Happy Birthday Uncle Mike

Today is Uncle Mike's 19th birthday!! It is so hard to believe my baby brother is 19!! Time flies!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Four Months

Little Man...

Four months already. It feels like just a few days ago you turned three months old. I heard a phrase the other day..."days crawl...weeks walk...months run...years fly." I can't believe how true this feels. In the day to day I sometimes wonder if we will make it through, but when I think of you being four months old I feel like the time has rushed by. Can't you just stay little longer?

You are such an amazing baby. You have always been so calm and easy going. You are happy with life as long as your belly is full and you have had a good nap. I am often having to set you down to help Samuel with something. It is amazing how easily you cope. You generally watch and often even smile at me. I wondered what life would be like having two boys. I never imagined it would be so busy and often times feeling so chaotic. Yet I wouldn't trade any of it.

You are starting to discover you hands and are amazed at what they can do. You are reaching out to grab things and are fascinated when they end up in your hands. We are constantly watching you as you are learning quickly how to put things in your mouth. So far you prefer large objects but soon enough we will have to make sure all Samuel's little toys are out of your reach!

You still sleep pretty well. You prefer to be next to mom and dad but are able to sleep on your own. You are wonderful to wake up to in the morning. We generally find you wiggling around and trying to get out of the swaddling job we put you in at night. When you see us your face lights up and you are filled with joy. You often squeal with delight and turn your face away from us like you are bashful. It is adorable. You quickly return your gaze to us and are thrilled when we reach in and pick you up. I hope you always start each day with a squeal of delight!

As I think about what it has been like to be a mother I am amazed that I can actually do it. It is by far the hardest job I have ever done and ever hope to do. The hours are tedious, the tasks often messy, the pay minimal and the vacation time non-existent. Yet I would fill out the resume all over again because of the smiles, the giggles, the cuddles and the unconditional love.

Love you-
Mommy

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we traveled to my sister and brother-in-laws in Minneapolis. My parents and brother also joined us so the house was full. We had a great four days and enjoyed seeing everyone. We also ate great food and even enjoyed a few good game nights. Here are a few pictures of our time.

The Turkey!

Hanging out...

A Settlers of Catan game...I think I won!

The grandsons...

Aunt Angie and Liam

Dinner out...Yummy!

Zeus...the other grandson!

Samuel and Nana coloring Diego!

Samuel teaching Uncle Mike how to play the guitar.

Grant Robert

Our good friends Jon and Annie welcomed their little boy into the world. Here he is...

Grant Robert DeWaal
November 21st
8:59am
9lbs 3oz
19 1/2 inches

Gram's Visit

A couple of weeks ago, Gram was able to come and visit for a few days. She loved spending time with the boys and Samuel loved having a playmate 24 hours a day! Here are a few pictures!

Gram and Samuel played lots of cars and catch. Samuel started getting the hang of it and was actually catching some by the end!

Gram and Liam

Gram and Samuel

Hello...from Liam

I noticed that the last couple of posts only had pictures of Samuel. Liam wanted to give everyone a quick update on himself! He is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Very active now...lots of kicking and waving his arms around frantically. He also got a bit sick and is still recovering! Here are a couple cute pics!

Making Cookies

Last Saturday it was our turn to host the kids. Samuel, Roxy and Matia made chocolate chip cookies...Yum!

Twenty-Eight Months

Mister Samuel-

Well, you are now twenty-eight months old. It is so hard to believe that you have only been here for twenty-eight months. I cannot remember what life was like before you. Maybe that is because you make life that much better! What I do know is that your smile can always melt my heart and your tears make we want to do anything that will make you happier.

This month your language has really started to take off. I love it in some ways and at the same time it can be one of the hardest things to work through. You are a determined little boy and often have your mind set on exactly what you want to say or do. You often are able to tell me what you want I just am often guessing about what you really mean. The other day you kept saying the same thing over and over. To me it sounded a bit like "bebar" After asking you to repeat it seven or eight times daddy and I gave up. You didn't. We understood that you were talking about a video you wanted to watch but had guessed everyone we could think of. Out of a bit of frustration you finally said "muffin!" Ohhh..you wanted to watch Baby Einsteins. The one with the zebras and the muffins! You were so excited when we finally figured it out. I would like to say we often figure out what you are telling us, but most of the time we don't. We end up sufficing you with something else or just nodding our heads to whatever you are telling us. Sorry!

This month your imagination has also been growing like crazy. So much so that you are having nightmares. It is a bit scary when you wake up at all hours of the night screaming. Sometimes you cry, sometimes you scream and other times you yell "no, no, no" or "mommy...daddy." This often sends one of us sprinting to your room. You ask to be held and rocked or walked back to sleep. Sometimes you have two or three an night and it often takes a good amount of time to get you to go back to sleep. You also have ended up in our bed on nights when you are up every 45 minutes or so. It seems that in the morning you don't remember them and you go about your day acting as it everything is fine. I love the growth of your imagination but look forward to the times when you can separate imagination from reality. Until then we will hold you.

You continue to love cars more than anything else. You play with them nonstop each day. If you are not playing cars you are asking to watch the movie or you are standing at the window talking about every car that goes by. You have my organizational and detail skills. You will line up your cars "put them in the parking lot" and count them. So far I think we are at 48. You will also know when one is missing. The other day we took your cars to daddy's school. The next morning you lined them up and came running to ask me "where's tractor?" Do you honestly know when 1 of the 48 are missing and which one it is? Impressive!

You continue to be an amazing little boy. I think I am more and more in love with you each day. Although being 2 has it's hard times, I think it is my favorite time with you so far. You love life, you love the world and you can't wait to explore more. So...let's explore.

Love,
Mommy

Sick Little Boy

Well, we have been hit by the first round of winter colds. Samuel was pretty hoarse Sunday night but we figured it was due to a busy weekend. Monday morning he was a bit worse with a runny nose and a mild cough. I stayed home from my meetings and played mommy all day. Yesterday he got even worse. By the time Mike got home his nose and cough were worse and his eye was pretty red and swollen. He had also had a fever since Monday. We headed for the doctor.


The diagnosis: left ear infection, pink eye and lots of drainage.
The treatment: amoxicillin, eye drops, sleep, lots of hand washing.

He is no longer contagious after today but we are hoping the rest of us can escape without getting any of it. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

October Fun

The Boys Being Boys

Not a lot of time to post this morning since Liam is about due to eat. Just found a couple of cute pictures I thought I would share. Here you go...

Rise and shine. Daddy and the boys watching Baby McDonald.

Most of the time we were painting the new place Samuel was watching Cars. This time I guess it was after his bedtime.


How can you not simply adore that face?

Samuel loves his cars. Here they are all parking before they race!

I love my boys!

The New Place

7119 Aurora Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103

Well I intended to unpack the rest of the boxes this weekend, get some pictures hung and be able to post great before and after pictures...didn't happen. We still live amongst boxes and there are no pictures hung yet. Oh well...unpacking and getting settled has been a bit harder with two small boys. Here are the pictures we have for now. More to come when we are settled...maybe by Christmas!

The Living Room
This room is huge. It measures 16x26! We have it sectioned off for a living room and a play room. It is good to have the space and an area for Samuel to play but it is very loud when he is playing and we are trying to talk!

Samuel helping paint the living room.

The opposite window of the living room now painted a warm brown!

The Boys Room
The boys share a bedroom. Or will once Liam sleeps in his crib. Their room is in the back of the house and is rather quiet. So far Samuel seems to like it!

This is the sun room. A small room off the kitchen. Right now it is full of boxes and will eventually be an office for us!

The kitchen...nothing exciting other than normal kitchen stuff. We didn't paint in here. I think Mike would have killed me if I asked for him to paint anymore!

The bathroom. The usual.

This is the dining room. I realized I don't have any after pictures. It is now a brown, slightly lighter than the living room.

So far we have slept here for a week. There is a pretty busy road out our front door but we don't hear the traffic much at night. We love being downtown and have already enjoyed walks around Green Lake. We wish we would have found this place two years ago! Oh well, we will enjoy the next 9 months here!

I will get some more pictures later this week and give you a walk through!