Road Trip

Summertime has given us some great opportunities this year- time in South Haven (one of our favorite places in the whole world!), lots of playing outside, time with friends, and time with family. Last weekend we were fortunate enough to reconnect with some long-lost family. As a child, my husband and his brother spent a lot of time with his single mother's parents and siblings. After his grandparents passed away and career and school moved his uncles to the UP and soon after to Texas, everyone went on with day to day business, and as with many families, didn't stay as close.

Over time, Mike has kept in touch with his Uncle Dave a few times, but this past January, as our son turned one, Dave and his family had some hard times. I don't know if the idea of how short life really is struck him, the need for family ties that had drifted and a desire for his son to know the family he loves, the fact that they now live only an hour and a half away, or all of these things combined.

Last weekend, we made the short road trip to Portage, IN. We spent an evening reminiscing with both of his uncles about times with his grandparents and family memories, joking with their four great kids, and then talking long into the night with Dave and his terrific wife of 20 years, Melany. We caught up on the last handful of years, talked a little about church, religion, and hoops (maybe someday I'll get into my thoughts about religion here...) and made plans for the next day and hopes for more get-togethers in the future. His uncle is a pastor at a great little church, that we attended with them on Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, we joined them at the church's annual hog roast. It was a great, relaxing afternoon with friendly people and family time. The Booger spent his fair share of time eating, blowing bubbles, and running around like a madman. I was a bit too busy chasing him to catch any pictures of the trek all over the park, but the rest of the fun is well documented thanks to Smilebox!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

another weekend, another playground

After a week of torrential rain followed by bitter cold- thanks Michigan, really... we were lucky enough to have 2 beautiful days this weekend. We took advantage of yesterday afternoon to go to the playground where I work (our favorite- was out of commission...low lying area+rain= playground surrouded by a mini lake).

Once the Booger checked out the playscape with daddy, he went for a walk,

and took a turn in the swings...

Another day's promises

I promise to create a loving and enriching environment for you.

I know how to love you. It comes more naturally than breathing. I hope you always know just how much, and will never question the unending love that surrounds you.

I logically know what's best for you and how you will grow and change over the next few years, because I am lucky enough to have a good education and access to the information to help me out along the way. I promise to make up the difference with what I know intuitively. I promise to use what I know and learn what I don't, to the best of my ability to make your life the best it can be. I promise to give you every opportunity I have had and more. I will keep our home a place that you feel safe and comfortable that allows you to explore and learn and grow.

I promise to love you with all of my heart through all of our lives.

My first promise

Another promise

Another day of promises

I promise to dance and sing and play with you for a lifetime.

I love your smile and your infectious laugh, the sweet squeal that comes out at the end, of it, and how much harder you laugh when I laugh too. It warms my heart watching you play and discover the world around you. I have done my best to leave the house in shambles around us, so that we can play and enjoy the short time we have together. You are only a baby for such a short time, and far too soon you will want to play all on your own. Please know that I do my best to make all the other little unimportant things take a back seat to you and our family. (When you get older, you will understand how hard that is for your multi-taskin' momma!) I look forward to all the things we have to experience as you grow up, and promise that I will help you enjoy every last minute of it. Or darn close to it. I hope to give you a safe world that allows you to be a child until you grow up.

I can only hope that showing you how much I love you and how much you matter to me, will build a relationship that makes you want to dance and sing and play with me for a lifetime.

I love you bubba!

My first promise

He's ready for his close up!

I have enjoyed this week already so much. I get to get up, go to work, get my boy, come home and....wait for it... stay home! And love and play with my boy. Oh, how terrific.

I still have a thousand and two things running through my head to do, but for once it's okay that I take my time about it. After all, it is still the first week. My wonderful husband and parents helped to give my room a much needed revamp over the last week and the weekend. It was great to start things off with a clean slate and slightly more organized. Once it's all said and done, I'll post a few pictures. (oh and once I rehang what has already been stripped off the wall by my busier students..)

Right now, I'm reveling in the much anticipated time with the sweetest boy in the universe.

I get to spend all my weekends with that smile!

Smiley Joe

This is the best thing to come home to every night. And I am very much looking forward to having both of my boys to myself for 6 whole days in sunny, beautiful Florida! Picture these huge smiles on my face right now too. (These are so much cuter though, I thought you'd enjoy them more.)

Check out those chompers!

He hasn't let me get a picture of his teeth- and I got two in one night!

And the famous nose scrunch- also hard to capture

He's gonna be fighting them off with a stick!

Ahh, *contented sigh* that's all I am thinking right now. All is right with my world. (I'll return to conquering all things wrong in the rest of the world later...) My bachelor's degree is officially completed as of 3:00 tomorrow, I have a signed teaching contract, and great people to work with after Christmas break, and the best boys in the whole world here with me. Can it get any better? The great thing is, I know it can, and I am so looking forward to it.

Thanks so much to my wonderful husband who has helped and supported and put up with me over the last thousand years while I've been in school and juggling school, work and being a wife. He's been patient and sweet, and somehow did not strangle me in my sleep. Not that he didn't have plenty of opportunities- I often fall asleep first!

Of course, thanks rightly go to the rest of my family too. I am lucky to have supportive, loving parents who often reminded me that I was doing well, and there was an end in sight, especially when it really didn't seem like it. My sister offered lots of advice and help from her own experience along the way. And my big brothers- one of whom started school after I did, and somehow managed to finish first. Mom and Dad raised us well and we all look out for and cheer for one another.

I hope all is just as terrific for the rest of you, especially going into the holidays. If not- just remember you get to look at the sweet smiles of your little loved ones (even the furry ones), and bask in that wonderfulness for a few minutes.

Stay tuned for some warm sunshiney pictures. We'll wish you were there!

Now returning...

My oh my! What a busy couple weeks it has been. Forgive me while I catch you up! The Booger turned 10 months old on Thanksgiving. I’ve got some great pictures of Thanksgiving… in my head. Ugh- I completely forgot to bring our camera with us when I packed up for the long weekend. So- the next best thing, I’ll blog all about it before I forget it because we all know how quickly that could happen.

The Booger already appreciates the wonderfulness that comes with pigging out on the holidays. My boy ate like a champ! He fed himself turkey, rolls, green bean casserole, cranberries, and stuffing galore. He gobbled up squash and mashed potatoes, and of course pumpkin pie. And then he reveled in Turkey Day leftovers on Friday.

It was fun to watch him play with, well… near, his cousins. He is just enough older than our last family get together that he paid more attention and was able to keep up with his cousins. It was pretty cute, him and little baby self crawling after them, watching them get up and walk around. He got some good aunt, uncle, grandma, and grandpa loving too.

We relaxed and played all day Friday, then packed it on up to head to Flint for the twinkie’s birthday party on Saturday. He fit in quite well there as well, making himself at home with their toys, crawling over other babies to get at what he wanted.

For all the differences and changes and lack of naps, he was a happy boy and seemed to enjoy his first thanksgiving.

Despite my lack of Thanksgiving pictures, I do have lots of other fun pictures and videos of some of the fun things he has learned lately- which is quite a lot! I’ll keep it coming this time.

The 'out' day

Today, the Booger has officially been out as long as he was in!

Yep, he's 9 months old! I know, technically it was 10 months... we'll celebrate next month too.

Holy cow. What do all you moms with 'big' kids do? This is crazy! It all amazes me so much, everything he can do and how much personality comes out of that little boy. It is also wonderful to be able to share it all with my terrific husband. The Booger has grown and changed unbelievably, but so have we. We are doing pretty good, if I do say so myself. We share the good and the bad- including wrestling matches involving snotty baby nose and tissues, as of late. He picks up where I leave off, and it works pretty seamlessly. (If only I could say the same about the laundry!) He takes great care of him and loves him so much (almost as much as me!) It's so fun to watch them. They just exude love and happiness.

As for the Booger's 9 month old abilities-he is becoming a pro at feeding himself and evading diaper changes. He loves pictures, especially of himself. He torments the cat to no avail, and will chase down a water bottle before it knows what hit it. He loves to read and eat books. He is 'talking' tons and moving everywhere without fear. He thinks it is really funny when I sign 'more', but has yet to attempt it on his own. He can, and occasionally chooses to, wave bye-bye. There are sooo many things, I can barely tell you! Especially when I think about what he could do when he was born, which was pretty much limited to: eat, sleep, dirty a diaper or 10, cry, yawn, and stretch.

Happy 9 month birthday baby boy!

9 month rewind:

Disclaimer- this was ready to be posted yesterday, but I was having troubles with technology.

Two for Twosday!

Our family time this weekend made me decide to share a picture of my two favorite boys in the whole world! The Booger's daddy loves the water- being on it, near it, or in it, and I'm sure as the Booger gets older, he will log many hours at the lake (any lake will do!)

This picture if from a while ago when we spent an afternoon at one of the great parks in Portage. There are lots of great parks and trails with playgrounds and courts, we will have lots of fun visiting them all over the next few years!

Family fun

We decided a few weeks ago that we needed to do something fun just the three of us. We've done things with family, and lots of work around the house this summer, and some much enjoyed relaxing but hadn't had a chance for a family outing.

We looked into stuff and knew we couldn't stray too far or get too wild and crazy, so we chose John Ball Zoo. Only an hour away, and lots of fun things, even an aquariam and a Treasues of the Tropics building with lots of cool animals up close. This was definitely the Booger's favorite, next to the Spider Monkeys. He has little monkey feet that grip things quite amazingly. He was happy to his friends, and was trying to figure out how to set up some ropes at home so he could swing around like they were.

We enjoyed ourselves and were home in time to nap and eat before anyone was to grouchy. Check out the fun we had

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's a Zoo out there

We spent a fun-filled weekend with my sister, my brother-in-law, and their twins (plus their cupcake that's still in the oven). Living in the Zoo (Kalamazoo, that is) we are pretty lucky to have lots a cool things to do of all varities, so it was hard to decide what to do when they talked about coming to visit. They decided the zoo was a must see- Binder Park is only about 20 minutes from our house, and I suggested our fun, free museum downtown, and a fun park that is just down the street.

Barb already posted some zoo pictures, which was very fun. The Booger slept through a lot of his first trip to the zoo, ....and didn't pay attention to the rest of it! Here are a few of the things he actually did pay attention to.

The camera

His feet

He did help feed the giraffe- after he tried to taste test the merchandise

The giraffe really wanted some more

We were posing with the giraffe...

Stay tuned for more weekend fun!