18 Months

Where to begin???? I certainly can't believe he is a year and half already. I think Joe David summed this season of Jed's life very well - "He is getting more and more fun everyday, and also more and more opinionated!" It is amazing to watch him grow and expand physically, mentally, emotionally, etc...


Jed had his check-up this week: still a huge head, 26 lbs. 6 oz., 32 inches and doing great!

Best things about Jed right now: his spontaneous kisses and hugs; being dramatic - if you are around Jed for any amount of time - you have seen the gasp and wide open eyes about almost everything, I LOVE IT!; his love of veggies and fruit; his little physique; saying his own prayers!!!! (he doesn't really say words, but he can "pretend" to pray...we will try to capture it on video); the way he says "dadda work" anytime JD is gone; the way he says "bye bye Gigi" anytime I hang up the phone (even if I am not talking to her); his love of other kiddos; his continuing love of books and anything ELMO; the way he can identify all members of our extended family in pictures and person; how much he loves his grandparents (they are all pretty cool cats)

Tough things with Jed right now: the obvious tantrums of a child his age; limiting TV time (he loves it); when he says things we don't understand at all; he is fearless and gets hurt often; but the toughtest thing of all is leaving him in Bible class - HE ABSOLUTELY HATES IT! this is very discouraging, but we try to keep our chins up and take him anyway :)


As pictured below, Jed still likes to put anything and everything in his mouth!Just sweet...Check out those feet! They look huge to me!Another picture that shows off my ruddy complexion - nice. I had to post this one because I tried multiple times to get this photo and in EVERY one, Jed had his eyes closed. :)Contemplating...And then he knocked them off!

Sunny Ft. Lauderdale

Joe David and I just arrived back from a buddy free weekend in Ft. Lauderdale. The Bowers were gracious enough to watch Jed from Wed to Sun for us and I don't think he minded one bit!

Here is the view as we flew into town.Joe David attended a neuro conference on scholarship, and we got to stay at the Ritz on the beach. It was so BEAUTIFUL and I've never stayed in such a nice hotel. We had a corner room on the 11th floor.We slept each night with the sliding doors open, listening to the ocean...this was my view when my eyes finally opened Fri morning.Some of the views from our wrap around balcony...I spent hours on the beach while Joe David attended his conference. This is the view of our hotel from the beach. Our room is one of those on the far right, above the pool deck.I sat in this chair for FIVE hours, reading and relaxing!We met Nancy on Sunday to pick up Jed...here was his face. I am holding the camera, notice he is not looking at me at all. He only had eyes for his daddy!

help me expand my repertoire

I am not feeling like a very creative mama right now. So, all of you caretakers - what are some things you serve for snacks? Jed is not that picky of an eater...I'm just in a rut and wanted to pick the minds of my blog readers. THANKS!

what do we have here?

I got a surprise when I went to unload the dishwasher the other day...Do you see it?I knew the camaro was missing, but I guess Jed just wanted to get it nice and clean! :)

Halloween 09

Halloween night was a lot of fun. In attendance were: cookie monster, the queen of hearts, wonder woman, woody from toy story, a monkey, and a kitty cat. The kiddos played outside for awhile. They rode on Pa's tractor, Jed wasn't so sure about it. Then we went to small town TX for a festival and some candy! Jed had his first dum dum and in the last picture is reaching up and begging for another (after the first one was confiscated because it dropped into the dirt). :)Mary has an even better version of this next picture, but mine just cracks me up... Those two crazy four year olds on the left are just so funny. There is NO TELLING what they were saying to each other. At one point, Dane plotted with JJ to call Jed "goo goo face". The moment I heard that, I realized that Jed is headed for many years of "picking" from his older cousins! And that is just the way it has to be because he is the baby of the boys. :) I am sure he will quickly learn ways to push their buttons too!

On to Daingerfield

We spent the second half of our vacation week with Joe David's family. I feel like I need to put a disclaimer that my son does often wear pants...he just doesn't seem to be in many of my recent pictures! Here he is pushing toys...always a favorite!Waiting for Granna to get home from work - how sweet is his face in this picture?Pretending to be stuck...he fell into this position once and liked our reactions, so he kept trying to recreate the incident. :)Mary Nan spending time with Jed, I can't believe she will be 7 this Jan!All of the cousins enjoying some string cheese and refreshing drinks - Sydni was not really into posing for group photos.These cuties are nine weeks apart, here they are sharing a hug.There are four Bowers' birthdays at the end of Oct./Nov., we celebrated with the boys on Friday night. Dane got a new bicycle for his birthday and here are all the older kids riding on the land.Everyone else was down checking out the swing set that Granna and Pa found, so Jed and daddy headed down there too. It is an old school playground set and it is HUGE!Pa has to wait until the ground dries out a little to set it up, the ground is absolutely saturated (just ask the two people who got stuck on Sat)!Sydni played with this headband all weekend, she put it on herself.Trying to capture a pic at the boys' birthday party.On Sat, we surprised Pa with a birthday party. Here was the spread and his banner.Sunday morning before church, Jed was taking Sydni for a ride.Reunited and it feels so good! (you might remember Jed's love for the "meow, meows" this summer)Just pickin' his nose a little before leaving for church.We headed home on Sunday and stopped to eat in Temple. We made the mistake of stopping at Pizza Hut (not my favorite anyway). It was really nasty inside. We were going to tough it out, but the final straw was when JD realized something had bitten him FOUR times since we sat down! We ended up cancelling our order and leaving, but here are some pics with daddy before we jetted out of there.
Halloween pictures coming soon!

On the banks of Lake Palestine

We recently enjoyed the first full week of vacation for Joe David, PGY4 (the abbreviation for what he is called at work - the important thing: it means he is DONE after this year!). We split the week between our families, spending Fri through Wed with my parents in a time-share on Lake Palestine. Here is the view from our deck the evening we arrived. Jed had PLENTY of stuff to entertain him as soon as we walked in the door: a flashlight that shone "halloween" symbols on the wall...new tonka trucks and a halloween goody basket... beautiful weather...a completely contained outdoor space..a new tent, complete with nap mat and pillow...an activity center with a great playground...new places to run and explore... (in this picture he is trying to get under the fence to see dad on the mini gold course - Joe David spent a lot of time here)his very own bedroom with a view...and of course, quality time with Grampa!Here are some pictures of the area immediately surrounding our condo. The weather was just perfect this day!Before we left for Daingerfield, we took Jed and my parents to the zoo in Tyler. That makes four different zoo visits for Jed. He loved it.He especially enjoyed riding in the wagon we rented and Gigi pulled him all around the zoo.In this picture he is telling Gigi to GOOOOOO!Scary, huh?I don't know why I am even including this picture, we look really run down...but here is the proof we were there as a family!Thanks Grampa and Gigi for a great stay on the banks of Lake Palestine - see you soon!

Next post...a great time in Daingerfield and Halloween with the Bowers cousins.