Not so baby anymore

Our little baby girl is turning right into a big girl way to fast!  She is saying sounds of the alphabet, talking way more, dancing, and singing!  She is very interested in what everybody is doing, and is so very clever.

Sporting her monkey hoodie that Dude picked out, and her cute little girly jeans.  Out for a nice afternoon stroll.  :)

Today we had to return some outfits that Ingrid got the kids because they didn't fit.  Dude picked out their hoodies and then we got Lu some much needed jeans.  I think she looks like such a little girl now instead of a baby.  She is definitely getting ready to be big sister!

JVG

Frustrating Thursday

My sister is moving in less than two weeks, so we've been trying to spend as much time with them as we can possibly stand.  My Dad took this week off of work to do just that, so we planned on going to an orchard together.  1.) Who doesn't like orchards 2.) Spending time with them outdoors is always easiest, because of the sheer number of people that involves! 3.) Who doesn't like being outdoors in this beautiful weather?

Well, I tried to coordinate with my sister on a day and time and she pretty much insisted that we go to this orchard up by them.  Now, I know that we drive to GR quite a bit so what's another day right?  We have been to this orchard before and have loved it... they have a petting zoo, usually you can pick your own apples, DONUTS!, corn maze and a bunch of other things for kids to do outdoors.  Well, long story short our communication didn't match up and my sister ended up leaving my parents house, where I thought we had agreed to meet, for the orchard without us.  So when we got there they had already left and were at the orchard.

...

Needless to say I was pretty pissed.  1.) We busted our asses to get there in time.  Gaetan doesn't get out of class til about 2 so that means he doesn't usually get home until 2:10 or 2:15.  It's a 45 minute drive to my parents and she wanted to meet at 3.  I figured, that math is pretty simple. Wrong.  She wanted us to meet her at the orchard, but there is no way that it would've been possible given that time frame.  WTF.  2.) I shortened the kids naps so that they could be fed and ready to go almost the minute that Gaetan got home... which always translates to I didn't get a nap, and we all know how Momma needs her nap.  3.)  When I called to find out where the heck she was, she was all surprised and flighty like... "Oh sorry... I must not have understood."

By that time I really was pushing my patience to want to hang out with her kids anyways, and after that I really just didn't have it in me to put on a nice face.  So, we probably could've just jumped right back in the car and driven out there, but we chose not to.  I think that it was best for everybody that we didn't.  And, Mom was pretty upset because she wanted to sew and watch some NetFlix while she finally had the house quiet to herself, but for some reason (actually I know the reason... their computer is a piece and has Vista on it... but I digress) the internet wouldn't work, so she couldn't get it to work.  It sounded like she had quite the trying week too and was just looking forward to some downtime, so we got the internet working before we left again.

The only one the kids seemed pretty interested in... the elephants

Dude, being quite the little man about eating/drinking miso soup

We decided that we wanted to be outside still, since the weather really was beautiful, but wasn't quite sure what to do.  We settled on going to see Art Prize... which, whatever, it was being outside.  I wasn't really that impressed with most of the things there, but maybe I was just in a bad mood.  The kids thought it was OK, and then we decided to get something to eat.

Eating always makes things better right?  Dude thought so.  Upon his request we went to a place that he could get sushi... his favorite.  After that, we wanted the kids to be able to blow off some energy, so we renewed our membership at the Children's Museum and they had a blast!  We were there for almost 2 hours (and left mainly because they were getting ready to close).  They had a ton of fun, and I was glad to see that our day that wasn't going as we had planned turned out all right.

Dude's cool tower.  I seriously struggled with trying to make these blocks work and he just breezed through it.

He did really well with following the letters and playing them.  Maybe we get him started on piano soon...

I think that this is Lucy's favorite.  She's so good at it too!

I got to sit for like 10 minutes while the kids played together at this toy.  YES!

She has seen big brother on this toy so many times she thought it would be fun

It's so nice when they stay together in the same area... makes looking after them easier! :)

The most interesting part of the night was when Lucy was getting down from their bubble station and biffed it.  And I mean biffed it.  Poor girly went straight down, but she did really well with it.  She only let out a cry and was good about it after that... then came the blood.  She didn't seem to mind so much about it, but there was definitely some clean up required.

Lucy and one of our favorite workers Barbara having a blast at the bubble table

Look out Baby Girl!  Apparently, that one popped on her face haha

After we got her poor nose to stop bleeding, we had to change her clothes.  She had a HUGE goose egg on her forehead too.

When we got home that night our general feeling was... we made it through the day.  So, here's to hoping that the rest of the weekend isn't as frustrating.

JVG

Homemade Fruit Leather

Leather.  Definitely doesn't sound like something you would use to describe a yummy and healthy snack right?  Well... I guess in this case you would.  You can buy Fruit Leathers in stores, but I find that they can be pretty pricey :(  But they are so delicious and pretty healthy for the kids.  One strip has half of the fruits they need for the day... not bad.  And I don't think that there is any added sugar, just the natural sugar from the fruit.

Well, I gotta love me some Pinterest, and I found a recipe that we could make our own!  Score!  So... since the weather is turning colder and it's OK to have the oven on for a few hours, I thought now would be a great time to try.  It was a big success.  :)  Made the place smell delicious and the kids (and husband) loved it.  Will have to make a bigger batch next time.

http://georgiapellegrini.com/2010/07/23/recipes/homemade-fruit-leather/

Of course our Lucy Goose loving it :)

JVG

Beautiful fall

Today the fam went for a nice walk on the trails that I used to run on when I was training for the marathon.  I have not missed them during the summer haha.  The weather was beautiful today so I really wanted to be out.  Lately I've been so cold all I've wanted to do is snug under my blankets and not move, but after Gaetan got home we decided to hit up the library.  Mostly for Dude because he can't get enough of that place, but Lucy isn't at the age where the things they have for kids interest her for to long.  I figured I would take her out on a mini walk while the boys played... but Dude was really interested in coming too!

OMG they were being so adorable.  They just wanted to hold hands and walk together.  

Love my family.

Dude stopping to smell the 'roses'

Lucy wanted to take a break :)  I wasn't gonna disagree

My initial thought was that we would just wander around the first part of the trail and see what caught the kids eyes.  Lucy is really interested in everything that's on the ground... be it nature, dirt, bugs garbage, you name it.  So that was taking some time because she was so interested in everything else.  Dude on the other hand was chasing people and dogs as they went by, so he and Gaetan went ahead.  They actually got pretty far ahead to the point that it was closer for them to hit up the play ground that was half a mile away from the library.  Lucy eventually caught up and they had fun playing at the play ground together.  Dude is such a big brother... wants to help her out and definitely wanted to go down the slide with her as much as possible.  We eventually had to start heading back because 1.) It's half a mile away.  2.) it was starting to feel like rain 3.) I was getting tired and still had dinner to make and eat.

Dude taking off to chase a black squirrel

He's my little man

They would laugh and giggle the entire way down

... when she does this it makes me nervous.

We had a blast and I know that the fresh air does everybody good.  :)  I love fall!  Also, I love second trimester.  I don't think I could tell you how much better and how much more energy I have.  I love being able to go out and do stuff with the family... everything today was beautiful.

JVG

Big Girl Orchestra

This past weekend I quit the community orchestra that I was currently in, the Grand Rapids Symphonette.  There were numerous factors to it, but it boiled down to the fact that it was a 2 hour drive every week and the nights were getting late... especially for this preggo who needs her sleep!  My sister is moving so she wasn't going to be in it, and Mr. D was taking this year off so there really wasn't a whole lot of incentive for me to keep going.  The people there are great, and the venues that we play are a lot of fun and I know the residents of the retirement homes love it when we do come... but if I was strictly to be doing it on a musical sense I would've quit a long time ago!  The music is very suited for the audience it's catering too... a lot of medleys and easy Christmas stuff, but not very challenging.

I love playing in a group and so I was sad to let that part go, but a friend suggested that I play in this orchestra that she's apart of.  So... she emailed the conductor, even though they had already started their season, and got me an audition!  That was all on Saturday night and my audition was Monday.  Short notice, but do able all the same.

I went and had my audition and he said that I was good enough to join.  :)  He put me in the first violin section, which was generous, and gave me the music.  He gave me a list of the music they were playing before hand, but actually seeing it was another story.  So, he invited me to stay for rehearsal and for the next 2.5 hours I got my butt kicked.  I'm fairly good at sight reading music, but this music was TOUGH.  Much more serious than anything I've been doing since high school!  It was good all the same.  My stand partner is a little out of control... Andrew, the conductor, warned me about it before hand, so we will see how I can handle it once I know the music better.

So... this is WAY in advance but our first concert is Nov. 10th at 8 at Dalton Theater at Kalamazoo College.  We are playing Beethoven's 6th "Pasterale" and Nielson's 4th "Inextinguishable"  You should youtube and listen!  They're great pieces!  :)

http://www.kzoo.edu/philharmonia/current.html

JVG

My Brother in ArtPrize

This year my oldest brother Dale submitted a song to Art Prize! I'm not sure if this is the first year that they have allowed this type of art but it's cool all the same.  He got to play a mini show at St Cecilia's that obviously featured the song that he submitted.  He performed with his girlfriend, Marcella, who sang harmony.  The other two musicians that were supposed to be there couldn't make it last minute, but I don't think that it sounded empty at all!  :)

Getting sound checked

Performing!

Trying to keep the kiddos happy by feeding them lots of snacks!

It was nice to be able to see him perform.  Most of the time the venues he plays at are later at night and in areas I wouldn't venture typically.  I liked all the songs that he wrote, and I thought that he did a very good job vocally.  It was nice because my Mom even went downtown to hear him, and for those of you who know my Mom she will stay away from downtown or crowds at all costs.  We picked her up so she wouldn't have to deal with the stress of driving and parking.  On that note, Gaetan is still considered faculty at GRCC so his parking pass still works at their parking ramp, which is pretty centrally located. A nice perk of him 'working' there but with no classes.  :)

JVG

Dude's haircut

Dude has had haircuts before... some I've given him (trims really) and some my sister has.  I figured before my professional hair cutting sister left I should get her to show me how to cut his hair the way she does.  :)  So, she did.  It makes a lot of sense what she was saying, and since he's older now he sits way more still than before, which makes everything easier.

Being a big boy and sitting still while getting his hair cut around his ears... I think that's the scariest part for any stylist.

Had a new experience with the buzzer... did well :)

What a cheeser :)

I was actually quite surprised at how much hair he got cut off too!  He had a lot longer hair than I thought.  I like his little curls, but I think that he looks handsome with his hair shorter.  He told me that his head was cold afterwards, but I told him at the rate his hair grows his noggin will be warm soon enough.  :)

JVG

IKEA

As I mentioned before we got a new table from IKEA.  Canton is a few hours away, so if we're going to be driving that long we try to hit as many highlights at the same time as we possibly can.  Of course, Ashley and Sunil live right by there so we HAVE to say hi :)  We coordinated to meet up with Ingrid as well for dinner, so we thought that we were doing pretty well!

They where having fun just going back and forth through this little doorway

Lucy was a little hesitant at first, but after she realized she could make it through she was pretty stoked

I had planned on picking Ashley up from work because then we would have more time with her to hang out and talk, and that way she didn't have to ride the bus back.  I realized that once we got there we weren't going to have a lot of time to get the table and nobody was going to be home at their house so I had to figure out something for the boys to do, since we had taken out the seats in the back to make room for the table!  I had found a nice library a few miles away that I thought they would enjoy, but once we got there Dude just wanted to hang out IKEA.  So, I left them at IKEA to go pick up Ashley.  He had a BLAST.  They got some meatballs and played with all their toys and their bedroom set ups.  He was thrilled to see so many of his beds set up there.  :)  We got him this cute little star lamp that attaches to the wall that he's pretty excited about as well.

Adorable little boy sized sink

Playing hard

Silly guy!

Where they spent the majority of the time playing

I guess they just played with the different toys they had out... mostly the train set.  They made a pretty impressive set there and were having a great time with others kids!  I'm glad its the little things that make my son happy.  :)  Oh, and did you know that IKEA has a day care type thing on the first floor?  When we walked in I thought it was a play area for kids to just burn off energy, but you literally just leave them there while you shop... strange.  We did not that.

JVG

New Table!

This past Friday we got a new table and some chairs for our place!  :)  We tried doing the Japanese Style with the low table and sitting on the floor, but I'm lazy and I knew that it was just going to get harder to get off the ground so we decided that getting a table was necessary.  Before, when we were looking at prices I couldn't believe how expensive these things are!  That was one of the reasons we held off on getting it right away... but then I checked again and we found a nice little set from IKEA that was affordable, and fit into our space.  :)

In the beginning I was trying to keep the kids out of the way so I put on a movie for them to watch.  They were only entertained for the first 10 minutes.  Me on the other hand...

Dude helping assemble the pieces to the chair

He was such a big boy helper and he put a lot of the stuff together by himself!

Lucy realized that she was missing out on the action so she came over to 'help' as well

Once she had some good direction she actually did pretty well too!

The kids had a blast helping Papa put it together and I think that it looks rather nice in its new spot.

Our new table!  :)

JVG

Group Change

So, I guess to make a long story real short we have switched capoeira groups.  Officially now I guess you would say we are CDO.  I'm not sure what that all entails or even if there are going to be big changes but I know that we have found a new capoeira home and training group.

We had been discussing the idea when we moved to Kalamazoo because I knew that Show's group was down here and I know that CDO was very close to Mandinga... so it wasn't going to be that big of a stretch to make that transition.  I knew that we were going to be down here for a few years and I honestly wasn't up with all the politics that seemed to be happening with the high ups in our group.  We started training after I finished my marathon because I was getting bored in the evening!  I had spent all that time running, and all that energy when I stopped doing it I felt like I was missing something...

So, we emailed Trov and asked his blessing if that was cool and he said that it was and wished us well. :)  I know that Trov and Show are friends and really, that's just the respectful thing to do!  So, here we are starting a new chapter in our capoeira history.  :)

JVG

Morning walks

A nice thing that I've started doing with the kids in the morning, if all our chores are done! is going on a nice morning walk.  On our walks Lucy has been really interested in nature and all the different things that it has to offer.  Especially now that it's getting colder out, leaves are falling on the ground and they make this ever so nice crunching sound when you step on them... repeatedly.  I'm not quite sure what it is but we have seen a TON of pray mantis out this year.  Everytime we see one they kids are really excited about it.  Dude is still trying to get Lucy to touch one...

Dude is always picking me flowers :)

Momma and the Lucy walking hand in hand

That boy loves riding his bike!

On one of our last excursions he did get her to touch a centipede, and then after that she was feeling pretty brave.  The next thing we ran into was this huge, fat, juicy green caterpillar, so she went right up to it and gave it a poke.  I think the soft texture of it scared her, because she was expecting a hard outer shell like the centipede and she as UNHAPPY.  She came running back to me and tried to hide in my legs.  After that she was a bit more cautious about the things she would try and touch.

Praying mantis

Big nasty caterpillar that scared Lu

She figured that cloves are safe to touch

I love the curiosity of the kids.  I think it's really interesting the connections they've made already between the 20 months between them.  Lucy is more likely to touch things because she hasn't made those connections of things she thinks should be icky and gross... so I'm trying not to give her any of my weird baggage about touching insects and things like that.  Then, there's Dude.  He knows what he should touch and what he shouldn't.  But he has no problems with trying to get Lucy to touch things.  :)  Classic big brother.

The purple playground right across the street from our place

The other playground 

More purple playground action

We usually hit up one of the playgrounds on our walk.  Depending on how the kids are behaving we do the dino playground at the very middle of our walk.  They love it.  They love being outdoors and I know that the fresh air does everybody good.  We normally come back and have a nice snack and get ready for nap.  It's a nice little routine I look forward to getting more into when I start feeling 110%.  :)

Goose climbing the dino

Dude at the top cheering her on

Showing Dog how

Dog was playing hide and seek

Hippo showing off his muscles 

Just having a good ole time

JVG