few weeks! Forgive the long silence. Things are generally going well. There's been snow, warmth and now cold rainy weather to keep life interesting. A couple of weeks ago, Hopscotch's Playplace had a discount day, so we took the boys to get out some energy on cold, snowy morning. Here are the highlights:

Owen's black eye is healing! It's almost completely gone now (this is an old photo though so it doesn't look that great).

Owen tried on a fireman's hat, and then fought with Lewis and several other children who wanted a turn wearing it.

Lewis enjoyed bouncing.

And hanging from these bars.

At school they are using this visual prompt to help Lewis with the morning routine. We were late one day, so I watched him read it and follow the steps. It was pretty sweet!

I had my 28-week appointment on Thursday, and everything seems to be going well. Dr. Gass says I'm an easy patient because I have no real complaints or issues when I go to see him. He actually told me about some of his recent problems which cracked me up. So glad to have a doctor who is real and understanding! He said I'm measuring at about 30 weeks which is fine, especially since I have delivered at 38 weeks with both prior pregnancies. We are expecting Phoebe to come mid-April, but of course, time will tell!

I got my Rhogam shot for rh incompatibility and I was on my way. Now I get to go every two weeks! It's going by pretty quickly, which is great because I'm exhausted, going to the bathroom way too often and having trouble doing things like picking up stuff off the floor etc. Nothing major, but things are starting to get harder and it will just get worse. But really, I feel great and have had few issues so I can't complain.

Owen even got to feel her move the other night when we were reading books. Then she stopped and he said, "Where'd baby Phoebe go?" We decided she must've been sleeping or something. :)

I'll leave you with a clip of Owen singing "Doe a deer" from The Sound of Music. He sings this a ton, along with Jingle Bells and a few other favorites.

what we've been doing for fun

A little update on what we've been doing for fun lately. Today we ventured out to the Goodlettsville branch of the Nashville Public Library to see a performance by Miss Lynn, one of the boys' favorite kiddie artists. Our friend, Heather Morozov, passed on her last cd as a birthday present last summer, and let's just say Lewis knows all the words. Owen probably knows most of them too. The crowd seemed a bit sleepy today.


Lewis was a little antsy while things were getting started, but when she started playing a favorite song, his grin got so goofy and big. He was pretty ecstatic to see her playing these songs live. He sang aloud for a couple of them, and Owen sang along some too! It was pretty fun to share this experience with them, and she was a very gracious performer.

In other news, Owen has decided he LOVES Cariboo Island. He wants to play almost every day, and does a decent job taking turns and playing. He loves putting the coins "on the beach!"

He also started trying on my shoes recently, which cracked me up.

Lewis, on the other hand, has been playing a TON of piano. I have to say that my mom would be sooo proud and happy that someone is playing this instrument. She tried to get all of us into piano, and none of us liked it. No one wanted it when dad and Martha were combining their households, and I really wanted to keep in the family, so to speak, so we brought it home. Justin has played it off and on, but Lewis probably plays about an hour every day. Here is a clip of one of his recent original tunes. Mostly he plays by ear songs he hears wherever....but he does occasionally try to create something new.

black eyed Owen

When we picked up Owen from the church nursery on Sunday, he'd had some sort of accident (I'm guessing hitting a table or chair) and had a completely swollen left eye. It looked really bad, but he was in good spirits and so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best, since the little guy wouldn't tolerate cold compresses, let alone sitting still!

The next morning it still looked bad, in my opinion. It was still swollen, but not as bad. It looked like this, although these pictures don't do it justice.

Now it's Wednesday, and we are deep in the black eye stage. The swelling is pretty much gone, but the color is there, under the eye and on his eye-lid. It's hard to see when his eye is open so I asked him to close it for this picture:

These show more clearly what it looks like now.





He's still a cute boy, but we're calling him "bruiser" because of the obvious purple areas, but also because even with this injury, he is reckless and energetic and continues to knock Lewis around and himself. It's a hard knock life for this boy! We expect a full recovery in a matter of days.

baby update--24 weeks + name

On Friday, I had my 24 week appointment. It was a busy couple of hours! I got to take the blood glucose test, run upstairs for an ultrasound (to check baby's profile that she hid last time) and then back down to the lab for the blood draw....and finally got to see the doctor. Everything seemed to go great. My sugar level was well below the cut-off for gestational diabetes which was encouraging, especially after the holidays! I was measuring closer to 25 weeks he said.

The baby's profile seems perfect, and she held her hands together in front of her face for a good portion of the time that I got to view her. Maybe she's praying?

And I bought our first baby girl dress! Kohl's had some great clearance items that I spotted while shopping for Justin's birthday. I got this little Christmas dress for $7.50 and another 6-9 month outfit for under $5.

Finally, we have landed on a name. We are going to call her Phoebe Corinne. Phoebe means bright and shining, while Corinne means maiden. We think it fits perfectly! Phoebe is also a Biblical person mentioned by Paul and commended as a servant. There were other things that pointed us to this name, but since we both agree we have to go with it! Both boys already know that baby Phoebe is inside mama's tummy. :)

full week

Last week was a busy one! We celebrated Justin's birthday!! We had a small family celebration, and then a slightly larger Settlers of Catan tournament to commemorate the day. Justin came out victorious after two rounds of play. Pretty impressive.

Here's a video of the boys singing to daddy:



We took down our Christmas decorations including the pig we typically adorn with reindeer antlers. Justin decided it is time to part with the pig and took a final photo of Lewis and this funky cookie jar.


Lewis has been playing a game on my phone called 123 Color. It has Christmas music that plays in the background while he colors by number. Anyway, this is his favorite picture, and he has learned to play the entire medley on the piano: Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, Deck the Halls and Silent Night.
He really wowed the fam at our Christmas celebration on Saturday in Nashville with Justin's mom's side of the family. This is Grandpa and Owen hanging out watching basketball & football.


The last couple of days, Lewis got into wearing these sunglasses. He looks like the kid from "A Christmas Story" when he wears them and he calls himself a 'cool cat.'

karaoke goodbye

On January 1st, we said goodbye to our old friend, Gabe McKinney, as he headed back to California with his lady friend, Elizabeth (who we have really grown to love too!). Gabe's crazy family planned a fun party at Akiko's, Louisville's premier karaoke bar. It was pretty funny to enjoy all of the quality entertainment of the evening. We hope that Gabe & Elizabeth find some killer jobs very soon....and maybe end up a little closer than the West coast. But we'll see!

Here are a couple of pics:

Oops! day out with thomas 6/13/10

On the last day of 2010, I had to do one more post that we forgot from last summer. In June, we went to a "Day Out With Thomas" at the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, Ky. In August, I noticed that it had been left out of our blog entries. I sort of resolved to include it before the end of the year. It was a lot of fun, so we are squeezing in a bunch of pics from it before midnight. :)

There were lots of different activities that the boys loved. Here is Owen playing at one of the train tables.

Lewis was in a sign phase where he really loved the little railroad crossing signs and other random signs. He he had collected several and was looking at them in this picture.

There was a music area. Owen was into dancing, but both boys had trouble following directions!

Owen and daddy share a happy moment.


Lewis got to jump in a bounce house, and really loved it.

Owen got to play in a bubble area. Grandma Martha made a BIG bubble!

Next, we headed to the train for our real train ride. Justin handed the tickets to the conductor.

Lewis, me and Aunt Ellen wait for the ride to start.

Aunt Ellen, Aunt Beth and Owen.

Owen, Justin and me after the ride. This is what the front of the train looked like.

We stopped for a few pictures at the museum entrance. The boys with Grandma & Grandpa.

A Shepherd family portrait. It was fun and SUPER hot that day! Happy 2011! :)

Christmas Day

On Christmas we awoke to find some presents for the boys. Owen was thrilled with the stocking full of candy. They each got a Zhu Zhu pet, and Owen was pretty freaked out by his. Lewis likes to throw them.

Owen models his stocking.

Owen got a Fisher Price Nativity scene from Aunt Ellen.

Lewis got a "Band in a Box" from Grandma & Grandpa. Both boys have loved playing with the instruments. There were a few more tears opening gifts this time, and Owen still seems to want whichever toy Lewis is playing with at the moment. Unless he has an iPhone, he wants Lewis' toy....whatever it may be. Which has made for some fun times!

Lewis sang a beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" to the baby Jesus. We let him blow out the candle too. We always get an ice cream cake from DQ. Yum!

Owen loves his new vacuum, and his new Thomas t-shirt.

Lewis' favorite gift (and one of Owen's faves too) is this Melissa & Doug mailbox. There are stamps for each piece of mail, and slots to put them in that are size specific. It is really cool. I love these toys for so many reasons! Since our boys are both into mail, it has been a big hit.