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Monday, November 22, 2010

THREE!!!

I can't believe the little boy turned three today! We didn't do much at all for his birthday today, but we celebrated it a few weeks ago with my family and are celebrating with Mark's family this weekend. Here are a couple pictures from earlier this month.


The Mickey Mouse fan with his Mickey Mouse balloon from the dollar store!


Egg-free cupcakes are still pretty yummy, esp. with sprinkles on top!



First time trying pop rocks, and they got in the nose!



Wearing his skateboarding outfit--now he's just like his hero, Shaun White :)


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

22 Weeks


Don't miss the other two posts from today :)

Visit with Auntie E

I realized that I never updated after our visit with Auntie E and the kids. We decided at the last minute to meet at a McDonald's, and it went really well. Steven always gets a little overwhelmed by the big kids loving on him, so I usually have to intervene and tell them to give him a chance to warm up to them again. Thankfully, he's doing a lot better now that he's older and remembers them between visits. He knows all their names and likes to talk about them, and I know his anxiety will lessen with each visit. Michelle, as usual, just goes with the flow and runs around like crazy. She also had her own way of dealing with the smothering at one point--they were a little too intense with her, and she responded by spitting up all over one of her brothers. Oh well, she got some space after that :)

I had Michelle wear her new "I'm a Big Sister!" shirt with a jacket over it, and shortly after they got there, one of her older sisters took off Michelle's jacket. It was sooner than I planned on doing it, but I asked Auntie E if she noticed Michelle's shirt, and at first, she was like "Oh that's nice." I told her to look again :) She was really excited for us and said that she was going to cry. We didn't know the gender at that point, and she said she hoped it was a boy so Michelle would be the only girl.

We spent several hours together, just chatting while the kids played. Steven never climbed through the play area, but he was happy hanging out in the bottom area. He gets really timid in new situations, and there was no way I was going in the climbing thing with him! Michelle went with her sisters, but Steven just didn't feel like it, I guess. He did run around like crazy, though, so I know he had a good time. I also found out that he gets his very (overly at times) sensitive nature from his birthfather and that his full brother is the same way. That really fascinated me because I never really thought of that as being a genetic trait. It's amazing how much he and his one brother are alike (Mark even got them confused during our spring visit!), and they are definitely their birthfather's kids (and Steven is actually a junior after his birthfather). I love learning these little things about them!

I once again made the mistake of waiting until the end of the visit to try to get a group picture, but we did get some hilarious ones of the three boys. Unfortunately, another kid kept getting into the picture, so I finally got up and told him that I didn't know him, so I didn't need him in the picture.

We will probably go up to visit again as a family next month for a combined Christmas/birthday visit. Last year, we met up at Chuck E. Cheese's, but there was a shooting at it earlier this year, so we've been meeting at other restaraunts and parks. I don't think we'll go until mid December, or even early January. I need some time to figure out Christmas presents for Auntie E and the kids (we don't do birthdays with them, so I try to get/make something for them for Christmas). Any suggestions??

Family (Updated with Pictures)






I still haven't found my camera card adapter (not that I've actually looked), so I don't have any pictures to post :( However, I figured that I'd write at least a quick update on how we're doing.

This past week my parents and Katie came out to visit us, and it was so nice to see them again. The kids always LOVE it when they come, and we celebrated Steven's birthday a few weeks early with them. (I told him it was his "pretend birthday.") It was nice to have the extra help since I'm still not feeling great. I'm thankful that I'm no longer throwing up every day, but I'm still throwing up at least a couple times a week (despite being on two anti-nausea meds). I don't really expect it to go away at this point (it never did for my mom), but maybe I'll get lucky :)

My mom and I (and Katie at times) went shopping and bought a few Christmas presents, mainly for the kids. Mark and my dad went to the University of Michigan game on Saturday and sat in the 8th row. I think it was the highlight of the visit for Mark :) The other highlight for us was when the kids had pop rocks for the first time. That was priceless, esp. when Steven got some in his nose! I'm bummed we don't have it on video.

My family left on Sunday, and Mark's sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids (4 weeks and 12 months) came in on Monday. They were only here overnight, but it was fun to see them and get to meet baby Aaron. They are currently in Western Michigan candidating at a church. If they end up moving there, they'll only be two hours away. While they were here, we exchanged gifts for several birthdays--Steven's, Tori's, and Mark's (which was yesterday). Thankfully, Michelle didn't seem to care that she wasn't getting anything. She had fun seeing what Steven got and playing with the balloons we bought for them when my family was out. I'm not sure Steven will be so easy going when it's her turn, though!

I'm hoping that Katie uploads her pictures from this past weekend soon. Once she has them on Facebook, I should be able to save them and put them on here. The kids are getting tall. It's hard to believe that they are almost 2 and almost 3!