Easter Egg Hunt

We had an Easter egg hunt after church Sunday. Sarah helped Jeremiah find eggs and Hannah helped Isaac. Jeremiah wasn't very interested in finding eggs and putting them into a basket; I opened the first egg for him, thinking he might be more interested if he knew there was candy inside. He was more interested all right...in eating the candy. Isaac liked finding eggs. Each time he found one, he put it in his basket, then called out, "E-ggs, where are you?!" and ran off to find another egg.

The Goose Girl

Yesterday I read "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hales. It was so good and so fun! I loved it, just reading a good story again. And I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a "bedtime novel." I think that I'm going to start reading Isaac books during bedtime, to listen to instead of look at. This might be one of them.

Running--Attempt 3

This morning I did my loop, only walked once (and it was after I had ran for 5 minutes) and felt great! My legs are getting used to this running thing again. And it feels so good to use my body again, to sweat, to...live. I'm proud of me. Soon I'll really be running. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that my loop is under a mile, not over. It took me 9 minutes even today, including my walking.

Running--Attempt 2

This morning I only walked for 2 parts of my loop! It felt good to run, in a painful sort of way. My muscles aren't used to working like this for me, but they're being a little more cooperative than they were on Monday.

I think that maybe running and then showering will be my "me time" a few days a week. It's nice to be alone. It's nice to do something good just for me. It's nice to be outside (even though it was snowing and windy this morning--good precedent). This is good.

Running--Attempt 1

Yesterday I ran. Or at least, I tried to.

I have a loop around a few blocks in my neighborhood that I've been walking most days, and usually it takes about 20 minutes. I figure it's a little over a mile.

I had to stop walk for a few houses, three times. Ouch.

Ouch to my ego, not my feet. Although I now have sore muscles that never were sore when I ran in high school or college. My thighs, for example. And my calves. Oooh, my calves were thinking I was crazy when I tried to make them keep pushing me forward, and they may have been right.

So tonight I'll have another good long stretch. And again in the morning, before I try again. And maybe next week I'll only stop twice. And maybe next month I'll run two, or even three, loops without stopping at all. And soon, I'll feel like a runner again. Soon.

Birth to 3 Early Intervention Report

Today Susan and Kristin came over to present Jeremiah's early intervention team report to John and I. Lisa (an ECSE teacher) and Kristin (a Speech-language pathologist) played with Jeremiah a couple weeks ago, and this is what they observed:

Cognition
demonstrating skills to the 15-month level with scattered skills to the 24-month level of development

Gross Motor Skills
Skills typical of other children in the 30-36 month range.

Fine Motor
Demonstrating solid skills to 18 months with scattered skills to 30 months.

Social
Demonstrating solid skills to 24 months with scattered skills in the 24-30 month range.

Self-help
Demonstrating solid skills to the 24-month level with scattered skills to 30 months.

Receptive language
Demonstrating scattered skills to 15 months.

Expressive Language
Demonstrating skills at the 9-month age level.

For the next 6 weeks, Lisa and Kristin will each come play with Jeremiah once a week (separately). And after that, we'll reevaluate. It will be interesting to work with them and use their ideas to help Jeremiah talk.

New News

So... We've got news...

Yep, you guessed it! Exciting, isn't it? I think I'll keep all the little girl clothes, just in case. I think that December is about right. We'll let you know soon!

Also, we've been pretty good at keeping this one a secret, but John's actually been a stay-at-home dad for the past year while I've been working on a patent for colored bubbles. They're called "Zubbles," and you can find them on-line at zubbles.com