Tag Archives: npca

May 27, 2018 ~ A Pre-school Graduate!

It’s a another week of fun-filled happenings around here! Our summer nanny Jenn came over on Monday afternoon for a few hours. I’ve decided since I’d already planned to be off work Wednesday of this week for Finn’s preschool graduation, to just take Monday and Tuesday off as well and get Jenn started and the boys used to someone new while I can be home. While this has all happened so fast and my time off wasn’t planned it turned out to be such fun being home and being Mom all day every day for these days during the week. This is where I struggle with working or not as I really love being home! Reid is really on the move using his walker and is in to all the big kid toys he can manage to find.  After we dropped Finn off at school for his last “normal” day of the year I headed to Millcreek with Reid to check in on the troops. See that big boy taking charge at my desk? It was bike day on Monday also, so we took Finn’s bike for the day and he enjoyed riding around during the day with his classmates.  Reid had his 1-year well check on Tuesday this week and he is doing so great! He weighs 21 pounds 14.6 ounces (60th percentile and up 4.5 pounds from his February 9 month check), is 29.5″ (36th percentile and 1.5 inches longer than 9 months) and his head circumference is 48.4 cm (96th percentile, up from 79th percentile in February). He is cruising along couches, chairs, tables and anything he can pull himself up to. He’s a happy boy, who loves to sleep at night and nap during the day. He loves to play and his smile is so big and bright. He’s a stubborn little man that knows what he wants and he often screams to let you know he wants it, he wants down, or he’s not happy you took something away or removed him from something he enjoyed doing. He’s got the most cute (and most pathetic) sad scrunchy lips when he’s sad or tired and he regularly takes his index finger to his lips when he’s without his paci but really wants it. He certainly does love his pacifier, so much that he sleeps with one in his mouth and his backup in his second hand. It’s not uncommon if he wakes up sometimes and has lost his spare that he’ll cry for it until you get it for him. Then he quickly plops down in his bed, lays down, and goes back to sleep. He is so fun!

And here is our soon-to-be graduate on his last morning as a Monkey at NPCA! He was excited to take gifts to his teachers Miss Laura and Miss Lori. His graduation ceremony was at the end of the school day. The kids were so cute they sang several songs and recited their memory bible verses during the ceremony. Finn’s face was obscured in almost every photo I took of the group up on stage, but if you look hard you can find him! He was the first kid of all the graduates to receive their certificate and thanks to Aunt Amy we got a good pic! After the ceremony we had cake before heading to First Watch for a celebratory lunch with cousin Greta, Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein, Aunt Amy, Uncle Andy, cousins Graham, Rowan, Greta, and of course me, Daddy, and Reid.  And google has been showing me several “then and now” photos so I wanted to include a few. Time is flying by! And here are a few others from the week. Reid enjoying his yogurt, Finn so tired after taking a nap one afternoon that when I brought him down to the kitchen he fell back asleep on the chairs, and Brutus wanting in on everything as always.  On Thursday we went to Get Air in Hilliard for cousin Graham’s 8th birthday party! It was an hour or letting out all kinds of energy! And on Friday Daddy had a surprise fun day at the zoo with Griffin! They spent the afternoon exploring the zoo, riding camels, and having a fun time together. They also went to the local bike shop and bought Griffin a new bike helmut for him to use this weekend as we teach him to ride without training wheels! You’ll have to check out the video of Griffin learning to ride his bike without his training wheels. Kevin let go of the seat and he was on his way – never looked back! He was so happy and we spent probably 45 minutes to an hour of just watching him ride his bike! Then we went in to the library and checked out some new books before heading to Bob Evans for a celebratory breakfast.  And of course at some point in the week we went to Graeter’s where everyone always wants to sample my ice cream cone. Griffin’s selfie was one he took while out playing in the yard one day. He asked for my phone and then showed me this.  Three or so years after we had the birch tree and alberta spruces removed from the front of our houses we finally got some boxwoods planted. Albeit on one of the hottest days of the week and finishing in the dark as we didn’t start until nearly 8 pm once the sun was going down and it was the slightest bit cooler! And we are not at all looking forward to the Jewett Road closure toward Liberty Road where they will be putting in a roundabout this summer. Ugh, it makes the commute to work and home and pretty much everything we do in Powell pretty ugly as we’ll have to take 315 and Powell Road for most things. But hopefully the roundabout will be nice once it’s done!


May 13, 2018 ~ 51 weeks

This happy guy is so excited when you go into his room and greet him after his nap. And he is such a great sleeper, sometimes so much so that I think something is wrong because he sleeps SO much or at least seems as though he’s always ready to go back to bed! This week we were certainly thankful for the help of Jim and Pat on Monday and Friday and my parents on Thursday of this week to care for the boys. Since this post is after-the-fact, it turns out the Debbie has decided to quit and gave no notice. Rather, she told us she was “sick” for several days, texting at crazy hours of 12 and 1 am that she wouldn’t be coming. Friday of this week was her first “call off” but next week they continued until she quit via text on Wednesday afternoon. I had reached out to her mom as I was genuinely concerned about her and her behavior of calling off for nearly a week, at strange hours of the night, a couple times via a “friends” phone as she spilled water on hers. It just kept getting more and more strange. It turns out she didn’t appreciate the conversation that Kevin had with her on Wednesday of this week, and even though as a part of that conversation we setup a time to meet on Friday to discuss some things – that is when her call offs began and she never actually came back to work. It’s a shame and it’s upsetting that she chose to quit in such an immature and unprofessional way after 4 1/2 years of being with our family. I’m upset at the manner in which she departed and that she lied to us over several days saying she wasn’t “feeling well” even though she basically also removed all of her belongings from our house the last day she was here. It will be a big change for Griffin moving forward, not only for Debbie no longer caring for him each day, but also for him not having his best bud Sam around either. But we remain grateful for our parents who have really helped us out in a bind this week (and next!). Somehow I didn’t manage to get any pics of the Armstrongs :(.  This was the week before mother’s day, aka one of my most busiest weeks of the year, especially with the years odd April weather our May has been busier than “normal”. It was so great to arrive home to a tasty meal made by my parents, including dessert of angel food cake with a homemade blueberry reduction sauce.  Yummers! Dad and Finn have developed a hobby of running to the store together to get the days dinner stuffs. If you know my Dad, you know he doesn’t like to sit still (or when he does he’ll end up napping – now you know where I get it, lol!).   I so loved going to NPCA for the Moms and Muffins morning with Finn. We played connect four (he is really good!) and he showed me around his classroom. We played with some toys and then Mrs. Laura read the paper that each kid completed about their Mom. He’s pretty much got me down.  Well, he could have just stopped at my mom is really good at “working”….and left off the “out”. This boy has my heart!  Later during the school day the kids went to a nearby pond for a nature expedition where they looked for frogs and various insects. My friend Laura helped chaperoned and sent me these pics 🙂 Good old Brutes. He has ruined so many things from shoes to clothes to toys, lovies, and so much more. This puppy stage is always a long one with labs. But underneath it all he has the sweetest disposition. It’s not often the first thing you notice about him, as he can be overbearing, he has a deep and scary bark, and when he’s full of energy he can be a handful. And eventhough I’m sometimes cautious with him around strangers or people who are uneasy around him, I have no concerns at all about him with the boys. He let’s these kids do any and everything to him and he’s never once reacted poorly. They climb on him, wrestle him, pet him, push him, tackle him, and on and on. And when he’s tired he’ll just lay there and take it all in, like the picture below (which is terribly blurry but you get the point). He could care less that Reid is smothering him, crawling over him, and dumping all kinds of things off the shelf all over his face. He just lays there and lets it all happen!

Mr. Smiles is really getting good at moving around and making messes everywhere he goes! He’s practiced going up the stairs and sometimes waves, though not reliably so we’re working on that! After Griffin’s football game on Saturday we headed to Mansfield for Mother’s Day. Not wanting to always show the highlight reel, I included this one of Reid (and check out Greta’s expression) not really digging my photo request.  We explored Dad’s hostas and he showed Finn lots of his raised beds. And I love the photo of Reid up in the tree looking at Dad 🙂

Some sweet looking hostas of Dad’s with red petioles and red that has moved up into the leaves all the way to the tips!! And here are a few photos from Mother’s Day with my Mom! We are in front of the Coral Burst Crabapple tree that Amy and I gave them several years back. This might be the best year yet for flowering 🙂

And here is a clip from Finn’s football game where he was the ball carrier. He’s gotten much better throughout the season with his confidence and taking off when he’s handed the ball!

December 24, 2017 ~ 31 weeks

Reid is going so well at sitting for long periods of time. His core is really strong! Our Christmas prep continued this week including shopping, lots of wrapping, and packing! But before we got to any of that Griffin decorated a super cute (and sweet) Gingerbread house. He and Sam decorated both houses and then drew a number to see which house they each got to keep. He had tons of fun and was so proud to show me when I got home from work. On Wednesday we attended Griffin’s last Christmas program at NPCA! It was really cute and there are so many kids! Griffin sang all of the songs and did the hand motions, though you can definitely tell he is shy in front of a crowd. After the performance we had a quick bit of cake and then headed to First Watch for a tasty lunch with Amy, Graham, Rowan, Greta, Debbie, Sam, and Grandma Beilstein. Thanks, Grandma, for the treat!

 

Griffin and Sam (and Reid) exchanged gifts before the weekend. They were so excited it was literally 7:35 in the morning and Sam and Debbie were barely in the door. Griffin loved his Christmas lego set and Reid’s workbench and tools have been a big hit.

This guy here wanted to be a part of everything that had to do with wrapping. We put together a good system where I wrapped and Griffin picked out the name tag. He wrote most tags out as well. I barely had one piece of tape on a package before he was ready to put the sticker on! So much excitement and joy over the little things. Oh how I wish from time to time that I could be a kid again! It took us a LONG time to wrap and organize this year! In the end we had our piles separated and Kevin loaded up the van to head to Enon for the Armstrong Christmas gathering and a couple of nights at his parents. It took much skill to get all of our belongings into the van. You would have thought that we were going somewhere for two months! But with a baby, a preschooler, two dogs, all the baby gear, suitcases, gifts and such we were loaded to the max. We got a later start than we anticipated but we were off and officially on Christmas break! Each morning Griffin was so excited to read the scripture verse and put the next piece on our advent calendar. We didn’t want to miss the last two days by being away from home – so we took it with us! First thing in the morning when he woke up at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs was to do the calendar.
Saturday morning we woke up and after lounging around a bit we got to work prepping for the Armstrong family Christmas gathering, which this year was hosted by Jim and Pat. Griffin helped me make some brownies and a few other things too.  After we filled our bellies with all kinds of foods and hung out with the family we sat down and opened Christmas presents. Griffin was super excited to hand them out :).  Baby Jesus! We had planned to get the dogs a new bed to replace the one off to the side in our kitchen. While Kevin was at Aldi (to get diapers, of course!) he found a great one there that just so happened to be grey and go great in our space. Amazingly the dogs shared the bed in the car from Enon to Mansfield We drove from Enon to our house for a quick 37 minute pit stop to drop off presents, swap out clothes, and pick up presents to take to Mansfield. After I fed Reid we continued on our way to Mansfield where I metup with Dad and Amy for our traditional Christmas Eve shopping adventure. We were quite successful! And as always it was much fun. We headed home and had to quickly wrap gifts, eat a quick dinner, and get ready to head to the Christmas Eve Service at Mom and Dad’s church. It was a long and tiring day for all of us, but, especially for Griffin! Part way in to the service he fell asleep while sitting on Kevin’s lap. He was totally out. I think he fell asleep last year too – but this year he was literally snoring for a minute or two. We woke him up in time for the candle lit portion at the end of the service. Needless to say he had a hard time going to bed – partly from excitement for the morning and partly from his mini-cat nap!
One of my favorite parts of Christmas eve is our tradition of taking a picture after church. I love looking back at these and seeing the change from year to year. I think back to Christmas of 2010, the year Graham was born, and how in such a short time our family has changed and grown so much – adding four more kiddos. Such a blessing. And I love the kids being goofy with Grandma and Grandpa each year for their photo. Also, this year Grandpa had a special request for them to create the O-H-I-O and snap a pic. It’s a cute one. Somehow I don’t have the pic of the Bethune family!?
Graham is always really interested in what Reid is doing or what he may be thinking. He loves to come up and talk to him and hold him too. Here they are having some snugs.  Grandma and Grandpa recently added bunk beds to the kids room so that all four big kids can stay together. On Christmas Eve Griffin was lucky enough to get the top bunk! After story time he tucked in tight. But it didn’t take too long before he came downstairs (while we were readying the room for Christmas morning!). He wasn’t able to sleep (thanks, nap!) and as excited as he was for the top bunk he just seems to have trouble sleeping in a room with his cousins! After a couple of times of putting him in our room with Reid, I finally left Brutus in there with him too to get him to stay! It worked, thankfully!  Finally, everyone was asleep and the adults enjoyed some conversation and eggnog (for some!) for a bit while we got the presents arranged for the morning.