This week...

Gosh, it's been a long couple of weeks around here. My last post was about Luke being sick, well now, it's spread to Isaac. I knew this was inevitable, but I hoped and prayed it wouldn't happen. Isaac got sick on Sunday and has a rough go this week. Thankfully, he's tough and handling it well. Plus it's so much easier to take care of him when he's sick because he can tell me what hurts and he understands the need to rest (kind of). My prayer now is that he will get over this very soon and that we will be done with it after that! I need to stay healthy!

Speaking of me, that makes me think of Baby Girl! I am now 36 weeks pregnant, and we are ALL so anxious to meet this sweet girl of ours. Isaac asks me daily when she will come, oh how I wish I knew that answer. I did have an appointment today, we got to see her on the ultrasound, amazing! I love getting that sneak peak of my baby! They estimated she weighs 5 lbs 4 oz right now, so is on track to weigh between 6.5 and 7 lbs at birth, about the same as the boys. I am trying to soak up the moments with my boys, while it's just the 4 of us...I feel like I just wrote that same thing about Luke coming soon, now we're awaiting baby 3! I am thankful that Isaac is so excited, he has so many questions and loves helping me get things ready for her. I am excited to meet her, see what she looks like, hold her tiny little hands, and kiss her sweet cheeks!

Sick Luke

Poor Luke is sick, his first time with a fever that has lasted for days. It started Friday evening as a very low fever and some grumpyness. This continued Saturday and Sunday, but again the fever stayed low and his appetite was small, but besides that he had no other symptoms. Sunday evening Carl and Isaac headed off to small group, but I stayed home with him, and before bed his fever spiked to 103.3! It really scared me, so I called the doctor and talked to a nurse. She reassured me that he was okay, and to just treat the fever with motrin and tylenol. Okay, I thought, but was still nervous. Thankfully, the medicine worked great! His fever came down and he slept all night (Saturday night he was up 6 times). This morning I took him to the doctor, which as you can imagine, Luke does not enjoy. Turns out he has tonsillitis, boo! But thankfully it is not strep, it's just viral, and the doctor said it should clear up in a day or two. Oh, how I pray that he is right because it's so hard to see my baby struggling.

Side note...he weighed in at 21.5 lbs!!! Now we need to get him eating again so we can keep up the weight gain.

Prayer

Isaac is my little prayer warrior. He enjoys praying for people, asks to pray for others and different things (such as rain). Saturday evening we sat down to eat dinner and he said he wanted to say the prayer. "Okay, go ahead," we said.

Isaac prayed, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for this day and for this food. I pray that baby sister grows like she should, that mama's leg would feel better, and Luke would feel better, too. In Jesus name, Amen."

It melted my heart to hear him say that prayer, all on his own without any prompting. I am so thankful he has such a desire to pray and understands the need for it. I am thankful Jesus is working in him already, at such a young age.

The Sounds of My Boys

• Toy trucks racing around the house.


• Little feet running around the house.


• Toy vehicles running into walls, furniture, and brothers.


• "The dump truck crew is here!" yelled by Isaac as the boys come rushing in with their trucks.


• "We're two, we're four, we're six, we're eight....Thomas and his Friends!"


• Giggles!


• Toy train wheels driving along the wooden tracks.


• Little screams of frustration (when something isn't working like it should or brother takes a toy)


• The squeak of swings.


• The hum of Power Wheels motors.


• The pantry door squeaking as it opens followed by food being moved around.


• The sweet sound of praise and worship songs being sung by Isaac.


• "Choo Choo"...as Luke pushes a train around.


• A door slamming as they race outside to play.


• MaMa....in a precious voice calling from bed.


• Dada!!! screamed with excitement when they see Daddy.

There are so many more sounds in the house, but these are the sounds that come to mind as I think of my boys and our days. Granted they aren't all nice sounds, but they are all sweet and precious to me because they are the sounds of my boys...and I know there will come a day when I will miss every one of these. I love the sounds of joy, excitement, and even the sounds of frustration because it means it's an opportunity to learn something. I pray that I savor this time with my children and can remember so much of it!

Isaac - 3.5 years old

He loves his new slide!

Straddle jump!

Cheese!

His love for baby sister is so big, he cannot wait to meet her!

Isaac is such a big boy! I cannot believe he is already 3.5, he impresses me daily with his thoughts and his actions. His vocabulary is growing exponentially...probably because he does not ever stop talking! He loves music, and has started singing all the time. He decides what songs we listen to in the truck and will sing along with his CDs. I love hearing him sing his worship songs, especially as he's playing in the house and singing softly. His favorite question is still, "Why?" Even as I type this he is asking me many questions, including, "WHY?" He asks about baby sister all the time, he currently laid a toy lizard on my tummy and asked if baby sister knows his lizard is laying on her. He cannot wait to meet her, he asks daily when March will be here or when baby sister will come out. Isaac just told me that his favorite thing to do is driving his gator in the yard! Oh what a good driver he is! His favorite color is orange...which does not make daddy very happy. His favorite song is Zaccheus. His favorite books are his Clifford books. His favorite TV show is, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." Although he only watches about 20 seconds of it before loosing interest. When I ask Isaac a question like, what do you want to eat or what did you do at school today, he always answers, "You know." Speaking of school, he is still really enjoying it! He loves being with his friends and his teachers, and he loves to learn. Although the other day he broke my heart when he told me that one of his friends would not let him play in the tree playhouse on the playground. She told him he could never come in. I could tell it bothered him, and I felt so bad for him. He is still very timid with other kids and does not stand up for himself. I hate that he is easily bossed around by other kids. But I love his sweet temperment and am thankful that he is such a loving, kind boy. Isaac's favorite day of the week might be Sunday because he cannot wait to go to Sunday school. He enjoys being with his friends there, kids and grown ups, and he loves to learn about Jesus! I am thankful for the amazing church family we have and the way they teach my kids about God and His Word.

Isaac is still a great eater as far as not being too picky, but oh my goodness, he is the slowest eater! The main reason he is so slow is because he doesn't stop talking, even while eating. Isaac loves sweets, he gets so excited about cookies or cupcakes, but he also loves fruit, which makes me so happy. He is a silly boy, he keeps me on my toes with his jokes or silly antics. He has nicknames for everyone, I am Opy, Luke is Pookie Louie, and Daddy is DiDi. Isaac is still taking gymnastics and really enjoying that. He is doing really well with it, and asks me all the time when he gets to go to his gymnastics class.

Isaac is my big boy, with a big heart. He also has a stubborn streak, and moves a little slower than I'd like at times, but he teaches me to enjoy the little things in life and not always be in such a hurry.

Luke - 20 months

Ready to slide!

Laying in front of the TV, watching Thomas the Train.

Sweet kisses!

Luke is changing on a daily basis these days, I love watching him learn and grow. He has started to say a few more words and copies everything he sees other people doing. Some of his new words are: over - anytime a song ends or TV show ends, he announes OVER!; hooray - we listen to/sing "If you're happy and you know it" in the car and he loves to say Hooray!; Cole - he loves his dog and says his name proudly; firetruck - okay he can't say firetruck, but he says his version of it everytime we pass the fire station; Daag - this is how you say bye in Dutch, it's one of his favorite words! He points to all of his facial features, when we ask him in Dutch or in English, but when we ask him to point to his eye in Dutch he always says eye (in Dutch) and smiles...it's so cute! Luke copies everything he sees Isaac doing. For example, the other day Isaac was asking the dogs to shake, he watched Isaac say shake and grab the dog's foot, over and over. Shortly after Luke started saying his version of shake as he grabbed the dog's paw. He even tried to shake my foot. :-) He is still obsessed with Thomas the Train and his face lights up when he sees Thomas or any of his train friends. He got a toothbrush for Christmas that sings the Thomas theme song, when we go upstairs the first thing he does is run to his bathroom to turn on the song. He sings along and dances, too. He is sleeping in Isaac's room now, well it's now the boys' room, and he seems to be enjoying it. He never even goes in his old room any more, and thankfully he sleeps through any noises Isaac makes throughout the night. Isaac is doing well, too, he LOVES having Luke in his room with him. Luke plays independently really well. He is content playing in the playroom, gameroom, or anywhere there is a truck or train. He is learning his shapes, he can sort almost all of the shapes in his shape sorter, he sometimes does it wrong, but I think that's more of him being silly than that he can't do it. Thankfully, Luke is eating better now, too. He goes to the pantry and pulls out a snack multiple times a day...and boy does he get upset if I don't give him what he wants. Luke's happy place is outside, he enjoys the freedom he gets outside...his three favorite outdoor activities are pushing his car around the yard (usually following Isaac who drives his cars around); swinging so high on either the baby swing or the big boy swing; and going down his new slide! Luke also loves books, his attention span for books amazes me, he is mesmerized by certain books and will sit with me to read them over and over again.

Luke is a sweet boy, who loves to cuddle and give kisses. He is also a strong willed boy who can be very determined and stubborn at times. I love his personality, he challenges me on a daily basis, but he also brings me SO much joy!

Playing together

The boys are beginning to really play well together, which is fabulous! Luke is very good at playing independently, but usually Isaac still wants me to come play or needs my help with something. This afternoon I was tired and trying to sit on the couch for a bit, the boys were playing in the living room and then went into the playroom together. After a few minutes I realized that they were playing so nicely together, I hadn't heard any arguing and neither had come out to get my attention. I continued to rest and watch TV for a little longer...eventually I couldn't take it any more, I had to go see what they were doing. I snapped these two pictures when I went in, they were very content and playing sweetly.