birthday blessings

I could tell that Nathan had a short night of sleep when I woke up at 6:40 and found him painting the shelves around the microwave we installed, and seeing a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls on the counter ready to go in the oven. Happy 30th birthday to me! The cinnamon rolls were delicious and the microwave project is now complete!

Levi couldn't have given me a better birthday gift. I was holding him in the kitchen when all of the sudden he got very excited, pointed out the window, and very clearly said "birdie" for the first time! He didn't realize that he had just said a new word, he was just so excited about the birds that he practically jumped out of my arms. So now it's mama, dada, boo, and birdie. :)

Nathan and I had so much fun on our anniversary renting a double kayak on Lake Macatawa that we decided to do it again this afternoon to celebrate my birthday. It was great to relax in the sun! Grandma Shirley from church came over to watch the boys. She thought Levi was quite a character and couldn't believe how much Dorian was talking. They are much more shy around other people at church so she got to see a different side of them.




The van needs to be packed and ready for our trip by tomorrow night. The party is over...lots to do in the next 24 hours.

little climber

Last night I was giving Nathan a haircut outside (as I usually do when it's warm outside) and the boys were doing very well at entertaining themselves.



Levi's new favorite toy outside is this Little Tikes car. Dorian had some difficult moments letting Levi play with "his" car, but we found out that they actually both fit behind the wheel at the same time. :)





Levi enjoyed his first wagon ride with Dorian.

Levi is growing up so much. We're past the rattles and baby toys, now he wants to play with balls, cars, dirt, and whatever his brother is playing with. I never see him crawl faster though than when he is heading for an open stairwell. His favorite thing to do right now is to climb steps. Thank goodness for safety gates. Maybe he'll be a mountain climber like his daddy.

very owie

Thursday: Dorian has hand, foot and mouth disease which has been very painful for him. Fever, painful sores on his feet (to the point of him not being able to walk normally), sores covering the palms of his hands, and very painful sores in his mouth. He keeps saying that he's hungry but if he attemps a bite of something, he spits it back out and says that it's "very owie". In fact, even on ibuprofen he would continually say that he was "very owie". We also heard news of mom being in the hospital.

Friday: Today was a breath of fresh air after our difficult day on Thursday. I talked to mom this morning which was very reassuring. She was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia. I'm praying that there won't be another serious case like this previous one ever again. Dorian is doing better than yesterday. Instead of lying on the couch watching movies all day, he was up and around a little bit. We even played outside for a while. Yeah!







Saturday: I'm hopeful for an even better day today. Levi is up and even though he also has hand, foot and mouth disease, he only has a couple spots and he hasn't been uncomfortable. Laundry is underway which is good because Dorian doesn't have any more pjs left in his drawer. Nathan is off to work. Maybe I'll have some chai!

coffee, trucks and sticks

A rather rough night of sleep. Nathan was working on writing a textbook last night while I was having fun blogging. We laid down to go to sleep around 12:30 when shortly after that Levi was crying (again) so we decided to give him ibuprofen since he is still teething. He was back to sleep around 1:00. Dorian was up around 4:30, probably from a bad dream. He went back to sleep and then was up for the day a little after 6:00. I was so hoping that he would go back to sleep, but after 30 minutes in his room it was clear to me that wasn't going to be the case. The biggest blessing at that point was that I smelled that my dear husband had started a pot of coffee before he left for work. He knew I would be needing the caffeine.

Tuesday mornings are fun because we all enjoy watching the garbage truck come up and down our street to take all the trash away. Trucks are always a highlight to Dorian's day. The weather is perfect today- sunny and mid 70's! Dorian requested going for a walk as he often does so I took him up on it. We talked to a neighbor who I've never seen before and she just loved seeing the 2 little boys. She was amazed that her oldest child was heading off to college this coming year and reminded me to enjoy this stage of our lives. She was sad that her children grew up so fast. I hope that God will enable me to enjoy each stage of my life as our children grow up over the years. There are so many people who I talk to that seem as if they would rather be 30 again.

Dorian was pedaling his tricycle with both feet for some of our walk this morning. I was proud of him. It was a little slower than when he pushes himself with his feet. But our walks are never fast. We have to stop and pick up all of the interesting sticks and stones along the way. The basket under the stroller is well stocked on any given day with an assortment of sticks. Gotta love boys!

first steps

I've been wanting to set up a family blog site for over a year now so I'm excited that I've finally made it happen. Well, the first step of setting up our account is done anyway. Now I'll have to be diligent about adding more posts. I want to remember all of the fun memories of raising 2 little boys. There are too many little things that happen from day to day that I'm afraid I'll forget unless I record it. I want our friends and family far away to know what is going on in our lives and see our pictures as well. The boys are growing up so fast.

Levi took his first steps today!!! Nathan and I were sitting across from each other on the kitchen floor and he took a few steps on his own a couple different times. It's not going to be long.

Dorian and I went to Marvelous Mondays tonight. He came home with a tie-dyed t-shirt and a really orange face and shirt from the Popsicle he had for a snack. He had to tell daddy everything that he did when we returned home. He was pretty excited.