Kyler -- Week 34 (7/7/12-7/13/12)

We had a lot of fun catching up with so many friends this week! We started out on Saturday visiting Ryan's college friends and former Be Nicholas Bé bandmates. Kyler also thought that this would be the time to start a new milestone--CRAWLING! He had been rocking back and forth on all fours for quite a while, but when Mommy put down her cell phone, it was just too much of a temptation, and he had to go forward! Of course, nothing on the ground is safe any longer. Along with crawling, church is becoming something that may be changing very soon. We never really found a home church in Bourbonnais, and now that we are looking in west Michigan, Kyler is getting to the point where we might have to try putting him in nursery soon. Church on Sunday at Mars Hill with the family was busy, with Kyler going from person to person and then getting really loud hiccups during the message. This caused me to take Kyler to what I deemed, "Baby Road" on the far side of church, where a lot of people were walking with their kids. Kyler also got to show off his splashing and love of water to his Daddy; he will even voluntarily put his face in the water without crying. We saw the return of our wonderful little sleeper this week, and Kyler started to copy his Dad's fake laugh, which sounds a little bit like a funny cough. One morning after Kyler woke up early, he snuggled in bed with Daddy and took a nice nap curled up in Ryan's arms. Ryan decided this was the perfect morning to head in to Calvin a little late. I don't blame him a bit.

On Wednesday, we headed out to the east side of Michigan to visit our old stomping grounds, where Kyler could meet so many of our dear friends. We stayed at our friend Melissa's house on Wednesday night, enjoying a dinner out to Red Robin together. On Thursday, Ryan began two days of work at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, while I took Kyler to the University of Michigan Department of Anesthesiology to see many of my wonderful former coworkers. I really miss my old job and the wonderful people I got to know there, but being a mom is a better job than almost anything I can think of. I truly feel very blessed to be able to stay home with Kyler and spend my days teaching and loving him. After a wonderful visit with great  friends, I had to bring Kyler to one of the Ann Arbor places we miss the most--the Cupcake Station. Oh, so many cupcakes, so little time...

We spent Thrusday and Friday night at Paul and Kellie's house. Kyler was able to hang out with his superfriend Ben, who was really great at having a little boy invade his space. Friday brought more friends (Laura, Simon, and Amos) to meet and play with Kyler. We went out to Chili's for lunch to celebrate Kellie's birthday. Kyler was clearly starving before his lunch, so he chomped on the menu for a while. The highlight of Kyler's week (at least according to Ryan) would be visiting our old softball team and watching them in action. We miss so many people from Ann Arbor, but we are thankful that Kyler got to finally meet them.

"This is the biggest tubby ever, Mommy!"

"Watch, Daddy, I can kick and splash!"

"I get so excited that I get water in my eyes..."

"...a lot! I love to splash!"

"I am so hungry, Mommy--where is my lunch?"

Superfriends!

"Okay, I know that Batman doesn't fly, but I'm cute enough to pull it off, right?"

Kyler -- Week 33 (6/30/12-7/6/12)

Our first week in Michigan had a lot of ups and downs. We had a great time having family come and visit over the weekend/holiday, hanging out in the pool and grilling outside. The downside to the week was that Kyler was not sleeping well at all. He normally goes to sleep around 8pm and sleeps 11-12 hours straight with two nice naps during the day ranging from 1-3 hours each. This week, Kyler wouldn't nap, nor would he go to bed peacefully and stay asleep. There were some nights that he did not really go to sleep until after 1am, but then he would sleep in until almost 10am. We thought that maybe it was just adjusting to a new location, but he had been to Grandpa and Grandma's many times before without much trouble. Kyler's top front teeth had come in, but we noticed that two other top teeth were also coming in. So we thought that all this difficult sleeping was just related to teething.

Monday night Kyler was up most of the night despite being very sleepy. He would sleep in our arms, but the instant you put him down in his crib, he would wake up screaming. Tuesday morning he felt really warm, and we found out that he had a 101 temperature, along with a sudden runny nose and lack of appetite. After talking to Aunt Sue (who is a pediatric nurse), we headed to the med station to get a check up, which revealed that Kyler had an ear infection. The poor kid had not really gotten sick since he was born, so this was a new experience for all of us. As we kept giving him antibiotics, his naps and sleep returned back to normal, albeit slower than we had hoped for. The 4th of July fireworks also did not help our sleeping, which brought Ryan to the decision that he now dislikes this holiday the most.

Eating sweet potatoes

"You are letting me have my own spoon!?"

"Oh, how I love my spoon!"

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

"I took pictures, Mommy. Can we go in the pool now?"