Screaming

Just as I sat down to write this my little Erik began screaming over something and then proceeded to hit Joel, lol! Not that I find his behavior amusing. It is anything but. But it is humorously evidence of the fact that our Erik is a wee bit groucier than his older siblings. What really is amusing is that Erik has a very mellow, easy going side. He is always so well behaved and quiet in the nursery at church. But at home I think being the youngest, and often being not heard or misunderstood or mistreated by Joel or Elise has resulted in him taking extreme measures to be heard. Words...what are words? Why use them when you can scream at the top of your lungs? We have been working for some time with him to break him of this bad habit, but so far no luck. We will continue to try and pray that the screaming ceases (man, it does get loud here!). But until then we are trying to learn more about this little buddy and how to relate to him, realizing that each of our children are so uniquely wired and there is a whole world to discover about each one of them.

Locks of Love

A couple of years ago we decided to cut Elise's long locks. It was so long I realized that we could do locks of love, but that would mean that her hair would end up very short. I asked her what she wanted to do and she was totally up for it! So my friend Joy came over and helped me chop off the little lady's hair. She was left with an absolutely adorable hair cut. But more than being excited about the haircut, she was excited that she could donate her hair to a little girl in need of a wig. A few weeks later she received a post card from locks of love in the mail thanking her. She has kept it ever since.

Fast forward 2 years and once again our girly's hair had grown so long - almost to her waist. Again she really wanted a haircut and decided to do locks of love again. Again this meant a super short cut, but I love how she was totally game! She has not once made a comment about missing her hair or not liking it so short. But she has talked about doing locks of love. I love that she is so excited to be able to do something like that. I also love her adventurous side that is up for making such a drastic change without even an afterthought. She is a special little lady!

The Tender One

Joel has always been a very "feeling" person. He is extremely passionate about things and feels things very deeply. Recently his sensitive side has been emerging in even greater measure. We recently watched the movie Elf with a friend of ours. At the end I caught my little buddy crying. He immediately denied it, claiming that his eyes simply have water that comes out of them every hour :). I told him how much I love his sensitive side and that it is a wonderful thing - nothing to be ashamed of! Two days later we were watching the Magic School Bus. I looked over and found my little buddy again crying, eyes all red. My prayer for this guy is that he grows to be a man comfortable with his sensitivity. This is how God has made him and it is a beautiful thing indeed.

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)

The Little Chef

Elise has been asking for a play kitchen for months. I was hesitant for the longest time to get her one. They can take up so much space, and what if we got her one and then she got bored of it in a month? After her love for cooking endured months I finally gave in though. I found one on craigslist and got it for her for Christmas. It's been sitting in the garage for a couple of months and I have just been craving to take it out and show her. Well her day finally came last week. Now she can cook all she wants and she seems to love it so far!

(original post 12-28-08)

Baby belly

Joel has the cutest baby belly! It's funny b/c a couple of his adjustable 2T pairs of pants barely fit his waist on the largest setting, yet I have to role the bottoms to keep him from tripping on them because they are too long. Elise's mid-section had slimmed down quite a bit more by this age.






Anyway, one day Joel really wanted to wear this pair of green pants that were size 18 month. I had a feeling they were too small, but he was insistent, so I gave in. Oh, what a laugh I had! I could barely get the things over his hips and then they simply wouldn't fit over the belly - so they just squeezed his little body below the waist and his belly hung out on top. So adorable! The pictures don't quite capture it, but you get the basic idea. I think we have to retire those cute green pants!

(original post 12-28-08)

Camo Kids

When Elise was somewhere between 20 and 24 months, we had a particularly amusing experience. Nik had gotten a camo shirt from his family for Christmas. Somewhere along the way we must have told Elise what camo was (she's the kind of kid who only needs to hear something once, and then she has logged it in her brain for life!). Anyway, one day Nik had his new camo shirt on. He picked up Elise and she looked at him, touching his shirt. Then she said, "Ooooh, camo! I like it!" I think to date, it was her longest sentence. I wish we had it on video!






Anyway, since we've had the kiddos we have tried to have little pieces of camo here and there in their wardrobe. Not much, just a small tribute to Papa and his love for the great outdoors. Today I happened to get them both dresses in camo pants (the only camo either of them currently has). Matching camo...time for a picture!!

(original post 11-5-08)

Animal Noises

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about our kids calling their animals by the sounds they make. Here is a video of Joel making his animal noises. His binkie is in his mouth unfortunately, but I think you can still make most of it out! (original post 10-29-08)

The Flower Girl

Elise has had the privelege of being a flower girl in 3 different weddings over the past year. She takes the duty of flower girl very seriously. And I think she is perfect for the job! We had the joy of watching her walk down the isle at my brother's wedding this past August. And then just two weekends ago she was the flower girl in our dear friends wedding. It was so fun to watch her go down the isle. And I wish I had it on video, but halfway down she recognized someone who she had just met the night before at the rehearsal dinner. She looked at him and almost paused as she waved and said, "Hi!". It was really cute! One of the coolest parts was at the end of the ceremony though (coolest of course aside from the bride and groom being pronounced husband and wife!). The groom had one more groomsmen than their were bridesmaids. Nik was the best man so he came in with Brandon (the groom) at the beginning of the ceremony as opposed to walking a bridesmaid down. That left him without a bridesmaid to walk down the isle with after the ceremony. So, he got the honor of escorting the flower girl, and his precious daughter Elise, back down the isle. It was really precious! I will try to get a picture of it!

Laundry Baskets

I have two really fun memories of Elise and laundry baskets. One night, when she was just a couple of months old, I was doing laundry. I had a bunch of clean clothes in the laundry basket and a sleeping baby in my arms. It was time to go to bed and I needed to bring both Elise and the laundry basket down the hall. Obviously I couldn't both carry Elise and the basket so a moment of brilliance (brilliance by my standards!) came. I could put Elise in the basket and then carry the basket down the hall. The basket was a little heavy, but it worked quite well. And Elise was so tired she didn't even notice.




When she was maybe 16 months or so, she had another laundry basket encounter. I had our dirty clothes laundry basket downstairs for laundry. I had just emptied it and Elise wanted in. So we put her in the basket, and she really thought it was the coolest things ever. I think that the picture we got of her is one of our favorites of her!

(original post 10-16-08)

Happy!

Yesterday, I think it was after dinner or something, Joel looked at me and he just said it..."Happy!". He had a huge smile on his face. I couldn't believe it. This little boy, completely on his own, was telling us that at the very moment he was happy. I don't think we use that word a ton, and I don't think we even ask him if he's happy too often. But somewhere he picked up what it means. Today he threw himself at me and gave me the hugest hug - he gives amazing bear hugs by the way! Right before he dove at me though, he said, "Happy!". So while I didn't get the spontaneous "happy" on video, I got a version of him saying it. If you listen carefully, you can actually here him say, "I'm happy." Enjoy!