Well , I 've finished with 1st christmas . That one was here at my parent 's in Texas . I had to work xmas day , so I got up an hour early and everyone got up with me . We opened presents pretty quickly and then I ran off to work . I 'm pretty sure that everyone else got to take a nap while I worked on my feet for 12 hours . : ) It was worth it though . Eric and Rowan had 1st christmas too . They opened a few presents and went to dinner at one of our neighbor 's house . Rowan of course took all the attention over there . He enjoys being in big groups of people . On the other hand , Eric dug up some potatoes that he grew this year . This is the picture of one that he found . I 'm reasonably sure that our soil is not contaminated with any radioactive waste . It should be just a normal over grown potato : ) I think they ate it . We 'll see if Rowan gets a growth spurt . I hope everyone had a safe and happy christmas with their family and friends . Posted by Here 's a picture of Rowan . He loves to climb all over the dogs all the time . They 're not so sure about it , but they do really well with him . Apparently , he really likes grapes . He knows the sign for grapes and makes the sign all the time for Eric . Of course they have not had any grapes for a long time , but Rowan still remembers them and keeps asking for them . It 's become a joke between them . Rowan signs " grapes ? " and Eric says " nope , no grapes in the house " and Rowan laughs . Hope springs eternal I guess : ) I 've been busy working extra shifts to help out at work . It 's good for me too , or at least good for the wallet . I 'm tired tho . Posted by The christmas rush is upon me . I have been working a lot at the hospital . I try to pick up a few shifts , but when they need me , I 'm tired , and when I can work , they don 't need me . Seems crazy . Mom and I have been busy at the house baking and setting up decorations . We have the outside ones up , and will move to the inside ones shortly . Mostly , I 'm just trying to stay busy to not miss my guys . They are doing really well . Rowan has transitioned to one nap a day . I 'm not sure if that 's easier or harder : ) Eric is teaching him all kinds of animal sounds . He now knows owl ( whoo whoo ) , snake ( sssssss ) , goat ( hahaha ) , and wolf ( ooow ooow ) . I think it 's really cute and funny . Eric says whenever he sees an animal in a book or when he 's out , he makes their sound . I guess lots of animals look like horses to him , he neighs a lot : ) Eric is very busy trying to keep the cats away from Rowan . I hear he likes to throw things at the cats and pull on their tails . Hopefully that won 't continue for very long . I don 't have any pictures right now , Eric hasn 't had time to send me any . Oh , but the other news is that Rowan is finally getting another tooth . So all that crankiness and fussiness has been for a reason . Whew ! I thought we might have to return him for another model if that didn 't stop soon ! Just kidding ! Love to everyone and Merry Christmas ! ! Well , Rowan was only sick for about a day and a half . Thank goodness . Eric is glad that he didn 't get sick too . Eric and Rowan are doing generally pretty good . The only big problem is that Rowan is having a lot of trouble sleeping . He 's usually pretty good at getting 10 - 11 hours of sleep at night , and lately it 's only about 8 , and waking up in the middle of the night too . His naps are only 45 minutes for the most part . He used to get between 3 and 5 hours of sleep in naps throughout the day . He wakes up cranky and crying , although he gets better and is happy most of the day . Every few days he 'll have a good 3 hour nap , but that 's probably only because he 's so tired . We thought it might be teething , but it 's been going on for a long time . The pediatrician 's nurse said that teething shouldn 't wake him up in the middle of the night . Eric has an appointment for him in two weeks , but we 're not sure if we should have him seen earlier . And what are they going to tell us to do anyway ? But , Eric is happy he 's able to spend time with Rowan . They are reading a bunch of books . Rowan knows which ones he likes to read and brings them to Eric . Rowan " helps " out with the chores and follows Eric around the yard feeding the chickens and goats . I miss them both a whole lot . It 's only 5 more weeks till I see them again . I go back to Idaho on the 30th of December . I 'm not sure where I 'll find another assignment yet . I 'm looking for one closer to home this time . I have a few pictures of Rowan that Eric sent . There are new ones on Rowan 's site as well . ( The link is to right of my posts ) As for Turkey day , Eric is cooking a turkey with all the trimmings for him and Rowan . Mom and Dad are cooking here for Jude and I , and a few other family members . I hope everyone else gets to spend time with family and enjoy a wonderful day . Happy ThanksgivingLove to Everyone Ok , maybe I 'll get better again . I was afraid that I would be bad at this blogging thing . I 'm actually impressed that I 've kept it up this far . These are just some pics of Rowan during bath time and at Chuck E . Cheese 's Since my last blog , Mom and I took Rowan to see Thomas the Tank Engine . It was a lot of fun and Rowan got some pictures in front of Thomas . We rode Thomas for a half hour train ride . I 'm sure he had no idea what was going on , but the pictures are cute . There was a petting zoo with miniature horses . He thought they were cool . He also got a " tattoo " of Percy the engine on his arm . For a few days he would point to it when you asked where his tattoo was . It rained one afternoon , and since I didn 't let him play in the mud the day we took him to Chuck E . Cheeses , I figured he needed to play in the mud . He had a great time . Oma took him to the military base one day and they had a fire prevention day and gave him a hat . He doesn 't like hats too much , so he 's not very happy with it on , but he looks cute anyway . We took him to a pumpkin patch for " picture day " He liked all the pumpkins and really liked pulling off the price stickers . I guess pumpkins aren 't supposed to have stickers on them . I figured he should have the experience of carving a pumpkin . I cut open the pumpkins and let him " help " me clean them out . He wasn 't enthused about the slimy stuff in the pumpkins , but he liked the idea of the spoon in the pumpkin . Then we had Halloween . Rowan was dressed as a cow , a costume that Oma and Opa had bought him for this year when he was only 2 weeks old . He didn 't seem to mind the outfit , but he wasn 't too sure about Mommy being dressed as a farmer . He got to go trick or treating with his cousin 's and seemed to get the idea of going up to the door , but would turn right around and head out again . He didn 't know that he was supposed to wait for candy . He had no fear of any of the costumes that night , I guess he just figured everyone was being weird , so whatever : ) The next week , Rowan and I flew home to see Eric . Posted by well , um , yeah , so it 's been over a month since I 've blogged . It 's one of those things , you wait a while , then you realize it 's been a long time . Then before you know it , it 's been a month . Well , Rowan and I went home to New Plymouth in September for 2 weeks . We had lots of fun . We took Rowan to the Discovery center in Boise . Eric and I got more out of it than Rowan did . I don 't have any pictures , they 're still on the camera at home . We mostly just spent some time with Eric . Rowan loves spending time with his Daddy . His favorite thing is to bring him a book and show Daddy all the things he wants named . Dog , cat , airplane , and so on . It 's pretty cute . Rowan learned to blow his train whistle while we were home . He doesn 't blow very hard , but you can hear the whistle . I think it 's pretty amazing for a one year old to blow a whistle . We came back to Longview , Tx the end of September . I 'll be here until the end of December and will go home for a week the first part of November . We 've been just hanging around mostly while I work . Last week we had a lot of fun . Mom and I decided that he might be old enough to go to Chuck E . Cheese 's . So first we stopped by Aunt Vivian 's house . The sprinklers were on and Rowan found out he likes sprinklers . That was fun , but when we left the house , he couldn 't find the sprinklers and went looking for them . Needless to say , he found his first mud puddle , just as we 're leaving to go to Chuck E . Cheese 's . So now it 's a wardrobe change and wipe off . Now , we 're at Chuck E . Cheese 's . There 's a mechanical horse that looks like fun . Mom put him up on it and he wasn 't so sure about it . I put a coin in and he started crying and reaching to get off . Ok , no mechanical rides , I guess . So we sit down to eat and guess who comes out to see the kids ? Of course , Chuck himself . Well , Rowan decides he 's about the scariest thing ever . I had to take him out of the high chair he was so upset . He watched that wierd mouse person all the way around the restaurant until he went back stage . So later I tried to put him iPosted by Here are pictures from Rowan 's birthday party . Here he is dressed for the " Train " party . Everyone kept asking if he likes trains . I said " well , I found train stuff at the party place , so yes , he likes trains " : ) He looked so cute in his conductor outfit that Oma found . He didn 't like the hat very much . He really hates to wear hats most of the time . Here is the cake that we made . It took me all day to bake and ice this baby . Whew ! ! I had so much fun though ! I thought it came out pretty good for my first attempt at using piped icing . This is Rowan with cake and icing all over . Oma finally got the icing in his hair with " Rowan , where 's your head ? " That brought his hand right to the top of his head . : ) She 's been working on that all summer . All that hard work finally paid off . I found the trick to keeping a hat on . You must first fill both hands with something to keep him occupied . Then he looks really cute . I wish we had thought of that before the cake . I had to remove the outfit . It looked as if he had been attacked by a birthday cake . He kept signing " please " for more cake . He was on a sugar high for another hour after the cake : ) I want to thank all the people who came to his party and brought such wonderful gifts . He definitely will not want for anything if this is the show of love and support that he has . Thank you again everyone for making his first birthday so much fun for us . Rowan and I had so much fun while we were in Boise . At the zoo , Rowan actually saw and watched some of the animals . He really enjoyed the penguins . He also rode his first carousel . He wasn 't so sure about that at first , but then started to get into it . After the zoo , there was a Soul Food Extravaganza in the same area as the zoo . Rowan apparently likes jumbalaya , red beans and rice and cajun chicken . The big news is that Rowan is really walking now . He does so good . He can change direction , stop and start again and even pick something up off the floor without falling over . It 's amazing how quickly he picked it up . It really seemed as if he was just waiting to see his daddy before he took off with the walking bit . We got back to Dallas without much drama at the airports . Both flights were delayed , there was no running between gates , and it took forever to get the luggage off the plane . But Rowan was a trooper and everyone on the planes was very nice to us and let him get away with all kinds of stuff . They all think he 's just the cutest thing in the world . I totally agree , of course , but I 'm really glad that he doesn 't really understand that yet . His head would be so huge ! ! It has been so hot here in Texas . The temps are up to 100 , but the heat index is something like 103 . It always seems like a good idea to stay inside . We did get the pool out and Rowan got in the pool . He wasn 't so sure about it , he didn 't want to sit down . But today he sat down and splashed and splashed and giggled . He had a good time . This past weekend my cousin , Mike , had a big backyard bar - b - que . There was a large mostly empty swimming pool . All the younger cousins were splashing around all over and getting rough . Rowan was fascinated . He watched for a long time . This picture is him with Brooke , a cousin . We all had a great time . Posted by We made it to Boise airport on time , by the skin of our teeth . We got off the plane in Denver at 7 : 20 . Our next flight was listed as " on time " at 7 : 30 . We were 20 gates away . All I can say is thank goodness for the moving walkways . Also , the plane boarded late . We showed up at the gate huffing and puffing , but on time . Whew ! ! Rowan did great , slept the whole first flight . Was awake the entire second flight and fell asleep in the car on the way home , then slept all night until 6 : 30 am . Not bad for him . He was very glad to see his Daddy . Then , last night after dinner , we had a mini , pre - birthday party for him . He ate carrot cake . Well , ate may be an exaggeration . He had it everywhere , which is what you do with birthday cake . We have a lot of it on video . Eric got him a push - n - ride train that steers and makes all kinds of sounds . It 's great , Rowan loves it and walked several steps toward it . He also got a nest of stuffed dinosaurs . He thinks it 's great to lay on top of it and take power naps . While he was high on carrot cake , he was walking a lot . We 'll see if he keeps it up today . Today we 're going to the zoo and a Soul Food Extravaganza in town . Should be a lot of fun . It 's only going to be about 95 degrees today . : ) Rowan is moving around more and more on his feet . He prefers to hold onto something and walk along , but if it 's not too far away , he 'll take a few steps on his own . He 's even able to take a few steps and stop and think about what else he wants to do . Last week , Mom and I took Rowan and had some pictures taken . He was pretty stingy with the smiles , but the photographer was really good at getting the few smiles onto film . We had quite a few interesting expressions . He kept us all on our toes trying to make him smile . I 've been busy this weekend . I worked Sunday through Tuesday . Mom told me after my last blog , that maybe I shouldn 't blog right after a three in a row work week : ) I 'm tired but it was a good few shifts . Rowan and I leave tomorrow to go to Boise . I can 't wait to see Eric , it 's been two months . Next time , I 'll make sure that I get a break earlier in the contract . Whew ! Posted by I had a really tough three days at work this week . I had several difficult patients all three days . Thank goodness for the two or three really nice patients that made up for the difficult ones . Friday was so busy and a couple of patients kept me running . It seemed that as soon as you sent one patient home , another one was waiting in the hall while the room was being cleaned . I spent a lot of time with some patients who felt that we should have better food , a bigger room , a nicer nurse , and " what 's all the noise about " why can 't you shut that thing off ? Why do I have to be here ? When can I smoke a cigarette ? I don 't have to put up with that ! " People who don 't want to do what the doctor ordered , but want to get everything that they want NOW ! I usually don 't have too much trouble with these types of people . I found that if you can let them have some choices , they start to feel like they have some control over this horrible thing that has happened . But with three or four of these , for three days in a row , I really had reached the end of my rope by 7pm tonight . Then to cap it all off , I was walking out of the hospital to the car . I go past the emergency department to the parking lot . There was a family and one person was crying very loudly with the kind of cry you only connect with someone who 's had a great loss . I 've been close to tears all day and that just ended my day very badly . Thank goodness that when I come home , Rowan has a great big smile for me . It doesn 't quite make the day dissappear , but I can laugh with him for an hour before he goes to bed . He 's very much into making things with wheels move around . He loves to push cars and trucks all over the floor . Here 's a picture of him eating an m & m . He got the blue all over his face : ) Also , you can see some of the impetigo on his nose and ear . That has all cleared up now . He just has a little bit of redness that shows up when he 's excited or hot . I hope I didn 't depress anyone too much . I just needed to vent a little to a whole bunch of people . I hope everyone elPosted by We were all over at my Aunt and Uncle 's house last night . My cousin Mary Beth was playing with Rowan and she had him standing and facing toward the dog and me . He was taking a few steps with her help and then she let him go and he took two steps all on his own ! ! He did it again tonight . I never thought I could be so proud of a couple of steps : ) I 'm sure in a couple of weeks , I 'll be saying I wish he was crawling again . It was just such a surprise after watching him stand there and think about it , but decide that he 'd rather crawl . Also , the impetigo looks so much better now . At least he doesn 't look like a leper anymore . He just has a small sore on his nose left . Now I can take him out and not worry that everyone is gonna ask what 's wrong with him . Whew ! Oh yeah , and he 's now found his voice . He has become very loud , and he loves to tell you all about his day . When Mom and Dad were first taking him to church with them , everyone commented on how quiet he was . Not so anymore . It 's a challange now to keep him in his " inside voice " : ) I think it 's pretty cute how he tells me about what he 's doing . Ok , so it 's been forever since I 've been able to get on to the internet . My mom 's internet service has been out since last Monday . It finally came back on yesterday , but I worked all day . Whew , this working thing can be a big drag sometimes : P We 've been trying to get used to the high humidity and all the rain this season . Everyone here in Texas keeps telling me about the horrible drought of the last couple of years and I should be glad it 's not so dry this year : ) Ok , but I 'm thinking about building an ark . Wasn 't it 30 cubits , by 300 cubits ? And I don 't think I can hammer that well . On the other hand , Rowan has been dealing with some sores on his ear , nose and parts of his face . First we thought it was bug bites , so we 've moved him out of his room and sprayed for bugs , steam cleaned the carpet and washed everything we could . Then , the sores just weren 't healing right . I finally broke down and took him to the doctor today . Of course , we 're between insurances right now . This couldn 't have happened two weeks ago or three weeks from now . But anyway , the final diagnosis is Impetigo . At least it was something worth taking him in for . I feel better paying for a doctor bill knowing it 's not just a worried mom thing . The doctor said that it should look better in a couple of days . So no pictures of the monkey today . He looks like he has leprosy and should be ringing a bell where ever he walks . On the Idaho front , Eric saw an ad for a dog that needed a home . After some discussion , we decided to try Maggie out . She 's another great dane , blue merle , like Morgan and only 2 years old . She 's been playing with Morgan like crazy , Eric says . I think when Morgan reaches her full growth , with the 4 dogs , we 'll have around 500 lbs of dog ! Wow ! I can 't wait to meet her . Here 's a picture of her . Rowan and I will be taking a quick trip up to see Eric the first week in August . I guess we 'll have to celebrate our anniversary , Eric 's birthday and Rowan 's birthday all at once : ) It 'll be nice to be in a dry climate again . Posted by Rowan is standing up quite well now . He 's able to stand up without holding onto anything , for a little bit anyway . He hasn 't taken any steps with out holding onto something yet , but I 'm sure he 's close . He likes to wait until he 's really ready , then he just takes off . I 'm sure that two days after his first step , he 'll be all over the place . I don 't have a picture of him standing just yet . Soon , though . Here he is with a chocolate chip cookie that Oma gave him . Looks like fun , doesn 't it ? One thing he 's doing is prefering to go to Oma or Opa rather than his own mother ! Of course , this usually happens after being with them all day while I 'm at work . He leans over to come to me , but as soon as he 's sure I 'll take him , he wants to go right back to Oma . Hmmm . I 'm sure this is just a phase , right ? On the plus side , I 've been able to get Yahoo IM to put our webcam online . This way Eric can see Rowan . If anyone else wants to chat with me on Yahoo , my login name is bluprnc . The webcam even works on dial up connections . It 's not great , but it 's better than nothing : ) Hopefully , I 'll see someone online soon . Well , here is a picture of Rowan sitting in a chair with my cousin Mary Beth . He really likes her a lot . She plays with him and talks to him . He thought the best thing about that chair was that he could lean all the way back and touch his head to the floor . He has been having a lot of fun most of the time . He loves to meet new people and there are always different people around here . Here he is helping Opa cut the grass . Oma thought they were a perfect match in their bib overalls . Maybe we should get some overalls for Opa with Winnie the Pooh on them to match Rowan 's ? That would be a sight to see , wouldn 't it ? Anyway , Rowan liked the ride on the mower . I remember riding the mower at my aunt 's farm when I was little , too . One of my best growing up memories . Here Rowan is with Mojo . Mojo lets Rowan pull on him and climb all over him . And they share toys and kisses too ! Rowan also signed his first word the other day . Of course his first word would be " dog " . He 's done it many times since , so it 's not just a fluke . Imagine , not quite ten months old and already signing ! I can 't wait until he signs more words . I 've been working hard , getting used to working day shift . Uggghhh ! I don 't really like the getting up at 5 : 30 am to get to work . Although , for some reason getting up at 5 : 30 pm would be no problem . Go figure . : ) Oma and Opa are having a great time with Rowan . We are getting close to teaching him that he 's not supposed to eat the dog food , but he thinks it 's great to spread the kibbles all over the floor and spill water everywhere , too . Well , it sure has been a busy week ! ! ! I worked Wednesday , Thursday and Friday nights and came home Saturday morning , finished packing and tried to get a couple of hours of sleep . That didn 't work . For some reason , I couldn 't fall sound asleep . So I got up , Eric drove Rowan and me to the airport and said our good byes for most of the summer . It 's exciting and a little scary too . At the airport , we asked if there was an earlier flight to Dallas . Our original one had us coming in at 11 pm and having to drive another 2 hours to mom & dad 's house in Longview . I was not looking forward to getting to their house somewhere between 1 and 2 am . Ugghhh ! There was an earlier flight , but that only gave me about 1 / 2 an hour to get to my connecting flight . But the plane would land at 8pm . I decided to go for it . We ended up getting in about 12 : 30am . Better any way . Rowan was very good on the first flight . He played with the 6 year old girl sitting next to us the whole way . He was in a very good mood . At Salt Lake , he was a little confused with the run through the airport and not very happy that he didn 't have time to crawl around before getting on the next flight . Also , he wanted a bottle , which I hadn 't had time to make for him . The flight attendant wasn 't able to get any warm water for him until the plane levelled off . By then he was screaming and the whole plane was willing to wait while she made him some warm water ! He got his bottle and went right to sleep . He slept almost the entire rest of the way . He really does travel pretty well . We got into Dallas , were picked up by Mom 's Taxi , went to eat at the five star restaurant , Denny 's and drove home to Longview . Rowan and I slept most of the way . We were able to take Sunday and get some much needed rest for both of us . I started the new job today . I oriented to the hospital and met my boss . I have my schedule for the next few weeks . Basically , they fit me in wherever they needed me . I 'm a little split up , but it 's not too bad . At least it 's not Tuesday , Thursday , Saturday ! ! That Posted by Well here it starts again . We found a home for Kharma , the lab that we had adopted last summer . She found a really good home with another lab and three cats . Also , Christine 's decided she needed to move into a house closer to town . That means we 'd be down to two dogs . Tigger is getting older and Gwen needs someone younger to help keep her on her toes . We thought we 'd just keep an eye out for something interesting . Well , of course as soon as we decide to look around we found an ad for mastiff / great dane cross puppies . We went to see them and fell in love with a merle female . Her name is Morgan . She 's about six weeks and 12 lbs and loves to chew on Rowan and Kayleigh . They like to chase her around too . It 's hard to believe that this little puppy is gonna grow to be over 100 lbs ! ! We 're looking forward to watching her grow and learn with Rowan . Her parents are very friendly and very big ! She 's spending a lot of time sleeping , eating and pooping . Sounds very familiar . The good news is she 's already sleeping through the night . That 's much better than Rowan or Kayleigh ever did : ) Well , the biggest news of the week is that Rowan and I are going to spend 3 months in Texas with my mom and dad . Eric and I had talked about needing more income and travel nursing was mentioned . Just on a whim I started looking at different companies and where I could get an assignment . I was hoping for a job somewhere within an hour of Longview , Texas . That 's where mom and dad live . I talked with nine different agencies . Only one had an offer right in Longview . There were a lot of offers in Tyler , about an hour away , and one that I really liked . But in the long run , I decided to take the one in Longview , because of the gas prices and the commute time . It 'll be nice to only have a 10 - 15 minute commute instead of a 45 minute one . The great part is that I 'll double my income . Eric will be able to get a lot of projects done around the house and maybe pick up some free lance web design work as well . I 'm a little scared but excited too . If I like it , I can continue with 13 week assignments where ever I can find people to put me up ( or put with me ) . Or sometimes there are shorter assignments worth more money . Who knows what this could all lead too . Also , Rowan is pulling himself up on everything now ! ! Oh my god , I 'm not sure I 'm ready for a more mobile child . J He 's eating better , too . As long as I disguise vegetables with fruit , he eats it . And Rowan 's big news is that he is finally getting another tooth ! ! Whoo Hoo ! So last week , Rowan was in the bathroom with me and I was looking the other way . I happened to look down at him and he had pulled himself up beside the tub ! ! As far as I know , that was the first time he had stood up on his own . I finally got some pictures of him doing it . He 's so mobile now it 's crazy . He knows when he 's not supposed to get into something , cuz I say something to him and he looks at me and grins " I 'm too cute to be in trouble " He and Kayleigh are great at finding things to get into . Also , he 's eating better . Of course , I can only rely on him eating fruit without protest . He denies the need for vegetables of any kind , except for sweet potatoes . I have found that a half spoon of veggies and a half spoon of fruit goes down , but eventually he figures it out and turns his head to it all until he 's absolutely sure there are NO veggies in that spoonful . I suppose he 'll learn to like vegetables at some point . He 's having some trouble sleeping at this time too . He wakes up about 4 : 30 am almost every day . I try to ignore him and wait until at least 6 am . It 's hard though , cuz his room is right next to mine . He did better today , he waited until 5 : 15 am ! ! Still not even close to when I want to get up : ) I guess I 'll have to kiss sleeping in bye - bye for a while . With all his fussiness and not sleeping and not eating , I keep thinking ( and everyone tells me ) that he 's probably teething . Well , I 've been thinking that for 2 and a half months , but still no teeth . I guess he 's just that way . Any other suggestions ? Ok , so I haven 't posted in a while . Oops . Time just got out of hand there for a little while . Rowan and I took a trip to see my parents in Texas last week . We were there for 10 days . We just got back on Wednesday . We had a great time . Oma and Opa spent a lot of time with Rowan ( I was able to get lots of naps ! ) Uncle Jude was great with the monkey . Rowan thinks he 's pretty funny . When it comes to projects , Mom and I found out that we 've been over enthusiastic with buying material for scrub tops for me . Both of us see material on sale and buy it . So we had a collection of 18 pieces of material for 18 scrub tops . Oops again ! I told Mom that since I can 't sew , I would cut the patterns out while she sewed them together . We were pretty industrious and I cut out 10 tops and one pair of pants . Mom was able to sew together 5 tops for me before I came home . She 's getting ready to go to Delaware and visit a bunch of sisters and brothers for a week . I hope she has fun catching up on all the gossip : ) Just before we left , Rowan had started to crawl . By the time we got home , he 's been out of control . He 's everywhere now . On one hand , it 's so fun to see him able to explore his environment so much more . He really loves to be on the ground and moving now . On the other hand , I really have to keep an eye on him at all times now , cuz he 's into everything . Whew ! ! That 's more work . He 's so funny . He still is a lazy susan sometimes , especially when he hears me say " what are you getting into ? " Then he spins around looking for me to see if he 's in trouble : ) Also , I went out to ride the horses , Gus and Maggie . I was riding Gus , when Maggie sat back and broke her lead rope , so Dad spent the rest of the time we were out exercising her and working off all that excess energy . So that was fun and I decided a day or two later to ride again . Dad and I went out together and we were grooming the horses , when Maggie decided she didn 't want her feet cleaned , so I was helping when she slammed her hoof down on my foot . So we got her taken care of and I Posted by Rowan has finally achieved forward motion . He 's been able to get up on his knees lately , but didn 't do anything but stay there and then fall down ( usually farther away from his goal than when he started ) But yesterday we all noticed that he was bouncing back and forth on his knees . And today he really was moving his knees independently and moving forward . He 's so happy , he 's spending much more time on his stomach now . For the past week or two he 's been wanting to sit up , when he would fall over he would cry because he didn 't want to be on his stomach . He finished his antibiotics for his ear infection last Tuesday . While he was on the antibiotics , he hasn 't been eating solid foods very well . I thought he might be showing a picky eaters ' personality , but it seems that the antibiotics were either upsetting his stomach or making everything taste funny . He 's now eating very well again . He ate apples today , he makes funny faces and isn 't too sure that people should really eat apples , but he works up to it . Also , today he 's making raspberries with us . He had a good day today , except for the waking up at 5 am . UGH ! ! I wish I had some way of letting him know that really , 5 am is much too early to start the day . Even 6 would be acceptable at this point . And of course I still can 't break my habit of staying up late . Although , my late night is now only 10 : 30 or at the very latest 11 : 30 instead of 12 or 1 am . Posted by Well , we started this winter with 8 chickens , two roosters and 6 hens . About a month ago we noticed that we only had 5 hens running around . When we didn 't see her for a full week , we decided that she had fallen to one of the many predators around . Yesterday , Eric was doing some yard work and came upon the hen with a bunch of little chicks ! ! She had sat on ten eggs and hatched 6 of them , through several winter storms , too ! He estimates that they are only a few days old . We were going to try and let her raise them free range , but Ollie ( one of our great orange hunting cats ) thought they would make a nice snack . So Eric chased the hen and the chicks through a wood pile and finally caught all of them and put them in a make - shift cage for a little while . We figure that she hadn 't eaten the whole time she was sitting , because once she was in the cage , she ate for a solid hour : ) Mom and chicks are doing well . Hopefully we 'll have pictures up soon . This happened because Rowan was playing on the piano and Kayleigh , of course can 't let him have anything without taking it from him . So she sat on his lap to play the piano . He didn 't seem to mind much and they were like that for about 5 minutes before Kayleigh got bored ! I can 't believe how cute they are together sometimes . In other news , Saturday we went to a neighbor 's house for a pit roasted pig cook - out . When we arrived , somehow the fire had gone out in the pit and the pig was raw still . So we had hot dogs and hamburgers instead . The kids both enjoyed the outing . The next day we went back over for lunch and the pig was done this time . It was very good . We 're talking about having more pit roasts in the future . Monday night , Kayleigh was very sick . She got sick in her crib no less than 5 times that night . Christine was just about worn out with staying up with her . So Tuesday , Christine left Kayleigh home while she did some errands . When she came home she didn 't feel good and didn 't eat dinner . She was sick three or four times before bed time . She felt better on Wednesday . Then Wednesday night , we were keeping Rowan entertained before bed and he got sick all over and had to have his outfit changed . He got sick three times , I think , in about an hour . I put him to bed and checked on him several times , but he only spit up a little bit during the night , and it didn 't even wake him up . The long and short of it is , who 's going to get sick next ? Me or Eric . I have all weekend off , so this might be the best time for me to get sick , I guess . So far so good , no one else is sick . Oh and on Monday , Eric and I went out and bought another goat . This one is a little older and will be ready to start practicing packing soon . He 's a little overweight , so we 're trying to condition him . He 's very nice . He 's a LaMancha goat . The breed sounds spanish , but was really developed here in the states . His name is Gordon . Eric is teaching the younger goats to follow on leashes , and they are doing very well . They are still very funny playing aPosted by The exciting thing this week is that Rowan is getting up on his knees . He doesn 't go anywhere when he 's up , but he still pushes himself backwards and away from his toys . That doesn 't go over very well usually : ) Oh yeah , and when I gave him a bath last night , he had so much fun splashing ! ! I 've never seen him have so much fun in the water . He 's also getting upset when Kayleigh takes his toys , and he 's starting to hold onto them more , which makes her a little upset . I see " fun " times in our future ! On Monday , while Christine slept , Eric and I took Kayleigh and Rowan to the Greenbelt in Boise . It 's an 11 mile walking , jogging , biking path along the Boise River with parks and museums and shops along it . Kayleigh had a lot of fun looking at the ducks , she didn 't see why she couldn 't go into the water after them ! Rowan enjoyed the scenery and took a nap . I 'm sure he 'll enjoy it more as he gets older . Posted by Ok , so they didn 't find anything wrong with Kayleigh . That 's the wonderful news . Of course , now we have no idea why she had blood in her urine . But she 's acting fine and is normal in all ways now . Go figure . We 've been busy this week . Eric has had his hands full taking care of and training the goats . They finally have names . The one with white ears is Buzz , the one with black ears is Deke and the brown one is Gus . They are all named after astronauts . They are so much fun . Kayleigh thinks they are hysterical and Rowan isn 't sure what to make of them . They nibble on his fingers some . : ) I think they 're funny when they jump all around and on everything . The chickens have been busy laying eggs , but since they 're free range it 's our own little easter egg hunt every day ! ! I think our nieghbors are getting some eggs as well . : ) Eric has also been reinforcing the goat 's fence to keep them in and loose dogs out . So far so good . Rowan has been full of life lately . He 's learning to crawl now . His arms are pretty strong and he hasn 't figured out his legs yet , so he tends to go backwards . He gets pretty frustrated that he 's further away from the toy then when he started . And he still is a lazy susan ! I 'm about ready to wean him totally to formula . I keep getting frustrated when he doesn 't eat well , then I think " that 's it ! I 'll just quit now . " but then I don 't want the last time I feed him to be when he fought me . So then I wait for a nice easy feeding . But then I think " see , he does fine , why should I quit ? " Ha Ha . I think the joke is on Mommy , now . But I finally decided that I would quit when he 's 7 months old . That 's just a week and a half away , yikes ! But I 'm sure it 'll be easier all around . Well , the monkey is awake now so I 'll talk again soon We had a very hectic week . Christine 's little girl , Kayleigh , had been sick a week or two ago . Then Friday , Christine thought she saw pink in the diaper , but decided it was probably the light . Later that day , she saw it again and we cut the diaper open and it was definatly pink . We called the doctor who said she could see Kayleigh first thing in the morning , but if it got worse to take her to the ER . We agreed to take her in the morning . Christine and I went to work , leaving Eric with both kids . Kayleigh got fussier as the night went on and then she wouldn 't go to sleep . Eric decided to bring her in . Christine took off from work and met him there . I was able to take a break and go get Rowan for a visit to my floor , to give them a break . It turned out she had a bad kidney infection , and they sent her home with instructions to follow up on Monday . At this time , we 're waiting for the results of some tests . Hopefully it was just a scare . Kayleigh of course is being her usual fun loving self and learning to climb on things . Much to her mother 's dismay : ) On the other hand Rowan is learning to be mobile . We can no longer expect him to be where we put him when we put him down . He also spins around on his tummy and we call him the lazy susan . He 's learning to eat solid food . He 's up to carrots now . He likes to blow a raspberry just as I give him a spoonful and spray me with carrots . That 's a lot of fun ! ! He loves to watch Eric . He was fascinated by Eric vacuuming . I 'm not sure if he can 't wait to help or make a mess that requires the use of the vacuum . He thinks Daddy is one funny guy ! He loves to laugh with Daddy . So , how could I forget ! ! Last Monday Eric , Rowan and I went out to a goat farm and came home parents of three 2 week old kid goats . They will be pack goats for Eric and friends for Rowan . They are very cute and funny . They have names from the farm , but we are looking at changing them . Two of them are twin brothers and the third is a male from another mommy . They are having fun climbing on anything in their path and trying to eat anything they find . I 'll update you on them soon So yesterday , Rowan went to the doctor 's . He weighs 17 lbs even and is just over 25 inches long . According to the charts , he 's 100 % average , right at the 50 % for height , weight , head size and length . What else do you expect from a kid born to two average height parents : ) Of course , he will be brilliant to make up for the averageness in everything else . Actually , we were thinking he was a little slow in the development area . By 5 months he hadn 't rolled over , or said any word sounds or responded to his name . But last week he started rolling over every where , we have to watch him close now , and he said " bababa , dadadada , " and even started blowing bubbles and giving us the occasional Bronx cheer . It seems he wants to save things up and learn to do things all at once . Who knew ? So today Christine and I sat around with the kids and watched two weeks worth of Grey 's Anatomy and ER . I hate to get behind more than one week , otherwise it 's easier to just wait for reruns . Tomorrow , Kayleigh has an appointment for her 1 year visit . So I guess we both are going in to get some shopping done and just hang out in town . Of course I just found this out , so now all the laundry I was gonna do tomorrow is not going to get done I guess . Hmm . nothing new . I suppose I should try to get some done tonight , and some done tomorrow , maybe that will get it all . This is my first post . As usual , I am putting off going to bed and am doing something that I can do some other time . : ) Who needs sleep any way ? I really don 't regret it until the monkey wakes me up early in the morning . Well that 's that for the first one