December Updates

It's been a while since I've posted any updates.  I guess we've been busy!  Here's a rundown of what's been going on.

Thanksgiving - We had a wonderful time with my extended family for Thanksgiving, enjoying lots of delicious food and spending time visiting.  We even got to see my grandparents and some aunts, uncles and cousins.

Christmas - We've been doing various things to celebrate Christmas throughout the month - Christmas tree lighting, pick out and decorate our tree, Nite Lights (drive through light display), church Christmas program (Rebecca sang so well!), Christmas shopping, Christmas baking, Advent calendar and Christmas crafts.

As always we've been busy with MOPS, Kindermusik and church activities.

Rebecca continues to enjoy learning at home and doing all sorts of crafts and projects.  She loves to pretend, play dress up, listen to music, read and dance.  She is also becoming a great helper with Abram.  She likes to bring him toys, give him hugs and kisses and make him laugh.  Rebecca is good at making sure Abram does not get into her toys :)  "No, no bud, that's not for you."  But she really enjoys "sharing" his toys.

Abram is growing quickly!  He is now 7 1/2 months old.  He's already wearing 18-24 m clothes.  He can move pretty quickly when he wants to get somewhere.  Too fast for Rebecca's comfort.  Abram can now go from his tummy to sitting on his own...and get back down :)  He can sit quite well.  Abram is also getting pretty good at standing while holding things.  He's trying to pull himself up, but hasn't quite done that yet.  It won't be long, though, since he's trying to do it constantly.  He loves anything new.  He gets bored with his toys pretty quickly, but notices anything new intstantly.  He now has 3 teeth and is enjoying trying to chew food.  He seems to enjoy peas, egg yolk, avocado, yogurt, cheese and sour cream.

We are all looking forward to spending lots of time with family next week celebrating Christmas.  We will be celebrating as a family tomorrow.  Then we will have extended family parties the 25th, 26th and 27th.  It will be busy, but it should be a very merry Christmas.

6 Months Old

Abram is now 6 months old!  How can that be?  Our little guy isn't so little anymore.  He had his check up yesterday and is meeting all of his 6, 7 and 8 month milestones.  He weighs 20 lbs. (80th%) and is 27 in long (60th%).  Just as reference/just for fun, here are the rest of the family's stats at 6 months:

Rebecca: 18 lbs. 13 oz,, 26 in.
Justin: 17 lbs. 4 oz., 25 1/2 in.
Mary: 16 lbs. 1 oz., 26 1/2 in.

Maybe he gets his height from Mommy and weight from Daddy :P  Whatever the case he is a big boy!  At 6 months old he is already wearing some 18m clothes.

Abram is on the move!  He does not like to stay in one spot very long.  He can army crawl.  He rolls from one side of the room to the other in the blink of an eye.  He is really rocking on his hands and knees and starting to lunge forward.  He is also very close to going from hands and knees to sitting.  He gets part way up and then tips over.  Abram can sit but does tip sometimes.

So far Abram has 2 teeth.  And we're pretty sure there are more that will come through soon.  The jury is still out on whether or not he'll be a thumb sucker.  He often has his thumbs in his mouth, but more for chewing than sucking.  Overall he's sleeping well.  He usually gets up once a night.  Although over the last week or so he has a pattern of going to bed around 8:30.  Then waking from sound asleep to a full out scream around 10/10:30.  We have yet to figure out why.  Usually it just takes some rocking to get him back to sleep.

Abram definitely has a different personality than Rebecca.  He is much more demanding.  If he is hungry or tired...he will certainly let you know.  And won't back down until he gets what he wants.  He is also much more mobile/physical and always wants to be in on the action.  Which leads to one of his biggest dislikes...riding in the car/being confined.  I think he is going to have abs of steel the way he lifts his head and holds it up, trying to get up whenever you lay him down or strap him in somewhere.  We put the infant car seat away and put him in the bigger, convertible seat because he is so big and in hopes that he would like it better...give him more room.  But he still does not like to ride.  Maybe something he inherited from Mommy.  The only dislike written down in my baby book is riding in cars :) (and I still do to this day).  I guess I have myself to blame.  We will also be putting away the swing.  We've tried it a handful of times...and he just screams every time.  Rebecca slept for hours in the car and loved her swing.  Abram...not so much.

Now that he is 6 months old we will be starting solids soon.  But we're not in a huge rush.  He's obviously well nourished right now.  We did bring up the high chair.  He seems to enjoy playing with his toys there while we eat...for a few minutes :P  Then he's ready to sit with Mommy as usual.

Abram is so much fun to watch.  He has the most contagious laugh.  He loves to watch his sister and laughs at just about everything she does (even when she cries...which she is not too happy about :P).  He is growing by leaps and bounds and amazes us daily.  Abram is sure to fill our house with plenty of noise for years to come :)

Rebecca is keeping plenty busy these days as well.  She loves going to Kindermusik, Little Lambs and MOPS to play with her friends and learn.  She also is enjoying pre-school at home with Mommy.  She loves to read her Bible.  Just yesterday she said it was her favorite book.  And she already has a passion and love for the Lord.  We are working on the letter K this week.  When I asked her who our King is she pointed up to the sky.  She is starting to say impromptu prayers (thank you for my food, thank you for my mom, thank you for my toys, please watch over us, etc.).  And she loves to learn about how to be kind and obedient and follow directions (although she still has trouble actually doing it :).    Rebecca adores her little brother and smothers him with hugs and kisses.  We have just started giving Rebeca a job so she can earn money.  She has started dusting each week.  It will be fun to see her piggy bank fill up and teach her about how to give, save and spend.  Rebecca has a huge imagination.  You just never know who she is going to be.  One minute you are playing with Cinderella.  The next you are playing with Fancy Nancy or Sister Bear.  Yesterday she was Tinkerbell the fairy bird.  She is still an avid reader and enjoys making up her own stories.  One of our upcoming projects is going to be writing stories...Mommy will write her story (that she dictates) and she'll illustrate it.  Maybe some day she'll be a writer.

Both kids are healthy and doing well.  We have an independent, laid back little girl and a strong willed, noisy little boy. We are truly blessed.

Family Fun And Boo At the Zoo

We had  fun weekend filled with fall and Halloween activities.

Saturday morning we went to Koetsier's Greenhouse.  In the fall they turn it into a family fun area.  It was our PERKS card event for the month, so we got 50% off.  And since we only had to pay for Rebecca that was a cheap family event - $3 to paint a pumpkin, get popcorn, play on inflatable toys, go through a maze and play games.  It was a bit chilly since it is a greenhouse.  But it was still fun.  Rebecca was a little scared of the inflatable train because she could feel the air blowing on her.  And she wasn't too keen on the part of the maze that was dark.  But aside from that she had a lot of fun.  She made a very sparkly pumpkin.  And she tasted a donut and hot cider for the first time.  We didn't do the hay ride since it was so chilly.  But maybe we'll have to try that next year if we go when it's a little warmer.

Sunday after church we packed up and headed to Potter Park Zoo in Lansing for Boo At The Zoo.  We had a little picnic in the car and then met Mary's siblings and their families there.  The kids all looked so adorable in their costumes.  And they had so much fun together.  They held hands half of the time we were there.  We enjoyed seeing a few animals, getting a few treats and just visiting with family.  After we left the zoo area the kids played at the park for a while.  It was a beautiful fall day.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was so nice that all the cousins got to do this together.  We headed home around 4.  The ride home was not quite as pleasant as the ride there.  Abram cried for about 3/4 of the trip.  We stopped once to try to feed him/settle him.  But it didn't help much.  He finally crashed about 60 seconds before we got home :P  Both kids were overtired and out of sorts in the evening...and went to bed early :)  Hopefully we'll all get back on track today with a relaxing day at home.  And hopefully Abram can catch up on sleep after getting up at 4 am today :P

We're looking forward to visiting Mary's grandparents this week and going to work with Daddy for a little trick-or-treating.

Fall Fun

We had beautiful Fall weather this weekend.  We enjoyed some time outside on Sunday playing in the leaves and soaking up the sunshine.

We also had fun over the weekend visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Voogt.  They came on Friday and left on Saturday.  As usual Rebecca was glued to Grandma's side from the moment she walked in the door.  After dinner Rebecca took Grandma upstairs, and we hardly saw them the rest of the evening :)  It was nice to be able to celebrate Grandpa's birthday with him.  We gave him his presents and had some yummy pumpkin spice cake on Friday.  It was a short visit, but we all had a good time.  And now we get to enjoy lots of delicious apples and squash from Grandpa's farm!

Both Rebecca and Abram are getting over minor colds, but that doesn't keep them down.  They are busy, busy.  Abram is now rolling all over the place and doesn't like to stay put.  He is growing like a weed as usual, weighing about 19 1/2 lbs. now at 5 months old.  Rebecca continues to enjoy her daily school work and projects and is learning a lot.  She is very creative and imaginative and so much fun to watch.  She is also extremely curious.  The number of times she asks why in a day is sometimes a bit much.  But we like that she wants to learn and understand things.

We have another fun week ahead with Kindermusik, a visit to Grassfield's Farm, a trip to the children's museum, MOPS and a family outing to Koetsier's greenhouse to check out their maze, pumpkin decorating, snacks and other fall fun.