Penn's First Pancakes

Yesterday Penn had his first few tastes of whole wheat pancakes.  He wasn't crazy about it, but he was curious.

Today he got to try whole wheat French toast.  Jury's still out on if he likes it.

Summer Swing of Things

I've been looking forward to summer for months.  Not just because of the warm weather, but because I've been excited (and a little nervous) to have Koen back home every day and enjoy these beautiful months with my 3 boys.  This week was our official start.  Here's a look at what we've been up to...

On Monday Tavin had his first speech therapy session where I was asked to go in the observation room instead of sitting in on the session with him.  He was confident and proud of himself to stay with his therapist on his own.  Thankfully I get to watch him through a window and wear headphones so I can hear all that's going on.  It's a pretty interesting (and cute) view.

The speech therapy continues to be quite an adjustment for me (appointments, phone calls, coverage, heartache over watching him struggle through speech, etc., etc.), but Tavin seems to enjoy it more and more.  He looks forward to his "school" each time for which I am so thankful.  On Tuesday we finished our therapy sessions with the Pittsburgh Public Early Intervetion program.  They run on the school calendar.  We may get a few weeks of therapy in the home over the summer, but we were sad to bid farewell to "Miss Rachel" whom Tavin has enjoyed so much.  Next Fall Tavin will have a therapist from this same program come directly into his preschool for 45 minutes per week.  

After Penn's morning nap on Tuesday, we headed to Highland Park to meet up with my dear mommy friend, Deborah.  She and I haven't hung out at all this year as Koen and Miles attended different schools and getting together on days off just never worked.  We have a standing playdate every Tuesday this summer so that we can get these two guys together frequently.  They play really well together and have known one another practically since birth, so it's a fun friendship to continue to develop (not to mention I love hanging out with Deborah and Tav has a friend in her middle child, Claire, as well).  They had a blast running around the playground equipment and then thought the tire swing was fun.

Tav had his own twirling swing thing happening.

After a picnic lunch the boys wanted to climb on the rocks.  They ended up getting an idea to collect sticks and build a "fire."  

They were so proud of their "fire" construction, they wanted me to take a picture.

I decided not to pass up this opportunity to get all 6 of our children (seems crazy that we have that many kids!) in a photo together.  Here's the best of the...well, attempts.

The kids had so much fun together.  I'm already excited for next Tuesday.  It was great to have them outdoors, playing in the woods and at the playground and finally getting these good friends back together.  Thanks for meeting up, Deborah!  

With Koen home this summer and my aptitude for planning, I set up a calendar for us so that I would have an idea of how to keep afternoons interesting for my pal who is up much of the little guys' naptimes.  Koen still does rest time for about 45 minutes to an hour where he listens to audio books or plays with Legos, but the rest of the time he's usually hanging around on the first floor with me.  I wanted to plan a few things to keep him learning this summer as well as to help me be prepared with some ways to spend some quality time with him in these special times where it is just he and I.  So, on our calendar for Tuesday was a science experiment!  Thanks to Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan's birthday gift for Koen we have a great book full of ideas and I've mapped out which ones we will do this summer (about 1 a week).  Our first one had to do with leaves.  We went on a leaf hunt while at Highland Park and then here's Koen sorting them by shape and size in the afternoon.

After making some observations we did some leaf tracing.  I haven't done this since I was a kid and it was a fun pleasure!  Both Koen and I loved the surprise of seeing the leaf detail come through as you rub a crayon across the paper with the leaf under it.  I was impressed at how interested he was in the project and how many leaves he wanted to do.

After nap/rest times, we headed up the street for another classic summer activity...hanging out on the sidewalk with our many neighbors who have kids similar ages.  We are so blessed to be on a street with so many families (and ones that love to just hang out and play almost every evening!).  It's a great activity for post-nap and pre-dinner.  Penn ate his dinner in the stroller while Koen and Tavin ran around and played.  Penn has his own buddy, Everett.  They are about 7 weeks apart.

Today (Wednesday), we had some more start-of-summer-schedule fun.  I've made a standing Wednesday playdate with another family that we lost touch with this year due to differing school schedules.  It was a happy reunion today when we got all the kids together (total of 7, but 5 are pictured here picnicking).

While the big boys were busy eating, I put Penn in the swing.  He is literally gleeful when he's swinging.  He hums/sings as he floats back and forth.  It's precious.

The big bros did end up coming over to help push Penn.  They would've love to practically send him flying, but I stayed close by to keep them under control.

After the swinging, Koen and Tavin enjoyed about an hour and a half of playing with Owen, Claire and Carson.  They are all a nice match for playing together and it was such a positive time seeing them play well.  The best was when they made the playground equipment their ship and they marched over to us to report for duty.  They all had sticks with them and went on to fight the enemy before running back to their ship.  =)  Adrianne and I had fun finally catching up after a schoolyear of barely seeing one another.  This has been such a fun start to summer this week.  We are so thankful for our great friends and neighbors to share our summer with!

Almost One in My Onesie

I have a thing for the cuteness factor in the simplicity of a white onesie.  I could not pass up the opportunity to take some pictures of Penn after getting him up from his afternoon nap on Sunday night.  The adorableness was calling to be photographed and saved for generations to come. =)  Here's my sweet Penn Rye at almost one year.

Could we call this his first thumb's up?

Oh great, he found the grass.  So much for eye contact!

A quick glance up after pondering the blade of grass for a few moments.

And he got down on his belly.  

Did you hear something?

Yep, it's a helicopter.  Very exciting stuff happens in our backyard.

Penn's confused by my attempts to get a close-up.  Since he won't look up at me, I'll get down under him!

These are my two favorite photos.  Random, but precious in my opinion.  Penn's feet.

Oh that smile.  I just want to kiss those sweet lips!

Love you, Penn Rye Melder!  I can't believe you are almost one!

Weekend Catchup

The weekend flew by!  Doug was slammed with work (for a pastor that means doing a wedding rehearsal, a wedding and preaching 3 times).  Thankfully we still got much of Friday with him.  I didn't catch any pictures of him being his awesome Daddy self, but I did get one snapshot of a common close to our day.  Koen and Tavin are playing soccer in the backyard (with Doug).  This time, Penn is taking it all in from inside the screen door while enjoying one of his favorite pastimes, Tupperware lids.

On Saturday, Doug was out the door as I was feeding the boys breakfast, so it was a full-on Mommy day.  It was a fun day (so thankful for the great weather!).  We went on a scooter walk before Penn's morning nap.  The gas line replacement going on throughout our neighborhood has provided months of fun outings.

My new summer challenge to myself is to read more with Koen.  We read a lot of chapter books and that is usually before bed, but I miss diving into the imaginative picture books that he enjoys so much when I bring them home from the library for him.  During Penn's morning nap is a great time to read with the big boys.  Koen really enjoyed it and I was excited to start fulfilling my goal and spending this quality time with him now that he's out of school.  After Penn's nap we whisked him away in the stroller and went to the library.  It was a fantastic visit.  The boys were very content.  Koen spent about 20 minutes coloring a picture for the librarian (first he had to have his light just right).

Penn is so enjoying being a part of things now that he is sitting up and army-crawling around.  Here he is happily playing with a library toy.

After the library we headed up to a neighborhood playground for some outdoor playtime and a picnic lunch.  The boys were thrilled and played so well together.  It is so nice to see that happen here and there (seriously, lately it's been a lot of the opposite!).  They both enjoyed this apparatus (not sure what it is exactly).  

The playground went so well that after their dinner that evening I took them back.  Unfortunately the outcome was not as positive.  Koen bullied a little kid with an overly aggressive dad (yeah, quite nerve-racking) and Tavin spit on another kid (yep, not joking, it happened).  So, that was a slice of humble pie for this mom of boys.  Apparently all very natural things and we did have some very teachable moments (and the Lord was so gracious because there were some very positive, well-communicated ones), but still, not the end of the day I was expecting.  Doug came home from preaching such a good sermon and had to hear about the intense playground visit and then went on to make us some pizza while I finished getting Koen to bed.  While he was making the pizza he totally cut into his finger losing some nail and flesh underneath.  Gross and frustrating.  Poor guy!  I felt awful.  Here he is after a super long day making pizza and he cuts himself really badly (not a great wifey moment especially since for the first time in my life I thought I might faint when I saw the damage).  We got it bandaged and he felt much better by the next morning (phew because he still had two more sermons to preach).  So, all in all, weird night, but otherwise, good weekend thus far.  =)

So Close to Real Crawling!

Penn is definitely on the verge of crawling.  He has been loving tummy time the last few months and therefore has invented some pretty creative ways to get around wiggling, army crawling, rolling from back to front and back again, etc.  In the past few weeks he's been practicing getting up on his knees, but doesn't really move forward.  Well, he's about to get that skill and he'll be off and really crawling.  Here are two videos that show his present state pretty well (although it's a little slippery on the hardwood, so he's not quite as efficient).  

This first video I call "Ants in His Pants" because it is fitting for his non-stop movement (and it's on the bottom of his sleeper).

In this next video Penn gets a little motivation from his big brother, Koen (and Koen blocks the camera shot of Penn a little too...ugh!).  Getting so close!

Koen's Last Day of Kindergarten!

I can't believe today was Koen's last day.  It some ways the school year seemed to go so quickly and then as I look back at all Koen's learned and how much he's grown in these last 9 months, it's been quite a long season of change.  Here's two pictures from his first day...

Just looking at that face I can see a lot of change.  You can see a little baby still in his face and now he's 100% big boy.  Here's a picture from when I dropped Koen off this morning.

Koen, you have done such a great job this year.  Your Dad and I are so proud of you.  We love to see you apply yourself and dig into learning.  We love you!

Tavin Time

I've been loving my Tavin time these last few days before Koen's out for the summer.  We are looking forward to Koen being around, seeing friends that go to different schools and have had conflicting schedules and many other fun summer favorites like the pool, sprinkler and spray parks.  But Tavin and I are kindred spirits...both middle children, both blue eyes, both homebodies.  We have a lot in common and just love our time together.  It's been a special year with lots of quality time.  Here's a few pics from this week...

I gave Tav a much-needed haircut.  

Doug and I have been noticing quite the athletic coordination in Tavin.  Here he is whopping a wiffle ball that he throws on his own.  He hits it straight almost every time.  It's fun to watch!

We also got Tav his very own big boy helmet this week.  Perhaps you've noticed his ridiculous egg-shaped baby helmet.  Penn will inherit that huge thing. =)  Tav's pretty happy to get something new for once!  (Thanks, Aldi, this helmet was so cheap!).

Today we had a few final snuggles before we picked up Koen from his last day of school (see next post regarding that huge milestone!).  Oh, how I love my Tavin Dale!

Well, Tav, prepare yourself, bud.  The summer is going to be different than our usual routine.  It's going to be fun, but it's definitely going to be louder and more intense with big brother back around on a daily basis.  I've loved this year with so much special time with you.  XOXO