this is the T

BabyGroup Story

A slide show of the Evergreen Hospital baby group Turner and I are are lucky enough to be a part of. Pictures of our kids from newborn to toddlers.

New Nickname... Dr. Evil

The picture of Turner solo is when he is obviously deep in thought, hatching a plan to escape from the Pea Patch Playground today during our weekly playgroup. The picture of two litle behinds is Turner with his friend Leo. Leo met Turner at the gate to help him with his escape. Needless to say, the escape did not go as planned. Instead the boys were stuck hanging out with their moms. The group pictue is of all the moms (minus one who could not attend) and our toddlers, we used to be able to post them for group pictures, now the only way to get a group photo is for the moms to join in. They move way too fast these days!

Mr. Crazy aka Tantrum Boy

Our new nicknames for Turner, he is a nut! He has such weird likes right now, loves utensils, keys, the steel plate for the dog door, jumping on the bed (well I guess that one is normal territory for any 16 month old). The other day he was so mad at me because he wanted my keys, I was driving. Needless to say, I won that argument. His new favorite game is the pillow game. Just put a pillow down anywhere on the floor and he dives into it. He is loving our dog (we adopted him from my sister and her family since they could not take him with them to Taipei), Gus brings him much joy. I promise to post a picture of the two of them soon. That's all for now. This pic was taken at an indoor playspace. He loved running around in the big room!

Rare, quiet moment with Turner

So we apologize, we are bad parents and have not posted a blog in months. All I can say is that we are exhausted at the end of the day. I am guess that having a 15 month old is most likely the culprit. He most certainly keeps us on our toes, it seems we are constantly chasing after the sprinter. He continues to amaze us each day, he now knows many signs; milk, more, eat, bath, night, night, all done and his favorite food and sign, apple. He is also getting very vocal, he can say duck (du), quack, quack (twa, twa), dog (do), daddy, mom, done, and his favorite word and thing to do with dad is grill (grl). This picture was snapped during a quiet moment. I am surprised when we get any pictures of him standing still. More to come soon......

A view from up high

With out a doubt, our boy has a favorite mode of transportation, Dads shoulders...(moms will do in a pinch). We have let the stroller and backpack collect dust for we have discovered that he is happiest when he has a birds eye view of his surroundings. Over the past weekend we went to the University of Washington (do Dawgs) street fair. For about two hours he sat on top of our shoulders and talked to pretty much everyone we passed. He only complained when he was thirsty or hungry. I prefer Neal to carry him for as you will see by the pictures, when he rides on my shoulders, the first thing he does is remove my hair clips!

Turning 1

Neal and I can hardly believe that an entire year has past with our little boy. He is now almost 13 months old and is nearing his original May 27th due date. So much has happened in his development over the past year, we just can't begin to expand on how in awe of our son we are! He loves his blanket (we call him Linus), loves his binky, adores his yellow duck, and has even learned a few signs (milk and all done). He is the reason we work so hard and the reason we play so hard. He keeps us on our toes, keeps us laughing and learning. We were a bit baffled when on his birthday he refused his cake, he just liked playing with the frosting as you can clearly see. A Schrepfer not liking cake is unheard of, however just when we doubted his blood line..... we took him to the spring fair in puyallup and he loved his first bite of a funnel cake. Definitely our son!

This kid can fall asleep anywhere!

Today Turner, Isabella (his six month old friend), and I took a morning walk in an attempt to get both of them down for their naps. I decided to walk to the nearest espresso stand neglecting to remember that the steep hill I went down, I would have to climb back up. With two kids in a very large, heavy stroller and a very precious tall nonfat vanilla latte in hand this would be no small task. By the time we made it back home, Turner was crashed and Isabella was rejuvinated by the wonderful weather. Like Turner, I too needed a nap. Thank goodness for caffeine!

What a strange kid

Sometimes I wonder .... What the ? He is fascinated by laundry and enthralled with the dishwasher so much that when he hears it open (and somehow he hears it) he crawls as fast as he can to try to get in it.
the only thing I can say is take a look and see he is truly my son....... He shares my eating habits.

Loves the Camera

These pictures were taken when Turner was just about 8 months old. I was a bit worried when I took him to get them taken as he had been pretty grumpy all morning and he slept all the way to the photographers. Little did I know all the photographer would have to do is show our little man the camera and he was all giggles and smiles. He is such a happy boy!

Turners toothy grin... update a bit late!

Well our little man cut his first teeth in late October, the first one came in on the 29th and the 2nd one came in on the 31st. Those days were a bit blurry with the lack of sleep but we survived. I have heard that some children breeze through the teething stage, Turner was not in that category. The second set of teeth were even worse, he cut his upper two teeth on January 10th. They came together and Turner let us know, Turner became a fan of his teething tablets, teething gel and especially Tylenol. While I miss the gummy smile of infancy, I love the toothy smile as it is alwasy accompanied by and incredible laugh or giggle. He is just so dang adorable.

The only honest thing that happened on superbowl Sunday

I realize that it has been a while since I blogged here...But anyway.
A few days ago Turner, jen and myself hunkered down with chips and pizza to watch the seahawks in the superbowl. While it was not the game I had hoped for it was nice to unwind with the two of them with nothing more on my mind than a great day just hanging out together. We took some great pics of turner in my hawks hat, he loved wearing it.

Turner also has finally gotten the hang of food. We took him out the other night to a Chinese buffet. He ate so much I thought they were going to charge us for his meal. He ate peaches, white rice, peas, green beans, carrots, and some cake for desert. Also lately he has been going to starbucks with jen and while she gets a mocha, he gets banana bread and eats almost half a slice... What a little muncher. I will have to get some pics of him at starbucks.

later

Little Stinker

Our "little stinker" was a skunk for Halloween this year as you can see by the picture. The little stinker title suits our man just fine especially during the cutting teeth stages. On October 29th Turner cut his first tooth, he was not a very happy camper. Two days later he cut the other bottom tooth. I love seeing his new smile but I have to admitt that I miss the gummy grins he used to give us. At the six month mark (I am writing this a bit late) he continues to amaze us. He is now rolling over, only when he wants to however, he is sitting up pretty well and is developing his own personality. From what we can gather, he is going to be quite a ham! He loves to smile for the camera, loves to laugh and thinks having stinky feet is the funniest thing around. He loves to give hugs and kisses and is starting to discover his wonderfully loud voice. At times he just lays in his crib and goes through his entire range of noises, the unfortunate part is that this is usually at 2:00am. He still likes to wake up at least once at night to eat, sometimes even twice. Needless to day the night when Neal and I sleep for 6 hours straight will be a cause for celebration.

Like father like son

We recently got some pics from a sitting Jenny brought turner to. She picked the poses and when we got the prints back we compared his photo at 5 months to mine when I was about the same age. We were amazed at the fact he really does look like his dad. Wow

he really has been amazing lately. We have introduced him to so many people that if I were in his shoes I would be overwhelmed, but not my turnpike. Nope, he just smiles and talks to everyone of them. He is so social that it amazes me. He amazes me.

I do not babysit my kid.... I am his dad

Ok, I have a rant to pick with some people. Lately when I go out alone with my son I am asked a stupid question " oh so you are babysitting your son?"

What an asinine comment. He is my son, I can hang out with him, I am not a babysitter. They do not ask his mother this question. Why ask me? Am I not capable of taking care of my boy?

ok now that that is off my chest......

What are we feeding that kid

Hey, I haven't posted in a bit ... been really busy lately. In the past few week my wife has had surgery to remove her gall bladder. I will now forever listen to her when she says " honey I think I have a bad stomach ache". Since Now I am paying for it, since I told her to suck it up and that she just ate something that didn't agree with her. Bad husband!!! But how was I to know?


Turner is getting huge and still will not sleep through the night. He seems to have developed quite a schedule though, he gets up every night at midnight and three o'clock am. I hope I will get some sleep soon.

We have started a few times to feed him his first baby foods. To start him out we had pears ..... Big hit... He loved them. He still does not get the concept that pulling it in with the tongue is important but he sure does love the taste..

And as you see from the pictures he is starting to be a little ham.

two pieces of birthday cake.

Yesterday we when to two children's birthday parties. First was my friend nate's daughter Lauren. She turned three and was in her tierra she had fun hitting the piniatta and pinning the tail on the donkey. My wife and I got her lego's (duplo) and she seemed to like it. Nowadays it seems that kids birthdays and events revolving around our kids are the main reason to get together. It is always great to see everybody and find out what is new.

The second party we went to was for my wife's niece Annie. She was, as usual all over the place in true Annie fashion. I love Annie she is soo cute. Her big secret as we walked in the door was "mommy has a baby in her tummy"... yep my sister in law and brother in law are expecting their third child... The blessed event should happen in April right before turners first bday. This will be their third kid Annie, Molly and now a new baby burns.

this family I married into is growing again, and this event has spurned the ongoing discussion of whether or not jenny and I will have another..... But alas, that is for another day. Right now, after all those kids I am yearning for some adult interaction.

pictures to come shortly

one million american refugees

Never before have I heard the phrase American refugees. When you hear the word refugee you think of Bosnia, Iraq or Cubans riding makeshift boats to make it to Miami; not the population of new Orleans. I have been sitting and watching the news reports, looking at desperate people faces who simply want fresh water and a place to sleep that is far away from rotting corpses. The one vision of this is the pictures of the person at the superdome in new Orleans who had a sheet draped over them and a note as to whom to contact because they were dead. A human being, and American was shuffled in a corner tagged and covered. I don't even know who to be mad at.

A human being should not die that way, our society has more respect for livestock than to let them rot in a corner.


Another thing I have heard over and over again has been a sentiment that new Orleans is a lost city, that we should not rebuild it because it is vunerable to a natural disaster. Oh yeah, no other city is vunerable to a disaster such as this. There is no city in California built on a fault line. Nowhere in the Midwest can you find a town in an area called "hurricane alley". Here in the northwest we have cities where they are built in the shadow of an active volcano! Even Seattle is on a fault line and combined with that half of the city is built with fill dirt that will liquefy if; not if; when we have an earthquake big enough.
would you say the same thing about rebuilding Seattle or Olympia? If a catastrophic event happened here?

like most people I talk to about this tragedy, I am in shock and dumbfounded. Dumbfounded by the destruction, the chaos, and the lack of support these people have received.

I am sorry you hurt, I and many people I know are sending money, whatever we can to rebuild what you have lost. Not because we expect when this happens to us you will do the same, but because it is what we do as Americans. It is the right thing to do.

Friends who are family

now that you have met my wife and myself, I would like to introduce you to some of my friends , and turners friends. This picture is of turner and Lauren, one of the Jones girls. She is one of the bundles of joy that my good friends Nate and Christie are blessed with. Whenever these two are around each other you can count on two things
1. Lauren wanting to see turner and
2. Turner smiling like so at Lauren.

we need to keep these two separated in a few years.
Nate lives just around the corner and is a great moral support to jenny and I as we muddle through parenthood . Thanks Nate for letting me learn from your successes that flourish and the few foibles I see.