Penn's Newest Thing

Penn got to try another new thing yesterday.  I stuffed some peeled apple slices into this teething/eating thing.  It's a great little item for babe's like mine that have teeth already and are dying to be gnawing on real foods.  If I were to give him an apple slice to mess with he would certainly bite off small pieces that could choke him or shove it too far into his mouth, so this little tool/toy is a great alternative.  He loved it (and who wouldn't love a cold, hard apple-flavored chew toy?).  He also loves the camera so the first shot he just smiled at me.

In the second shot, I was able to get the picture while he had the thing shoved in his mouth.

Also good news...this kept him happy and engaged for 15 minutes while I cleaned up lunch stuff.  Always a win. =)

New Idea: Resurrection Eggs

I recently stumbled on this idea on a blog I keep an eye on...Resurrection Eggs.  I love good ideas to engage our very young ones in the real meaning of "Christian" holidays like Easter and Christmas.  This one is particularly easy and just a helpful way to have a resurrection-focused quick Bible reading every night for the 12 days leading up to Easter.  I'm excited to see how it goes.  Koen helped by painting the egg carton for the eggs yesterday.

And today I wrote out the Scripture references and put them in the 12 holes of the egg carton and then filled the eggs with the 12 different specified objects.

Tonight is our first night (I wanted to be able to finish up with the 12 days one day before Easter).  I think Koen is a little too excited (he thought the eggs were going to be filled with Legos for him).

Koen Feeds Penn

Lunchtime is always quite a juggling act between lunch prep and service for the big boys while also prepping Penn's baby food and then spoon-feeding him that.  Today was extra chaotic due to Koen and Tavin's intense energy and hunger level, so I decided to include Koen on the process.  He LOVED feeding Penn and Penn was just happy to be getting his food without minute long pauses between every few bites.  Koen was a bit of a tease to get Penn to open wide and laugh.  It was pretty entertaining.  Enjoy the video!

My Little Leprechauns

Happy St. Patrick's Day!   This is a big Pittsburgh holiday as we have quite a large Irish population.  Our parade (yesterday downtown) is actually the 2nd largest in the US I guess.  Well, for our family, St. Patrick's is really just another day, but I did try to get us all in some form or shade of green for church today.  Once we were home I decided to try for a picture of all 3 boys together.  As usual, each picture is interesting and not perfect, so I thought I'd share my favorites which have some good looks of at least 2 out of the 3 each and the combo of all 3 is always entertaining.

Back in the Swing of Things

After all the fun reporting from Puerto Rico I gave myself a little blog break upon our return.  For one, the backdrop of leaf-less trees, gray skies and our same old same old surroundings versus the ocean, pools and bright blue sky would've just been depressing right away.  Secondly, I needed the extra time to catch up on things around here.  Anyways, we are settled back in and I have a few minutes before I have to feed Penn to catch you up.  

So, let's see, what did we do this week.  A lot of the same as usual, but I'll stick to the highlights based on the few pictures I've taken since our return late Monday night.  Tav got a haircut on Thursday (by me) and he looked so sweet and handsome.  Doug and I both think he looks so much older, we think his face has really lengthened/thinned out.  Oh my precious, Tav, don't grow up too fast!

Penn has resumed normal Pittsburgh Melder life quite well.  As usual, he's smiling and content all the live long day.  I love this kid!

Koen had some long days at school this week.  He usually goes full day just two days a week, but this week he had four and next week he is full day all 5 days!  It's just because of the practices and preparations for the school's Spring Production next Friday, so it's temporary, but it's been a fun change of pace for Koen and definitely given me some more time with the little guys and to myself the past few days.  Tavin really misses his big brother though and he was happy to have him around all morning today.  He and Koen made breakfast for us all with Doug.  Omelettes, potatoes and bacon.  Yum!  Tavin was so proud to be part of the process and Koen was great with coming up with little tasks Tavin could do and encouraging him along the way.  

Here's a picture of them before using some DVD tickets this AM.

Well, that's all the pictures I have to share, so I'll spare you all the details of errands run, the library and doctor visit, the school dropoffs, etc.  We have a few non-photo highlights though...

1. Koen has been in amazing spirits and it's been a real gift that has made our return home and back into a busy week so much smoother.  It's also just been so refreshing and encouraging to see the amazing sweet, sensitive and kind side of Koen shine through and bring joy to those around him.  Koen, these moments really make me excited about all that the Lord has in store for you.  You have some amazing gifts!
2. Tavin has been wearing Pull-Ups to bed since we started potty training in mid-January, about 2 months ago.  We've been working on a countdown to wearing real underpants to bed.  He had to keep his Pull-Ups dry 10 days in a row.  He did it and on Wednesday night he got to wear real underpants to bed.  He kept them dry!!!  He's amazing.  He has kept them dry ever night since!  Great job, Tavin!
3. We've finally made some progress in the way of some speech therapy for Tavin.  Pittsburgh Public School's intermediate unit/early intervention evaluated Tavin on Friday and he qualifies for services (free!).  They, by law, have to start the therapy plan within two weeks, so we are excited to finally make some progress.  This program will just be once a week for 30 minutes, but it's one-on-one with a therapist.  As for our private speech therapy approach, I did finally reach Children's Hospital and Tavin is hopefully going to get a call to schedule him on a regular basis for therapy twice a week by mid-April (I'm not holding my breath...you'd think the private sector (the ones who charge tons of money) would have their act together, but no, the public sector is out-pacing them by far in my mind at this point).  I do have to say that although we are aware and confident that Tavin has some phonological issues, he continues to add to his vocabulary, elongate sentences and paragraphs and his inflection is just outstanding.  We just have to work on getting all the information he spews out a little clearer.  I love your language, Tavin, but I can't wait to help you be able to communicate with more people.  You have so much to say, you should be heard!
4. Penn Rye is still working on the top two teeth.  They are out of the gum, but not all the way down yet.  His smile will soon be changing.  I'm going to be sad a little, but I'm sure I'll fall in love with the new look too.
OK, I PROMISE, I WILL NOW STOP.  I LOVE THESE LITTLE GUYS!

8 Month Comparison

As promised, here's a comparison post for you.  Here's Koen in the favorite outfit in Western Australia at 8 months...

And here's Tav in the same outfit at 8 months, just hanging at a park in the Burgh.

Finally, here's Penn Rye in Puerto Rico at 8 months in the same outfit.

So who do you think Penn looks like?  I see both his brothers in him, but I also feel like he has completely his own look about him.  My take away is that they are definitely brothers,  but they each seem to have their own look.  Penn definitely has the most hair!  He puts bald Koen and Tavin to shame!

PR with PR, Part 4 (The End)

Well, we are now home, but we had a great final morning with our littlest guy in the tropical sun.  Puerto Rico was such a fun getaway.  I was nervous about several things going into it...Penn adapting, safety, health, Penn adapting, the boys at home, costs, Penn adapting, etc. The Lord completely provided for everything.  We were safe and healthy the whole time, as were the boys at home with Gramma and Grampa.  Penn just blew us away with his amazing attitude and ability to adapt the whole time.  And all our costs were totally accounted for in our frugal vacation budget.  God is so good, He covered everything.  Why do I lack faith and bother with worrying?  Thankfully I was able to be quite at peace as we arrived and began enjoying our stay and seeing how well Penn did and how great everything was going at home.  

Our flight home was no different.  It was trouble-free, safe and pretty easy.  Here's Penn playing happily at the beginning of the first flight.  

He was super excited about this piece of Tupperware.  Oh, what a good boy!

On both flights we were able to get re-seated in rows that had one empty seat, so we had the whole side row to ourselves which meant that we could more comfortably lay Penn down in his little bed.  And he was so tired after not taking an afternoon nap due to the timing of the flight departure that he conked out and slept from 6:20pm until right before we landed at 8:15pm.  Doug and I even got to watch a movie on Doug's iPad!  Talk about a good travel baby!  On the second flight Penn was VERY tired and went right to sleep after take-off and slept through the whole flight despite a very turbulent ride.

We got our bags in record time and were home by 12:20am.  Phew!  Long travel day and it always boggles my mind being in two very different places in the span of a day, but it felt great to be home.  We are definitely catching up today and Penn has finally let his guard down and has been quite cranky and out of sorts all day, but he deserves it after all he has put up with a big smile on his face.  I'm sure he'll be back to his non-stop toothy grin after a few days of recuperation.  Well, that's it for the "PR with PR" posts.  What a great trip.  We loved Puerto Rico and we loved sharing it with Penn Rye!