Easter Weekend

Blue at the Vineyard, originally uploaded by TNEmily.

I hope everyone enjoyed there Easter weekend. I'll blog more later - took some nice photographs this weekend so I'll have much to share - but I am having trouble getting blogger to upload for me so this will have to suffice.

Taken at Holly Ridge Winery in Overton County, TN. It was VERY cold over the Easter weekend here in Tennessee, and the owner mentioned to us that unfortunately the severe cold snap has likely killed off his grapes this year. We did purchase a Riesling which we have yet to open, and some Blackberry wine that was excellent (the owner informed us that it's his most popular).

Anyway, I captured this little flower (sorry, I'm not plant-savvy so I can't tell you what it is) outside the winery. This hardy little thing took the cold like a champ!

Christmas Wrapup

I've been a terrible blogger lately. But here's the lowdown on the past couple of weeks or so since I've blogged last.

Christmas was great. Jackson was way excited about the Christmas tree, which we actually made sure to put up a couple of weeks before the big day. He spent a lot of time admiring the ornaments and removing a few from the tree. Luckily I kept the non-breakable "sacrificial" ornaments at his level. Also over the past couple of weeks, Jackson has decided that he will not be called "Jack", but he is "Jackson". I have been calling him "Jack" for almost three years now, so it's a bit of an adjustment. But it's his name, and I'm respecting his feelings on the matter.

We discovered the source of Tucker's constant chewing. Two teeth arrived just in time for Christmas, while we were at their Granna and Pa's house (my inlaws). Jackson got a tractor for Christmas from them, as well as other goodies. Unfortunately he won't get on it yet. "It's scary." But he's fascinated with it and I am sure by spring, when we have some good weather, he'll want to be on this all the time:

PHOTO DELETED

Christmas morning and day was toy overload. We could hardly get them (Jackson primarily) to eat or sleep for all the new toys. In our attempts to expand his interests beyond all-things-auto, Jackson got a castle Christmas morning:

PHOTO DELETED

Of course, the next day cars had managed to defeat the knights to take ownership of the castle.

Jackson was more than happy to help Tucker unwrap and play with his gifts.

Happy 2007 everyone!

My Little Chatterbox

Not too long ago I blogged a bit about Jack's speech delay. Just months ago, while he was right where he should be, even ahead, regarding receptive language, he was VERY behind in regards to expressive language and had a language delay of almost a year (at around 19 mos. old he was tested and had no words at all; at 2 he only had four words total).

Well, since Jack receives speech therapy through the state, he was due a review to see if he still even qualified for speech therapy. Jack talks about 90 miles a minute these days, so I assumed he was not going to need therapy any longer, but requested that his therapist do another evaluation to be sure (plus I just wanted to know where we stand).

I am VERY proud to report that, regarding expressive language, Jack rated at almost 3.5 years - he's 2 yrs., 7 mos. - almost a year ahead of his actual age. We were floored and thrilled. So Jack is doing incredibly well, needless to say.

Tucker's doing great. He turns 4 mos. old this Friday. He's also a little chatterbox - he makes a lot of noise, that one - and he's just about to sit up on his own. We think he's been working on some teeth too over the last month, which would not be surprising if he follows Jack's pattern - Jack's first teeth appeared at around 4.5 mos.

We had a great Thanksgiving, even though some of our loved ones could not make it due to a stomach virus (what a day to get one, poor things). Food was eaten, football was watched, Lego Star Wars was played. I think Tucker enjoyed his first Turkey Day:

PHOTO DELETED

We're now officially into Christmas - we put up the tree just last night and Jack LOVES IT. We're working on learning some Christmas tunes - Jack loves singing. Jack and Tucker's Granna got them Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the boys have been enjoying that.

And I apologize for the lack of bloggery lately - between running after the boys, working and trying to exercise (that's new starting this week - I need to fit in my clothes better and am generally just not happy about the state of things regarding my shape) - it's just too busy around here to make time!

Happy Haunting Ya'll!

I tend to slack on blogging and then do two posts in a row? Why? Who knows. Anyway, I'm overdue for some photos, but wanted to discuss this first.

We bought Jack a dinosaur costume for Halloween. I paid $8.99 to ship the danged thing to make sure it got here by playgroup last Wednesday. And yes, I know I should have purchased this further in advance. Next time, we're buying the costume in August and not looking back.

Anyway, Jack told me he wanted to be a dinosaur, and looked at the costumer online with me and approved the purchase ("I look like THAT!"). I thought all was well.

Then I tried to get him to put it on last Wednesday.

"I can't wear that."

Child will not wear his Halloween costume. And there's no making him - what's the fun there? I hope he'll have a change of heart tomorrow night - our city has a trick or treat thing - but I'm not counting on it. The costume has a broad size, so I'll just hold it for next year - someone is dressing as a dinosaur. Dangit.

I have considered getting some black fabric and making him into a little pre-school grim reaper,
but that's a little macabre, isn't it? But funny macabre? I wouldn't have dared to take him to playgroup like that, because that thing is a good weapon for a two-year-old, but for trick or treating? Maybe? Still making up my mind on that one.

Anyway, I promised photos, so here goes:

PHOTO DELETED

We got the piano. And Jack claimed it. Which is great - I want him to be interested in the piano and making music (and hearing him say "I make music" is priceless) - but it's bad because he will NOT let me play.

Tucker loves his thumb. He has zero interest in the paci - which Jack loved. This will not be fun if he's still sucking his thumb at 18 months old. It was easy to remove the paci from Jack - it just wasn't available anymore - but you can't take a kid's thumb. And therein lies the problem.

Tucker is just getting so big! He turns 3 months on Wednesday, and just this past week he starting rolling over - both back to front and vice versa! We also had to retire the swing this week because he's trying to pull himself forward in a sit and it was just too dangerous for him to be in there. So he played in the exersaucer for the first time the other day, and seems to love it. I'll post that pic in a moment, because blogger won't let me post more than 3 on this post today.

It's funny, at the time with Jack it seemed like he was in the exersaucer for a long time (and the swing before that, along with other things like crawling, creeping, etc...). Now with Tucker I know he will be in that exersaucer for such a brief amount of time. They're growing so fast.