Our Thanksgiving - Such Blessings!

We had a great Thanksgiving and thought we'd share some of the pics. It was full of family and fun. Dave kept busy creating projects to do on the farm while WD and I made the rounds.

Inside: the adults made Aunt Lucille's AWESOME Peanut brittle. (L-R Sharon Bettis, Sabra Simmons, and Aunt Lucille)

Outside: Lydia takes everyone for a ride on the Kuboda, WD didn't last too long even with Uncle Rob and Ben there to reassure him.


The cousins are KING OF THE MOUNTAIN...but WD is off and running. (L-R Ben Bettis 5, Duncan Simmons 4, Kellen Simmons 3, Meredith Meyers 4, and WD 21mo.)



We also visited Great-Grandma Frances. She was awake and we had a nice visit.

GOING...

Going...

... gone.

Don't stop Great Grandma...

(She was rubbing WD's back and it calmed him almost instantly!)

Rowan, Sutton, Henry (their new addition) and WD.

Raspberry is plumb-tuckered-out after the weekend. Thank goodness for a relaxing Sunday.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!

BOYCOTT WAL-MART (Why I am, and why you should)

I've said that I didn't like Wal-mart for several years now but I kept going right back to them because they were cheaper. Well - I've had enough and am trying to cut Wal-mart out of my life. I'm not 100% successful yet but I'd guess last month I was about 75% successfull. It's hard to find a better buy on diapers and wipes, but for everything else I'm trying to shop around (e.g. Fareway, Hy-vee, Dollar General, Campbell's, etc.). I hope this makes you think about your shopping.

Here are some Wal-mart facts to consider:

> Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in 25 states. They set the standard for wages and labor practices.

> Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million workers worldwide and over 1 million in the United States. More than half of Wal-Mart’s U.S. employees leave the company each year.

> In 1970, the country's largest employer was General Motors, with 350,000 workers. Overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today, the country's largest employer is Wal-Mart, with over 1 million US workers. They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension, and inadequate health care.

> 2007 study found that the opening of a single Wal-Mart store lowers average retail wages in that county nearly 1%. In the general merchandise sector, wages fell by 1% for each new Wal-Mart. And for grocery store employees, the effect of a single new Wal-Mart was a 1.5% reduction in earnings.

> Money spent at Wal-Mart does not stay in the community: In Virginia, for example, 60 cents of every dollar spent downtown, stays downtown — compared to just six cents for every dollar spent at a big-box stores like Wal-Mart.

> Wal-Mart forced local small businesses to close: Studies in Iowa showed that some small towns lost up to 47% of their retail trade after 10 years of a Wal-Mart store moving in nearby in the mid 1990’s.

> In 2005, Wal-Mart real-estate manager Jeff Doss spoke about an oft-cited remark by company founder Sam Walton that Wal-Mart would not build stores in towns if the residents did not want them. “Were that the case,” he said, “we’d never build a store anywhere”.

SOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.ufcw.org/take_action/walmart_workers_campaign_info/facts_and_figures/index.cfm http://wakeupwalmart.com/downloads/factsheets/wmt-community-impact.pdf

Fall Fun

We had a little fun yesterday in the yard taking our family picture.

Our Number 1 did a Number 2

Yesterday 11/15/09 WD saw me going the bathroom, so in trying to get him to talk I said "Mommy's going potty on the potty." At this WD patted his bottom so having time to spare I took his pants and diaper off and put him up on the toilet. He promptly started grimacing and his face turned beet-read. He then cocked an eye-brow up and then smiled. He must have watched his daddy as he sure didn't learn those things from his mommy. :-) And sure-enough he went #2 (if I have my numbers right) in the potty! This is the first attempt at potty training since the last entry. WD couldn't communicate when he needed to go, and we couldn't just ask every 30 seconds, so that first attempt didn't make it past that weekend. Maybe we'll start back up now.

WD meets Lily

We had an opportunity to meet up with Dave's best friends from college (Dave & Toni Wilkie) for lunch recently. We also got to meet their Daughter Lily who is a couple months younger than WD. We got some cute pics, as you can see.

Dave & Dave.

Setting the stage.

Lily moves in...

Goes for the tickles...

And WD responds...

Updates for WD

As I had previously mentioned had is 19 month check-up last month and forgot to tell you all that our slim guy is 26.6#. So he pails in comparison to some of his peers (Cousin-Caeden, Friend-Chas, BFF-Kaden, etc), but he's just right to us. :-)

We also had our first AEA Early Access evaluation at home for his speech. They will come a 2nd time (all for free) in November. The 2 women said that he was a very bright, cute and charming kid (of course), but that he was falling just a little below average for his speech skills. They gave us a booklet to help coach us in how to coach him to talk. Turns out we are already doing many of those things, but this will help us keep doing them. That same day (Monday 10/12) WD had a hearing check which came out fine. We didn't think his hearing was the issue w/ his speech but it needed ruled out. His tympanogram (ear drum pressure test) said he was congested but no fluid showed in either ears. Well after 3 very rough days we got into the pediatrician on Thursday (10/15) and he had a pretty bad ear infection in his left ear and he got amoxicillin for it. Here WD has on his new bibs and boots, both of which are a little big. He's not very happy as this is Thursday morning - so we're lacking sleep and not feeling well and Mama has the camera and won't give it to him. She's so mean!!!

A happier moment with Mama Thursday morning.

Our Adventures in Potty Training are on hold as well. With WD not feeling well and being very crabby, and us being in the same boat, it just hasn't happened. He hasn't shown much interest in it either since last weekend. Hoping to try and pick it back up in a couple weeks again. Guess it's really all up to him, not me. Not sure I can get used to that idea, but then again I don't have much choice do I? :-)

EVENTFUL DAY!

We had an eventful day today. Don & Caroline spent the night so we had a nice evening out, and this morning we woke up to SNOW!!! It was coming down pretty good and we ended up with about 1 inch accumulation (except none on the roads) but then it all melted away by the afternoon.

While it was yucky outisde, WD and I ventured out anyway. While we were gone, Dave installed our new toilet (we just upgraded to a more efficient one). While at the mall, WD and I made a pit stop at a family restroom which had a regular toilet and sink, and a little toilet, and little sink. I sat down, and WD sat down, but he quickly noticed that he had pants on and tried to take them off. After a little assistance he sat back on the little toilet and proceeded to pee!!! We have not worked on this at all at home, so this was a great surprise! We went home and got the potty chair out (that I'd gotten at a garage sale about 2 mos ago) and he went potty at home 2 more times today. Not that they were substantial amounts, but we're still pretty pumped that he has connected the dots. The biggest issue now is how WD is going to tell us he needs to go since he's not talking yet. Our AEA (speech pathologist assessment) appointment is Monday so they might give us some ideas, but I can also look up sign language as well.

Now the fun really begins. We'll keep you posted.