In My Life

Can't forget about Orrin

2012-01-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

Orrin is growing up so much lately! He is a wonderful big brother and and overall fabulous kid. I know I'll forget a ton of things here, but some Orrin facts:

He has an obsession with Puff the Magic Dragon. A few weeks ago, I asked him why he hadn't told me he needed a diaper change - his answer was a very emphatic "Because Puff the magic dragon lives by the sea!" He knows all the words to the song, frequently talks to puff on the phone, and his default answer to most questions is puff, or puff the magic dragon.

He can't wait for Joanna to get bigger and play with him! Last week I had his tent set up in the living room to play in. He brought some toys in there and then called out "Come on Joanna, come here!" He was not happy when I explained she couldn't crawl in there yet.

He also has an obsession with taking pictures, or playing with electronics in general. He will walk up to random strangers that take out a camera or phone and start talking to them. We got him a toddler camera for Christmas that he loves. He has filled up the card (about 600 pictures) a couple of times already.

He is learning his colors and shapes currently. And I think he will be an early reader. He points to the words in books as he "reads" them.

We started asking him what he would like to pray for at bedtime. The very first time was heartwarming because he said mommy and Joanna, but then he said the table. Recently his favorites have been "mommy's pump" and the hutch, but he does also list any person we may have seen that day too.

We have been cracking down on hitting lately, with an immediate time out if he hits either one of us (which he would do if we weren't allowing something he wanted). So now he'll tell us he's just patting us, not hitting. However, when it comes time to go to bed and he doesn't want to go, he'll purposefully hit one of us (very slowly and lightly - you can see the gears cranking in his brain) to get a time-out to delay bed. The last time he did it Scott just brought him straight to bed but then didn't stay with him at all (he'll usually stand in the doorway for a minute or two), saying he had to take care of mommy because Orrin hit me. :) He hasn't tried it since then.

He loves to help me in the kitchen. Lately he has been all about making muffins. And he of course still loves to help Scott with whatever he is doing, especially scooping dog poop.

He is perfectly capable of being potty trained at this point but is choosing not to. Occasionally he will go a whole day using the potty, but then want diapers the next day. I have chosen not to battle him yet, even though I would love to not be buying diapers. I know it will go so much easier if he would just choose to go diaper free by himself. I just need to figure out how to make him think that I want him to be in diapers forever. He is stubborn and at the age that reverse psychology really works on him. :)

Some favorite words:
Jonada = Joanna
Sock = Scott (he named his stuffed bear Sock, probably meant Scott, but Sock is a pretty cute name so we're sticking with it)
Chicken = Kitchen (and chicken)
Checkup = Ketchup
Tickle = Pickle
Pockible = Popsicle
Cramra = Camera

Favorite Books: Green Eggs and Ham, Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, God Made You Special, his Children's Bible, any of the Busytown books

In his dragon towel after bath time.

Every once in awhile I'll let him have the last sips of my coffee (he asks every day).

Likes playing in the snow but we haven't had much of it yet this year!

Catching up

2012-01-27T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well if I were better at this, I would have blogged about each individual event, but it seems kind of late to do that. So here are some non-Joanna pictures of the fun stuff that we have done over the past four months: (they are in backwards order, but I don't really feel like fixing it) :)

4 months

2012-01-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

4 months stats: 15 pounds 8 ounces (80th percentile) and 26.5 inches long (99th percentile). I checked and she is pretty much in the same percentiles as Orrin at that age, but she is over a pound lighter and an inch shorter. Which is weird because Joanna seems huge, so its hard to imagine that Orrin was even bigger!
She is wearing 9 month size clothes, even some 12 month (usually when she's in cloth diapers).
She hasn't changed too much since the last post. Still cooing and squealing a lot. She is very good at grabbing toys and chewing on them. And she's working hard on rolling over but not quite there yet. Its kind of a hard age because she gets bored easily so I have to keep moving her around to different places. She wants to be held a lot but she is heavy so I get tired! She doesn't like being in the wrap or ergo right now though, which would help me out a lot.
I've noticed that she is a lot more serious than Orrin was. She smiles, but not nearly as much or as easily as him, and she does giggle, but its pretty rare. Maybe its because she is a girl, but she is more challenging. More sensitive and more dramatic. And lately, up every hour or two at night, which is very draining! For a while she was consistently sleeping until 4am, but now she is usually back up sometime between 11 and 1 to eat again, then every 3 hours (or less) after. And there are at least a couple times in between that we go in to stick the pacifier back in her mouth, which usually buys us another hour of sleep. My criteria for deciding to feed her is if after replacing the pacifier twice, she still whines. I could probably try rocking her back to sleep or something, but nursing her is fastest and easiest and I am always tired and just want to go back to bed at that point. :) Hopefully this is a short phase!
But overall, she is wonderful and we just adore her!

Spot is always her guardian.
Keeping warm

We started putting her in the exersaucer last week. She likes it, but gets tired after about 5 or 10 minutes and will kind of slump over.

3 months

2012-01-09T18:50:00.001-08:00

Our computer died, so this one's kind of late. Joanna was 3 months old on December 20. She is growing so much! As of today (so I guess she's 3.5 months now), she is outgrowing most of her 6 month size clothes, so I pulled out the 9 month stuff. We weighed her last week and she is well over 15 pounds, not sure how tall. We've decided she's going to be the athlete of the family (a relative term, since the rest of us are not so athletic) as she seems to be pretty coordinated with grabbing toys and moving them to her mouth, and she loves to be on the ground kicking her legs and rolling onto her sides. I've seen her laugh twice now, but it is very difficult to get out of her. She smiles quite a bit, but is more serious than Orrin was as a baby. In the mornings she likes to talk and squeal, and is definitely finding her voice. Its kind of fun to wake up to. She regularly sleeps 8 hours before waking to eat (generally around 4am), and a couple days ago even went 11.5 hours. That was pretty awesome for me! Orrin still adores her and she definitely likes to watch him.

2 months and Baptism

2011-11-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

On November 20, Joanna was baptized! She also turned 2 months old. It was a wonderful day; we celebrated with our family and friends after the service at church with cake. Joanna was worn out after being passed around all morning and took a 4 hour nap that afternoon.
She hasn't changed too much since the last post. At her 2 month appointment, she weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces (80th percentile), and was 24 inches long (98th percentile). Our doctor noticed that she is going to be chatty just like her brother. :) Its true, she loves to talk and smile! She also loves to hit her toys and is getting better about being more intentional with her movements. She doesn't really like tummy time but she does tolerate it longer than Orrin ever did. She has had her first cold for the last several days, which means neither of us has gotten much sleep. But before the cold, she was sleeping 7 to 8 hours at night. Hopefully we can get back to that soon! She is still very happy and easy going, and just a joy to have around!

Spot is very protective! :)

So precious.

Quickly becoming Daddy's girl.

Talking to GG before the service.

You can't really tell but I totally missed the baptism because I was fighting to keep Orrin with me, he really wanted his water all of the sudden and was loudly protesting.

Being presented to the congregation.

If that a looks a little funny, its because the cake originally said "God bless you, Joanne!"

With cousin Jake

Sleeping on Grandpa.

So pretty in her dress (which was handmade just for her)!

Funny how the next two pictures were taken just seconds apart (she's smiling in the bottom one). Orrin didn't want to be left out. :)

1 month

2011-11-09T18:25:00.001-08:00

Well, its about 3 weeks late, but I'm going to try and keep up with the monthly posts like I did for Orrin. Joanna is growing like crazy! I don't know how much she weighs, but at her last doctor appointment (at 3 weeks old) she was up to 8 pounds 12 ounces (that was 2 pounds gained in two weeks!) and 22 inches long. We'll have her two month appointment next week. I would say she's well over 11 pounds now, but that's a wild guess. She's getting quite round and starting to outgrow 3 month size clothes. (A side note, wouldn't it be awesome if I could lose the baby weight at a rate proportional to her weight gain?)
She is sleeping well. On an average night, she'll go 5 to 6 hours before getting up to eat. She goes right back to sleep after eating, however she keeps Scott and I up some nights with gas issues. She will grunt and carry on for hours sometimes. We try gas drops, massage, and leg pumping. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not. One of these days we'll get her sleeping in her own room and she can just keep her noises to herself. She's not such a big fan of her crib yet, and we're not quite ready to take the video monitor out of Orrin's room yet, so it might be a little while.
She is such a happy and content baby, though! Most mornings she will lay under her hanging toys and coo and squeal at them while flailing her arms and legs. She has been smiling for a couple of weeks, and will even try and "talk" to us a little, too. She does get a little fussy in the afternoons - usually right when I'm trying to cook dinner of course. And she LOVES to be held. And doesn't really like to not be held. So she rides in the wrap often. That is pretty much the only way she will take a real nap, except occasionally in the swing. If I set her down asleep, she will wake up within a few minutes. If by some miracle she stays asleep, her brother has a real knack for waking her back up. He just can't resist kissing her or sharing toys with her or covering her with a blanket. Its hard to get upset with that!
The most fun thing lately is that she will copy me and stick out her tongue. Its pretty cute. Currently she is staring very intently at Scott while he works.

Some pictures:

I can't believe how small she was here. Its hard to even remember.

Baby in a pot.

She has a crooked yawn just like me.

Maybe the sweetest picture ever.

Cozy in the wrap.

Sunday nap.

Happy under her toys.

With cousin Layla.

Another one in the wrap - seriously we both love that thing!

Example of why she doesn't nap well, Orrin found her brush and decided he needed to use it.

Two peas in a pod.

A double chin already at 7 weeks! Not the best picture, but this was the first time I put her in a dress type thing. She doesn't look so thrilled, but it was cute! Its still hard for me to get used to girl clothes.

First smile that I was able to catch.

Orrinisms

2011-10-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some of our favorites lately:

Meer = More
Buff = We have no idea, but he says it ALL the time
Fart = Floor and Throw - kind of embarrassing in public
Jo-Nauh = Joanna (which has made Scott and I sometimes call her Jonanna)
No, My Fine = response to just about any question about him (eg. "are you tired?")
Fot = Spot
Mine all done, Mine do it = two favorites
Sing songs? = anything related to music
Boom Band = band aid
Jesus = Jesus or Aunt Lisa (actually he says Lisa now, but for about a month he called her Jesus)

If one of us yawns, Orrin will say "mommy tired?" And if I say yes (and I always do), he'll say "mommy happy?" Or if we mention that we are tired, he'll say "daddy (or whoever) happy?" I'm not sure why those two things are related, but every single time, he asks both questions.

I should add that he can count to 20, and knows his abc's. He will break out in the abc song quite frequently, and also knows the words to Jesus Loves Me (all 3 verses, which he sings with Scott every night before bed), the Wheels on the Bus, and If You're Happy and You Know It. He can correctly recognize most letters, most of the time. He loves watching Super Why on PBS and pointing out the super letters. :) And of course he loves Sesame Street, too.

Joanna

2011-10-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the world Joanna Christine, born September 20 at 9:35am. 7 pounds 3 ounces, 20.5 inches long. I know, I'm a little late with this, life is a lot more crazy with two kids! And since I'm not good at keeping a baby book for either one, I need to record it all here, so bare with me.
Joanna decided to come 3 days late, not so bad. I went into labor monday night, about 20 minutes after falling asleep. We went into the hospital at about 2:30am after mom M came to stay with Orrin. I wasn't dilated far enough even though my contractions were every 2-3 minutes, so Scott and I walked laps around the hospital in the middle of the night. It was kind of fun, almost like a date if you don't count the contractions. We got back up to Labor and Delivery at 4:30 and got admitted. Joanna decided to come out with her hand up by her face, so labor progressed kind of slow. My Dr. was off that day, but came in to the hospital for a meeting. He saw I was there and poked his head in and said if I was ready to push at the end of his meeting, he would stay and deliver the baby for us. I was and so he did. We loved him before, but even more so after that! Delivery was pretty quick after some pushing help from the dr because her heart rate was dropping (cord around her neck).
So since we have been home, Joanna has been growing like crazy! She was 6 pounds 14 ounces at her first doctors appointment (6 days old), and 8 pounds 12 ounces at 3 weeks old (and 22 inches). She is a super easy going baby! I hardly ever hear her cry except for when she is hungry. She is up a few times at night but has just started doing one 4-5 hour stretch, which is heavenly for me! She is just now starting to be interested in toys hanging over her head, and I think she may have smiled for real once or twice. A couple days ago she spent some time cooing at one of the toys, so cute!
Big brother Orrin is smitten. He loves to talk to her and be involved in all aspects of her care. Even after four weeks, he hasn't asked me to send her back yet or anything. He did decide to stop sleeping when she came home but that seems to slowly have been resolved.
So far we are settling in well. Scott was home for a week and a half, which went by way too fast. I was sad to see him go back to work, and a little scared, but we have had lots of help and meals brought over. That has been wonderful! And I've managed a few days all by myself now and its been ok. Difficult to find time for anything beyond meeting the needs of both kids but hopefully that will get better as Joanna goes longer between feedings. (Right now she seems to eat constantly.)

Some pictures:

the Simple Things

2011-08-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

Orrin is absolutely obsessed with buses lately (and anything that resembles one in any way is a "bus"). So last week we were walking through the Meijer parking lot and he saw a UPS truck. He was pointing and squealing "BUS!" "BUS!". The driver must have seen him because he stuck his head out and waved at Orrin. I've never seen such a look of pure joy on his face - totally made his day!

Way Behind

2011-07-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well Scott says I need to update or else our daughter will hate us for neglecting her. So I guess that's the first update! She's due in mid-september. And I learned my lesson last time, I'm not even contemplating the possibility that she would come earlier (or even on time for that matter). She seems to be healthy and growing. Its a little scary to me because she seems way bigger than Orrin at this point.

Orrin is also healthy and growing. He's always been a talker, but I think the biggest developments with him the past few months has been transitioning over to real words and sentences. He's been stringing two or three words together for about a month now, and we got our longest sentence ever a couple days ago - "I don't wanna home go" over and over as we walked home from the playground. :) Its really fun watching his little brain figure all of that out.

Some of his current favorite things are letters and numbers. One day a few months ago I sang the alphabet song to him and he said a couple of letters at the appropriate time - I had no idea he knew any of them! So once that happened, we started singing that more, and I got him some magnetic letters for the fridge. So far he can pick out the A, E, H, I, and L correctly every time. He loves pointing out letters in books and anywhere else he sees them. And of course singing the alphabet song. He'll even sing along to the "now I know my abc's" part at the end. We started counting steps with him when we were on vacation last month and it just sort of stuck. So now he can count to ten, getting all of them almost every time. He loves to count everything!

He's definitely about to turn 2 - with the attitude to go with it! Now that he can communicate what he wants and doesn't want, its like living with a small dictator. It doesn't always go over very well when we don't immediately meet every request, but he does get over it pretty quickly. Overall, though, he's still very good natured, and lots of fun to be with!

Ok, enough with the words.

One of Orrin's favorite passtimes is still watching elmo videos on youtube. He gets this big cheesy smile that cracks me up. Of course, now anytime he sees a computer he asks for "elmo"

He is working on his art skills. He likes to color, but gets bored of it pretty quickly.
Giving kisses. He is definitely becoming a very empathetic kid. I had a foot cramp the other day and as I was writhing around in pain, he came over looking very concerned and kissed my foot.

He came with me on a trip to visit friends in Ann Arbor a while ago. Here he is with Joyce's dog Charlie (who was a very good sport about sharing his crate).

Another obsession is rocks. We have an abundance out front that he loves to play in, but also we have to stop and pick up any rocks we see on the sidewalk or parking lot. He generally likes to have one in each hand whenever we are outside.

He is a very hard worker, too. He loves to sweep the garage.

Found this at a garage sale for a few dollars, and he loves it! As well as a small plastic wagon that he likes to push (yeah, I can't convince him that it would be easier to pull) around.

Working again, helping daddy water the flowers. They do this a few times a week.

Helping daddy with a puzzle. Orrin is absolutely a daddy's boy! He loves to do pretty much whatever Scott is doing.

Like fishing! He sat in the boat with Scott when we were on vacation for a couple hours at a time without complaining. Scott was ecstatic to realize that he will have a fishing buddy!
Orrin's first fish!

If you ever call our house and talk to Orrin, I cannot guarantee that he isn't doing this... (I went downstairs for something and came back up to find that he had dragged both of these out into the living room)

We finally got his sandbox set up (with a little too much sand, oops). He likes it almost as much as his pool.

Helping Scott re-assemble the crib in the baby's room.

Because he got a fabulous toddler bed (thanks Eddie and Amie!) for his room! It made me sad when we first moved everything because his room looks so grown up now, no more changing table or crib. One of these days we'll get around to decorating the walls a bit. But the toddler bed went over very well, he doesn't try to get out ever, and he's only fallen out a couple of times. Much less of a battle than we thought it would be!

If you are wondering what to get Orrin for his birthday coming up, I think he'd like one of these...
Or maybe just a lake in the front yard. He just loves the water!

Yet another one of him helping. This was a great moment for me as Orrin vacuumed the kitchen and Scott got the rest of the house!

Well, maybe someday I'll update on life for Scott and I - he has done a ton of work on the landscaping and garden, and we've done some fun projects inside as well.

We're back

2011-02-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, we were never really gone. Just not very good with updating.

Here's some fun facts:
Orrin is growing a ton. Scott and I both lost the bet on when he would walk, Aunt Becky wins again! He took his first real steps on December 10 while a friend was visiting, but didn't start really walking until about two weeks ago (Jan 27th). We were visiting Leeum that evening and Orrin watched him run around for awhile, then picked up a football and walked across the room. He's been going ever since.

Orrin is talking more and more every day, too. There are too many words to list, but here are some of the cutest:
"Ow"=Orrin
A cow says "Mmmmmmom"
"Hi Da"
A lion says "Roar" (he really gets into this one)
He shakes his head and says "uh uh" in response to almost any question

I think this might be my favorite age so far. He knows enough words to be terribly cute, but not enough to talk back!

His favorite things to do lately are feed the dogs (a few pieces at a time, takes forever!), "help" me in the kitchen or with laundry or whatever else I happen to be doing, watch elmo videos on the computer, feed his fish, unload cupboards, and look through books. I think he would like to play outside if we could convince him to leave his hat and mittens on. We've only managed a few minutes at a time in the snow. He hated wearing shoes and boots until a few days ago, now he is obsessed with them and is constantly bringing me shoes to put on. He constantly babbles and giggles and is generally a joy to be around! Tantrums are even getting much shorter, he seems to get that it won't get him very far.

And the pictures:

Playing in the dog crate

"helping" with the laundry (these clothes are usually scattered throughout the kitchen within a few minutes)

Just a pretty view from the deck early one morning

Orrin's Christmas picture. The only way we got him to sit still for more than a second, and keep the hat on his head was to play muppet videos on the laptop under the camera!

First time in the snow, he wasn't all that enthused

A budding prodigy!

We are noticing he may have inherited a little bit of OCD (take your pick which one of us he got it from). The driver of this jeep must always be facing backwards. We mess with him and turn it forward, but he always notices eventually and turns it back around.

"helping" in the kitchen. Its a bit of a hazard for me trying to cook, but it keeps him occupied, otherwise he is hanging on my legs yelling "ot" (up).

Another of Orrin's favorite toys. Not so much ours. :)

I got him a donkey for Christmas - he LOVED it! Preparing him for his future pet.

With his cousins. He was not in a good mood, Scott got him to smile by singing Manamana - one of his favorite muppet songs.

More Christmas presents. He was a lot more interested in the table full of food that day! He would sucker anyone nearby into giving him something.

Loving his Christmas present from us - 3 fish!

"helping" Daddy install a shower door.

Digging out from the snowstorm.

Lots of toys, but usually the favorites come from my kitchen cabinets. He played with this thing for a few days, but has moved on to my canning funnel lately.

A Valentine's Day treat from Grandpa. This is the first time I've given him his own piece of candy (usually we'll just share little bites of whatever yummy things we are eating).

He definitely liked it and is asking for more here.

For dessert tonight, we had some chocolate covered apple slices.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Two month catch up in pictures

2010-11-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

New House

2010-11-17T17:35:00.001-08:00

Ok, this is terribly late! But here's the story: The very first people to come through our house in July liked it but decided to keep looking. Well they came back through about 6 or 7 weeks later and wanted to make an offer, but at the last minute, their buyer fell through. She mentioned to her realtor that maybe we would consider a trade. Our realtor mentioned it to us and we didn't take it too seriously but said we would take a look at the house. A few days later, we saw it and realized it was pretty much the exact house that we had been looking for. It took a few weeks to get everything worked out but we closed in October and moved a week later. The whole process went very smoothly and all of the people we dealt with were just wonderful. It was a great experience to be in the closing with the two realtors and the other couple and be able to discuss how it seems that God was at the center of the whole thing.
So we are pretty settled now. Still some unpacking to do, but we're tackling it slowly. We've met some of the neighbors and everyone seems very nice. Lots of kids for Orrin to play with, and lots of dogs for Spot and Daisy to bark at. Pretty much everything we need is within walking distance, which is awesome. Emmons Lake and Lakeside park, the high school/junior high/elementary school (and its accompanying playground), the new Caledonia library, and the grocery store. I haven't taken any pictures of the new house yet, so I guess if you want to see it, you should come visit! :)

Orrin stuff

2010-09-10T19:06:00.001-07:00

Well, somehow between all of the house showings, we have managed to have some fun the last few weeks. Orrin is cruising along furniture and climbing all over everything lately. I found him inside the bathroom cupboard one day, throwing everything out. He finally learned how to go up and down stairs, and is quite obsessed with that now. A couple more teeth have popped through, too. We don't think he is too far away from walking, I say by Halloween, Scott says by mid-November, and Becky says by February (so little faith in her nephew!). :)
Best of all, he loves to "help" me with the laundry. I don't mind. Although trying to clean the house for a showing with him around is pretty much impossible (very thankful that Mom M comes and gets him when necessary!). He has an amazing knack to know where I'm going next with the vacuum and plant himself there.

So lets see, we went to the beach with his aunts, uncle, cousins, and grandpa. Orrin spent hours shoveling (and eating) sand, exploring, and crawling into the water and just staring. Just ask me how I know that Orrin ate more than one handful of sand (except don't, its gross).

Then we went to the Hudsonville Fair, where we learned that Orrin LOVES rabbits.
He also fell for this guy. Someday Orrin, someday. (well, someday when you are grown and can afford your own and let me come and play with it)Cows were pretty cool, too.

This one left Orrin pretty slimy.
This picture does not do it justice, but Orrin really gets into blueberry pancakes.
We returned to the fair with some of Orrin's good friends. They were loving watching the rides.
And we played at Gun lake one fabulous Sunday with my family.

More to come. Up next, the great story of our (hopefully) new house.

Numbers

2010-09-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that I love that I married a math major. When we were first presented with a house trade idea last week, we needed a pros/cons list to see if this (or any house for that matter) was really the house we wanted. Except Scott can't stop at pros and cons. So he came up with a couple formulas so that we could assign any house a value, essentially a percentage of the things that we want in a house weighted by their importance. We actually had five different methods, and then took the average of those numbers. I love him.

So there's a little insight into our nerdiness. Orrin is doomed.

Stats and Random Things

2010-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Orrin's 1 year appointment was yesterday - he weighs 21 pounds, 6 ounces and is 31.5 inches tall. Thats the 92nd percentile for height, and 40th for weight - tall and skinny like his daddy! :)

He was a champ about getting shots! He cried for a second, then went on to smile and babble at the nurse. The doctor gave him a little cow and he thought that was pretty great.

I made him a pair of pants with knee pads on them yesterday, thinking that might be nice for crawling. They turned out so cute, but probably won't fit him until he's 3 or so! Oops. Try again today.

The dogs have taught Orrin how to growl. He growls at the dogs when they play with each other, like he wants in on the action. Its pretty funny.

Party

2010-08-10T07:00:00.001-07:00

We had a great time on Sunday celebrating Orrin's birthday!

We had decorations
And snacks
There was lots of water to play with (no pictures of the water balloons)

And cake to eat!
Orrin only took a minute to dig in (thanks for the pictures Jerilynn!)
And new things to play with/read/wear.

Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating with us!

1!

2010-08-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

I can't believe its been a year! Orrin is growing up very quickly.

He is saying a few more words now. Still mama, dada, book, fish (he says this one a lot, and very insistently if I don't notice that my aquarium screensaver is on as we walk past), hi and bye. But now he is saying Spot, up, uh oh, and I'm pretty sure no. He babbles constantly and says many other words repeatedly as he points to random things, I'm just not sure what he is saying. :)

Speaking of pointing, he loves to point. Especially at people, and if you point back he giggles. He points at things he wants and occasionally cries if he doesn't get it. I'm not looking forward to this phase of toddlerhood!

He LOVES books. He also loves to pull them all down off of the shelf. He will sit for a long time looking through them all. He likes to point to the pictures (of course), and sometimes kiss them, especially if it is an animal. The touch and feel books are a current favorite. He is also just starting to bring me books to read to him, and turn the pages for me.

He is giving lots of kisses, mostly to the dogs and pictures, and Scott. Every once in awhile he will give one to me.

He is crawling all over now, and quickly. This is making cleaning for house showings almost impossible as he has an uncanny knack for knowing exactly where I need to go next with the vacuum. And as I said before, he likes to unload shelves. He also loves to pull out the outlet protectors. I think we are not anywhere near walking, though, since he still can't quite pull himself up on the furniture and doesn't try to step forward when we help him stand.

He loves to harass the dogs. Spot is finally starting to play with him, which is fun to watch. Daisy just gets up and moves whenever he gets near. She only moves a couple feet away, though, and Orrin is pretty persistent, so he just chases he around. She is not so thrilled with him at this point.

His two top front teeth should poke through any minute now.

Enjoying his first time in a pool.
Daisy finally gave up one day.
At the track watching Grandpa race.
Scott and I went to a random park on the Grand River (Chief Hazy Cloud I think) and realized there wasn't really anything there. So we plopped Orrin in a field of tall grass. We also took that picture of him on a rock above.
Orrin's first time at the beach was a success. Until he started eating the sand. He wasn't really sure about the big waves.

Cadillac Weekend

2010-07-28T17:25:00.001-07:00

Best Toy Ever

2010-07-28T17:04:00.001-07:00

This is Orrin's favorite toy.

He takes it with him wherever he goes.

Orrin's favorite passtime is harassing the dogs with it.

They're thrilled.

2010-07-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

11 Months

2010-07-08T20:04:00.001-07:00

Huge news for this month!! Orrin is finally crawling! It was pretty funny because he decided to crawl forward for the first time at a friend's house with no one really paying much attention to him. It was only a few steps, though. He gets a little farther every day - and animals (and their water bowls) are proving to be the best motivation to get him moving.

He is also trying his very hardest to pull up on things or people (or dogs I guess). So far he has only gotten up to his knees but he is working on it.

I'm not sure how much else is new as all his energy over the last couple weeks has been spent on the steps leading up to crawling. He doesn't say any new words, but his babbling is sounding more and more like real "talking". And he certainly knows what he is saying.

He is getting much more of an attitude though! He loves to throw his pacifier or whatever else is around. The best is when he dramatically pulls it out of his mouth to throw it. Its funny, except it is usually followed by a long, drawn out screaming tantrum. Scott and I are still figuring out how to handle those. He is definitely a feisty little kid! And very independent. He does not really like to be held, or restrained in any way. This is making shopping with him a lot more difficult. And long car rides are getting tougher.

He loves this little pool. Especially with his favorite toys - a spatula and empty plastic containers.

Someone found a pen.
Modeling his new shark towel.So here is his Justin Bieber impersonation. Time for a haircut.
I bravely attempted to cut it myself, with some success. Although I barely trimmed it, so it pretty much needs to be cut again already. But I'm getting my practice in before he is old enough to complain!

Orrin still doesn't like grass, and tries as hard as he can to lift both legs up off the ground.
Checking out the grass/flowers

Quite possibly my favorite picture ever.

Bathtime after the photo shoot. Orrin enjoyed throwing the toys out one by one, and is wondering why no one is putting them back.

Next up: One year!

Dust Mop?

2010-06-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Who needs one when you have this little guy?

Yum

2010-06-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Our first peanut butter and jelly sandwich (on homemade bread) was a success!

Oma

2010-06-21T17:42:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, Scott, Orrin and I went to Canada to visit Orrin's 101 year old great-great-grandma. We had a great time visiting with Oma K and Oma A on friday and saturday morning. Then Saturday afternoon we drove into Toronto and stumbled upon the St. Lawrence Market and Woofstock. We walked around for a bit, ate dinner, then headed toward home.

Oma K and Oma A watching Orrin
A special moment with Oma K

And a special moment with Oma A

This was the walkway to the St. Lawrence Market. What a great place! Wish we had one in Grand Rapids.
At Woofstock. There were dogs everywhere.

We got tired on the way home so we let Orrin drive.

10 months

2010-06-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm way late on this! Orrin is developing like crazy and we are just having so much fun with him.

What's going on this month:

We have pretty much completely cut out baby food and he eats what we eat. Except we don't eat his yogurt (plain/unsweetened) because its gross, even with fruit mixed in.

He is getting more cuddly again. He likes to lay his head down on our shoulder before we lay him down to bed. I realize he is playing us to get a couple extra minutes but I don't care!

Speaking of playing us, he is very much getting a mind of his own and does not like to be told what to do. I tried to dip his hand in finger paint and stamp it on paper to make father's day cards and he threw a fit! Paint got everywhere except on that paper. When I finally just stuck him in his high chair and squirted some paint on the paper and let him play with it on his own, he thought it was fun.

He is still not crawling, or moving forward in any way. But he can roll, or push backward and get pretty much wherever he wants to go. Except when he gets stuck under the chair.

He is working on more words. Mama and Dada are pretty clear and consistent. But we also think he is saying hi and bye. And he'll say "kuh" when I say book, and "sh" when we see fish. And sometimes we swear we hear other things, but they all sound alike so who knows.

He likes hammers and pounding things, and spatulas.

We notice he is definitely making the shift from baby to toddler.

Oh yeah, I was thinking about cutting his hair, but now we've decided to let it grow out so he can have a justin beiber do. Its almost there.

Femivore?

2010-06-07T15:28:00.001-07:00

This article is fabulous. It almost makes me feel understood, like I'm not the only crazy one. And I don't even have chickens yet. So Cara, you're way ahead of me!

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

Sunscreen

2010-05-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Let me add a disclaimer to this post - you can't study toxicology without going a little crazy (or at least I couldn't)! I took a developmental tox class where I learned that sometimes it takes one small exposure to something at the right time in development to have disastrous effects - with pictures and everything. So armed with that and other scary knowledge, and an abundance of time while I was pregnant to do research, I went crazy.

I don't share a lot of this craziness on here because it is a struggle for me to keep it all in perspective. Scott and I want the safest and healthiest life for Orrin, to be environmentally responsible, and maintain our budget. I make it my job to find ways to improve on these things, especially when it comes to Orrin. But I have to try hard to not obsess over every little thing (ie organic foods, the safest non-toxic toys, and making sure he is not exposed to harmful chemicals in our house). I have to remember that the absolute most important thing we can do by far is to make sure Orrin is raised to know and love Jesus. I have to take a deep breath and remind myself of this almost daily.

But a friend posted this link on facebook today and I'd like to share. (It essentially says that many sunscreens actually accelerate cancer, don't actually offer the amount of protection that they claim, and can cause hormone disruption - so you are protected from sunburn but not cancer.) (Something else to consider that is not mentioned - vitaminA/retinol are in lots of products, not just sunscreen - like cosmetics and acne and anti-aging treatments and are already known to cause birth defects in higher doses)

Earlier this year, I did a ton of research on sunscreens for Orrin and paid a crazy amount of money for the one I thought would be best (incidently, I did pretty well because it is on the safe list). But most people don't have time or energy to do that research (or the money to buy the safe stuff) and trust that what is in the stores is safe. And it should be! I get so frustrated by these things. Read this if you would like to get angry (and especially if you have little kids). And am just left to wonder what is in store for my future as a result of all that I have been exposed to (yes, I remember playing outside while the crop dusters sprayed practically in our backyard...) And I worry about Orrin's health because no matter how hard I try to protect him, he is being exposed to things out of my control. This is when the perspective comes in I guess.

But anyway, read that article please and take from it what you will. Go here if you would like to see which sunscreens are safe - basically the chemical-free ones which use titanium dioxide or zinc oxide are safe because they are not absorbed through the skin, they just sit on top. A warning, though, they are expensive and go on very thick and leave a white residue.

And if you are really feeling brave, go ahead and check this site out. You can look up all of your household cleaning and bathing/cosmetic products. I use it frequently, but it does need to be taken with a grain of salt.

And since I'm on a roll, I could seriously fill this blog with the information I've found, and the changes we've made to our household over the last year and a half. But I don't write that well, and there are several other great blogs that do just that. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Passionate Homemaking

Mindful Mama

SafeMama

9 months (a little late)

2010-05-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Orrin has really grown over the last month! Not so much in size, but in everything else. At our appointment yesterday, he weighed 20 pounds, 8 ounces (50th percentile) and was 29.75 inches long (90th percentile). So he's slowing down a little bit (or he's gearing up for a huge growth spurt soon). But we have so many new developments:

He can feed himself pretty well - finally! I would say about 80% of his food actually makes it into his mouth now. He eats everything we give him so far. We're moving on from baby food to chopped up versions of what we eat for dinner (depending on what we're having of course).

He can move quite quickly across the room backward. He isn't even as mad about it now that he has figured out how to spin and go where he wants to. He's having a great time exploring.

He loves to clap, wave, and those things where you pat your hand across your mouth or run your finger up and down over your lips (what do you call those things??).

He makes noise constantly! All different kinds of noise, from babbling to growling, he seems to like to experiment.

Spot and Orrin are becoming buddies. Orrin loves to pull on him and Spot is trying to figure out how to play with Orrin. Its great fun to watch.

He picks up on new things very quickly so everyday there is something new!

He doesn't sit still anymore, so getting a photo with the cow is near impossible. The remote buys me about 15 seconds.
He backed across the living room one day and somehow backed up under his chair. I'm such a great mom, he's giving me a panic look and instead of helping, I grab the camera. :)

Preparing for screaming meltdown.
Orrin likes goats! Just imagine how much he would love a donkey!

At the zoo in April with the Griffins.
He is showing you the puff in his hand (actually I think its stuck there, those little things are like glue)

We like to enjoy the nice weather.

Way down South

2010-05-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Scott, Orrin and I headed to Baton Rouge to visit Andrew last week. We were pretty tired on Saturday after driving straight through, so we rested up while Uncle Andrew taught Orrin how to play guitar hero.
Then he showed us around downtown Baton Rouge.
Sunday, we went to the Baton Rouge zoo. It was a lot of fun!

Monday, we wanted to see authentic Louisiana, so we headed to the swamp and took a tour. This is going under the I10 bridge. It goes on for miles!

On this tour, we saw 4 alligators. Apparently, they are just coming out of hibernation and are very hungry! (Our guide was tossing them chicken pieces) This guy came right up to the boat. After the tour, we went to a national park a few miles down the road and wandered. It was fun to see lots of turtles and jumping fish (the asian carp). This bird was very friendly, it sat a few inches above our heads and sang to us for quite awhile.

We headed down to New Orleans on Tuesday. This is the view from the Marriott right on Canal in the French Quarter- thank you priceline!That afternoon, we went to the Audubon aquarium. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for Orrin - he loves fish!!
Wednesday morning, we walked around the French Quarter, stopping at Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets. Yum!

We walked up Bourbon street and watched them clean up from the night before (yuck!). Scott had never been in a casino before, so we walked over to Harrahs. We had to leave Orrin outside while we gambled. (I'm kidding, but they really wouldn't let Orrin in)That afternoon, we drove the Mississippi coast, stopping in Waveland, which is where I was when I came down after Hurricane Katrina. For the first couple weeks I was there, we worked in military tents in a parking lot in front of a grocery store until they declared it a biohazard (because of the rotting food and flies). That grocery store is still boarded up, and the hotel that was next door is still empty.

You can see that almost none of the houses along the coast have been rebuilt! There is a lot of land for sale there. Its kind of crazy because you can still see all the front steps that used to lead to houses, and some driveways going to nothing.

Thursday we stopped at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. Let me just say, I want to go to Space Camp! I was very jealous of the kids running around there.

Its pretty amazing how huge the rocket is.A side note: Why does Darryl Waltrip own a honda dealership?

We briefly stopped in Nashville on Friday morning. This was all flooded two days later!Mammoth Caves later that afternoon.
Apparently the cool, dark cave is perfect for a nap - Orrin slept the entire tour!

These things were above our heads the whole time, but you couldn't see them until you took a flash picture. We saw a bat, too but it just looks like a small blob in the picture.
We walked around a pond near the caves. See the frogs? They were everywhere!Some snakes curled up together.

Doesn't Orrin take great pictures?Pulling into the garage - 2578 miles!

And almost 48 hours total spent in the car!

8 months

2010-04-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Edit: A few minutes after I posted this, Orrin woke up and while feeding him I felt his first tooth poking through! Its barely visible, but definitely through the skin.

Not much is new from last month. But here goes:

He is still desperate to crawl. He moves backward now, but it makes him pretty angry since that's not the direction he wants to go.

He can almost use the sippy cup by himself, he just can't quite lift it high enough yet.

He can almost feed himself, but can't quite open his hand enough to get a puff or cheerio out into his mouth.

He still loves to experiment with sounds, octaves, and decibel ranges.

He loves music. He is loving listening to records with Scott at night.

The dogs make him laugh, especially when Spot is whining.

He will eat anything! Even if he doesn't seem to like it, he'll keep eating. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing...

He can wave and pound a drum (the toy one he has). We are working on clapping and dancing.

He loves church nursery. We always get a good report when we pick him up.

He hates balloons.

OA Part 3

2010-04-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

Obsessive much??

Yeah, these ants are bringing out the OCD in me. Here's what happened a couple of days ago in that storm (this brought other drama between us, the neighbors and the city of Kentwood, but that's another post I guess):

Apparently the flood drove all of the ants into our window for refuge. That afternoon, and yesterday morning everywhere I turned in the kitchen, there was an ant! I realized there were some crawling between the storm window and actual window so I sprayed soapy water in between the windows. Then they all appeared - like 30 ants just hanging out in the base of the window - trying to get out, so I unleashed like half the bottle in there. Once they were all dead, I didn't see another ant for the rest of the afternoon. I almost thought I won! But then before bed, I found 3. So Scott did some investigating and we noticed a bunch more in the window - which we drowned again. Then he sprayed the good stuff outside on the window. Today: Peace.

Sort of. They are definitely messing with me. Yesterday when I woke up, there was a dead ant next to my pillow. Ew. Then today, I was in the basement taking pictures of Orrin (yay, 8 month post coming up soon!) and he was leaning way over examining something.

A closer look revealed this:

OA part 2

2010-04-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

These ants are making me crazy! I have actually had dreams about ants the last two nights.

I think my pepper/cinnamon combo is not working anymore. I also tried apple cider vinegar sprayed around the window. And then I watched them crawl right through it.
I've had to kill at least 20-30 ants over the last couple days, and one so far this morning. Everytime I turn around in the kitchen, there's another one! I set down a lid from strawberries for a few minutes last night while Scott and I ate them, and found one in it when I went to rinse it out.

DE is a good idea, mom. I could also sprinkle straight Borax. The problem is that I don't have a flat surface to sprinkle onto. We only see the ants on the side of the house. They might live in the plants along the back, or the wood piles on the side, but we're not sure (our biggest fear is that they are living IN the house somewhere). But to keep them out of the house, I need something that I can spray along the window. I think they have caught onto my borax/honey/sugar mixture, too, because I don't see them eating it anymore, even after I spread a fresh batch out there yesterday. Scott's faith in my methods is waning and I think he will be spraying something/calling an exterminator soon.

Well, at least I tried!

Operation Ant Day 1 and 2

2010-04-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

I love spring! But I hate the ants that come with it. They like to come in through our kitchen window and scout things out. Wednesday, I noticed several ants in the morning so I started doing my research on how to get rid of them using non-toxic methods. Here's what I tried:

First off, a quick kill method that doesn't involve squishing and crunching - fill a squirt bottle with water and add some dish soap. This works fabulously, killing the ant in a matter of seconds, and it also helps with the kitchen cleaning!

Once I killed what I could see, I worked on keeping them out of the kitchen:

I placed bay leaves along the window sill. I guess this did not work as soon after I saw an ant crawling on one of the leaves.

In a last desperate attempt, I sprinkled both cinnamon and pepper in the window. This seems to have actually helped, I have only seen one ant inside since I did this and it came through at the top of the window, avoiding the cinnamon and pepper. Not sure which one of the two is doing the repelling (or maybe both).

Scott gave me a few days to try a natural method of killing all the outdoor ants before he buys some ant killer and sprays it out there. So I mixed 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup honey in a glass jar and microwaved to melt the sugar. Then I added 1/4 cup borax. I spread some of this on the window outside and threw little balls of it in the weeds along the house and in the wood piles along the field. At any given time yesterday and today there are a few ants outside the window eating the stuff, so I have hope.

Maybe we will inspect the yard and try to place some near any ant hills we find out there. I also read that you can buy the miracle grow spray and mix borax into that and spray around the yard. This is also supposed to kill fleas.

Maybe this will help anyone else dealing with ants! I will let you know if our methods have worked.

*An FYI - Borax is not non-toxic (but is considered low toxicity). I don't think ingesting a little bit will hurt the dogs or wildlife that might lick it up but I did put most of it up out of reach of the dogs at least. And what is on the ground is in very small amounts so hopefully the worst I could do is give a mouse a tummy ache.

Fail

2010-03-31T19:29:00.001-07:00

I wanted to run a couple of errands this afternoon - just a quick run to Horrocks and then Fields Fabric. Both are very nearby. I put Orrin in a disposable diaper for the trip just in case, and briefly considered grabbing the diaper bag but opted against it (I always carry a diaper in my purse anyway).

I only needed one small item from Fields so I decided to carry Orrin in (vs using the stroller) to keep me from getting distracted. Walking through the door, I got a whiff of *that* odor.

Okay, in and out, it will be fine. Just don't get to close to anyone.

I stood near the elastic, trying to find what I needed, and Orrin got the hiccups, causing him to spit up twice all over his shirt. Now I'm holding him, so I can't rummage through my purse to find some kleenex.

Pretend not to notice the white goo covering his front.

Still don't see what I need and feeling desperate to get out, I went to the desk to ask. Just as she was pointing out the shelf (while giving Orrin a funny look - not sure if it was due to the goo or the smell...), I felt dampness on my arm. The one right under his butt.

Defeat.

Haha, you should have seen the look on her face when I said "thank you" and turned and walked out the door!

I guess Orrin REALLY hates the fabric store.

Seven Months!

2010-03-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

Orrin continues to grow and change and amaze us every day!

Some new happenings:

He is still rolling like crazy, and is trying to roll from tummy to back. He will lean his head over and concentrate really hard, but that's about as far as it gets.

After watching his cousin Keely, he is obsessed with moving now. He can't actually do it, but he is working on tucking his knees up under his butt and reaching/pushing up with his arms more. I don't think crawling is in our near future, but maybe he will figure out scooting some time soon. The good thing about this is he is happy on his tummy for long periods of time now.

He loves to eat! Some favorites are bananas and peaches. He also just started eating yogurt and likes that too. He HATES rice and oatmeal. Even when I try to sneak it in mixed with something good (like apples), he will gag. I found some recipes for teething biscuits that I am going to make so our rice and oatmeal cereal don't go to waste since they have both been opened and obviously won't be used on time.

He can sit for long periods unassisted. He's getting better at maintaining his balance while leaning and reaching for toys, too.

Still no teeth popping through, but he is teething like crazy, making our days around here not so fun.

He loves going for walks! Whether outside or around the mall, he gets very quiet and just watches.

We installed his big carseat a few days ago, so no more infant seat. He seems to like it, but we need to sit it up a bit more.

Aside from teething days, he is just the happiest kid! He is so laid back, he eats well, he sleeps well (day and night); Scott and I are well aware of how lucky we are!

Cow pictures/ photo shoots in general are getting more difficult, so we just did the best we could. :)

I took this because he is just so cute, even when he's sleeping! And yeah, he's a pacifier addict...

Playing on the floor in his roomAny guesses as to what this toy is?? Its his current favorite. Babysitting privileges to whoever gets it right! :)

Taking advantage of the warm weather!

Sledding

2010-03-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

Since it was really nice out last weekend, we finally decided to use the sled Orrin got for Christmas. Orrin has already outgrown his snowsuits so we (ok, I) put some legwarmers under his pants and put this big fluffy coat on. I bundled myself up, too - only to realize it was like 40 degrees and sunny out.

The snow was really sticky so the sled didn't actually slide through it.We thought it might be fun to leave Orrin under a tree, he wasn't so convinced.

Spot and Daisy destroyed all of the fresh, untouched snow. I love this picture because you almost can't tell if he is coming or going.
Well, it was fun. But we are ready for spring!!!

DIY

2010-03-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

I just have two words: Peanut. Butter.

I was over dunking and swishing after doing it once, so Scott went to Lowe's/Home Depot and put this together for me!

Nevermind the bowls, we were just making sure it wouldn't leak. They sell diaper sprayers (also hand held bidets) but we saved some money doing it this way. Can you imagine using this as a bidet - that is some COLD water?! Anyway, it works fabulously on the diapers. Just have to keep the pressure kind of low and keep it pointed straight down, otherwise... well, you can imagine. I've already had to sanitize the area around the toilet once! :)

Its time for a diaper sprayer

2010-02-20T13:14:00.001-08:00

Oh, and in case you didn't recognize the martian below (Mot)... It is from a Looney Tunes short called "Rocket Bye Baby". Scott and I were watching old Looney Tunes and this one came on - we both thought he looked just like Orrin. :)

Mot

2010-02-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

Do you see a resemblance?

Half Birthday

2010-02-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

Update - stats as of Feb. 10: 19 pounds 1 ounce (75th percentile), 29 inches long (99th percentile). The size of an average 11 month old!

Can you believe it? This little MAN is 6 months old today!

He has developed by leaps and bounds lately:

He can roll over from back to front. This is great except he still can't go from front to back, and he doesn't really like being on his tummy for more than a few minutes. So he rolls, plays a minute, then screams. I'll push him over, and he immediately repeats the process. It is a very fun game.

He is eating more and more. Sweet potatoes are just ok. But oatmeal and mashed bananas today were a hit. He is definitely getting the hang of eating and gets a little more actually in his tummy every day.

He just started sucking his thumb the last couple of days. A little late, but its pretty cute.

He will imitate waving. Also pretty cute.

I've been trying to get him to repeat "mama" for awhile, but his sound of choice right now is naturally "da".

He has suddenly become very cuddly. When I get him out of his crib from naptime, he "hugs" me by burying his face in my shoulder. He does the same thing when he is tired. I LOVE it!

I can't put my finger on the specifics, but he is just acting more grown up!

Monthly cow pictures:

Taken before church (yeah, we were late). I just love this outfit!

Family Picture
With the birthday girl on Saturday!

Sometimes if Orrin wakes up early, we hang out in bed for awhile and watch the today show (and if I'm lucky, he'll fall asleep for another hour or two). I am tired, but it always feels like special time.

This is how I can shower in the morning.
Orrin likes to help with the laundry.

Watching Star Trek with dad. I'm not sure how I feel about this. :)

Irony

2010-02-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

Scott and I recently saw one site that said in Gaelic, Orrin's name means "little green one"

So yes, we named our son "Little Green One" MARSman....

Also, I just found out that a onesie that we had for Orrin as a newborn was just recalled for containing 4 times the legal limit of lead in the tagless label. Here's a picture of that onesie...
Yes, it says "Green Baby". I don't think lead in the label is very green.

Yum!

2010-02-05T12:10:00.001-08:00

Ready Set Go

2010-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

Apparently a week of sleep deprivation caught up to us all. I woke up yesterday in a daze and glanced at the clock - 9:47am. Church starts at 10:30. I spent a few seconds debating whether I should just go back to sleep and pretend I never woke up and saw what time it was (after, of course, I checked the monitor to make sure Orrin was still breathing), then I shook Scott. We spent 3 minutes discussing if it was possible to make it on time, and if it was worth even trying. At 9:50, we decided to go for it. Flying into action, we dressed, brushed our teeth and combed our hair in record time (no shower - sorry to the people around us!). Scott shaved and dealt with the dogs while I went and woke Orrin up (he was still sleeping at 10). I changed him and fed him and crossed my fingers that he wouldn't have his normal morning blowout before we got out the door. We buckled him up, grabbed 2 cereal bars, and left.

We got to church at 10:27am. We have not been to church that early since before Orrin was born! This apparently is the secret to being on time. If only Orrin would sleep til 10 every day!

5 months

2010-01-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm a couple weeks late on this. But I did take the pictures on time!

Fun Facts

As of two weeks ago, Orrin weighed 18.5 pounds. He is quickly outgrowing 9 month size clothes!

He has been obsessed with rolling over from his back to his tummy, but can't quite do it. He practices all the time, including the middle of the night. I'll wake up to a weird clanking noise and turn on the monitor to see him kicking his little aquarium trying to fling himself over.

He also can't roll from his tummy to his back. Except I left him on his tummy for a minute to go blow my nose and came back to find him on his back about a foot away. So I guess he can do it, he just likes to be stubborn and won't let us see it. For all I know, he is rolling all over the place at night.

He is still talking a ton and is testing out all kinds of new sounds. The newest is a scream to voice a complaint. Not a crying scream, but a high pitch, guttural type scream. Then he stops and looks at you like "did you hear that?". Its pretty great.

He can sit unassisted for about 30 seconds. If I put the boppy around him for a little support, he can stay up for several minutes, or until he gets bored.

He loves books and music. Books that play music are even better!

So far he seems to like avocado and banana. He's only had them a couple of times and I'm not sure how much actually ended up in his stomach, but he was trying! We've taken a brief hiatus from solids to get through this cold.

He has two bottom front teeth that are just beneath the skin. He has had some miserable teething days, but they haven't seemed to move in a week or so. Which is good b/c now he is miserable with a cold.

All the sudden, one day several weeks ago all of our sleep problems disappeared. He decided to fall asleep on his own, in his crib, and stay asleep for more than an hour at a time (for naps) and all night. That is, until the cold happened. I think we may have created a pacifier monster recently, which we are kicking ourselves for now b/c he is waking every hour coughing and wanting his pacifier to go back to sleep. Except he coughs it out a few seconds after I get comfortable in bed and cries.

He LOVES his johnny jumper!

These pretty accurately document the times so I gave up on trying to get a smile (he was teething that day) We love the outfit! :)

Oh yeah, I did get one with the flap down, but probably shouldn't post it on the internet. It's definitely one that will be pulled out for future girlfriends though.

Scott is starting him youngThis one just melts my heart

This one tooHe likes to pull things up over his face, hasn't quite mastered removing them yet.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-10T18:16:00.001-08:00

A little late, but some of our Christmas celebrations were late. Orrin had an excellent first Christmas!

We had celebrations every other day for a week! Starting with Oma, then Scott's family, then our own family, then Grandma and Grandpa M. We also went to the Christmas Eve service at church. Orrin loved the music! He fell asleep on grandpa at some point. A week later, we celebrated with my family - Mom and Ed on Saturday and Dad on Sunday. We are suffering party withdrawal now!

Here's some pictures from all of the craziness.

(Scott and Orrin both mesmerized by a Praise Baby video on Christmas night)

It was wonderful to spend time with our families, we are so blessed and thankful for all of you!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-19T18:47:00.001-08:00

We started shortly after Thanksgiving by putting up the lights.

Orrin was having a great time watching (look at those cheeks!)

The dogs weren't invited to participate
An old friend came by to help

Not sure Orrin thought he was so great!

Then we got the tree and Spot wanted to help

Orrin wanted in on the action

So we dressed him up all cute for a photo session

He was not impressed

But then Orrin read the Christmas story and learned of the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

He wanted to share that message with others, so he volunteered to play baby Jesus at church

We hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas this year!

4 Months

2009-12-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Orrin is 4 months old today!

His stats as of last Friday: 16 pounds 12 ounces (85th percentile), 27.5 inches (98th percentile)

So essentially he is the size of a 6-7 month old. We are already finding that people are thinking he is much older than he really is - like the lady in charge of nursery on Sunday asking if he crawls.

Some new developments:

He loves to stand up.

He babbles in multi-syllable a lot more. He sounds like he is trying to have a conversation.

He blows "raspberries" constantly. It is how he expresses both happiness and unhappiness. It's pretty funny when he complains this way.

He has figured out how to turn on his music toy (so he is at least as smart as Spot now!) by flailing his arms.

He is getting very good at grabbing things.

He is very interested in watching Scott and I eat, he will mimic us chewing.

He seems pretty close to being able to sit on his own.

He rolled over once from his tummy to his back, but not again.

He is becoming very opinionated - he knows what/who he wants and when (now!). For example, if he wakes up at night, if Scott tries to go in and soothe him, he SCREAMS! He wants mom.

Speaking of screaming... He does that a lot more now. :) He's still a very happy baby, but if he doesn't get enough sleep (which has been an issue lately), watch out!

He made it through his first cold.

I've given up on trying to get good pictures of him with the cow. You get the idea - he is huge.

And cute!!

We tried out the exersaucer today. He seemed to really like it!

Hmmm

2009-12-08T19:23:00.000-08:00

Orrin was wearing my favorite onesie today.

It has all my favorite jungle animals, like elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, and,

um...

tyrannosaurus rex? (I think that is a brontosaurus there, too)

If you can't beat em....

2009-12-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

Daisy likes to occasionally bring a shoe into the living room when we leave (this has gotten much worse since Orrin). We've given up on scolding her and started messing with her instead.

Before we left (Scott brought out all of our shoes):

This was done before we even left:

And when we got home:

That's 7 shoes!

3 months

2009-11-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

Orrin is a lot more difficult to photograph lately - he never holds still!

My Photoshoot:

He's cute, but pushing the cow up.

Still cute, but he got the cow all the way up.Oooh, my hand...

Ooooh, the wall....Finally!

Please excuse the legwarmers - he was getting a little red so I'm trying to let him air out a little without a cover.

Developments:

He doesn't seem any chubbier, but definitely longer. We won't know his stats for another month. He is wearing 6 month size cloths now, and they aren't even big on him (well, maybe a little wide).

He can hold his head up so much better, so tummy time can actually be fun for a few minutes if there is a toy in front of him to look at.

He loves to sit upright, either with my hand on his back, or propped up with a pillow and the boppy.

He loves to hit at his hanging toys and is getting much better at hand control. He also likes to hold onto toys, but I have to put them in his hand.

He still loves to talk, he'll repeat "boo" now (with some effort). And probably other syllables but that's the one I say to him most often I guess.

He will usually sleep all night long without getting up (so from 8pm to about 7am). I like this!

We're still working on the napping but its getting better!

Orrin hasn't figured it out yet, but Spot has learned how to push the buttons on his music toy to get it to play. I've been hearing the music turn on in the other room all day today.

This is how I get things done:

This chair is on the table and he'll watch while I cook dinner.

This is how I get the laundry folded and put away. Give him a sock to hold on to and I'll get at least 10-15 minutes!When all else fails, I've got babysitters.... :)

Of course this is why I have to clean so much, I turn my back for one second and a dog is sure to find its way onto the blankets or steal a toy.

And a few just for fun:

Advice please??

2009-10-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

So it seems that Orrin suddenly realized that he has a mind of his own. For the past few days, he is refusing to take a bottle and sleep in his crib. We've never had any problems with either of these before. It started on Friday when I tried to put him in his crib for his afternoon nap. He cried and I let him go for awhile, then went and gave him his pacifier and patted him until he settled, and left. He cried harder and I waited for awhile, and went back in to repeat the process and left again. Then he screamed - like a hysterical scream. I waited again, but when I went back in I had to pick him up because he was just inconsolable. He screamed for a few minutes after I picked him up even. He seems to be this way, he just ramps up to a point where he can't calm down. Anyway, I probably undid my nap work.
Then last night, he did the same thing when we put him down at bedtime. It took probably an hour and a half, but he did finally fall asleep in his crib. But he woke after a half hour and screamed again. So we (actually Scott) started over, but it didn't take as long to get him back to sleep. The positive is that he did sleep until 8am without waking up!
Same thing with the bottle. Scott got up with him at 8 yesterday and tried to feed him so I could sleep in. He would not eat for Scott. He didn't scream about it though (so I did get to sleep in!). He wouldn't take the bottle from the lady in nursery yesterday either, even though he was definitely hungry.
Anyone have any advice to offer?? Especially about the sleeping in his crib. We've been reading up on sleep training methods and want to decide on one to try so we are both on the same page of what to do. I'm not ready for just straight crying it out yet, he just seems to young for that. Thankfully Scott and I are both just as stubborn as Orrin and neither of us will give in and let him sleep somewhere else (at night anyway, naps haven't been as firm which is probably why its a problem).

Just for fun - here's some pictures of our fun weekend in Ann Arbor for the Delaware state game (which we didn't actually attend). I was dumb and we didn't get pictures with Michelle or Joyce, but we did get to see them too!

Orrin at his first Step Show

Tailgating on Elbel (the band practice field)
In front of the director's tower

It was cold!!
Orrin and Scott in front of the stadium

Instead of the game, we went over to South U and got bubble tea, then headed up to Howell to visit the Freemans.

Colby and Orrin
This is what happens when Kevin holds the baby

Mason and Colby
With Kevin again, I'm not sure who they are waving at

Having fun with the camera
Sara with Orrin, Mason and Colby

We can't wait to visit again!!

2 Months

2009-10-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

I told you Orrin has grown - check out this comparison from 4 days to 2 months!

Some Orrin facts from the last month:

He loves his mobile

He loves playing with his hanging toys, especially this past week. He is starting to try to hit them and talk to them.
Even though we do it every day, he does NOT like tummy time
And is much happier when turned over to see and talk to me
He loves bathtime (but as I've learned, NOT shower time - which brings up another new development: a very loud shriek/scream when he is mad)
He still likes being carried around, although he usually falls asleep. So I can't tell you what he really thinks of art yet.
He likes to contemplate life

And then smile and tell you about it

He LOVES to talk, and is just starting to squeal a little trying to laugh.
He's sleeping 7-8 hours for a stretch at night, then another 2 hours or so after eating.
We've been working on a bedtime routine and he's still getting use to that. We're trying to get him to fall asleep at 8 or 9 instead of 12 or 1. He's getting better, and slowly learning to fall asleep on his own, too.
He just discovered the tv and finds it interesting. We need to cut way back (me especially, I like it on for the background noise usually).

We are having a blast with him and can't wait to see what he'll do next!

Ew

2009-10-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

Please forgive me for posting this, but THIS is the grossest thing I think I have ever seen in my life! Who comes up with this stuff?!?

Warning: If you have a weak stomach, do not open this link!

Big Boy

2009-10-05T14:51:00.001-07:00

Orrin is huge! He had his 2 month appointment today - 12 pounds, 6 ounces! And 24.5 inches long. So that is 95th percentile for length and 65th or so for weight.

He was so good and happy, enjoying all the attention from the doctor and nurse and smiling and cooing at them. Then she poked his leg and he got this sad look like "why did you just do that to me?" right after. He cried for a second and then just kept looking sad/hurt. He was a trooper though. We're going back in two weeks for the second shot. I was pretty worried that it was going to be a battle to get them split the shots up, but the doctor was very cool about it. They still keep bugging us about opting out of the hep b for now, though. Oh well. Orrin's a little fussy this afternoon, but nothing a little extra food and cuddling can't fix (like he really needs more food!). :)

Here's some pictures from Orrin's baptism last week:

Baptized

Introduced to the congregation with Pastor PaulI had to try on the bonnet - he didn't like it!

Family pictureThe cake (again from Cake Connection)

And here's a fun video for you - wait a few seconds and you will see how good Orrin is at communicating what he wants. I only get a few seconds to deliver, though. Then its total meltdown (you can see this about to happen at the end). Sorry about the quality, I was juggling him and the camera.

Cloth

2009-10-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

See the post below for some of Orrin's recent adventures.

I thought I'd put some pictures of our cloth diapering. So many people were skeptical about this decision, but so far its worked out pretty well. I am still having issues with leaking out the sides when I use prefolds, I just can't seem to get it tight enough around his legs (and they are definitely not skinny anymore!). If anyone has suggestions for me - please share!! But the g-diaper covers with either cloth inserts or prefolds stuffed in them, and the fitteds that we got as gifts and that I sewed are working really well! I've been checking craigslist often and some of the cloth diaper discount websites and diaperswappers because Orrin will soon outgrow everything we have! I have prefolds in the larger sizes, 2 fitteds, and 1 cover in the next size up, so we need some more covers at the very least. Orrin has been napping for about 3 hours every afternoon, so I think I am going to try to sew some more diapers soon, too. Especially since those have been working so well for us. Scott really loves the thirsties fab fitted, but we only have one and they are expensive so I try and leave that one clean for when he changes Orrin.
The only negative (which is really a positive) is that Orrin definitely feels the wetness in a cloth and doesn't like it! He could sit all day in a disposable happily, but screams when the cloth is wet. So I end up changing him more often (but what do I care, since its free!). We haven't tried cloth at night yet, but I think we can soon since when I get up with him at 4:30am, he is usually still dry.

Here he is modeling a prefold (look how chubby he is getting!):

The snappis make putting them on so easy!

Here's one that I made
This is the Thirsties fitted - it is so soft and trim and nice!

And a wrap style cover goes on top (I use Thirsties)
Using cloth makes his bottom so big, though! I have to use a bigger size onsie and pants.
So there you have it - cloth diapering isn't so bad! I wash them about every other day. That doesn't bother me since it seems that I need to do regular laundry almost that much anyway. I even made my own cloth diaper detergent for super cheap. (you can't use most regular detergents since a residue can build up on the diapers causing them to repel liquid) And I'm able to hang dry everything on nice days.

Adventures

2009-10-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the fun things that I've been doing lately:

Hanging out with John Ball and seeing all the animals at the zoo

Here I am with the Guanacos

And the ringtail lemurs

This is with Oma at the twins birthday party
Here I am playing with my cousin Leeum at his house
This is me at my Aunt Jerilynn and Uncle Jeff's wedding (don't tell anyone, but I also spent lots of time at salons getting pedicures and hairdos with the girls!)
I also went apple picking, seeing all the apples made me hungry
Dad and I both root for Michigan (in a couple weeks we're going to my first UM football game!)
As you can see, I'm a busy boy!

2009-09-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

We can't believe how fast Orrin is growing! He is smiling a ton now, and starting to "talk" to me. I just had to pull out the 3-6 month clothes since he's outgrown all of the newborn and most of the 0-3 month stuff. We think he is going through another growth spurt because he pretty much slept the entire day yesterday, and surprisingly almost all night.

Can you believe he was just 4 weeks old here?!

And a few seconds later...

These are his one month pictures (taken two days late because I forgot). We're using the cow as a size reference, you can scroll down to see him with the cow at a few days old.
I like this one, he looks so contemplative. And notice that he is hugging the cow. :)

Sitting with his cousin Leeum - suddenly Orrin doesn't look so big anymore. I can't wait until they can run around and play together!

Spot likes to be involved in everything. I'm pretty sure he is letting me know I need to change Orrin's diaper here.
This was a few days ago - the difference is amazing! He was smiling huge for me but would stop as soon as I picked up the camera.
His poor face started breaking out bad this week, too. Hopefully it clears up soon, it looks painful.

I've got lots more pictures to share soon of some of Orrin's recent adventures. I'm doing this one handed today while Orrin eats so I'll put it off until I have both hands free. :)

Oliver

2009-09-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

I have always meant to tell Oliver's story but I guess now is the last chance to do it.
I started volunteering at PigHoppers rabbit and pig rescue in July of 2002. On my very first day, a bunny came in. We all discussed what to name him - and I thought of the name Oliver after Oliver Twist since this little bunny was an orphan. This is the story that we heard that day:

Oliver had been first owned by a photographer around Easter time. Shortly after, a neighbor found him in the trash pile out front. He had obviously been attacked by some sort of animal as his ears and nose were chewed up and he was missing some toes. This person took him home and stuck him in a hutch in the backyard. When she finally called us, she said she hadn't really been able to take care of him since she had ALS, so a volunteer went and picked him up.

The story doesn't end there, though. I already had a rabbit (Fuzzy) and wasn't looking for another one. A few weeks after he came in, Oliver was adopted by a family as a pet for there 5 year old daughter. They had him for a few months but returned him that fall because the daughter wasn't taking care of him. After all this, Oliver was still a sweet and spunky rabbit. I took him home shortly after he came back to the shelter. He was a great bunny - litter trained and very friendly. He loved to be held and pet.

Anyway, he had a great life with me (I hope). The past year, he's been showing his age and for the last couple months could no longer use his back legs. Even more recently he was drinking a full bottle of water a day (a sign of problems in rabbits) and sometimes choking when he drank. Scott and I have been agonizing over when is the right time to put an animal to sleep and we finally decided last week that he was most likely suffering (even though he would still come to the door to be pet and get treats), so Friday we brought him in.

I know he was just a rabbit, but I've always loved his story. He went through so many bad things and yet always had such a good bunny attitude (believe me, I have seen rabbits with bad attitudes!). Is it wrong to be inspired by a rabbit? :)

Fun stuff

2009-09-03T12:22:00.001-07:00

Time flies! I can't believe Orrin is almost 4 weeks old. He is growing so fast. At our first ped appt when he was 4 days old, he weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces. Two weeks later he was up to 8 pounds 3 ounces. Who knows what he is now, a week later! His belly is getting noticeably bigger, and he is getting longer. He has outgrown any newborn outfits, especially the ones with feet.

A few fun things we've noticed about Orrin:

He has a temper! It shows up either at bathtime, during fingernail cutting, and if he is hungry (which is always!).

He has webbed toes (the 2nd/3rd toes on both feet, but the left foot is all the way up to the first joint). Apparently this runs in Scott's family as one of the grandfathers had the same thing.

He looks just like Scott's baby picture, but he has my crooked yawn.

He is just starting to have non poop/gas related smiles, but still pretty rare.

He is a very noisy sleeper. Not snoring, but little squeaking when he breathes. It was really noticeable in church last week!

The doctor said he is very strong and cautioned us to not leave him unattended anywhere as he will probably roll early.

He has been able to roll onto his side almost from day 1. He prefers to sleep this way.

He has really skinny legs! I've been putting him in cloth diapers during the day. Last week I tried the prefolds and he kept leaking out of them. I'm pretty sure nothing even hit the diaper, just ran right out the side. This week I'm using the ones that I made and they are working pretty well, although I have to add another absorbant layer inside. I had no idea how much someone that little could pee! (And a huge thanks to Cara for the newborn covers - we only had one that was small enough for him and obviously it was getting dirty everytime so having a few more has been so helpful!!)

Maybe Scott can think of some more...

Of course we've been taking tons of pictures!

Wow

2009-08-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

I guess first I should introduce Orrin, even though I think everyone knows by now.

He was born at 6:23am on Sat August 8th. 7lb 9oz, 20in

Labor was not so bad, it went on all day Friday and we finally went to the hospital at midnight. It was much more calm and relaxed than I thought - of course the epidural helped. I gave in around 3 or 3:30 am and got it by 4. That wasn't my plan but I'm glad I did it, the whole experience was kind of fun after that.

He is very healthy and eats and sleeps so well! The past two nights, Scott and I have probably slept about 7 hours each (broken up into segments of course). Not bad, although we're still recovering from almost no sleep at all last weekend and early this week. We're still learning about diaper changes though. We've gone through about 5 outfits a day so far, and washed the changing pad cover many times. Orrin likes to wait until the diaper is off to do his business.

We really appreciate all the help and food so far! We feel very blessed that so many people love Orrin too and want to help us out!

Scott and I had fun taking pictures the other day, here's a few.

Another update

2009-08-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

I went in for my second Non-Stress Test this morning. The baby is very stubborn, I could feel him moving around in the waiting room, but as soon as they hooked us up to the monitors, he decided to take a nap or something. They need to see the baby move before they will let us go home. So the nurse brought me a cup of coke and we waited. Still sleeping. After about half hour, I got another cup of coke and the dr. shook my belly. Finally he woke up and all was good! I'm glad b/c we would have had to go to the hospital for a Stress test if he didn't (I'm not entirely sure what that is but it sounds like less fun). I had a contraction monitor on too and it was kind of fun to see them all. Pretty much at exactly 6 min apart. Too bad that seems to mean nothing for me - they've been that way for 12 hours now. And we've had several other similar times that end with nothing.
So the plan is to show up Monday night for the first half of the induction and the dr. will decide Tues morning how to proceed (just break my water or go w/ the pitocin). Either way, it is looking like his birthday will be the 11th. I'm optimistic that it could be sooner but trying not to get my hopes up since that makes me a little crazy.

Update

2009-08-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry to everyone who is excited for the baby, but I'm still pregnant. We really thought we'd be going in last Friday or Saturday, but this little guy is stubborn. Actually I think he wants out too, but my body just isn't cooperating.
I'm going back to the dr. today and we'll be discussing induction but I don't think that will happen for at least another week as long as the baby is doing well. So I'm just trying to not go crazy right now.

More Projects

2009-07-25T03:56:00.001-07:00

Here's what has been keeping me semi-sane the past few weeks. More sewing!

This isn't anything I've sewn, but Scott and I sort of made these canvas things, I painted them and we put on the animal appliques. And as you can see, the crib is all ready for baby! (Even though he probably won't be sleeping in there for awhile after he is born. Like I said, I am bored.)

I made a cute little pacifier holder w/ a waterproof inside.

Since we are going to use cloth diapers, I made a wetbag to carry with us when we go out to hold dirty diapers. Again, it has a waterproof inside and is machine washable. Sewing the waterproof fabric (polyurethane laminate, or PUL) is kind of a nightmare, it sticks to the sewing foot and gets all bunchy.

And of course along the same lines, I made 2 diaper pail liners, only I didn't bother with any cute print on the outside.

After all the rectangles, I got a little more adventurous and tried my hand at making some diapers. There are a bunch of free patterns online so I tried one of them. I made 5 in the newborn size and am holding off on making any bigger ones until I can try these and see if they will actually hold anything. :) They're not so cute since I just used all the old fabric that I could find (the inner soaker layer is made of Scott's old t-shirts). And my sewing is pretty ugly, I haven't quite got the hang of curves yet. Or elastic. But they seem like they might work.
These are accessories to go with the above. There are microfleece liners (from what I've read they help the baby to feel dry, and poop just drops right off of fleece vs sticking to the flannel of the actual diaper), some inserts for extra absorbancy when necessary (3 layers of microfiber covered in flannel), and a couple of fleece covers. I made the inserts to fit in my g-diaper covers so they will work for that too. You wouldn't believe how many blogs and websites are dedicated to sewing your own cloth diapers and other related things!

I think this one's my favorite! I saw an ad for something like this that sells for $60 normally. I thought it was kind of cool, though, and seemed like I could easily make one. I just looked up the dimensions, then just tried to wing the rest. :) Again with the ugly sewing, but it is very funtional and I like it!
It is a tote bag that you can load up with toys/diapers/whatever:

But then it opens up into a soft blanket to play on! The outer fabric is water resistant nylon, and the inner is soft flannel, with a layer of soft batting in between. So it will be great for picnics, the beach, camping, etc. And it is of course machine washable.

And with that, I think I'm done sewing for awhile. My motivation for doing pretty much anything is decreasing by the minute! I'm just sitting and reading (loving the library!) and waiting at this point. I have decided, though, that if the heartburn/hair correlation is true, I'm pretty sure I'm going to give birth to a gorilla.

Last Vacation

2009-07-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

First of all - congrats to Travis and Cara!! Now if Keely could just get her cousin to come out and play...

I can't believe its been a month already, but Scott and I went up to Traverse City for a visit and to see Griffin and Elena's soccer games.

This is my favorite one! Go Elena!

It was a little chilly that day!

Then on Father's Day weekend, we went down to the track to watch Ed race and Jet Wars. We had a good time although I hid behind someone every time one of the crazy jet cars went past. I could feel it reverberating through my belly, must have been pretty weird for the baby!

This is one of the jet trucks putting on his fire show before going down the track. These drivers are crazy!

The kids were way more entertained by Grandpa's new dart gun.

Then, over the 4th of July weekend, we went up to Cadillac for one last pre-baby mini vacation. It was nice and relaxing with the family and good food! And of course Scott got some fishing in, and even some chainsawing, his two favorite things, so he was happy.

I hope I have this right, but I'm pretty sure this is Lydia. Spot loves the twins! Daisy did too, unfortunately neither dog understands not to jump on people carrying babies (or just not to jump on people in general).

Jennalyn and Lydia w/ Marilee, enjoying the lake.
Of course, the dogs loved the lake too! Scott played with them a couple times a day, they slept for days when we got home!

Their ball had a huge hole in it so it kept sinking which Spot thought was great.

Unfortunately he usually didn't actually find it, so Scott had to get his boots on and go rescue the ball. But Scott loves his boots so I don't think he minded. :)

So that was our vacations! Now it is just waiting.... We are enjoying our weekend though. We had a date last night and Scott didn't even have to work today!

Inevitable

2009-06-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, it happened.

Scott and I bought a minivan.

We sold the Taurus a couple weeks ago and just waited for an "Ed Special" to come along. We had a list of SUV's and crossovers and maybe a minivan that we gave to Ed to look for at auction, but the minivans kept coming up as cheaper and better gas mileage. And then that special deal came along. This is just another sign that God made Scott and I for each other - we both are so ridiculously practical, it was a quick and easy decision (although one of us might be a little pickier and took slightly longer than the other). :)

And the funny thing is... we both love it!! Scott is driving it today or I would go take a picture for you. It is so comfortable (especially for me at 8 months pregnant) and has all kinds of fun and fancy gadgets and features. The dogs like it too, they get the whole back for now (thanks to stow and go).

talent

2009-06-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

My baby has developed a new talent. He can simultaneously kick/punch my bladder AND my ribs! I'm so proud.

Butchered

2009-05-28T17:00:00.001-07:00

Scott and I do not have a career in dog grooming ahead of us. These pictures do not do justice to how awful Spot looks right now. His ears are way different lengths, he has a flat top, and the rest of his body is pretty mangled. We spent an hour on him on Sunday until we were tired, and keep meaning to try and finish/even him out a bit but keep putting it off. Until then, Spot is just going to look funny.

Here's a before:

A couple of Afters:

Too bad we can't shave Daisy, she's shedding like crazy! This was after one session of "furminating":

Can't wait to throw a baby into the mix! Speaking of baby, he seems to be doing well. I passed my glucose test a couple weeks ago, so bring on the ice cream! :) We hit 31 weeks tomorrow. Scott and I are even a little closer to picking a name - we think we have it down to 2 now. Probably won't finalize that until he is born. My belly is getting huge and in the way. And finally, the heat is setting in. I've never been bothered by 80+ degrees before, but now its not so enjoyable. Poor Scott, another thing for me to complain about!

Here's some other babies that have taken residence for now outside our window (I love watching them, although their mom is less than thrilled by this):

Pour some sugar on me

2009-05-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

My sweet tooth has apparently caught up with me. I failed my 1 hr glucose screening test. :( It doesn't really mean anything yet, except that I have to do a 3 hr test on friday. I have to fast for 12 hrs, then go sit at the lab for 3 hours while they draw my blood a bunch of times before and after drinking the sugar stuff. Fun! I suppose pass or fail the next part, I need to cut back on my sugar intake. All this the day after we got our girl scout cookies! They're in the freezer now, taunting me. :)

Baby stuff

2009-05-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

I guess there isn't too much to update with the baby. Tomorrow marks 27 weeks. He's getting bigger, meaning I'm getting bigger too. The last couple of days I've noticed that if I slouch a little, he can reach the inside of my ribs. I can't say I'm too excited about this, not the most pleasant feeling.
What I am excited about is the beginning of garage sale season! I've already hit a bunch, and found a few good deals. I had to force myself to stop looking at the clothes though! Tomorrow is the Bailey's Grove sale, which I've heard is good. If anyone is bored and wants to join me, let me know.
His room is coming together, too. I'll put pictures at the bottom. I finished sewing the crib skirt and valances, along with a bunch of other things. His name, on the other hand, is not coming together yet. We keep trying, but every time we try to narrow down our list (currently down to 9), we end up adding another name or two. The middle name still is definitely Scott.
Also, I've been having tons of braxton hicks contractions, for several weeks. Sara said this means my uterus will be well practiced for labor, and therefore it should go quickly and easily (or something like that). Sounds good to me! :)

Here's the crib skirt

A close up of the fabric, I think its so cute!
One of the valences

Some views of the room - excuse all the bins and clutter. I'm glad I have 3 months to clean and organize!

We found this at Baker and thought it fit our theme quite well!
Here's a big stack of burp cloths that I made this week (again with the flannel on one side and soft terry cloth on the other side)

Sewing has been so much fun! I've also made a pouch sling and a wrap (like a Moby wrap) - although that pretty much only involved hemming 5 yards of fabric. Still working on the pail liners and wet bag. And in all the Joann's grand opening sale fun, I got a book with a bunch of patterns for fun things to make for the baby (like hats, shoes, toys, etc). I'm excited to get started on some of those. However, that will be testing my skills as I haven't actually branched out past variations on rectangles yet. Scott is so nice and patiently listens to me and smiles when I excitedly tell him all the new things I want to make, the fun store I visited for cloth diapers, the latest article I read about this or that. Not that he doesn't care, but I'm sure it doesn't top his list of exciting topics right now. :)

Things around the house have been a little frustrating. It seems like everything is breaking lately. So much for trying to get ahead with all of Scott's overtime! It started with the fridge dying. We lost some food (although thankfully we salvaged a lot of it - and thankfully it died right before our vacation instead of during) and had to buy a new one. At least Scott gets a discount on GE appliances. We had to get Scott's car fixed this week, and on the day he picked up his car, mine decided not to start. We should have seen that coming since its been starting sort of funny for several weeks, but always would start. Thankfully when it happened I wasn't too far from Scott's work, so I just called and he came to rescue me. I happily shopped at Joann's while waiting. Of course when he got there, it started right up! So I got it home, and Scott is deciding what to do with it now - it won't start at all anymore. Most likely going to have to have it towed to the dealership or something. All this about 2 months before we were going to start our new car search! Oh well. We know these are just minor things and we have so much to thank God for!

Vacation

2009-04-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have like 8 posts lined up in my head, but I'll start with our vacation. Scott and I went over to the East Coast earlier this month. We took 2 days to drive to New Jersey first to visit Becky. Monday, she took us into Manhattan, but the weather was cold and rainy so we didn't do very much. We ate a great lunch and dinner and waited in a long, cold line to get discount broadway tickets. Then we saw the Marvelous Wonderettes later that night. We didn't even know what it was about, but it was pretty fun! It was also really great to spend some time with Becky, we miss her!
Tuesday we left for Boston (actually, it was just outside of Boston) and met up with Jeremy and Marilee and twins for dinner. Wednesday we went with them to Salem, and then drove up the coast, and just for the fun of it (and to say we had been there) we drove through New Hampshire into Maine. Thursday all of us went into Boston and visited the Aquarium and some other historic landmarks. Then Scott and I had dinner with Esther. It was so good to see her and catch up a little!!
Friday we left for home, stopping for the night in Utica, New York. So my 30th birthday was spent mostly in the car - we did splurge on dessert that night though, which really is all it takes to make me happy anyway! We planned on visiting Niagara Falls on Saturday on the way home, which we did, but it was crazy busy! We just parked for a few minutes, fought our way through the crowd to the falls and took some pictures, then left. We made it home I think around 11 that night. All in all, it was a fun vacation! I was disappointed that I couldn't do more, I would get so tired after walking for a while. But we made the best of it and rested a lot.

An interesting fact: Scott's 30th birthday was on Good Friday, 2008, and mine was on Good Friday, 2009. We figured that out during our many, many hours spent in the car.

And some pictures:

Bailey was a great traveling companion for the first part of our trip! He kept burying treats in the back seat, our dogs are going crazy now trying to find them under the seat cover!

Stopping at a rest stop in Pennsylvania (or New Jersey?) for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
The view of Manhattan from Becky's apartment

At the Salem Witch Museum
I was being a wimp about the cold - in Salem

I don't remember the name of this boat

A beach in Maine

At the same beach

North Church in Boston, where Paul Revere hung the lanterns (actually we learned that he had someone else do it)

A good belly shot

Sleeping turtle at the Aquarium

Me and Esther!

Niagara Falls, unfortunately we didn't get a good shot of the thousands of people around us.
If you're bored, there are better and more pictures up at flickr.

Ultrasound

2009-03-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

We went in for the big ultrasound this morning! Scott and I have both been "feeling" boy the last couple weeks so we decided last night that we would be surprised if we found out the baby is a girl. We weren't surprised - its a boy! It was very obvious, too. How fun to watch him move around and see his little heart and brain and bones! Scott says he was a little distracted trying to figure out how the software works, but he was excited too.

Here's some pictures (I know, they look like every other ultrasound picture, but they're ours!)

Profile, you can see the spine and legs

Same thing again pretty much
A little harder to see, but its his face w/ his arm and hand above it

Fun Stuff

2009-03-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Scott and I celebrated our first anniversary on the 14th! We had a fabulous day. Scott didn't go in to work (yeah, it was a Saturday, but he usually has to work), so we slept in, took the dogs for a walk at the nature area, went to Babies R Us, and had a huge dinner at Ming Ten.
I figured out one of the great things about our marriage: Scott is romantic and sentimental and sweet; I'm none of those, but I love cake! He ordered a cake from the Cake Connection (who made our wedding cake) to celebrate. We didn't even eat it on Saturday b/c we were so full from dinner, but we enjoyed it the rest of the week.

The gifts (a lot of paper):

The Cake:This past Saturday was Scott's birthday. We had another fun day, except he didn't get to sleep in because he went to work. We went to the Ultimate Sports Show, where Scott drooled over some fishing boats. Then out to dinner at Outback. We got to celebrate Scott and Andrew's birthdays - as well as say goodbye and wish Andrew luck in Louisiana - with the family on Sunday.

We owe a huge thanks to Mom and Dad M. for the crib and mattress, and for helping to assemble it. The baby's room is starting to come together.
I'm almost finished with sewing the crib skirt. I have enough fabric left over to sew valences for the windows too! Looking through Babies R Us and Target at bedding sets, we decided not to even register for one b/c they are so expensive! I found fabric that I like better than anything else we've seen anyway. Here was the inspiration for the room/theme:
I bought this like 5 years ago for $3 because I thought it was cute. Scott likes it too, so we hung it up in there, and a theme was born. :)

And just a plug - if you ever need a cake for anything (wedding, shower, just because), please call Marla at Cake Connection (you can google it for the info)! She operates out of her house, her cakes are so yummy and beautiful and affordable, and she's really nice!

Still Good

2009-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today was the 18.5 week appointment with the Dr. It was just as exciting as the last one, I guess. The heartbeat sounded good, it was at 144. Not so "girl" sounding today. I like that my weight right now in the chart only looks like 3 pounds up. When they first weighed me, I was wearing boots and a winter coat. The last time and today, just normal clothes and shoes, no coat. It makes a surprising difference b/c I know from the scale at home that I have gained way more than 3 pounds! I'm trying so hard to fatten up Scott so I don't outweigh him soon, but so far its not working! Also, we scheduled our ultrasound for March 26. Hopefully we will have some good news to share that day!
In other exciting pregnancy news, I have been able to feel the baby move for at least a week now. Last week, I was suspicious, but not entirely sure that's what I was feeling. But this week has been pretty unmistakable. Scott hasn't been able to feel anything yet, but he's looking forward to it.

We owe a belated congratulations to Jen and Jon, Chris and Katie, and Chet and Angie! They had their babies within a few days of each other a couple weeks ago, all are healthy and beautiful!

And a big thanks to Cara who spent some time to teach me to sew! I instantly fell in love. Which meant that Scott and I bought a sewing machine soon after. I was so excited to save some money and sew things for the baby, but actually buying the machine sort of defeated that purpose. But Scott is a great sport about it, and it gives me something to do. So far, I've made large amounts of flannel/terry cloth baby wipes to be used with cloth diapers (can also double as extra inserts for nighttime) for me and Jen. Next on the list is a couple of water proof/washable diaper pail liners for the cloth diapers, burp cloths, and a sling. And if I'm feeling particularly creative, I might try a wet bag for on the go. Thank goodness for the internet and many free sewing patterns/instructions.

Scott has been busy, busy, busy too! He installed a bunch of outlets in the basement (one by my sewing machine!) and in the garage with the help of his dad. I'd post pictures, but ummm, they're outlets. He did help me install shelves in our closet (and by help me, I mean he did it all himself while I watched from bed) for my clothes. And we both cleaned out our closet and the spare room (now baby's room). He also built a gate for our deck. Since fencing our yard was out of the budget, Scott picked up a 12x12 kennel from Menards and we are going to attach that to the side of the deck and remove some slats so the dogs can easily get off the deck into the kennel. This way, we can just throw them out and keep them contained. I was not amused watching Spot dance around in the street, ignoring me completely as traffic approached a couple weeks ago.
Up next on the list is drywall in the basement and maybe putting together the crib this weekend!

So far so good

2009-02-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

We had our 14 week appointment today. It went a little better than the 10 week (ie it lasted longer than 30 seconds) but wasn't really any more exciting. We did get to hear the heartbeat though, so that was fun. And a relief. Not that I was worried, but any verification that he or she is still kicking in there takes a small load of my shoulders. Dr. R didn't give us a number but said it was high and that it sounds like a girl. But then he gave a lengthy disclaimer about how there is no truth to that and he likes to joke about it - and if we decide not to find out the sex of the baby and he comments at a later appointment that it sounds like a girl/boy he will be again just joking and not sharing the sex with us. Apparently he has gotten some angry phone calls. 6 or so more weeks until the big ultrasound!
I was feeling fabulous for a couple weeks, then for the past week I've had a migraine. But it seems to be getting better and I was told today that for the 2nd trimester I can add in ibuprofin if I need to. And I broke down and bought a pair of maternity jeans last weekend. I haven't worn them yet, but the rubber band can only stretch so much to hold up my normal jeans, so it will be soon! Scott and I went to Howell for Colby's 2nd birthday party on Saturday, and Sara so conveniently lives very close to the Tanger outlets, so we stopped on the way home. Scott got his first taste of outlet shopping and I think he liked it! Unfortunately, I had a headache and wanted to get the jeans and get home, but as we drove around looking for the Motherhood Maternity store, he kept pointing out all the other great stores there. He's not quite as excited about Gap, Banana Republic, and J. Crew as I am, but Bose and a couple others I can't remember caught his attention. Maybe he'll be willing to go back on a better day? Scott and I rarely shop together, but he was a very good sport while I tried on like 20 pairs. I couldn't bring myself to try on the little foam belly they have to see what you'll look like in 4 months - I don't want to see it yet! I also couldn't bring myself to buy the "full panel" pants. So hopefully these still fit in a few months.

Well, I'll have more interesting pictures in 6 months or so, but until then - who can resist this??

A beautiful day in the neighborhood....

2009-01-19T12:30:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, our neighbors have some interesting parking habits. The snow has only made this worse, since they don't seem to like to shovel the driveway. This is what we woke up to last Sunday. There's not as many cars as normal (usually 6 or 7), but the one in front is pretty much directly in front of our driveway. We managed to squeak out to get to church, and the offending car moved that afternoon so no big deal.

Until Tuesday when we woke up to this! The trailer is actually next to the big green car, not behind it - so they are "three wide" if you will. And again, directly in front of our driveway. This time, it was even tighter trying to get out and back in, especially for me, because of the other cars there! We pretty much have to back down the street. Scott did go talk to them that night and he moved the trailer the next day. We especially love the car parked in the middle of their lawn. :)

And just a side note - these pictures were taken at like 11am on a Tuesday. Its usually even worse in the evenings!

2008-12-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

At least someone is enjoying the snow!

Some pictures

2008-11-21T11:45:00.000-08:00

I took this picture a couple weeks ago, can you tell what it is?
Spot was laying there surveying the world as he usually does when it started raining. When I went out to get him, this is what I saw and I thought it was kind of cool.

Daisy and Spot were hiding from the vacuum yesterday. I left it running so I could quick grab the camera. Don't they look like a yin-yang (if only spot had a white nose)?

We had a lovely snow this afternoon:
30 seconds later:

Projects

2008-11-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

Its tough being home all day every day, wanting to update and decorate our house when our budget is a little tighter and we shouldn't be buying any new things right now. The obvious answer is for me to get a job. Instead, I've been doing this:

First the night stand. The story that I've heard is that Mom M. and/or Oma found it at a garage sale for cheap many years ago and gave it to Scott with the suggestion of refinishing it. Well the refinishing never happened and it got dusty and stained (maybe it was stained before - I don't know). Anyway, it wasn't so pretty and definitely did not fit in with the awesome new paint and fabulous duvet that Scott just loves (not!). So we found some minwax and borrowed Mom and Dad M.'s belt sander and on a nice Saturday I sanded and stained away.
I forgot to take a before picture but here's a during - this was actually the second coat which was done on election day. I also did a plant stand that I've had for awhile to match it.

Sitting on that old night stand was a white lamp. I don't know the story behind it, and it wasn't particularly ugly, just a little boring. So I taped off some stripes and found "Prowler Purple" spray paint at the hobby shop and sprayed to my hearts content. Seriously it took about 12 coats.

I love it! Our bedroom looks much more adult and less college apartment, although the new carpet will help even more. No word on when that will happen but I think soon. Again with the tight budget and holidays and all.... But the carpet needs to come before Jan. 4th when who knows how many women will be coming over for Jen's baby shower. We'll need to use the basement to fit everyone and the carpet down there is NOT presentable. But Scott has done a lot of work already towards making our basement livable (I guess I should take pictures of his work too but later) so the carpet should follow soon.

The latest projects have been a long time coming. One is a design that has been floating around my head for a couple years, and the other is a design that Scott and I came up with a couple weeks ago. I don't own a lot of jewelry (I swear that's not a hint, Scott...) but what I do have has been just sitting out on my dresser due to a lack of somewhere to put it. I didn't want a large or fancy box since there isn't that much and I'm just not really a fancy person. And of course being who I am, there was also a lot of random other stuff sitting out on my dresser.

Here's box 1:

And box 2 - this one's my favorite!

Scott wishes he had one...
So here's my dresser now:

Much better. I'm not sure what to do this week... Any suggestions?