roly

Yesterday Levi started rolling from back to tummy.  For quite a long time now he has slept on his side, but not gotten all the way over.  He's not a fan of being on his tummy, and apparently can't figure out how to roll from tummy to back, so he gets mad about it.  New bedtime challenge.  :)

A couple of fluke times he has rolled from tummy to back - when I have him propped up on his arms and he falls over - once a couple months ago and once just yesterday (and I actually happened to be taking his picture at the time!).  He probably could do better, but I honestly don't give him much of a chance.  The two major factors are that when he has tummy time he's guaranteed to spit-up, and when he's on the floor the chance of being trampled by big brothers greatly increases...

Today I had a couple of my college friends and their kids over.  I can hardly believe it!  It's been 10 years since graduation and I just don't see how that's possible.  :)  Amy lives in the area and we get together frequently, and Jen just moved back to Michigan from Florida - she took a teaching position at Western Michigan University...she's a professor...Dr. Foster...that's just crazy!  I was nervous because generally when we have friends over the boys get HYPER.  Beforehand I kept telling the boys that Jen's daughter, Savannah, was smaller than them and not used to playing rough like they are, and they did great today!

From l to r: Alyssa (Amy's), Caleb, Savannah (Jen's), Logan, Grady (Amy's)

fast

Wow, I am super fast at getting things up on the blog!  :)  Okay, I've had trouble falling behind lately (I wonder why...) but tonight I decided to get right on it.  Levi got to meet his Uncle Steve and Aunt Erin for the first time tonight.  They are avid readers of the blog, and I'm glad I have the chance to give them a little shout out.  :)  Steve and Erin are on a whirlwind tour meeting 4 of the 5 new babies in the family.

details

I'm going to try and record and bunch of cute things I don't want to forget.  :)

Levi has started sticking his tongue out, it's pretty cute (pretty much everything he does is cute!).  He hasn't been the best napper, but he's rock solid at night, so that's pretty great.  Often when he's sleeping he's on his side with his thumb in his mouth and feet up on the side of the crib/pack'n'play.  :)  He smiles a ton, and sometimes he laughs.  Actually, the other day he was in the pack'n'play in the playroom and I asked Caleb to go talk to him to try and keep him happy for a few minutes.  Caleb started jumping on the chaise right there (something we don't totally crack down on, but I'm not a huge fan of...gotta pick your battles...) and Levi was totally cracking up, he was laughing like it was the funniest thing ever.  I got these visions of Caleb and Levi getting into trouble together in a couple years...  I tried Levi in the exersaucer tonight and I don't think he's quite ready - he really weighs down the bouncy seat and I thought he'd like being more upright in the exersaucer, but I think he's actually too tall for it in a way.  Caleb and Logan were able to be in them around this age, but they were small enough that they were kinda down in the seat and just putting a towel around them would keep them secure enough.  But, Levi sticks up out of the seat more and even though his head control is good, he can still be kinda jerky and I think he'd end up hurting himself in there.  So, we'll hold off on that for now.

Caleb stopped napping a couple weeks ago.  He still has quiet time where he has to play on his own, but it still makes the afternoons a little hectic.  (ex: I check on Caleb and he needs a diaper change, Logan is calling from his room upstairs that he wants to go pee on the potty, and Levi is crying and not going down for his nap...)  The last couple of nights he's actually fallen asleep much earlier than what's been normal for the last few months - so hopefully that continues.

Speaking of Logan going on the potty...he's been doing pretty well with it.  Still keeping it casual, but he frequently asks to use the potty, so we're headed in the right direction.

Some cute things they've said lately:  We had to take Mike's truck to the mechanic.  (Ugh.  So not pleasant to spend around $1000 on a truck we don't even want anymore...)  Caleb and Logan were asking lots of questions about it, and according to them we took the truck to the "chemanic".  :)  Also, Caleb's word for "helicopter" has changed from "hockuh-hockuh" to "hockuhlopper".  A few nights ago I showed them a picture of my parents on vacation.  Caleb and I were talking about it (he was pretending to drive a tractor and he said he was going to drive it up north to Papa and Grammy) and I could see him starting to think and he asked, "They not at home?"  When I said they were gone on vacation he said, "I miss them!"

fair

Last week was fair week already!  Every year it's hard to believe the summer goes so fast (summer is basically over after the fair...).  Caleb and Logan were excited to go to the fair, and they really seemed to enjoy it.  We went two nights - the first night we met up with my parents and Eric and Lea Anne, so the boys had their cousins to run around with and were HYPER.  They had fun checking out a bunch of different tractors and checking out animals.  They also got their faces painted and it was really cute - Caleb chose a turtle, and Logan got a lizard.

 Sitting very still for face painting...

Boden, Caleb, Logan, and Heidi show off their "tattoos".

 Dessert time!

 Checking out the horse barns.

Isn't this sweet?  :)

The second night we went and met up with Mike and Emily.  Mike and my niece Natalie have a tradition of riding on the Zipper together.  We walked around by the rides for awhile.  Talk about overstimulation for the kids!  I must be getting old because I could hardly handle all the noise and lights and people. :)  A couple times we had to deal with Caleb being disappointed that he wasn't big enough for a certain ride, but they did get to ride on a little train and go in a fun house with Mike.  Caleb and Logan also played a game and Caleb won a goldfish!  The fish only survived one day - when we were talking about it later (I didn't tell them it died until the next day) Caleb was worried that it had jumped out, and when I told them that Mike had flushed it down the toilet Logan was bummed that he didn't get to pee on it.  Boys!

 Caleb about to win the goldfish.

 Mike and Natalie waiting in line for the Zipper.

Caleb and the goldfish.

tippy

This weekend was our annual canoe trip with Mike's friends.  If we counted right, this was my 9th time going and Mike's 14th.  And guess what, we tipped for the FIRST time!  (Note: Mike had tipped over in the past before teaming up with me...)  So, the Pine River is a more challenging river to canoe and it is also a very, very cold river - when standing in the river it doesn't take long for your feet to turn to ice cubes.  It was a gorgeous day yesterday and we were canoeing with about 7 or 8 other couples.  At one of our stops I decided a candy cane sounded good (yes, a candy cane in August...it was chocolate flavored...).  So then we're just going down the river, I'm enjoying my candy cane, and one of our friends decided she wanted one.  Mike got one out for her, no problem, then came trying to pass off the candy cane to her - that didn't go so well.  We ended up going into some thick trees at the edge of the river.  I huddled down just to avoid getting knocked over or cut in the face and next thing I knew we were tipping over and I was submerged in ice cold water.  (Thankfully it was hot out, so after the initial shock wore off it felt great.)  Me, being such a water person (yeah, right), had just a split second of panic when I was under water thinking that I was going to get stuck under the canoe or something, but not to worry, I popped right out of the water, regained my senses and started grabbing at our stuff that was floating down the river.  The only thing of importance I had with me was my phone (just couldn't bear to be out of touch for that long in case one of my babies needed me...) and it was in two ziplocs so it was just fine.  I even managed to grab both my flip-flops that were starting to float away, and never let go of my paddle through the whole thing so we didn't lose any of that stuff either.  None of our friends were able to stop right there and help us, but there was a nice gentleman already stopped alongside the river just ahead that helped us empty the water from our canoe and get us back on the river again.

We had a very nice time away.  Mike and I don't get to talk a whole lot (thanks to both kids and busy schedule), so we especially enjoyed being by ourselves on the drive (over two hours) - we had alot of catching up to do!  :)  We also had lots of fun with his friends who we don't get to see very much.  They're the type of friends where we can go a whole year without seeing them (usually now we only see them on the canoe trip) and we can just pick right back up with them without a problem.

We dropped Caleb and Logan off at Grandma & Grandpa VanBeek's Friday night.  That sure made packing and getting out the door the next morning alot let stressful!!  Saturday morning first thing we dropped Levi off at Eric & Lea Anne's.  I was kinda dreading leaving him (our first overnight separated!), but I managed to do it without crying or anything.  :)  They sent us photos and status updates yesterday and this morning so I could keep tabs on how he was doing, and that sure helped.  (Technology is really great sometimes!)  Today we got back in time to unload our stuff at home, and clean up the van a little bit (gotta take advantage of having all the car seats out...) before going to pick everyone up.

It was a much needed time away, and I'm so glad we were able to make it.  Last year, due to some circumstances, we weren't able to make it and it was the first ever that Mike missed (my first since joining the group).  Within a couple hours of being home I was feeling frazzled again, but such is life!  :)  Mike had to go into work to load a truck, and thankfully Logan was napping, but Caleb and Levi were keeping me hopping.  All is quiet at the moment - I'm soaking it up while it lasts!

saturday

This past Saturday was another cottage day.  Mostly a beautiful day, but we did get rained out for a bit in the afternoon.  Caleb, Logan, and their cousin Alyssa who is just a few months older did manage to get into a little mischief during the rain.  They had been playing upstairs nicely for awhile, a little too nicely so I figured I'd better check on things.  The three of them were in the bathroom, Caleb was trying to wash his hands - he had PLENTY of liquid soap on his hands - and Alyssa had put gel in everyone's hair.  :)  At that point I was just thankful I had boys with short hair to clean up, hers looked like it was going to be a little more challenging...

 Levi chillin' with Uncle Harold.

 Mid-afternoon fire.  One of those days that was changing from warm to cold and back again.

 Check out Alyssa's hair...

I'm sure the boys were talking Grandpa's ear off while he was fishing.

cats

One evening last week we went to Mike's co-worker, Brad's, house for supper and to hang out a bit.  They have a dog and a few cat and Caleb and Logan LOOOVED the cats.  They also got to ride some mini-bike/motorcycle thingie.

 Caleb's favorite was this gray one.  At least in this photo he's not holding it by the neck like he was other times...

Logan's favorite was this smaller orange/white one.