Esther Goes to School

Tonight we got to visit Esther's preschool for next year, Millbrook Christian. Esther had a great time exploring the classroom, meeting her teacher Mrs. Miedema (even though she wouldn't talk to her), and seeing where she'll spend 3 afternoons a week next year. She especially loved the pet snake and bunny, the play kitchen/restaurant, and the cool loft. She also made a bracelet out of pipe cleaners and cereal!

Casey and I enjoyed seeing a bunch of people that we know, and it's fun to think that Esther will be going to school with the children of some of our college classmates, and possibly even some of my elementary classmates. Her teacher seems very sweet and enthusiastic, and everything we've heard about her has been very positive.

We still can hardly believe we're at this stage of life. It seems like Esther was just born, and here we are with 3 kids, ready to send the first one to school! Time definitely flies, and we know we need to enjoy each day, even the tough ones!

Oh Peter!

As we've said before, Peter makes us laugh a lot. He's just a funny guy. He's also been struggling in the area of sleep recently (see earlier post). Because of this, we have not been pushing the nap thing with him, and he has not taken one in about 5 days. He has been sleeping better at night, so it seems to be working!

Today Esther and Peter were fighting a lot all morning. After lunch I decided that maybe some separation would be good for them (ok, yes, I was actually totally thinking about my own sanity). I had them each gather a few things that they wanted to play with and put them each in their own rooms for some quiet time. I went up to check after a little while and could hear them both playing happily in their rooms. Wow! A while later I went up to check again. I could hear Esther talking to her dolls, but it was quite silent in Peter's room. I didn't want to disturb him if he actually was playing quietly, so I lay on the floor and peeked under his door. And then I just started laughing... here's why:

In case you can't tell, yes, he is underneath his crib. Also notice the little police dog in the corner that he apparently took to bed with him! I guess the little guy does need a nap once in a while!

Peter and the Wolf

No, this post is not about our Peter. Today Esther and I went to the G.R. Symphony and G.R. Ballet production of Peter and the Wolf with our friends Carrie and Nora. It was part of their "Lollipop" series which is geared towards kids 3-6. It was only about 45 minutes, and very cute. They introduced all the different instruments and sections, and then did the show. Despite how she looks in these pictures, Esther loved it! For some reason she just didn't want her picture taken today! She came home and told Daddy all about the crazy wolf who ate the duck and how the duck came back out of the wolf's belly. That seems to be the main part she remembered.

After the show, I told her she could pick where she wanted to go for lunch, so we had a special Mommy and Esther lunch at Olga's Kitchen. Yum! It was a very fun outing with a very fun little girl.

Another Crazy Night

We've had some crazy nights at our house lately. Peter has taken to waking up in the middle of the night and just deciding that he's done sleeping. He does this every few nights. He'll cry if we leave him in there, but if we go in his room and sit with him in the chair, he's as happy as can be. We've pretty much ruled out any physical issues because he's fine as long as we're in there, and he's totally himself during the day as well. We also tried a night light, but that hasn't helped much either.

Last night he woke up around 12:30. After checking to make sure he was ok and had his pacifier, we just let him cry for a while. We finally decided that having 5 people awake didn't sound like a great idea, so I went and sat with him in the chair for a bit. A short time later I heard Casey's fire pager go off and he left. After listening to Peter chat with me for a while, I decided he was fine and that he was just going to have to get himself back to sleep. I put him back in his crib and headed back to bed.

A few minutes later Esther was calling for me. She had soaked through her pull-up and had a soaked bed. I changed her and sent her to our (empty) bed while I changed her bedding. I decided just to put it in the wash right away (our laundry is upstairs) thinking that some extra "white noise" might be helpful for drowning out Peter. I decided to just let Esther stay in our bed for a while since there was no way she was going to be able to fall back to sleep in her room, which is right across from Peter's. Even in our room way down the hall it was loud!

Around 2:08 it got quiet. At 2:09 he started up again. At 2:14 he stopped for good. I took Esther back to her room around 2:25, and got back in bed just before Casey got home. We decided that since he would have been up for a couple of hours in the night anyway, at least this way he got paid for it!

The amazing thing is that sweet Miriam, our amazing baby, slept through everything. In fact, she slept from 10 pm until 6:30 am this morning, which is the longest she's ever slept! We are pretty sure she is God's gift to keep us sane at this point!

This is what happens to a 2 year old little boy who is awake for two hours during the night and then also decides not to take a nap the next day! I was getting dinner ready and the kids were watching a video, and suddenly Esther said, "Peter's sleeping!" I walked in the living room, saw this, and just started laughing! We're hoping for a much better night tonight!

Esther's Prayer

"Dear God, thanks for a great day....even though I had a couple time-outs"

Peter's Prayer

Peter has begun saying his own prayers at dinner as of late. Here is how it has gone the last two nights.

"God...."

"Daddy home"
"Mr. Jake" (friend of Daddy's that stops by for lunch sometimes)

"Hal...le...lu...jah"

"AMEN"

Just like Daddy and Grandpa

This afternoon Peter climbed up in the chair in our living room, turned on the lamp, and announced, "I need paper." At first I wasn't sure what he meant by "paper," but it suddenly dawned on me that he wanted to read the newspaper! He sees Daddy do this, as well as Grandpa when he comes over, so apparently he wanted to do this same thing. This is the same child who regularly asks, "Watch news Daddy?" I guess he just wants to be up on current events!

Miriam's Baptism

Today was a special day. Today Miriam was baptized, and it was special for a lot of reasons.

Casey's Uncle Peter baptized her and made it very personal and meaningful for us.

Our friend Brad presented her to the congregation while our friend Melody sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" beautifully.

She wore Casey's family baptismal gown. Casey's Mom made it for his brother Nick, and then Renee wore it when she and Casey were baptized. Esther and Peter also wore it. All of their names and birthdates are embroidered on the gown. I think it symbolizes God's faithfulness through the generations.

We got to enjoy Casey's Mom's cake after church!

Many relatives and friends came to support us and pledge their commitment to helping us raise Miriam to know and love Jesus Christ as her personal Savior. It was amazing to look out at those special people and the rest of our church family, and to realize that they are all there to help us on the journey of Christian parenting. We are so blessed!

Future Babysitter

As we've said before, Esther LOVES her little sister. She loves her cousin Tyler too! Here she is seeing what it would be like to have twins... we think she's almost ready to babysit so that we can go out for dinner with Jeff and Renee sometime!

Snuggling Siblings

Peter wanted to get in on the action too...so I finally got a picture of all 3 kids together!

Snuggling Sisters

This is a common sight in our house these days...

1 Month Old!

Miriam will be a month old already tomorrow. The time has flown by with Miriam's arrival, the holidays, our anniversary, Peter's birthday, and my birthday all packed into the last 4 weeks.

So far she is a very laid-back, easy baby. She usually gets up once at night to eat, and sleeps very well. During the day she just hangs out and is very content.

At first when we'd encourage Peter to call her by her name, he kept saying, "No, BABY!" as if we were confused as to who or what she is. He is now starting to catch on and attempts to say "Miriam." He also tries to give her the pacifier whenever he sees that she doesn't have it. Since he is only allowed to have his in bed, I think he struggles to understand how someone who has access to a paci wouldn't want it in her mouth at all times!

Esther loves having a little sister and spends much time holding her, snuggling her, kissing her, and talking to her. It is precious.

We have also had "adustment moments" with the older ones. The best one was probably the other day on my birthday. Casey walked in the door after work to find me feeding Miriam with Esther and Peter both standing by me crying/screaming for reasons which I can't recall right now. I just belted out "Happy Birthday to Me!" to try to lighten the moment. We know this too shall pass, and overall things are going great!

New Year's Eve 2007

We had a fun New Year's Eve last night. Several of our friends came over with their kids (except 1 lucky couple who got Grandpa and Grandma to babysit!) and we enjoyed lots of food, fun, food, fellowship, and food together. Around 9:00 we started getting all the kids ready for bed (6 of them, ages almost 2 up to 6). I think we were all a little skeptical about the idea of them actually all going to sleep, but somehow it worked! We had them in various bedrooms and they all fell asleep and allowed the adults to have some great time to talk and hang out. Here is a picture of Esther and a couple of her friends getting ready to have story time before bed:

After we rang in the new year, we made sure that everyone collected their kids before heading home. We wish everyone a very happy new year!