My daddy's a dentist. Heyo!

We had quite an exciting adventure yesterday! Joseph signed up Jake to participate in a pediatric dentistry examination demonstration for the dental students. Since his first visit to the dentist was a little traumatic, (ok, a lot traumatic...screaming the whole time) I was doing my best to get him ready by getting him really excited and telling him all about how we were going to visit daddy at the dentist and they would look at his teeth. It seemed to work because all day he kept looking up at me expectantly saying, "Daddy? Dinish? Teesh?"

When nap time came he was just sobbing because he thought that we were going to see daddy at the dentist. I tried to explain that when he woke up from his nap that we would go see daddy, but he wasn't quite catching that point. All he knew was that I had been telling him all morning about how we were going to see daddy and now all of the sudden he was taking a nap instead. After telling him about 20 times and rocking him in his bedroom while he sobbed, he must have gotten it through his head because suddenly he sat up, pointed to his crib, and said, "Nap?" I put him in his crib and he laid right down. I could hear him tossing and turning in there, and then I think he finally fell asleep. An hour later I could hear him banging on his crib and yelling for me. I walked in and the first thing he said was, "Daddy??" He must have been so excited that he could barely sleep! But now that he was up from his nap it was time to get ready to go see dad.

Finally, when we got to the dental school, Jake saw Joseph and he started running as fast as he could toward him yelling, "Daddy!!!" We got to the school and sat in a big auditorium filled with dental students and a few other children. Jake was the 5th child to go, so he had the chance to watch what the dentist was doing to the other kids and get used to it. When it was our turn, the pediatric dentist let Joseph take the reigns and do the examination himself! Both Joseph and Jake did such a good job, I was so proud of both of them. Jake didn't cry at all, and on the way out he took a handful of toothbrushes and stickers with him (when I told Joseph to put some of the toothbrushes back he said, "Hey, I paid for these, he can have them." I didn't have an argument for that one.) So, I guess we'd call it a success!!

Lens error or mothering error?

Either way...ERROR!! I left our new camera on our end table in the living room the other day, and apparently this little guy found it. You can see where this story is going already, huh? I was sitting at the computer working on something and I distinctly remember hearing some sort of electronic musical jingle. Obviously this didn't catch my attention, probably because I hear way too many jingles around this place and I subconsciously tune them out. All of the sudden I realized that it is not a musical jingle anymore, but more like a musical jam. Something is obviously broken. I turned around and saw that Jake had been turning the camera on and off (hence the jingle) and all of the sudden it didn't turn on anymore (hence the jam). I look at the screen of the camera and it said, "LENS ERROR." Great!! Our brand-new camera is broken. And I can hardly blame Jake. No, I blame the endless supply of mind-numbing electronic toys around here that play "music" (yes, I am looking for a scapegoat here). So, there you have it. No pictures until we send the camera in to get fixed. Sorry guys...

If it's free, we will come

Thank you guys for all your suggestions on free and easy things to do during this never-ending winter! I've always been a bit of a bargain hunter, but I've had to step up my game since we've been in dental school. Thus, I am always looking for ways to save a little mulah. In our quest for free/cheap activities to do around here, we have come up with a few winners! Por ejemplo:

The penny horsey ride - Ok, this one isn't around here, but when we were visiting my parents in Michigan recently we let Jake ride the horse at the grocery store. I'm not sure why, but the cost of riding this horse has never gone up. It is only 1 cent! Who knew one penny could bring so much joy?

Family Fun Night - The children's museum and carousel in the mall are totally free on the last Friday of the month. A madhouse for sure, but free!

Gymnastics meet - Joseph and I went on a date the other night to a gymnastics meet. I'm in love with gymnastics, and it was free for students and $3 for me! A date for $3, can't beat that!

Tot Lot - Totally fun! It's just a big gym that they put a bunch of bikes and balls and those blow-up jumping things all over and let the kids run wild! It's awesome, and just a little over $1! Here's a little video of Jake riding one of the toys there:

We've also done play-doh, played with the snow, and watched lots of train movies. I've become a personal expert on diesel-electric trains and how they convert energy to power the engine. I know you're jealous.

I am not, and can assure you that I never will be, a fan of Iowa winters. They are bitterly cold and way too long. However, I am learning to adapt. Thanks again for all your suggestions, and we look forward to trying more of them!

P.S. I LOVE GYMNASTICS! I was a gymnast when I was younger, and even though I may have lost my mad skills over the years, I haven't lost my love of the sport. If anyone around here ever wants to go to a meet with me PLEASE let me know! I would love love love that, especially on those nights that my husband is out of commission due to studying...or just any night, really...

This and that

Jake is cracking me up lately. He's learning all sorts of new words, and trying to put phrases together, but not quite succeeding. Yesterday, we were coming home from church and he saw one of his books that I had in my hand. He pointed at it and said, "This?" I took it to mean that he wanted "this" book that I had in my hand, so I said to him, "Jake, do you want this?" pointing to the book. He told me that yes, he did, so I gave it to him, whereupon he exclaimed, "Hi, This!!"

Same thing happened later, except this time he was pointing at an orange that was in the fruit bowl. "This?" he asked, pointing to the orange. I answered saying, "Would you like that?" and pointed to the orange. He nodded yes, so I gave it to him, and then again he exclaimed, "Hi, That!!"

Haha, it makes me laugh, but at the same time I am astonished at how much kids pick up and learn. I love watching Jake learn new things and I just get so excited every time he says a new word or understands a new concept. One of the greatest things about being a mom is watching your child grow. I love it.

Stir-cRaZy!

We are going stir-crazy up in here! The weather has been craptacular here in Iowa for the past month, and Jake and I are desperately trying to think of ways to stay sane while staying inside. We've been playing with his new (to us) Thomas the Train set as of late, but even that is starting to lose its appeal after spending hours and hours (literally) every day playing with it. I might blow a fuse if I hear the Elmo theme song one more time. His books are getting a lot of use out of them, but we really just need some new ideas. Does anyone out there have any good suggestions for fun, creative, and cheap things to do with a toddler while stuck indoors?? Any ideas will help, I just haven't had these creative juices flowing as of late.

Just for your entertainment, here are a few pictures of Jake playing with his Thomas the Train set. You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but he's absolutely in love with it. I ordered a huge box of used trains and tracks from eBay and got a great deal on it. Hopefully it will be something he will enjoy for years to come!

Brrrrr....

I usually love Iowa. However, we have had unbelievably cold weather here lately and it's kicking my butt! Let me give you the rundown:

Jan 8: High 7, low -4

Jan 9: High 6, low -11

Jan 10: High 21, low -15

And this is BEFORE the windchill. Finally, yesterday on Jan 11, we stayed in the positive digits with a high of 22 and low of 14. Joseph and I both noted how nice it felt it past two days, and then I realized that something was seriously wrong if temperatures in the low 20's felt wonderful. And this is only the last four days. This frigid, negative degree weather has been going on since Christmas! On Jan 2 we had a high of 1! What the heck???

The snow has been beautiful, I will give that to Iowa. One of the things that I love about winter is playing in the snow. Before the temperatures got so frigid (before Christmas that is) we all went out and played in the snow together. I think I lasted two minutes, then I decided it was my motherly duty to go inside and make hot chocolate for the troops. Joseph and Jake lasted about 10 minutes out there, but it was so fun to watch these two play together.

This was taken while I was still outside with the boys:

And these are through the window:

Wish us luck in thawing out here in this crazy midwest weather!!

Over too soon

Christmas break has come to a close here in the Dougherty household. Joseph goes back to school tomorrow, which means Jake and I are going to brave this bitter cold (we're talking highs of -5) by keeping ourselves nice and warm inside and breaking in all the new Christmas toys!

We had a wonderful Christmas break, filled with everything that Christmas should be filled with: family, good friends, fun memories, and lots and lots of holiday treats!

This year we decided to stay in Iowa and spend Christmas with Joseph's parents, his sister Elizabeth and her girls, and sister Becca, all who came into town for the holidays. Joseph had to study for his boards that he took over the break, so we weren't able to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but the time that we had together was perfect. Jake had so much fun with his cousins, especially Bridget (who is affectionately called Birdie). When we left he kept asking for "Rie-rie."

Christmas day was full of excitement. This year Jake started to get the idea of unwrapping gifts, and once he realized that we weren't going to scold him for ripping paper, he really went to town. At first I think he was a little confused at why we would wrap paper around pajamas. He really wasn't too thrilled about this one...The next gift he opened was a different story. Cars...now that's better. You can tell that he loves them because he won't even look up for a picture. His cousin Birdie is blocking most of the cars, but he got a whole case of them! He's been playing with cars nonstop all week.

Joseph spent most of his free time over break studying for his boards. He took some time off for Christmas festivities, but we were pretty anxious for him to be done. A few days after Christmas he took the boards, and Jake and I stayed home and made him a giant cookie to surprise him with when he got back. Well...mostly I made the cookie and Jake helped clean up the utensils.

Sorry, no pic of the cookie. Although, I must say, it was a masterpiece. Complete with frosting scrubs and teeth. Not bad for a novice, eh?

The day after Joseph's boards, we went to Moline, IL with some friends to the John Deere pavillion! Moline is the corporate headquaters for John Deere, and this place was tractor heaven for Jake. The pavillion was filled with all kinds of different tractors that the kids can play on and "drive" and see everything up close. It's a sort of interactive John Deere museum. The best part was that it's totally free!

Here are Joseph and Jake in a giant tractor. They had price tags on each of the tractors, so if any of you are in the market for a new John Deere, you can purchase this one for a mere 1/2 million!!

Jake was pretty much too enthralled to stop and look for any pictures. Driving the tractor.Checking out the monstrous wheels.We had a great time! A new era of tractor obsession has officially begun.We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday break. Or, for those of you who are lucky enough to still be off of school or work, live it up a little bit more for us who are back to the grindstone. :)