An Exciting Week

We have had an exciting week at the Swick residence. Monday at lunch Jason was stung by a bee. We've known from past experiences that Jason is allergic so we watched him closely for signs of any respiratory problems and other than a large swelling spot on his arm he seemed fine. The next day we woke up and found that his arm had swelled up to elbow. We went to the doctor to see what we should about it. The doctor wasn't too concerned until he noticed Jason had a red streak heading up his arm. Immediately the doctor put him on steroids and antibiotics and told if it got worse to come back in. We woke up the next morning and it was worse. We went back to the doctor and she put him on all sorts of antihistamines. Below is a picture of how many pills Jason had to take this morning.

It may look like a lot, but the swelling went down and poison site looks better. Thank God for modern medicine.

We also did some more work in the garden. Below shows what grew out of the seeds I planted. Most everything but the bell peppers and half a row of beans and the lettuce came up. Not bad for my first try.

My peas and half row of beans

Radishes

Yellow summer squash

We had a coupon for free vegetable starters so we went to the store yesterday and bought some lettuce and broccoli. Here is how the garden looks with everything planted.

Peas, Beans, & Lettuce

Radishes, Broccoli, and Carrots (when they come up)

We also received a hand me down swing set from a family from church. We got it set up and here is a picture of Josiah and I swinging on it.

We are headed off camping with the college students this weekend. Should be a lot of fun to get a way for a few days. Hopefully we will have some fun pictures to share next week from that.

Happy Mother's Day

This a bit late, but I have been out of town most of the week, but I thought I would share a story from Mother's Day.

For Mother's Day Jason and I made plans for the family to take a hike after church. I woke up early Sunday morning, took a shower, got dressed, and packed provisions for the hike before Josiah woke up. I was so proud of myself for being organized.

Then Josiah woke up.

I picked him up out a his bed and changed his diaper and dressed him. While I was dressing him I was trying to explain to him it was Mommy's Day. "Josiah can you say Happy Mommy's Day?"

He smiled at me and said, "Josiah's Day!"
"No baby. It is Mommy's Day. Your day is in July."
"Josiah's Day!"

I gave up asking him to say Mommy's day and I took him out to the kitchen to make him breakfast only to find the bagels were moldy. "No problem," I said to myself. "Because I already have our stuff together we will just run down to the store and grab breakfast before church." As I was grabbing the bags to take out to the car I noticed Josiah playing with my keys. That's okay", I thought, "I'll get them from him when I come back in." By the time I came back Josiah didn't have them anymore. I asked them where they were and he ran down the hall to his room and shut his door. I walked in and asked again and he just giggled. "Great, now I can't find my keys." I looked for 10 minutes before I gave up. I grabbed the extra set of keys and went back into Josiah's room to take him out to the car. When I walked in I noticed he was naked and playing with his toys. I looked at the clock and noticed that by the time I got him dressed again we wouldn't have time to run by the store before Bible class. I walked back out and scrounged around for some food that would make a good breakfast while riding in a car. I managed to find a lost granola bar and cut up some apples.

I walked back down the hall and noticed he was in the bathroom. I was praying that he had decided to try to use the potty since he was naked but considering how the morning was going I wasn't hopeful. As I turned the corner my suspicions were confirmed. Josiah was standing in a long string of toilet paper that he had unraveled and was tearing it into pieces and putting it in the toilet. When he saw me he knew he was in trouble and jumped and screamed. I scolded him because he knew he is not allowed to play with the toilet paper. He helped me pick it up. When it was done I told him it was time to get dressed and Josiah took off down the hall to the living room giggling.

I finally cornered him in the living room. As I scooped up my wiggly giggly son, I sighed and said to myself,"Happy Mother's Day, Amanda."

So Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers who have gave up their sanity to raising kids, and given the chance, would do again.

P.S. By the way...Josiah made it to Bible class fed and on time and we had a wonderful hike after church.

How to use a dump truck and a fun video

When Jason's parents were here, Chuck bought Josiah a big dump truck. While it was meant to be an outdoor toy the weather hasn't been consistent enough to take it outside yet. Josiah has come up with creative ways to use his dump truck.

One evening I told him it would make Daddy very happy if we cleaned up all the toys before he got home. Josiah decided to he would help by put by putting all his toys in his dump truck.

All his loot.

Josiah also decided that a dump truck is a good place to read a book.

Josiah has always liked music. Now he has new appreciation for it because he can actually understand the words and try to sing along. Here is a video of his new favorite song. At the end of the video he is distracted because he found McQueen.

Wasting time

I should be exercising or cleaning the house right now, but cloudy, rainy weather makes it difficult for me to be motivated to do anything besides take a nap. I decided that I could make myself feel better about being lazy by posting on the blogspot.

Spring has finally started to come. It seems like it took awhile, but we had a couple of weeks of sun. A few of those days it was even in the upper 80's (too hot). While the weather was nice we got out and did some yard work. I decided to try my hand at growing a vegetable garden. Jason and I made some garden beds and Josiah helped me plant seeds. Here are some pictures of Josiah and I planting the garden.

Josiah and I measuring where the rows should go.

Planting peas

Josiah was trying to help me cover the seeds, but he was being a little rough. He ended relocating the seeds instead of covering them. Here I am trying to teach him to be gentle with the dirt.

While the rain can be depressing at times, I am grateful for it because that means I don't have to water the lawn. We replanted the backyard almost a month ago and we have to keep the soil moist all the time for the grass to establish. It is nice to have mother nature take care of that for me for a couple of days. Helps on the water bill.

Josiah and the smoothie

One of Josiah's favorite foods are smoothies. Normally he drinks his smoothie from a straw, but today we accidentally made the smoothie too thick. He decided taking the lid off was easier. Here are the picture to show why Josiah should always drink a smoothie from a straw.

Easter Egg Hunt

They may be a couple weeks late, but here are the Easter Egg Hunt pictures.

Jason and Josiah running in looking for eggs.

Yeah!!! We found some!!

All the other kids ran through the tall grass and missed a lot of eggs. Josiah (and daddy) had the great idea of walking through the grass and picking up what the other kids missed. Josiah found most of his eggs in the grass.

At the end with their full basket of eggs.

Afterwards, the kids took the candy out of their eggs and put the eggs in the back of this truck. There are 3120 eggs and Josiah enjoyed playing in them.

Sorry!!

Many of you have asked me to put pictures of the Easter egg hunt on the blogspot, but the camera is at work with Jason, so I can't. But I will give you an update on what has been going on in the 3 weeks since I last posted.

Last week Jason's parents were here. They were kind enough to help us do some things around the yard. Last Monday and Tuesday were spent tilling up the backyard, leveling it, and planting new seed. The people before us had a huge dog that dug caverns making it difficult to walk around the yard without spraining an ankle. Since we wanted the backyard to be a place for Josiah to play we had fill in the caverns. Wednesday we went to the coast and wandered around for the day looking at the beach and the little shops. It was cold and windy so we didn't stay more than a couple of hours. Thursday we went to the Tulip Festival. A farm north of here plants 40 acres of tulips. We have a had a cool spring so many of them weren't in bloom yet. We hope to go back next week and see if they are in full bloom. Friday we hung around and recovered from the rest of the week and Saturday they left.

Josiah instantly liked his grandma (probably because she is a girl). While Josiah didn't dislike grandpa (he would let Chuck hold him without crying) he definitely didn't like him as well as grandma. I think it is partly to do with the fact that he is a guy and the fact that Chuck walked in on Josiah, without introductions, while he was trying to take a nap and scared Josiah.

This week has gone by fast. We have been spending time outside enjoying the sunny weather. Jason and I started putting the raised beds for the vegetable garden yesterday. We will put dirt in them tomorrow and I hope to start planting Sunday. My dad grew vegetables while I was growing up, but I have never done it. I am not very good at gardening, though I love it, so we will see what happens.

As for Josiah, I can't think of any funny stories to tell. He is getting closer to saying full sentences. He can string 2 or 3 words together in an attempt at making a sentence. He still enjoys playing and being outside. He hates to go inside even if he is hungry and exhausted.

I think that is about it. Hopefully I will be able to get those pictures up for you soon.