Stevie's Birthday (2 1/2 + months ago!)

Wow.  I guess it's about time that we got those sledding pictures off the front page of our blog.  We've got a lot of ground to cover, so I hope no one minds that these next couple posts are heavy on pictures and light on words!

It's hard to believe that it has already been almost 15 months since we brought "baby Stevie" home from the hospital!  To honor this little guy that is always making us laugh (despite - or perhaps because of - his ornery streak), here are some photos from his birthday(s).  Since Jon was going to be in Germany the week before and flying back on Stevie's first birthday, we decided to celebrate the week before.  We were joined by Grandma and Grandpa Shibata, Aunt Jess, and Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart. 

 

 

 The leftover cupcakes kept quite well in the freezer until the following week.  We of course got them out on Stevie's actual birthday to celebrate again.  Needless to say, mom and dad had so much fun cleaning up all the mess that those were the only two cupcakes that Steve got to enjoy this year!  :)
 

Thanksgiving and Early December (2011)

If I were to pick a theme for the end of 2011 I think I would choose…road trip. 

The last update from the Shibata's was at Thanksgiving time, when we were in Illinois to celebrate the holiday with the Meinhart clan.  Marie did not have school on the day before Thanksgiving, so the plan was to take that day to drive south. 

As it turned out, we did use that as our driving day, but we didn't get as early a start as we had hoped / intended.  You see, the day before, I had noticed that the furnace wasn't working.  I had this realization in the morning, when it was still in the low to mid 60's in the house.  I figured it wouldn't be so bad; I'd have the repair guy come out and take a look at it.  He had all day, right?  I decided to use the day to do a bunch of baking (at least the kitchen would be warm) and waited for him to arrive. 

It got to be 4:45 PM and still no repair guy.  I called the repair company back and learned that somehow the work ticket had been misplaced and that is why no one had come to check out our furnace.  I was assured that a repairman (presumably the guy in charge) would be there right away, and in fact he was.  He went into the basement, and when he came back upstairs, he informed me that the furnace required a new part and that he might have the part back at his shop.  If he didn't, then he would need to pick up the part the next day and then install it.  I really hoped that he had the part…

He drove back to his shop and called me back to inform me that he in fact did not have the part.  This meant that we would have no heat through the night.  So, we got our (gas) fireplace going and decided  to have a camp out in the living room.  Hopefully it was something fun and out of the ordinary that at least Marie will remember.  At any rate, it was out of our routine enough that we didn't get started as early as we had intended.  (For those of you that are interested, the repairman came over later, replaced the part, and fixed the furnace.  Thanks Uncle Mark for checking on things later that night!)

We were able to make it home and enjoy a very nice Thanksgiving Day / dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart, Uncle Matt, Uncle Dave, and Itxaso. 

Our original plan for Black Friday was to have the whole family head over to St. Louis to celebrate and visit with Great-Grandpa Boedeker.  Since Grandpa wasn't feeling that well, just a few of the adults went over to visit for a bit.  It was much more time in the car than time to visit, but I think that Grandpa chatted just a bit and I think genuinely appreciated it.

On Saturday, we celebrated "Meinhart" Thanksgiving and Marie and Joey were able to play with and spend more time with that side of the family.  Marie is getting old enough to play with and remember some of her second cousins (and great-aunts and uncles), which makes those gatherings even more fun. 

We headed back to Michigan on Sunday, thankful for the time to spend with our family, but as expected, tired.

Not a week later, it was time to celebrate Joey's 3rd birthday.  Mom and Dad drove up to Michigan a couple of days early and helped out with getting the house in order and getting food ready for the party.  That also allowed us to celebrate Grandpa Meinhart's birthday with him.  We are guessing that this might happen on a regular basis in years to come since Grandpa's birthday is the day before Joey's.  We're not complaining! :)  This year, we had apple pie and ice cream and the kids' gave him night crawlers as a gift.  Boy was he surprised!
 

For the kids' birthdays we never have a really big get together or go too far out of the way, but I like to have a little something to make the day special and don't know how I would get it done without a couple of extra sets of hands.  Uncle Mark and Aunt Sarah came over and Grandpa and Grandma Shibata and Aunt Jess come up for the afternoon. 

The day after Joey's birthday, I was again able to take advantage of the extra hands and we put up the outdoor Christmas lights and also picked out our tree.  This year we opted for just picking out our tree instead of cutting it down ourselves.  We were running out of sunlight and decided if we didn't get it done that day, then it would be difficult to impossible to fit it in some other day.  As it turns out, it was much less work, the kids still enjoyed it, it was less time consuming and less expensive, and we still got a nice looking and smelling tree out of it.
 

The Month of Marie

September was definitely the "Month of Marie" around our house. To start the month (actually on August 30), she had her first day of Kindergarten. She had been counting down the days and was pretty excited to say the least. She had met her teacher a couple of times and already knew and was friends with a couple of the girls in her class. The first day came and even though she was up really early that morning, she was still pretty chipper.  If the rest of the days went similarly, should be a breeze, right?

Well, the first week went pretty smoothly. The mornings were still early (if you know us, you may also know that none of us are really morning people), but it was only three half days, so we were still able to have afternoon naps and she didn't feel like she was missing out on too much.

The following week consisted of four, full days of school, starting at 8:00 with Mass and being picked up at 3:00. She would come home and give us little details of her day. We started learning some of her classmates' names, the daily schedule, what she liked and didn't like at snack time, what she usually did during "rest" time, etc. We learned that there was a James that sat at her table in her class, but "James" was also the name of her 7th grade Mass buddy.

She generally told us that her favorite time of the day was recess. We knew she was making new friends, sometimes older kids in the 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd grades. We learned that she had gym class on Mondays and Wednesdays, Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays, that Tuesday was "Library" day, and that Thursday was "Computer Lab" day.

That first week, we also started hearing and noticing that she was having at least daily episodes of crying. It might happen at recess, at lunch, or even during class. Sometimes she would say that she missed me, sometimes she was "just tired", and sometimes it seemed the littlest thing would upset her.  Mornings were also getting to be rougher. I had a brief talk with her teacher, and we basically decided that she was still getting used to school and needed to get more sleep.

So, we instituted a rest time after getting home from school and also bumped her bedtime up as much as possible when we could. She was still excited about school, but would also make comments that she didn't want to go because she had to get up so early. We took comfort in the fact that at least by the time she went out the door, she was chipper and smiling.

Now that we have four full weeks under our belt, it is still sometimes a struggle, but she is doing much better. We have gotten a couple of encouraging emails from her teacher. And, as far as we know, she went the last two without crying at school. PROGRESS! It has been a transition for us all. Going to bed early, getting up early, spending more time in the car, adjusting nap times for Joey and Stevie, etc. It has been good for us all...I'm sure we'll settle into a routine sooner or later. We are looking forward to seeing everything she will learn and how she will grow this year.

 Marie and her classmate and "BFF" Sarah on their first day.

In the midst of the starting school transition, we also celebrated Marie's 5th birthday. It snuck up on us a little bit. But, we enjoyed immensely a visit from Uncle James, Aunt Jaclyn, JJ, Gracie, Aunt Jess, Grandma and Grandpa Shibata, and Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart. Uncle Mark and Aunt Sarah also made it over for a big chunk of the weekend. The weather was nice; the kids got to play outside a decent amount.

 On her actual birthday, she got her present from us and requested to be able to go out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. She was super excited about her new matching raincoat and boots and it was a good night out, and by good, I mean that everyone pretty much ate their meals, there was no crying or screaming, and we didn't draw too much unnecessary attention. Marie even got to enjoy a Birthday Sundae to finish off her meal. It is hard to believe that our little girl is already five years old. She is growing up so fast!

 

I'll close with a kid-ism from Marie and a few recent pictures of her little brothers as well.

Marie has been enjoying Mad Libs lately and at one point, I was doing them with her.

Peg: "Name something strange."
Marie: "Toilets."
Peg: "Toilets? What makes toilets strange?'
Marie: "You know when they flush all by themselves and you're not expecting it."

Okay. Now I get it. Yep, that is kind of strange.

Joey is Two and Winter is Here

Despite all the fun things that have been going on (or perhaps because of them!), I've been extremely delinquent at posting updates of the recent 'happenings.' I'll try to bring you up to speed before Christmas and before things really get out of hand!

To begin, Joey turned two on Dec 3rd...just in time for him to stop asking about opening more presents. Grandpa and Grandma Meinhart and Uncle Matt came into town to help celebrate. Grandma and Grandpa arrived the day before, early enough to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. The kids got a kick out of having a "birthday party" for a grown-up and enjoyed helping Grandpa open his presents.


For Joey's birthday, the Thomas the Train theme was continued, much to Joey's excitement. He had a Thomas cake and got a table on which he can play with his trains and tracks with less assistance (much to my excitement). It takes up a good bit of space in our living room, but it has become the focal point for the kids as they use it quite often.







The other activity that was undertaken during our visitors' stay was to get our Christmas tree. It was a bit cold, but we successfully got to the tree farm, rode the wagon out to the pines, picked one out, cut it down, got to ride the wagon again, secured it to the car, and made it home in one piece. A little hot chocolate when we arrived home helped to warm everyone up. Marie and Joey enjoyed decorating the tree as well and apart from needing to redistribute the ornaments to higher elevations, we thought it turned out well.









Joey also had his two-year check-up. He is definitely not usually a fan of visiting the doctor, even though our pediatrician is absolutely great. This time though, I think he was under the impression that it was Marie that needed to see the doctor. Plus, he didn't have to get any shots, so it was a much more manageable visit. The doctor affectionately calls him "Big Joe" since he always measures on the bigger side. He was 30.5 lbs and 37 1/2 inches which is roughly 98-99th percentile and 2-3 lbs and 1 1/2" bigger than Marie was at his age.

Marie has definitely been enjoying this season more this time around. All kids look forward to Christmas, but she has been really been getting into the Christmas spirit working on her Jesse tree, helping to decorate the house, making presents for friends and family, and lighting the advent candles. Joey enjoys it too, but more often asks his usual question, "Can we open presents?" Somewhere in there, I got to have a wonderful outing to do some outlet shopping (without kids!) with a good friend, Jon and I attended an adults only Christmas party where we always have too much fun and stay way too late, and we had a kid-friendly Christmas party hosted by my boss at a bowling alley. Marie and Joey had never been bowling, but we could hardly tear them away from the lanes. They basically bowled the entire time, only stopping long enough to gulp down a piece of pizza.

In weather-related news, we got our first real snow of the winter on Dec 12. You know what that means…sledding! We went out the same day and the conditions weren't great. It was windy, cold, and the snow was powdery which meant a lot of snow in the face during the descent down the hill. Plus, it was pretty hard for Marie to get all the way up the hill on her own. Since my self-imposed limit is to pull only my pregnant self up the hill, that meant that Jon got quite the workout pulling both Marie and Joey up. Thankfully, we've been out multiple other times and things have been much smoother. The kids could actually go down in their own sleds and Marie has gotten fantastic (to use her own words) at getting up the hill on her own. They have had a total blast. One of their favorite things to do is sled down and run right into the strategically placed straw bales at the bottom. As Joey would say, they go "Bonk!"




Things with baby #3 are going well. He is growing at the appropriate rate and I'm starting to receive quite a few substantial kicks. We are just shy of 30 weeks, so it's hard to believe that we'll have a precious newborn in just 8-9 weeks (based on my history of being induced a bit early). Marie and Joey are anxiously awaiting the baby's arrival. Marie has loved getting to feel the baby move and before bedtime while we are saying what makes us thankful, Joey has been known to say "Baby brother" while giving me a pat on the belly. Not sure Joey really knows what's coming. :)

So that basically bring us up to speed on what's been going on. I know that there are some funny stories that I'm missing about things the kids have done or said. I hope to do a better job at memorializing those things…I can always hope. I did just have to share one more picture that was taken over Thanksgiving and sent to us by Aunt Jess. We hope that everyone has a blessed Christmas!