Kyler -- Week 13 (2/11/12-2/17/12)

Kyler has been growing and learning new things all the time this week. He has begun trying to stand up while being held and has been grabbing onto things such a rings and toys. He continues to work on may different skills such as smiling, laughing, and trying to put "Passiraffe" back in his mouth when it pops out. He continues to love his bath times, talk A LOT on the changing table, and enjoy story time before bed. This week we celebrated Valentine's Day with Daddy working the in the physiology lab all day and eating leftovers. Kyler and I were going to go shopping for him, but with a hurt back and me still not picking up the car seat, we sent him a "Love Email" instead.

We headed out to Jenison for a dress fitting and another of Aunt Lynsey's bridal showers. While waiting for Daddy to get home and load the car, I gave Kyler his first "lovey" since he had been holding onto things. The lovey just happens to be an elephant, and the trunk went straight into his mouth (see below). I think he thought that their should be a pacifier connected since it was soft and felt like his "Passiraffe." During the car ride up to Michigan he was a champ, but he did cry a little until we figured out he was warm and wanted the window open for a little while. While at Grandpa and Grandma Wiersum's he enjoyed a lot of extra spoiling and play time, including a pizza party with Great Grandma Van Dyke, Aunt Lynsey, Uncle Matt, Aunt Lori and Cousin KayLynn.

So happy on the changing table, and wearing such a cute onesie! Of course he is made up of A, C, G, and T--the nitrogenous bases of DNA :)

The boys helping fold laundry

His first "lovey" experience, with the trunk right in his mouth

Thanks to "Passiraffe," I believe Kyler thinks all stuff animals must have some type of sucking device attached

Hanging out with Great Grandma Van Dyke

Another thing Kyler has gotten good at--drooling!

Kyler -- Week 12 (2/4/12-2/10/12)

We had a week full of visitors this week, but not exactly by design. We went to French Toast for breakfast with our friends Dale and Emily, but Kyler was not super excited about being there, mostly because he was feeling too warm. My back started to hurt a lot that day as well, so Ryan needed to do all of the lifting with Kyler for the rest of the weekend. Kyler was super good for Daddy, but he did miss being held by Mom--and I missed it too! When Monday came and I tried to take care of Kyler on my own, I couldn't lift him without help, so Ryan had to come home every 2-3 hours to help with diapering and feeding. I sent out an email for help, and we ended up having loads of people respond with either help or prayers. Great Aunt Dawn came on Monday afternoon when she unexpectedly had an afternoon off, which allowed Ryan to get some work done. Aunt Ginger came for the day on Tuesday and had a great time snuggling with Kyler and bringing some clothes from his cousins Parker and Chase for when he gets older. Nancy (the wife of one of Ryan's biology colleagues) came by on Wednesday and had fun "practicing" being a grandma. Thursday brought Great Grandma Linda and a nice morning of catching up and spending time together.

Ryan was going to stay home on Friday because it was Olivet's winter break, but Papa Bebej offered to stay for the day after dropping off Grammy at the airport. He had a great time spending time with his grandson while Ryan got caught up on all the work he needed to get done. We were so thankful for all of the help that we got, and we felt blessed with all of the love that was lavished on Kyler when Mommy could not carry him.

Hanging out with Daddy on the couch

Watching the Superbowl with his first football...but the pink chair does seem to take away from the manliness

Ryan cannot wait to share one of his favorite greasy spoons with his son.

One of our great helpers--thanks so much, Aunt Ginger!

"Grandma" Nancy spending some time with Kyler

Great Grandma Linda loving her little guy. 

Kyler -- Week 11 (1/28/12-2/3/12)

This week was a nice stay-at-home week with no traveling for the family. We did have a great visit from Matt and Becky with their little girl Louisa, but unfortunately we forgot to get the camera out and actually take some pictures. At this point, Kyler was only getting up once at night--if that! He has really helped us get back into sleeping at night and not needing naps ourselves. During the day, Kyler has been a nap champion, with at least one (sometimes two) long naps that allow me to get all the house work done and sometimes even a workout. We eventually instituted a rule at home that once Daddy gets home, it is family time, so no computers until after Kyler goes to bed. This has been an adjustment for Ryan and me, but overall I think it will be a good habit to get into, especially as Kyler gets older.

We did have Grammy, Papa, and Aunt Nicole come and visit on Friday February 3. They could not believe how big Ky had gotten, and they even got to experience some of the famous tub time, including his screaming protests of being taken out of the tub. He really does love it, so we are wondering if this means swimming is in his future. Kyler continues to hate tummy time, but we continue to force him to do it and smiles are becoming a much more common occurrence.

All dressed up to meet with friends. Mommy told him to be nice to Louisa since you never know what could happen in 30 years :)

He does love Daddy, that is for sure!

Here are the cloth diapers that we are using. They have actually been surprisingly easy to take care of and very cost effective.

Loving the tub time!

Good morning to Mommy! This kid likes to move in his crib and often ends up diagonal to where he was at bedtime. 

Kyler does love his changing table, almost as much as his tub, but I think part of it is the dinosaurs on his wall that you cannot see. We still need to give them names.

Kyler -- Week 10 (1/21/12-1/27/12)

Kyler had a lot going on at the beginning of this week. On the January 21, he got to attend his Aunt Lynsey's wedding shower. This will probably be the one and only wedding shower that he ever attends, but he seemed to enjoy hanging out with all the ladies and showing off his new trick: drooling while sitting on your knee. After a fun-filled shower, we headed over to celebrate cousin KayLynn's 1st birthday party. Kyler was still pretty tired from the earlier party and slept through most of it. On Sunday January 22, Kyler had a good time worshiping at Mars Hill with the family. He loved to just look out at the crowd and watch people, but I am sure that was a little distracting for all the people around us. Going back home to Bourbonnais, things were going to be calming down a little. Kyler spent a lot of time playing in his gym, hating tummy time, and catching a few Michigan basketball games with Daddy. 

Kyler is showing off his drool-and-sit trick with cousin Lauren

Hanging out with the bride-to-be, but clearly partied out

Still trying to recover from the bridal shower, but cousin KayLynn wants him to get up and play at her party!

4 generations on the Van Dyke side--I say we have a good looking group!

Watching one of the many basketball games with Daddy

Loving his "jungle gym" time

Sleeping after a visiting daddy at Olivet

Kyler -- Week 9 (1/14/12-1/20/12)

Kyler was so thankful to have his daddy come to Jenison to see him. He had missed him terribly. We had the visitation for Grandpa Van Dyke on the January 15, which Kyler attended. He was able to bring a little happiness to those who saw him and might have helped remind people how much Great Grandpa had loved his family. After Sunday's visitation, Great Grandma went to see him before we left, and he gave her one of the biggest smiles! He doesn't usually smile late at night (10pm) but I think that he knew Great Grandma Van Dyke could use something positive. The funeral was really wonderful, but it was certainly no place for a baby. Kyler was babysat for the first time by my sister-in-law Lori's mom Deb and had a great time with his cousin KayLynn.

One thing that was nice this week was that we had lots of visitors come and meet him. He met Becca, Chelsea, and Lindsay from my old youth group. We also got to catch up a little bit with Julie and Levi. Kyler got to go out with the grandparents and Mommy to do a little shopping and eat out for the first time at Taco Bell. We bought him a new 6-month outfit because we started to notice he was just getting too big for the clothes we had packed! When Ryan came later that weekend he had to bring all new clothes for the growing boy! We did not take any pictures this week, but we do have a lot of videos.

Kyler -- Week 8 (1/7/12-1/13/12)

So we are continuing to catch up on Kyler's pictures and how he has been doing. Week 8 was a very busy and heartbreaking week for us all, as we lost our beloved Grandpa Van Dyke. We got a call early in the morning on Tuesday January 10 that things were not looking good. After much deliberation, Melissa and Kyler traveled to Michigan to hopefully see him one last time. We unfortunately were an hour too late to say goodbye, but we were able to be with family. While the family was putting together the funeral arrangements, we also celebrated Grandma Van Dyke's birthday with the whole family. Even Ryan made it at the end.

Early in the week the weather was really warm, so we took advantage of that with a walk in the park.  Ryan was pretty bummed he had to work, but Duncan just loves to get his inner "Stroller dog" on. 

He loves his Aunt Lynsey's old comforter! Look how long he is!

Hanging out with Grandma after her long day of funeral planning

Two of my favorite guys!

Laughing at Grandma Wiersum. Ryan still has not gotten to hear the giggle!

Wishing Great Grandma Van Dyke a special Birthday!

Finally--smiles caught on video!

I know we haven't given you posts for weeks 8, 9, or 10 yet, but this was to cute not to post immediately. Kyler turned 11 weeks old yesterday, and we celebrated with a visit from Grammy, Papa, and Aunt Nicole. While Papa was interacting with Kyler last night, Kyler was smiling fairly often, so I decided to get out the video camera to try and record the overwhelming cuteness. He's been smiling periodically for quite a while now, but they've been unpredictable and difficult to catch on camera. But if you watch the video below, you'll see that this attempt was a success!

Hanging On or Letting Go

So I am going to take a break on the Kyler updates for just a moment. The next week will talk about the week that my Grandpa Van Dyke passed away, and I wanted to tell a great story and a few things that were on my mind. Grandpa had been sick for a while, but he always asked about us and loved his family very much. He had a big family of five kids (plus in-laws), 15 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren. Ryan and I are the only ones who do not live in town, but every time we are in west Michigan, we try to make sure we stop by to see him. Lately with the pregnancy, we had not been out to west Michigan to see family there since the middle of September--almost 3 months--but Grandpa asked about us every time he saw my parents.

When we were packing up to visit after Christmas (December 29-January 2), I called my mom the night before to ask her about extra sheets for the crib. My mom told me that we were going to go straight to the nursing home after she got out of work because Grandpa had been asking every day when we were going to be there so he could meet his great grandson Kyler. He had been talking about him for the last week to anyone who would listen, including the nursing staff. Everyone knew he wanted to meet his great grandson. He had been getting really frail and losing a lot of weight, so my mom told me that she believed he was holding on just to meet our son. I was--and am currently--tearing up at the thought of it. How loved Kyler and us were--that Grandpa was using his strength to see us when he could have used it for so many other things.

Going to bed that night I prayed so hard that nothing would happen to him overnight and that we would be there in time for him to meet Kyler. When we got to west Michigan and went to visit him, there were a lot of family already there because they too had heard now much meeting Kyler was on Grandpa's mind. He was having a hard time staying awake, but eventually he did wake up enough to have him in his lap and see his great grandson! We have several precious pictures of that meeting and will cherish it always. He gave us such a special gift in letting us know before he passed away how important our son was to him--how important we all were to him.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Van Dyke holding Kyler

In life, there are things that are important to hold onto. To my Grandpa Van Dyke, family and God were what he held onto. He held onto life to see his newest family member before letting go to be with his heavenly father just 10 days later. He always held onto his faith, listening to the Bible on CDs long after he could no longer read the actual book. He held onto his family, always giving us a hug if he had the strength or holding us with his gaze to let us know he wanted to see and hear us. He held onto us, his family, as a priority when his grip was getting weaker and few other things could be held onto.

We often try to hold onto things that are not nearly as important as family and faith. We hold onto grudges, anger, unreal expectations, and hate. We hold onto possessions and worldly things that will not matter in the end. God created us with only two hands and only so much strength. When we hold onto some things, that means we have to let go of others. We only have so much strength. Grandpa holding on to meet Kyler makes me think about the things in my life that I might not be holding as closely as I should because I am trying to hold onto too much of this world. I can only hope that one day, Kyler will know that his mom held onto two things like his Great Grandpa did--faith and family.

Kyler -- Week 7 (12/31/11-1/6/12)

Kyler got to spend the end of 2011 in Jenison, seeing lots of great friends. The Steens stopped by in the morning, and the Kladders stopped by in the afternoon. We went to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Van Dyke that evening, and Kyler and Great Grandpa napped with Great Grandpa's John Deere blanket (I wish we had brought the camera). After that outing, we went to see our friends the Moes and their new house. When we finally got back home, Ryan had actually been battling a cold so he went to bed around 10pm, and it was just Kyler, Melissa, and Grandpa and Grandma Wiersum left awake to ring in the New Year. Kyler usually goes to bed earlier than midnight, but he seemed to want to stay awake for the special occasion. After Mom had to go in and out of the nursery all evening, Kyler and Mom rang in the New Year rocking a tired boy to sleep. It was actually a really great way to ring in 2012!

New Year's Day brought the extended Wiersum family over for Christmas, and Kyler got to meet the Wolters, Bolmans, and Sobels. He was all dressed up in his little sweater vest and khaki outfit he had gotten from his Aunt Lynsey. After a nice relaxing Monday watching football, we headed back the "Bourb" and took down all of the Christmas decorations before Ryan had to get ready for another semester at ONU.

Our visit with the Steens. Ben and Kyler will, I am afraid, be forced into lives of gaming due to their father's game obsessions. Yes, guys, they are still too young to play Race for the Galaxy!

Hanging out with mommy at the end of 2011

Playing with his favorite toy--the elephant on the "jungle gym"

Hanging with Grandpa on New Year's Eve

All ready for the party! Thanks for the outfit, Aunt Lynsey!

The Bebej family at the start of 2012!

The Wiersum side of the family (minus Tim, Kim, Eli and Norah)