Another busy weekend!

It was a crazy weekend but lots of fun. Sure makes Mondays hard though - I’m exhausted! We started Saturday with voting and donuts and then off to the pumpkin patch! Nathan was so excited and all he wanted to do was go to the bounce house.



I enjoyed the ride taking some photos from the backseat between my two boys. It was a really great day with lots of nice weather.



Nathan had a blast and is becoming a really good jumper thanks to Dance & Play and Gym Class at the rec center. He was hoping all over the place and telling Daddy and any other parent nearby how much fun he was having. We got him out of the bounce house long enough for a hayride, quick run through the pumpkins and to play briefly in a little playhouse.



Evan didn’t have as much fun as Nathan, but he enjoyed being out. I could tell he wanted to go in the bounce house too - he kept squirming and trying to get out of the sling. He really wants to do everything Nathan does! But, just hanging out and watching was enough to wear him out. Surprisingly, these tired boys did not nap well all weekend!

On Sunday we went to church for the first time in forever. Nathan is finally over his last colds and I guess I was ready to consider the fact that if we go back to church he will get sick again. I hate that but it’s just the way it’s been since we started letting Nathan go to Sunday School. He enjoys it and we want him to be there, but I spend every day after that watching to see if he’s going to get sick this week.

We will have to make an effort to get there early next week. Nathan is in a new class and they meet in a big room to dance and run and play before story time, craft and snack. We were running a little late and got there just as they were finishing up the play time and were ready to start the story. I’m still amazed at the great system they have for the kids programs and how much they do for the kids each Sunday. They also have a very nice nursing room now that we enjoyed hanging out in so I could pump. James had to leave when another mom came but it gave him a chance to walk around and talk to some volunteers.

After church was a quick grocery shopping trip. I went without a list and have thought of several things we forgot to get - oh well at least this trip was under $100! That’s a first for us. I was able to get peaches steamed and pureed for Evan and bought plums to work into our schedule somewhere. That takes care of the 7 month foods except green beans and peas. Those are such a pain to puree that I am not looking forward to them. I’m still surprised by how much Evan doesn’t enjoy food. I thought for sure he would snatch that first bowl of rice cereal, down it, lick the bowl and insist on more!


Instead I have to trick, sneak in and just plain push the spoon past his closed mouth to get bites in. Only to endure the sour looks, coughing, gagging, and letting the last bite dribble out on his chin. Ugh what a mess. But by the end of the bowl, he’s pretty much ignoring me and the protests have slowed down. We’ll just keep trying because the pumping stops after he turns a year old!

We got to end our fun weekend with dinner out at Red Hot & Blue thanks to a coupon from the pumpkin patch! It sure was yummy!

Paper or Electronic?

Well, we did early voting today and it was a breeze. I highly recommend it! I arrived at 7:30 am and was out and home in 30 minutes. The line wasn't too long and moved fast. Our location offered both electronic and paper voting. My first decision was which to try and to my surprise, both lines moved at the same speed so it didn't really matter which you chose. I did electronic.

With both boys now, I was worried about working voting into our busy schedule. The first time we voted, we went after work and stood in line for hours. Can't do that now. The second time we did the early voting on a Sunday during the football game and we were in and out in minutes - way to go! So I decided if it was going to happen we better take advantage of one of the early voting days. It's nice to have that out of the way and the boys didn't even notice. When I got home they were both up and playing with James. I shooed him out of the house as fast as possible to get his voting done and he was back soon with donuts!

So, James got there about 8:30 and he said the line was even shorter. He did paper!

If you have the time, avoid the lines and check out early voting in your area! My vote is cast, my part is done. Now it's up to the winner to not screw up our country! Like the nice lady in line behind me said, "I'll be praying for the winner, no matter who that is." Our country needs all the prayers we can get!

It's beginning to feel a lot like....

Well, maybe not quite yet. But I got to enjoy a crisp cool walk from the parking lot to our office at 41 degrees this morning!

I LOVE the cold weather and am looking forward to cooler days.

The Simple Joys of Life

Right now, I think what I enjoy the most about my boys is seeing their joy. I feel blessed to have such happy boys and wonder some days if every baby and 3 year old are this happy. I sure hope they are.

I get so much joy from their joy and most of the time it is the result of a simple decision on our part or just taking a moment to have fun with them. Most of these moments are delightfully free and worth more than gold!

Evan was thrilled to be kissed by Daddy or smiled at by Mama this weekend. His giggles filled the room and our hearts. Nathan loved to skip a nap for an hour at the park with Daddy!

But a truly golden moment for Nathan came quite unexpected on Sunday afternoon. He had turned down a second trip to the park to play in the backyard in his sandbox. That was all he wanted to do! I stayed inside with Evan to try to get a few things cleaned up (what was I thinking!). Before I could get started, the phone rang - it was James’s Mom. They were about 10 minutes away picking up a load and wanted to know if Nathan could come and see their truck!

James’s mom and step-dad are truck drivers. They drive for Schneider National - the big orange trucks you will see all the time on the highway if you start to look for them. When Nathan was one year old they gave him a great diecast metal Schneider truck bank for Christmas. (“It’s not a toy, it’s a bank”) Well, we couldn’t really tell a one year old not to play with the coolest truck he had ever seen, so that truck is a much loved toy. Soon after that Christmas and to this day, every time Nathan sees a Schneider truck he will point and scream “Big Bank Truck!!!” It’s our favorite game when driving.

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, these are just a few novels from our brief visit with Grandma and Grandpa Vandever.






Can you just see the joy! Nathan had a blast running all over, around and under that truck. What a thrill! He got to sit in the driver’s seat, check out the bed in the back, stand on the cat walk, walk all around the underneath and every child’s dream - pull the airhorn!



Evan napped through part of the visit, but I think he was a little overwhelmed by the truck! He calmed down quickly and enjoyed looking around while Nathan played.



It was such a wonderful surprise in our day and brought so much joy we would never have wanted to miss it. Thank you so much for calling us Melanie - Nathan had a great time! (And after we got home he got to play in the sandbox while I made dinner.)

Thank you for adding to our joy!

Feeling Nostalgic

It's a quiet day at the office and I'm feeling nostalgic. I'm working on a Handbook so I can let my mind wander while I format text. It's my favorite weather - a little grey and cool. If we could get a little rain it would be a perfect day. Yeah, I'm weird that way. Lunch time seems a perfect break to get some of these thoughts out of my head.

Last night we watched ER after the boys went to bed. Hard to believe we have been watching that show for 15 years! I remember stumbling on to it one night when James and I were dating. A lot has changed since then - on the show and in our lives. This is the last season and I can't imagine not watching ER. It's the only show we have really kept up with all these years and the only thing I have tried to always tape and watch since the boys were born (except for Survivor). One of my favorite characters left last night.

To add to my day, I checked email and saw the weekly message from our pastor. On his email he mentioned a concert coming up and I skimmed the names only to find Charlie Peacock! Ah, more nostalgia.

I LOVE Charlie Peacock one of my big time favorite Christian musicians and just a super cool guy. We used to see him in concert any time he came to town. Boy I miss those days. I love good music and Christian concerts are so fun!

I snitched a photo from his myspace page:



Sure do wish we could go and take Nathan. Wonder how old is appropriate for a concert? Well, I know 3 isn't quite there yet. His attention span isn't long enough. Since Charlie's performing with other artists, who knows when he would get to come on and I would hate to have to leave early and miss him! (not to mention the show starts at 7, my pump time! I can't wait until I'm not pumping anymore.)

Ah well, nice to know he's still out there performing and recording music. One of my favorite memories of a concert we went to was the last time we saw Charlie Peacock. It was quite a few years ago when our friends Tim & Marilyn were still in town. We went to a church "coffee house" for a very informal, laid back concert. The crowd was really small and we picked a round table next to the piano. About 10 minutes before the show started Charlie came in, got settled and then walked over to our table. He introduced himself! and shook our hands. "Hi I'm Charlie". It was really funny. I'm sitting there thinking - I know, we're here for you! It was just so 'Charlie Peacock" to see him walking around the room introducing himself as if we didn't know who he was! It was a great show of music, stories and spending time with God. Who could ask for more this side of Heaven!

Was that 6 hours?

Well, it was a better night last night! We stayed for dinner at Mom's house again...James had a rough day trying to get all the returns back and in the mail. So it was another late night. But the drive home was much better and our sleep adventure went well. Plus yesterday ended James's busy season so we will be back to our normal routine soon!

When I got to Mom's house Nathan was cuddling and watching TV, he had had a good nap, and Evan was sitting on the floor playing. His favorite game right now is to sit up. He will roll from sitting to laying on his tummy and then back up to sitting. He still isn't actually crawling yet, but there is a lot of pushing up to his knees and I expect him to take off any day. After I finished pumping, I gave Evan a bottle with the hopes that he would take a little nap and let us eat dinner. He loved the bottle but wanted no part of a nap so we let him play on the floor while we ate some of Mom's really good homemade soup! Perfect end to our rainy day. Nathan loved the soup and oyster crackers with cheese!

We had a nice evening eating and playing and when I had to pump again at 7 (every three hours!) everyone was content. After that Evan was hungry, fussy and tired so I gave him a quiet bottle while Nathan played computer games upstairs with Grandma. That was all it took to put Evan to sleep. I let him sleep on the floor while we loaded the car. Once everything was in, Nathan was buckled up and Evan was slipped still sleeping into his carseat, I held my breath all the way home. He slept the whole way!

When we got home Evan woke up so I could change him and give him another bottle. I was back downstairs in time for most of Nathan's bath and bedtime routine. Evan woke again for a little more milk about 10:15 pm. So I finally slipped into bed about 11:30 exhausted but hopeful that we would all sleep through the night. To my surprise, I woke up at 5:30! I haven't slept through the night in a really long time and it sure felt good! Can't make a habit of it but it was nice. I had just enough time to pump and get ready for work before I heard Evan waking up. It was nice to give him a bottle before rushing off to work, even though he didn't go back to sleep.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ahh, sleep. I am finding that it has many faces and personalities. Last night I experienced the extremes of 3 of them all at once.

Today ends James’s busy season for this year. We will be enjoying a sigh of relief tonight and praising God for an easier year. Reflecting, we have gone from 6 month busy seasons at James’s last job where he worked late nights and weekends with mounting stress to his current job where the busy season lasts from August to October and has had varying degrees of weekends and late nights. Before kids I would miss James but fill my free time with “things” and projects. With Nathan it was stressful, now add Evan it’s, well, I can’t think of the word to describe it. Doable but not easy in any way. If I weren’t pumping, things would be so much easier. Even with my new portable, cordless pump that I really love taking care of two boys by myself is more than challenging.

Each year James would tell me next year will be better because we won’t have “x” to do like we did this year. Over and over I heard that and wondered. This year we arrived. It was still stressful for James and a lot of work. But almost unbelievable that he didn’t work a single weekend and only 3 really late nights.

Monday and last night the boys and I enjoyed dinner at my parents house and took leftovers home so James could stay late and I wouldn’t be stressed out of my mind. My parents are so amazing and I just wouldn’t want to do any of this without my Mom’s help. She’s an incredible woman. Not only does she watch both boys all day for me, but she makes me feel welcome and like I’m no trouble at all to stay for dinner. She won’t even let me help and I get to play with Nathan or feed Evan a bottle in her calm and comfortable home. Monday we gave Evan a bath in the sink which he loved because he was able to sit up and play in the water. Baths at home have been in the tub with a big spongy cushion and it’s too hard to keep him in a sitting position to play. I think we will be doing sink baths more often!

To my surprise, on Monday night when we left Grandma’s house Evan cried all the way home. Actually he screamed. I thought sure he would fall blissfully asleep after a big day at Grandma’s and a nice bath. Yeah right. He was a tear covered sweaty mess when we finally got home and Nathan had his fingers in his ears the whole way. I had hoped we could listen to the new Imagination Movers cd I got for my birthday on the way home. But all we heard were Evan’s screams.

So after dinner at Mom’s house last night we thought a bottle might be good for Evan. I didn’t want to take the time to give him a bath because we were running late. Evan had better naps and I thought he might sleep on the way home if we gave him a bottle. No Nap Nathan was running around having a good time and soon we all piled into the car.

Backing out of the driveway, I waved to Mom & Dad and sighed. My headache was going away and we would be home soon. As I shifted into drive Evan started to cry...Oh No. Not again. It was one awful drive home. I hate being in the front seat where I can’t reach Evan, comfort him, see him very well or help him. All I can do is drive and try to hold on to my sanity. The crying turned to screaming, the screaming mounted until he only stopped to cough. I could feel my nerves shattering and my headache coming back. As I struggled to get us home I glanced back to see how Nathan was doing. I expected to see him staring out the window or sitting with his fingers in his ears. No. His little head was turned toward Evan and he was blissfully sleeping while the banshee next to him raised the roof! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I literally looked twice. I was impressed.

So there we sat, three extremes meeting for a 20 minute drive home. Me sleep deprived, nerves on edge fighting off frustration. Evan exhausted but angry and determined not to sleep by screaming and crying. Nathan one step away from from snoring and enjoying the sweet blissful sleep that Evan and I were craving.

When we finally arrived home and I pried Evan out of his seat - tear soaked, sweating, shaking but wide-eyed - I had to laugh at Nathan who continued to sleep as if he was cozy in his bed. Holding Evan, I brought all the bags in the house, put James’s dinner in the fridge and finally stood at the car wondering what to do. As Nathan slept on. James wasn’t home yet but on his way. I had no idea how long it would take for him to get home and I didn’t want to just stand in the garage holding Evan. As much as I hate to wake a sleeping boy, I finally started unbuckling Nathan and he began to wake up. He was really out!

We waited in the front room for James to get home so I could put Evan to bed and James could play with Nathan and bathe him. I just shook my head at these two boys. Evan now sitting up and thrilled to be chewing on a toy while he watched the meowing Niles come and go. Nathan playing under a blanket pretending to hide with his toys. Such a different scene from the drive we had just had...Can I collapse now?


It ended up being a pretty good night. Nathan was asleep before his story ended. Evan was in bed by 9:15 pm. He fussed and made noises while he sucked down 5 ounces only to wake me from a dream at 12:30 to have 3 more ounces and a diaper change...but James said he slept until 8:30 this morning. We will hope for a better drive home today!