We Love and Miss You Grandma Trapp!

I know, I know, it has been absolutely forever since we last updated anything on this website and we are so sorry! Life in the Kanengeiser family has been very busy. One of the main reasons for not getting on here as of lately is because of the passing on my grandmother Klara Trapp. After Christmas her health started declining and moved into a nursing home for more care then we could provide to her. About a month or so ago she had a stroke and things seemed to move very fast after that. On Thursday, the 10th, the nursing home called my parents to tell them that her health was failing and we all came to be with her and help give her and each other strength. My parents stayed by her bedside along with my Uncle Allen and Aunt Joanne for the next four days. On Sunday, July 13th she passed away peacefully with my parents and Aunt and Uncle by her side, praying with her and singing her favorite hymns. If you knew my grandmother, you would have known she wouldn't have wanted to go any other way.

Grandma was a kind soul and brought joy to all who knew her. She is now, after 28 years apart, with her husband, and also her Mother and father and 10 brothers and sisters. We all take peace in knowing she is happy and with God. She waited her whole life-94 years(!) to see him, and we can only imagine the joy she has now being with him forever more.

On Tuesday my parents, Bonnie, Anna and myself (Neil and Scott stayed home with the babies) took a trip up to Ludington, Michigan for Grandma' burial. My Aunt Joann and Uncle Allen also drove up. She spent many of her years there and that is also where my grandfather is buried. Instead of moving him home to Ohio, she wanted to be with him there. It was a wonderful trip and really meant a lot to spend this time together as a family, remember all the fun times we shared and fond memories of Grandma up here at the lake.

Thank you to everyone who supported all of us during this difficult time, for all of your cards and prayers, and warm words. It means a lot to our whole family.

Too-ha! **updated with more words!

Sorry it has been a while since we wrote last. Life has been BUSY! This is the Summer of Weddings. Most of you kow that 4 of my girlfriends are getting married this year and I am a bridesmaid in 3 of those weddings, and am doing a reading in the forth. So between Wedding Showers, Bachelorette Parties and the weddings in general my mind has been everywhere! One of the most exciting things coming up for us is that one of the weddings we are going to is in Scotland! Yep, that's right, that little place located in the United Kingdom! My girlfriend Marisa whom I met when I was working in Boston moved out there, fell in love and the rest is history. She asked that if we could swing the trip she would love for me to be in her wedding. How could I say no?! What an amazing opportunity!

We are so very excited- but nervous at the same time. This will be by far the longest I have ever been away from Jackson. We've done a few overnights, but that is it. This trip will keep us away for a whole week. While we are gone he will be staying with my parents, so I know he will be in excellent hands. But I still worry. Of course these past few weeks he has decided to become incredibly clingy with me. He can't stand it if I even leave the room for a moment. This makes dropping him off at my sisters while I work a challenge; even going out as a family to parties it takes him a while before he realizes I'm not going to leave him. I just hope that us leaving him for so long won't hurt him too badly. I have to make myself remain positive or I will drive myself crazy and not want to go. But we have already bought our plane tickets; reserved our hotel room and I even have my bridesmaid dress- no backing out now! But it will be good for Scott and I. With our opposite work schedules and me being so busy with all this wedding stuff our time together has been limited. We see each other for a quick kiss hello and a kiss goodnight (usually when one of us has already been sleeping!) and that is about it. The trip will be a lovely time to catch up on us.


Aside from wedding stuff we have been having so much fun with little man. He grows more and more every single day! Jackson has really been moving along on the development train. He can climb up on the couch and chair and get down all by himself and he us sooooo super fast going up the stairs. This second part freaks me out a bit since he doesn't know how to get down quite yet. I have to remember to leave the door to the attic closed or he is running up them! His talking is also coming much more quickly. Just the other day he said two new words in the same day! He has a few favorites, but so far these are his words:
Mom Mom
Dada
Papa
Ma Ma (Mimi)
Bon Bon (Auntie Bonnie)
Anna
Pop (Pop- sometimes he calls Don Papa too, but it is pretty close!)
Ball (definately Jackson's favorite word or thing!)
Mah (More)
shoe
cheese
sta (star)
Isss (Memphis, our cat)
Ra Ra (Ringo, our other cat)

Baba (bottle and pacifier- uses these two a lot. Knows the difference between the two. Just so happens to use the same word for both)

This/ Look at This/ What's This (uses these three a lot. Each distinctively sound different. Seems to know the difference)

Buffalo (Grammy and Pop brought him a stuffed buffalo home from their trip to South Dakota and he learned the word right away)

itty (kitty- although he hasn't said this one in a while)** He just said it tonight! That's what I get for saying he doesn't say things... he has to proove me wrong!

Yes (this is one of this newest words. When you ask him if he wants something he says "Yes Yes Yes!")

Too Ha (toothbrush. This is one of his other new words. Yes we know this seems like a strange word to learn. But him and Sophie are obsessed with toothbrushes and brushing their teeth. I guess there are worse things!)

Buh Ball (football)

Tada!

Ah-oh! (He says this when something falls, or he drops something, etc.)

WaWa (water, another of his new words)

So that is 26 words so far and he is only 15 months old. I think that is pretty darn good! Although I am thinking there are more words, but for some reason they are escaping me! I will add them if I think of more. I think one of the coolest things is that he can now ask me for things with using words. He doesn’t have to just point and have me try and guess what he wants. He is also starting to mimic the sounds of animals, which is super cute. He does the kitty Meow and also an elephant (with arm motions for the trunk and everything. I love it! It seems like everyday there is something else new going on or coming out of his mouth- just amazing.

Well, if I don’t get a chance to write before we leave, I promise to give a full report of our trip and also Jackson’s first vacation away from mommy and daddy!

Our Little Nature Boy

I was chatting with a girlfriend the other day and she was telling me about this game that she plays with her kids. It is "The Sign's Of Spring" game. It is quite simple really, all you do is whenever you see something that has to do with Spring, you point it out and then when they go home they either write about it or draw a picture of it in their Spring Journal. They keep these every year and look back at the end of the season and see how the children’s observations have grown. Plus it is a neat way to keep a "farmer's almanac" in a sense. They can see if they saw their first robin around the same time or if the daffodils popped their heads out a week early this year. I think that is such a great idea and I look forward to playing this game with Jackson, as he gets bigger.

Spring has definitely come our way for we are getting more and more nice days. On Monday it actually reached 60 degrees! Whoopee!!! Finally what I have been waiting for- a chance to play outside! So after a really nice visit with GiGi in the nursing home Jackson and I ran around outside and explored. The grass was still sopping wet so we had to stay on the driveway. But this was fine with both of us! It was just so much fun running around, collecting rocks and Jackson just LOVED watching the leaves blow around in the wind! It was so much fun watching Jackson's eyes light up and all of the new things he was discovering. Lately he has become attached to a stuffed bunny we have named Hop. Hop has been going many places with us, and today was no exception. I took a bunch of pictures of our playtime outside and you will see our little friend in many of them. Jackson and Hop are cute little buddies.

Yesterday it was a bit chilly, but with the sun shining so bright it looked like a beautiful day. We were both feeling a little bit of cabin fever, so I bundled Jackson up, took our trusty new red pail and went outside to explore some more. The grass was drier this time so we were actually able to walk around in the yard a bit to look for leaves. Jackson had so much fun collecting treasures! He found our pathway that leads from the driveway to our patio and discovered all of the wonderful tiny stones that fit perfectly in his little hands. We played over here for the longest time. Grammy and Pop, that red pail you got Jackson for Easter is so perfect for collecting treasures- it can hold so much! Plus it is perfect to then dump out and start all over again with! So thank you very much, we both love it!

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about one of the best parts of the day. Jackson discovered a worm. Yep, a big, fat, juicy worm. It was finding it's way back to the grass and Jackson was soooo interested in him. He reached out his little finger and very gently gave it a touch. Ewwwwww!!! Jackson jumped back and gave a bit of a shudder. Not at all what he expected that weird looking thing to feel like! But he had to go back and examine him some more. We must have watched this worm for a good 5 minutes- that is a long time in toddler time! Then it was off to collect more rocks and leaves. It is going to be so much fun watching Jackson experience all these new things in nature. I can't wait until I get him a pair of Wellingtons so we can walk down to the creek and look for frogs. Now that will be a site!

Zoo Time!

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the Rocky River Nature Center, or "Little Zoo" as we like to call it. They have lots of animals there to look at, deer, turtles, fish, raccoons, bunnies, and even a bald eagle. Anna loves this place and even had her birthday party here one year. But boy oh boy did the babies love it this time! They got so excited every time they would see a new animal. It was so cute! So we knew they were defiantly ready for the big stuff....

So on Friday Bonnie and I decided to take our chances on the iffy weather (they had been forecasting rain off and on all day) and take the kids to the zoo for some fun and exercise (for Bonnie and I!) Bonnie has a zoo membership so it works out nicely that if it does indeed rain you won't be wasting money since it is free to get in. The first animals we saw were the elephants. Oh my goodness did Sophie get excited! She and Jackson have just learned how to make the elephant sound, with the arm up and everything, so this was very cool for them to see elephants so big and close. Every part of the zoo was such an experience for them, all the people, the animals; the pretty trees in the breeze- everything! They couldn't get enough. And Anna loved being the big sister and cousin and made sure to point out all of her favorite things to them.

We even discovered an itty-bitty baby turtle that was lost, walking on the main path by the swans. We made sure to scoop him up and put him back into a safe place to save him from an unsuspecting foot. He was only about the size of a half dollar- so cute!!!

Another absolute favorite of the day were the seals. Boy do these guys know how to put on a show! Their trainers were in there with them today so we got to see them do tricks, watch them be fed and groomed and of course perform with their silly antics. The babies couldn't get enough! They were squealing and laughing every time the seals did anything new. If this didn't convince me that I needed to get a zoo membership this year I don't know what will!

It ended up being a gorgeous day, without a cloud in the sky (mommy even got a little sunburned!) and definite blast for everyone. We can't wait to go back- and this time bring a camera with a fully charged battery! Zoo anyone?!

Jackson Goes to Bed Like a Big Boy Now!

We didn't want to say anything about this in the worry that we would jinx it- but since it has been going on since February, I think we can finally talk about it outloud...

Jackson goes to bed like a big boy now! YAYAYAYAYAY! Ever since he was born we couldn't just lay him down in his bed while he was awake- we had to bounce him quietly until it put him to sleep. He was a FIGHTER too! Sometimes it would take up to an hour for him to finally give in to sleep. This prooved to be frustrating on all of us! I would read in my books and magazines how you need to lay them down awake so they can learn how to put themselves to sleep. We always thought "Yeah Right!" How is that even possible?! He would scream and cry and fight and drive us all crazy. Finally Scott and I decided that we were going to try letting him "Cry It Out". I was never a huge fan of this, but it has worked for friends of ours so to make it easier in the long run we would give it a shot. We were going to try it the next night.

Well guess what- the next night after giving Jackson his bottle he was squirming in my arms like he was having a hard time getting comfortable, so I thought...hmmmm, I am just going to give this a try and see what happens. I kissed his face, told him we loved him and Jesus loved him, covered him up with his blanket and said good night and walked out the room. He babbled for about 5 minutes and then was sound asleep. Each night we would do this, every time expecting to get the screams that we would get in the past- but they never came. Can I just say how wonderful this is! No more stressful nights, no more frustrations of me and Scott having to take turns getting him to go to sleep. Jackson is a big boy now and we all like it better this way! Good job little man!

Awwwwww......

Jackson has started doing the cutest thing! If you say to him "Jackson give Mommy an Awww..." he goes up to you, lays his head on you and says "Awwww". It is his sweet way of giving a hug. Now if this doesn't brighten your day, I don't know what does!

Our little man has another tooth coming in which of course has made him feel a bit under the weather. So please send some "Hurry Up Tooth!" and "Feel Better Soon" wishes our way.

Did you know your nose has holes in it....

....the EXACT size of your fingers? Well, Mr. Jackson just discovered this very fact! And he has been showing us every day since the discovery. Luckily he hasn't discovered that there is anything up there to dig out- YET. I have to say it is pretty darn funny. He gives you this sly grin, his "I'm a little troublemaker smile" and slowly puts his finger into his nose. Then he starts laughing so hard, for he finds himself incredibly hilarious. I know I shouldn't encourage it, but you honestly can't help but laugh. He already has such a sense of humor about life and does the silliest things. All day long he has me laughing.

The other afternoon he just didn't want to nap. After 20 minutes of walking and bouncing I just laid him in his crib for "Mandatory Quiet Time". I walked out of his room and settled down to read some of my book for Book Club.

Mr. Jackson just did not want to sleep. I went ahead and let him play in his crib for a good 45 minutes. He was having a heck of a good time, so I didn't need to interrupt it. Although I was getting more and more frustrated knowing he NEEDED the nap, and knowing that we were approaching the time when it was either sleep or not because it was getting too late in the day. I finally went back in there to try and settle him down one last time. I picked him up and tried to calm him down. He was wiggling, and giggling. I said to him firmly "No Jackson! This is not playtime this is naptime. You need to sleep." And what did I get in return....he broke into the biggest fit of giggles you have ever seen. I was obviously sooooo hilarious! Here I am trying to be so stern, but how can you when he is so happy and innocent?! Veteran Moms out there, how in the heck did you do it?! I finally gave in and just let him get out of bed and play. I just figured he would crash early. Which I was right- he was in bed and asleep by 6:30!

I've decided we gave birth to a silly, silly monkey!