Well, our little guy is 19 months and counting.  He’s in the middle of a growth spurt and cutting his canines.  We’ve had quite a busy few weeks.  First, he took about a month of cutting to get all of his molars.  Then when the weather changed, he ended up with a double ear infection.  About a day or two after the antibiotics ran out, he started cutting his canines.  Now, we have a stuffy nose too!    Our pediatric surgery appointment went well.  He had us to an ultra sound to get a current image.  Dr. Pence said as long as everything looked ok, we could just wait to do anything.  Justus seems unaffected by the cysts at this point, so we’ll just wait to do any further surgery.  The ultra sound went well, and it looks like most of the cysts in his chin are gone and there is just some extra tissue and a few small cysts.  His upper chest spot does appear to be a cyst, but thankfully it just looks like a larger one instead of smaller ones.  Dr. Pence is supposed to call at some point to go over what he thinks, so we may have more info later.

Now for the fun pictures.  The next couple are just random pictures from Justus being a goofball:

We have had some napping issues.  I thought he was just going to quit taking a nap, but apparently we were changing schedules.  He just takes a late afternoon nap now.  In the few days of trying to figure it out though we ended up with some very interesting pictures.

The first day of No Nap (notice the diapers in a pile behind the door):

This first day, I think he really did empty everything he could find.

Including the trash can:

Another no nap day where he only cleaned out the changing table baskets:

And my favorite:  I have no idea how long the pants and diaper were missing from his lower half, but I never found any wet spots

Random picture displaying cuteness

So I bought him 2 Halloween costumes of CraigsList.  We tried them on this morning and I think we’ll go with the frog because it fits better and he wore it all day.  That is until about 15 minutes ago when he switched into the tiger outfit.  He LOVES them and he looks super cute in them.

Justus is super fun right now and repeats almost everything we say.  He picks up new words all the time and we are amazed at what he knows.  Last night, he was talking to Meme and Great Grandaddy on Skype.  They asked him how tall he was. (We have a doorframe where we do pencil mark measures every month or so that he shows them frequently).  We’ve been trying to update the measurement, but he hasn’t wanted to.  Well, last night, he went to Justus’s backpack and whined for him to open it.  When he opened it, J2 reached in and took out a pencil and ran back to the doorframe.  So Justus measured him finally.  We had no idea he knew there were pencils in daddy’s backpack.  Smarty pants!

Quick update- because I know some people remember we had an appointment today   We got to the appointment and they said Dr. Pence would be in surgery for a few more hours at least and they hadn’t received Justus’s old chart yet from UK Hospital.  Apparently his old chart was too big to fax, so they have to go through a slower process of snail-mailing it.  We rescheduled for next week…such is life.

Justus is doing well.  The swollen spot we were originally concerned about (in June) hasn’t really changed, so it’s probably just the same thing.  He finally saw a regular Pediatrician here a couple of weeks ago for his 18 month old check up.  She said everything looks good.  He’s developmentally ahead.  His weight/height are still low, but he seems to be continually gaining.  We’re not worried.  The doctor said she’ll just monitor it since this was the first time she saw him.  He is a little sick right now from all the temperature changes (yucky cough that’s not helping his sleep).  Apparently Fall hit Dayton overnight.  We’ve had fun though switching clothing seasons.  He’s super cute in all his outfits.

Justus 2 and I made our first trip alone all the way down to Knoxville.  We survived the 5hr+ car ride in the flash flood rain.  We’re still working out some napping/sleeping issues from the trip, but it could also be related to our switch over to a toddler bed.

The weekend before that Meme was here.  We had a great time with her.  Friday night after we put J2 to bed, we watched a girly movie! WooHoo!  Saturday night, Justus and I went out and had so much fun!

I’m wrapping up my best Sales month ever in MK and I’m super close to meeting my goals by midnight tonight.  Call, email, or Shop Online if you need anything.  There’s great holiday gift sets.  I do free shipping and gift wrapping for the holidays.  (how’s that for obnoxious plug)

I still can’t figure out how we’ve transferred the videos before so we can post them and Justus hasn’t had time to look yet.  So you’ll have to keep waiting.  I’ll try to get up some recent pictures (hint: Moms Hunter and Cummins send us pictures )

First of all, I’m sorry to say, I forgot the camera when I took J2 to the fair.  He loved all the 4-H show animals as well as the little zoo that was there.  Oh well, you’ll just have to take my word for it   We’ve been having a rough week or so, since he decided to get all his molars at the same time…slowly  Anyway here are some pictures from the past month or so.  I’ll try to put videos up soon too.

One day Justus dressed Justus 2.  I unknowingly dressed myself in pretty much the same day…aren’t we cute?

BBQ chicken+green beans+ corn bread+potatoes+ self-fed toddler= giant cute mess!

none of us get very excited about waking up, especially in the summer

Leah and J2 (there was a really cute picture of all 3 kids, but the color came out funny and blurry)

Mr. Justus moving in…

Completely unassisted- these 2 oldest children saw the camera come out and posed.  They put their arms around each other and everything.  They are Trouble!

ooh, pool fun!

My first cobbler, yummy!

Getting ready for the Bama- Va Tech game.  Justus met some people in his department who are Bama fans too, so we had a fun cookout.

While I don’t appreciate the garments, this may be one of the cutest pictures of the best boys in the world!

Hey we haven’t written in a while, so I thought I’d do a brief update- oldest to youngest

Justus 1- started work last week and school this week.  He’s been assigned to two professors.  One of the professors has him teaching, assigning, and grading in 3 classes.  The other professor is doing research this semester, so Justus will be helping with that.  He’s been told his application was quite impressive and so they are treating him more like a PhD student than a MA student.  (I can brag; I’m the wife)  He is actually taking 3 classes as well, so his schedule is full.  He’s the only male MA graduate assistant.  I’m hope the estrogen overload will work out in my favor though, and maybe I’ll be a relief for him.

Ellen- has been doing really well with Mary Kay.  I’m working 10-15 hours a week, which is considered almost “full time” for Mary Kay.  I’ve had a lot of fun meeting people through my business and learning more about Dayton.  It’s also been great to have some “me” time.  When I’m not doing MK, I’m reading, hanging out with J1 and J2, going to the library, parks, etc.

The following section is longer, becasue we know that’s the part everyone cares about it

Justus 2- is into everything!  We got him a $3 pool from Wal-mart that he loves.  Favorite foods include: corn on the cob, green beans, oven-baked veggies, great-grandpa’s fish, ice-cream, juice popsicles, blueberries, applesauce, apples, STRING CHEESE, toast, and pasta.  This week he has wanted to read all the time: by himself, with us, it doesn’t matter.  Justus likes going to the parks and playing outside.  He loves going to the library for baby story time and just to go and get books and Wiggles movies.  He’s obsessed with the Wiggles.  Luckily they’re pretty interactive, so we’ve learned the songs and dances and can all do them together.  I have a video of Justus singing and performing “Blow me down” I’ll put up soon.  He also loves to go on walks.  Over the summer he liked to walk to the baseball field and watch the boys practice.  Now, he likes to walk and get daddy at work.  Since campus has started up again, Justus really enjoys seeing all the students roaming around.  He also like nursery.  We have visited a ton of churches and it doesn’t matter where we go, he likes the nursery!  Yeah!  I was a little nervous about this, but now he doesn’t like to leave.  He’s starting to mimic everything we say, and actually add a few words to his vocabulary weekly.  We’re working on colors currently.  We’ll see how that goes.  He keeps us laughing and has a great personality.  He’s almost always happy.  He also has a little bit of a mischievous streak in him and has had his share of timeouts.  All in all though he’s a great kid and we adore him!

I guess that’s about it.  I’ll try to take pictures soon.

We’ve got a couple different flavors of J2’s dances for you this evening. One old, the other new.

First, the classic, hokey pokey:

And second, compliments of Uncle John-Seth’s IPhone, some new moves:

Have a safe trip Uncle John-Seth!

My apologies if I belabored the point a bit on the lion, I was trying to get J2’s signature fist pump which usually accompanies his roar (perhaps later). Hope you enjoy the video!

Justus

Our appointment went well.  We really like the surgeon we met wiht and it’s nice to be in an actual Children’s Hospital.  Everything is set up to make kids feel comfortable.  There were toys in the waiting room, toys in the actual exam room…

Our surgeon said he thought the spot on his neck was probably fine and just to keep our eyes on it.  No rush to surgery unless something else changes.  We go back in 3 months (once Justus’s job, school, and insurance start).  Then he’ll do a scan and see what’s going on.  He’s hopeful we make just get to do the sclerosing treatment again.  (Surgery #2)  It’s where they inject the cysts and allow them to scar down.  It’s much less invasive, but it can only be done on larger cysts.  So far most of J2’s cysts have been too small.

So that’s the news.  Thanks for all the continued prayers and support.

J1 and J2 got a fun video yesterday of J2’s animal sounds.  I’ll try to put it up some time soon.