Impatient & Distracted

Big Kiddos

Today the kids had well visits w/ the pediatrician. We got there at 10:03 and were not leaving the office until 12:30...It always takes forever there. At least they are nice. And it's free. Anyways, here's the skinny:

Jedidiah Brooks Caperton: (at 2 years & 4 days old)

• 34 1/5 lbs - 100th%
  
• 36 3/4 in - 95th%
  
• Got the flu shot and a finger prick to check for lead poisoning. He did great with the shot - didn't even cry...but screamed bloody murder as she milked his finger for enough blood to do the lead test with.
  
• Has an ear infection & has to take amoxacillin. I thought the whining & crankiness was just the 3 molars coming in...I was wrong!
• Oh yeah, can't leave out that he pushed a little sick girl in the waiting room.
  

Riley Ember Caperton: (at 7 mo. tomorrow)

• 19 lbs 10 oz - 95th%
  
• 29 1/4 in - well over the 100th%
  
• Got 3 regular vaccinations and a flu shot. She cried immediately after the first shot.
  
• We got some free formula from the pediatrician. Hooray for samples! Although, we have an apt. to see if we can get WIC tomorrow. I'm not too proud to take free stuff! Especially when that free stuff (formula) costs anywhere from $15-$30 a can.
• Riley REALLY does finally have her first tooth coming in. I can actually see it breaking thru the skin.
  

Sex Offender List

You can check your neighborhood for registered sex offenders on the Family Watchdog website. Know where not to move or who to keep your kids away from. It's a really easy site to use.

Wagon Walks

Now that we have Jed's cool new wagon we get to take walks around the neighborhood during the day. Today we walked over a mile. The kids are so quiet as we walk. They just look around and take it all in. I'm usually pretty quiet too...checking out the houses as we go, looking for things that I like about their exterior paint colors or their yards, etc. Today I even took my camera to snap photos of the things I'd like to incorporate into our yard...namely a sitting area in the front yard. I'd love to have some sort of 'front porch' where we can sit and watch our kids play & invite our neighbors over for iced tea.

Jed's Party

Yesterday Jed turned 2 years old! We had a Birthday Brunch for him. He still takes a nap from about 2-5 pm and breakfast is his favorite food...so brunch seemed like the best thing to do. We had pancakes, breakfast casserole, fruit, bacon & muffins - it was a pretty good spread, if I do say so myself. Jed's 'cake' consisted of 4 pancakes piled & covered w/ whip cream. Here are some pics of the day. (Some needed explaining and others did not. In an attempt to get them posted sooner, I'm skimping! Sorry to take so long Mom!)



Taking toys from babies...the guys decided to have a contest on throwing parachute men from the kids goody bags.





Jed blew out both candles...eventually! The first one went down easy...the second took FOREVER!

Playgroup, Blog & Murder

Playgroup: Tonight I requested to join the Acadiana Playgroup. I had been thinking about doing this for weeks, but Tuesday I actually met someone at Chick-fil-a who had just joined - who happens to have recently moved here from southwest Missouri - about 45 min. from Bentonville. It sounds like something I would really like to be a part of.

Blog: I also started a new blog today. I was talking to my friend Carrie the other day about folks who would like to start sharing recipes - remembering how a group from The Grove did this on a blog, I decided to do the same with friends here.

Murder: 20% of murders in Houston in the last 4 mo. of the year were Katrina Evacuees - either as the victim or murderer*. 2004 Houston population: 2,012,626 / # of Evacuees in Houston: 150,000 = 7% of Houston's population. (*from KATC3).

Bumps & Bruises

Last night Jed had a hard time going to bed. We normally read several books, but last night he just kept ripping them out of my hands. So, finally, in frustration, I told him goodnight and turned off the light and closed his door. A couple of seconds after leaving I heard him hit the door and run back to bed. I thought that he just came and hit the door in anger because I had left. I tended to Riley and then decided to go back and check on a screaming Jed & apologize for leaving in anger. It was dark in his room when I got there and so I went to him and sat on his bed. I saw that he was holding his mouth...and when I turned him towards the light, then I saw that he had blood pooling in his mouth and running down his chin. Poor guy had several cuts on his now fat lip. His face was all red around his mouth, nose, chin and one cheek. I think that he ran face first into the closed door. I am just so thankful that I chose to go back in to make amends...

On the same day, Riley got a nice forceful push from Jed face first onto the hard floor. So she now has a blue colored bruise on her cheek.

Date Night

Friday Night Date.
A Select-A-Quest Adventure.

As a young girl I used to love to read choose-your-own-adventure books. In case you haven't been introduced to such books, I will quickly explain. At the bottom of each page there are directions to go onto another page. However, on some pages there are options. You get to choose what happens next in the story. Each option leads to a different page with a different story line & some end abruptly due to the choice made. You can read the book dozens of times and never read the same exact story. It's really fun.

Well, Drew knew that I loved these books. So for a date night he actually created his own. It was so perfect. He had every page typed up with an illustrated cover and everything. The book started with Drew arriving home from work to his wife Kristy & their kids, then Kristy giving him a big long kiss in the kitchen or a peck on the cheek - my choice. (Drew let me know, after having chosen the first option, that the second would have led to the end of the date!) Kristy then made a choice as to what type of clothing she would like to wear for the date - something sporty or something dressy. Choosing sporty led us to the batting cage. Then Kristy got to choose what type of food she was hungry for...and so the choices and the story went on...and on...

Drew, although having planned the date, was not sure what our date would actually be. It was really so much fun. And I of course, loved having control and yet still being surprised. It was the most perfect date ever.

I've got everything, more than I ever dreamed.
I love my life.
I thank God for all I have, and that I love this man,
Who loves his wife.
I love my life.
I love my life.
Jamie O'Neal - I Love My Life

Choose your own caption:

"Honey I shrunk the kids!"

-or-

"We have soooo got to cut our grass!"

Jed has something to show you...

...his 'booboo' (bellybutton) and his 'boobas' (b00bies).

Way better than that soy milk stuff...

Just in case you were wondering, Riley is getting plenty of fiber.

Joy & Tribulation

Teeth: Jed has 3 of his 2 year molars all coming in at the same time. Needless to say, he's quite the grouch. Riley has a bottom tooth coming in also. Well, I think. I have been thinking that for quite some time and yet she has no teeth yet. Yep, she's fussy too.

Dining Out: I think we are discovering our favorite thing about eating out...eating in. It is amazingly hard to eat out and enjoy it with two kids under the age of two. And now that Riley wants to eat when we eat, it's even more difficult. So we are finding out how nice it is to pick up food from our favorite restraunts and bring it back home...we haven't done it often but we might start doing it more as we cut out a lot of our restraunt adventures. Last night we had a great dinner w/ Michael & Janis (my in-laws) at our house - they had salads from Ground Pat'i and we had gas station Greek food - (you're probably thinking, "yuk", but I swear, it is the best & cheapest Greek food in town). We actually all got to sit and eat. Normally one of us is up with one of the kids walking around the restraunt to keep them happy. There have actually been 2 occurances in the past couple of months where I left a restraunt with the kids before we even ordered - I figured, one of us can have a miserable time or all of us can have a miserable time. That's right....I'm such a martyr.

NFL: Denver Broncos just beat the defending superbowl champions in tonight's play off game. Yeah! (At least the Saints get the second draft pick...huh, Drew?)

Sleeping: Riley has not been sleeping thru the night. She did for a little while back when she was a couple of months old but now she wakes up sometime between 2 & 4 am usually...and I have to get her back to sleep. We've tried letting her cry it out but she doesn't EVER go to sleep that way. One night she cried for 45 minutes straight. I don't get it because we do everything right...supposedly. We put her to bed while she's still awake. She goes down so well. I stopped nursing and put her on soy formula so she's much less gassy. The only thing that I can think of that might be making it difficult is that she goes to bed w/ a pacifier and Jed did not. The new SIDS guidelines have me giving her the pacifier for bedtime. If anyone has any ideas for ways to get her sleeping better - PLEASE let me know!

Cookies & Milk Anyone?

Not even five minutes ago, Jed decided to give Riley a kiss...with a mouth full of cookie. As Jed leaned in, Riley spit up - right into his mouth and down his chin. He stood there stunned for a second and then proceeded to spit everything out of his mouth right onto the floor - regurgitated soy milk, cookie and all...

Here and There

Pictures: I JUST realized that you no longer have to upload your pictures to some other program in order to put them in your blog. That is SO good! And even better is that we got a digital camera for Christmas (thanks Michael & Janis!) so now we are really able to keep our friends & family up to date on the kids. So much fun!

Arkansas: We had a really great trip to AR. It was so good to see family and friends. I really miss everything about our life there...and still, I love the life we are building here. I was telling Drew on our epic drive home that I wish so much there was some way to mesh both. Either south AR & north LA need to be sucked into the earths core or we need to develop a teleporter.

Friends: I love having friends just come over to hang out. No need to have any deep conversations (although totally open to it), nothing planned, no where to go...Last night Rebecca Williams came over to hang out while Drew & Matt went to get coffee. She brought us frozen drinks from CC's and we just spent time watching my sunday 'guilty pleasure' show and talking about our Christmases. It was just really good. Thanks Rebecca!

Mini-van: I really want one. It just sucks never being able to carpool anywhere and never having space for all the stuff we have to take on trips. Ok, so I don't really want a mini-van, per se, I'd prefer an SUV but due to gas milage and cost and my anti-suv/eco-friendly husband I'm compromising. Although, mini-vans are beginning to look much cooler. Yes, Drew - I'd like a vehicle that does less to lower my cool-factor. I'm already a mom with 2 kids...I don't have far to go before I drop to negative numbers.

#2: Jed's second birthday is coming up on the 21st. We are having a birthday brunch to celebrate. Breakfast is his favorite meal and brunch time is NOT nap time, so it just works out best. However, I don't know what to do about a cake...cake just doesn't go with breakfast all that well. Any ideas?

Blue Eyes & Barrets

I swear, Riley just gets more and more beautiful. (I know, I'm biased. I'm okay with that.) We're finally putting barrets in her hair on a regular basis. They look so cute! They are, however, a Jed magnet. He can't leave them alone. So he pulls them out (thankfully it slides right out of Riley's hair since it is so thin still) and then asks me to 'hep' him put it back in. It's a fun little game....but still I put them in. I'm a glutton for punishment...and girly barrets in my beautiful little girl's hair.

Who, Me?

After church on Sunday we were all just hanging out in Jerry's house getting ready to go out to lunch. Jed was playing in the kitchen, when he happened upon the communion wine. Jerry (thank you!) found him with the bowl at his lips, ready to drink. He hollered his name to stop him and when he did it scared Jed, causing him to spill it on himself and the floor. I don't believe he drank any of it - and if he had, I doubt that he'd have drank more than a sip...I personally cannot stand it! (One day I unknowingly dipped my bread in the wine instead of the juice...I almost threw up right then and there during our gathering!) So while I don't believe he drank any, he definately smelled like a wine-o (sp?) the rest of the day.

Football & Fun Times w/ Dad

Jed absolutely loves spending time with Drew. They play football outside in the front yard. Jed's getting pretty good at catching the football - it helps that it's huge compared to the other balls that we've been throwing around. Jed seems to have an affection for football - he loves going to UL games with Drew and even recognizes UL's Ragin' Cajun's Logo as 'football'. He also knows what he's watching when a game is on TV...and of course, he's able to distinguish a football from other balls.

Wrestling w/ Riley

With a little help from Jed, Riley will be a very tough little girl. She laughs for while and is quite the trooper...but Jed, of course, doesn't know when to quit.