Graduation/Surprise Anniversary Party

As soon as I told Mom that we were going to take Tyler to Ohio towards the end of my maternity leave to meet everyone, she said she wanted to throw Joe a Graduation Party.  I had been counting on that, we wanted to throw her and Dad a surprise party for their 40th Wedding Anniversary too.  Doing it during Joe's graduation party made it easier to organize, easier to get them there, and easier on our wallets too!  (Ofcourse that was the last piece of the party puzzle that she made easy on me.  I thought I could guide her to all of the decisions I had made for the party, instead, she fought me on each one, from the location and time down to ordering the food and when to setup!)

Trying to plan this party, in another state, while being very, very pregnant, and pulling it off shortly after having a baby, would have been impossible if not for my wonderful aunts and uncles!  Ron agreed to host the party at his church, and to cover any costs for that.  I had help tracking down addresses; Paula and Grandma helped with planning, ordering, and paying for food; and everyone helped with the deception for the surprise itself!  Marleen, Peggy, Donny, and Ron got extra decorations and did the entire setup for us, as well as the cleanup afterwards!  It was the easiest party I've ever thrown in that aspect!

We had a really good crowd!  The entire extended Machak family came.  The last time we were all together was 5 years ago at my Grandma's 80th Birthday Party, and I hadn't seen Marcie or Emilie since then.  Bobby and Valeria were the only Shultz' that couldn't make it, but it would have been quite a hike from India, so I can forgive them.  They did send a video message for my parents which was really nice.  There were also lots of Machak and Opalenik cousins, and as part of the surprise, some old friends of my parents including one of Mom's bridesmaids!

We managed to bring their Wedding Cake Topper, Unity Candle, and a copy of their Wedding Album as part of the surprise.  Joe and I each gave a little toast before cutting the anniversary cake.  Joe said, "Mom and Dad, when Sarah first told me about her idea to use this party as a way to surprise you, I thought not only was it a perfect plan, but a perfect chance for me to say, "Thank you."  You took on parenthood the same way that you approached marriage, with patience, humor, and love.  I wouldn't be here without you two... for obvious reasons, but I also wouldn't be here: a college graduate, celebrating with both sides of my amazing family.  You raised me the right way, so you share a part in all of my successes, as you do Sarah's, as you will Timmy and Tyler's, and in the future, in my kids.  So finally, let me just say thank you, I love you, and congratulations.  Here's to another 40 years!"  I followed with, "I absolutely agree with Joe that we are the people we are because we grew up as this family.  I feel blessed to have that example to guide my decisions with my family.  When I was getting ready for my wedding Mom shared a lot of advice with me, one anecdote that really stuck was, 'Marriage is a decision that you make every day.'  Here's to them making the same decision, every day, for the last Forty years!"  I will admit that I teared up while speaking, but I blame(d) it on leftover pregnancy hormones!

Mother's Day & Father's Day

Mother's Day was 3 days after Tyler was born, right at the start of my Maternity Leave, and Father's Day was the last day of my leave!  I was so excited that Tyler would be joining our family just in time for Mother's Day.

Several times over the last few years we have hosted both of our families for Mother's Day Brunch at our house, and that worked out perfectly this year.  Chris and Becky came over to help Tim get ready since I couldn't do much, they even vacuumed a floor of the house each!  Tim out did himself with the menu, and Jenny brought her sausage balls, one of my favorites, and other treats for us as well.

 

Tim has always been an amazing gift-giver, but I still told him several times that I was expecting a lot out of my first Mother's Day as a mother of two.  He did not disappoint!  I got a beautiful heart-shaped Tiffany's locket, with pictures of my sons already inside!

 

 

Father's Day was the day after Timmy's 3rd Birthday Party.  We had Tim open his presents first thing in the morning.  He has had this RC Truck on his wishlist for awhile, and I thought it would be something fun that Timmy could play with him too, so it seemed like the perfect Father's Day gift.  Little did I know it's actually been on Tim's wishlist since he was a child, and is pretty much the only thing his parents never bought for him, so he was extra excited about it!  Timmy was pretty excited too!

 

 

We spent most of the day at Tim's dad's house visiting with his family and watching baseball.  Afterwards we went to my parents to visit and have dinner.  It was a nice, relaxing day, and I only started to cry 3 times about having to go back to work the next day!

Maternity Leave

(The pictures accompanying this post are from when Tyler was 1 week, 2.5 weeks, and one month old.  I was about to write that they have no connection to what I'm writing about in this post, until I realized that they are exactly what I'm writing about.  They freeze some of the precious moments that I had with my boys while I was home!)

 

I am back at work this week after an amazing 7 weeks of Maternity Leave.  I have mixed feelings about being back, but there is no other option, so I'll just get used to it again! I can honestly say that this 7 week block was one of the most enjoyable in my life.  As if the experience of finally meeting Tyler and adding him to our family wasn't wonderful enough on it's own, being home with Timmy and Tyler, doing whatever we wanted to each day, whether it was snuggling and sleeping til noon or spending 3.5 straight hours at a playground, was awesome.  There was just a feeling of freedom and peace having all of my time for my family.  I guess that makes perfect sense because in my normal life I spend more waking hours staring at this computer screen then I get to spend with them.

 

During my leave there was lots of visiting.  My Grandma was in town right after Tyler was born, so she and Mom came over every day until I was mobile.  Becky got home for the summer just days after Tyler was born, and she almost lived with us while I was home!  She was such a huge help and so enjoyable to have around!  She is going to be the most amazing mom when it's her turn!  Friends that I haven't seen in awhile, some of them in years, made time to get together with us.  We also spent lots of time at my parents house with my family.  We spent lots of weekend time with Tim's parents and siblings.  And we made a trip up to Ohio for a party (which I will post about separately) and so my extended family could meet Tyler.  It had been a year and a half since I had been to Ohio so it was especially great to see everyone there.

The maternity leave flew by.  Some days seemed to last forever and some there weren't enough hours in.  We spent time at Elena's at the pool, went to activities at Timmy's school, took the boys to two festivals that we were selling shave ice at, took hundreds of pictures, and spent quality time together.  I did some shopping, planned parties, made some crafty things, caught up with old friends in person and on the phone, and relaxed.

 

 

I don't know that I would want to be a 100% stay at home mom.  Tim might expect me to start cooking.  I really wish I could just work part time though, even one less day a week would be a huge improvement!  I have already told Tim that we have to have one more child eventually, just so I can have another 7 weeks off of work!  You get to keep the child afterwards, so it's totally worth it!  ;)  Maybe I should go find something billable to do now...

THREE YEARS OLD!

Timmy turned three last weekend and we spent the last weekend of my maternity leave celebrating him!  Tim took his actual birthday off on Friday so we could take him to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  Timmy has a recent interest in fish after winning himself a goldfish at our neighborhood festival a few weekends ago by throwing a ping pong ball into a cup with the fish.  Our goldfish's name is Nemo, and he now lives in a very nice tank on our counter, with 6 or so other fish, and Freddie the Frog!  Timmy loves watching them swim around and feeding them, so it was the perfect time to take him to the Aquarium.

Timmy had snuck into our bed about 6 in the morning on his birthday.  Later, when we were all waking up he was kind of grumpy, but quickly got into a good mood when we told him it was finally his birthday.  Tim told him, "Yep, three years ago today you came out of Mommy's belly!"  Timmy looked at Tim like he was either crazy or an idiot, and started to laugh at him saying, "Nooo!"  Tim found that hysterical, which made Timmy think it was hysterical, and we all laughed for about 5 minutes while we convinced him that he really did start out just like Tyler!

Once we got out of the house we made a quick stop at Dunkin' Donuts and dropped Tyler off at my mom's before heading to Baltimore.  Timmy liked the aquarium as much as we were hoping he would!  There is a huge tank with sting rays, little sharks, and a sea turtle that you can watch from above, and I think he would have stayed there all day if we had let him.  He absolutely loved the dolphin show, and said they were his favorite thing every time we asked.  He spent just the right amount of time looking at each little tank before saying he was ready to see what was in the next one.  He liked watching the sharks too, but you could tell that they made him just a little bit nervous.

 

That evening Grammy, PawPaw and Aunt Becky came over for dinner and birthday cupcakes.  Timmy said that it was a great birthday.

Timmy's birthday party started Saturday afternoon.  This year the crowd was different; we still had a lot of family there, but we didn't invite most of our friends without kids, as Timmy had friends of his own to invite, and his celebrations are definitely turning into kid parties!  He had a complete blast!  When he saw Tim start setting up his moon bounce and water slide he lost it, running up to me shrieking that he needed his shoes so he could go outside.  As soon as they turned the water on he got in, in his clothes, and they had to send him back in to me for his swimsuit and sunscreen!  When his friends started arriving they seemed to be just as excited to hurry up and get down the waterslide.  They looked like they were running a relay race!  As soon as one boy got down the slide, the next was ready, and the previous was already running around to the ladder or climbing back up!

 

 

The only way to get the boys out of the pool was for cake!  Timmy seemed to enjoy everyone singing to him this year, last year it embarrassed him.  I had tried to sing to him in the morning and he had told me to wait for cake, so he knew it was coming I guess!

 

After cake he opened up all of his presents, and he got great gifts!  The party pretty much wrapped up from there.  Tim and I spent the rest of the evening trying not to move from the couch, but we opened and set up all of Timmy's new toys one at a time as he brought them over to us.  It was a great weekend of celebrating our big boy!

Preschool - Catching Up

This post is very late, but I definitely wanted to write about Timmy's first year of Preschool because he got SO much out of it!  The most obvious change was with his communication.  When Timmy started preschool in November, he probably had around 20 words.  When the school year ended, he used the word 'chrysalis' while describing the lifecycle of a butterfly to us!  It has been wild watching him grow this year, in all aspects!

He really enjoyed school too, there were only a handful of days throughout the year where he would say that he didn't want to go to school in the morning, and by the time he got there he was excited for it.  He learned how to participate and follow directions.

He learned a little bit about self soothing and calming down when he was upset, and how to communicate feeling that something wasn't fair.  He learned how to make friends and still brings them up in conversation a month into the summer.

He leanred to wash his hands very well.  He learned to say blessing before eating his snack and a little bit about Jesus.  He loved his teachers and they loved him too, every afternoon they would tell whoever was picking him up what a sweet boy he is. 

For the last day of school his teachers organized to have parents come in early and walk with the kids to an open field where they could run around as just their class, instead of being on the playground with several other classes.  The kids were so cute walking together holding their circles!  They had a blast chasing each other, and one dad, around and playing.  I was definitely sadder on the last day of school then his first!  I'm so glad he'll get to go to the same school again next year!

 

 

35.5 Months and 1 Month!

Well, my boys are keeping me very busy!  We have settled into a pretty nice routine, half way through my maternity leave, and we are finding fun things to do with ourselves every day.  I have not gotten the courage to try to take both of them somewhere on my own though, so I am very thankful that Baba, Aunt Becky, and Uncle Joe are around during the day to do stuff with us!  We have been to playgroups, shopping, the pool at Grammy's, and even a festival in the last few weeks, and I am looking forward to doing more of that, plus a trip to Ohio in the next three weeks before I go back to work.

The first 2-3 weeks with Tyler home were pretty trying, and very tiring though!  He is still exclusively nursing and that really took all of my determination and lots of encouragement from friends to keep up with, it hurts at first!  It also made me feel a little helpless, because no one could help me feed him, I am pretty good at asking for help when I need it, but I was on my own with this!  Thankfully, we seem to have it down now, and I am very glad that we stuck with it.  Losing all of my baby weight before he was even three weeks old helped me along too!  ;)  I am happy to say that all of the maternity clothes are already put away, I had to force myself out of my maternity jeans when Timmy turned 3 months old!  Tyler is still wanting to eat every 3 hours on average, I am looking forward to that stretching out a bit as he gets older!

The strain of nursing is the ONLY complaint I have about having a newborn again.  Tyler is an incredibly content and easy baby.  We have been greatly blessed for the second time!  As long as he is not hungry, he is happy!  At night he goes immediately back to sleep after eating.  And he is quite cuddly!  He is a wiggle-worm, which I could have guessed from how active he was in my belly!  He's always kicking his legs and flapping his arms around.  He makes lots of squeaky noises too, we have decided he sounds like something between a chipmunk and a dolphin!  :)

Timmy is a wonderful big brother and is really enjoying his new role!  He looks for ways to help and he talks to him all the time.  He likes to tell him, "You're such a wiggle worm Tyler!" and sometimes he just calls him Ty, which we haven't done so I found it interesting that he gave him a nickname on his own.  He loved helping give him his first bath too, and Tyler seems to enjoy baths, which baby Timmy did not!

PS~ It only took me a full week to write this post ;)