My man RULES....and other anecdotes about my boys

James truly continues to astound me with his abilities to be handy around the house. To the best of my knowledge, he has not had vast experience (if any) remodeling a bathroom in the past and yet he has redone both of ours in the past year. Not to mention various other household issues he has figured out during our five years here. With that said, I know I can speak for both of us by saying once again how much we are NOT fans of house projects: the time, the expense, the chaos - all of these doubled or tripled by the time you are done. Anyway, the bathroom is complete, as evidenced here:

Ben had his 9 month checkup last Wednesday, and is weighing in at 20lbs. and is measuring 28 3/4 inches long. He took his shots like a champ, as always, but both Jeran and I still aren't fans of watching it happen. Here you can see Daddy helping Ben update his resume:

Benjamin P. Louwerse

Executive in charge of drool production

Proficient in rolling over, sitting up, and giggling

Some experience with solid foods including Cheerios, bananas, and bread products

He's cute as ever and SO BUSY! I realize lately how long it's been since I've had an older baby to entertain. It's always on to the next thing for him, so I'm constantly scrambling to find new toys (or other household objects, i.e. - spoons) to keep him occupied and happily exploring. Lately he'll assume the crawling position, but can't quite coordinate all his body parts to get him places.

Jeran started Little Lambs today, which is a preschool-type program held at a church some of my friends attend. Judging by the amount of nerves I had this morning, you would have thought he was ACTUALLY starting school today. Or entering the military. I'm always anxious about how he'll behave for others, especially when social protocol is required (such as sharing and sitting in one spot for more than 30 seconds). He absolutely loved it and was able to tell me all about the stories he heard, the songs he sang (which he's been going around the house singing bits and pieces of all afternoon), the trains he played with, and the ladybugs he saw that got out of the bucket, apparently. I was also nervous about the whole potty thing since that is a requirement for him to go, and we've still been nailing it down. He admitted to me that he did not, in fact, use the potty during the allotted time, but he was still dry when I came to get him which is a great sign. There were also no other accidents of the OTHER type to speak of, which I was more concerned about. I feel really good about having him in this setting. My personality (which I think is rubbing off on him) is to ease into things, so this seems like a next step toward actual school.

And as for me these days? Still working on a part-time job, ideally in the realm of tutoring, and enjoying taking care of my kids and reading books rather than planning lessons and grading papers. Truly a blessing.

Adventures in haircutting...and beyond

Let's recap the last several days in the life of the Louwerses, shall we? Friday, dawning clear and beautiful (at least I think it did. That was a long time ago.) promised to be a day of fun for the boys and me. We were accomplishing much with our errands and had a lunch with daddy to look forward to. Of course, before we could get to that exciting event, we first had to endure...the haircut. (dum dum DUM - believe me, it warrants the suspenseful music). We go to a place that is especially for kids because I figure they're trained to deal with my haircut-phobic son. We're on -what- haircut #10 of his lifetime at this point, and each time I pump myself up and do a lot of positive self-talk about how this will be the time that it will finally click with Jeran that it does NOT, in fact, hurt him but is actually a pretty darn good time! He gets to watch a Thomas movie while it's happening, for Pete's sake, and cute girls are bribing him with suckers and bubble-blowing. Alas, 10 is not the magic number. There was the usual amount of screaming, squirming, and tears. Generally, if there are other patrons around, I feel that I get the look of sympathy, but this time the other mother in attendance looked at my son in a rather horrified fashion, and because I still have a hard time putting aside what other people think, I grew judgementally angry at her supposed judgement of me. At least the stylist tried to make me feel better by telling me about the kid who clocked her one in the jaw just the other day. As soon as the clippers stopped their buzzing and the cape was removed J.J. was, of course, fine, hair-covered lollipop aside.

Following our lunch with Dad (which is always a treat) and thinking our drama was over for the day, we headed home. About 10 minutes into our 25 minute drive, Jeran suddenly started crying and saying "uh-oh! uh-oh!". Next thing I know he is emptying the contents of his stomach all over his shirt. And this continues...and continues... So I'm desperately trying not to gross out while also calmly finding a spot on the side of the road to pull over. Long story short - I did a quick, crappy roadside clean-up job, got the boys home and tucked into bed for naps, then proceeded to toss the car seat and his clothes into the garbage and wipe up what remained in the car as best I could. I mean, what is with this kid? Carsickness? Lactose intolerance? (There was a lot of dairy at lunch.) It just seems so wierd that 2 weeks in a row he suddenly, with no other symptoms, gets ill like that. Thankfully, it was a one-time deal, but Saturday we laid low anyway, just taking care of details like mowing the lawn (James) and another haircut (me - NOT crazy about it).

Saturday night about 9 p.m. James went to take a look at the bathroom (as he's been doing frequently since he began the dreaded bathroom project - again I say, dum dum DUM!) and noticed more mold growing around the bottom of the bathroom vanity. NOT good. Apparently moisture was trapped under this (very old) vanity and wasn't getting a chance to dry out. So, following some angry outbursts, James proceeded to rip up the vanity and some flooring underneath, and we made a trip to Lowe's the next day for a new bathroom cabinet and sink. Currently, then, the bathroom is looking like:

Seriously, renting or at the very least, townhome ownership, is looking like a really viable option for our future.

I'm happy to say the last two days have been uneventful. After our zoo plans for yesterday got rained upon, we lunched at the train restaurant, and today had a great morning playing with some friends (thanks for a great time, Sal!) and James & Jeran got fitted for tuxes since they'll both be in a wedding in a few weeks. J and I breathed a sigh of relief when Jeran was totally compliant to the measuring process (having his own tape measure and some peanut M&M's along helped probably).

Potty training update: not much to say there. Good days and bad. We're not at a point where Jeran will tell us when he has to go (although that's happened a few times), so it's still just a guessing game, or, rather, a sit on the potty every half hour game.

Home again

After all my bellyaching last week (sorry about that, by the way) the weekend actually turned out really great. Jeran was back to normal on Friday, but we pretty much laid low except for a wonderful dinner with Grandpa and Grandma Louwerse. Saturday, while James fished and the boys hung out with Grandma Louwerse, I was able to join with family to partay in honor of my cousin's first baby (estimated to arrive in early October). It's hard in a way to see my family getting older: grandparents, parents, even cousins - getting married, having babies. I guess because, no matter what, change is just always hard for me. I think I'm just sad, too, that we don't get to see each other very often. Anyway, as usual, I digress. On Saturday evening, Jeran, James, and I got to hang out at the beach for awhile with my brother, after which my parents and Ben joined us for supper. Such a great time, especially since we don't get to see my bro and his wife NEARLY enough (and this time my sis-in-law was galavanting around Guatemala - we missed you, Meliss! I suppose you weren't galavanting so much as...hmmm...what type of gait do you adopt, would you say, when you're working?). Sunday the Louwerse clan was gathered together in Caledonia at Tim and Ruth's, with Uncle Darwin and Aunt Lorraine from Iowa added to the mix. A wonderful time of catching up. Sunday evening we got together with friends we haven't seen since college (going on almost 10 years now?!) at their home - fantastic (both the time spent hanging out AND their home, actually). Monday morning Jeran and I hit the beach again which was really relaxing, and I was grateful to get some one-on-one time with him while James golfed.

Then, of course, we battled the traffic to get home. It was a four-and-a-half hour comedic blend of tag-team crying from the boys, threats directed at three-year-old misbehavior, and muttered curses at the endless construction and traffic (like we don't know better than to expect that by now). All in all, though, a great holiday weekend, and a good end to the summer, as much as we hate to see it come to an end. And the drive home wasn't all bad, as we were graced with this glorious sunset.

Never a dull moment

Visions of a glorious, long holiday weekend in Michigan have been stamped to smithereens in the last 24 hours (and thus begins another dramatic post by yours truly). A friend from church offered to let the boys and I ride with her to Holland on Wednesday night, and I gladly took her up on that. The weekends here always fly by, so it's nice to take advantage of some extra time. The trip started off splendidly: the babies fell asleep, and the boys got to do some goofing around together and watched some Diego. About 15 minutes from my parents' house, Jeran suddenly got sick. It wasn't much at that point which was good, but as soon as we pulled in the driveway and opened the van door the floodgates opened. It was horrible. Praise the Lord (seriously) for an understanding friend and a mom who stays up late. :) They were huge helps. We got Jeran bathed and into bed, everything cleaned up, and all seemed well (except that J.J. slept with me, so every single noise he made woke me up). I chalked up the experience to overtiredness (we got in at 11) and possible carsickness. This morning he was back to normal, and we were looking forward to a morning at the beach. Uh, WRONG. It was totally overcast and cool, with threats of rain in the forecast. So there went that plan. The boys and I stayed around home instead and played, visited the park, etc. It really was fine. Until after nap time, when Jeran woke up not feeling well and spent the next hour vomiting. So much for carsickness. At this point plans with my in-laws went out the window since we did not want to pass on any potential germs to them (my lucky parents get to keep them all here!). As for tomorrow (and yes I'm complaining, but it's my blog, darn it!) lunch with friends and a haircut are off the agenda. What I hate more than all of my plans breaking (because I AM an anal-retentive planner, so I really hate that) is seeing my child sick. It's a really helpless feeling, and throwing up is nothing compared to what some parents have to watch their children go through. This experience has reminded me that health is something we grossly take for granted until we don't have it. So for now we'll just take this opportunity God has given us to SLOW DOWN and take it easy and be thankful that we still have the chance to be in Michigan with family and friends (even though most of them will be avoiding us due to the looming threat of a flu virus - not that I blame them).

New perspective

Wow - I'm not sure what brought about such a meltdown yesterday, but I'm going to go ahead and chalk it up to [whispering] "that time of the month". Today I feel much better about the whole situation, in no small part due to all of the encouragement and advice I have received. I am feeling much more laid back about the whole thing, as I think I had my expectations set WAY too high to begin with. We're definitely going to keep at it but not expect anything miraculous to happen real soon. Today has been a much better day as far as Jeran's compliance with trying and his success as well. Not sure if my attitude or his achievment is the chicken coming first or the egg but no matter. All is well for the time being.

Potty training, day....blech..whatever

So I really feel like a crazy person. I don't know what's going on with me. I cannot understand why I'm such an emotional basketcase over this stupid potty training. Am I expecting too much? Probably. I guess I'm just ready to throw in the towel on the whole thing b/c I feel like out of Jeran and I, I am the only one who is remotely interested in this whole venture. Whatever gains I thought I was seeing in the last 2 days are nil today. It's a fight to get him to even sit on the potty much less to stay there. He could care less if he pees on it; in fact, when it happens it seems merely to be an accident. He'll look "down there" kind of surprised like. He's equally content to go to the bathroom in his Pull-Up or even underwear the few times I have tried that. If my timing isn't exact we'll miss the potty and he's gone in the Pull-Up. In fact, when we got home from errands this morning I set the timer for 3 minutes until "potty time" and within that short time he went! My thoughts are consumed with these thoughts (and these thoughts only, which is probably why I'm feeling so nuts): "How long since Jeran was last on the potty? Does he need to go? Did he ALREADY go? Is he still dry? I need to ask him if he's still dry. How long should I make him sit on the potty? Is it worth him screaming and crying b/c he doesn't WANT to sit on the potty?" and then they start all over again. I have a headache. I am turning into a very ugly person with a hair-trigger temper. It does not seem worth it, and I'm stuck between thinking I should just try again in a couple weeks and being worried that I'm giving up too soon. I know this: I'm definitely outta this prison called my house after the boys are in bed tonight. I think I'll go check out that mental health facility in Tinley Park. Oh darn, they closed down. Hmmm...I guess it'll be Starbucks then.

Day 2...

...of our bathroom adventures has drawn to a close. I'm beat, that's all I can say. Being so hyper-vigilant about making sure J.J. gets his toilet time is no easy task (or maybe I just make it complicated - it's been known to happen). Here's the brief synopsis, which is all I have energy to relive at the moment: there is some headway being made, but it's definitely an uphill battle. And while making our way up this hill we are encountering heavy, blasting winds, large boulders, and slippery slopes (not that I'm melodramatic about the whole situation AT ALL), so there have been a few backward motions along with any ground we have gained. I made the mistake today of switching up the "treats" given for staying dry, so I think he became slightly less motivated, but there were a lot of good moments today too. We just gotta keep pressing on...

Speaking of bathroom adventures, we have an unexpected bathroom project happening this weekend (GREAT timing, I know). Our "guest" bathroom, for lack of a better term, has seen its share of tsunamis created by, you guessed it, the 3-year-old storm known as Jeran. While you might imagine (as I did) that bathrooms are generally built to hold up to some moisture damage (or downright drenching) we find, as with so many other things in our home, that things are built, how should I put it, shoddily. In two of the corners yesterday morning we noticed (gulp) mold starting to grow. (At this point everyone is just clamoring to come over to our house, I know: a moldy bathroom and not-quite-toilet-trained three-year-old? Bring on the fun!). Upon taking off some of the trim and a corner of the flooring, James discovered that everything was VERY wet. This ugly phenomenon continued the more floor he took up. It is, in a word, gross. I'm thankful we discovered this problem before it could get out of hand, but it now creates some definite work for my hubby (much to his chagrin). We just are not project people (probably much to my parents' chagrin, as they always had a household project going on while I was growing up, at least to my recollection. You would think the love for it would rub off). We're pretty ready to be done doing things to this house. On the other hand, the bathroom was in sore need of some sort of updating, so I suppose it's a blessing in disguise. Also, it can't hurt our resale value come time to unload it...uh, sell I mean.

I am HORRIBLE at taking before and after pictures but have at least bumped up a notch to remembering mid-project. SO - just for kicks, here's where things stand now:

Hopefully it's obvious that we don't normally have a toilet in our tub. And look at this close-up of the LOVELY tiling we found underneath the current stuff. Who knew?

And where is Benj in the midst of all the madness? Being his cute, jovial self and kickin' that skill of sitting up in the heinie:

Could this be the start of his love affair with books? If J.J. and I have anything to say about it, you betcha!