Sweet Summer Memories

We are finally back from our whirlwind week of being in Michigan. I'm a little slow in posting this because it took a week to recuperate from the week of "vacation". What a sweet and special time to catch up with relatives, old friends and celebrate the marriage of a sister-in-law and friend. You know how you look forward to an event for so long and then it's finally here and happening and then you can't believe it's done so quickly? That's how our MI trip felt.

We started out on Thursday, August 11 with a visit to GG VanZees' house in Grand Rapids. We are so thankful and blessed to spend time with my grand parents and Grace's great grandparents! Our time together was spent eating lunch, chatting, Great Grandma reading "Go Dog Go" about 10 times, and catching up. They are not just grand parents to us but also close friends that we miss dearly when we come back to Lombard.

After G and G's we headed to Mom and Dad Plasman's house for a fun barbeque hosted in honor of Annie and Mark with out of town guests and immediate family. Grace got to see her cousins Leo(5), Elin(2) and Nora(9mos) for the first time in a long time! What a fun reunion with her cousins. Great to have the Plasman clan all back together again.

Grace and Elin hammin it up!

Cute Cousins Elin, Leo and Grace

Bride and Groom

Are they siblings or what? :)

On Friday, August 12 we had the opportunity to catch up with two of our dear friends, relationship mentors and former neighbors, Bruce and Sue Osterink or Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sue. We enjoyed visiting catching up with them in addition to spying on our old house from their attic:)

On Friday we prepared for the big wedding day with the rehearsal at Mayfair Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. The kids were geared up for their chance to finally practice their wedding debut. Grace and Elin could hardly contain themselves, they were so excited. How sweet to see them holding hands practicing their big walk down the aisle. After the rehearsal dinner we dropped Grace off with cousin Bailey Voss (one of her favorite babysitters;) and headed downtown GR to Bull's Head for the rehearsal dinner. Delicious food and great company! For the after party we tagged along with Mark and Sara to Founder's Brewery to catch up with friends. Suz and John met us there for a fun night out on the town.

Bulls Head in downtown GR

Bridesmaids

August 13 was finally upon us the next day! I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked but that happens when you spend a wedding day as a bridesmaid with a two year old that is in the wedding:) Grace did great given that fact that she took a 45 minute nap. Our morning consisted of getting our hair done and watching the bride get beautiful:) The afternoon was pictures and more primping. Before we knew it we were waiting in the church basement while the guests filed into the church while battling the severe thunderstorm outside. The kids were getting restless but when it came time for their performance they did great! Grace put on a big smile and her and Elin strutted their stuff down the aisle. What a beautiful ceremony. Uncle Dan officiated and pronounced them husband and wife, Mark and Annie Dalton!

We had a nice ride in a Hummer limo to the reception at SanChez in downtown Grand Rapids. Great night of fun and fellowship. Grace danced the night away until 10pm!

Beautiful Bride and Mother of the Bride!

Grace and Ring Bearer Bryson

Tuckered out after dancing all night.

After a good night of sleep at the Voss Condo we went to a nice brunch at the Plasman's. We said our goodbyes to the bride and groom and Plasman family and headed out for Holland, MI. We made a pit stop at the Ruppert's house, close Plasman family friends (the siblings all babysat for the kids). Grace Ruppert was in our wedding and we like to think of our Grace as her namesake.

Grace and Bailey, our wonderful host for the weekend

Grace and Grace

Our time in Holland consisted of a visit with the Vandenberg's, fun in the pool, a long boat ride, another visit with G and G and lots of relaxation! Thanks Mom and Dad for a great couple days.

Grace with the Vandenberg kids

Plasman's and Vandenberg's

Pater and Kerry with Geneva

Sydney and Grace

Ups and Downs

I have just been through World War III at my house. It all started on Thursday night. Grace had a fever and woke up three times in a half sleeping/half awake consciousness. The next day she was complaining that her tummy hurt, her ears hurt and her mouth hurt. She wouldn't drink her milk (which she is obsessed with) and she barely had an appetite. Anything that did go down her throat was met with a cry and her holding her throat. My first thought was ear infection, then I thought she may be teething and then I didn't know what to think. About 5:30 in the afternoon I noticed little blisters on her hands and one in her mouth. I didn't panic about this symptom because I pretty much had it diagnosed: hand, foot mouth virus. My sister had it when she was a baby and my mom still likes to bring up this story every once in a while during our conversations about how I should take away Grace's pacifiers. I like to channel my inner doctor a lot so I was convinced about my diagnosis. And of course the website I was on said that there is nothing you can do for this virus except wait it out. On Friday night, I was up with her about 5 times! The next morning when she was up at 7:30 I thought for sure that we needed to go to the Dr. but, she woke up all chipper and cheerful. What?! Well, sometimes you just second guess your motherly instincts so we took a bike ride and it was during the bike ride that decided I better take her in after bouts of crying from the bike carrier (yes, I felt like a terrible mother after taking her for a bike ride).

Well, turns out I was right. I took her in at 2pm on Saturday and he confirmed the hand, foot, mouth virus. I was relieved that it was nothing more serious. So along with all the sleepless nights this past weekend and the dr. visit Grace decided to start asking "why". Grace, eat your melon. "Why?" Grace, lets clean up your markers. "Why?" Grace, time to get in the car. "Why?" Add to this the virus, lack of sleep (one hour naps or less for four days), tantrums (because of the lack of sleep), and the fact that I had to take her to work with me for two hours yesterday, and you have one frazzled mommy!

So I thought the worst was over, but it turns out that toddlers take a while to overcome a virus and even after the virus is gone, they are so used to mom and dad giving them anything they want when they are sick that they milk it for all it's worth and throw temper tantrums when they don't get everything they want (whew, that was a run on sentence!). And I mean all out, throw yourself on the floor tantrums for things like "no grace, you may not watch a video right now". She couldn't let it go! So we get around to bed time after a relatively peaceful afternoon (thank you Mom for a respite) and dinner that was actually very pleasant. I decide she needs to brush her teeth after a few days of not doing this due to the blisters in her mouth. I go to brush the bottom teeth and notice some food in her molars on the left side. What, molars plural??? Since when does Grace have two molars on the bottom left?? And that's when I add teething to the long list of ailments and struggles these past four days! Her bottom 2 year molars are halfway in and I never even noticed! Poor thing! Her mouth must have been in serious pain:( But despite feeling horrible for the past couple of days she didn't fail to keep me entertained and make me laugh a lot. Kids are amazing and teach us so much about patience, pain, and resilience. I love being a parent in spite of the fact that I wanted to pull my hair out many times during the last 72 hours.

I took these pics on Monday after I had turned my back for a few minutes

Yes, it was on her foot and up and down her leg:)

This was her "makeup"

My baby is still a baby!

Two is a such a fun and sassy age! Grace turned two in March, about three months ago already. She is growing up way too fast for me! If I ever happen to start talking with the grocery store clerk or another parent at the park and they ask how old Grace is, they can't believe she is two because of a number of factors:a) Her height (she is at least a head above almost all two year olds that we meet) b) her hair length (it's really long and throws people off every time) and c) her advanced vocabulary (she talks like a three year old: it's the sentences, stories, conversations and words like delicious). As a result of this mistaken age phenomenon I think I even treat her older than she really is sometimes. For instance, at our recent block party Grace was jumping in the rented bouncy house without parent supervision almost the whole night while other two year olds were being watched like hawks at all times. While I am happy that she is advancing quite nicely, I also feel a little sad that she doesn't look like the baby that she really is. She still likes to be rocked at night and "wrapped" in her "nigh, night." She is still very attached to her milk in the mornings and near obsessed with "paci." Temper tantrums are at an all time high and I think the number of time outs hit a record yesterday. She still needs constant supervision in the pool when she loses her balance in 2 feet of water and goes under. She still doesn't have every word down and calls popsicles "popporonis". So, I will enjoy this age every day and hold on to the times when she is still my baby.

My little girl/baby

July 12, 2011

Grace lately

My last post was more reflective than documentary so I need to catch up with my Grace reports. She is not quite two years old yet but she is definitely acting like a two year old lately. She is on to full sentences with her speech now and it is great fun trying to understand and interpret what she is saying. She'll say a word over and over again until I get the word right. She goes to daycare with a little girl named Brooke and one day in the care she kept saying "babybrooke", "babybrooke" and it sounded like a dozen different things to me: baby book, baybrook, belly book, baby broke etc. I finally figured it out! Then there are times when her words are very clear to me. She was struggling with naptime after the time change and was very frustrated with her confinement in her crib. I heard lots of crying and muttering from her bedroom along with the word "mad!" over and over again. I was so proud of her for verbalizing her feelings already:)

Singing songs is another new thing for Grace. Her favorites are Jesus Loves Me, ABC's, Noah's Ark, Baby Beluga and to round it out Baby by Justin Bieber. That last one is reserved for our dance parties:)

Other favorites this month include coloring and drawing circles on the paper. She has a box we call "craft box" and she knows where to find it. One of her favorite drawing subjects is her daddy. Every time I ask her what she is drawing she says "Daddy's face." No idea where she got that idea!

There is never a dull moment with an almost two year old!

Magical mixed in with the mundane

Do the stay at home moms out there ever get tired of the mundane, day to day, lonely monotony of motherhood? I sure do! I made the mistake of not scheduling any playdates for the first part of this week and found myself with two whole mornings completely open. Ok, I wasn't completely open, I still had to do laundry, clean the house, and entertain an almost two year old. But sometimes I dread those mornings because I feel like I'm on a treadmill to nowhere.

Make coffee, eat breakfast, try to feed daughter breakfast, make bed, pick up laundry, take shower, find activity for daughter during shower, get dressed, pick up toys, play babies with daughter, play babies some more with daughter, throw laundry in washer, go up and down stairs a couple times for more laundry, read book, read another, offer snack to daughter, daughter refuses said snack and throws tantrum etc. That is part of my "open morning" routine.

So, as I am lamenting this today, my daughter Grace finds multiple ways to melt my heart and show me that everything I'm doing is worthwhile. As we are sitting at dinner tonight, just me and her, she starts singing a song. It's not entirely clear to me at first, but then I hear the line "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." So after hearing that and then hearing her little voice respond with "wuv you" after I tell her that I love her before bedtime, I have to admit that all of my lament about the plight of the stay at home mom vanishes and I'm just proud to be a mommy.

Snowpocalypse 2011

The snowstorm of the decade hit Chicago last night! With 20.2 inches of snow recorded at O'Hare, it was the third largest snowstorm on record in Chicago history. I was quite skeptical about the weather man's prediction about this storm but I was proved wrong.

Throughout the night our house was assaulted with high winds, 4 foot snow drifts and thundersnow and lightning (thundersnow, really?)

Here is a pic during the storm:

Here is the aftermath of the 2011 Snowpocalypse:

Grace was loving ever minute of it! She was eating snowballs and calling them "apples".

New House Pics

So for all of you who have been begging for new house pictures, here they are!

Living Room/Family Room

Long Winter Days

Definitely feeling like winter is finally at its peak. The days are getting longer, the sun is out longer in the afternoons and I'm going stir crazy staying indoors all day long. Spring can't come soon enough!

This month has been a long one. I have been thankful for a warm house, new friends, playdates, 1st shift (for Nate) and comfort food:) Grace keeps us busy with her new words and activities every day.

Here are some highlights:

Grace requests to go #1 and #2 on the potty and is successful!

Mommy: where does Daddy work?

Grace: grandpa's company

Mommy: that's right. what does he drive?

Grace: truck! I love you Grandpa! (sounds more like iwuvyugampa)

Words of the week:

quesadilla

dinosaur

mine

Grace is missing all of her aunties and uncles in other states and countries right now. She wanted to say hi. So here is a link to a video where Grace gives a shout out to all the aunties and uncles:

http://vimeo.com/19237576

New Year

A new year started again yesterday. The year ended with such a flurry of activity I haven't had time to think about resolutions. The year 2010 was full of new adventures and experiences for our family. Grace is now 21 months old and quickly approaching her 2nd birthday! I can't believe it. She is a vibrant, loving, adventuresome little girl. Here are some of her favorites right now:

Food: Macaroni and Cheese (constantly asks for mac-ar-oni for dinner)

Candy (when her daddy will sneak her some)

Popsicles (pronounced "pepperonis")

Toys/Activities: Elmo

Cooking in her kitchen

Balls (throwing, catching, dribbling, you name it)

Tea parties with her babies

Dance parties with mommy and daddy

The best part of the holidays this year was Grace's involvement with Christmas preparation which included saying "ho, ho, ho mewwy chrismas" and an obsession with Grandma's nativity sets (she can name all the characters in the story, Jewus, Mawy, Jofeph etc).

Nate continues to work at Monroe and is looking forward to working 1st shift as opposed to 3rd shift. He recently passed his CDL (commercial driver's license) test and will be "driving truck" in the next couple weeks. Sara is also working part-time at Monroe doing payroll and some benefits administration.

We are finally feeling settled in our new house in Lombard. Pictures went up on the walls this past weekend and the basement is finally looking less like a storage trailer. Also in the month of December we became members at Elmhurst CRC. What a change for us but also what a blessing. We have felt very welcome there and continue to get involved through a small group and different bible studies.

2011 will be full of new challenges, joys and adventures and we look forward to everything the new year will bring.