Happy 4 Month Birthday Colin!

Month 4 was a busy month for you, wasn't it? You officially think you are a big boy. Although it's a still a little over stimulating, you love your exersaucer. I think mostly, you enjoy being able to stand by yourself. You love to make yourself bounce up and down, up and down, and up and down. Mommy's arms love that you found something that can make you bounce until your lil chunky legs are tired.


You laughed for the first time this month. What a wonderful sound it was hear -- and partially because we were wondering if it was ever going to happen. For the record, we are about to give up on the whole rolling over bit. We can tell you just don't care to do it and why would you when you have people that will roll you over. You are mastering the art of the push-and-scoot to get where you want to go, so who needs the whole rolling over thing, right? :) I love the sound of your laughter, Colin. I have never heard something sweeter.


You LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE your thumb and have become quite possibly the world's loudest thumb sucker. Thank goodness it isn't possible to stretch out your thumb or you'd also win the world's longest thumb. I think an ideal world for you would be finding a way to suck on your thumb while having your pipey in your mouth at the same time. But this isn't an ideal world, Colin, because in an ideal world you would go back to taking naps that last longer than 20 minutes.

You had your first sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house a few weeks ago, so Mommy and Daddy could go away for their anniversary. We had a wonderful time but we missed you like crazy. We were excited to have adult conversations, some drinks, and to sleep in. We had some wonderful talks, we skipped wine tasting to get home to you, and just like you've changed our hearts, you have you also changed our sleeping schedule; I was still up by 7.15am. Although, we had a great time, I don't think we will be leaving you again anytime soon. You, Grandma, and Grandpa will have to wait awhile to have more fun overnight adventures together.


You are such a curious boy. Whenever you hear my voice, you start looking around. You stare at Daddy wondering how he makes all of those funny noises. I can see in your eye, you want to imitate him. You try so hard. One day, little man, one day. You love watching Ethan and Micah play almost as much as mommy loves watching the 3 of you interact. I can tell you will all be the best of friends in a couple years. They will teach you all of the joys of being a boy - playing with race cars, throwing and kicking balls, getting into trouble and showing you how to charm your way out of it. But for now, lets just try rolling over.

With all my love,
Mommy

Yesterday marked the 2nd anniversary of the day I married my best friend. It's amazing to look back at how far we've come as a couple over the past two years. I can't believe we have only been married for two years. I can hardly remember my life before Mike. In the past two years, we've had our share of ups and downs, laughter and tears, happiness and yes even, fights. Over the past two years, we have experienced new cities, new ways of life, and a new ways of thinking.

If you asked me two years ago to describe where I saw myself on May 20, 2008, I never would have imagined how great our life would be already. We are incredibly blessed to have a great marriage, a fabulous friendship, and a wonderful family. Nothing has had more impact on us than the birth of Colin. Because of him, we have a greater sense of the word love and family.

Mike, I thank you for the best 2 years of my life. I look forward to the next 60 years together. John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Mike and I headed up to the Inn at Bay Harbor this weekend to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. When planning our trip months ago, we wanted to find somewhere close enough to drive because of Colin but still far enough away that it felt like a get away. The Inn at Bay Harbor was a PERFECT location. It was so incredibly beautiful and romantic.

We decided last minute to leave Colin with my parents (THANKS AGAIN!!!!) and just go up for one evening. Although, we missed him more than we thought it was humanly possible to miss someone, it was nice for 24 hours to just be someone's wife and best friend instead of someone's mom. Our day wasn't dictated by his eating and sleeping schedules, we stayed out late, went to the smokey casino, and were able to just be two adults. We missed Colin so much though, we decided to come straight home instead of going wine tasting in Traverse City. It was a great night with an amazing man in a fabulous resort in a beautiful town. I couldn't have asked for more. We look forward to hopefully returning there again next year. Enjoy some photos that do not do the resort justice ... sorry there aren't really pictures of us.

I had hopes of writing this during work today. Yes, I got stuck working on my first Mother's Day. Thank you kind boss of mine. Time got the best of me at work and here it is 10.45pm and I'm incredibly tired. I apologize in advance mom that this isn't as wonderful as I thought it could be in my head.

Today I had a few kind people call me to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. I had people at work who felt sorry for me having to work on my first Mother's Day. My parents were wonderful and left me a sweet card and homemade cinnamon rolls for me to enjoy this morning. Mike was true to his sweet self and bought me and my mom a bouquet of flowers to celebrate our special day. He told me all day how great of a mom I am to Colin which I owe all to my mom.

I had a great role model. I could writes pages and pages about how much my mother means to me, how much I appreciate her and how much she has helped me adjust to and learn about motherhood. I've learned from a great woman who sleeps less than one should, works harder than most people do, and is a always on the go. You will rarely hear her complain, always see her cooking up something great, and is craftier than Martha Stewart herself. She gives with her whole heart, loves my husband as much as she loves me, and is the best grandma to my baby boy. My mom has a great love for the Lord, is always willing to pray, and has shown all of us kids that a Christian education is more important than having worldly possessions. Growing up, she taught me tough love through my biting, never ending singing, and sibling rivalry. As a teenager, she taught me the "trust cup" which was usually empty :) Now as an adult, she has taught me friendship.

On my first Mother's Day of many, I just want to publicly thank my mom for molding me into the woman and mother I am today. THANK YOU!! 27 years from now, I hope Colin is as proud of me as a Mother as I am of you.

Mike and I actually had a day off together. I think it's only the second time since I went back to work 4 weeks ago. We decided to head to Holland to check out Tulip Time. Since it was cold and windy, we weren't able to get many pictures.

On the way back, we stopped off to see my Grandma and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. Here's a picture from the other day when I went with Ethan, Micah and Colin.

Then we had a lazy night at home.

As some of you may remember, I posted a month or so ago about our friend Shaina's sister being sick. Shaina sent out an update the other day. If you could please keep Erika and her family in your thoughts and prayers. I'm copying Shaina's email, so you can better understand what is going on. As a little background information incase you aren't familiar with the first post. Erika had a baby (Callen) one month before Colin. She became sick the day Colin was born. She was hospitalized for .. gosh a month or more but has since been released.

hey ladies. here is an update on Erika. This is an email my ma sent out a couple days ago. since the email, we did get back her CT results and they showed the pseudocysts are still there and her Dr has admitted he is at a lost as to why no improvement is being made. so, he is going to call U of M and try to get her in sooner than the original appt at the end of May (as you will read). Her Dr is rated in the top 5 of GR, so it's kinda scary to hear him say he is at a lost, but at least he is honest. we started to google and read up on pancreatitus, but stopped b/c we started to scare ourselves on what this condition could turn into. so, instead of thinking of the "what-ifs" please continue to pray for Erika and for a miracle. Noone thought she would still be in this bad of shape at this time, but God provides miracles everyday...please ask him to provide one for Erika. Thank you all for caring, it means a lot.
Love to all, Sha



Hi,
Just wanted to update you on Erika. She has improved immensely since March, but through April there has not been much improvement. She is still unable to eat and is drinking 8 ensures a day for nourishment. When she eats she gets pain on each side and has flu like symptoms. So hoping that one day she won't be in pain, she tries to eat about once a week when she knows someone will be around to take care of Cal the next day if needed. Last nite she felt like she was starving so she wanted to eat. I gave her little boiled chicken, 2 tbls rice and 1/2 banana. She was so sick, the thought crossed her mind to go into emergency. Obviously, the food inflamed her pancreas. So what's the answer? She's tried just soup, just rice, just broth.........................still gets sick.
Dr has kept her off work again this month. Her boss has hired someone new for her job. She knew that would happen but it still hurt. He did say there would be a position for her when she returns, just not in Greenville.
Dr repeated a CT Wednesday to look for changes in the pancreas and pseudocysts. Hopefully improvement will show. She occasionally breaks out into cold sweats and they don't know what that's about, but she use to do that in the hospital and it just started in April so they want to follow that up and are concerned that she is not able to eat. We asked for a second opinion, so she has an appointment at the UM, but her appt. isn't until May 27th so she has a while. We are looking and hoping for a miracle.
Her spirits are good, but she gets frustrated sometimes and I think she tries not to think about it. When she gets down I try to point out the fact that anyone would be frusstrated at this point but the up swing is that she gets to spend this time with Cal. I still worry about her getting depressed so I keep my eye on her.