Check the Photos page for the link to the June 2009 photos.
Hopefully we'll post another writeup before this weekend.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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Three new photo sets are now on the Photos page: May 2009, Hands On House May 2009, and Lake Tobias May 2009. Enjoy.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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As the summer months are upon us, we would like to put out a request for some help. The kids are still young enough that certain outings would be much easier with at least a 1-to-1 ratio of adults to children. With that in mind, we'd like to request volunteers to help us take the kids to some places where an extra hand would be helpful. Some of the places on our list include Dutch Wonderland, Strasburg Railroad, Baltimore Aquarium, etc. Since Daddy just started a new job (more on that below), these would have to be during the weekends that Lisa is off. She is off every other weekend. If you'd like to visit but cannot arrange a weekend when we're both off, coming on a weekend when Lisa is working would allow Daddy to get some work done if you want to just hang out and play with the kids here. Just give us a call or shoot Daddy an email if you'd like to help us.
On the eating front and potty front, we haven't made much progress. The kids still don't want to try new meats too often except for Jonathan. But Jonathan has regressed as far as chicken nuggets. He used to eat them and skip the french fries or tater tots, but now he eats the potatos and doesn't tough the chicken lately. Jonathan started eating cut-up hot dogs, and lately Lydia has taken to them as well. Anna still doesn't eat much new. She will eat McDonalds french fries, but only picks at the ones we bake here at home. As far as the Potty, they like to sit on the real potty with an special insert that fits them but not too much actual going in it yet. Lydia has went one or two times, but nothing consistent yet. Hopefully they take to it before the fall when they'll go to preschool.
Daddy finally put the girls bikes together yesterday, so hopefully they'll try them out later today for the first time. We also go a "Fred Flintstone" style fire truck that you sit in and use your own foot-power to move around. He like it so much at Toys-R-Us when we were looking at the bikes that we decided to buy it too. Daddy thought the bikes would be harder to put together, but they only took about 5 or 6 steps to do. The fire truck thing had over 30 steps! It took WAY longer to get together than the bikes did.
Daddy was going to be layed off from his job by August. But another more stable insurance company in York had an opening, and he managed to get in with them. He's been there for two weeks now. It's always tough starting new, as you want to know everything but you just can't. You always have to re-learn how the new companies systems are put together and there is no way to speed that process up. The new company has some good benefits. So much so, that they were listed at the top large company in PA to work for in 2008. The are an ESOP company, which means the employees are all owners. After the first year, they'll start giving you stock in the company. Only current employees can own the stock, and you cannot sell it until you leave the company. So it is almost like another form of savings paid completely by the company. They also have a traditional pension plan, and a 401k. And profit sharing if they do well each year. Even in this economic downturn, they still paid the full percentage profit sharing to employees. So between that and the fact that they are hiring, it seems like they're doing ok in this economic downturn. The cafeteria is interesting, as you are on the honor system for punching in to the computer screen on the wall for what you consume. Then they'll just deduct the amount from your next paycheck. No cash required. They also have a free gym for employees and family members over 14 years old. If you want to work out over lunch, they give you an additional 15 minutes to ensure you can work out, get clean up, and still have time to eat something. Daddy has already started to take advantage of that.
Daddy is a little behind on some things, and processing the monthly pictures is one of those things. So it may be a few days before the May pictures get posted for everyone.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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The April 2009 photos are now available on the Photos page.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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Happy third birthday!
Due to both the kids birthday and Grandma Johnson's doctors appointment in the middle of the day, Daddy took today off. So Daddy took care of getting the kids up today. For whatever reason, Jonathan decided to not enjoy every part of his birthday. He started the morning out being somewhat defiant and upset. He is usually good about getting dressed in the morning, but today he decided he didn't want to get dressed. Lydia is usually good about getting up, and she did ok today. Anna can be a toss-up most days. Sometimes she gets up just fine, and other days she fights it. She decided to get up ok today too.
Since Grandma Johnson's doctor appointment was at 11:30, we held off the birthday celebrations until later in the day (besides, Mommy had to pick up the cake before Grandma and her came home). Around 3:00 p.m. we finally gave them their presents. They got several books, a set of diecast cars, a Thomas The Train starter set, ice cream necklaces for the girls, a doctor's kit, Pound Puppies, and more. The biggest hit seemed to be the doctor's kit. Jonathan loves to take the stethiscope and place it on Mommy or Daddy's ears and then place the bottom end on Mommy or Daddy. The all like alot of the other pieces from the set too. The Pound Puppies from Uncle Eric were sent unwrapped, so we put them in some gift bags we had saved and let them randomly pick a bag. It was ironic that Anna chose the dog that happen to have the longest, floppiest ears. Funny how someone obsessed with her bunny would end up with the long-eared dog too.
We took them for a ride after the opening of presents. We wanted to get them out of the house (and us too). But as we expected, they fell asleep in the van almost right away. They haven't been napping very well lately, but a ride in the van still seems to do the trick. We went into Toys-R-Us to look at bikes for them (but forgot the $3.00 gift cards they each got for their birthday). The girls instantly wanted to get into the motorized pink Cadillac Escalade. Jonathan was obsessed with one of those "Freddy Flinstone" style cars where you get in, and use your own foot-power to move around. We eventually got them to try out some bikes, and we think we know what ones we'll get for them. We hope to go back tomorrow night and make the purchase.
Although we didn't get a good picture of the kids with Santa Claus at Christmas, we did get an ok picture with the Easter Bunny this year. Jonathan was actually the most unsure about the whole process. So the girls sat beside the bunny while Jonathan stood on a step-stool they had right in front of the bunny. We never really gave the kids much chocolate until this Easter. It seems they now really like chocolate. Anna was really good at getting the candy out of the wrappers. And Lydia would keep saying, "Um, this is GOOOOD". For Easter we went with a really inexpensive ham this year. We've tried the expensive hams in the past, and we really didn't see where the expensive hams are really worth it as the inexpensive ham tasted pretty darn good too. Jonathan likes his ham. Anna decided to eat a few pieces of corn. And Lydia ate one or two small pieces of ham and alot of the rolls we had.
Jonathan's verbal skills are really taking off over the last two months. He will get in a mode where he'll copy every word you say. When he is in that mode, it's a good time to introduce him to new words or phrases he hasn't heard or used before.
Anna is improving her verbal skills some, but not quite like Jonathan yet. However she now likes the concept of "Anna's turn". Which she'll announce to you for things like diaper changes, etc.
We sometimes put pull-ups on the girls. They seem the most interested in sitting on the potties we have. Jonathan doesn't seem to care for the ones we have in their playroom. But lately he does like to sit on the smaller seat we put over their toilet in their bathroom after he's had his bath. Only once did Anna actually pee a very tiny amount, and she didn't even realize it (nor did we right away). But the other night Lydia did tell Daddy "wet down there" and grabbed at her front. And she wasn't kidding. She couldn't have put any more pee in her pull-up without overflowing it.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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The March 2009 photos are now available on the photos page. Hopefully a new writeup will be added in the next couple of days.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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The February photos are now posted on the photos page.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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Earlier this month we had to take the kids to the old Central York High School building to be evaluated by the Lincoln Intermediate Unit school system. In Pennsylvania, Early Intervention provides free services to children ages 0-3. After three years old, the Lincoln Intermediate Unit takes over if the child is deemed in need of educational assistance and could get free preschool. So since the kids birthday is right around the corner, they went in for their evaluations.
They were split up where Mommy went with Anna and Jonathan into one room and Daddy stayed with Lydia in another room. They were tested on a variety of tasks and skills from building blocks, recognizing/naming colors, following directions, speech/vocabulary, etc. It was a fun process to watch. Lydia and Jonathan both sat right down in the little chairs they had for them. Anna was unsure of the situation, and so ended up sitting on Mommy's lap. They could all stack blocks up fairly high, and did good at picture recognition. Jonathan surprised the evaluators when they tried to show him a picture that contained a rainbow over a mountain. When asked what it was, he answered "volcano"! Even we never heard him use that word before. One or two of their videos have volcanoes in them. The good news is that the kids did well. The bad news is they do not qualify for free preschool. The nutritionist that is coming over for Anna will only come until their third birthday. The speech therapist was authorized to continue service until August 7th.
Mommy received a recommendation for a preschool from two coworkers. It is only approximately three miles from the house, so it is nice an close. We already contacted them and filled out applications. If accepted, they would go on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours per day.
Jonathan has been coming out of his shell a little more lately as far as speech. He's been talking a little more. Unfortunately he has caught a cold that is going around, and really does not feel well the past few days. He threw up yesterday morning while trying to drink his milk because of his runny nose.
Lydia has really been a little chatter box lately. She now says words or tells you what is about to happen in some of their videos before the scene takes place.
Anna has a lot of the theme songs of the videos memorized. She does not sing them too loud, but she does one of those "I'm not sure of the words" mumbling singing techniques.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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The January 2009 photos are now on the photos page. One thing I noticed about Jonathan is that there are some pictures where he uses his left hand for doodling, and others where he uses his right. I think he uses his right more than the left though. Daddy is left handed and Mommy is right handed.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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The first video in over two years is now available from the Videos page. It is mainly of Anna again. With the new video camera we got for Christmas, hopefully we'll put more videos up more often and featuring Jonathan and Lydia too. This one is of the first time Anna really made an attempt at eating a chicken nugget.
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| Posted by Jim and Lisa at | | | |
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