Greatly Loved and Missed

Bryan's mom, Katrina, passed away Monday evening. She was a loving, kind, compassionate woman who will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing her. If you would like information about her funeral arrangements you can go to: http://www.duffieldpastrick.com/ and click on "Katrina Lambe" on the left-hand side.

We love and miss you very much Mom/Grandma!

Flood 2008 #2

The 40+ inches of snow we've had completely melted yesterday as temps soared to 60 degrees. Then on top of that, we got about 1.5 inches of rain throughout the day yesterday. Needless to say, our creek couldn't handle all of the water at once and for the second time this year spilled over and flooded our entire back yard. This time, though, we have even more water and it's in our shed too. The water is only a few feet from the back of our house. And to top all of that off, our power went out last night while Bryan was working. We don't have a generator and so our sump pump stopped working... not good when you have so much water around you and even more coming down. I quickly called my youngest brother Jeff. He went with his buddy Rick, "borrowed" a generator, and then came over around 1:00am to set it up and connect our sump pump to it (THANK YOU JEFF AND RICK!!!!!) I didn't ask any questions because that way I am not guilty (right?) but Jeff did mention that the generator needs to be returned today so that it is not considered "missing" tomorrow - like I said, I'm not asking any questions, I'm just completely thankful that our basement did not flood during the night. Our power came back on about 3:30 this morning so it was only out for about 5 hours but I know that if we didn't have the generator our basement would be a mess right now.

To add to all of the flooding, we also have EXTREMELY high wind gusts right now. So high that our neighbors trampoline flew all the way into our yard during the night (as you can see in the second pic). I'm guessing that we can't consider it a Christmas present (although it is pretty beat up now so I'm not sure we would want to).

If anyone is still considering getting us some belated Christmas presents I have a few suggestions: ark, boat, kayak, generator (not from Jeff, though, it has to be legal), fishing poles, Sea-Doos :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Aiden has been enjoying this Christmas season - especially since he is starting to understand what Christmas is all about. He LOVES the Christmas tree and all of the lights and has only broken four ornaments so far (not too bad for Aiden :) ). He loved "helping" us set it up and was thrilled when he found out it had lights on it!

While Bryan was snowblowing the driveway the other day, I got Aiden all bundled up and took him outside to play in the snow. He loved it but was kind of discouraged that he couldn't move in it as well as he wanted to. Typical Aiden wanted to run all around but the snow was so deep that he kept sinking down and traveling through it wasn't as easy as he had anticipated. He still enjoyed it and Bryan had to carry him inside because he didn't want to go back in. He had his first mug of hot chocolate when we got in - full of marshmallows :)

Here's Aiden enjoying opening up his presents and playing with them...

A pic of Aiden with his cousins (hard to get a good pic of 5 kids but they did pretty good):

Aiden holding his youngest cousin, Kelsey - 10 months old. He will make a great big brother!Aiden trying on his Auntie Ta-Ta's festive gear:One of Aiden's presents from his grandparents was colored fizzy tablets that you drop in the bathtub to change the color of the water. We put a blue and yellow one in tonight to make green water - perfect for Christmas!

Here's a pic of Aiden on his new bean bag chair. In case you can't read it, his shirt says, "My X-Mas List: 1) New Puppy 2) Playset 3) Baby Brother 4) Toys! Toys! Toys!" #1 didn't (and isn't going to) happen (especially with a new baby on the way) - besides, he already has a dog. #2 is a possibility depending on my job situation for next year. #3 will come true in just 12 short weeks and wish #4 already came true as you can tell from above!

Done!

We did it, we finally turned Aiden's crib into a daybed. After all of the escape missions (and a scary story Bryan told me - I'll spare you the horrible details) we decided it was finally time to do it. He was SO excited last night when we told him that he was getting a "big boy bed". He insisted on "helping" daddy with the conversion.

I think his absolute most favorite part is that he now gets to have a pillow. That was the part that sold him on the whole deal! Ready for bed... all smiles :)

We were really nervous about how he would do when we put him to bed and how he would do during the night (we were making bets on how many times he would get out). He really surprised us. He never got out of bed when we put him down to sleep (let me clarify that, he didn't get out to our knowledge :) ). He woke up only once last night and when I went in there he was standing up in his bed and it looked like he was trying to find the front railing of his crib like he used to do - kind of scared me, I was afraid he would fall over. I reminded him that he was in his big boy bed and told him to lay down on his pillow - that was all it took - he laid right down, put his head on his pillow, I tucked him back in and he fell back to sleep!

I'm kind of bummed because the new bedding set I ordered him hasn't completely arrived yet - the bed skirt arrived yesterday but I'm still waiting on the comforter. Then I can go out and get him new sheets and a pillow case to match. I will post pics when that is complete!

Sleeping WHERE????

Bryan woke me up last night and said, "Sorry for waking you but you don't want to miss this - go look at Aiden." Glancing at my alarm clock I saw that it was 11:00pm. I thought, "Why in the world do I need to go look at Aiden at this time of night?" but I got up anyway to go see what was going on. This is what awaited me when I peered into his crib:

Apparently, before going to sleep, last night, Aiden climbed out of his crib, grabbed his hamper, put it into his crib, crawled back in the crib, filled it with all of his favorite things (blankie, Woobie, Mahi, Bear, stuffed animals, etc.) and then crawled in with them and fell asleep. I'm glad it is a mesh hamper so he could at least breathe! What a little stinker.

Then, to top off the night, he woke back up at about 3:30 this morning and decided he was done sleeping. After a couple of failed attempts to get him back to sleep, I let him cry it out. After a few minutes of screaming and hollering, he climbed out of his crib and went to sleep on the couch (at this point, I really don't care if he sleeps in his crib or on the couch as long as he sleeps). That lasted until about 4:45 this morning which is when I felt some warm air on my face and opened my eyes to see Aiden about 2 inches away from me staring into my eyes. He would not go back to sleep for anything after that so he stayed awake until about 1/2 way to daycare when he finally fell back to sleep. Stephanie (our daycare provider) said that he took two naps today - he needed it. We have about 13 weeks to get Aiden to sleep through the night before we start working on the next one - HELP!!!!

WHERE'S AIDEN!?!?!?!?

Last night Aiden was throwing a fit about going to bed. After going into his room several times in an attempt to have him go down peacefully, we finally gave up and let him cry/scream/holler it out. After about 15 dramatic minutes of his carrying on, he was finally quiet. However, when Bryan went to check on him about 10 minutes after that, he found Aiden in the hallway asleep with Sparky. Apparently he climbed out of his crib and curled up next to the dog to fall asleep. Then at about 3:00 this morning he was crying again so I got up to try to get him back to sleep. He wanted to get out of his crib but I wouldn't let him so began part two of the "Aiden Drama" - screaming, whaling, crying, yelling, etc. After about 20 minutes he finally became quiet again. Thinking he had gone back to sleep, I went back to sleep. This morning when my alarm clock went off I went in his room to check on him but his crib was empty... so was his room... so was our room... so was the hallway.. as was the bathroom... at this point my heart was pounding pretty good as I couldn't find him. I finally found him on the couch in the living room sound asleep on a pillow with a blanket over top of him. He must have crawled out of his crib again but this time made it all the way to the couch. UGH!!!! He is so quiet when he crawls out of his crib and apparently even when walking all the way to the living room - didn't even hear him. We need to hire a security professional and rig up his bedroom with electronic eyes that detect his escaping and set off alarms - although, knowing our child he'd probably find a way around that too!

Meijer Obsession

Aiden is totally obsessed with Meijer. Every time he sees the store flyer, a Meijer commercial, or the actual store he goes crazy. If we are driving down the road and pass Meijer, from the back seat all we hear is "MEIJER! RIGHT THERE MEIJER!" over and over again. I don't know what his fascination with the store is, but he just LOVES it. About a month ago, he went into the pantry to get a snack and came back running and screaming "MEIJER!!!!". When I looked to see what he was talking about, he showed me his finger which had a Meijer price tag sticker stuck to it. He was so excited. You would think that as much as he loves the store he would be an angel when we get there - oh no! Not Aiden! The kid has too much energy to sit still in a cart and we don't have enough energy to chase him through the whole store. :)

Blog Slacker

Okay, so I am guilty of being a blog slacker. After a full day of work and then coming home, taking care of Aiden and doing housework I am usually too tired or not in the mood to blog. So here's a brief update of what has been going on lately...

My pregnancy has been going well. I can feel "Billy Joe" (our diversion nickname for him until he actually enters this world - don't worry it will be changed) move a lot more even with the anterior placenta. However, he still seems to be quieter than Aiden was inside of me. I was told at my last appointment that I don't have a choice but to have another C-Section. I'm bummed but at the same time want what's best for both me and my baby. It will most likely be scheduled within the next month. Right now, it's looking like it will be March 16 but that has not been scheduled yet. It will be so weird to know exactly when I will be having my next baby. On the positive side, it will be a lot easier to plan and get everything ready. I will know what my last day of work will be, who will be taking care of Aiden, have my bags packed and everything else ready to go.

November 22 marked our 5th Anniversary. I can't believe it has been 5 years. Earlier in the month we went to Traverse City for a get-away-weekend. It was nice to spend some time with just the two of us. We both remarked how quiet meal time was. And, for once, I didn't have to get up during the night and I could sleep in until whenever I wanted to instead of having Aiden as my alarm clock. We ended up seeing 9 different lighthouses during our weekend and actually toured one of them. Here's some pics from our trip...

Aiden's vocabulary has really exploded over the past month. He is picking up on more and more words and phrases every day. It's funny because he occasionally uses words and phrases in the wrong way or mimics what he hears from adults. Yes, that means that we have to watch what we say because he is constantly mimicking us. He also really enjoys singing right now and trys to sing along to the kids CD's I have in my car. Here's his rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle"...

In case you didn't catch that, he thinks the lyrics include "Like a dinosaur in the sky". We've tried to explain that it's supposed to be diamond but he doesn't believe us - he thinks that there is a dinosaur in the sky. Crazy kid! :)

Today we went to the mall and Aiden got to sit on Santa Claus' lap. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he replied "TV". We have no idea where in the world he came up with that from. Santa laughed and asked how old he was when he replied "two" Santa kind of looked at us funny. I'm sure he was thinking, "Your child is only two and he is asking for a TV?" We didn't prep Aiden ahead of time that Santa would ask him what he wanted - maybe we should have. Just in case anyone is wondering there is absolutely no way we are getting our 2 year old child a TV for Christmas!

We also went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond today. Aiden said he needed to go potty so I brought him into the restroom there. Apparently someone had just dumped a load (if you know what I mean) and as soon as Aiden walked in he very loudly said "Awwwwww NASTY... that's NASTY... YUCK...GROSS!" He went on and on for about 2 minutes. I was laughing soooooo hard I had tears coming from my eyes. Thankfully no one else was in the restroom at the time but when he said it the door was still open so anyone around would have heard it. It just cracks me up what this kid comes up with.