15 Months and Counting

It is absolutely incredibly amazing how much this 15 month old grandson of mine knows about the way things work. He is learning that he has to have socks and shoes on before he goes outside.

He doesn't seem to care about pants yet, but we insist upon it.

Today he pulled down his jacket from the hook and then after he had it on he grabbed the bottoms of the zipper and tried to put them together. He also found a pair of old ear buds, and put one up to his ear, then mine.

That is what inspired me to write this post and how different the things he knows at this age compared to what I knew or my kids knew.

He knows if you play with the keyboard things happen on the computer screen.

He knows the right way to put his hand on the mouse.

He knows how to turn door knobs to open doors.

He knows how to ask for something in sign language, it's more-more to him.

He can say "please" in sign language.

But, what is the most exciting thing of all, is that when we tell him that he has to stay where we can see him or he goes inside...

He listens.

My Daughter the Photographer

At one time Lorene wanted to be a professional photographer. What is so nice about taking photos is that you don't have to be a professional to get good pictures. What you need is a camera, patience, and a lot of luck. She's done some very nice things and this one is terrific.

All the editing I did for the others is make one sepia and one black and white. I love them all so much I can't decide which one I like best.

Linus Van Pelt

This baby is my baby at certain parts of the day. When Mama goes off to school or work, he's mine then. Mine to feed, clean up, clean after, dress, clean up and after again. If that doesn't make him partly my baby, I don't know what does.

So, he's a blankie baby. None of MY kids were. They weren't even pacifier babies, oops Lorene was. Until she lost it (at about this time of her life). And we aren't saying anything about pacifier toddlers either, at least not in this post.

But, Zane looves his bottle, I mean sippy cup. Don't you dare call it a bottle when Lorene is listening. I think it is a great way to get around giving your babies bottles after a year. Those sippy cups are just like bottles anyway, same silicone nipples, just a different shape, and fancy colors and easy to hold shapes.

Of course, if you want to eliminate bottles altogether, there is a natural, economical way to feed babies and toddlers. It's convenient, and always the right temperature.

Warning!! Disclaimer!! Whatever!! This not a forum, or soapbox, or argumentative site, this is about our life right now.

Every morning after Zane gets up and I change him and feed him some breakfast, which is usually dry cheeries eaten with a fork, and some fruit, he finds his bottle (sorry) and brings it to me to be filled. He usually grabs my hand to pull me to the fridge, or the counter where his sippy cup is, then to the fridge, and then bottle....arrrgh, sippy cup, in hand he goes to find this blanket. It might be in another room or in his playpen, but he will find it and then he wants up in the blue chair, and snuggles down to enjoy it and rock with me.

That's MY boy!

P.S. My mom preferred blankies and pacifiers for her babies. Those things helped the babies quiet themselves. Of course, that was when breastfeeding was hardly encouraged and no one ever thought about pacifiers being so controversial. There is a picture around somewhere of my brother Tim crawling into the fridge with the 'fier (which is what we called them) hanging on a string around his neck!! I'm assuming mom was cleaning it. Some of us kept our blankies around for so many years we won't tell you how long. I switched my blankie for a little "wash cloth" pillow stuffed with old nylons that my Grandma Black made for me because it didn't need any explanation. I remember giving up my pacifier. Mom had a little box on my dresser for it to live in and it was supposed to stay there. I wonder if I only had it at night for awhile. I remember sneaking in there to suck on it once it a while and then guiltily put it back. I figured I was about 3 or so since it was in the apartment house where we lived after we lived in the trailer. Mom says not, that she can't believe I remember giving it up at all. Well, long ago memories are often distorted, so who knows.

Working Together

Taekwondo is an interesting sport. To TKD enthusiasts, it isn't considered a sport but a way of life. I'm not ready for me and mine to go that far, but like anything we do, one would hope that it betters ourselves instead of hindering. Our kids have discovered that school coaches don't really think martial arts are a sport at all. It isn't like football, that's for sure, which seems to be the only sport high schools can see most of the time.

We went Saturday to the regional championships in Hastings. This is a tournament our kids love to compete in. They didn't do as well as they usually do. We could use as an excuse that Lynette was a little busier than usual with track season starting up, and Nathan lost a lot of practice due to an ingrown toenail. But, it was a very big tournament with more competition than usual. It makes any medal or trophy won there a real accomplishment. They competed with as many as six or seven in each division.

We start our tournaments just like any other sporting event, with the national anthem. It never fails to make me proud to be a citizen of the United States.



Nathan and Lynette had good success with their board breaks this time. They both tried something new, showy, and a little more difficult. Board breaks go so fast it is hard to get a photo, and anyway, I didn't have enough battery to do any videos. I keep forgetting I could put a video on here to show them off.

Lynette did a double front kick break. A both feet off the ground, hit the boards at the same time break, and didn't break one, but she did the second time. Nathan's best break was a back kick, front punch done simultaneously, with no looking back. Very nicely done. Nathan got a 1st, Lynette a 3rd.

There also was competition for team form. These kids haven't competed with team form very often, but they did an excellent job on this one. All four did the same form in different quadrants of the ring, coming back together to finish up. Very good! They got a third out of the six or seven teams in their division.

Track Season

Track Season--that time of year where you endure hot weather, cold weather, wind, rain, hard bleachers, all on the same day, while wandering around making sure Zane doesn't get lost or run over by tracksters.

Kearney, Horizon, & GI Walnut



Whenever anyone claps, so does Zane.





This is Lynette's first try at track, she works hard and the competition is fierce at Kearney Public School. You need to be in the top 4 to be guaranteed a chance to compete.

Lynette likes long jump the best, at her best she's competitive, but she's alternate right now, since there is a girl that can jump over 13'. She's 5th in the lineup.







She jumped 11' 11" at this meet.



She's also in the 5th spot for the 100 m. dash, but by only .3 of a second. So, she stays on to see if she can do better.

The 4x100 relay was strong, no handoff mistakes and everyone had a good start. They were first, so she's guaranteed a spot with that event.



Victory Grin!!

Teddy Bear

Once upon a time there was an old coat that had passed its time of usefulness so it was made into a lovely furry teddy bear, by a special auntie and...



given to a little boy to love.




And, also, obviously to have his eyes picked out.





Who me?





Cute as that bear is, this 15 mo. old boy is pretty cute, too.

P.S. Zane now has his 5th tooth.

This Time Last Year V

April 2009

I quit taking as many photographs in Zane's fourth month and started scrapbooking the ones I had. He stopped being newborn and started being a changing, growing baby with something new every day.



Awake and alert.

This group of photos are just some sweet photos showing he knows now how to hold onto things and put them to his mouth. I like them all and couldn't choose between them.

As well as being able to get his chest off the floor.

Still a sweet little baby in a favorite sleeper.

Zane is ignoring the cat for about the only time in his life.

He looks so much bigger now in this swing. Once upon a time, my brother, Tim, bought my kids a psychedelic sleeper, a size 4 that the girls wore from when they were two until five. We couldn't prevail upon Nathan to wear it. They wore it until most of the buttons fell off and were lost. They loved it and will remember it forever.

There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby! Especially, now that Zane is sleeping right now

so that I can actually blog instead of chasing him around keeping him from taking things off the counter, opening doors, and putting things in the toilet.

Too Many Cats

We really do have too many cats at our place. We have 6 right now, and when we were in the kitten business we had as many as 18. We've given some away over the years, but when the kids grew too busy for kittens, they began to get wild and we couldn't catch them to give them away or to take care that there would be no more kittens. Living outside of town, kittens are often chased off or eaten by something. It is a way to have fewer cats around, but I prefer not to have kittens than to provide the local coyotes with dinner.

Zane likes cats. They are smaller than he is, as he is living in a world where every one else is bigger than he. He chases them all over and pulls their tails. We do have nice cats, since all they do is hiss at him after the tail-pulling.



It was a beautiful evening the other night. Sunday evening is a nice winding down time at home sometimes. We had done our duty by our fellow man earlier by feeding some of them and spent part of the rest of the evening wandering around after Zane.




Zane, as aforesaid, was chasing the cats when one disappeared through the cat door into the garage.




He's also been taking to bending down and looking between his legs. He does it every where, including on top of the coffee table.

This cat is the most annoying one. If anyone is outside, he is right there, rubbing whatever part of us he can reach. When Zane was younger, Velvet would rub 'round and 'round him, knocking him over and giving him no chance to get up. It was funny to watch, but frustrated Zane beyond endurance.




Zane can entertain himself with the cats as long as they stay around.

But they don't really like to be carried around by him.

The Journalling Begins

Dear Reader, (to steal from my very dear friend and blogger)


I have been blog hopping and find that I enjoy reading about other people's lives and since I have spent much time and money on journals. I've been wanting to have a few "wordy" blogs myself. Maybe I should just start another blog.


My problem is I have so many ideas, good, bad and indifferent floating around in my head when I am busy cooking, or cleaning, or reading, or crocheting, or laundry, or wasting my time, that I forget, (oh, and also carting my kids around and going to their events,) what those earth shaking ideas might be.


What I have discovered in the little blog hopping I did these last two days, is that there are a lot of women out there who are enjoying chronicling (oooo, that's a word) their ordinary lives, which is the beauty of them, since everybody's ordinary lives are a little bit different and a little bit the same.


I found this blog called "How to Fold a Fitted Sheet." And I enjoyed the first post. I didn't look very far in, so I don't know anything about the rest.


ANYWAY, I know how to fold a fitted sheet, so of course, I had to look to see if she did. She does.


When I was a teenager I did quite a bit of the family laundry. Laundry is one of my favorite jobs if I hang the clothes outside on the line. I was interested enough in doing it right that when my mom taught me how to hang sheets on the line and it did it the way she showed me, some neighbor lady came up to me and complimented me on how nicely I hung up sheets.


Well, that's enough right there to make a teenager like hanging clothes on the line and it carries over even until now.


Mom always threw the fitted sheets over the line, evened them up at the bottom and pinned them. But for the flat sheets, she folded them in half and pinned 3 or 4 inches over the line. I supposed that that was the way to do it. but in reality, I guess it is because they are longer that fitted sheets and by just throwing them over the line, they would drag on the ground.




I have even been known to hang out certain parts of my laundry out on sunny, snowy days. There really is not much that smells and feels better than to get into bed under sheets and blankets that are hung outside. And if done early enough in the morning, they WILL be dry by late afternoon.

If I was really ambitious I would have somebody video me hanging up a fitted sheet, but since it is 7:45 am, I am supposed to be taking my daughter to school this minute, but she's not ready, and my bed is already made.

Sweet Things

Lynette was sick last week.

She wouldn't eat anything but jello.

I'm always on the hunt to find things that Zane will eat, since he isn't the kind of kid that will eat anything.

I mean food-wise. If it isn't supposed to be food in this culture, there is a very good chance he will eat it.

He wants to have his fork in hand when he eats anymore. The fork, however is used to make horrible scratching noises on his tray, to the great detriment of the finish. Or else, to push the food off onto the floor.

A fork, however, does NOT work with jello so he is attacking it with a spoon.

And, of course, he DOES like it. It doesn't have a great deal of food value, so what do I expect?




He is using one of my antique silver baby spoons, so while not being BORN with a silver spoon in his mouth, we are trying the next best thing, and feeding him with it.




I see however, that the spoon is either a pain, or not quick enough.

Bon Appetit!

By which after looking up the spelling and listening to the pronunciation, have been saying it wrong all these years. But I can SPELL it !

If you want to hear it, click on the link!

Marks of a Heavy Sleeper

Zane must be a heavy sleeper.

With a little outside time, he will have a good 2 hour nap.

He slept this time with one little foot tucked under his leg.





He's got his own brand.