94 Years and Counting!

Today is my grandpa's 94th birthday! We got together as a family on Sunday to celebrate his 94 years of life. My grandpa is healthy and active and doesn't look or act his age - he and my grandma go walking at the mall almost every morning! I can only hope to be in as good of shape as he is at his age! Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Play Set Completed!

Thanks to Cory with help from his dad the play set in the backyard was started and completed this weekend! Joshua is beyond excited to have a playground in his own backyard! It took 3 hours of sorting parts in preparation and approximately 11 hours of actual constructing. Not too bad! Joshua was thrilled to be playing on it with his friends tonight, that was until the rain came. There are sure to be many more hours of fun for both our boys in the future!

BIG project!

Last week while at Sam's Club we noticed the outdoor play set they had on display was on clearance. It was a quality set that had lots of great activities and with $300 off of the price we had to check into it a bit more. Cory asked how many they had left and found they only had 2 plus the display model. We have been looking at play sets for the backyard for at least a year trying to figure out which brand to buy and what activities we wanted on it - you'd be surprised at how many sets are out there and how much harder that makes decisions! This play set was the best deal we've found for the quality and number of activities it allows for. So, we picked all the parts and pieces up last weekend and the boys began putting it together on Thursday night. Of course Joshua had to get in on the action and help too. Cory got more of it put together yesterday afternoon and today Cory and his dad are going to try to put the majority of it together. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can post a picture of the completed project!

Putting the ladder together.

Showing off his muscles!

Progress at the start of Saturday morning.

Homecoming Parade

We went to the homecoming parade last night with the neighbors. This little town really knows how to put on the parades! I must say there was much more variety in the candy being thrown (which was nice since I'm not a Tootsie Roll fan) and the kids even got pencils, fruit snacks and bouncy balls. It was quite nice to go to a fall parade in the early evening. As Joshua would say, "it was fun, fun, fun!"

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Off to the apple orchard we headed this dreary morning for the first preschool field trip of the year. The orchard was about 10 minutes away from our house which was very convenient and parents could just bring their preschooler there instead of going to school first (Matthew went along for the fun too). The kids learned about how to pick apples and what different kinds they grew at the orchard. After picking some apples they watched the apples get cleaned/polished and sorted. Then it was time to sample an apple! Joshua's enjoyed picking the apples and eating one, but the highlight of the trip was holding the kitty he spotted while we were on our way to car to leave! A family outing to go apple picking may be in our future!

Watching the apples they picked get dumped into the bushel.

YUM!

Brothers posing for a fall picture at the apple orchard.

Joshua loved the kitty he found walking around!

Not so sure . . .

. . . about his first taste of cereal! We saw some pretty funny faces and heard some gagging noises as he tried to get used to this new taste and texture.

Let's Go Racin'

While Joshua was off playing with his friends Matthew got a turn in the race car! Well okay, he didn't drive in it, but still thought he was pretty cool just grabbing the steering wheel (occasionally drooling on it and trying to bite it).

Teething

Constantly drooling, chewing, gnawing, and biting on whatever his can get his little hands on these days. Poor little guy is teething, but has no teeth yet to show for all the misery he has been in. We've been trying to help him relieve the pain with doses of Tylenol, teething tablets and lots of toys and teethers to chew on. We've even given him cold apple slices to bite on and in the mesh feeder frozen grapes and frozen or cold nectarine slices to bite on. Sometimes a little relief goes a long way. He hasn't been sleeping well at night or for naps all this week. Our happy little boy isn't always so happy these days thanks to this teething business. Hopefully a tooth pops out soon!

First Day of Preschool!

Today was Joshua's first official day of 4 year old preschool! He was sooooo excited already at orientation yesterday! I had very few worries this time around as he did so well in preschool last year and loved it. However, this is a new school, new teachers, new classroom and new friends so I wasn't totally sure how smooth of a transition it would be. I was amazed and thrilled as Joshua gave me a hug and a kiss and then ran off to play with a friend of his from church that is in his class! Not a tear or a look of fear in his eyes! Guess it helps he has one year of preschool under his belt already! Maybe this will be more of an adjustment for me than Joshua as this is a preschool program I am not familiar with. Thus far I've had to bite my tongue several times and can see a meeting with someone in the district in my near future. I really had hoped I could just be a parent and not have to bring up my educational background/training and experience, but I'm afraid the early childhood advocate in me is going to rear it's head soon. Perhaps I'm just too used to a cutting edge, developmentally appropriate program that is centered around children. For Joshua's sake I'm trying to keep my negative thoughts to myself so this year will be a positive one for him. Here's to the start of a great school year!

Traditional picture before leaving for school!

A little treat for after dinner tonight to celebrate his first day of preschool!

Mr. Independent

It seems Matthew is fully embracing the idea of bottles as he has now decided he is the one who needs to hold it while he is drinking! Is this little guy growing up to fast or what?!?!

Another Great Day!

Since the weather was so gorgeous this weekend and my uncle and aunt are so gracious we decided to enjoy Sunday afternoon out to Gun Lake. This is the last weekend the cottage will be in use and probably the last time we will see the cottage as I've known it all my life (it's being torn down in a week or so and a beautiful new cottage that accommodates my uncle and aunt's changing and growing (think spouses and hopefully grandchildren some day) family will be built in it's place). We enjoyed the sun and a bit of the water. Cory and Joshua fished off the dock, actually catching a few fish! One they even put in a bucket so Joshua could watch it swim around, but when we weren't around it had flopped itself out of the bucket and onto the dock where it died. Of course one last boat ride for the summer was in order! Joshua LOVED the long, fast ride my uncle took us on! We had first headed out on the boat without Joshua's life jacket, but quickly went back to get it - Joshua was bummed and thought that was the boat ride and immediately asked if he could go for a longer one which we did once he was wearing his life jacket. At the end of the afternoon Cory and my uncle Steve took the boat out of the water for the season. What a great way to end summer! Special thanks to my uncle and aunt for letting us go out to the cottage several times this summer! I appreciate the opportunity to create memories with my children at the cottage just like my parents did with me and my brothers!

Checking out the fish they caught.

On one last boat ride for the summer!

Matthew and my aunt Cher relaxing on the boat.

Summer must be done, the boat is out of the water :(

The Big Lake

Yesterday we visited some of Cory's relatives (including his parents and sister and family) who were camping out at Pioneer Park in Muskegon which is on Lake Michigan. We spent the afternoon relaxing at the campsites and on the beach and even though the water was pretty cold the kids were able to splash around in it and play on the shore which they loved! Joshua spent his time playing in the sand and jumping in the dam that Grandpa was building. While we were on the beach a little plane that was flying very low flew right by us - it was cool to see, but at the same time a bit scary that they were flying so low and close to the shore by so many people. Oh, the funny for the day was when Joshua told Cory he had to go to the bathroom while playing on the beach so Cory told him to just go in the lake so the kid takes this quite literally and drops his swimsuit to his ankles while standing on the shore and pees in the lake. Everyone around us was laughing while I sat there holding Matthew horrified! Ironic this is the one time our child decides to listen and follow directions! We were all laughing hysterically while Joshua kept saying, "well daddy told me to go in the lake". We had another great day of day camping and were glad we got to enjoy the big lake at least a little bit!

4 Months Old

Matthew had his 4 month appointment Monday with the pediatrician. We know he is big, but when the nurses make comments about his size before he is even weighed, well it's just funny! His nickname Chub-a-luba is truly fitting!
Matthew's stats are: 17 lbs. 4 oz (84%), 26 in. (78%), and head circumference 42.8 cm (58%)
Joshua's stats at 4 months old: 15 lbs. 13 oz, 25.25 in., and head circumference 42.8 cm

The pediatrician actually referred to Matthew as "a tank" which made me laugh (keep in mind the pediatrician is a friend of mine)! She said that due to his big size we can start cereal any time because he could definitely handle it. I assumed this wouldn't happen until he was 6 months old, so that was a bit of a surprise (Joshua started cereal at 6 months old when he 17 lbs.). She also thinks that Matthew will be able to quit taking Zantac when he reaches 6 months old which would be wonderful! The final report - Matthew is a very healthy and happy little boy!

Just some quick notes for my sake as I don't scrapbook and this is my way of keeping track of the details that are so quickly forgotten!
~Matthew's newest nickname is Bugsy. If you've seen the movie Bedtime Stories you might remember the guinea pig with the HUGE eyes named Bugsy, well Matthew's big eyes remind us of Bugsy's eyes, thus the nickname.

~Matthew can roll from his back to his tummy, but only rolls to the left. Even though he rolled from his tummy to his back at 15 days old, he lost that skill after a couple weeks and has yet to figure out how to roll from his tummy to his back again. Perhaps he's got too much chub to roll over!

~He is the happiest little boy who is almost always full of smiles and laughs. With very little effort Joshua can get Matthew to laugh, apparently 4 year old boys who dance around are hilarious!

~Matthew is wearing 3-6 month clothes mostly, but will soon be moving into 6-9 month clothes. This little guy is out-growing his clothes faster than Joshua did!

~Matthew enjoys his rocker, the bumbo seat, the walker, being propped up in a chair and laying on the floor to play.

~He is grabbing at toys and getting them to his mouth most of the time.

~He is drooling constantly!

~Matthew is eating 6 times a day, one of those feedings being a bottle which he isn't always excited about.

~Matthew seems to be a mommy's boy already!

~Matthew is a champ at putting himself to sleep! Naps vary from day to day, but he is in bed by 10pm (if not earlier) and sleeps 7-8 hours, eats and goes back to sleep for another 3 hours.

We are enjoying this little guy and can't believe how fast the time is going!