Father's Day

Dave was up north for most of the week leading up to Father's Day, and when he arrived home, the kids were more than excited to see him (yes, even Mia cracked the biggest smile when she saw him). I shouldn't leave the dogs out, they also went bonkers when they saw him, barking and running around like he was gone for a million years. I think it is a pretty good indication of what a great Dad you are if your kids basically lose their minds with excitement when they see you pull in the driveway.

Grandpa Jernstadt also came over and we enjoyed a great day outside playing and a nice dinner in the evening.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Carter helped open all the cards and presents

Mia wanted to look extra cute for Daddy and Grandpa

Three Months

Hard to believe, but Mia is already three months old! She is smiling up a storm, "talking" to us a ton, and she is starting to grab at things (we think she finally noticed her hands the other day). She went to her "2 month" check up (however it was at 11 weeks of age, our Dr.'s office gets booked up and appointments are already behind). Mia weighed 12 lbs. 4 oz., which is the 64th % for her age, and she is 23 inches tall, 50th %. She had three shots, which she did not like, but overall she did wonderfully and she has a clean bill of health.

I also decided to give her rice cereal in her last bottle before bed last night. The Dr. actually lectured us at our appointment about making sure we're not feeding her rice cereal yet (which we weren't at that time...), he had all kinds of reasons why it's not good for them. It actually made me mad, especially when he told us he asks parents "who is the cereal really for, you or the baby?" The answer he was looking for was "for the parents" because we think we can feed them the cereal and we get to sleep longer...hence parents are being selfish (the nerve of us to want to sleep). I kept my mouth shut but I had some things going through my head that I wish I would have told him. First of all, a cranky, tired mom is not a fun mom to be around and that doesn't make the world nice for the baby. Seriously, after not having one full nights sleep in over 12 weeks (the last month of pregnancy is brutal on sleep as well), you need sleep! So it basically egged me on to give her the cereal. I had kind of forgotten about it until he mentioned it. I gave her the cereal last night and she slept from 10:30pm to 6:30am. If you are reading this and thinking I'm a horrific mother, rest assured, Mia is in a wonderful mood today, smiling at me like crazy and she LOVED that bottle last night. She gobbled up that whole thing and drifted off to sleep in record time. Not a peep out of her and I feel better than I have in forever.

Start of Summer


The weather is finally getting consistently nice so I feel it's safe to say, summer has begun. Too bad I go back to work next week! We kind of kicked off summer by going to the Grand Rapids "Arts Festival" downtown last weekend. It's nothing too exciting actually, food tents, music, and a few activities for kids. Carter's still a little young for most of the kids activities, but we still had fun walking around sampling the food and listening to some of the bands. Carter really wanted to find some games he could "put money in and play" but there were no such things and it was hard to get that through to him. We tried to have him paint a picture in the kid art area, but he didn't want to do it (the kids have to enter this roped off area without parents and a helper person sets them up to paint...he didn't like leaving us). Mia had a ton of fun, we put her in the baby Bjorn facing out and she loved looking around at everything.


We didn't take many pictures at the festival, here is one of Mia in the baby Bjorn.

Also, Dave went out to mow the yard the other day and came upon this tiny baby deer! She was the smallest deer we'd ever seen. She was laying in our field, looking like she was only a few days old and unfortunately we didn't see her mom anywhere. She got up and moved once so we know she could walk and she didn't seem injured in any way. Carter loved posing with her and he insisted we give her some carrots in case she was hungry (she didn't touch them). We think her mom came to pick her up later that afternoon because the next day she was gone. That's the story we like anyway.

GO WINGS!!!

Crush

Our good friends, Jim and Betsy, have three adorable kids (Tyler, 6, Drew, 4, and Kayley, almost 3) and we get together with them often to hang out and let the kids play together. Carter has always loved playing with them, he looks up to Tyler and Drew and he has a blast roughhousing and running around with them. Kayley also gets in on all the action, with two older brothers she is right at home playing with all boys. We got together with them a few weekends ago and Kayley and Carter seemed inseparable all of a sudden. Carter wanted to sit by Kayley and play by her side the whole time they were at our house. They drove Carter's jeep together, played ball together, and never left each other's sides! We love Kayley (she is also our goddaughter), and we think it is adorable that they seem to have a huge crush on each other.


Carter and Kayley enjoying a popsicle together.




They had no idea we were still snapping pictures...




The whole gang (notice Carter is basically on Kayley's lap!)

What's New:

As you can tell from our recent posts, we've been busy with guests at our house, trips to Milwaukee, and all sorts of other fun activities. I've been trying to appreciate and enjoy every last minute of my maternity leave...of which I only have about 2.5 weeks left. At the beginning it seemed like such a long time to be off work (I took 13 weeks this time) but I can't tell you how incredibly fast time flies. It's amazing that Mia is over 10 weeks old and June is basically upon us. But, instead of worrying about all that work piling up on my desk somewhere, the kids and I plan to slow down, plan more fun activities and enjoy these weeks together.


Latest updates for Mia:
She is now sleeping upstairs in her own crib at night and for some naps. The first two nights were torture...not much sleeping was going on, but last night was exceptionally wonderful! I put her to bed around 11pm and she slept until 7am! She also smiles all the time (especially for Daddy) and it is incredibly adorable. I forgot how cute those huge, gummy smiles can be. She also holds her head up pretty well, she can sit unassisted in the "bebe pod" seat (see picture below), and she is starting to talk more with her cute little oohhs and ahhs. Most people say she looks just like her brother did, but I sometimes see flashes of my baby pictures when I see her.















Latest updates for Carter:
He continues to astonish us at how smart he is. Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin got him a United States of America puzzle for Christmas and he can now do the whole thing - naming each state and where it goes. He also learned to maneuver his jeep like he has been driving for years. He speeds around the yard, around obstacles, and parks it perfectly in the garage. His interest in tools has only grown - he can work Dave's drill, hammer, screwdriver and other tools really well, and constantly asks to watch Dave when he is working on projects. He can also climb up the rungs on his play equipment without worrying me that he's going to fall and he loves to leap off things (his bed, the couch, his stools in the bathroom). Much to Dave's excitement Carter now loves to watch hockey with him. We hear a lot of "go Wings" around this house lately (in fact, I think I'm hearing it as we speak). Dave tells me we're going to get Carter on skates sometime this summer...he says all the great hockey players start around 2 or 3 years old. We'll see...I still think he would love gymnastics more.

New Cousin Claire!

For Memorial Weekend we took a trip to Milwaukee to meet our new cousin/niece, Claire, and see the rest of the family, Lee, Bob, and Elsa. The trip there took about 7 hours, mainly due to heavy traffic and frequent potty requests by Carter, but we finally arrived Friday afternoon ready to relax and play.

Here is Carter in the car, trying out his new DVD player...which, as you guessed it, played the movie "Cars" non-stop. Thank goodness for headphones (or, as Carter called them "phone-heads").



We couldn't wait to see Claire in person, she was born on April 22nd and is the cutest thing! She is such a good baby, she slept and ate well while we were there and seems to be adjusting great to her new family. Mia enjoyed hanging out with another baby and we envisioned future visits where the two of them will be the best of friends and have so much fun together, just like their older siblings.


Mia and Claire relaxing on the couch together:


The whole gang...it was tricky trying to get everyone to smile and not fall over at the same time! As you can see, this wasn't Claire's favorite photo shoot.

The weather wasn't fabulous (typical Michigan / Wisconsin Memorial weekend) so after breakfast on Saturday, we took the kids to a play area in the mall instead of braving the fairly chilly/windy outdoors. They, of course, didn't care where we went - they just loved playing together.

The rest of the weekend was equally fun. We even let Carter and Elsa sleep in the same room together, Carter's first official sleep-over, and they did pretty well. We told them they had to stay in their respective beds and go to sleep, a fact Elsa repeated to Carter after we left the room (it was hilarious listening to them over the monitor when they didn't realize we could hear them). I think they were both so tired from playing, they had an easier time falling asleep.

We had a great trip and really enjoyed meeting little Claire. She is adorable and we can't wait to see everyone again sometime this summer!

The Motor Home Visit

Dave's Uncle Kenny and Aunt Carol came to visit us for a few weeks in the beginning of May. They came up from Indiana in their motor home to visit us and the rest of Dave's family here in Michigan. They were the best guests anyone could ask for! Kenny is a master electrician and he helped Dave get all the electrical things done in our barn to get it ready to be Dave's workshop. Plus, Kenny was the one who gave Dave all of his wonderful wood working machines and equipment that will go in this work shop once it's done. Things Dave can't wait to put to good use. The two of them worked hard on shaping up the barn and it's now ready for Dave to start some of the endless projects we have around here!

Carol was a huge help to us as well. She worked non-stop on our yard - cleaning up areas I thought were hopeless areas, doomed to forever look like overgrown weedy messes. Dave's mom also helped us a ton - she actually took vacation time from her job to hang out with us and help with our yard work!

We want to send a HUGE thank you to Kenny and Carol. We really appreciate all their help and enjoyed having them stay with us. We will miss them, especially Carter, he became very attached to them while they were here. He loved hanging out with Kenny and helping with projects Kenny had around the motor home. Kenny would let him monkey with all the buttons and gadgets - a favorite pass time for Carter. Every time we go outside now that they are gone Carter asks, "Where are Kenny and Carol?"

Here are some pictures from their visit:




Grandma Webb, Carter, Mia, and Aunt Carol

Kenny and Carter - honking the horn and pretending to drive

Learning how to wash the wheels

One Month Old!

It's hard to believe Mia is already one month old! She has been doing wonderful, she is such a good baby. She hardly cries and she's been sleeping better and better the past few weeks. In fact, last night was her best night yet - she slept about 6.5 hours! Thank you Mia!!

At her 2 week appointment she checked out great. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. (25th%) and her height was 20.5 inches (50th%). She didn't get any shots so she didn't mind her first official dr.'s visit at all. We also had to go back to the hospital to get her hearing tested and she passed beautifully. She seems to be a very healthy, happy baby!

We want to thank everyone for coming to visit or sending their well wishes. We have had many visitors coming to see us and Mia is so thankful to meet everyone!

Lee and Elsa Visit

Lee and Elsa came for a visit when Mia was only 1 week old. We are so grateful that they made the trip despite Lee being 8+ months pregnant! Mia was so glad to meet her aunt and cousin and Carter was SUPER ecstatic to play with Elsa for a few days. We loved having them - THANK YOU Lee for driving all this way!

Here are some pictures from the visit.

Posing with Mia

Leaning in for a kiss


Having fun in the jeep