A Childhood Memory

Today both boys were a bit crabby so I decided we needed to get out of the house. No problem, I had spotted something in the Kmart ad on Sunday that I wanted to go and look at. While we were walking around the store I spotted this "Paint With Water" book (it's simply a book with pictures that have red, yellow, and blue pigment printed on the pictures and all you have to do is add water to color in the pictures). Amazing, I haven't seen one of these since I was a kid! I remember my grandma keeping these on hand at her house and at the cottage for those rainy days when we needed something fun to do. It instantly brought back some great childhood memories! So, even though I wasn't keen on paying $3 for it I decided Joshua had to have the experience. Besides, it's a pretty clean way for a toddler to paint! After lunch today we got the paint with water book out and Joshua had a great time creating his painting.

Jumping Joshua!

For some time now Joshua has been trying to jump, but every time he tried he just went up on his tip-toes and thought he had jumped. For some reason this past Monday Joshua tried all day off and on to jump (getting both his feet off the ground). Even though he tried and tried all day he was only able to get one foot off the ground instead of two, of course this was already an improvement from the tip-toes. Tuesday he again tried jumping all day long. This time about half way through the day he managed to start jumping getting both feet off the ground! He has continued to practice this new skill all day everyday since - even in the pool at East Kentwood last night. Take a look at him in action in the video below!

Click to Play

Little Helper

You'll have to excuse my lack of posting, but this week hasn't been very exciting (except for the warm-up in the weather). Just thought I'd share a picture I captured the other night. I was making dinner and Cory decided he would finally shovel off our deck. Of course once Joshua saw that daddy was outside he couldn't stand to be inside. So after a quick gear-up he headed out on the deck to help Cory get rid of the snow. Okay, mainly he just played. We look forward to more time outside if the temps stay up!








Please excuse the flash on the window of this picture. I tried taking it without a flash and it was too dark so thus the nice white light on the slider!

Family Fun

Last night the Hager family gathered to celebrate a few January and February birthdays. We started with pizza and cake at our house and then all traveled over the East Kentwood Aquatic Center to swim for a little while. By the time we left the kids and adult alike were exhausted from all the fun of the evening. Below are a few pictures of the family at the pool.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope all of you are enjoying your Valentine's day! This has never been one of my favorite holidays, in fact I call it a "Hallmark holiday". However, having a child now has kind of changed my attitude. Perhaps it's because any holiday is fun in the eyes of a child! It's also a great excuse to give Joshua lots of hugs and kisses and show him how much I love him. We got Joshua a John Deere combine and a hot wheels car - both of which he was thrilled with. Besides getting gifts, today we celebrated by delivering treats to people. First we stopped by my dad's office to see him and Phil as well as give a little chocolate treat to the other employees there. Then we headed over to our church; I had a few things to take care of there and again Joshua handed out treats to the staff there. Then it was off to deliver a special treat to Owen who is still fighting the nasty flu, poor little guy! Last, we headed out to Cory's office to deliver more chocolate treats to the employees there. As a bonus we got to go out to lunch with Cory! Joshua did a great job walking around delivering treats to lots of people and hopefully making lots of people smile today. So, go share some love, 'tis the day to do so!

*In case you can't read Joshua's Valentine's day shirt it says "Future Heartbreaker". Thought it was super cute and could be worn beyond today.

Joshua's new matchbox car put a huge smile on his face!

Sickness Strikes

Well, for the most part Joshua has been pretty healthy thus far this winter. He had a cold a couple weeks ago, but nothing major. Well, Sunday night he began rubbing his left eye and just wouldn't stop. It was tearing, but there was no goop coming out or redness in the eye. Monday when he woke up his eye looked a bit swollen, but still no goop or redness in the eye. I thought we were in the clear so I brought him to MOPS. By the way, Erin called Sunday night telling me Owen had a fever, was throwing up and had diarrhea so he didn't come Monday and he won't be here today. After my MOPS meeting I picked Joshua up from the nursery and he had green goo in the corner of his eye. Uh-oh! I called Erin's mom Marcia for some pediatric medical advice (she is a public health nurse and has been a huge help with with every question I have had since Joshua was born). After listening to me describe what was going on she told me to call the nurse at the pediatrician's office and see if they would want me to come in. I called the doctor and set an appointment for 5:15 pm (Have I ever mentioned how wonderful our pediatrician's office is? They have the best hours and always do their best to get you in quickly). So, Dr. Pott took a look at Joshua's eye and determined it was a form of pink eye that was just setting in. We have some drops we now get to put in his eye three times a day. So far he has done really well with it so I hope that continues. Now it's time to disinfect the entire house and all Joshua's toys so that we don't pass this junk on to anyone else!

Obsessed!

Do you think this boy is obsessed with balls or what? While running the water for his bath the other night he ran back and forth between the living room and the bathroom grabbing a ball and then dumping it in the tub. When all was said and done he had 6 balls in the bathtub! Thankfully there was still enough room for Joshua! I think his obsession with balls is only getting stronger!

MOPS Silent Auction

Last night was our MOPS fundraising event. This year we decided to try a silent auction. With the help of lots of people it turned out to be a beautiful event. We had 99 items up for bid and tables of items closed every 15 minutes throughout the night. We had items ranging in value from $7.00 all the way up to $1,500. The event went very well and everybody had a great time! We raised over $4,000!!!! It was our groups best fundraiser yet!

We bid on a few different items, but the one we actually one was a box filled with all kinds of balls, a little wagon, a three-wheeled scooter, snow shields and a jump rope (shown below). Probably the best thing we could have won in Joshua's opinion!
I brought the box inside today for Joshua to explore. When I heard a squeal of delight as I walked into the house with the box I knew we had spent our money well!

Stir Crazy!

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Both Joshua and I are a bit sick of sitting in the house. We have only been outside of our house 2 times in the last five days!!! So, what do you do when you have played with every toy in the house and read just about every board book in the house? This afternoon I hauled out my book full of kid's recipes (edible and non-edible) and came upon the recipe for "Jiggle Jelly", one of my all-time favorites from my days teaching preschool! It's a mix of good old Elmer's glue, water and Borax (a laundry booster) that kids can help make and play with. I actually have all the ingredients needed in the house just waiting for the perfect time. Today was it! Joshua enjoyed mixing up the ingredients, but wasn't quite sure about the results until I showed him just what he could do with it. "Jiggle Jelly" is a very odd substance. It is a solid that is a bit rubbery so it bounces, but also has an ooze to it like a thick liquid. You can use cookie cutters, scissors and molds to play with it. You can also use a straw to blow bubbles in it! My favorite part about it is the cleanliness. It makes virtually no mess and if it does get on anything it is 100% washable. This was our boredom buster for the day.

Joshua tries to cut out a bear in the Jiggle Jelly

Check it out, here is some Jiggle Jelly rolled into a ball. . .
Here is the same Jiggle Jelly just a few minutes later!

Digging out of the Blizzard

This has been Joshua's perch the past couple of days - standing on the chair looking out the front window whenever Cory is out snow blowing. It's way too cold for a little tike to being playing outside, but Joshua really wants to be part of the action so the least he feels he can do is watch and wave.
Cory has snowblowed and snowblowed and snowblowed some more! I don't know how much snow we have gotten since Friday, but it is enough to almost bury our mailbox!

Here's hoping the snow stops some time soon and the temperatures start to rise!

They may dress the same some times but. . .

Joshua and Owen couldn't be more different! It's so funny to deal with my cautious, sensitive, son who strives for things to be perfect and then deal with my nephew who couldn't be more opposite just barrelling through life, having not a cautious bone in his body! They are just two total opposites and having them together so much just makes it all that more glaring (they both have the same pediatrician and as little as she sees them has noticed just how different they are)! Erin and I just have a good chuckle over their differences and hope that they can rub off on each other just a bit.
Like how they are dressed the same today? Erin and I happen to be very picky about the clothes our little guys wear (and we both happen to LOVE Old Navy) so at times we end up with the same clothes. I didn't take them out of the house this way for fear I'd be asked if they were twins for the hundredth time!!!