Like Father, Like Son!

Dave here. Well, it's official. Alex is a thumb-sucker. Sometimes its the left thumb and sometimes its the right, but unlike his father, he has yet to suck them both at the same time. (Editor's note: the last sentence referred not to his father currently, but rather to his father as a little child.) He has also yet to put his finger in his nose while sucking his thumb....another trademark of his father as a young child. I HAD ISSUES!

I'm happy to say though that I've come through counseling and I'm on a fast track to recovery from the scars in my life from the thumb-sucking/nose-picking that controlled me as a child. Anyway, we know when Alex has found his thumb in the crib as he immediately calms down.

I've put some more pictures of Alex on here simply because he is so cute. There is also a picture of mia leaping to her perch atop our entertainment center. She surveys the apartment and makes sure we are safe. Okay, she actually just lounges and sleeps, but I like to think of her as sort of a guard cat.

Happy Birthday? Not Quite Yet!

Dave here. We just received this picture of Alex from a friend of ours who took it while we were celebrating a 1 year birthday for Kayce Nichols, who is the daughter of our friends, D.A. & Rebekah. It's hard to believe that in just under 6 months, he will be wearing one of these hats for his own birthday. What a joy he's been. You've got to admit, he's one cute kid. :)

Mr. Mom

Well, now you will learn why Dave and I have not been good about our blog this past week! Last weekend we had plans to visit my parents in Kentucky. Alex has not been down there to see his grandparents. However, I spoiled the plan by getting sick Thursday night/Friday morning. This was one bad bug and I was in bed all weekend. My stomach still is not back to normal. So Dave was taking care of Alex and his sick wife all weekend. I was a little nervous when he went back to work on Tuesday! I had to take care of Alex all by myself. I am very thankful for a good kid. We spent most of the day just hanging out on the couch. It was really cute to watch Dave and Alex do stuff together. Dave took Alex along with him to the barbershop and they went to church and small group together. I think Alex missed his dad on Tuesday!

Here are some pictures of Alex eating this weekend. Dave did a great job of making some good meals for Alex. For this meal, Alex is enjoying some sweet potatoes and apples! Yum-o!

To encourage Alex to sit up by himself, I will often sit him in front of this gym to play. Eventually he will somewhat gracefully fall over. As you can see with this picture, this time he did not fall so gracefully. So, being good parents that we are, we quickly ran to get the camera before helping him out!!!

Today we did some dreaming about our new house. We went to IKEA and just looked around at some things we'd like to possibly add to our house one day. It will surely not happen anytime soon, save for a few items here and there.

Everything with the house is going along smoothly. We're just waiting to hear if the sellers are going to do everything we've asked of them after we had the home inspected. We didn't ask for much as there was not a lot wrong with the house, which is a very good thing. We close on the house April 13 and then we'll move on April 21. It will be here before we know it. :)

A big step for mama!

What a week. Dave and I have apparently taken some time off from blogging. So settle in for there are some things to update you on!



In the morning, while I am getting his bath ready, Alex plays in his crib. When I first started doing this, I would prop him up in the corner with some toys and he would be in the same place when I got back. Now when I return, I find him in many different positions, some of which he does not like and he is therefore very upset. His life will be easier once he figures out the whole rolling over thing. So this is a picture from Tueday morning. It appears as though a toy got away from him and dove to get it!

I love to have Dave home on days that are not expected! Tuesday was great as we woke up to the sound of Dave's phone ringing! When it rings at 6:00 in the morning when there is a lot of snow, I know that means no school! It was a lazy day and Alex enjoyed an extra day hanging out with his Dad!

I had a major first on Wednesday. Dave, being the thoughtful husband that he is, lined up babysitting for us so we could have a nice Valentine's dinner out. We have left Alex with people before, but it was always family. This was major for me. But I knew he was in good hands. Allison and Katie are students from Wheaton Academy and we have known them since we moved here. They are good girls! They take great care of our Mia when we are out of town. We took the fun out of babysitting, though. Its fun because you get the hold the baby and play with them, right? Alex decided not to nap well that day so he was ready to go to bed before they got there. We fed him and put him to bed about 15 minutes before they arrived. So the girls did a wonderful job being there for Alex if he woke up. Here is a picture of Allison and Katie!


More about the week later!

Snow Day!

Dave here. I got a phone call this morning at about 6:00 from our Principal, Jon Keith. He told me that we were calling off school, so I sent out an Instant Alert to all of our school families and staff. I will get to spend a nice day at home with my family. YEA!!!!!

A mama's thoughts

My son is 6 months old. I can not believe that we have only had him for 6 months and that I have been a stay at home mom for 6 months. I have not worked outside the home for 6 months. I was joking with Dave the other day that I have spent more time in this apartment during the last 6 months than I did for a whole year in our old apartment! The time has flown and I have enjoyed it!!

I have been amazed thinking this week about what he as accomplished since he arrived.

1. He can stay awake for at least two hours at a time

2. Follows his older sibling (Mia, the family cat) around and just laughs when he sees her

3. Reconizes his name

4. He laughs

5. He holds his head up

6. He sits up

7. He has cut two teeth

8. He eats sweet potatos, apples, and peas.

9. He has already had a double ear infection

10. More then doubled his weight

No wonder he still sleep 14 hours a day. After accomplishing all this in only 6 months, I would be tired too.

How is his mama doing? Someone once told me that you find out how selfish you are when you get married. I think that I see more of my selfishness now that I am a mama. You know when you are pregnant you have dreams of what kind of mom you are going to be? Well I was not going to push my agenda onto my kids, I would follow their lead. Not going as planned. I can not count the times I have gotten frustrated when he wakes up before I am ready for him to, he wants to eat while I am in the middle of something or he just wants to play with me while I am trying to get something done. I can be so selfish with my time! And then the work God has had to do on my heart so that I can be proud of being a full-time mom. I have realized how much pride I take in my journey to becoming a counselor. I want to be known to the world as a professional counselor instead of being known by my son as a loving mom! Don't you worry, I am doing good and loving being a mom. I just know that I am not perfect and have a lot to learn about being a mom, a wife, and a friend.

I have included a couple of Alexander's 6 month pictures. I love them!

You Ask, I Provide!

Dave here. My father-in-law, Jerry, asked to see a picture of the guest bathroom. Apparently, he wants to gauge whether or not he is going to come visit us. I hope this picture is suitable for you, Jerry. Please come visit us! :)



Bonus: Here's another picture of the guest bathroom.

More House Pics!

Dave here. If you've not read the post previous to this, do it before you read this post....it will make more sense. We're still a little bit in shock that we're actually going to be moving into this house in just a little over two months. Here are some more pictures of the house.

This is the master bath. The wallpaper must go!



Here is my party deck! Come on over for a summer BBQ!



We finally have a garage!



This is from the end of the family room looking back toward the kitchen.

We Got It!

After a flurry of negotiations that began yesterday, the sellers of the property we're interested in accepted our offer this evening. More to come, but for now, here are some pictures of the inside of our house:

When you walk through the front door and turn right, you walk into the living room.
That's our realtor Heide holding Alex.


As you continue through the living room, you get to the dining room, which Esther is standing in front of.


If you turn left from the dining room, you go into the kitchen and in the background is the family room. There's Heide again.


This is the family room, just beyond the kitchen.


This is a reverse view of the kitchen.


Master Bedroom


I'll add more pictures in another post, but the house has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. We're so excited!

House News!

Dave here. Earlier this morning, I told our real estate agent to put an offer on a house. I told her I didn't care which one, just put an offer on something. No, I'm kidding. We found a place that we really like and we are moving ahead with the plans. All I keep hearing is that it's a buyers market, so I'm really hoping that's true.

The house, pictured above, does not have purplish-pinkish siding like it might appear in the picture. Although it's no secret that I enjoy the color purple, I wouldn't necessarily want that as the primary color of my house. It's grey siding with blue trim. We would probably change the trim to black & white, but that will be decided on another day.

Please pray that we will be able to get this house for the price that will comfortably fit our budget. We'll keep you posted.

Colts Win!

Dave here. Well, half of our Superbowl wish came true. We wanted to see the Saints vs. Colts. However, Manning got his Superbowl. If you ask me, I think it is the first of several for him.

We spent the first half at Tom Jamerson's house. He is the athletic director at Wheaton Academy. There were probably 20-25 people there. At halftime, we went to Jay and Chris Huebner's house. They are in our small group at church. We watched the third quarter there and then Alex was voicing his displeasure that he was not in his crib. We came home to watch the fourth quarter.

After the game was over, Esther said, "Football season is over." And then the very next sentence out of her mouth was, "It's funny, ever since I've been married to you, I get bummed out when football season is over."

You can imagine how my heart swelled when I heard those words!

It's Been A While!

Dave here. Well, I promised I'd try to get this up here and it finally let me do it. You can see Alex's first tooth right next to Esther's finger.

It has been an interesting week to say the least. I was diagnosed with Acute Bronchitis or Early Pneumonia. My doctor said she wasn't sure which, but she would treat them the same anyway. I got a prescription for Levaquin and I've been feeling better since. I was off work on Monday and Tuesday.

Alex has had a really good week as he gets better from his ear infections. He's really beginning to like the bubble gum taste of his Amoxicillin.

Esther has not been sick this week. Well, she has gotten sick of taking care of her two boys, but her personal health has not suffered. (I have been been informed since the publishing of this post that Esther has indeed been sick this week. I recall her saying that she wasn't sick, just tired. She says she didn't say that and that her throat has been scratchy and she's been blowing her nose all week. I'm apparently the worst husband on the planet.)

Alex got his first studio pictures taken. He looked so cute and we have three pictures in one frame hanging on our wall.

We looked at some more houses today. Several are promising, but we are just praying that God will reveal what we're supposed to do for our housing situation.

Esther made her first homemade baby food tonight. It was messier than we had anticipated, but that was due to an equipment malfunction with our blender. I'm sure Alex is going to love his sweet potatos though.

Last, but certainly not least, our apartment complex apparently up and moved to Antarctica. It is so cold here in Chicago right now!