Elise Serenades Riko

One of the cutest videos we have!

Learning to Walk

At around 9 months Erik began to crawl. He quickly learned to stand on his own after that. I thought by 11 months he would be walking, but I thought all of my kids would be walking much earlier than they actually were. They both started at around 14-15 months.

Elise actually took her first steps after her 1st year party, but I got too excited about it and scared her. She wouldn't even try to take more steps for a couple more months, but when she did again she was off and a walker from that day on. Joel grew more gradually into walking. He started taking steps, but it took him probably a month or two before he was walking full time.

Erik took his first steps last night, though he didn't realize it :). But who knows how long it will be before he is walking. It's funny how babies can be completely capable of walking, yet because of fear they don't do it. It makes me wonder how many things I am completely capable of doing that I don't simply because I am afraid? There's some good food for thought! Anyway, I look forward to him walking because I know how fun it will be for him. He wants to be able to get places faster. I know it frustrates him when Nik gets home and Elise and Joel can quickly run to him while he is grunting and crawling as fast as he can and not making nearly as much headway as he wants. It is so cute and yet I also feel for him. But walking also means that he isn't a little baby anymore, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.

Nicknames

We love coming up with fun nicknames for our kiddos. And there have been many. Although I have forgotten probably more than 75% of them (especially the ones for Joel), here are the ones I can recall right now:

Elise:
CeeCee
Bunky
Bunky boo
Bunkin
Leesee

Joel:
Joely
Joelster
Monkey
Joely rumbalay (this was Elise's - she said rumbalay means ticklish)
Rumbles (developed from the above)


Erik:
Riko
Rikadoo
Bug
Buggy

Snuggler

I thoroughly enjoy snuggling with all of my babies! Out of the three though, Joel really is the official snuggler. All of them love to cuddle a little. As a baby Elise was a bit too busy for much cuddling, though as she has grown older she has also grown cuddlier. Erik is much like she was - too busy to sit still for very long, though he too likes to snuggle for very brief moments of time. Joel on the other hand, has always been able to sit for long periods of time with me. I remember reading to him while he was still in that baby phase, amazed that he could sit through Elise's longer stories so well. Erik at 11 months can only stay for about 30 seconds to listen to a story - then he is bored!

Today while watching a video I was trying to get Erik to sit with me. He did for maybe a minute and then wanted to "do" something. I put him on the floor to play and no sooner was Joel on my lap with his blanket and doggy. I have even had moments where I was watching a mommy show that must really have been quite boring to him, and he will still just sit and be with me through the whole thing. He just loves to cuddle and get that human physical touch time in. It is very precious and I am trying to savor it up knowing that as he gets older those times will fade away :(.

Late Night Potty Trips

When Elise was first starting to wear underwear at night we would wake her up right before we went to bed to go potty one more time – hoping it would help her stay dry until the morning. She is a heavy sleeper, so often she would still be asleep through the process. Often she would wake up half the way and start crying and crying. I still have the image though of her sitting on the potty seat, head slumped down, long hair covering he little face.

Now we are in the same boat again with Joely. Now that he is 3 he has been wearing his big boy undies to bed and we are now waking him around 11pm for one more potty trip. Unlike Elise, he wakes up pretty easily and pees pretty easily. These times have become very precious memories already. Our little man is a cuddle bug and cuddles so tightly when we get him up and as we put him back to bed. When he is especially awake we have some very sweet encounters with him, chatting while he goes potty. Although it will be great when he doesn’t need the late night potty trips, at the same time I think I will miss these tender moments.

Holding Hands

A few months ago the kids and I had a special treat – picnic and movie date at home! We will put out a blanket on the living room floor and eat dinner on it while watching a movie. This is usually a treat when Nik is out of town or away for an evening.

This last time the kids were not in agreement regarding the movie we would watch. Elise wanted to watch one that Joely said was too scary. So she told him that she would hold his hand during the movie and then he agreed. So they held hands while they watched the movie…so precious for a mama to see! And now Joel isn’t scared of that movie anymore.

Modes of Transportation

Yesterday I was with the kids in the kitchen. Joel and Elise were painting with water colors whiles Erik was sitting on the kitchen floor with a toy. He started in one area of the kitchen and then before I knew it, he was about three or four away from where he started, still on his bum though. I scratched my head and realized that somehow, this little bug had on his bum scooted himself down the kitchen.

None of my kids were the textbook crawlers. Elise hardly crawled at all until she was probably close to a year. Whenver she wanted to get something she rolled from one place to another. Joel started crawling fairly early, but instead of doing the regular type of crawling he did the army crawl, using only his arms to lug himself around the house. Now it seems like Erik (though he does do some rolling), has developed yet another mode of transportation – bum scooting!

Though they eventually end up in the same place – walking on two feet – it is cool and very fun to see how they get there and how each one takes their own unique journey of transportation !

(Original post Feb. '10)

Reunited

Joel missed Elise so much while she was gone for her sleepover. Today after I woke him up from his nap I told him Elise was home and he should go say hi to her and give her a hug. So once he got downstairs and saw her he started running toward her with arms wide open to give her a hug. Then he gave her a huge bear hug when he reached her. Ah, so absolutely precious!

Elise's First Sleepover

Our sweet girl just had her first sleepover last night. Now 4 1/2 years old she went to her friend Elise’s house to celebrate her birthday. I spoke with her on the phone last night and she sounded so grown up. It amazes me how when you haven’t spoken to your child on the phone in a while, when you finally do they soudn so much older! I hardly recognized this little girl who is not a baby anymore !

So last night Nik and I took the boys to Barnes and Noble and I was so outnumbered! I never really pictured myself with three boys in my life. But I sure do love it. It will be oh so wonderful to have my sweet girl home today though!

Joel's Song

We were in the car last night driving home from the bookstore when Joel said something about wanting to sing a song to Jesus. And then he just started singing. As Nik wrote on facebook, it went something like this, “Jesus, you’re the One. You died on a cross. You really did. You died on a cross, yes you really, really did (6x). You died on a cr-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-oss. Yes you did. Then you rose again. You died on a cross then you rose again. You are the one that saves us. You …are the only one that saves us.” He went on and on for a few minutes, until we pulled into the driveway. It was really quite precious!

It is so sweet to hear him talk about loving God and knowing that God loves him. We continue to pray that He would have a deep understaning with the passing of time of how amazing God is and how much God truly does love him! He has been longing to get baptized and we long for the day when he really understands what that means and can take the plunge! Until then we are just so grateful that he has a tender heart toward God!

(Original post Feb. 2010)