a new member of our family!!!

We have a new member of our family!

As you probably know, our blog is named after our beloved dog, Maggie, who was with our family for 7 too short years, and had to be put down this past July due to Stomach cancer. We still miss her everyday.

I had been noticing lately that Wesley was getting extremely interested in dogs, live ones, toy ones, tv ones. I began thinking and praying about when and if God would like for us to look into getting another dog. I knew that we would need to get a dog who was older aka house trained, had an established history of being good with kids, and not too barky (basically all the things we loved about maggie). Ill admit, I was also missing having an automatic "vacuum cleaner" to clean up the crumbs that are constantly covering my kitchen floor.

Well, pretty much a day or 2 after I began thinking and praying about a new dog, a friend of mine posted on facebook about needing to find a new home for their dog due to crazy schedules. she felt awful that he was being cooped up so much . We wrote back and forth for a day or 2 and she agreed that we could bring him home with us for a few days for a trial run. So we did, and he never left!

He is a shih tzu, 3 years old, named Bo. Apparently his AKC name was "Fat Boy" which was shortened to Bo. He is such a sweet heart. According to my friend he was first raised in a day care, then lived in a home with 2 young kids, then came to our house. He is very patient, loves to cuddle. He's not really very playful, and my biggest disappointment is that he doesnt seem very interested at all in the crumbs on the floor. sigh. oh well. He's not been fixed, so he's a little exciteable when he sees "friends" outside sniffing around, and we've learned from our vet that this breed is well known for having dental problems, and our Bo is no exception. So far our free dog has cost us big bucks in vet bills, but hopefully it will be resolved soon.

I've never had a dog that needed to be clipped and groomed, so that is a new expense to consider, but since he doesnt eat nearly as much as maggie, hopefully that will even out.

He desperately needed a hair cut when we got him, so these first few pictures are pre grooming. He pretty much looks like a mop.

The above pictures were just after I informed Jack that Bo was going to stay (I hated to take pictures of say anything until we knew for sure) can you see how excited he is!

Wesley has been a bit more hesitant about Bo. He really likes looking at him and talking about him (pretty much the first word he says in the morning is "BO?" before I even get him out of his crib) and he is ok with petting Bo if it is his own idea...but as soon as Bo starts towards Wesley wanting more attention, Wesley gets a little spooked and starts backing away. It's getting better, though. He's never run away crying or screaming....so I think it's a good match. I love that Wesley was trying to get Bo to play with a doll of a dog.

These pics are after Bo was groomed. I think he looks 100% better...and he smelled better too! :) Makes it easier to snuggle with a snuggly dog who smells good!

Wesley at 17 months

man, I am such a slacker. I feel awful that I dont post more specific milestones about Wesley. Here he has been walking for over a month now, and I still havent had a chance to post a video...with this new camera, the way it downloads video to my computer makes it really hard to find which video is the right one, and I just dont have that kind of time these days. The only reason I have been able to post these last few blog posts is because I woke up at 515 am and couldnt go back to sleep! Hopefully things will settle down sometime soon, because blogging about my kids and preserving these memories means so much to me. Especially since things seem to be happening so much faster with Wesley!
He shocked me a few weeks ago when I was getting him into the car. For some reason he has started equating getting into his car seat with having his juice cup. He was doing the sign for milk (which means milk or juice to him) and I said "Can you say please?" expecting him to do the sign for please....well he pipes up with "Muuuh (milk) pease!" and I got so excited! I had no idea he could do that!
Here is a list of the other words he can sign: milk, please, dog, cat, bird, stars, light, sleep, bubbles, car, cheese, crackers, banana, apple, mommie, daddy, book, all done, bath, hat, swing, baby, more, ball, byebye,phone,  and I am sure there are others, I just cant list them now.
He can also say (a version of) milk (it has this awesome gutteral sound at the end, Auntie Bethany says he was born to be french) apple, please, BO, mama, dada, JA (Jack), car, ball, all done, boo, cracker, banana,  bye, cheese, book, and he will try just about any 1 syllable word we ask him to say.
He can id many of his body parts such as eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, head, belly button, hands, feet, nose and he knows several animal sounds too.  What has surprised me is how much he understands! The other day he looked at me and patted his diaper (which was something new) I could tell he needed to be changed so I said "let's go change your diaper" and he started heading to his room to his changing table all by himself. Same with bathtime, he will head to the bathtub, and at meal time he will go straight to his high chair. For a while I was marveling at how much he was understanding at such a young age, but when I looked back at the blog when Jack was this age, he was doing all these things too at 17 months. All I can figure is that since he was the oldest, Jack just seemed more grown up, and compared to his big brother, Wesley is still such a baby in my eyes (and in my heart too) that I am just amazed he is doing all these amazing things as a baby...when he really is a toddler. Does that make sense?
Some ways these 2 boys differ...which I just find fascinating....I notice these things not in a "why cant you be more like him" kind of way, but just marveling at how very different, but equally delightful these 2 boys are: At this age Jack was starting to get into puzzles, but Wesley could care less. He loves the animal puzzles I pull out, but he just wants to play with the pieces and talk about their sounds etc. He loves to dance and clap, and the kid seems to have rhythm. Pretty sure at this age Jack was just barely noticing music, more from watching us dance around, whereas Wesley has been moving and grooving for months now, on his own. Much to his big brothers dismay, Wesley loves to knock down block and towers, so Jack has been playing a lot more in his own room with the door closed if he wants to play with something that a baby brother might mess up/tear up/eat up. Wesley is also much more physical that Jack was at this age. He is really into balls, and WRESTLING! Pretty sure that is his favorite pastime with his big brother. I have learned that when I hear the sounds of a wrestling match going on, I just have to keep an ear out, but I have to pretty much leave the room. They will let me know if they get hurt, but they just love to tumble all over each other. Whoever it was who compared brothers playing to tiger cubs or puppies rolling around was completely right. It sounds a bit fierce, but they LOVE it. I just have to keep an eye out that big brother remembers his own strength.
Something that both frustrates me and warms my heart at the same time is the amazing love and forgiveness Wesley has at this age. Let me explain....they will be playing and Jack will roughly push Wesley away from whatever he is doing, and Wesley will get hurt and start crying. In our house it is an automatic time out if Jack purposely tries to hurt Wesley. First I will comfort Wesley and make sure he is ok, then I will be dealing with Jack in time out in his room(who by this time will also be upset) and Wesley will already be on his way to Jack's room as well. He will almost always come over to where big brother is sitting, and give him a big hug to make him feel better. Isn't that the sweetest thing? It frustrates me though, because I am trying to get across to JAck the importance of being more gentle with his baby brother because 1)playing too rough teaches him that it;s ok to hurt people and 2)one day he will PROBABLY be bigger than Jack, who will then likely regret all the times he got too rough with Wesley and 3)Wesley wont always be so sweet and forgiving of being hurt and of course 4)we dont want to bully people who are smaller.  Things have been getting much better lately with some new discipline techniques we have put into place....I hope it continues to improve, because these boys are so sweet. Nothing makes me happier than when Jack will say he doesnt want to watch tv or do a puzzle because he wants to play with Wesley. I think as both boys are growing and changing we are having to ever learn how to relate to each other....and honestly, I'm not sure that ever changes, since Josh and I are still learning how to relate to our adult siblings even now.

Please forgive me, again....

Look what Jack finished the other night....a 200 piece puzzle....BY HIMSELF! This is a puzzle from The Dudus house. Jack has begged to do this puzzle the last few times were visited, but believing it was waaaay too hard for him, I always tried to distract him. Finally he convinced us to bring it home with us after our last visit. The next day, he was determined to work on it. He cleared off a section of his train table, and literally disappeared, for HOURS, working on his puzzle. I tried to poke my nose in and try to help a few times, suggesting that he work on the outside first, etc, but he had his own way of doing things. A few hours later, he emerged, victorious. I was FLOORED! My 3 year old just finished a 200 piece puzzle for ages 8+. This is not normal! But it is REALLY cool....guess the 48 piece puzzles I got him for Christmas will be child's play.

Awful Falafel (apparently)

I tried a new recipe the other day....oh, who am I kidding, I try new recipes all the time. Sometimes it is a bit nerve wracking, and we have had a few busts, but I enjoy trying new things, and thankfully my husband it usually game as well. I have been attempting to bring a few more vegetarian meals into our dinners in an effort to get the grocery budget under control. We love greek food, so I decided to try falafel...and since I am scared to do much frying, these were baked falafel. Wesley, Josh and I thought they tasted great (especially when paired with tzatziki sauce.....oh my goodness, yum! I love that stuff!) but Jack, who has become such a picky eater, did not agree.
He took one teeny tiny bite of a falafel and declared,
"I cant eat this, it tastes like the seat of a school bus!"
umm...excuse me? I didnt know whether to be offended or entertained by his random declaration. I chose entertained since I'm 99% sure he had no idea how rude his comment was. I asked him where he heard that (since he has never ridden on a school bus for one thing) and he claims it was from a book he read...still looking for that book...and he knew it was a phrase someone said when they didnt like how something tasted...
it was one of those times where I really REALLY wanted to laugh, but I knew if I did we would hear it over and over and over again, and it would not be funny anymore. I think I had to turn away to get myself under control. My silly boy.
If anyone wants the recipe (it tasted WAAAY better than the seat of a school bus...at least I assume it does, since I have never tasted a school bus seat cushion before) you can find it here

A Chinese Thanksgiving

Uncle Daniel spent the summer in China. He got back mid August, and the weekend before Thanksgiving was the first time all schedules converged to where we could sit down and see his pictures and hear the stories of his adventures. It was so fun. We went ahead and combined "China Story Time" with Thanksgiving, and made it a "Chinese Thanksgiving"

We had the traditional Thanksgiving fare with Turkey, dressing, corn pudding, sweet potatoes, etc, but we also had wonton soup, sushi, a chinese stew (which was Daniel's favorite meal while studying there), baby bok choy and a few other things I cant remember. My mom always likes to try new things at Thanksgiving and this year was no different!

We were THRILLED that my sister Amy and her husband and 5 kids were able to join us this year! We had 19 people crammed into Mzee and Granny Ruthie's house! The Only sibling we were missing was my brother John and his family up in Moorhead Minnesota....and the Dudugjians were able to fly up to visit with them a few days after this gathering. Pretty sure Granny Ruthie was blissing out about seeing ALL of her grandbabies in less than a week's time!

Enjoying the food. Even though they have a big dining room table, there wasnt enough room for 19 people, so they put out card tables and tried to spread the families out a little bit, which I was thankful for....I mean I LOVE my family (and still ended up sitting with my little boys) but I eat with them all the time and wanted to visit with other people too!)

Hope with Eden. As a big sister to 2 little siblings, Hope was really good with the new baby! They are both such cutie pies!

Wesley exploring

Amy and Rachel....yes, that is my curly headed sister with STRAIGHT HAIR! All evening long I would see her out of the corner of my eye and be surprised it was her. Apparently her hair stylist wanted a challenge and straightened Rachel's hair.

Jack being silly

Granny Franny

China Story time....it was FASCINATING!

Group picture....we forgot to take one while George was there! Bummer.

Pumpkin Patch (Take I)

This entry is SO out of order, I had issues with uploading these pictures initially, and then I just forgot...and then I didnt feel like working on all the captions...so now they are finally done, and I am inserting it out of order on the blog...maybe I'll remember to rearrange it when it is time to make the blog book! :)
This year we decided to try a different local pumpkin patch...and it was really quite fun. Turns out it will be more expensive next year when one of the boys will be charged admission...so we will have to re-evaluate next year which one we want to try again.

we followed our "accidental" tradition of taking a picnic lunch to the pumpkin patch which includes a $5 footlong for Mommie and Daddy to share. Apparently that promo is each October :) Dont worry, we stuck with the same tradition of freezing our booties off during our picnic. At home when we left it felt really nice out, but let us never forget that when we travel up the plateau a bit, it gets much cooler and windier...especially in the shade! Next time we come here, we will be bringing jackets no matter how nice it feels at home!

Farmer Jack

Hilbilly Daddy

He wanted Daddy to ride too...which Daddy obliged...not sure how he felt about having to literally fols himself in half to fit!!!

Wesley and I watched and waited and waved

Playing on the really fun playset! It's a hige ship and it was awesome.

we really love the playset that Daddy built for us, but even Daddy was impressed with this one...he kept saying "Man, I TOTALLY should have built a pirate ship....that is so cool!"

Wesley really wanted to climb too!

he wants to do whatever Big Bro is doing!

He did this by himself!

Wesley enjoyed the petting zoo....some of the time.....he liked the animals when touching them was HIS idea....

but whenever the animal wanted more attention and moved towards him...well, you can see how far and how quickly Wesley whipped his arms back!

I just love that sweet little fat finger....so cute!

more fun playsets!

How Tall this Fall? Not sure...forgot to get a wide shot to see the #'s. looking below at Brother's pic, I think Wesley is measuring just below 2 1/2 feet

Fun in the Corn Box....which seriously set off my allergies...pretty sure I'm never going near that thing again!

They had a fun bouncy inflatable pillow thingy that we thought Jack would enjoy....but not so much....

waiting for the hay ride to start

trying to get a picture of mommie and boys.....oh well....

guess thats a little better other than my disconnected head

squinting into the sun

squishing baby brothers squishy cheeks, one of Jacks favorite passtimes

Once Wesley caught sight of a certain attraction he couldnt get his eyes off of it....which I totally predicted earlier in our outing....

wondering what he is fascinated with?

REALLY fascinated?



wanting to climb out of the hayride to go play kind of fascinated?? wait and see...

hunting for a pumpkin. His favorite fall show is called "Spookley the square pumpkin" and he was in search of a square pumpkin in the patch.

Daddy found a good one!

Wesley approved

still looking...

look! I pooped a pumpkin!

look, it IS a square-ish pumpkin!

he was fascinated by the tractor

success at last....this is what Wesley was DYING to try...you know...the attraction that terrified BIG brother.....Baby brother was ALL ABOUT IT!

totally knew that would happen

other than being complete sweethearts and having the same parents, these boys are just about completely different!

Big brother is more cautious

Baby Brother is much more adventurous.,..at least at this point

YAY!

How tall this fall? just under 3 1/2 feet!

we stayed for over 3 hours and could have stayed even longer if it wasnt for lack of naps and little boys getting grouchy. Maybe next year we will have a little bit more endurance.