Rainbows

No rain, no rainbows. Or reasons to go running in our back woods trying to find it. Loved this moment we shared

FCAS

Son, one battle I have chosen to give up is your excessive use of the word 'ass'. Should a 4 year old be saying 'ass' of course not. But you and your dad just make me shake my head sometimes. The movie 4 Christmases with Robert Duvall shows a scene when the grandson asks his grandpa to play with him. He brushes him off and tells him that grandma's boyfriend plays with him. The grandpa replies 'oh yeah, well your grandma's boyfriend is a first class ass sniffer'!!! You laugh so hard and I have just given up. You know you shouldn't say ass but you have agreed to only say it at home. Silly boys
Love you THIS much!

You know what?

NOTHING! :)
It's become our joke to ask each other 'you know what?' Then we say 'what?' Then we say 'nothing'! Sometimes you like to change it up and you will answer 'I love you' or 'I missed you today'. Warms my heart every single time and it never gets old!
Love you THIS much!

Baaaa

When we moved out to our new house in March 2011 I couldn't stop thinking how perfect this house was for some pet goats. Daddy, you, and I worked on building the goat barn during our first summer here. We were lucky to be able to use the wood that had been the horse stalls in the barn from the previous owner. So we created the little red shed for our potential goats. We had our eye on one goat from around Goreville from a friend of a friend. We realized that we couldn't just have one goat since they are herding animals. So I called around and found another goat from a farm in New Dennison We went and picked up our two new goats and brought them home. Merle the white African Pygmy was born in January 2011and we got him in the summer. Mylady was born in the springtime in 2011. She's a Nigerian Dwarf and a sweet heart. We had the people band Merle so we wouldn't have any goat babies. We had built a pen to go with the goat barn but we soon realized that wasn't enough room and we left the gate to their pen open so they could have free roam of our 2 acres and eat all the honey suckle. People have said goats are like chips and once you start it's hard to stop. We visited a petting zoo in Nashville IL called rainbow ranch shortly after getting our goats and found another goat that we were able to buy. That was Maynard and he was a blue eyed Nigerian Dwarf. He too was banded so we didn't have babies. We had to work with each of them to make them friendly but they ended up being like outside pet dogs. We ended up getting a 4th goat named Massie several months later to make 2 pairs. Massie was a turd and could jump like crazy and at this point it wasn't cute for them to be able to jump the fence to get in the house. Massie went to a new home and then we took a big Nubian from papa and GG after they decided that goats weren't for them. His name was Bert and although he was a sweetheart he was just too big compared to our little guy and he went to a new home. In December 2012, Maynard showed signs of pain (I'm not sure I can give you the full story here since its still so painful but I will give the highlights). The night we realized something was very wrong with Maynard and we were on the phone with emergency vets, we got another emergency call for our neighbor Bill Holtz - this man deserves a blog all to himself. Since we had moved in we became very close to Bill and his wife Sue. So the call came and we focused our attention on Bill and his family. We lost Bill that night from what I assume as a heart attack. After a long night, your dad had to take Maynard into the vet's office and we discovered he had urinary stones and not much time left. Due to his pain, your dad had to put him down and he brought him back to bury him along our fence line with the numerous kittens that we had found without the mom and we couldn't save them all. The kittens we could save, i took them to a rescue type home and brought back our Madman Miles. Hes the best, fattest cat. Maynard has a nice handmade cross. Maynard was your day's boy and good buds, along with Bill and both are missed so much. Moving back to goats, we ended up getting two more to take our number back to 4. Enter Pippy and Billy. Both are mixes of goats and not really sure of their exact breed. Pippy has a broken tail from her previous home. Billy was an inside goat from Chester and the people realized that wasn't a good idea. After some recent developments like Billy chewing almost every wire under the camper, we now have goats for sale!!! Your dad and I keep going back and forth on whether or not to get rid of them but I am leaving it up to him since he's the one who takes care of them (and has to replace everything they destroy!) you overheard me talking on the phone to my friend Alexis about getting rid of the goats and boy did you get upset. Previously the brake light wires on the trailer for the boat were also consumed by a goat. If anyone ever tells you that goats eat everything, they are mistaken. We still have to mow. They just seem to mistake wires for honey suckle vines!
So there's some history on your goats. Who knows what the future holds for them!
Love you THIS much!

Twinkies

You and your dad are so silly and act so much alike. Today you guys even dressed alike! We went to Uncle Dale's house at the Lake of Egypt to celebrate Grandpa Al's 73rd birthday (May 31). You fished on the dock for a little bit and went searching for the lizards. We had a good time and took their dogs for a walk too. The shirt you are wearing is a shirt I had made for you and dad using the Egyptian Combo's logo since you love your daddy's band. It's one of your favorite shirts. The Egyptian Combo was suppose to play at a fair in Christopher this weekend but there was too much bad weather. Sadly, several people died in Oklahoma from tornadoes and I believe everyone was on edge. We survived and even took cover in our basement when there was a tornado warning for us. You are so scared of the thought of a tornado and I blame myself since I'm so scared. But on May 8th 2009 southern Illinois was hit with what they called an inland hurricane and it was so scary. Both me and your dad worked in Marion at the time and you were at our home at 201 W 4th St in West Frankfort with Granny Kooky watching you. It was really scary, cell phones wouldn't even work and I couldn't leave in the middle of it. After it hit, your dad came to pick me up at work and it took us over an hour to get to you at home because of the widespread damage and trees down everywhere. That fear that I couldn't get to you and not knowing if you were okay has ruined me and now I panic. But you guys were safe and since we had no power we ended up heading down to Paducah to stay in a hotel. The next day we had power back and we returned home. It was a day southern Illinois will not forget. Luckily you were too young to remember. Anyway funny how a post about you and your silly dad led to all of this but I'm glad it did because that's what I hope this blog does is tell you about stories that you will enjoy someday.
I love you THIS much,
Mom

Our secret handshake

We have little things we always do but lately we have formed our own little 'goodbye'. When I leave you at school or daycare you ask for a hug and kiss. Then you ask for knuckles and high five. Then I give you the sign gesture for 'I love you' and the then you open your arms as wide as they will go to stand for 'this much'. You warm my heart and make me smile!
I love you THIS much,
Mom

J-a-c-o-b

You just finished up your second year of Pre - K. Your first year you started the day after you turned 3 in November. You love going to school and you always make one good friend. Unfortunately you have one more year of Pre-k and your other friends are starting kindergarten next year. You've been on summer break for 2 weeks and I'm not sure you understand the concept of summer break. Your first year you didn't make the year book since you started late. But this year you did and I was so happy to buy your first yearbook. Your best buddy your first year was Evan and this past year, it's been Austin. I put you in Pre k so early because since you have been 14 months old you have been in speech therapy and once you turned 3 you were no longer eligible for the early intervention program. You really scared me at first because you were showing signs of being autistic. You had text book signs, like banging your head, only playing with wheels on the toys and your speech was really delayed. Being the worry some, anxious first time mom, I immediately sought services for you. You were assessed and put in speech, occupational, and developmental therapy and therapists would come work with you each week. You slowly made progress and eventually you said momma which made me so proud and happy. For some reason you had no problem saying dada on target but you were behind when it came to other words. One of my biggest regrets has been not ever filling out your baby book to remember all your milestones. A lot of people told me it was because you were a boy and more worried about your motor skills. With gross and fine motor skills you tested above your actual age and you were walking at 10 months old. You were able to drop the developmental and occupational therapy as you showed less sensory issues. You have continued in speech and will most likely be in it for awhile. I can pretty much understand most of what you say and still have to translate for dad. You are able to get all your wants and needs across and you don't use any of the sign language you learned when younger. For reasons unknown to me, an example of one of your problems is the letter M. You can say most M words like mommy although you are too old to call me mommy and insist on calling me mom now. But you really struggle with Mooch and Molly (tooch and Ollie- our two dogs). It will all come eventually. We never had you tested for autism because I started noticing at 14 months and most testing isn't set up until 18 months and by that time you were making progress so we never followed through since we had all the therapy in place. Anyway, so that's why you will be going to Prek so long so you can get speech in the public school setting. They meet with you twice a week for twenty minutes. I'm not impressed either with the teachers but we were all spoiled by the early intervention therapists. I do love your teachers and think they are wonderful for you. They keep me updated and keep reminding me that Prek is for learning through play although I wish it was a little mode educational and structured but you only go from 8-11 and then you ride the big yellow school bus to daycare. And you love daycare so much also and they love you! It made me so sad when you started riding the bus because that's when I realized how big you are getting! Speaking of big, we have a door in the hallway of our home that we track how much you grow. I have always said that if we ever move I'm bring that door with me. Ha. My dad always tracked all of us kids on the laundry room door and its so neat to go back and look.

Ok back to whole reason why I started this entry...J-a-c-o-b! In your Prek class you have 20 students ranging from 3-5 year olds. You my son were the only one in your whole class who can spell your first and last name. I figured all of the other kids too but your teachers told me at the end of this year that they are so impressed with you since you were the only one. I then told them my trick to teaching you to spell your first and last name. Black Sabbath's song...I am iron man tune with the letters of your name. It worked for first and last and you go around singing your name. Makes me so proud!!!! You can also spell mommy but you insist it spells mom :). Writing your name is another story. You can write Jacob but its out of order and all over the place! Now if only I can convince you your middle name is Lee and spongebob.... Ha
I love you THIS much,
Mom