Happy 4th of July!

For the 4th this year, we headed up to my parents’ house.  My uncle and two cousins were in town from Indiana.  I hadn’t seem my cousin Morgan in over 3 years.  She’s so grown up!  It was a quick trip, but we had a good time.  Grandma and Grandpa got Evan a little crabby pool and he had a splashing good time cooling off in it.

 

 

We also hit what I feel is a big step.  We left my parents house at bedtime.  This means that Evan fell asleep on the way home.  Until this point, he wakes up as soon as we pull in the driveway..naps and all.  Well in the past if he had slept for about an hour on the way home and woke up in the driveway he would have been good to go for about 5 more hours.  We were looking at a midnight bedtime if this happened.  I was prepared.  I didn’t have to work the next day and we were willing to take the risk.  Well he woke up in the driveway, but he was groggy and confused.  Scott carried him upstairs and he went right back to sleep.  Whew!  It is good to know that he can do this.  Especially when traveling and visiting places and things!  Honestly I think Scott and I are just so used to the routine and schedule that we have the harder time breaking away from it.  Evan is so laid-back-go-with-the-flow.  We should of known he’d do just fine.

 

Well I am about 3 weeks into my summer vacation and I haven’t accomplished much.  I still have about 7 weeks left so I'm not too worried.  We are in the middle of a mini bathroom remodel thanks to a leaking toilet.  I have some other projects I’d like to take on, but they are pretty easy.  Painting the front door, making some valances for a couple of windows, organize the linen closet…things like that.  Other than my projects I just plan to take it easy, have lunch with friends (like Julia!), visit the Children’s museum and Lewis Ginter (thanks to our memberships), and hang out with my little guy!  Ahhh summer vacation, if only the whole year could be like summer vacation.  Nah…who am I kidding. Once the school supplies come out in stores (they were already starting to stock at Target last night), I’ll be itching to get back to school! 10 weeks of vacation is about as much as I can handle!

Year in pictures so far

January: Happy birthday, Evan!

February:  Taking a look at the snow!

 

March:  Look I can fit in the cabinets mom! 

April:  Enjoying the kids pool on the cruise ship!

May:  Playing outside!

June: Playing in the “James River” at the Children’s  Museum of Richmond

You’ve been heard

OK, OK, OK!  I have heard you!  You are upset that I haven’t blogged in…umm….about 8 months!  I apologize for that.  My only excuse is that being the mom of toddler is a lot of hard work.  Once he is in bed, I totally tune out in front of the TV or I’m working on school stuff because I wanted to get out of work on time.  But it is summer time now and I no longer have school as an excuse (except I’m teaching summer school starting next week). 

So very quickly I’ll give you a run down of our year thus far.  I’m going to make it a serious goal of mine to carve out some more blogging time! 

January:  Evan turned one.  We celebrated with a small party of close family and friends.  Poor thing was sick as could be with the worst ear infection to date!  It was his 4th or 5th ear infections since October and he really felt miserable, but he was a trooper and played, ate, and opened presents.  And of course it was a sock monkey theme. 

February:  Evan had ear tubes put in his ears.  We had had it up to our…well ears… with the ear infections.  At his 12 month check up I finally asked the doctor if it would be worth our time to visit an ENT.  He said sure.  The ENT said it was not a question; that he needed tubes ASAP.  He had his surgery on the 14th and it was a tough recovery, but we haven’t had a single ear infection since. 

March:  We enjoyed some time with Evan and watching him grow.  We didn’t really do anything special, but with the weather starting to get nice, his love of the outdoors began!  He would actually stand at the back door and scream “OUT” until someone went outside with him. 

April:  We all went on a cruise with my parents.  We sailed out of Puerto Rico and then hit the islands of St. Croix, St. Marteen, St. Lucia, Antigua, and Barbados.  Evan did great.  He was a huge hit on the ship with his blonde hair and blue eyes.  He even got all dressed up for formal night!  Scott and I enjoyed the cruise so much that we decided to book one for just the two of us next January  

May:  We spent more time outside and took a trip to the beach to see Scott’s parents, who have recently relocated to the beach house permanently.  Our beach trip included miniature golf, time with cousins, and time in the pool.

June:  We’re at the beach now. The mornings at the beach have been great.  The water has been comfortable, the beach pretty empty.  Evan wasn’t sure of the wet sand shifting under his feet when the waves, but he did OK with the sand.  He even managed to eat a good amount of it.  We gave the beach a break today and just enjoyed the pool.  He loves games in the pool, especially rocket ship and whirlpool (mommy made games of course).

That’s the quick version of our year so far.  My next post will be just a picture post!  So, now I have blogged and your requests have been heard!

Fall Outings

Well it has been a busy fall (obviously!).  In early October we went to the State Fair of Virginia.  It was a chilly day, but pretty much perfect for the fair.  We walked around and looked at all the animals, ate some good fair food, saw the prize winning stuff, ate more fair food, walked around the exhibit hall, and ate some more fair food.  My folks joined us for the day.   I think Mr. Man had a good time!

  Grandpa and Evan hanging out.

Daddy and Evan checking out the brand new claves.

Whew…the State Fair is exhausting!

Another one of our fall outings was to the pumpkin patch up at my parents house.  It is a pretty cool place.  There are about 6 or 7 bouncy things, lots of things to climb on, and some motorized racing toilets.  It was a bit pricey, but since Evan was under a year, it was free!  Next year he’ll have to empty his piggy bank to go back! 

Cute as a pumpkin or at least sitting on one!

I could drive this plane all day long!

  The silly Gerkes

  I really want this pumpkin, mom!

Ooops

So I already missed a couple days, but at least I’m back this soon.  So during my hiatis Mr.Man turned 8 months old.  Here’s his 8 month picture with Amos!

We didn’t have a well-check, so we have no idea what his stats were at 8 months!

Sorry

That’s all I can say…sorry.  I know it has been way to long and sorry probably isn’t enough.  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in 2 whole months.  School started, life got busy, things were going on…I know, excuses, excuses.  Well I’m back and hopefully for good. 

So much has happened in the past two months.  Mr.Man is 9 months old. I can’t believe it!  He is crawling, pulling up on everything, cruising the couch, wall, fridge, whatever he can find.  He becomes more and more vocal every day.  He is even starting to walk with his little activity walker.  And of course he’s picking up germs.  He is currently under the weather with his second double ear infection in the last month.  Hopefully the antibiotics get it this time. 

So much more has happened, so to go along with my apology, I promise to post every day for a week.  I think it will take me a least that long to get all caught up!  Hopefully that will gain your forgiveness!

Earthquakes and Hurricanes and Power Outages, Oh My!

It has been an exciting week here in Richmond!  Evan got to experience some for firsts, but not firsts we were looking forward too.  It started on Tuesday at 1:51pm.  A 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck in nearby Louisa County.  The epicenter was right around 40 miles from our house.  It lasted about 45 seconds.  The best part….Evan and I missed it. We were driving to the post office and apparently it was easily missed if you were moving in the car.  I did, however feel 2 of the 3 aftershocks that shook Richmond in the day or two following.  One was around 8:00 the same night while I was putting Evan to bed.  I didn’t like that feeling much and it only measured a 4.2.  Then the next night at 1:00 in the morning I woke up to a 4.9.  I think I heard it before I felt it, but either way Evan slept right though it, so no biggie!

Fast forward to yesterday and Evan met Irene.  Hurricane Irene made landfall as a category 1 hurricane.  We got rained on all Saturday morning and afternoon. We didn’t think it was a big deal, so we decided to clean out our attic.  By early afternoon the winds picked up and we decided it was better to be on the ground level, not in the attic.  As we were watching the wind blow, Scott managed to catch a 15 foot section of a dead tree snap off, bounce off the ground and right into out fence.  So that section of fence will need to be repaired and the tree will need to be cleaned up. 

About 5:30 that evening, I took dinner out of the oven and boom….goodbye power.  Today was miserable.  No power means no AC and it was 93 degrees out today.  Evan was hot and tired, but couldn’t sleep in the heat, so we did a little shopping (ended up with a new fridge) to beat the heat.  Then a very generous relative had us over to their power-filled home for dinner.  And wouldn’t you know it the second we walked in the door our power was restored!!  After 2.5 hours of AC the house is finally getting cool. 

Like I said quite the week, but on the plus side, school is closed tomorrow!  I get one more day at home with my Mr. Man!

7 months old

Mr.Man is 7 months old!  This month went fast…as you can probably tell from my lack of blogging.  Let’s see what’s new in his world.  He has two new teeth and a third on the way (explains the lack of sleep in my last post).  He is getting ready to crawl.  He lunges forward all the time…he just can’t get his arms and legs moving together.  We went on a huge road trip and got home last week.  More on that later though!

Here are my cutie’s stats this month.

Weight:  20 pounds, 3 ounces

Length:  28 inches

Tired

Yes, I’m tired!  It gets to be around this time of the week that I need some “me” time.  I love spending everyday with Mr. Man, but it sure is exhausting.  It doesn’t help that he seems to be having a minor sleep regression here this week.  Little guy just can’t get settled it seems.  He goes down well, then he’s up at 11, 1, 4, 6, and 7 for good.  Sometimes he needs rocked back to sleep, other times he just needs the paci.  Let’s hope this doesn’t last too long, because I’m fading.  At least the weekend is almost here and Scott will be here for reinforcement.  And even as tired as I am…who can resist this little cutie, even if it is 4 in the morning.

But besides less sleep, let’s see what’s new with Mr. Man.  He is sitting up on his own really well.  He can reach forward and sit back up.  He can reach to each side and not fall over.  At times he leans forward, somehow gets his feet under him and launches himself forward.  A sign that crawling is coming…then I’m really doomed!

He has started really eating solids.  He has oatmeal and fruit for breakfast every day.  So far he’s has bananas and pears.  He LOVED the pears…so so on the bananas.  Then he has some oatmeal for dinner.  He is getting better and better at getting the food into his mouth and making less of a mess.  Once we’re done introducing fruits we’ll add veggies in for dinner. 

He got his playroom.  We sold our dining room furniture.  It was bittersweet.  I loved that dining room set, but we barely used it and it will be used so much more by the little guy.  So we moved the office stuff downstairs, along with some of his toys, books, and now a train table (he won’t really use that for a while).  This new room will be great once he’s crawling.  I can kind of contain him in there (with gates) while I’m cooking or doing other things.  So far we all like it! 

So that’s what’s new in the sleepy Gerke house!

6 months old

Yep, Mr. Man is half a year old, 182.5 days old (I think really it is 183 days), and at the time I’m writing, closer to a year old than his birth (just by a few hours).  We had a little celebratory song at 1:15 today because that was when he woke up from his nap. Little stinker couldn’t have woken up 4 minutes early so I could sing to him on his EXACT 6 month birthday.  It’s all good though, I suppose sleep is better than Mommy’s singing!

He had his 6 month well check up today and the doc said he looks great.  Growing like a weed and developing right on schedule.  It is hard to believe that we won’t go back to the doc until the end of October…3 whole months!  Lots to get done in these 3 months:  start eating some food, start crawling, consolidate naps (already working on that…down to 3 from 4 a couple of weeks ago), and keep growing!

Here are his 6 month stats and his monthly pic with Amos! And yes,I know my toes made it in the picture too!

Weight:  18 pounds, 7 ounces (68%tile)

Length:  27.5 inches (85%tile)

Beach Bums

Last week, we spent the week in beautiful, family friendly Duck, North Carolina.  It was Mr. Man’s first time at the beach, first time in the ocean, first time in the pool, first time at and aquarium, first time….oh you get the point. 

Let’s see if I can sum up the highlights.

Evan enjoyed playing with his cousins.    

He also enjoyed MANY naps on the beach.

We took a trip to the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

He also loved sitting on the deck enjoying the breeze!

And we went to see some live Music at the Town of Duck Park. 

Oh and he enjoyed splashing in the pool!

Overall, it was a great beach vacation for our new family of 3!

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Last weekend, my best friend, Crystal, got married.  Crystal and I met in college and didn’t really get to know each other until our last semester there.  We were in sorority together, but ran in different circles even with in our sorority.  Then after graduation, she moved back home to Richmond and Scott and I relocated to Richmond.  I knew no one here, but Scott and I needed some friends, so I reached out to my sorority sister.  That was 8 years ago and she has become my best friend…no doubt about it. 

She was the first person I told that Scott and I were trying to get pregnant.  She was the first person I told that we were adopting.  She was one of the first people we called when the adoption fell through.  She was at my house the day we came home and was the most amazing friend anyone could ask for, helping me to grieve for what had happened.  She stood by my side as Scott and I started fertility treatments and was always sensitive to my feelings.  Then at 8:00am on May 13th, 2010 she got a text message that said she was going to be an aunt.

She threw my baby shower and is now Evan’s godmother.  I can’t imagine my life without her in it..she is just the best…no other way to describe her, just the best. 

So Evan and I were honored to help her celebrate her special day by being in her wedding.  I was a bridesmaid and Evan was the ring bearer.  We had a great time and I am so happy for her.  She was the the most beautiful bride and she was so happy that day.  I always told her if she was happy, I was happy and she just glowed with happiness last Saturday. 

So here are some pictures of my Best Friend’s Wedding.

Evan in his ring bearer outfit…so cute.

My handsome Mr. Man

 

 

 

 

 

The Gerke Family

Me, Crystal, Lisa, Kelly (The Girls)

5  months old

Amazing….Mr. Man is 5 months old!!

Here are his stats the best we could figure them since he didn’t have a well check this month.  We’ll get a better idea next month when he has his 6 month visit!

Weight:  15-16 pounds…the scale wasn’t cooperating.

Length:  26-27 inches….the baby wasn’t cooperating.

And here’s his latest pic with Amos.

Cereal

This past week we decided to give cereal a try.  We were just curious to see how Mr. Man would do with it.  It wasn’t out of necessity.  He eats pretty well and doesn’t usually seem hungry until he sees the bottle. 

He did great the first time.  He was a bit confused, but stuck with it!  We had eaten dinner outside, so thought he’d like to dine al fresco as well, so I think he was distracted by the trees (he LOVES trees). 

Anyway, here’s some pics of Mr. Man noshing on some cereal!

What is that you have Mommy?

I think I can do this.

Yep, piece of cake!

Ooh trees!

Cereal is pretty good, but fingers are good too.

Family Reunion

This past weekend, we went to Pennsylvania to the Slonaker Family Reunion.  This amazing tradition has been going on for more years that I’ve been alive and even now that it just my dad, his sisters, brother, and their families, we still have over 50 people in attendance each year.  It is always the first Saturday in June and for at least the past 15 years it has been at the same park, Rocky Ridge.  This year for the first in MANY the family played softball again.  It doesn’t matter how young or old, great or terrible you are, you play softball (unless you are wearing flip flops and watching Mr. Man).  Scott and my dad made it out on the field, as did about 18 others.  The rest of us sat in the shade, watched the game, and laughed a lot…think Bad News Bears!

This year was especially fun because Evan got to meet all his aunts and uncles and a bunch of his cousins, and even some 2nd cousins.  He was passed around like a little hot potato.  He only fussed once and I think that was because he was just done being held, so he played in his car seat. 

It was Mr. Man’s longest car trip yet (3 states in one day), and he did amazing.  He slept most of the way up there with just a quick stop to eat (kiddo and adults) and get a diaper change (kiddo only).  He slept half the way home and played with Grandma in the back seat the other half.  That was after being amazed by the lights at TGIFridays.  He is truly a go-with-the-flow, laid back, happy-go-lucky boy.  He made what would be a fun trip in to a REALLY fun trip.

 

 

Noisy

If you were to walk into my house right now.  It would look pretty clean, smell like laundry probably, feel fairly comfortable, but it wouldn’t be quiet.  Here’s video of my ever so cute Mr. Man and his new sound.  He has learned to scream!  Pair that with Buttons barking, Scott yawning and the TV going in the background and my house is full of racket!  I wouldn’t have it any other way though!

The Rearview Mirror

My little boy is 4 months old and his “birth” day seems like ancient history.  I have been in a funk this week and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was.  Today it hit me.  Mr. Man is growing up so fast and I feel like I’m looking in the rearview mirror of my car.  As we keep moving farther along, I’m starting to barely see where we started. 

In some respects that’s a good thing.  I’m pretty sure this “rearview mirror” affect is what makes people have 2, 3, and sometimes 4 children.  It also makes the heart ache we experienced to get here seem like ages ago too.

I remember, what feels like not so long ago, Scott and I thought we would never be able to sit and relax in the evening after Mr. Man had gone to bed.  Well, here I sit writing this blog entry while catching up on the DVR.  We keep hitting these milestones, and I love each and every one of them.  It just seems like Evan is rapidly changing and as soon as I stop gushing over one milestone, he moves onto another one.  I was happy as could be when little man started smiling.  It was even more fun, when I could get him to smile.  Well now he laughs all the time and he laughs at me, just because he feels like it (or he thinks I look funny).  I thought it was adorable when he found his hands and started sucking on them, but now I am amazed at how amazing he finds his hands when he is bringing them together and grabbing at toys. 

It’s the evolution of a baby I suppose.  The sleepless nights, the middle of the night feedings, the unexplained screaming, the not knowing what I’m doing….they are all distant specks in the rearview mirror!

4 months old

Mr. Man had a great check up at the pediatrician today.  He had three shots and recovered from them all very well.  He is a happy and healthy 4 month old!  We learned that he is in the 86th percentile for his height, of course no shocker there.  Looks like he’ll be passing me in height sooner than later. 

Here are his stats.

Weight:  14 pounds, 10 ounces (2 pound, 13 ounce gain in 2 months)

Length:  26 inches (2.5 inches growth in 2 months.

And here’s his latest picture with Amos.

Firsts

Well it’s been a week or so of many firsts.  It was my first Mother’s Day as a mom and I couldn’t have been happier with how I spent it.  My mom and dad came down and all 5 of us went to a Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game.  Evan did so well at the game.  He even managed to take a nap through and inning or so.  He really didn’t even make a peep; he just took it all in.  He’s such a good little boy!

 

This past weekend was Mr. Man’s first overnight trip.  Again, he did so well!  We went to my parents’ house so Evan could meet some family friends.  Boy, did he get passed around!  He met so many new people and was just as happy as could be.  He slept great and I think grandma and grandpa liked having Mr. Man waking up at their house!

First baseball game, first sleepover at the grandparents, firsts….but definitely not lasts!!

On a Roll

Evan rolled over last week.  In fact he rolled 4 or 5 times.  Every time we put him on his belly he’d roll over.  He hasn’t done it since, but that’s OK.  He’ll be on a roll again soon!