Friday, January 30, 2009

What makes me laugh at 4 a.m.



There's a great website I go to all the time. It's www.babycenter.com That's where I get most of my info and ideas for raising the boys and what to expect. It's a great site with tons of info and articles and I get emails with specific info on both the boys. It has eased my mind on many occasions.

This morning I was checking email and saw a message from them with info on Evan and what to expect from our 10 month old! This comic just cracked me up!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

4 Generations

It's not everyday you get four generations standing together in one room. At least not in my family. My grandparents are all gone, so Nathan and Evan only have Great-Grandmothers from James's family.

Today we got a chance to visit with James's Mom and Grandmother at Grandma Meyer's house. It was a short visit, but a nice opportunity to snap some photos and let them see how much Evan has grown. It also gave Nathan a chance to chase his Grandma Vandever around the house until she almost passed out! :-)

James, Evan, Velma Meyers, Nathan & Melanie Vandever (Mother, Daughter, Grandson and 2 Great-Grandsons)



Playing with Nathan and tinker toys:





Playing with Evan:



Sunday, January 11, 2009

Perspective

365 days
x 7 pump times a day
-----
2,555 pumpings for a year
x 45 minutes
----
114,975 minutes of pumping for a year
•/• 60 minute per hour
------
1,916.25 hours of pumping for a year
•/• 24 hours per day
------
79.84 days of pumping for a year
•/• 30 days in a month
------
2.66 months of pumping


Since I did this with Nathan too, if you consider x 2 kids, I will have done:

5110 pumpings
x 45
----
229,950 minutes
•/• 60 minute per hour
------
3832.5 hours
•/• 24 hours per day
------
159.68 days
•/• 30 days in a month
------
5.32 months

(by the way, I did NOT do the math! I'm a graphic designer, I vegged out at 365 days in a year. James is the accountant and although he tried to do it in his head, he soon went for a calculator!)

Yeah, my life sucks right now.


:-)

Dipping a toe into the new year.

Well, it's only the 11th day of January and we finally got all our Christmas decorations down! We weren't entirely denying the end of Christmas, just getting a slow start. Actually, we kept the tree and decorations up because Melanie, Ben, Kim and the cousins came over on Saturday for a late Christmas.

It was a very fun day and Melanie over did it! But I can't blame her, it's so fun to shop to shop for kids. At Nathan's first Christmas, she surprised us with a very large wooden rocking truck. It is very cool (did I mention large?) and Nathan has really enjoyed it inside and out. This year, she contacted us early and we chose wooden rocking fire truck for Evan. Also large but not quite as much so maybe the company decided to scale back just a little. We were touched by her generosity (those things aren't cheap!) and I was really impressed because we are trying to do the same things for both boys - to an extent. It's something my parents really instilled in me through their example. I often heard Mom stay "what we'll do for one, we will do for the other." It worked out in my favor often when I was growing up.

There were many things my sister wanted that I wasn't interested in. I wouldn't say we were exactly opposites, but definitely different in our desires. Lucky for me, my sister had expensive taste! :-) Often Mom would tell me "we did "x" for Melissa, so we need to do it for you too." and I would say great, but could we do "y" instead. Sometimes y was a little bit cheaper too and we all ended up happy. So as I look at my two growing boys, I have the same thoughts when it comes to the things that we do and buy. Nathan had "x" so we should get one for Evan too.

So it really touched my heart when Melanie offered to get a rocking toy for Evan too. Now, we have to find a place for both of them ! :-) But with the Christmas tree out of the way, our front room has opened up a little and we enjoyed some extra space.



Evan was all smiles when he woke from his nap and saw his new truck!





Nathan got a super cool pirate ship with all the accessories from Grandma and Grandpa Vandever!



And after all the excitement and everyone went home, Evan and Nathan enjoyed giving each other rides!







We also had Evan's 9 month well check this week. It was mostly a good report but Evan is a little anemic and had not gained much weight (almost 19 lbs). I am wondering if he is just working it off with his super fast crawling - he's a super active boy - or if he inherited Grandpa Beebe's metabolism! The doctor sent us home with some samples of formula because I told him how Evan has been refusing to eat anything but milk, juice and cheerios. The doctor didn't seem too concerned about his eating habits and thought he might just be showing some independence. But nothing we try seems to work.



Evan really likes the cheerios and will eat a lot of them in one sitting, but nothing else. It's a fight or we have to trick him to get a spoon in his mouth and then most of the food comes right back out. I even steamed some foods to make them solid enough to pick up but really mushy and he wouldn't have them. The stinker even knew when a cheerio had a little food on them, even just in the center and spit those right out!




But kudos to my hairdresser Anna who suggested putting rice cereal or oatmeal in his bottle! Lots of people suggested that to me when the boys were under 6 months which I knew was a bad idea since they would not be old enough to digest it. But it never occurred to me that we could do it now with Evan to get him to eat something more than just milk! It worked like a charm. I have gotten two bottles with lots of rice cereal dissolved in them down him and at least we are getting some iron, vitamins and calories in him! That formula can just stay on the shelf until our next dr visit when I plan to return them!

So, overall I would say it was a successful weekend! They boys had lots of fun playing, our house looks a little more normal without the Christmas decorations and I am ready to retreat back to work! Here's just a few scenes of our weekend fun, playing together and laughing a lot.









Friday, January 9, 2009

Having Fun...Wish You Were Here!

Hearing little boys laugh is lots of fun and it's amazing what can do it! Just a spin the the papasan chair is all it takes.







We also found the perfect place for Nathan to build his track. Now it is out of the way, but still lots of fun with an added table to crawl under.