Thoughts and pictures

We were laughing last night about how we must eat a lot differently than the rest of Marvin's family. Marvin grew up with lots of red meat in his diet, since his family raised cattle. Well since our budget is pretty tight, we only have red meat maybe once a week, this week it didn't make it in our menu. I try to have a couple of vegetarian dishes a week, but if we do have meat it's chicken and I've been using ground turkey as a substitute for ground beef (FYI since turkey doesn't have much flavor you need to add more seasoning). We are both trying to eat smarter and it has been fun trying new dishes. This week we had Greek chicken which was a little dry but with a few modification it could be great, and a chicken curry dish that was a mix of sweet potatoes, onions, chicken stock, garlic, OJ and curry. Yum!

Here are a few pictures I added to our computer this week:

Thanks for the Card Great Grandma.

Marvin's Grandmother is so amazing about sending cards. It is her gifting I believe and sure enough when Calvin had surgery what did he get? A card in the mail from Great grandma. He absolutely loves paper, so he had so much fun opening his letter.

This is where you will often find Calvin now that he learned how that the CD cabinet doors open. He is so fascinated by these doors. I love watching kids learn things. For a while every time he opened the door he looked at me with amazement and excitement as if he was saying, "Look at what I can do".

His other favorite game is playing ball. We have been working at passing back and forth with his big ball. If he finds one of his smaller balls he will throw it and crawl after it. It is so funny. I think he shares his daddy's love for sports already.

Calvin also loves books. He doesn't sit still very long to read very many, and he is still into grabbing the book that I am reading, so it makes it pretty tricky. But he loves taking his books out of his book box. I was cleaning up the kitchen and he crawled out of the kitchen and I couldn't hear him anymore so I went to find him and this is what I found: Him sitting in his room with two treasures, his pacifier and his Turkey books.

Calvin has been extra fussy with these teeth that are trying to pop through his gums and has really started to freak out when I leave. I needed to run to Target yesterday and I knew Calvin was tired, but it was now or never, so off I went leaving a screaming exhausted boy with Marvin. When I came back 15 minutes later Calvin was nestled up next to Marvin snoozing. He certainly loves being held lately.

Who needs toys?

Seriously these are Calvin's favorite toys:

-Remote that doesn't work

-Spoons

-Empty cottage cheese and yogurt containers

-Water Bottles

-Diaper cream tube, travel lotion bottles, or sunscreen bottle

-Paper (He goes crazy every Sunday when we let him play with a few ads.)

-Cups (He chews on the bottom)

-Paper Towel Rolls

-The dropper on the Tylenol bottle (think this soothed his swollen gums more than the Tylenol did)

I seriously think parents buy toys for us, I know I am guilty of it. When he had surgery they sent us a letter saying they would let him take his favorite toy into recovery. I think they would have been surprised if we showed up with one of the above.

Also Calvin has been pretty good at getting some nice bruises on his face. He is starting to become pretty confident in his ability to stand and reach for things, unfortunately he still falls a lot. Last week he had a bruise on both cheeks and his forehead all at the same time. Poor boy, but it hasn't slowed him down.

We had a great family weekend. Saturday was spent hanging out together. We had a coupon to a pizza place for BOGO buffet, which is ideal with a baby because you don't have to wait. It was such a family friendly little place and Calvin loved watching the kids. It is pretty cute because now he is starting to get a little shy. He'll smile and then lower his head if someone smiles at him, he kept doing this with a little boy sitting at a table near us. After lunch we headed to the zoo. Getting a zoo membership was such a smart investment, I've used it so many times already. Calvin is finally starting to look at the animals. He loved watching the baby monkey play with his friend, he just followed it everywhere it went. We also got a good look at the bears on Saturday. You just never know what you are going to see.

It's also fun to watch Calvin love on his papa (a.k.a. Daddy). The word for Dad in Nineveh is Papa, so we haven't quite decided what we are going with. Actually Marvin wants to be called Papa but for some reason I always say Daddy. I digressed....Calvin loves to give me nice and slobbery kisses. They are sweet and I love them even with the slobber, but he has started to lean in to bump Marvin's head, it's a man kiss. It's their game and is so sweet to watch. The other day Marvin was playing with him on the floor after dinner and Calvin crawled over to Marvin and leaned his head in to give him some lovin'. It's those moments you just don't want to forget.

I'll wrap up with a few pictures of Calvin at our family reunion in Oklahoma a few weekends ago. Here are a couple my sister took:

Calvin loves to feel wind hit his face. It was pretty hot so I had a cold water bottle close by the whole boat ride. He loved chewing on the end before he fell asleep.

Piddling

Well it's almost 8:45 and I put Calvin to bed an hour ago and still haven't been motivated to straighten up the kitchen and living room. Lately I feel like this is an endless job. Calvin loves to dump everything out of his toy boxes and the cabinet I let him play in the kitchen.

I have attempted having him help me pick up but it seems like he can pull stuff out quicker than I can put them back in. I guess we have a lot farther to go on that skill....until then I need to improve my speed. He loves to dump things out, not so much put stuff back in. This evening I almost had all his block in the tub and the next thing I know everything is on the floor.

Marvin is at class right now and the house is pretty quiet. It really is a strange feeling, it certainly is a blessing being married. For those of you who don't know Marvin has been trying to get some grad hours in, he really is looking forward to learning. I also get the perks of learning through him. I love it, he reads the books, attends the lectures and then shares the good stuff. It has been fun hearing what he is learning about.

Recently I decided to revamp some of my recipes. My goal is to have healthier meals around our house. I have put a lot of thought into Calvin's meals and have enjoyed making my own baby food, but now that he is starting to make the transition to table foods I thought now is as good of time as any to find new healthy meals and revamp others. It's harder than you think, especially on a tight budget, but I have already found a few good recipes. It would be fun to create a cookbook someday.

So to help me in this endeavor I headed the library and checked out all the books my bag could hold. I have a hefty list of recipes already to try and I am only through 1 1/2 cookbooks. I'm pumped. Marvin could eat the same thing every night and be okay with that, but I get bored. We rarely eat the same thing twice in a month and usually don't eat the same thing twice in two months. So if you have any healthy budget friendly recipes pass them on, I'd love to try them.

A Crazy Month

Life has been a bit hectic around our house the past month. We had several trips planned on top of VBS and then Calvin had surgery last week. So this didn't leave too much time to post anything.

We had a good trip to Virgina. It was fun to be around some good friends. Calvin did great during all of our travels. The Lord certainly gave us one excellent flyer. I flew home without Marvin, he stayed to take a class. Calvin caught a little cold bug from some of his new friends while we were in Virgina and so the last flight was a bit trying for him. The poor guy was so tired and his fever was climbing, and it didn't help that our flight was delayed. We were supposed to have a tight connection in Dallas and we also were delayed in leaving VA so when we got off of our first flight I checked the board and it said our flight was in final boarding and we still had to change terminals, eeks! After rushing to our gate the poor guy with American airlines had covered the screen with a piece of paper and shortly made an announcement that they were waiting on the plane. Whew that was close. After moaning through most of the last flight we finally were home. Calvin was very happy to get out of his car seat and it was so cute watching him crawl all over the living room. You could see the relief on his face when he saw all his toys.

Here are a few of my observations about flying with small children:
1. It is very hard packing light with a baby, he took up most of our suitcase. We miss the days when we could go somewhere and not have to check any luggage. It will be nice when he gets to the age of being able to carry his own things for the flight.

2. People are so willing to help, especially when I was flying alone. I had multiple people stop and ask me if I needed help. They were certainly very sweet as I was juggling a stroller, car seat and diaper bag and trying to entertain Calvin. I love how helpful people are in the Midwest.

3. It's much easier going through security when Calvin can sit up. When Calvin was in the rag doll stage it was hard getting his stroller and our bags on and off the x-ray machines.

4. It's pretty ridiculous that they make you take off your baby's shoes!

Through all this craziness Calvin has stopped sleeping through the night, which means he has two very tired parents. It started over a month ago when Calvin developed an ear infection, then he was held all week during VBS, so he thought he needed to sleep in someone's arms, then we were traveling and he was sleeping in a strange place, then he caught a cold, then he had surgery. We are hoping his sleep patterns return in the next couple of weeks, because this mama is tired. Thankfully Marvin let me take a couple of naps this weekend. My body was just exhausted.

Calvin's surgery went well and he is still a little uncomfortable but for the most part he is doing great. He is certainly more clingy and cries a lot more than normal. He has lost his appetite and it has been a battle getting him to take his medicine. I will be glad when I don't have to give him meds daily. He also is cutting a couple of teeth, or so I think. The poor guy is 10 months old and still not teeth.

Other developmental news: He is getting faster at crawling and has started standing without holding on to anything for a few seconds at a time. He can crawl up stairs and he can go down at least one. It's funny when we play in the play room he will go up then down, up then down, he just can't decide what he wants to do. He can also find the smallest morsel of food on the ground, which means I must sweep the floors after every meal, even if I don't think I dropped anything. Yesterday he almost ate a piece of onion, yum!

We have enjoyed the Olympics, but it seems like we were glued the the TV all weekend. It is so unusual for us to have it on all the time. I decided I needed a TV break today, but I am sure we will check it out tonight. Sometimes I think I get overstimulated.

Here's a few pictures of the last month:

At the petting zoo during the family carnival in Richmond. Calvin really like the baby ducks but he kept banging on the cage so rather than torture the poor little things we moved on. He wasn't too impressed with the other animals, if only they had a dog he would have been so excited.

Since our flight was delayed in Dallas we had time to play in a little play area there at the airport. It was perfect and gave him a little wiggle time. He LOVED it. Basically he crawling through a tunnel and following a little girl around the 15 minutes we spent there.

Mr. Sleepy Pants. He woke up one morning and his hair was everywhere. This particular night (the night after his surgery) he decided it was time to play at 2 am. I was up holding him until 4:00 when he finally caved in and fell asleep. Since Marvin had to work the next day I fell asleep with him in the living room. Apparently he was sweating a bit because what little hair he has was sticking straight up. It was pretty cute.

We want our Mamas! We briefly went out the car and when we came back to the door this is what we found, two boys waiting on their mommies to return. How sweet.

Calvin playing with his best buddy, who is now 1!!! Now that Calvin can crawl he just follows him everywhere, I think his pal gets tired of it from time to time. Calvin think he is so cool.

A Special Place

The last time I walked out of my grandparents house (my dad's parents) I certainly didn't expect it to be the last time I ever saw their house as I remember it. As most of you know my grandfather passed away a few days before we returned to the states and the funeral was the day we returned to America. Our flight was already booked and we weren't able to make it to the funeral so sometimes it feels a little surreal.

Since then my grandmother has not been able to return home due to some health concerns. In May she broke her hip and has now returned back to her apartment. She is one determined lady that is for sure and has really bounced back and worked hard at physical therapy.

Since she is not able to live alone the family decided that it was time to sell the house. My parents and aunts and uncles have been going through their things and preparing the house for auction. Everything is out of the house and there is now new carpeting and freshly painted walls. We stopped by this weekend to see the place one last time before it is auctioned off and it already looks so different.

It's crazy how a house can carry so many memories. I remember running around chasing my cousins in this house. How my grandpa would always ask me if I wanted juice and he would pour me a glass of orange juice whether I wanted one or not. After church I knew we would go to the kitchen and find my grandma making something and we would immediately go to the cookie jar for a sandwich cookie. I remember watching my dad and his brothers and sisters play cards at the kitchen table. A mix of Spanish and English was always spoken around that table. I have eaten my fair share of tamales and tacos around that table. A plate of food was always placed in front of you regardless if you were hungry.

I got to thinking how many of us toddled inside the walls of that small house. There are thousands of hours of memories found there and soon they will also include another family. Although it is sad to see it leave our family I am thankful to be a part of a family that loved each other and loved getting together. My life would have been very different without it. My heart will continue to grieve this loss but i rejoice in the fact that the memories don't go away with the sale of this house. They will always be treasured.

In the back of the house.

The living room.

I have gone in and out of this door so many times but it wasn't until this trip that I noticed the T on the door.

I will always picture my grandpa standing in the kitchen as we came in the house and being surprised that we were there.

Mobile Boy

Calvin started crawling today!!! He still needs a little bit of practice but he is officially mobile (when he wants to be)! He has been pulling up and cruising around furniture for a while now and I think he still prefers standing and walking to crawling, but maybe that will change as he gets better at it. He is getting better at pulling to a stand and can make it from laying down to standing up all on his own. I went to get him from nap today and he was standing in his crib. Our little baby is becoming a little boy so quickly. Now he needs to work on a few teeth, in the meantime I will enjoy his toothless grin while he still has it.

He loves these teething biscuits and so do I. If I need an extra 10-15 minutes before dinner these do the trick and I have a few more minutes to get dinner finished.

Calvin used to stick to the bottom shelf but he has officially moved up and can now take everything off of the top shelf too.

4th of July Fun

We had a great 4th. It was so fun to be able to be a part of our family's 4th of July time this year. We were pretty shocked about coming back when we did, but there have been so many fun things that we have been able to be a part of since we came back to the states. 4th of July at my grandparents is something that I can remember doing most years growing up. I have lots of memories watching my brother throw fireworks in the pond, lighting snakes on the front stoop and of course throwing pops on the ground.

This year everyone except my sister made it. We had a good time and of course good food. The boys did a good job giving us a nice firework display. Calvin was sound asleep and didn't even notice a single one of them, so we got to enjoy them as well. I was a bit nervous because loud noises scare him easily.

The next day the girls and Calvin met up at the lake and we enjoyed a breezy day by the water. It was a great time of relaxing and of course Calvin loved the water. He wasn't so crazy about his life jacket but once we got into the water he was splashing and kicking his little heart out.

Here are a few pictures of the festivities:

Calvin loved the dog.

A friendly volleyball game

Calvin will pull up on anyone and anything. He seized the opportunity when his cousin came to play with him. She had no idea what he planned to do.

Posing with the cousins.

Sparklers always conclude our 4th of July fireworks.

This is Calvin's toy of choice. I don't know what is so special about a package of wipes, but he loves them.

My marshmallow baby.

Let's Play Ball

He loves balls already. I love watching him laugh when he plays ball with his Daddy.

Good Times

We had such a great weekend with Marvin's side of the family. It's a rare occasion that all of his brothers are in the same place at the same time. We had a good time celebrating his parent's 40th anniversary as well as catching up with everyone and Calvin had fun watching his cousins. It was fun watching how he did around his two younger cousins who always want to play with him. It gave me a glimpse into how he might act around a sibling one day. He acted like it was normal when they tried to pick him up and they would both topple over, he didn't even fuss.

Like always there were lots of laughs and great food. I am always tempted to eat too many sweets when we visit his family, they are delicious but not so great for getting in shape. I usually only keep ice cream in our house because I know I won't eat it, so when there are other things available they are just too irresistible. I guess I need to work on the self-control.

The weekend was great except for the fact that Marvin got sick Saturday evening but by Sunday morning he felt fine. That's the first time Marvin's been sick since we've been married, and he can't even remember the last time he was sick like that. What a lucky guy.

We also were able to stop through Manhattan on the way up and see some dear friends. It was fun catching up with everyone. We wish we lived closer. It seems like the trip takes such a long time, especially with a little boy who needs lots of wiggle time.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Calvin's first Baseball game:

We stopped to see Uncle Aaron Sunday, it was WAY past Calvin's bedtime and he had already fallen asleep in the car but he was such a trooper to be woken up just so we could grab some ice cream with Aaron.

It was only a few months ago Calvin was the size of his new little friend. My little baby is growing up too fast.

A few thoughts

Well, it's way to late for this mama to be awake, but I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 tonight and when Marvin woke me up to go to our bedroom I couldn't sleep. So after tossing and turning I decided I need to get up and write down all the thoughts going through my head, hopefully it will help me sleep. Here goes nothing.....

Living in a different country changed my outlook on things. Sometimes I find myself being overly critical of the country I am from and sometimes I am overwhelmingly thankful. I have never been so thankful for the freedom we have as Americans since living in a place where that wasn't a part of life. I think back on the generations who have given their lives just so we can have freedom. Most of us as Americans don't understand what that word means let alone appreciate those who continue to fight for it. I am thankful that I don't have to show my id at every city I travel to, I can cross state borders without any checkpoints and heavy military presence. These are just a few freedoms that come to my mind right now. I want to thank those who have served our country or are currently serving our country for defending things we all take for granted.

Now there are some things that also really bug me. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see a news story reporting on the increases of gasoline prices. Finally I think us American are starting to examine our lives but I think we feel entitled to this "American Dream". We want a house, 2 cars, a dog, kids and we don't want to pay too much for anything. The other day the president was pushing to start more drilling here in our own country for oil. You would think that lessening our dependency on foreign oil would be a good thing, but there were several criticisms to this plan. One of these was from those who don't want to see our coast lines become cluttered with oil rigs, they desire to preserve the beauty of our country. Now there isn't anything wrong with this essentially. To be quite honest I am sure I wouldn't want to look out my window and see a big oil rig, but I think it is very interesting that we as American would rather just have these things out of sight, we would rather clutter another country's shoreline and complain about how we can't afford gas. I have no idea if this is the solution, but attitudes like these shed a little light into why the world hates our country.

Okay on to a new subject, worship. Several things have been rolling around in my brain recently about this subject. I have been thinking a lot about a comment my father-in-law made that church isn't about entertaining us. I think he hit that point right on. I got to thinking about how my heart connects during worship and the songs that resonate with my heart usually aren't hymns, there are a few that touch my heart very deeply but in general it's the new stuff that really allows me to enter into Father's court. Now I was thinking about this and how worship has changed over the years. I think it is impossible to ignore this fact but at the same time I think we at times emphasize it too much and many times use it for our own entertainment. There is definitely a fine line. I saw an add on TV for a church that advertised that it was a lot of fun because the music was great, church should be more than a show. My heart is encouraged by the body and worshiping together and yes it is fun, but as I saw that ad I was convicted to challenge my heart to worship the King and not the experience.

Well it looks like my brain is getting tired. So it's off to bed. Hopefully I will be rested enough when my hungry little boy makes me get out of bed in the morning. Goodnight.

Fun Filled Father's Day

We had a great weekend filled with lots of family time. It seems like we are always going somewhere, but it was fun to hang out together as a family. The weather was beautiful Saturday and we enjoyed some time at the park playing Frisbee with some new friends. Calvin did great hanging out with new people while Marvin and I played. He does great around new people, stranger anxiety hasn't hit yet, but he still likes to know where we are. It helps when we are within eye shot. The rest of the day was filled with relaxing in the backyard and running a few errands. We really needed a Saturday like that.

Sunday we had a good time visiting to friends after church and then grabbed lunch with our old teammates. Our boys are only 2 months apart and it is getting more and more fun watching them together. Marvin even got to enjoy the US Open on TV and we ended the day playing a new game Calvin and I got him for Father's Day. Here are a few picture of our weekend.

A Sleepy Boy with his Daddy.

One of his few moments of rest during the day. I went to Target and left a sleepy boy with Marvin and when I got back this is what I found. I love this picture, unfortunately when Marvin moved him to his bed he woke up and didn't go back to sleep until bedtime. I even tried to lay down with him, but he just wiggled the whole time and then finally rolled over and when I opened my eyes I had a beaming boy 3 inches from my face staring at me. I couldn't control my laughter and decided it was time to give up on naptime.

Calvin's yummy fishing pole. I picked this up at a garage sale and it has become his favorite water toy.

I was so pumped to pick this swing up from Craigslist, its a great place to dry off after swimming.

My Big Guy

Calvin is now 8 months old and has become quite a sweet little man. He loves people so much, particularly kids. This morning we had an appointment to get our car looked at by the insurance company, we received some hail damage a couple weeks ago. While we were waiting there was another family in the waiting area with small kids. Calvin just adored this little 19 month old. If she would leave the little play area he would just watch her until she came back. He had a good time while we waited. It turns out we had quite a bit of damage, the adjuster told me that it was some of the larger dings he had seen. Yikes, it's times like these we are glad we have full coverage.
I was so pumped to find that swimming things were on sale at Dillons on Saturday so I picked up a baby pool and we tested it out today. Calvin had a good time playing with his spoon and yogurt containers in the water. I am glad to have a day where we can play in the sun. It gives us a few new things to do. YEAH for summer!

Our niece loves to watch Calvin on the computer, so I thought it was time to add a new video of Calvin. I took this today as he headed towards the empty roll of wrapping paper, who says you need expensive toys, this kept him busy for 20 minutes. As you can see from the video this is his new mode of getting from point a to point b. We have worked on getting off his belly but usually this doesn't work more than a couple of minutes because Mr. squirmy loves to roll over. I am sure it won't be long before he figures out a faster way to get somewhere.

A Fun Weekend

We are all exhausted, but we had such a fun weekend. My cousin got married this weekend at my grandparent's farm. It was a beautiful ceremony held in a place that has so many memories for several generations of our family.

My grandfather was raised in the same house he now lives in and I was thinking of how much history our family has in that house. It was where my great-grandparents raised 6 children and where they all grew into adults. It was where my mother grew up and a place this city girl always love to visit. Grandpa would always let us "drive" the tractors and allowed us to be apart of our family's history. I love that I can now take Calvin there and I hope that he too will have memories of grandpa's farm.

I think I have taken these special places for granted sometimes. In my mind I think that they will always be there. My paternal grandparents house is one of these places too. I have so many memories there too. It's this tiny little house but it is bursting full of memories. After my grandfather died my grandmother was unable to return home and part of my heart is grieving the loss of that special place. I told Marvin that I have eaten so many cookies around that table and I will never walk in to be met by my grandpa who always looks surprised when we came to visit, even if he knew we were coming. Even though it is hard that it will never be the same I am thankful for the memories and how they bring a smile to my face. Praise the Lord for Family!

Here are a few pictures of the wedding:

My Cousins (the groom and his sisters)

Calvin got to meet a few great great aunts & uncles.

It was a beautiful wedding and we are so thankful that we were able to be there for such a special day.

My grandpa (seated) with his brothers, sister and their wives. (My grandma is standing on the far right)

We also were able to catch a dear friend of mine from high school on her way through Kansas. It is aways fun to catch up with her and also comforting that regardless of how much time we have spent away from each other we can just pick right back up where we left off. Her kids are so fun, I wish we lived closer to them, but are grateful for the times when we have the opportunity to see them.

A few more pictures