Look what Zane learned today!

 Look what I learned to use today!
A STOOL!

Look what I found!
 The toilet paper, my favorite!

Look what I'm doing!
Tossing it all over the bathroom!

I'm having SO MUCH FUN!

Found the lipstick!

Fall Garden Update

Jed and Zoe among the green beans, yellow squash, broccoli and tomatoes. Dang chickens did a number on our poor broccoli but it is bouncing back.

Showing off our beautiful beets and lettuce.

Jed pointing to a tiny watermelon.  After suffering miserably and only growing a couple inches during the five weeks we were gone in July/August, we've been babying Jed's little watermelon plants and they've grown fantastically the last month!  Too bad it is already mid-September... methinks we may not get a harvest this year.

Jed took this photo of a tiny watermelon. He checks on them lovingly every day.

Math Boy

Jed's really into math right now. He's improved amazingly this month with just a little practice. Today's board question:

Jed walks into the store.  He has two five dollar bills and two one dollar bills.  How much money does he have?

He sees a helicopter for 6 dollars and a monster truck for 4 dollars.  Does he have enough money to buy both? How much would it cost to buy both? 

He knows that ice cream cones are a dollar each.  How many ice cream cones can he buy with his leftover money?

Jed figured out all the questions instantaneously in his head before I could even draw out the figures on the board.  He's so awesome!

Zane Giggles

September Kids

Jed's Journal

One of our homeschool projects this fall is creating a journal.  I bought Jed a green binder in August, and promised him that it would be his journal. Then we never got around to doing it.  But Jed remembered, and the other day he begged me to get his journal out...and then tell him what is a journal.  It didn't take long for him to get the idea.  He takes after his mom--after a few pages he got the journaling bug and he's been averaging a half dozen pages a day so far.  I let him draw the picture and then he narrates the story to me.  I don't know if you can read them, but some are pretty hysterical. Especially the car trip one.  "Mom, now write BORING twelve times."  (I only wrote three, my hand was getting tired after all this journaling!)

Today he wanted to share his journal with all his grandmas.  So he got out the camera and took his own photos and instructed me to put them on the blog.  And thus, Jed's Grandmas, here you go.

This explains that dad has been traveling a lot lately and Jed is very sad.  (Michael is in Indianapolis M-F most weeks for three months doing an audit up there.) Jed is also most intrigued by all the different cars dad gets at the car rental place.

Sunbear and Roofie, Jed's best friends.

We go hiking each Friday this fall. Here he is hiking in the trees with his friend Savannah.  Jed also has a nature journal that is its own unique experience.

We went to the local zoo for Labor Day. 

The garden is doing well.  It's looking really good.  That's all.

A prolonged tale about the airshow we saw in Owensboro a few weeks back.

4th of July fireworks happened in August this year.  Very memorable.

Camp Ground-doggie of course!

The trip to Camp Ground-doggie.  36 hours of BORING!

Playing volleyball in the backyard with the babysitter.

Our family, with ages.  Check out Zane crawling at the bottom of the pages.

Shopping.  Apparently very dull, but he likes the cool stuff we get.  Favorite store: Aldi.

He took this photo of himself looking excited about his journal.

Here is the cover.  Race cars and Monster Trucks!  That's my boy.

Sunbear

Several years ago, Granny Zo'An gave Jed and Zoe each a little CareBear.  Since none of us have ever watched CareBears we don't know what the bears names are supposed to be, so we named the one with a sun on his belly "Sunbear" and the one with a flower "Flowerbear."  Since that time, Jed and Sunbear have bonded as the best of friends.  Along with Jed's little Spanish dog, "Roofie", Sunbear tags along with us all over town.

  

At one point during our vacation, we were headed out for four or five days to a different home.  When I told Jed to grab Sunbear, he ignored me, so Sunbear got left behind.  Well several days later, I walked into Jed's room late in the evening and he was sobbing into his pillow, tears streaming down his little cheeks.  He missed Sunbear so much and he was sure we had lost him forever when we left him behind.  A few days later, the two were reunited and since then Sunbear and Jed have been nearly inseparable, as you can see.

Snaggletooth

Zane has only one tooth and it is on top and it is super cute.

My Kids are so Awesome

Homeschool Days

I started homeschooling Jed earlier this year, since he is old enough to start kindergarten.  We've done about 32 days now and so far it has been totally fun for all of us. Since the kids haven't been able to do their daily dinner update for Dad (since he is out of town during the week), Jed asked me to take some photos. Here's a sampling of our activities of late:

Afternoon Lego Time

Cooking Lessons!

Lightning McQueen + Math = AWESOME

Zane Ephraim, 1 year old

We celebrated Zane's birthday while on the road a few weeks ago.

Isn't he darling?

From about 6-12 months, Zane sat on his chubby little bottom and looked cheerfully around at the world, content to smile and laugh at everything going on around him.

Then...

In the two weeks before his birthday, he cut his first tooth, learned to crawl, said his first word, and learned to stand up.

In the two weeks since his birthday, he has learned to walk along the furniture, climb the stairs and started freestanding (all this past Sunday!)

Michael and I discussed the other day how he is our jolliest, busiest, smiliest, naughtiest baby yet.  He marches to the beat of his own drum, this one, and does things at his own pace. We couldn't possibly love him more. Since the day he joined our family, he has been an absolute joy. When Zane is with us, it feels like the sun shines every day.

Happy Birthday, Zane!