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!

Mom & Dad Visit! So Does Sickness.

Dave here. Alex is sitting on my lap as I type. He is feeling so much better. We've been giving him the Amoxicillin as well as some Infant Advil when he feels a little warm. It's quite a change from Friday.

My parents came to visit yesterday (Saturday). They drove up in the morning and drove home last night. Mom played with Alex and Dad slept. Okay, they both played with Alex, but Dad did sleep a little bit.

We were just a ton of fun to be with yesterday. Friday night before we went to bed, Esther said, "Uh-oh I have a tickle in my throat." I think that's the funniest phrase..."tickle in my throat." Anyway, I woke up Saturday morning, sans tickle the night before, and I immediately knew I wasn't doing all that well. When I would take a deep breath, I felt serious tightness in my chest. Not like heart pain, but chest congestion pain.

Esther said she did not feel well in the morning either, although her temperature was normal. My temperature was over a hundred. We took my parents to the house that we're looking at purchasing, but other than that, we just sat around the house and talked. Around 3:30, I went in to lay down in our bed because I just felt awful. My parents left a little after 5:00. Soon after that (please don't be grossed out) I began coughing up green junk from my chest. It did not sound nor look good in any way shape or form. I was really cold even though I was under our covers with sweats and a sweathshirt on. My fever broke around 11:00 last night, but was back this morning and this afternoon as well. I'll probably go to the Doctor tomorrow to see if the infection in my chest is causing my fever.

I was supposed to sing this morning in worship team at church. That obviously did not happen. It would have been my debut on the tamborine too. I was so disappointed.

Esther spent her day taking care of her two boys and working on her Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for counseling. She needs to get 30 CEU's done by the end of March. She has her first clients here in Illinois on Tuesday.

Finally, there was some exciting news yesterday. Alex cut his first tooth. Grandma was actually the one to notice. His center right bottom tooth has pushed through the gums. I'm going to get him some steak tomorrow. I think he's ready. YEA ALEX!!!!!!
Unfortunately, this crazy blog won't allow me to upload that picture for some reason. I'll try to get it on later.

A Family Trip to the ER

Dave here. I apologize for the length of this post, but hopefully you'll get sucked in and stay engaged until the end. I think it's a good read.

Yesterday, Alex got sick in the morning and had a fever the rest of the day. It got up to 102 last night and we took him to the Doctor at around 7:00 (Esther had already made the appointment earlier in the day). We actually saw a nurse practioner last night and she said that there was nothing wrong with his breathing, bowels or hydration. She said to continue to monitor his milk intake, as he was not eating like his normal self. I only slept for a little over 3 hours last night as we were up checking his fever and trying to get him to eat.

I decided this morning to do some work from home so I could be here to help out however I was needed. That was the best decision I've made in a long time. Today was not a fun day. Alex was just not himself all day. He barely ate at all and his fever kept spiking. Being the first time that we have gone through this as parents, the worst thoughts kept coming to our minds. What if there is something really wrong? What if he dehydrates? What if the fever just keeps rising?

We talked with our Doctor early this morning and they wanted us to call them at 1:00 to let them know how things were going. Right before we called, we checked his fever and it had risen to 103.5. They told us to head to the ER right away. At this point, holding our emotions in check took a lot of energy. We again were thinking of worst case scenarios.

Edward Hospital has a free-valet service which I thought was outstanding. We got right in and they took his temperature rectally (we've since apologized to Alex for that), and he still had a fever of 103. His face was so red and his hands were sweating profusely. I felt scared. I also felt so badly for Alex as it was evident he was in much discomfort.

We were then taken back to another room and we saw the Doctor in a relatively short amount of time (the docs name was Oliver Chrisler.....I'm not sure why I included that other than I think its a really cool name.....he went by Ollie). He dug out about 3lbs of ear wax from each of Alex's ears so he could see down there. He says that Alex has an infection in each of his ears, but the right ear is the worst.

He gave Alex some Amoxicillin and a prescription for ten more days worth of doses. We're also supposed to give him Ibuprofen for the fever as needed. Alex fell asleep on the way home and so we just drove around looking at houses for sale so he could sleep longer....he really needed it. We got home about 45 minutes later and he stayed asleep in his car seat for another hour. When he woke up, we could immediately see the difference. His normal color was back, he no longer felt like a kiln and he actually smiled at us, something he literally had not done since last evening.

He downed six ounces of milk, more than he'd eaten at anytime in the last two days. He went to sleep around 7:00 just like normal. We'll keep you updated as to his progress tomorrow, but we are very encouraged.

As I think back on the events of today, it's something that probably every parent has gone through. However, it is the first time I have ever felt scared for my child. It's not a fun feeling. Praise the Lord that nothing worse has come of this. I think the only thing I would have done differently today was tip the valet....I just totally spaced.

Father-Son Time!

Dave here. Esther and I decided that it would be good for me to put Alex to sleep sometimes as she is going to start working one night a week at the counseling center at our church. Tonight was the first night, and it was the first time that Esther had not put Alex to sleep. She went to Borders to have some well-deserved 'Esther Time'. I started giving the boy a bottle at about 6:30 and he was asleep by 6:50. I'm a natural. Actually, it's that Esther has done such a good job with his schedule that he knows around that time to eat and then go to sleep. He's such a wonderful kid!

IN OTHER NEWS............

My mother has a picture of me in her dining room from when I was either 9 or 11 months old. I can never remember which one it is. Anyway, I have the flowing hair of a healthy 16 year old in that picture. My mom tells me that I'd already had several haircuts by that point. Well, the apple does not fall far from the tree. Esther took Alex to get his second haircut today.....he's five and a half months old. He looks like a toddler again, much like he did after his first haircut.

He is also showing that even though we live in Chicago now, he knows his Dad's roots are in Indiana. He also knows that his Mom wants Peyton to finally get a superbowl ring. My Colts-loving sister and her family got this football for Alex for Christmas. After the Superbowl, it's going to 'get lost' somewhere, as I will not stand for having my son grow up a Colts fan! :) My Steelers are still the defending Superbowl Champs for another week and a half.

Sunday afternoon

Dave and I have created a game so that we can enjoy sports together. The game is simple, I have to pick a team to win. This way I now care who wins. Since I enjoy spending time with my husband and he enjoys spending time with me and watching sports. This allows for me to also enjoy sports.

So at the beginning of the playoffs, I picked the Colts (Manning deserves a superbowl) and the Saints (what a story that would be) to get to the Superbowl with the Colts winning! I was going strong until today! I was bummed to watch the Saints lose to the Bears (and yet not a terrible loss since I do live in Chicago). I was nervous as I watched the Colts/Patriots game. I almost lost both my Superbowl teams today! But the Colts came through for me.

But the best thing from this afternoon is represented in the picture. Alex can sit unassited for a couple minuetes (with several repositionings). Touch Down Alex!!!

Breakfast in Bed!

Dave here. Alex is pretty much a twelve hour a night sleeper, and has been that way since three-and-a-half or four months. He goes to bed sometime between 7 and 8 most every night, and he won't start calling us to come get him for about twelve hours. This morning was a slight exception. He went to bed last night a little before 8:00 and he was quiet until almost 8:30. We went in to get him and I changed his diaper and brought him into our bed so we could cuddle with him. I then went to make him a bottle and we gave him the treat of breakfast in bed. I'm sure he didn't care where he was, he just wanted the food. Here they are, the two loves of my life!

Trade Bait!

Dave here. For those who may not be aware, I am in a Fantasy Basketball League with friends from Grace College. My team name is the Johnsonville Bratwursts. It's one of the ways we use to stay in touch with each other. Combining sports and friends, what a great idea!

Anyway, I recently made a trade with the Tacoma T-Dawgs to acquire Tim Duncan. I gave up athletic swingman Shawn Marion. This picture is of Tim Duncan scoring and Shawn Marion helplessly watching from behind. I apparently made a good deal.....at least according to this photo.

I realize that no one really cares about this, but it's my blog! Thanks for reading anyway.

He likes it, he really likes it!

We have been trying solids for the past few weeks without success. I would put the spoon up to his mouth and Alex, not Dave, would make a face and turn his head. If he opened his mouth and the food made it in, he would make a face and push it all out. He was just not ready. He had no idea what he was missing out on....until today!

He was a little bit off of his sleeping and eating schedule so we had some extra minutes to make another attempt. I, of course, did not have high hopes as the last five attempts were more play time than eating time. But he proved me wrong. I got the first bit in and he made no faces! Then I started laughing at him as he started sucking in his upper lip everytime I put more in his mouth. I had to call Dave to share the moment with someone. I guess I was too busy talking with Dave and not paying attention to feeding Alex fast enough because Alex started crying for more. By the time he was finished, he had stopped sucking on his lip and he was working on just swallowing!

He is such a big boy!!!! We will try it again tomorrow and see if he does the same thing. If I know my son well enough, he may make faces at me tomorrow too!

Thoughts about Motherhood

As my son takes an afternoon nap, I figured it is a good time to sit down and write about this motherhood thing. It has been a struggle for me the past few days and last night I started thinking about why it has been so hard for me. Then I realized that it is me that gets in the way of me taking care of my son. It is my insecurities! I sometimes spend too much time thinking about what other people think about how I am raising my son then how my son, my husband and my God thinks about it. And let us not forget about what I think about it! It is so hard because so many of my decisions I make for him everyday are neither right or wrong, they are just decisions. I can only make a decision that I feel it right in that moment and sometimes I feel it was a good decision and sometimes I realize that is was not. But was it the wrong decision? Not necessarily, it was just not the best decision. And these are hard thoughts to remember in the midst of the daily routine that Alex and I have! I need to stop thinking about what other people think about my decisions and just enjoy my son and this motherhood thing!