Hager Christmas 2007

Last night we celebrated Christmas with Corys' family at his mom and dad's house. It was loud and chaotic, but fun with 8 adults and 6 kids under the age 6. We started with the traditional dinner, which because of the children's excitement didn't last too long. Then it was on to the kids opening their presents. They started with opening the gifts they gave each other - the cousins picked names and traded presents this year. Nicholas had Joshua's name and gave him a cool new Tonka truck with a boat and trailer. Joshua was very territorial with this new gift and kept shouting, "MINE!" every time someone got near it. He was content to drive it around for quite some time. We finally got him back in the room to open his presents from Grandpa and Grandma - a car hauler for his Hot Wheels cars, a memory game, some wooden blocks, a Corvette lamp and a special fence for his animals handmade by Grandpa! After the kids were finished opening their gifts the adults had their turn. The big surprise of the night when dad H. gave mom H. her wedding ring with a new replacement diamond in it - she lost her diamond this summer while camping. It was a great night of celebration! Today Joshua has been playing with all his new toys and enjoying them thoroughly!

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The Holiday Express at the Gardens

Cory had the day off today so we headed over to see the Holiday Express train and the beautiful Christmas trees at Frederik Meijer Gardens. I figured that it would probably be busy, but had no idea that today would be a day for school field trips. There were tons of kids there. Despite the crowds we were able to see most of the Christmas trees from around the world, although Joshua's biggest interest was the train. We spent lots of time following the trains around. They did add a little display of different scents this year which included the scent of peppermint. When Joshua smelled the peppermint he said, "yum, candy canes!" Ti's the season! Glad we were able to get to the gardens to enjoy the seasonal displays.

Visiting the Children's Museum

Yesterday I got to thinking that we hadn't been down to the children's museum since this fall so it would be kind of nice to go. I mentioned my idea to Joshua and proceeded to ask him if he would like to go to the museum with just mommy or go with some friends. His reply was, "Go with Eli." So after a quick phone call to Cory's cousin Missy we were set for a play date at the children's museum. Joshua was very excited about seeing Eli and the museum again! He ate so fast this morning it was unbelievable and even cooperated every step of getting ready so we were able to get downtown on time. Joshua and Eli were off and running as soon as our coats were off. The boys did a good job of playing together, when they didn't run off in different directions! Missy and a I were even able to catch up a little while playing with and watching the boys. It was a great morning of fun together!

Gingerbread Train

We had nothing on the calendar nor anything pressing to do today, so Joshua and I spent some time working on a special project together. I found a gingerbread train kit at Target and thought that would be more fun for Joshua than a gingerbread house. Thankfully it came with pre-made gingerbread train pieces, pre-made frosting and all the candy, so it was just a matter of putting it together. With a two and a half year old this was all the challenge I was up for anyway. So we set to work assembling the train pieces (thank goodness for the EZ Build tray that was also included). I have never actually used gingerbread to make a creation, we always used graham crackers in preschool to make our houses or nativity scenes, so I had no idea how heavy gingerbread is. The tray and tons of icing were the key to making the pieces stick. Joshua enjoyed the assembling bit, but really grooved on the decorating part of the fun. Between eating the frosting and the candy I'm surprised he got the train decorated at all. Now he can't wait to show it to daddy and then try to eat it (I haven't told him yet because I hate to burst his bubble, but I'm sure it's going to taste pretty gross). You can definitely tell this is a two year olds sloppy little master piece, but who cares about the end product when the process was so much fun!

Joshua and his final master piece!

Assembling the train car.


Meticulously applying candy.

Love to watch those little hands!

Joshua loved decorating his train!

SNOW!!!!

According to the news last night we were supposed to get some snow over night and for once the weather people were right! When Joshua woke up and looked outside he was very excited!!! I was excited too, since it meant I got to snow blow for the first time this season. Yes, I enjoy snow blowing and hardly ever let Cory do it. Kind of makes up for me never touching the lawn mower! So we all geared up and headed out to clean up the driveway and play in the snow. Joshua isn't a huge fan of the snow blower, but had fun avoiding it while playing with daddy. I'm not sure who was having more fun running, diving in, falling in, and throwing the snow around, Joshua or Cory! After the work was done we got the sled out and took him for a few rides down a hill down the street. We had been outside over an hour and the wind was a bit too chilly so we didn't stay long before heading home.

Throwing snow at daddy!

Got you daddy!

Going for a ride!

Clear Evidence of Learning!

This morning I was dusting our bedroom when Joshua ran in and said, "Mommy, come see!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the living room and said, "I made a big I!" He has recognized a few letters thus far . . . I, O, X, Q and sometimes J . . . but to see him create the letter I out of his cars was amazing. Cory spurred Joshua's creation - as last night Cory was making all kinds of letters using Joshua's cars and Joshua would try to guess which letters they were. As an early childhood teacher and parent I am all about the playing around with letters and language rather than actually sitting kids down and teaching them that an A is an A and so forth. Love to see that all our reading and playing around with letters and words is starting to really impact that little brain of Joshua's!

First time this year playing out in the snow!

Since the snow has fallen everywhere we go Joshua has to touch the snow. So, I decided that we better spend some time in the fluffy white stuff. I had hoped Joshua would help me shovel the driveway, but HA, no slave labor for him! After a few shovels of snow he decided it was much more fun to make snow angels, roll in the snow, crawl in it and of course eat the snow! Perhaps you've noticed he is wearing the same snowsuit from last year; that's the beauty of having a child who is small for his age - you get much more use out of their clothes! We were outside for over an hour and Joshua could have stayed out much longer! I don't know where he has gotten his love for snow, but I know it certainly isn't from me! Although, I must say that now that I have snow pants it makes being outside much more enjoyable because I'm as toasty as Joshua is!

Backseat Driver

Today we were driving down the street and Joshua spotted a trash truck. Apparently he really wanted to see it because from the back seat I heard, "Lady, get out the way! I see trash truck!" This was said a couple of times before we came to a curve and he had a clearer view of the trash truck. At this point however, Joshua must have thought the lady moved out of his way because then he said, "Thanks lady!" Too funny!

Saint Nicholas Day!

Perhaps you may recall from a post last year at this time that we don't really do much with Santa at our house, but we do celebrate Saint Nicholas Day. We began celebrating our tradition by reading a story last night about the real Saint Nicholas who was a Bishop very long ago who helped people, sometimes in secrecy. One of the most popular stories is when Saint Nicholas dropped bags of money through the window for 3 girls so they would have their dowries and be able to get married. People today remember Saint Nicholas by putting their shoes out the by their doors on the night of December 5 and wake up to find treats in their shoes on the morning of the 6th. The most popular gift is gold wrapped chocolate coins. So before bedtime last night Joshua chose some shoes and placed them outside his bedroom door. In the morning he awoke to find a new Advent calendar. He got to open up 6 little doors and find 6 different magnets to put on the stable scene that tell the story of the first Christmas. He loved it, but wanted to open every door and put all the magnets on. We are still working on the waiting part of Advent! I also put a couple of quarters and pennies in Joshua's shoes just like in the story we read last night - I didn't go with the chocolate coins since I didn't want that to be his breakfast.

Finding the coins in his shoes.

Opening the little doors on the Advent calendar to discover little magnets!

Joshua chose the placement of the magnets, interesting set up!

Advent

One of my favorite seasons is Advent, the time of waiting before Christmas. I have lots of memories from my childhood of celebrating Advent and want Joshua experience those same things. Last night my dad came over for dinner and to drop a few things off. He had gotten a free Advent calendar the other day that he wanted to give to Joshua. So, after dinner Papa explained what the calendar was for and let Joshua open up the first and second little flaps. Inside each flap is a little piece of chocolate! Thanks Papa!! Little does Joshua know, but he will be receiving another Advent surprise as his Saint Nicholas gift this week. Stay posted for Saint Nicholas day later this week!

Christmas Tree Tradition

Saturday we headed out for our annual Christmas tree hunt at Lenderink's Tree Farm. This year Shawn, Erin and Owen joined us in the quest for the perfect tree. With the cold temperatures and snow on the ground we were dressed in full winter gear - this year even Shawn, Erin and I donned snow pants for the outing. We wandered for a little while until we happened upon the trees we thought would be perfect. The boys were enthralled as they watched Shawn saw down their tree, but not quite as interested when Cory cut ours down. We walked back to the front of the tree farm where the boys, including the big boys, were excited to go sledding. I think this activity was a highlight for Joshua and Owen who both wanted to go down the hill over and over with various people escorting them. We ended our morning roasting marshmallows by the big bonfire. Joshua and Owen preferred non-roasted marshmallows and Owen only preferred pieces of marshmallows fed to him by Joshua. It was a fun morning! Sunday we set the tree up and decorated it as a family. Joshua didn't have a ton of interest in this, but did find some ornaments that have become his favorites that he hung on the tree. What a great start to a fabulous season! The video below is a recap of our weekend.

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Funny Quote

Yesterday when I went to get Joshua out of his bed after his nap he was sitting there with a very sad look on his face and before I even got to ask him what was wrong he declared, "My smile is broken!" Huh??? It took me a minute to figure it out, but yes indeed his smile was broken. Earlier in the day we had been to Costco with some friends of ours and as we checked out the lady at the door drew a smiley face on Joshua's hand. During his nap the smiley face had rubbed off. As he told me a few minutes after I redrew the smiley face, "My smile wiped off in my bed. Mommy fixed it!" Love to hear the language and now I can start recording all those funny quotes!

Christmas is coming!

It's so much fun to watch Joshua discover all the Christmas excitement this year! We enter stores and he wants to see the Christmas trees, he wants to find lights decorating people's houses as we drive around, and he was thrilled to see his nativity set again. I have always thought that children get the most out of Christmas as they seem to notice all the little things this special holiday brings and now I get to see that first hand as Joshua experiences his third Christmas. I must admit Advent and Christmas are my most favorite time of the year, minus the snowy, cold weather. My hope this season is to cherish all the little things such as lighting the Advent candles, cutting down our tree and decorating it together as a family, celebrating Saint Nicholas Day and reading the stories in the Bible about Jesus' birth and the events leading up to that special day. So to help make this change in seasons more apparent to Joshua we ushered out the pumpkin and scarecrow from his room and brought in a miniature tree that we decorated with lights and ornaments together today. A perfect way to start off this holiday season!

Thanksgiving Recap

We started out our morning surprised by the dusting of snow that had fallen overnight. Joshua, along with our cat Logan, were the only ones really thrilled to see the white flakes. Joshua wanted to go walk around on our deck, but instead just laid on his belly and reached out the slider to touch the snow. We have been reading winter themed books for a week just in preparation for our first snow. One of his favorites is A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. He was quite puzzled when the little boy's snowball disappears from his pocket after bringing it inside. So, we gathered up some snow off the deck and put it in container on the counter to see what would happen. Joshua enjoyed little tastes of the snow and was interested to see the snow melt and change into water. All the excitement over the snow along with watching the Macy's parade on TV made for a very fun morning.
For lunch we headed over to my uncle and aunt's house. We had a scrumptious lunch and some great family time! Joshua got to explore some of my cousin's old toys which he thoroughly enjoyed. He even got to take a little remote control car home which he has played with every day since Thanksgiving! Then it was over to Cory's uncle and aunt's house to spend some time with his side of the family. We didn't eat much at this gathering as we were still stuffed from lunch, but we did have some fabulous time catching up with family. Jeremy, Cory's cousin who is in the Army, was home from Iraq and shared some pictures and video of his experience over the last year. It's a whole different perspective, that's for sure! You'll have to pardon my lack of pictures, I was spending too much time talking and hardly ever reached for the camera.

This Thanksgiving we give thanks for an almighty God who has blessed us with wonderful family and friends and so many other blessings we can't even begin to list them all!

Gathering with family.
Joshua tickels my cousin Matt.

Taste-testing the snow.
Checking out the snow!

Birthday Girls

Our friends Doug and Sheryl have two beautiful girls who have November birthdays, Ava's was last week and Hannah's is this week. So last night we went over to their house so Joshua could give them their birthday presents. Joshua usually loves giving people gifts as well as offering his help in unwrapping them, but this time he was too enamored by all of the girls' toys. Ava, having just turned one isn't into the presents yet, but Hannah had a great time opening up Ava's gifts and her own. I must say it's kind of nice being able to shop for girls instead of a boy all the time. All those cute toys out there for little girls makes me want to be a kid again! Of course many of the toys I had as a child are now returning to the current scene - Strawberry Shortcake, Dolly Pops (now called Snap 'n' Style) just to name a couple. And has anyone noticed how many classic Fisher Price toys have been redone and have returned to the stores?!?! Glad my mom kept all of our Fisher Price toys from our childhood as they are now the old classics.

Joshua gives sweet Hannah her gift.

Joshua tried out Ava's new Bouncing Zebra toy.

Remembering . . .

Two years ago today my mom passed away, or as I tell Joshua, she went to live with Jesus in heaven. So today Joshua and I went to visit her grave site. We had planted flowers there this spring and I wanted to make sure that everything was cleaned up for the winter. I'm not a huge fan of those ugly fake memorial things and neither was my mother so we will be leaving her grave site undecorated until we can plant real flowers there again in the spring just like she would have wanted. Joshua helped me brush away the leaves and debris from around the stone but was more interested in the acorns that he found. He also asked where Papa was since he recalled being here the last time with Papa. He obviously doesn't understand all of this stuff yet. I try to keep my mom's memory alive for him by occasionally looking at pictures of her with him, which he loves to do, but yet he doesn't know who she is . I want to share with him what an amazing person she was and how much she loved him even though she only got to see him for a little while.

The one thing I have learned from this whole experience of losing my mom is that you can never spend to much time with the ones you love or love someone too much. DO NOT take the ones you love for granted because you never know when they will be gone. So be sure continue to make those wonderful memories with them, spend time with them, let them know how much they are loved. We have made a real point of doing this with our families since we have had Joshua. I want him to have relationships with the important people in his life and create those memories that will last a lifetime!

Strange Fascination

This is Joshua's newest friend, "penon" (that's penguin for those of you who don't speak Joshua). With the suggestion of the ER doctor the other night we thought it would be best if Joshua had a humidifier in his room to help him recover from croup. I remember having one in my room as a kid, however it wasn't nearly as cute as the ones out there now, it was much more of an eye sore! We took Joshua to Target and he picked out the "penon" humidifier over the frog. He actually said, "That's Owie's frog" as he looked over his two choices in the store. So we set up the penguin in his room and ever since Joshua has had a strange fascination with it. He likes to kiss the penguin and try to suck in the mist as it is blowing out of of the penguin's mouth - I think this comes from the fact that I was trying to get him to breathe in the mist from the warm mist humidifier on Thursday night when he was having trouble breathing. Joshua also likes to remove the penguin's head and drink the condensation that has collected off of the top of the tank. He's even tried picking the humidifier up to take it elsewhere in the house. Strange child!

Drinking the water off the tank.

A kiss for the penguin.

Boys can play dress up too!

Yesterday we went to our niece's birthday party. Just like any typical 4 year old girl she is into dressing up. So, we along with Shawn and Erin got her a trunk of dress up clothes. Not only did Gabrielle enjoy her gift, but the rest of the kids got in on it too. By the end of the party 5 out of the 6 kids were dressed in some beautiful dress up outfits, and 3 of those kids were boys! What a riot! Who says little boys can't pretend to be princesses too?!?!?! I'm sure Joshua will thank me for these pictures later in life :)

First Visit to the E.R.

Joshua has a had a cough the past few days, no big deal I just figured it was his first cold of the winter season. He sounded like he had laryngitis by Wednesday evening. However, Thursday morning he woke up with a fever and a barking cough and couldn't even get a cry out. I gave him some meds and we laid low all day. I searched around for some information on the internet and when I read about croup I figured this is what he had. Everything I read said to be very careful because children under 3 have small trachea's and croup causes inflammation in the trachea and around the larynx and can cause difficulty in breathing which may need medical care. I did dig out our warm mist humidifier and stuck it in Joshua's room to see if this would help. During dinner he sounded as if he was wheezing. I told him to cough, cough, cough and after he did so it seemed like the wheeze had gone away. After dinner he was playing and started barking/coughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath, he was gasping for air. I immediately took him outside in the cool air and tried to calm him down seeing he was very upset and scared. At this point, every time he coughed he could barely get anything out and he had very labored breathing. Since I'm an asthmatic there is a chance that I passed this on to Joshua so I wasn't going to take any chances. We called the pediatrician's office and got in touch with an on-call nurse who told us to head down to the emergency room. At 9:15 pm we were on our way down to the hospital. We checked in and were put in a room in the DeVos Children's Emergency Room. The nurse came in and checked Joshua's vital signs and said his oxygen intake was good and his lungs sounded clear - good no asthma. He still had a fever at this point and was barking instead of coughing. So after about an hour of sitting there the doctor came in and told us he had croup which was causing inflammation in his trachea making it difficult to breathe. She ordered a liquid steroid called Decadron and some Tylenol, because by this time Joshua's fever had gotten higher. The steroid is a one time dose that lasts for three days, reducing the inflammation in the trachea. After lots of waiting he finally was given the meds and shortly after was discharged. Joshua was a trooper through the whole ordeal and never once cried while at the ER. The ER nurse said he was such a good boy he should have a prize and as we were walking out she gave him a beanie baby crab which Cory immediately named "croup the crab". We arrived back home at midnight and Joshua went right to sleep - we never heard a peep out of him until I woke him up at 10 am this morning. He has no fever today, is breathing much easier and his cough is back to more of a normal sounding cough versus the bark he had yesterday. Here's hoping we are on the road to recovery!

Just a side note for all you moms out there, the ER nurse told us that you can rotate Tylenol and Ibuprofen doses every 4 hours if needed (I already knew this thanks to Erin). However the nurse went on to say that you can even give your child Tylenol and Ibuprofen at the same time due to the fact that they are different meds and target different things and don't interact with one another. Interesting tidbit of information!

Crazy Kid

I'm not sure where our cautious, fearful son went this afternoon . . . He asked me to put his horse seat up on our bed this afternoon. I complied with his request thinking he just wanted to sit and have a different perspective. I then went back to finishing vacuuming his room when I heard tons of laughing coming from our room. I went in to find out what could be so hilarious and this is what I found. . .

Obviously not the safest thing to do, but why put a damper on the fun when he's learning to take a bit of a risk?!?!

Thank You Judy!

Last night we were over at Cory's parent's house for dinner. After Joshua finally finished his food Grandma told him she had some surprises for him. She gave him his Halloween treats which he loved, especially the car filled with candy! Then she told Joshua that a friend of hers who she works with had something special to give him. She unveiled a huge helicopter to which Joshua's reaction was, "Whoa! That is cool!" Judy has a son who flies helicopters and when he got married not so long ago they had this helicopter as a prop for something at the reception. Her son didn't want the helicopter because it isn't the kind he flies so Judy held on to it. Well, Judy saw the post a while back on our blog about the construction helicopter that entertained Joshua and thought he would like this helicopter. As expected, Joshua loves playing with the helicopter! Thanks for thinking of Joshua! Below is a special message for Judy . . .

"Daddy's Funny Car"

This is the car that Cory drove for his business trip last week. Joshua got a kick out of it and kept calling it "daddy's funny car". He had that right! How often do you see a car totally wrapped in vinyl graphics, including the windows, hood, and roof??? It looks a little extreme, but it gets you to look so I guess it's doing it's job. I think a little someone may be disappointed when daddy's actual car comes driving back in our garage tonight!

Two and a Half and counting!!!

So, this little stinker is 2 1/2 today! Can't believe he is half way to 3 already - time really does fly! The two's have brought their challenges as well as lots of joys! Since I am pathetic at keeping track of things in a baby book I will just jot things down here so at least they are recorded somewhere!

Here's a little about what Joshua is all about at 2 1/2 . . .

~He loves cars! He can actually identify over ten kinds of cars by name - he spots and names cars while we are driving (even in the dark)!

~He enjoys any kind of construction vehicle.

~He is very ticklish and has become much more cuddly.

~He adores books and loves being read to.

~He is very stubborn, or to put it more nicely he has a strong-willed personality.

~He is a pretty poor eater and holds food in his cheeks (takes after his uncle Dave with the holding food in his cheeks thing).

~His language has improved so much, he has too many words in his vocabulary to count!! He is also saying 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 word phrases consistently! For the most part his words are very clear too.

~He has his share of temper tantrums.

~He has a memory that amazes me daily!

~He still loves his "Bunny-Bear"

~He knows all of his colors.

~He knows most of his shapes.

~He is learning to count.

~He loves to sing, which is hilarious because you can't really understand but a few words here and there when he sings, but man does he have the tune down!

~He is naturally skilled when it comes to sports - he can dribble a soccer ball, throw a Frisbee, throw, kick and catch any kind of ball, and recently we started working on dribbling a basketball.

What a blessing he has been in our lives!!

Halloween 2007!!

Yesterday was filled with lots of Halloween fun from beginning to end. We spent the morning visiting Papa and Phil's office, Great Grandpa and Grandma and Cory's office. This was just basically so people could see Joshua in his costume, as we planned to trick or treat around our neighborhood at night. Joshua ate up all the attention and even collected a few treats along the way! After a quick dinner my dad and I took Joshua out trick or treating so Cory could finish packing in between handing out candy (he had to leave last night for a business trip). Joshua really got the hang of the whole trick or treating thing this year - we kept hearing, "I like this"! He loved going door to door and collecting treats. We were able to go around the block and gather lots of yummy things - near the end of our walk Joshua handed his spider bag to me and said, "Spider too heavy, you carry mom". Our neighborhood was much better than last year and the kid hauled! During our trip around the block we ran into our friends Doug, Sheryl, Hannah and Ava so we stopped at their house and the kids traded special treats. We of course had to have our annual Halloween photo op with them too - the girls were so adorable!! After making the rounds in our neighborhood we hopped in the car to make a quick stop at Owen's house to give him his special treat. It was too cute, Owen greeted us at the door and made sure we got plenty of candy! Then it was time to come home and unwind from our busy day!

Old Becomes New

Good thing our parents saved some of our toys from our childhood! The old toys we have let Joshua play with have been a HUGE hit, probably more so than any new toy we have purchased! He adores the old style Little People from Fisher Price and can play with them for hours. So yesterday when we were at a friends house and Joshua spent most his time playing with a semi truck and trailer it reminded me that Cory had something like that from his childhood that his mom had saved. Sure enough, Cory looked in the attic last night and found his two Steelcase semitrucks and trailers! Joshua was beside himself with excitement as Cory and I cleaned them up. Joshua played with the trucks the rest of the evening and had a tough time saying goodnight to the trucks. As I predicted, he woke up this morning bursting with excitement and the first words out of his mouth were, "Play with trucks!" Glad we are able to share a bit of our childhood with Joshua!