Greatness

We are soooo thankful for wonderful great-grandparents who set an excellent example of commitment and caring for us and for our children. Plus, all three of them are just really cute.

too much cuteness

 Like many of you, I sure can't wait for summer weather to arrive and stay for a while. We got a delightful taste of summer on Mother's Day weekend, while we were up in Washington with Adam's family. On Sunday after church, we pulled out the sprinkler and let the kids go wild while still dressed in their Sunday clothes. As I repeatedly tell Michaela when something spills on her clothes, "It's just water; it will dry." You may notice from the photos, though, she doesn't seem too shy around intentional wetness... she's been asking about the swimming pool for weeks.

New Nephew!

Just over a month ago, Adam and I got a new nephew, and Michaela and Josiah got a new little cousin. Welcome little Liam to the fun! Congratulations Abbey and David on your new addition! It feels a little bit crazy to get together with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and their two little ones, our two little ones, and the grandparents all at the same time. Restful is not a word that comes to mind. However, we know that these are the years that will fly by so quickly and we will think of fondly very often. I feel so blessed that our kids will grow up with cousins close in age and geographically near, as well. 

I love being an aunt! All the pressure is off!

Cutie pie Liam David

Greyson was excited to play with cousin Josiah

Giving him a little loving

Seven

Josiah has been seven months old for about two weeks now, and I have yet to do the monthly post. We are seeing changes in him by the day right now. He is very close to crawling. He army crawls everywhere he wants to go with little hindrance (unless he gets stuck under a piece of furniture). We had the pleasure of my cousins visiting this week with their 5-month-old, and Josiah got so excited about his cousin that he got up on his hands and knees and rocked back and forth. Although these times culminated in a faceplant, a true crawl is near at hand. He's also cut two teeth, with what I believe to be two or three more on the way. Also, he's started saying my name!  "Mamamama" while looking directly at the table leg, or some other inanimate object. It still warms my mother's heart. We are really enjoying this youngest member of our family. And even though Michaela is looking forward to the time when "Josiah is bigger to play with" I can't help but hope to keep him at this age a little longer. If he would only sleep through the night.

Josiah's first time sitting as a big boy in the double stroller.
Affectionately labeled "the bus."

I love swinging! Oh, the wind in my hair!

Nurturing the inner musician

Yum!

Driver's education

Much has happened, and I've not kept up with blogging. The catch-up post will come, but not tonight. Tonight, suffice it to say that I am typing this in the dining room so I can keep an eye on Michaela with Josiah. I'm not sure how dinner is going to get prepped. We went to the library today and got a book about going to the dentist. Seemingly innocuous and random. However, that book, coupled with me mentioning to my mom on the phone that Josiah seems to be close to teething, has led Michaela to do "teeth checks" on Josiah when I am not looking. In fact, she smiled with mischief when I peeked in here a few minutes ago and said, "Go back to cooking!" Not a good sign. I may not be a super-experienced mom, but my daughter shoving things in my baby's mouth for him to teethe on, or to stick her fingers in and tell him to "bite" does not seem to fall in the category of "safety." If Michaela has a future in dental medicine, I'd prefer that her first patient not be her 7-month-old brother. Just another day in the life.

0.5 Years

Getting acquainted with Kenji

"What is going on back there? Where are you sniffing?"

Oh Josiah, in spite of all the sleepless nights, time is flying. Josiah's already 6 months and here are some of the tricks he is learning: to grab people's hair and noses; to pinch; to roll and roll, and then turn and roll and roll the other way; to giggle and cackle; to take good naps; to keep his eye on the dog and cat; to stand up straight and tall with his strong legs (when supported and balanced); and to try and sneak in a glimpse of the TV whenever it is on. Josiah's still having difficulty sleeping through the night. Though right up to his doctor's appointment he was sleeping a good 6-8 hour stretch until 2 or 3 am. Then the night after his doctor's appointment, he and Michaela both came down with colds and have not been sleeping well ever since. I keep my fingers crossed that upon their recovery, the goodish nights of sleep will return. The doctor says that he's now old enough to "cry it out" so we can train him to sleep 12 hours at a time through the night. It should only take a couple nights of screaming... I mean crying. But seriously, this boy screeches like an adolescent pterodactyl when he is mad.

Out for a walk on a sunny spring day

Josiah's eating his solid foods like a champ, and I feed him solids twice a day, sometimes three times if he is sitting up with us during lunch and is begging to be fed. His foods to date are: rice cereal, barley cereal, sweet potatoes, avocado, carrots, green beans, applesauce, and bananas. He seems to prefer the orange foods so far. But who doesn't like bananas? I also started him on water from a sippy cup last week. He was initially very excited about it, until he discovered that it did not contain breast milk. That was a big letdown, apparently.

At his doctor's appointment, Josiah weighed in at 16 pounds, 11 ounces (33%) and was 27.5 inches long (83%). This explains how all his pants have been becoming 'highwaters'.

 We're in the heart of crazy busy tax season for Adam. Since we really don't see him that much and I do enjoy adult interaction from time to time, I took the kids during the middle of the week for a trip up to my in-laws. Michaela got to play with Grammy and cousin Greyson, Grammy taught me how to make chicken-fried steak (never done that before), and I enjoyed getting my toes done with Abbey, in celebration of her upcoming baby #2. Our tradition has made us think whether it is worth it to continue getting pregnant in order to get a guaranteed pedicure. We've been getting one each year for the past four years. It was also nice for the kids to get to see great-grandpa, who came out to the house for a little visit, as well. We hope that for our next visit, Adam will be done with busy season and will be able to join us!

Jus' lookin' at my great-grampa

I could post all the other pictures we took while trying to get a good one of all four of them.
But you don't have time for that. Really.

Spring = Snow

At least here in the Portland area, we thought it would be fun to wait and have our first snow once the calendar officially changed over... to spring. It was the first time Michaela has seen snow on the west side of the mountains. She wasn't the hugest fan of it to begin with, but when one of the neighbor kids came into our yard to play with Kenji and demonstrated throwing snowballs, she decided she could really get into that. I had to stay out of the way, though, because try as she might, Michaela could not hit anything she was actually aiming at, and almost always got me. So I finally started telling her to aim for me in order to maintain a snowball-free zone. What great fun for an otherwise mundane Thursday morning.

She didn't want to leave the safety of the driveway at first.

Check out the "smile" - it's all we're getting these days for posed pics

Kenji loves, loves, loves the snow!

"Look at me! I just threw a snowball!"

Josiah at arm's length. Taking in the snow while riding on mom's hip.

Look at my snow-covered garden beds.
And I had so wanted to start sowing  snap peas and lettuce.

Josiah's First Food

Josiah's First Food

Haircut!