By a hair!

Interlude

Toddler Jeneric Definitions:
Sleeping through the night = a long line of naps

Off to the Lake

This weekend, we were off to a local state park for a hike and some time at the beach.


Here we are getting ready for the hike.  Lately Toddler Jeneric's hair has been in a losing battle with the wind.  (She frequently tells the wind to 'Stop that!', but it doesn't listen very well.)  She was thrilled to copy mom's way of keeping hair out of her eyes.


Here is our new friend we met along the trail.

Once at the beach, Baby Wily had no interest in staying on the blanket - she had to dive right in and sample the local delicacies!  After that, it was off to the races:


Charging to the water,


and out of the picture.

Toddler Jeneric was excited to show her little sister all about dripping and splashing water.

Drink up, Baby Wily

Baby Wily is an independent girl. She likes to do things for herself. Today's video showcases her drinking skills (yes, that is a shot glass), Toddler Jeneric's helper skills and Jenni's comedic talents.

Obstacle Course 2.0

A few weeks ago, Toddler Jeneric created her first obstacle course. Today, we proudly present her second creation, which incorporates a set of stairs, an offshoot letter C, the mail and popcorn. Seriously - we couldn't make this up if we tried!

A budding entymologist

Ah, yes. If you guessed last week that Toddler Jeneric was a Butterfly, you were quite correct. Here she is in her natural state.

You decide

Army bear or bizarre dinner? You decide!

Nurture Nature!

Last week, Eric took the girls to a local nature center. Toddler Jeneric had a blast!

Checking out turtles inside and outside! Lucky Toddler Jeneric was just in time to feed the baby turtles, too!


We took time to smell the flowers (apparently, it's not intuitive what it means to smell - Toddler Jeneric thinks this means to exhale, not inhale).

A cheery chipmunk	And a spider web with a few caught seeds, that Toddler Jeneric declared looked like butterfly wings.

Interlude

Do you know what to do in the event your child is accidentally poisoned? How many of you know the number for your local or regional poison control agency? Is it posted near your telephone?

Before we go any further, no, we don't have a tragic story to tell. What prompted us to write was our quest to find syrup of ipecac - a lovely concoction to induce vomiting when prescribed by poison control (a pamphlet we picked up on Poison Safety recommended that all homes with children have some on hand). However, none of our local pharmacies stocked it - from the small store to the mega mart, not a drop of ipecac. We asked the pharmacists - why no ipecac? None had an answer, all offered to order it, but we deferred. Why was it so hard to get?

In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement that ipecac should no longer be used to treat any poisoning. Research has show that although ipecac reliably induces vomiting, patients treated with ipecac fare no better than patients who did not receive ipecac. Further, vomiting is not always an appropriate treatment. Ipecac can interfere with appropriate poison treatment medicines. Finally, syrup of ipecac is often used inappropriately by individuals with eating disorders.

So what do you do if you suspect your child has been poisoned? Call poison control immediately. In the US, these centers are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Find your poison control number at the American Association of Poison Control Centers, then post it in a conspicuous place.

Happy birthday!

On Saturday, the Wily Jeneric family celebrated the birthday of Toddler Jeneric's good friend. First, Toddler Jeneric put on her party socks (handknit, rainbow socks!), grabbed a present and headed for the festivities.

The girls were fairy princesses or butterflies (depending on which one you asked - pop quiz, do you know whether Toddler Jeneric was a fairy or butterfly?) and ran circles around the house.

Baby Wily got in on the act, too.


The guest of honor was kind enough to share her new scooter with Toddler Jeneric. Baby Wily approves!

And... tree!

I do it myself

Feeding Baby Wily is challenging. She does not want to eat mush and she most certainly does not want you to feed her. But, as with most 8 month-olds, her fine motor skills are not up to the task of self-feeding. This has resulted in several meals of Cheerios, Cheerios, Cheerios. This weekend, we discovered another option: messy meals.

By the time she was done, her chair was painted purple, her clothes streaked with goo yet our eardrums and sanity remained in-tact. We'll call it a win.

The dog ate it!

This weekend we had some most welcome and unexpected visitors - Dakota and Caden, who brought Uncle Kyle and his friend Timmy.

At breakfast, Uncle Kyle accepted the challenge of feeding Baby Wily her oatmeal. Mondo kudos for getting over half of the bowl into her.


But we may revoke the award after we saw what happened next!

This week brought Baby Niemi and her family to Wily Jeneric's house, as they made the trek from NC to MN.

Baby Wily welcomed Avalon and the two quickly got the party started.


Toddler Jeneric led an excursion to a local children's garden.
Back at the ranch, Avalon helped Toddler Jeneric with ski jumping (on the Wii) and then danced the night away with Baby Wily. And despite her best efforts, Avalon was unsuccessful in teaching Baby Wily to sit down (though she did leave her with a few new dance moves).

On an unrelated note: Baby Wily is now sporting two shiny new teeth. Chomp, chomp!

Caption this! Wednesday

It's been a while since we asked you, our loyal readers, to caption a photo. Are you up for the task?

Picture A	Picture B

Interlude

Having children reminds you that fun really is stopping to smell the flowers - even if they are the shrubs behind the local Mexican restaurant.