The Oakes Family

Michelle visited us this past weekend with Eden and lunch time rolled around.  Eden has become very proficient at sitting by herself steadily so when it was time for her to eat,  we plopped her on the floor and sat in front of her with her food.  She now has three little teeth on the bottom.  Very adorable.  What makes this photo so funny is that lately, she’s taken to squinting her eyes when she sees the spoon coming toward her.  I don’t know if she wants to be surprised by the taste or what.  Her eyes are shut tight for just a nanosecond and then they pop right back open.  I had to take a dozen or so shots to get this one and it’s a bit blurry at that.  But I love the expression on her face.  She’s growing up so quickly!

Just a fun picture of John, enjoying his favorite kind of donut - chocolate covered.  Used to be in Michigan, most Sundays, either AT church or afterward at Quality Dairy, John would get a donut.  But not so here.  Not that we’ve been avoiding pastries.  We just haven’t taken the time when we’ve gone shopping to go to the bakery.

Last weekend we were running errands and happened to stop at Miller’s Grocery in Spirit Lake.  John caught sight of this donut and he HAD to have it!  He was such a patient boy, being told we had to wait until we got home to eat.  He ate every single bit of it, loved every bite.  He’s a smart cookie.  He won’t forget that outing any time too soon.  I suspect he’ll be requesting a trip to Miller’s next weekend….and probably just for a chocolate covered donut!

Once again we have the privilege of watching Eden while Tim and Michelle work.  Eden is getting to be such a big girl.  She is sitting all on her own now (the pillows are just for her protection as the floor can be so hard).  She loves to play with her toys - we bring some of her own things and we have lots of things from when John was smaller.  She enjoys watching John as much as he enjoys playing with her.  She sits and waves her arms around, babbling the whole time.  I love to hear her little voice, so full of expression!  Not that we can understand a word she says, but she sure is one  adorable little girl.

Just so you know he is not ALWAYS smiling…

I can’t even remember what John was doing when he had his accident.  I think it had to do with running through the kitchen with his popgun, tripping, falling and squishing his finger between the gun and the floor.  He yelped and burst out crying.  There was a teeny bit of broken skin, no blood, but the result was one UNHAPPY four year old.

We got Mr. Bump out of the freezer and  wiped his wound down with witch hazel.  In just a few minutes he had calmed down and was back to his play, running through the kitchen with his popgun!

A few days back I had a really bad headache when I got home from work.  David was SO good about keeping John quiet and fixing themselves dinner.  He gave John a much needed haircut.  In the meantime I awoke and felt much better.  Wandering around, I found David and John in the bathroom and JOHN was giving DAVID a haircut.  It was just too fun of a photo opportunity to miss!!  John was very pleased with himself.  Mind, David did finish the haircut himself… couldn’t chance having John take it down to the skin!

John has discovered Star Wars - light sabres, games, movies, books, the whole lot.  We have a Star Wars Battlefront game for our Xbox.  And since we couldn’t watch the Super Bowl on TV due to lack of reception in our area, the boys played their game the WHOLE weekend!  Granted, John is still in the learning stages and he often gets the ‘Traitor’ award for killing so many of his own teammates by accident.  But he’s getting a lot better and is getting a bit closer to David’s scores.  They do have great fun together battling foes from the dark side. Often John likes to be ‘friends’ with Darth Vader and follows him around the arena.

We had the enjoyment of watching baby Eden this past Sunday while Tim and Michelle were both at work.  She is such a cutesy little girl, sitting on the floor surrounded by pillows in case she tumbles over, with all her toys within reach.  I was down on the floor at her eye level and she gave me the sweetest grin!  The problem with babies is they just grow up way too quickly!  Hard to believe she’ll be a year old soon!

Time must fly when you’re having fun, because I realized it’s been two weeks since we posted.  Our life is not boring, nor monotonous.  It’s just going by quickly.  We are having a lot of fun with Wookie.  Maggie has accepted him as long as he understands who top dog is.  They play really nicely together, Maggie is getting more exercise than she has had in months.  The two of them run from one end of our property to the other.  We are trying to teach Wookie to sit, as well as ‘in your bed’ meaning play time is over and time to go back to his ‘area’ in the garage and ‘go potty’ so we’ll have less to clean up.  He’s found his voice and barks impatiently when it takes me a little longer than he thinks is prudent to come out and play with him!  He loves to chase John as much as John loves to chase him, so they are going to be fast friends.  Maggie is going to be surprised one of these days to find that Wookie’s grown to be her size!

John is growing in leaps and bounds too!  Our snow has a very hard crispy layer on top of it, so it is easy to climb up all the piles and mounds we have all over our yard.  We have a great time outdoors these days, when the temp gets up to around 40 and the sun is shining brightly.

We’ve started John on a new incentive program.  He responds well to those.  He gets stars on a chart for getting dressed in the morning, eating all his dinner, helping out with the dogs, and staying in his OWN bed until at least 6am in the morning.  He is easily able to do ALL these things, he just has to set his mind on them.  The reward is some money when his star collection is complete- around two weeks time.  He has to save some, give some and he gets to spend the rest.  It will be fun to see what he chooses.

His current favorite item is anything to do with Star Wars.  He’s seen Episode IV and V so far and really likes them.  He has a light saber that he runs around with.  Today Michelle and I went to a friend’s house to make greeting cards Stampin’ Up style, and John was invited to come along and play with her 5 year old.  James has a light saber that makes noise when it turns on and also turns from one color to another.  John just thought it was the best thing ever and he is very eager for me to go make cards again so he can go play.

At one point during the afternoon, this was his apparel!  What an imagination!

If you are looking for a uplifting enjoyable read, we have a terrific suggestion.  The Christmas Sweater is a surprising novel by Glenn Beck, a conservative radio talk show host who has just gotten a spot on Fox News.  He talks about events from his past mixed in with great story telling.  David borrowed this book from our local library as he has been following Beck’s radio show for quite some time as he drives home from work.  It’s a quick read and when David finished it, I decided to take a look.  I was SO pleased that I did.  It’s now at the top of my favorite books list!

Stephen King called Beck “a mentally-retarded younger brother of Satan” which must have been embarrassing to King when The Christmas Sweater beat his new novel to first place on the New York Time’s best seller list.