The last few days Julia has given me quite a send off to work.
As usual, after breakfast she and Buddy have waved goodbye from the sliding glass door on the side of the house. But instead of coming to the front window as I pulled into the street, she has been opening the front door and coming outside. Then she's been running up the sidewalk as I drive slowly away, waving the entire time.
Today she ran up most of the street until I blew her a kiss goodbye. It was really cute to see her run back to the house in her socks, pajamas, and bed head in the rear view mirror. Her little legs can move pretty fast.
I thought about this a few times at work today. It made my morning.
24 June 2013
21 June 2013
Three Year Checkup
Jonathan had his 3 year checkup with the pediatrician this week. Things went really well. He's actually made a lot of progress and is now officially on the growth chart for both height and weight! He's on the 1% curve, but at least he's on a curve. Up to this point he hasn't even been on the curve for weight.
The doctor said things are going great and to keep on doing what we're doing. As far as he's concerned, Jonathan is a completely healthy kid, but with a button. Someone's got to be on the 1% curve, and it looks like it's going to be him.
We've also made great progress on his feedings this week. We're switching his pump feedings to bolus feedings with a syringe. We can feed him this way in about two minutes. It's also a lot more like eating where you fill your stomach all at once with food. Not only does this free us up from feeding him, it will also stretch his stomach and prepare him for eating real food.
He's still doing OK eating on his own. However, in addition to the feeding clinic suggesting he go to bolus feedings, they also informed us that Denver now has a two week intensive feeding clinic. The goal of the intensive clinic is to break the routine and get the child into the habit of eating without assistance from the tube. We've talked about traveling to the east coast to do this, but now that it's in Denver we're definitely going to attend. The schedule won't be open until late fall, but it's better then nothing.
As I've told a few of you already, I really think we're at the tail end of this thing with Jonathan. I still maintain that come the end of the year we'll be very close, if not done, with this almost three year long process.
The doctor said things are going great and to keep on doing what we're doing. As far as he's concerned, Jonathan is a completely healthy kid, but with a button. Someone's got to be on the 1% curve, and it looks like it's going to be him.
We've also made great progress on his feedings this week. We're switching his pump feedings to bolus feedings with a syringe. We can feed him this way in about two minutes. It's also a lot more like eating where you fill your stomach all at once with food. Not only does this free us up from feeding him, it will also stretch his stomach and prepare him for eating real food.
He's still doing OK eating on his own. However, in addition to the feeding clinic suggesting he go to bolus feedings, they also informed us that Denver now has a two week intensive feeding clinic. The goal of the intensive clinic is to break the routine and get the child into the habit of eating without assistance from the tube. We've talked about traveling to the east coast to do this, but now that it's in Denver we're definitely going to attend. The schedule won't be open until late fall, but it's better then nothing.
As I've told a few of you already, I really think we're at the tail end of this thing with Jonathan. I still maintain that come the end of the year we'll be very close, if not done, with this almost three year long process.
18 June 2013
17 June 2013
16 June 2013
15 June 2013
14 June 2013
Cruisin' Lake Coeur D'Alene
After brunch with Aaron and Brenda and family, we headed over to Templins, an area on the Spokane river where John had his boat docked. The area is just west of Lake Coeur D'Alene on the Spokane River. The Spokane River flows out of the lake, so if you head up the river it eventually opens up to the massive Lake Coeur D'Alene.
Brooke, an employee and new best friend of Julia's, surprised the kids and came along for the ride. Julia pretty much sat on her lap the entire afternoon. The kids had never been on a boat nor open water like this before. I had only been on the lake once before eleven or twelve years ago to try my hand at water skiing. Needless to say, we all loved it.
We spent a couple of hours on the water. Jonathan pretty much sat in the same spot, hands on the side of the boat, looking at the water and scenery going by most of that time. He never stopped smiling. He would sometimes want to touch the water, but most of the time he just sat there taking it all in. The more bumpy, the better. Each time we went over someone's wake the kids would laugh.
Stacey and I both loved it too. The area is absolutely gorgeous...which is why you see multimillion dollar homes along the way. Many famous people vacation around Coeur D'Alene for this very reason. It got us thinking that we should do this more often - either come up here and do more boating and the like each summer or see what we can work out around Colorado. It was definitely the highlight of our trip.
Brooke, an employee and new best friend of Julia's, surprised the kids and came along for the ride. Julia pretty much sat on her lap the entire afternoon. The kids had never been on a boat nor open water like this before. I had only been on the lake once before eleven or twelve years ago to try my hand at water skiing. Needless to say, we all loved it.
We spent a couple of hours on the water. Jonathan pretty much sat in the same spot, hands on the side of the boat, looking at the water and scenery going by most of that time. He never stopped smiling. He would sometimes want to touch the water, but most of the time he just sat there taking it all in. The more bumpy, the better. Each time we went over someone's wake the kids would laugh.
Stacey and I both loved it too. The area is absolutely gorgeous...which is why you see multimillion dollar homes along the way. Many famous people vacation around Coeur D'Alene for this very reason. It got us thinking that we should do this more often - either come up here and do more boating and the like each summer or see what we can work out around Colorado. It was definitely the highlight of our trip.
13 June 2013
Northwest Geocaching
The last few days have been a lot quieter as we coast into the end of our vacation. I had lunch with my old boss from Fairchild AFB, Stacey met up with a few friends, and we said goodbye to both of her brothers that don't live in the area.
Last night we had a picnic dinner at Audubon Park with the Wisers - a boyhood friend of Pat's. Ryan and Melanie are teachers in town, but I share other things in common with them. Ryan is a big soccer fan and Melanie grew up in Security - a few miles south of where I grew up and currently live.
At the end of the picnic Ryan suggested we hunt for a cache with the kids. I hadn't been geocaching for probably 10 years, since I last lived up here. Funny how things come full circle. We drove to the nearest cache and the group of us all looked for it in the bushes. I finally found it after scraping up my hands and arms. I'm obviously allergic to that type of evergreen bush.
Julia was really excited and gave me a big hug for finding it. She kept a little backpack for B, Jonathan left with a little car, and Jonah a spaceship. This was their first ever geocache and both of them seemed to really like it. I think they liked it because it was a little bit of treasure hunting but mostly because they got toys out of the deal. Julia keeps asking to do more, so we'll hit up Manito Park tomorrow morning.
This was my first time geocaching with an iPhone. It was really easy and convenient. Obviously it's way more interactive now then ten years ago when you did it with just a handheld GPS unit. Assuming you have service, you can use the phone to navigate, read the description and hints, post comments, log your visit, and upload photos. Pretty fun and nerdy.
I bagged three more today - this time in Coeur D'Alene while Stacey and the kids met with Shannon. Like hiking 14ers, I don't really care that much to find the actual cache or reach the summit. That will be for the kids. For me, forgotten until now, the best part is that they usually take you to great places and views that you might not otherwise know about. If it weren't for this, I probably would have never hiked up Tubbs Hill. I probably would have just stayed around the hotel and wasted a few hours.
Last night we had a picnic dinner at Audubon Park with the Wisers - a boyhood friend of Pat's. Ryan and Melanie are teachers in town, but I share other things in common with them. Ryan is a big soccer fan and Melanie grew up in Security - a few miles south of where I grew up and currently live.
At the end of the picnic Ryan suggested we hunt for a cache with the kids. I hadn't been geocaching for probably 10 years, since I last lived up here. Funny how things come full circle. We drove to the nearest cache and the group of us all looked for it in the bushes. I finally found it after scraping up my hands and arms. I'm obviously allergic to that type of evergreen bush.
Julia was really excited and gave me a big hug for finding it. She kept a little backpack for B, Jonathan left with a little car, and Jonah a spaceship. This was their first ever geocache and both of them seemed to really like it. I think they liked it because it was a little bit of treasure hunting but mostly because they got toys out of the deal. Julia keeps asking to do more, so we'll hit up Manito Park tomorrow morning.
This was my first time geocaching with an iPhone. It was really easy and convenient. Obviously it's way more interactive now then ten years ago when you did it with just a handheld GPS unit. Assuming you have service, you can use the phone to navigate, read the description and hints, post comments, log your visit, and upload photos. Pretty fun and nerdy.
I bagged three more today - this time in Coeur D'Alene while Stacey and the kids met with Shannon. Like hiking 14ers, I don't really care that much to find the actual cache or reach the summit. That will be for the kids. For me, forgotten until now, the best part is that they usually take you to great places and views that you might not otherwise know about. If it weren't for this, I probably would have never hiked up Tubbs Hill. I probably would have just stayed around the hotel and wasted a few hours.
10 June 2013
Chuck E. Cheese Party
In the morning we stopped by John's office to help them celebrate his birthday. In the evening the family headed up north to Chuck E. Cheese for Jonathan's big birthday party. Neither of the kids had ever been, so they've been excited for this night before we even left for the trip.
The first thing Julia did when she woke up was turn to Jonathan, sleeping next to her and who had also just woke up, and say that his party was today. Half asleep, he got on all fours and stuck his diaper covered rear end in the air and waved it all around like he just didn't care. Julia and he did it a few more times until we were all laughing at their antics.
There were many screams of joy throughout the day, before and during the party. Most of them were initiated by Julia, who at first towed Jonathan around as if it were a party for her. She was just too excited to contain herself. Eventually Julia got her new best friend, Brooke, from John's office, to enjoy the games with her. Julia learned how to play ski-ball, I set high scores on all the games, and Stacey hit the 125 ticket jackpot. Throw in a few coupons and help from everyone else and we ended up with 1,825 tickets by the end of the night. We closed Chuck E. Cheese's down we were partying so hard. It ended up being a three hours affair.
Julia was given some presents, but obviously Jonathan was the birthday boy. He was very happy about all the cool things he got, especially the yellow bulldozer that Julia picked out for him. It was so cute to see him open all of the presents. He was so excited but in such a sweet way. He was smiling a lot.
It was so much excitement that the kids didn't fall asleep until 9:30. They were too wound up. All throughout the next day Jonathan carried all of his toys with him in a bag as big as he, and played with them every chance he got. Sounds a lot like someone who slept with his big red plastic car when he was a kid.
The first thing Julia did when she woke up was turn to Jonathan, sleeping next to her and who had also just woke up, and say that his party was today. Half asleep, he got on all fours and stuck his diaper covered rear end in the air and waved it all around like he just didn't care. Julia and he did it a few more times until we were all laughing at their antics.
There were many screams of joy throughout the day, before and during the party. Most of them were initiated by Julia, who at first towed Jonathan around as if it were a party for her. She was just too excited to contain herself. Eventually Julia got her new best friend, Brooke, from John's office, to enjoy the games with her. Julia learned how to play ski-ball, I set high scores on all the games, and Stacey hit the 125 ticket jackpot. Throw in a few coupons and help from everyone else and we ended up with 1,825 tickets by the end of the night. We closed Chuck E. Cheese's down we were partying so hard. It ended up being a three hours affair.
Julia was given some presents, but obviously Jonathan was the birthday boy. He was very happy about all the cool things he got, especially the yellow bulldozer that Julia picked out for him. It was so cute to see him open all of the presents. He was so excited but in such a sweet way. He was smiling a lot.
It was so much excitement that the kids didn't fall asleep until 9:30. They were too wound up. All throughout the next day Jonathan carried all of his toys with him in a bag as big as he, and played with them every chance he got. Sounds a lot like someone who slept with his big red plastic car when he was a kid.
09 June 2013
Liberty Lake
We all slept in this morning after our late night cruising up Mount Spokane in the convertible. We got a late start so we were only able to drive out to and around Liberty Lake, WA before lunch at the Olive Garden. Liberty Lake is the last town before you hit the Idaho border, about 15 minutes east of Spokane.
Aaron and Brenda live in Liberty Lake, as do the parents of a friend of mine, so I was curious to see what it was like. Hardly any of the houses in this town are actually on the lake. Most are situated near the golf course. So, we took a drive for a few minutes out of the developed area to see the lake. It was pretty windy and cold so we didn't stay too long.
We met up with the rest of the family for lunch at the Olive Garden. It was the first time Julia got to meet her cousins (Aaron and Brenda's girls), since she was too young the last time we got together to remember. Lunch was nice, but John and I had motorcycles on our mind.
After lunch John and I went for a ride on his motorcycles. He's trying to sell one of them, but for now having two worked out well. I hadn't been on a bike in seven years and had never ridden a cruiser before. We took it up to an empty parking lot for me to practice before going for a ride. I was on his Suzuki Boulevard and he rode his Harley Fat Boy. I was surprised how easy the bike was to handle. The Suzuki is a little lighter, which helped. Even still, after five minutes of riding around in slow, tight circles, practicing hard braking, and starting and stopping, I was ready to go. It really came back fast.
The ride was a lot of fun. I really enjoy riding motorcycles, I just wish they were safer. On one hand I want to be smart but on the other hand, I want to live a little. I definitely got the motorcycle itch again. We'll see after we go for our real ride on Thursday with some of his friends how I feel about it. It sure was a good time.
Aaron and Brenda live in Liberty Lake, as do the parents of a friend of mine, so I was curious to see what it was like. Hardly any of the houses in this town are actually on the lake. Most are situated near the golf course. So, we took a drive for a few minutes out of the developed area to see the lake. It was pretty windy and cold so we didn't stay too long.
We met up with the rest of the family for lunch at the Olive Garden. It was the first time Julia got to meet her cousins (Aaron and Brenda's girls), since she was too young the last time we got together to remember. Lunch was nice, but John and I had motorcycles on our mind.
After lunch John and I went for a ride on his motorcycles. He's trying to sell one of them, but for now having two worked out well. I hadn't been on a bike in seven years and had never ridden a cruiser before. We took it up to an empty parking lot for me to practice before going for a ride. I was on his Suzuki Boulevard and he rode his Harley Fat Boy. I was surprised how easy the bike was to handle. The Suzuki is a little lighter, which helped. Even still, after five minutes of riding around in slow, tight circles, practicing hard braking, and starting and stopping, I was ready to go. It really came back fast.
The ride was a lot of fun. I really enjoy riding motorcycles, I just wish they were safer. On one hand I want to be smart but on the other hand, I want to live a little. I definitely got the motorcycle itch again. We'll see after we go for our real ride on Thursday with some of his friends how I feel about it. It sure was a good time.
08 June 2013
Saturday in 'Pokane
Today was pretty low key. The kids slept about eleven hours and then took a two hour nap over lunch to catch up on some sleep they had missed over the past few days.
We met Pat and John at a bakery and coffee shop on the north side of town in the morning. I ordered a yummy french press - bold and two cups worth. Today was really about going to Cannon Hill Park with Laura's family, Stacey's childhood friend and neighbor, to honor twenty years since her father died in an accident. Stacey spent almost four hours outside at the park while we came and went for lunch and naps.
In the evening we left the kids with Pat and Stacey's parents and took the Miata for another spin. This time we just kept driving until we reached the top of Mount Spokane. When we were dating we had picked up Subway, hopped on my motorcycle, and rode to the top for a picnic lunch. It's a good memory. The views were great of the valley below.
The drive up to Mount Spokane is one of my favorite places around here. It's pure farm country, but the landscape is a mix between rolling hills of green (wheat, at this time of the year) with the backdrop of foothills, evergreens, and mountains. It's similar to Napa Valley and/or Switzerland in that sense. It's a very pretty combination of green rolling hills and mountains. I used to ride my motorcycle out this way a lot.
The kids did great while we were gone. They didn't get to bed until 9:30...which is really late for them...but it's also when the sun sets. It's hard not to enjoy the long hours of summer.
We met Pat and John at a bakery and coffee shop on the north side of town in the morning. I ordered a yummy french press - bold and two cups worth. Today was really about going to Cannon Hill Park with Laura's family, Stacey's childhood friend and neighbor, to honor twenty years since her father died in an accident. Stacey spent almost four hours outside at the park while we came and went for lunch and naps.
In the evening we left the kids with Pat and Stacey's parents and took the Miata for another spin. This time we just kept driving until we reached the top of Mount Spokane. When we were dating we had picked up Subway, hopped on my motorcycle, and rode to the top for a picnic lunch. It's a good memory. The views were great of the valley below.
The drive up to Mount Spokane is one of my favorite places around here. It's pure farm country, but the landscape is a mix between rolling hills of green (wheat, at this time of the year) with the backdrop of foothills, evergreens, and mountains. It's similar to Napa Valley and/or Switzerland in that sense. It's a very pretty combination of green rolling hills and mountains. I used to ride my motorcycle out this way a lot.
The kids did great while we were gone. They didn't get to bed until 9:30...which is really late for them...but it's also when the sun sets. It's hard not to enjoy the long hours of summer.
07 June 2013
Coeur d'Alene
On Friday we drove a few miles down the road to the resort town of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The lakefront, park, and resort is one of our favorite places in the area. We spent a little bit of time in the morning getting our feet wet, walking the shoreline, and walking around the world's largest floating boardwalk.
Over lunch Stacey worked from inside the hotel while I drove north to Hayden Lake while the kids napped in the car. After work and naps we headed back down to the beach. It wasn't a very warm day, but the kids wanted to get wet anyway. We had left their bathing suits in the car, so they got wet in their clothes.
We changed them into their dry bathing suits before driving back home. Things just happen differently on vacation, which is why it's so fun. The kids are having a great time - they are so tired from playing so hard.
Over lunch Stacey worked from inside the hotel while I drove north to Hayden Lake while the kids napped in the car. After work and naps we headed back down to the beach. It wasn't a very warm day, but the kids wanted to get wet anyway. We had left their bathing suits in the car, so they got wet in their clothes.
We changed them into their dry bathing suits before driving back home. Things just happen differently on vacation, which is why it's so fun. The kids are having a great time - they are so tired from playing so hard.
06 June 2013
Happy Third Birthday Buddy!
Today was Jonathan's third birthday. We spent it at the park, and then at the water fountains at Riverfront Park, and then jumping on the trampoline at Papa and Nana's house. Michelle's gift arrived, so we opened it before dinner. We'll have his actual party at Chuck E. Cheese in a few days.
I decided to wear matching clothes for him on his birthday. You can see it in the pictures below. We woke up and met Pat at Manito Park before heading over to Rockwood Bakery for coffee. The kids played on the playground and sandbox while we sipped coffee at the park. I took Julia for a ride around the South Hill in the Miata. She had fun but seemed preoccupied with the playground and building Jonathan a birthday sand castle. She is so task oriented and focused sometimes. Just like the day before, I went for a jog afterwards and met the kids back at the hotel for lunch.
We drove down to Riverfront Park after lunch, work, and naps. We left their bathing suits in the car, forgetting about the fountain, until we got there. We couldn't say no to playing in the water fountain, so they just wore their clothes and changed into their bathing suits for the ride home. They loved it.
I decided to wear matching clothes for him on his birthday. You can see it in the pictures below. We woke up and met Pat at Manito Park before heading over to Rockwood Bakery for coffee. The kids played on the playground and sandbox while we sipped coffee at the park. I took Julia for a ride around the South Hill in the Miata. She had fun but seemed preoccupied with the playground and building Jonathan a birthday sand castle. She is so task oriented and focused sometimes. Just like the day before, I went for a jog afterwards and met the kids back at the hotel for lunch.
We drove down to Riverfront Park after lunch, work, and naps. We left their bathing suits in the car, forgetting about the fountain, until we got there. We couldn't say no to playing in the water fountain, so they just wore their clothes and changed into their bathing suits for the ride home. They loved it.
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