First Cone

Not so good of a picture, since I don't have a great phone, but here is John enjoying his first ice cream cone at a downtown old fashioned ice cream parlor. It was a great night to get out and Mommy had a hakering for some good ice cream.

The Shrine of Christ's Passion

Tim's work schedule was all wonky at work since they switched from being a picking warehouse (where they pick what the sales people want and put them on their trucks) to more of just a distribution warehouse (where the sales people put an order in electronically, it is picked at one warehouse and sent on a semi, then Tim and his coworker unloads the semi directly onto the sales people's trucks). Today, we were surprised that on his six day of work, he only had a five and a half hour day. It has been nice having the evening together and then some time to myself tonight, which is probably why I can't sleep.

John and I had quite a journey during the time Tim was gone. I drove in another state for the first time in my life! I know, I'm thirty, but I have a lot of fear when it comes to driving and when I go outside of where I know, it is quite scary. Thankfully, I took the majority of the route before and my new On Star helped with the rest.

We visited the Shrine of Christ's Passion. My ladies' group at church was supposed to go last weekend. Due to low attendance, we had to cancel. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the day was quite rainy. After Tim left for work, I gave John some milk, packed his things and went. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes getting there, mostly due to wrong turns. I don't know why I was so stubborn about not asking for help sooner.

We get there and I get John into his stroller. They have a beautiful gift shop, but we pretty much made our way out. You basically stroll around through the Last Supper to the Stations and ending with the tomb. We just made it to the twelfth station. Somehow, we missed the rest. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

 Johnny's hand in Jesus'

John taking it all in. Or maybe he was just glad not to be in his stroller.

"Women, behold, your son." Jesus was speaking of the apostle who's name my child bears.

Love this.



It was an incredible experience. It just felt so terribly peaceful. I walked it carrying my son between stations thinking if carrying a twenty five pound child in 70 degrees feels like this, I can't even imagine how it felt to carry that cross. I also have gained a new appreciation of Mary since becoming a mother myself. I truly can't imagine the sort of strength that she possessed. She is really the ultimate mother role model.

I am disappointed to find out about things I missed. However, I think that will just give me an opportunity to return. Perhaps on a not so warm Friday that I'm off this summer or another weekend day where Tim is working. Letting John get down and explore the stations was probably the key. He ended up burning up a lot of energy. I hope he sleeps well tonight.

Here is the Shrine's website.

John at 15 1/2 months

We went to John's fifteen month well-baby visit on Tuesday. He's about half way through his fifteen month, but sometimes it takes awhile to get an appointment.

Our pediatrician has student interns and we had a nice one. She was a young lady maybe a few years younger than me. John took quite a liking to her. He demanded that she pick him up and would not straighten up to allow her to put him down. Then, he cried when she left the room. So much for kids his age experiencing stranger danger. The way he is friendly with everyone is a bit scary because in the back of your mind, there's a fear that he'd walk away with anyone.

So he's now 25 lbs, 31 inches tall and his head circumference is 19 inches or something. He got his DTaP shot. We've been getting all his vaccinations at normal times. I know some people really aren't into that and it's a bit scary to me. Tim's uncle still is suffering some effects of polio that struck him as a child. It's just nice to know that won't happen to Johnny. But to each their own.

She did recommend we keep his seat facing backwards another nine months. This is a hard one since his feet have recently started hitting the seat. They really need to start designing seats to accommodate this.

His vocabulary is, in my opinion, pretty outstanding. He calls people he sees most often by name. My sister Elyse is E, Kelly is either Kelly or Kiki, my mom is Mom Mom, my dad and father-in-law are PaPa or my dad's case also John, Elyse's boyfriend Ray is Ay, and Tim and I are Momma and Dada. He can also say bad, good, kitty and hi. He shakes his head yes and no.

He is also pretty good with his motor skills, which is amazing as his mother is terrible with motor skills. He can walk very well and runs quite a bit. He can walk up stairs with ease and down one stair. He loves dancing and busts a move whenever he hears music. Sometimes, I can hear him "singing" along with the radio in the car.

I guess he's probably quite average, but he's pretty amazing to me:)

So that's the story of John at 15 1/2 months:)