Family-in-law

So this month Lieve (Gaetan's Grandma) was in the states visiting from Belgium.  She is such a fun lady!  Even though she's 78 (?) you wouldn't put her past mid 50's.  She's full of energy, sass and all around fun to be with!  She is leaving tomorrow but I know that she got the best present of all!  A few days ago Gaetan's sister Zoe got in contact with us which is a huge deal.  She hasn't really talked to the family (except for his Dad, and nobody else talks to his Dad) for years and years.  That was always something that was really difficult for Ingrid to understand.  But Gaetan and I kept praying that she would find herself, and even if that meant never talking to us, at least we would know that she is doing well.  Well, she has contacted us (via FB hahaha) but has since been talking on the phone or texting every day!  She has even talked with Ingrid quite a bit... which is HUGE.  She is coming to Michigan for a visit in a few days and I can't wait to meet her.  She is excited to meet the kids and just catch up.  My heart is warmed by this and I know that Gaetan is excited to have his sister back.  I am looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds :)

JVG

Learning the alphabet... check!

As I've been blogging Tristan is learning the letters of the alphabet.  Now he can recognize all 26 of them and is becoming more clear on his enunciation of them!  He is such a smart little duder!  He's starting to talk more and more, but still not a whole lot.  We are working on communicating without whining about it first.  There are days when I am SO tired, but if I let it slide just once then all our hard work is lost... so I try to keep that in mind.  Not saying that I am perfect, but we are working hard with our little guy.  :)  He is such a great older brother too... he picked out a stuffed animal for Lucy while they were out shopping.  He loves her lots.

JVG

Lucy is 2 months already!

Lucy had her 2 month check up last Friday.  I can't believe that she is 2 months old already!  Time is flying by!  She is such a little blessing to our family.  She isn't so little though... she weighed in at 16 lbs 2 oz and is 24 inches long!  She was in the 90-95% for height and off the charts for weight.  My little chubinski loves to eat :)  Which is good because that means she can sleep 10 hours a night like she did last night... I love it.  Its amazing what uninterrupted sleep can do for a body!  It was good because I was sick, so that helped me get better faster!  Amazing!  We love you Lu Bird and we can't wait to see what an amazing woman of God you'll turn out to be!

JVG

More letters

Bugga is doing a GREAT job of learning his letters.  He can recognize all 26 and say 24 of them.  :)  Of course some of them are a little muddled but I think thats pretty good for a little dude.  When we are driving in the car he will point out letters he sees on signs, cars or billboards.  It's really exciting to see how fast he is learning and what he soaks up!  He's a very smart dude.

JVG

Chicago/Shedd Aquarium

This past weekend we spent Friday and Saturday in Chicago with Gaetan's Mom and Grandma.  His Grandma comes for a visit from Belgium every summer for a few weeks.  Lieve is wonderful!  So wonderful that's where Lu got one of her middle names from :).  We were going to go to NY that weekend for a fundraiser for a dear friend who got severely hurt at work, and his Mom and Grandma were going to follow and hang out there.  But then the idea of going to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago came up and I thought that was a much better idea.  We took the train (which was a first for me) which was GREAT idea with the kids.  They let them roam around (if they want) and then I could take care of Lu without having to stop all the time.  Basically the cost of the tickets was better than driving, having to find parking downtown and all that jazz.  I was pleased with our mode of transportation!

Once we got there our plan was to hit up Shedd on Friday (since we left early in the morning).  But there was HUGE line there and people had been waiting in line for hours and still weren't even close to the door.  So we decided that Friday was going to be our running around the town day instead of Saturday.  We took a water taxi around the shore a bit and then they did some shopping.  Bugga found this fountain that he LOVED and played in it for a really long time... he was a bit upset when we had to leave but it was all good.  He enjoyed his stay at the hotel... loved going up and down the elevators!  He also got to sleep in a big queen sized bed with Papa that night too.  Lu was with Momma in the other bed.  We got some delicious take out asian food and that was pretty much it for the day.  We were pooped by the time it was ready for bed!

Saturday we got up bright and early to make sure that we could get into the aquarium.  We got there at 8:25 (and it opened at 9) and by 8:30 there was a line already down past all the stores!  crazy!  It was AWESOME.  There were like 5 levels of stuff to look at and Bugga really liked it.  We got to see a little show on how they train their Beluga whales and Bugga got to be a penguin.  We left there around 1:30... which is a long time to be there!  We did get to see everything though and I was glad that Bugga was interested, but I was for sure!

I have to say that the public transportation system in Chicago isn't very stroller friendly.  Lots of stairs and no elevators.  Makes for an interesting time with a double stroller... I mostly carried Lu around in the backpack and Bugga was more than happy to walk, but it made me feel better when he was in the stroller with all the traffic and people!

I couldn't believe how tired those two days made me.  But with little kids everything is a bit of production number.  Am still trying to recover a bit from all the excitement and get everything unpacked and cleaned, but it was a great weekend. :)

JVG

Summer fun!

I had last blogged about Bugga not really being about the sprinklers.  Well, true to Bugga fashion he is willing to give it more and more tries and he LOVES it now.  Its really nice that we can sprinkle the garden and he can have fun while doing so.  :)  We also got him an inflatable pool that has a whale head that blows water out the spout and some sidewalk chalk.  This summer looks like we are all geared up for fun in the sun!

Another fun thing that we got him was this alphabet letter mat.  It has all the letters of the alphabet in a foam mat that you can take apart and put back together like a puzzle.  This is especially good because he's been watching this show called Word World, and they are spelling words and learning what sounds each letter makes.  They 'build' words with the letters and then they come alive as the word they built!  It's very cute and educational (and HE LOVES it) so everybody wins.  We have been working on these letters with him and what sound they make.  He is doing great.  He can recognize almost all the letters of the alphabet and can say about 10 of them.  Even though he's not really talking yet, I know that this is helping him out a ton.  He loves pointing out letters that he knows in signs and on whatever he can find. His favorite letter is 'O'.  :)  Smart dude!

Little Lu Bird is great.  She is such a sweet girl.  She has a bit of a snot nose right now, but is still sleeping and eating like a champ.  We are so blessed to have two great children.  I know that I had been saying towards the end of my pregnancy that I was done having kids, but watching these two grow makes me want to have a boat LOAD of kids... haha.  We will see what God has in store for us.  I know that we still want to adopt and I know that I don't want to have more kids then I can give attention too, so we will see.  :)  I love my kids.

JVG

Sprinklers?

Today in my opinion was a scorcher.  The heat was up and the humidity was right there with it.  Usually Bugga will do anything to play outside and even today he took a few steps off the porch and turned right back around to come in.  It was pretty funny.  We did go out again later in the day and played.  I set up the sprinkler because I thought it would be a fun way to cool off but he was OK with it... didn't love it, didn't hate it.  He would go through it if you held his hand, and if you put a ball right in the middle of it... other than that he would stand at the end and just let it get him in the legs.  It might take a few times but I'm sure he'll love it soon enough!  We did get to have a tasty juice popsicle (which we call ice cream) outside.  Here are a few pictures of my little dude all growed up!

JVG