Heaven for a little boy

Would be something like our street this summer. Most of the neighbors are tired of the noise, the dust, and the inconvenience of the massive street project we're nearly halfway done with, but Kyle is in HEAVEN. We watch the trucks often and talk about dirt a lot.

One day this week we were out and I had my camera in hand, wanting to get some shots of Kyle watching the trucks. Well a couple of drivers spotted my camera and offered to let Kyle sit in their trucks for some shots. It was so nice of them! We did take them cookies the next day. ;-)

Here's my little boy in some big trucks.Kyle thinks, "I could do this if I could somehow get to the pedal."

Riding the excavator. This was a fun one!

The big hole moves from one end of our street to the other. It's done it twice so far replacing water lines and then sewer lines. One more trip down doing the storm sewers, then it is on to replacing the road itself. This picture doesn't do justice to the size of the hole, but it does a little when you notice the man's head next to the knee of the guy on the right.

I got some good arm exercises in this week since I was unable to access my driveway and had to park down the street. Lugging Erin in her car seat has to be about 20 pounds, then carrying 33-pound Kyle because I didn't want him crossing the street with the huge hole and all the trucks, and carrying our stuff. Whew. Thankfully I'm back in the driveway for now.

And I keep wondering how many people on my street are having trouble waking up to their alarm clocks since they have learned to tune out the constant BEEP BEEP BEEP we hear all day long. My alarm clocks goes MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY, so I have no worries!

The end of an era of sorts

Kyle has been slow to talk, and I’d been anxiously waiting for the day when I would be able to have conversations with my little guy. Back in the spring I had him tested and he was borderline for speech development, so I was told I could do speech therapy and speed him along, or not do it and he would eventually talk fine. Since the therapy was free through our intermediate school district and in my home, I couldn’t see passing it up. We got about a half dozen sessions in before the summer break.

Well, in the past month or two Kyle’s vocabulary has literally exploded. He will try to say just about any word, and pulls words out of the blue that I never realized we’ve even said to him. And when we read books he will point things out and say them, making it clear that he has been listening all this time and just waiting for the right time to tell me what it was he has been thinking. There are even books that he “reads” to me now, and actually does a good job. He is constantly telling me letters, colors, shapes, and what things are, I think just to provide himself with an opportunity to say something.

I am so excited for this new chapter in Kyle’s development, and what it means for our relationship. My worries about his speech development can drift away. But there’s a tiny part of me that is a little sad. All the little quirky words he used, like ba boof for Mulligan and any other dog (morphed out of woof woof) and kai kai for any type of bird (morphed out of quack quack), are gone. Now he says Mull Mull or Mull-gan and dog and he says duck and bird. He calls animals by their names now instead of the sounds they make. All the many, many signs we used when we talked in sign language have been replaced by words. Even the last hold out for his signs, thank you, Kyle now says. (Although he will sign something very emphatically if he thinks you are ignoring him when he is speaking it, LOL! Or if I can’t seem to grasp what word he is saying he will sign it.)

So I am thrilled with the language development as of late, but see it as both a new chapter and the closing of an old one. It’s not the first time, and by far not the last, when I see Kyle growing so quickly that I both embrace the new and shed a small tear for the old.

Blessings on Erin

Yesterday we stood before God and promised to grow with Erin in the Christian faith and help her become a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ by celebrating Christ's presence, furthering His mission in all the world, and by offering the nurture of the Christian. We did this as Erin was baptised at our church by Pastor Jeffrey Dick. We could not have asked for a nicer service, or one that was more fitting for Erin's baptism.

God also provided us with a beautiful afternoon so we could celebrate Erin's baptism by cooking out. It was a really great day.

Erin... you are so blessed, and we are so blessed to have you.

~~

Mike's brother, Mark, and his wife, Kimberly, are Erin's Godparents.

Kyle spontaneously leaned over to kiss and hug Erin. It was so sweet.

We joke that this may be Erin's future husband, especially since they have matching red hair. Maverick is the son of friends Doug and Beth. Their daughter is Kyle's age.

Good thing she's so cute... three month pictures

Well, Erin is lucky she smiled for her pictures and we got some good ones, because what ensued afterward would have been worse if we'd walked away empty handed. We went in for pictures on Tuesday morning and finished the shooting part. Erin was fussing, so I told the photographer I was going to feed her in the corner of the waiting room while she got the pictures ready to review. (There was no one else in the entire studio.)

She told me she was just about ready, so if I didn't mind it wouldn't bother her if I fed Erin while in front of the computer so we could select pictures at the same time. Since I had a blanket and no one else was there I said okay.

So Erin is eating and we're looking at the pictures. Erin begins making very unladylike noises from her bum, and it's not just air. She continues to eat, however, so I figure I'll give her a minute to make sure she is done before I stop to change her. Boy was she not done.

Next thing I know, she toots LOUDLY and warm poop is running down my leg, I try to stop it with my hand and now have poop all over my leg and all over my hand. And it still gets on the chair and runs to the floor. So I am trying to get up without making more of a mess, all while balancing Erin and trying to maintain some smidgen of modesty.

And the girl then begins a whole conversation with me about the poop and I am trying to explain what's normal for breastmilk poop when a baby has never had so much as a bite of cereal mixed in yet.

What an embarrassing fiasco!

At least the girl was really nice about it. She is married with no kids yet... my sister said, "Yeah. She probably doesn't want them now." LOL

Anyway... here are some of the shots from Tuesday. She's a beautiful girl, even if she does poop at inconvenient times. ;-)

And this is her, "I have ways to get you, Mommy," look. If only I had listened, hee, hee.

Puppies, cows, and frogs, oh my!

This past Saturday night we went to Matt and Anita Hauch's house for a cook-out. While we all had a great time, Kyle was thrilled with all the stuff that he could do.

To begin with, Matt and Anita have puppies. Lots of them. Kyle was so excited.
The mama and I looked at each other. Our eyes locked with feelings of kinship and understanding as her puppies gathered around to nurse... although she was thinking I have it easy with one.

Then they have this little western town front that they built. Kyle also got to ride a "cow."

Then to top if off, they have a series of little ponds with frogs. Kyle was just giddy about trying to catch them... I mean, he is all boy ya know!Whew! That kid is leaving and I'm still on my ledge!
Mike and I just had a good time enjoying time with friends and good food. :-)

A night out at the fair

We headed over to the Berrien County Youth Fair on Friday night. Before we had Kyle I had not been to enjoy the actual fair itself since I was young, other than being back for the great country singers they usually host. (Kyle did get to enjoy Sara Evans in concert at the fair, in utero!) It’s been a great experience to see the fair fresh through the eyes of a child again, especially the thrill of being so close to the animals. Kyle really, really likes the animals.

This year he was excited to be loose from the confines of the stroller, and he also got to enjoy some of the rides at the fair. Kyle rode several with Mike and I, and then one of them he had to ride by himself since there was a maximum height. He said he was okay with that, and I strapped him in across from a girl who was about six. Well, he did fine, right up until she started screaming her head off. Not because she was scared, but just being a silly girl having fun. Unfortunately the screaming freaked Kyle out, who spent the rest of the ride crying to get off. Poor guy! The girl’s mom apologized to me, which I thought was nice.

Here are some pictures from our night out. It really was a great time!!

Kyle and the animals.
Kyle asks the all important question, “Is your Mama a lama?”
Kyle and Erin were impressed… this cow could pick its nose with its tongue. **And no, Kyle does not pick his nose… yet, I’m sure… rolling eyes.**
And just some animal shots I like. This lama asked if there was a dentist in the house.
Some more fair pictures.

Flipping the "odometer"

There is a significance to this picture:
I will tell you in a round about way. A memory I have from high school is the whole family piling into the Plymouth Volare station wagon my family owned and going for a drive one summer evening. Our Scottish Terrier, Angus, went, and we even stopped and got my grandma from the Whitcomb to go along with us. After all, it was a momentous occasion. The car odometer was about to flip back to zero. We drove up M63, all strained to see the numbers as it flipped and whooped and hollered like a bunch of rednecks or something. Then we went out for ice cream (Angus got a bowl of water, which other patrons assumed was his own ice cream!) Silly in a way, but the spontaneity and fun of the trip is etched in my mind so that the experience is still vivid more than 20 years later. Those are memories worth making.

In 2004 I shot this picture:
It was my Pontiac Sunfire flipping past 100,000 miles. Mike and I were on a road trip, we'd been to the NASCAR race in Bristol, TN. I'm sure I missed the 100,000 mile moment by 63 miles because the scenery was so beautiful on the drive home. I remember, though, being disappointed that it didn't happen in Michigan. I'd wanted to surprise my parents by picking them up for ice cream and watching the numbers. (Although there is no flipping back to zero anymore.)

So the picture above, with Kyle peeking at the baby chicks? It saved as image ooo1 on my camera. Yep, I flipped the "odometer" on my camera. I took the first picture with my Canon Rebel XTi on October 6, 2006. That means in 680 days I took 10,000 pictures. Even I am astounded by that. That is an average of close to 15 a day. But keep in mind that with digital I am all about quantity to get some quality. The fair pictures in the next post were narrowed to a dozen. I took 77 pictures at the fair, which is actually pretty tame for how many I've taken at an event like that before.

And now you all know why I have needed to purchase external hard drives. :-)

And Nan, if you read this, I'm sure you've beat me hands down on photo counts!

Happy three month birthday, Erin!!

Erin continues to be a happy-go-lucky baby. The vast majority of the time all you have to do is look at her and she will break into a big grin. Erin loves to talk, and will talk to you any time you look at her. She coos and babbles up a storm, and her big brother is so cute about it. When she talks Kyle runs up to her and says, “What?” and, “Yeah?” repeatedly.

She is also very easy going, which is great since she has to adjust to her brother’s and mom’s schedule a lot of the time, which means having her mom try and get her into the car seat without waking her up a lot. I think because of this she doesn’t really seem to have a daytime schedule of her own yet. She goes to sleep for the night around nine, and will wake up around two and again around five to eat. She will then sleep again until about seven. The daytime is basically just an on and off nap based on what’s going on. Left to her own devices it’s not unusual for her to take a five hour nap!

Erin is really strong already and holds her head up with no problem. She sits in her Bumbo seat with ease and in the swing and bouncy I often see her straining to sit up more on her own; I think she will sit on her own early. She rolled from her belly to her back one day this week. She also puts quite a bit of weight onto her feet when you stand her up. Erin is already getting good at "playing" with toys, too. She has a couple of toys that hang on her car seat and she is really good at batting at them and making contact with them.

Erin spent her first night away from home this month when her parents went on their canoe trip. She spent the night at Nana’s house, and word is she was a perfect angel. Her mom is not surprised because she agrees, of course! I’m sure the night apart was harder on Mommy than on Erin!

Our love for little Erin continues to grow and grow. We are so blessed.

Picture catch-up again... OH MY!

Seriously, who is that girl? She's always there when I'm in the swing. Hmm.
Jack and Kyle. We had a picnic in the park. Below Troy pushes Kyle, and Kyle smiling on the swing.


This is what happens after the park when you ask Kyle to take his shoes off!
Glad Peach Festival in Coloma. Kyle climbed up in the bouncy with no fears at all, and had a great ride! Then on the Merry-go-round with Daddy.

Kyle moved from sleeping in Erin's bed to pretending he is in the great outdoors, LOL.
Erin sits in her Bumbo already!
Kyle plays with Erin.

I love this pic of them in black and white.
Erin on Kyle on Daddy... what fun!
Kyle reads to Erin.
My friend Sara-Jayne visited from Canada.
Popsicles taste yummy in Nana Linda's flowers.

We had a family picnic at KidZone, where Kyle goes to daycare two mornings a week. Lunch, and Erin hangs out with Gran (my mom).
Whew! You made it through! Thanks for looking! :-)