Yesterday I met up with a lady I met on craigslist (when I purchased a baby seat from her) at the Children's Museum. Jacob had so much fun. He especially enjoyed the Bob The Builder portion and the Dig Pit. Everything is interactive and touchable which is really nice. I only saw a quarter of what they have there so I know I'll be going back. Here are some pictures of him in the dig pit where he spent a good 40 minutes of the 2 hours we were there. The pit was larger than my living room and dining room combined and had a dozen dump trucks, buckets and shovels they could play with, it also had a conveyer belt that Jacob was totally entralled with for about 15 minutes. The little rocks are made out of some sort of rubber like material and very realistic looking - I was impressed.



He calls the camera "cheese", probably because that is what we say to him when we take a picture. Well, he always wants to play with the "cheese" and he did the other day and managed to take a picture. So I thought I would post his very first picture - a self portrait of his shirt.



Tomorrow is our wards Truck-or-Treat. I will post pictures of the kids in their costumes - Jacob is a dinosaur and Daniel is a GI Joe (you know, those little green molded guys on a stand). Friday is Halloween and since we think Jacob is too young to trick-or-treat we decided to have a Halloween party at our house. We got a bunch of other couples from the ward with kids the same age and younger as ours and it looks like we will have loads of fun. There will be 10 adults and 6 kids all under age 2. We are doing a lot of the Turner traditional stuff like mummy dogs, witch's brew, graveyard cake etc... I am really exited about it.

Next Thursday Jacob turns 2. We haven't planed a party yet so we aren't sure what we are going to do, but hopefully it will be a lot of fun for him. He is in the process of transitioning out of his crib (he has had one rail of his crib off for a month now), so we are thinking of getting him a big boy bed for his birthday. He really likes dinosaurs so hopefully I can find some dinosaur sheets.

Daniel is doing well and adjusting nicely to his new shoes. His sleep has been lighter and he stirs a lot, but I think in a few weeks he will be back to normal and progressing. His feet/legs are very weak from being in casts for 10 of his 12 weeks of life, so everyday when he has free time from his shoes I exercise him as often as I can. He is such a good little baby and a joy to have, I'm just so in love with him. On Monday he hit the 3 month milestone. I had pictures taken at Sears and they turned out nicely. Here are a few;

I love Fall

Today I went with my ward's newly formed playgroup to a pumpkin patch. Jacob has already been to one this year, but I didn't think he would mind going to another and I enjoy socializing with the other moms. He had a really good time and so did I. I was hoping to get a picture of Daniel with some pumpkins but he slept through the entire morning.

I love October because of the crispness in the air and the beautiful colors (not to mention my birthday and Halloween). I took this picture on my way home from the pumpkin patch. Even though a car drove into my shot you can see the beautiful colors on the trees. Oregon is so gorgeous!

Free at last!

Daniel got his casts off yesterday. He didn't like being in the doctor's office and cried most of the time. Since he is done with the casting phase he now has his little Ponsetti shoes. The guy from orthotics showed us how to put them on and gave us some instructions. He slept most of the afternoon (from being pooped out from all that crying) but the time he was awake he did ok. In the evening he was having a hard time of it all and cried a lot. They told his we will "earn our parenting medals" over the next few days as he learns to adjust. I, however, have been smiling. I laughed with happiness as I gave him a bath last night and just had so much fun. He did to - he was kicking and smiling and splashing.. it was so fun to see. After his bath we let him chill out on his changing table for a while and was just going nuts! He was having so much fun kicking his legs and his eyes were all wide. We wanted to preserve the moment so we took a video of him. It will be fun to show him all these pictures and videos when he is older.

Here are some pictures;

- Before -


- After - (you can see his scars from surgery)


- first picture of him in his casts - (2 weeks old)


- last picture of him in his casts - (12 weeks)


- a picture with Dr. Achterman -


- new shoes! -


- lookin' like a snow boarder -


- sleeping - I couldn't resist posting this picture, it's just so cute!

Weekend Update

I finally have a minute to blog about this past weekend. Friday Brent's parents arrived in town and were wonderful enough to watch the kids while Brent and I went to dinner to celebrate my birthday. We went to the Outback Steakhouse and had a wonderful time. My tradition has been to go to Tony Romas but alas, they are no longer in Oregon. We celebrated with a little party when we came home and, as is tradition, had banana cream pie for dessert.

Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch and Jacob had a blast! They had baby animals there to look at and hundreds of pumpkins. We got some fun pictures..

Sunday was Daniel's baby blessing. It was lovely and everything went so well. John and Vanessa came down to be a part of it and we got to hang out for a while in the afternoon. We played Uno and had a nice pot roast dinner (thanks John for making the awesome gravy) then some played settlers while the kids watched Cinderella. Most of the good pictures were taken by Grandma Turner and I don't have those yet. But here are some pictures I took..

Ok.. so I never got around to posting after my last one so I will give an update on Daniel now. We got his casts off on Wednesday September 24 and he was one happy camper! Just look at these cute photos of him smiling and kicking his free legs...





His legs were very sensitive to touch after the casts came off, but on Thursday he was obviously fine and he was kicking and kicking all day long - it was so much fun to watch, and sad at the same time because he hasn't been able to do that and won't again for a while. I sure enjoyed giving him a real bath that night, I've been giving him sponge baths since he was born which is harder and not as much fun. He also had his two month check up that day - he was 15 lbs. 8 oz. (off the chart, meaning over 100 percentile if that is possible) and 24" tall (90th percentile). I did not have him vaccinated due to the fact he was going in for surgery the next day. He is a healthy and happy big boy.

Friday September 26th we went in for his surgery. He did SO well! Thank you to everybody that was praying for him because I'm sure that is what helped. Despite the fact that hadn't nursed since 4 am (his surgery was at 8:30 am) he was so calm! He was either sleeping or just chillin' out all mellow and cool. I expected a hungry baby in a new (and smelly) place to freak out, but thankfully he didn't. The surgery went well and was done quickly. He had a hard time coming out of anesthesia so they brought me in to him to see if he would nurse and calm down, he didn't so they gave him more fentanol (the painkiller he was on) and he conked out. He was so doped up he wouldn't wake up to nurse and we weren't able to leave until he had, we finally got released and left the hospital around noon. After the surgery and for the remainder of the day when he was awake he would scream and cry, but thanks to the drugs he was on he slept almost the entire day and most of the night also. I expected Saturday to be a hard day and it wasn't, again he was so mellow and more even tempered than usual. I am just so thankful and thrilled that he did so well and that this part of his treatment is over.

He is in his last set of casts right now and will get them off on October 22nd (I'm so excited). He has been fitted for the special shoes/braces he will wear for the next year or so and will start wearing them for 18-20 hours a day from the time his casts come off. So even though his feet will be fixed and unmovable at least he will be able to bend his knees. He won't be able to kick his legs separately, but I've heard that they are quick to learn how to kick both legs together at the same time.

He is 10 weeks old now and doing great, he is sleeping almost through the night for about 6 hours straight. But he only wakes up once or twice to nurse. That is a HUGE improvement over how Jacob was. He is a joy and a blessing to me and I am so very happy to have him as my son. He is getting blessed this Sunday and I am really looking forward to that. We will have Brent's parents here and my brother John and his family. I will be sure to posts some pictures.