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! :-)

It could be worse, Mulligan

It seems when I bring a new child into my life, there is one thing that has to fall by the wayside. As if I have reached an upper limit in how many things I can possibly remember in a day, and a new baby tips the scale just enough that one thing falls right out of my brain. When Kyle came home it was the plants. I simply could not remember to water them. Ever. One by one by one I threw dead plants out. Plants I had lovingly watered for years couldn't figure out why they suddenly lived in the Sahara Desert.

Enter Erin. Again, my issues seemed to revolve around water. Countless times I walked into the kitchen and thought, "Hmm. I wonder how long it's been that Mulligan's water dish has been bone dry?" Poor dog was parched.

Luckily, there must be others in the world with my problem of forgetting the fill the dog's water dish, because someone invented this:

Man, with this thing Mulligan is golden for about a week. He doesn't have to worry about empty bowls and cotton mouth again. Of course the loud GLUB GLUB that happens on occasion when the water fills into the bowl scares the fur off him, but he will get used to that.

Be thankful, Mulligan, that I found a solution. The plants were not so lucky!

20th Annual Baldwin Canoe Trip

Wow, 20 years! This weekend we attended the twentieth annual canoe trip to Baldwin, Michigan. While my first canoe trip wasn’t until 2000, Mike was one of the original group that first went in 1988. (Although I do have to say that my friend Stacy and I were also canoeing on the same river in Baldwin each year back then!)

The canoe trip is hosted by Dennis and Christy Taylor in the cabin of Christy’s parents. Their hospitality is much appreciated, because it’s a pretty wild weekend and a pretty big bunch. Main stays of the weekend, besides canoeing, include horseshoes, euchre, and karaoke. The karaoke talent gets better and better as the night goes on and more drinks have been consumed, LOL.

Here are some pics from this year’s anniversary trip. First is the whole group from this year.
Christy and Dennis put a lot of thought into giving out fun awards to all the attendees.
Euchre, karaoke, and Mike and I.
While we’ve never had a canoe trip that we haven’t thought about our good friend Scotty since his death, this year was particularly poignant. A toast was raised and tears were shed as we drank and sang to Scott Streu. We miss you, Scotty!

And looking back... here are some pics from canoe trips past.

Reflecting on 12 weeks

Erin is 12 weeks old today. With her reaching this milestone it has me reflecting on Kyle turning 12 weeks, and how different it is with Erin. When Kyle turned 12 weeks he was enjoying his second day at KinderCare. I was sitting at Bronson Methodist Hospital likely spending a second day trying to plow through 12 weeks of email messages.

Now I am home. I haven't spent the past 12 weeks thinking about how much of my maternity leave had already passed and how short the time was until I returned to work. While I work from home 10-15 hours a week, it's on my own schedule. No walking out the door at 6:45am to make it to work. My kids can wake up when they want, rather than when they need to for the work day. (Although lately that has been early enough to leave at 6:45!)

I wouldn't be being honest, though, if I didn't say that there are times when I miss being an at work worker. Being able to be more focused, feel accomplishment in a career sense, and, well, pee by myself. Enjoying adult conversation and solving problems as a team. Being able to run an errand on my lunch hour without kids and car seats, or have lunch with a friend. But, I gladly trade all of that for what I have now with Kyle and Erin.

Happy 12 weeks, Erin. Mommy's thrilled and blessed to be home hugging you today, sweetie.

Flipping over the Flip

I got a Flip video camera from Mike for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and I am loving it! The camera fits in my pocket it is so small, yet takes good video. Then, when you're ready, you just push a button on the side and a USB port pops out. You download directly into the computer and you can post videos on wonderful blogs like this one. :-) You can also save them to DVD, and there is a cable that allows you to watch them on TV. Here's the Flip:

They come in different colors, but mine is the orange one shown. We do have a video camera already, but for casual shooting this is so handy. I see it as a similar revolution as the digital camera. With film cameras you didn't want to waste film, with digital you can take as many pictures as you want and just print what you like. With our tape digital camera I never wanted to mess with rewinding to get rid of something that didn't come out, and I'd wind up with "junk" in between the good stuff. With the Flip if I'm trying to get video of a particular toddler who does not want to cooperate with his director, I can just delete the file.

Here are a couple films with my little stars. The one of Kyle makes me laugh out loud each time, it is sooooo Kyle. And Erin is adorable because she is becoming so much more vocal.

Woof Roof!

I got an email from a fellow animal lover on Thursday. It said that the Humane Society of Southwest Michigan was in dire need. As most non profits are finding, finances are tough right now in a tough economy. Every time the Humane Society gets on an even keel something comes up. This time it was something coming down… rain, right onto the dogs and cats. A new roof is going to cost $8,000, but it can no longer be put off.

Someone had the idea that if all the animal lovers in southwest Michigan could just give a dollar the money would be there. Emails starting flying and word of mouth took over. As I type this, just four days later, nearly $6,000 has been raised. I’m so proud of our corner of Michigan. What a testament that people can come together to meet a need. Thanks to all who have helped. If you want to help also, just head over to http://www.firstgiving.com/humanesocietysouthwesternmichigan.

**Edited to add that the goal was reached on Wednesday night! Quite an achievement for beginning the campaign on Thursday! Woo hoo! And today, Friday, it is almost $1,000 over!

By the way, our own Mulligan spent ten days at this Humane Society. After I found him (or he found me!) I needed to convince Mike that he should come and live with us. Obviously I was persuasive enough, and when Mulligan’s ten day waiting period was up there he was ours!