Saying goodbye...didn't we just do this?

A few weeks ago, our good friends from Pittsburgh came to visit us here in Columbus for one last visit. We all lived in La Crosse, WI and moved away last summer, not knowing we would end up seeing each other as often as we did this year. But as our time in Columbus comes to an end, we had to really say goodbye for quite awhile. They have one more year left of residency in Pittsburgh and we'll be moving to Minnesota.
The came for a few days and the kids had a blast--but were exhausted by the end of each day. We will definitely miss seeing them as often as we did this year! But maybe they'll move close to us once their residency is done!! (hint, hint)

(Sadie, Gabe, Wyatt, Audra, and Kaden)

We'll miss you guys but know you'll have a great summer in Utah and Idaho!!

Mr. Perceptive

If you spend any time with Wyatt, don't be fooled into thinking that he isn't paying attention. This kid doesn't miss a beat! He pays attention to everything and asks a million questions--and remembers the answers as well. For example, Matt and Wyatt were in the car going somewhere and there was a very large man (to put it nicely) and Matt said, "Oh boy, that guy can't run."
Days later when the kids and I were running errands, Wyatt saw another large guy and said, "Mommy, that guy can't run." I had no idea where this was coming from but I supposed he was right. And then when I talked to Matt later, it all made sense. But any comment made or question asked seems forever imprinted in his memory--even things from 2 years ago!!
A few examples:

1. He can ride in a car with someone not from Columbus and pretty much get them around the city. One day on our way home from the health club, he asked if we could go 'his' way home. I wasn't sure what that meant, but thought I'd humor him and follow his directions. He shocked me when I thought we may have been getting lost as we'd never driven on many of these roads but his sense of direction is so good that he got us home without a wrong turn. And when my parents or in-laws have come to watch the kids, I just tell them to ask Wyatt how to get somewhere and sure enough, he'll tell them exactly where to go!

2. As he was leaving with Matt to go to the driving range a few days ago, he said, "Daddy, who is going to carry your clubs?" thinking that everyone gets a caddy like the pros on TV.

3. While playing outside with Matt on a hot day, he turned to me and said, "Mom, could you get a towel to wipe my sweat off with and then I'll throw it back to you ?" to which I replied, "No, Wyatt. You can go get yourself a towel. And someday if you become a professional tennis player, then someone can give you a towel and you can toss it back to them. But until then, you can get it yourself".

4. Upon turning tennis on the other day, Wyatt said, "Mommy, they are playing on grass because it's Wimbledon".

It sounds, based on these comments, that we watch a lot of TV. And I do let the kids watch some, but mostly the only thing that is on if the TV is on is sports--primarily because Matt and I want to see all the great tournaments and championships going on this time of year. In fact yesterday, we had Wimbledon on again and Wyatt (in his pajamas) stood in front of the TV and 'volleyed' (sp?) with the player on the opposite side of the court. And when the player would hit to their opponents backhand, Wyatt would hit a backhand and vice versa with his forehand. At one point, he turned around and said, "Daddy, why do they keep hitting it to my backhand? It's hard to return a backhand" and Matt answered, "Wyatt, that's why they hit to your backhand, because they hope you won't be able to return it". Who needs video games when you can do this? (And thankfully Wyatt isn't too interested in video games because he knows Mommy and Daddy won't allow them in our house anyways, so we can just stick with our 'Wimbledon' game).

He continues to amaze me and I am so thankful to be his mother. And it keeps me on my toes about what we say, watch, and do--because I know he'll pick up on everything!

Update on Sadie

It seems like things have been so busy around here lately that I haven't done a very good job at keeping up on the daily stuff--but since I started this blog as a sort of journal for myself to be able to look back on someday, I figured I should update a few things.
Currently, this is Sadie's favorite book. She practically has it memorized and wants to read it all the time. She reads it to her dolls and has Wyatt read it to her whenever he offers to read her a book. (Clarification: He isn't reading yet, but has many books memorized that he 'reads' her and this is one of them.)


Now on to potty training-a bit of a sore subject for me. I started potty training Sadie about 3 weeks ago and as is the case with everything else in my life, if I do something I do it 100%. So we went straight from diapers to big girl underwear--no pull-ups (except at night) and we stayed at home for the first three days to really get this down. She was having some accidents, which is to be expected from a 2-yr old, but was also telling me when she had to go. However, she had yet to tell me when she had to go #2. By the end of the first week, we had #1 down and she even told me when we went swimming, which I was really surprised by. But after two full weeks of this, we had yet to experience going #2 on the potty. She would just go wherever she was, which included going outside when she had no underwear on (just a dress), going in her underwear, etc. And I thought that if I just stuck with it, she'd start to tell me. But nope--she just kept going and I spent two full weeks cleaning it up! I tried everything but came to the conclusion that she must not be quite ready, so we are back in diapers (which I'm still trying to tell myself is not a failure on my part) and we'll try again in about a month. She doesn't seem to mind the diapers, so I guess this means she may not be ready as most kids I know hate going back to diapers after wearing underwear. We'll see where we are in about a month but I'd really like to get this 'done' before we move into our new house!!

Sadie's hair--another pain! This poor little girl still has the thinnest, stringy hair that is so hard to manage. I can't put it in pigtails much because it makes the ends break off and I can't seem to keep it under control......for example,

...this is what she looks like when she wakes up in the morning. And I have to say that this looks fairly mild because I made her wait in her bed while I grabbed the camera and it settled down a bit in just those few moments! Poor girl---someday she'll have hair, I hope!


And my final thoughts on my precious little girl for the moment--she can entertain a room! Her facial expressions and little comments can make an entire room erupt in laughter (and she knows it)! Here is a picture of her listening to her Papa hide his phone and then find it behind her ear. They did this about 3 or 4 times and her response everytime was as if she'd never heard it before. It made us all laugh even more than she did.
Another recent comment that caused an uproar amongst everyone listening,
"Turn on the lights, people"

And on final thought--This girl is content living in her own little world. I took this picture while we were at the beach at Matt's grandparents in MI and she sat like this, playing in the sand and talking to herself, for what seemed like forever. As Matt says, it's as if whatever she is doing is the most fun thing and you are only missing out if you aren't doing it with her! I hope she always feels this way and uses her ability to influence others positively!

The Latest and Greatest from my kids

Every night, Wyatt prays that Jesus would give him a baby brother. But within the last week or so, his prayer has changed to "Jesus, thank you for my baby brother." I keep trying to tell him that it might not be a boy and he needs to pray that Jesus will give him a brother, but I've now given up. He just keeps thanking Him for his baby brother---we'll see what the prayer becomes if it is a girl!

And Sadie's latest----she'll ask me if she can do something or if she can have something and if I say 'no', her immediate response is , "Daddy lets me". Oh please!

Coming Home

We are finally recovering from our 2-week trip to Wisconsin, but I'm certainly not complaining. Taking a vacation always seems like more work, but it's completely worth it. The kids and I flew to Madison the day after Mother's Day--Matt had boards the following week and was studying all the time and we had some flight vouchers to use up, so the kids and I took off. We weren't looking forward to being away from Matt, but so excited to see our families and friends in WI.

The kids sat together on our first flight as we were on a smaller plane with only 2 seats on each side--I wasn't sure how they would do being across the aisle from me, but they ended up thinking it was so cool.

Wyatt was so interested in reading the safety instructions--but this quickly turned to "Mommy, why is this lady jumping out of the plane?" "Why are these people in the water?" "Why is the airplane in the water?" I could hear everyone around us listening intently to how I would answer each question. And interesting it was---the only question I was able to pass over quickly was the question about the lady jumping out of the plane. Wyatt just said, "Oh, she's jumping out of the plan like Lindsay did" (My sister went sky-diving awhile ago.)

We spent our first week in Madison at my in-laws, but unfortunately the only picture i took was this one. I guess we were just having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures. But Sadie loved sitting with Auntie Cam and playing with her phone--and Cammie loved it as well.

Then we were off to La Crosse the next week for a few days to visit our friends..

Wyatt and Drew

I love this picture of Wyatt and Drew--they were watching these kids playing in the area of resident housing that used to be 'ours' with this look of "Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

Wyatt had such great friends in La Crosse--and they are such boys! They both found these huge sticks/branches and had to see whose was the tallest. (You can see how interested Sadie was!)

Wyatt, Drew, and Caleb--these guys had so much fun when we all lived in res. housing

We stayed with our friends the Caldarella's--Leo and Wyatt are about the same age and Sadie and Jac were born just 5 days apart. So we had so much fun spending time with them.

Wyatt and Leo 'measuring' to see who was taller---who could it be?

Sadie loves babies--have I mentioned this lately? She had fun playing with the boys, but was much more interested in playing with AJ half the time. See pictures....

These two had so much fun....

Sadie's swing, after watching baseball a bit......pretty good, i must say!

Wrestling....

...wrestling.....

..and more wrestling...

We got back to Madison and the next day, Matt flew in. It had been almost two weeks since we had seen him and the kids were dying to see him. Unfortunately, we had to leave right away to drive up to the cities and look at houses. So once we got back to Madison, it was time to relax and spend time with family.

Family Bocce ball

A 'classic' Wyatt picture--he's explaining the game to everyone

I had to put this picture on here because the timing was so great. If you click on it, you can see Wyatt getting on Matt for his poor throw and Ty and Mary Jo celebrating their victory due to the poor throw--hilarious!

Auntie Cam stopped by and brought the kids a little surprise, which they always love.

T-shirts from the "T-shirt Deli" in Chicago
These are so cool--they come wrapped like this, as if there were sandwiches--in a deli bag complete with potato chips

..and a little surprise for the baby!

While we were at my parents, Wyatt spent just about every waking moment helping Nani and Pops outside--mowing the lawn, planting the garden, pulling weeds, fertilizing--all things my parents love doing and it seems Wyatt may share in that.

He was so proud of all his work in the garden and Nani promised to take pictures of everything and send them, so he can see how it's all growing! He actually spent an entire afternoon in this garden with my parents--when they started, it was a tilled-up mess and when they were done, it looked like this! Great work Wyatt.

We were so thankful for our time with family and friends. We also found a house in the cities and our offer was accepted. So we are now back in Columbus, finishing up our one-year fellowship and anticipating the next stage in our life which will begin shortly--new job, done with training, new city, new home, new baby, etc. Just a few changes, but we are so excited about it all!

The latest change

In our household, it seems there are always changes going on. And this year is no exception--moving, new job, new home.....



In case you didn't notice Sadie's shirt, here's a better hint.....

Familiar Faces

A few weeks ago, the kids and I took a trip to Pittsburgh for a couple of days. Some of our good friends from residency moved to Pittsburgh when we moved to Columbus last summer and we were so excited that we'd only be 3 hours away from each other. Unfortunately, our year in Columbus is almost over and we still hadn't seen each other since we all left La Crosse last June. We decided to make firm plans a few weeks earlier and the kids were so excited to see their friends. (Matt stayed in Columbus to continue to studying for his upcoming board exam---another reason it was great timing for the kids and I to get away!)

The kids travelled great and we got to Pittsburgh on Thursday afternoon around 3pm--just in time to pick Audra up from school and head over to that park. It was a beautiful day and the kids played together wonderfully! It was as if we hadn't even left La Crosse--they just picked up right where they left off.

(This slide was amazing! It's built in to the ground and there are scraps of cardboard
lying around that the kids just grab and ride down on!)

This was how Wyatt and Gabe walked the entire way home from the park--hand in hand! It was so precious to see them having so much fun together and reminded Steph and I of how blessed we were when we lived in resident housing in La Crosse.

Audra loved showing Sadie her 'Barbie' game on the computer

But Sadie was most interested in 'baby Kaden'--have I mentioned how much she LOVES babies?

On Friday, we headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo. The weather was perfect and I have to say, it never gets old seeing amazing animals LIVE and in person!

Amazing creatures!

Hand in hand again at the zoo---I can't even express how much fun these two had together!

....getting tired and waiting for the boys to be done riding on those scooter things.....

We got home from the zoo around 2pm and the kids crashed. They all took great naps and then as soon as they woke up, we headed to the Pittsburgh Pirates game (w/o Audra who wasn't interested in the baseball game and opted to go to a friend's house instead).

And lucky for us, it was $1 dog night, so we ate pretty cheap! I love the look on Gabe's face as he looks at Wyatt--mouths full of hot dogs!

Saturday morning, we told the kids we were going to go ride on the carousel in downtown Pittsburgh. But on our way, we surprised them and stopped by this super cute bakery with amazing cupcakes!

And I have to say it was our lucky weekend b/c the token machine was broken at the carousel, so the kids got to ride for free all morning long! And boy did we take advantage! I think they rode on every horse/animal on that thing!

Wyatt was a bit unsure of the carousel at first since this was my kids' first time on one, but after that first ride, he didn't want to leave!

We had such an amazing time in Pittsburgh seeing friends and seeing a new city! I am only sad that we hadn't gotten together more during this year. Neither of our kids have any great friends where we currently live and getting together made us long for our days in La Crosse when we shared a backyard and the kids played together daily! We had no idea how wonderful we had it there! But we are planning on getting together at least one more time before we move to the twin cities, so we are excited to have them here in Columbus!! Can't wait!