kids latests

the kids are growing up fast.

at 4 weeks, Alice is really starting to look around, and makes steady eye-contact for a while. she's trying her hardest to hold her head up too, and sometimes succeeding. I think it's because she's got a REALLY strong sucking reflex, so when she's perched on my shoulder to cuddle or burp, she's always bobbing her head to try to find food from my neck. she's eating even better these days too.

at 16 months, Caleb's little vocabulary is starting to burst open. he still loves to do animal sounds and has added a few recently. my favorite is his duck quack, although it seems that to him every bird is a duck, or at least every bird quacks. his sheep "baa" is super cute too. he's picked up some more words too(although at this hour I'm having a hard time remembering them). he calls my dad pop-pop, and gives a good attempt at grandma. since he couldnt say "Aunt Lori" she taught him to say "Tia" instead (spanish for Aunt), which he picked up quickly. most of his words are baby talk (besides "apple" which is quite clear), but it's not too hard to figure out what he's saying. he still does his most useful signs too (milk, help, more/again, please).

he loves his various blocks and can do his board puzzles all by himself, and he'll sit for books for a good while. one habit lately is approaching the computer and saying "more," which means he wants a video. and if he doesnt get it right away, he'll start pouting and crying. fortunately he's not too hard to distract with books or toys, but we're working on that whole you-cant-always-get-what-you-want thing. he still loves his baby sister, and is very interested in her. he likes to give her hugs and point out her nose and ears and hat (and he's finally stopped trying to take the hats). grandma is leaving soon, so hopefully he'll adjust well to the new life with a baby but without extra family around.

a good birthday

I'm 29 today. weird, but good.

we had a good day with family today (pictures hopefully coming soon). first we (Michelle, my mom and my sister Lori and I) took the kids to the Creative Discovery Museum. Caleb had a blast, and it was a lot of fun watching him run around and playing with all the cool stuff with him. we lunched at Mojo (with Newcastle for me) and headed home to relax a bit. the girls made me some yummy cookies and we played with Caleb some more too. pizza and beer for dinner, chased by cake and ice cream. in my book, that's culinary happiness all around. but to top it off, we were somewhat mysteriously given a gift certificate to St. John's, so we're going high-class tomorrow night.

now I'm making DVDs of our home videos, and Alice is asleep on my lap. although I'm thankful for the new pants from Michelle, the book from her parents, the beer from my sister, and the Hair of the Dog (sorta) gift card from my folks, as well as all the yummy treats from everyone, I really couldnt ask for more than what I've already been given: a loving family, a wonderful wife, and 2 beautiful, amazing kids (and a nice dog too).

so another good year. we're anticipating next year to be something of a blur, starting with next week when the steady stream of family help is done. pray with us for strength and faithfulness for each day, especially for Michelle as she cares for the kids all day. God has been very good to us, and we just want to live lives of gratitude.

happy new year to all!

finally

we cut Caleb's hair, but not too much. and we love it. thanks, grandma!

I love Lucy

well, not really, but she's darn cute, that's for sure.

Michelle and I got out of the house this afternoon and got to go see the Narnia movie. we both really liked it, and of course the whole experience of getting out for a movie makes it all even better. Lucy is super cute in every scene, and I couldnt help but dream a little about when our kids will be that age. the only let down was that Aslan wasnt as awe-inspiring as I had hoped, but then again, perhaps he could never be. on a random note, I love that we have a cool old wardrobe in our house, and I wonder what the kids might think of it after they read the books.

we took the baby, and mama fed her in the theater before things got started, and she slept through pretty much the whole thing. then off to wally world for the usual necessities. of course it was very nice to come home to Caleb and my parents. I'm surprised how much I missed him after being gone only 5 hours or so, but we've been having lots of good times together lately.

pictures of all the latest fun hopefully coming soon.

festivities

our Christmas festivities began last night with the Christmas Eve service at church. it was a lovely time with much singing and scriptures, as well as some aerobic activity. there was no nursery provided, so Caleb was up in church with us for the first time in a while. so to him, it was a new place that needed much exploring, even though grandma and grandpa and mama were doing their best to keep him relatively calm. somehow I ended up with the easy part, as I held Alice the most of the time, who was sleeping. but of course Caleb wasnt the only antsy kid in the house, and if you're at our church you're pretty much used to at least low-level kid noise during a service.

but it was an eye-opener for us, and it made us thankful for nursery during church. he was up and down on the pew, making faces at the Greens behind us, and doing all kinds of funny stuff that toddlers generally do. someday we'll teach him to sit quietly, but that may be a little while from now.

anyway, the service was quite nice, and we got to participate a little. I helped with some music (and apparently Caleb said a hearty "Hi!" when he saw me up there), and Caleb was a sheep for the kids' manger scene at the end. super cute. and my parents took part in the Hallelujah chorus sing-a-long at the end, which was quite good.

when we got home, we caught our breath, lit the candles, brought out the yummy appetizers and drinks, and had a nice time together. we were planning on making the Christmas church service in the morning, so we opened the presents for the grown-ups, to save time for the next day. it turned out that we realized afterward there would be no nursery again, so we decided to skip church in the morning. I scored some good worship CDs (thanks KatieK for suggesting Robin Mark: I'm loving it) and a music stand too.

Alice gave us a gift of going 4 hours between feedings at night, so we woke up relatively chipper. we brought Caleb into our bed in the morning and got his stocking to open together. he's pretty good at opening presents and gets very excited, so he dug right into his little cars and new box of crayons.

we had a leisurely morning, and since Michelle got a waffle iron for Christmas, we all had yummy waffles for breakfast. then came time for Caleb to open his presents (and his sister's too). he loved to tear at the bows, and once I started the wrapping for him, he'd tear off the paper with gusto. thanks to all for the cool stuff! we requested (almost) no toys (we've got plenty), so they got lots of nice books, videos and clothes, and the few toys Caleb did get were great (almost any wooden and/or building toy is good in our book).

then came the feast. we had a whole thanksgiving-style meal, which my mom headed up, getting help from all of us as needed. and of course it was super yummy (cant go wrong with turkey in the oven bag). and no holiday is complete without some utter exhaustion, so we got some naps in, and time to hang out and recover from the hustle and bustle.

so there's our "Tender Tennessee Christmas." we're so thankful that we could have a nice holiday here at home with our little family.

8 saturdays, 2 sundays

with the paid holidays and a few vacation days left, I've got the rest of the year off! woohoo! so we celebrated with mojo, beer, ice cream and yahtzee. I think this is my first extended vaction home, so we're treating it like one giant weekend. no travel worries, no fretting over not getting much sleep, lots of good food and drink, lots of playing with the kids, spending time with eachother, and letting mama get as much rest as she needs.

my folks come into town tomorrow night and my sister will be here next week too, so we're looking forward to some nice family times during the holidays, not to mention my 29th birthday coming soon. it's been a very good year and a wonderful month. we'll probably post some pictures of festivities, but that may be about it for a little while.

whoever you may be, I hope you have a great Christmas, and that you know the joy of Jesus this season.

Christmas Letter 2005

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! We hope you and your family are doing well, and that you know the joy of Jesus this season. We’d like to tell you about the adventures we’ve been having this past year, as God has been very good to our little family, through the good and the hard times.

Our year basically consisted of two major things: our son Caleb growing from a baby to a toddler, and the birth our daughter Alice. You can read details and see pictures and videos of these adventures on our website, which can be found at wiegersfamily.com.

In March we got to go north for Michelle’s brother’s wedding. It was such a joy to celebrate with Brad and Renee as they began their new life together. Besides participating in a great wedding, we also got to meet our twin nephews, Julian and Chase, for the first time (they are just 11 days older than Caleb). It was so much fun to see the boys interact, and we definitely had some special times with the extended family.

The day after we got home from the trip up north, we found out that we were pregnant again! We had hoped to have our kids relatively close in age, but we never guessed that we’d have another baby so soon, this time due on Thanksgiving day. So we were all abuzz with excitement and nervousness about the year ahead with two growing babies. Michelle’s pregnancy went rather well this time. She was able to keep up with Caleb, as he was cutting teeth, learning to crawl, getting into everything and learning lots of things quickly. As you can imagine, the year was filled with firsts for him, and we delighted in every one of them (except the few illnesses), even as we dreamed of another baby coming very soon.

We enjoyed some very special times with family over the summer. Michelle’s family gathered at her Aunt’s place in Delaware at the end of June. It was a fun and busy time as the boy cousins, all close to a year old, kept us running after them. We got to celebrate their birthdays early as well as surprising Mom and Dad with an early celebration of their 60th birthdays. We then traveled to Vermont to spend time with my family at the lake. It was such a relaxing time and really good to get reconnected with extended family. When we got home we found out that we were having a girl, much to our delight.

August brought Caleb’s first birthday and a nice little party with family and friends. We are truly blessed to not only have supporting and loving families, but to have such a community of friends surrounding us, and to be a part of a church body with them. We also had our 6th anniversary at the end of the month, and we marvel at how God is blessing our little family, even though we don’t deserve any of it.

As the summer ended we were starting to realize that another baby was really coming soon. Having Caleb to chase after often distracted our thoughts from the new life growing inside Michelle, but we still managed to get ourselves ready. We had hoped that Caleb would be walking by the time his little sister arrived, and he took his first steps just in time, and now there’s no stopping him.

Meanwhile I was being led to be more involved in the music at our church. This has been such a blessing to us (and hopefully to others) as I’ve had the opportunity to lead a little acoustic group that sings and plays music for the opening of our worship services. In another vein, I’ve enjoyed playing music for the Sunday school kids, as well as helping teach the 4 and 5 year olds.

When fall arrived we were getting excited about meeting our little girl. We thought that she would surely come sometime in November, but as it turned out, Alice Florence Wiegers was born on December 1st at 5:48am. She is named after two of her faithful great-grandmothers. Michelle did great during labor, and I had the amazing honor of cutting her cord as well as catching her little body as she came out. She was born with a good amount of short, dark hair and weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 20 inches long,. She looks a little like her brother and has some of her mama and daddy too. We are very thankful that so far she’s a good eater and not a bad sleeper either. We had many prayers about various aspects of Michelle’s pregnancy, labor, delivery and Alice’s first days of life, and we give thanks as God has answered every one of them. Caleb is doing really well with Alice. We’re so thankful that he loves his little sister so much as he’s very interested in her, and loves to give her hugs and kisses. He is still adjusting to a different life with less time with his mama, but so far he’s been a great big brother.

Now we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with our little family as well as our extended family members. God has richly blessed us more than we could have imagined, and we look forward to His care during another year. Please pray for us this next year as we learn to be parents of two small children and try to walk in the way that God has for us.

We hope that you know the love of Jesus this Christmas, and experience God’s blessings in the coming year. To see how we’re doing during the year, please visit our little family website for lots of updates and pictures and videos: wiegersfamily.com

Love,

Bob, Michelle, Caleb and Alice

health update

Alice's thrush rash is getting better. we've tried all kinds of stuff, but what seems to be working is the athlete's foot cream. go figure. thanks to Sara for suggesting it. Mama is on meds for it too, so hopefully they'll both be cleared up. we're so encouraged that she's improving, as Caleb never did until he stopped nursing. thanks to all who prayed and offered advice and such, and please pray for a complete recovery.

Alice is now 3 oz above her birth weight! we're so thankful that she's doing so well with eating, especially considering the problems her big brother had. she's able to follow things with her eyes now, as she was enjoying her mobile last night. she's still doing OK with sleeping, wanting to eat every 3 or 4 hours at night, and usually going back down pretty well after she's full. sometimes she'll be wide awake at 5am, so I'll take her out to the couch and snuggle so mama can sleep better.

Caleb's rough day last week was thankfully followed by some really good days. but mama is a little nervous about looking after 2 babies on her own once all the help is gone back home. aunt Liz goes home today and my parents are coming soon for Christmas week. can you believe it's almost Christmas already?! we're looking forward to lots of mellow good times as a family.

oh and support terrablogs.

sugar plum

Alice is our little sugar plum these days. the stuff we're using to treat the thrush (as of now) is deep purple and it stays that way for a while, so it looks like she's got very bright lipstick on. so appropriately enough aunt Liz dressed her in all purple today. so she's the purple people eater, the little grape, and the little sugar plum. hopefully this stuff will work soon, as her diaper rash is getting worse. thanks to all for your prayers and support. please keep it up, as the stress of having a sick baby is weighing on us.

in other news we had early Christmas with aunt Liz, and Caleb LOVES the giant blocks that she and Em and Steve got for him. many thanks to them, and yes, we lifted our toy ban for such coolness. here he is finishing off our tower.

and mama got Auntie Prudence to make me a cool stocking too! it's really great, as you can see here.

and finally, support terrablogs. they provide a great service here, and if you enjoy my little corner of the terrablog community, please consider donating a few dollars to help keep things going.

long day

apparently it's been a very long day here on the homefront. aunt Liz is taking good care of us, but Caleb had something of a meltdown while they were all out, and he never really got over it. current theories include finally realizing that he hasnt seen much of his mama in 2 weeks, or perhaps some sickness coming on, or both.

meanwhile, mama and baby Alice have thrush. please pray that this will be cleared up quickly, as this was the same infection that mama and Caleb had when he was a newborn, and (amung other things) led to us putting him on the bottle. this was a very hard thing for us, and facing that prospect again is even harder, so please pray that God will heal. one good thing is that we've caught it sooner this time, so hopefully we can get it cleared up.

but baby girl is still a good eater and a good sleeper. some nights she'll go 3 to 4 hours between feedings, and often I'm able to sleep through them. we almost feel normal at times. and so far she isnt complaining about her diaper rash due to the thrush, and hopefully we'll get it cleared up before it starts hurting her. it's hard to believe she's been here 2 weeks, as it seems like she's been around a long time. she's still a tiny little girl, but it's nice to see her cheeks filling out and her little muscles getting stronger.

free office desks

Our office is getting some new desks and getting rid of the old. We've got 5 full-sized desks, most of them steel-case, one made of pressboard-type stuff. They are 60" x 30". They're in working order, but they're getting a little old. If you're interested, they will be available for pickup this this afternoon at 4:30 or tomorrow morning downtown at our office at 408C Broad Street. Here are some rather poor pictures, but you get the idea (please excuse our mess -- we'll be cleaning up shortly). First come, first served. Call 266-5626 x18 or just ring the 3HD buzzer at the door.

we're all very excited

life with a new daughter and sister is great! (especially when she eats and sleeps as well as she is)

family foto

here's our Christmas pic this year, soon to be snail-mailed to as many folks as we're able to.

oh and if you're inclined, catch all the details of Alice's labor over on mama's blog.

contest winners

announcing the winners of the "guess the name" (and other stuff) contest:

Grandpa W and Mindy Tierney correctly guessed her birthday (Dec 1), although Mindy wins the tiebreaker b/c she guessed in August, and grandpa guessed after we knew that was the induction date.

KatieK and Krista Work correctly guessed her length (20").

StelmoDad was closest for weight (just one oz shy of 7-3).

pretty much everyone correctly guessed brown hair.

and finally, Erin B. correctly guessed her name. The amazing thing is, she correctly guessed Caleb's name last time! she may have had the inside track however, being mama's former roommate, and mama may also have dropped a couple extra hints inadvertently. but even still, she has quite the insight. once again, she was pretty close with the middle name, guessing Jane (which is my mom's name). if the need arises, we're planning on asking her what our other children should be named, so we dont have to bother deciding for ourselves.

thanks for playing! send me your mailing address to collect your prize. perhaps we'll play again in 2009 or so.

first dr appt

Alice met Dr. Jack this morning, who gave a good report. her weight is down to 6-14, which is only 5 ounces less than her birth weight. this was great news for us, since Caleb's weight was such a big stress last year. apparently 10% loss is normal, but she's lost less than that, so we're very thankful. and the doctor said she looks so good that she doesnt need to come back in next week unless we want her weighed. hooray!

and just like her brother did at only one week, she did her best to charm Dr. Jack. here's a his and hers comparison. we love how bright-eyed she is, just like her brother was and is. I'm sure that very soon those deep grey/blues will be dark brown.

the first week is going well so far. she's let us sleep 3 hours between feedings a few times, and hasnt yet been up crying in the night except to eat and then go back down. she's still eating well, and mama is doing well too, although she's still recovering a bit of course. Caleb is Mr. Fussypants, most likely due to missing his mama, but he's had good times with his grandparents, and the next wave of grandparents will be arriving shortly. hopefully he'll adjust to things soon, and hopefully soon mama will have more energy to spend with him.

our love for Alice grows more each day. right now she's snoozing on my chest as I type, and there isnt anything more precious. we pray that she'll grow healthy and strong, that mama's back will strengthen and heal, that Caleb will settle down, and that we'll faithfully serve Jesus as a little family. thanks again to all for your prayers, as God is answering them daily.

goodbye Marlins, hello Braves

this is weird: a post not about baby stuff.

I grew up in south FL, and I like watching baseball, so I've been a Marlins fan since they started back when I was in high school. of course I've been out of FL for about 10 years, but it's still fun to follow the team, and they've made it fun by winning 2 world series already. but now they've gone and tossed out all their good players. I understand that they needed to cut costs, but if they dont care about putting a good team on the field, I have a hard time rooting for them. and they say they're going to move to Vegas or somewhere soon.

this part of the country is now home, so I guess that makes me a Braves fan now. I really respect their organization, and they always put a good team on the field (plus they're always on TV around here, so it makes it easy to catch a game).

feel free to question my loyalty and my faith if you feel so led, but only over a beer down at the Hair of the Dog.

a grand day out

Alice had her first outing today, going with us to the chiropractor. mama hurt her back a bit during labor, and the chiro did help, but it's still not great. so please pray that she'll be feeling better soon.

Caleb still loves his little sister, but he's been getting more and more whiney and fussy. hopefully he'll get used to the new normal soon. so here he is checking her out in the cool basket from Amber. and I think she may be getting tired of all the picture-taking.

Alice's stocking

last year we got a cool surprise from Auntie Sarah's mom. she knit a really great stocking for Caleb, just as she's done for her own kids and now grandkids over the years. we love it so much, and we hoped to have one for Alice too, and she graciously made another for us. she was the only one who knew Alice's name beforehand, and the stocking arrived the day before she was born. so here's Alice trying on her new stocking, which of course has now been hung by the chimney with care. many thanks, great-auntie Prudence!

not-so-little boy

Caleb has grown amazingly fast this week. on Wednesday he was our little boy, and now he's the big brother. now that we have the new baby, he really does look a lot different to me, much more grown up. I marvel at his big hands and feet and the strong muscles he's got, not to mention the whole walking and talking thing. we're so thankful that he seems to love his little sister, as he's always wanting to see her and snuggle with her. he listens well when we tell him "gentle" and he doesnt like it when she cries. we hope and pray that his affection for her will grow.

so here he is during bath time today. yes, we need to cut his hair (for the first time).

and here he is snuggling with his baby sister. more on her cool outfit soon.

as for other baby news, everything is going quite well so far. Alice is a good eater and not a bad sleeper either. mama is feeling pretty good, especially compared to last time. we were both surprised at how well we remembered the sleeplessness and difficulties with Caleb as a newborn, but forgot the wonder and beauty of it all. so we're doing our best to just treasure the time we have with our tiny girl. gramma and grampa are taking good care of us and having a blast with Caleb. and if any locals would like to stop by, call ahead and we'll be happy to see you!

details, answered prayers

where to begin? firstly, her name: Alice is named after two of her great-grandmothers. her first name is from Michelle's paternal grandmother, and her middle name (Florence) is from my paternal grandmother. both are honored and thrilled to have our little girl carry their names, and we hope God's faithfulness in and through them will also be found in her.

the labor and delivery went much like Caleb's did last year (although thankfully we werent kept up for 4 days with early contractions this time). the labor this time was about 12 hours and rather draining, so we opted for an epidural at around 11 hours. soon after this, Alice was ready to come out, and after only a few pushes she breathed her first air. she actually had the cord around her neck, but the midwife quickly clamped it and even let me cut it (to my surprise considering the situation). once her head was out and cleared, I got to catch the rest of her little body, and put her up on mama's tummy. this of course was an amazing experience for all of us. she was a little pale at first, so they quickly got her revived and suctioned and she let out her first cries soon afterward. we may put down some more labor details in the future, because we had many hopes and fears, and God amazingly answered just about all of our prayers in the affirmative.

of biggest prayer was that Alice would be a good eater, and that breastfeeding would go well. Caleb was a sleepy eater, and there were various complications (see the August 2004 archives for details), so we had to stop after only 3 weeks with him. so we prayed that Alice would do well, and she really is doing great so far. she loves to eat, and is eating well, epecially for being less than 2 days old. we're praying that this will continue to go well.

Caleb is so sweet with his little sister, as he's very interested in her and wants to cuddle and give her hugs. no signs of jealousy so far, but he's had gramma and grampa taking good care of him. we're so happy to see him do so well.

here are some pictures from day 2 and day 1 is here. and here is a video clip of her (~10 MB). much more video to come once I can process it.

thanks to all for the well-wishes and prayers. we can feel your love and are so thankful for it. praise God with us for the gift of our beautiful little girl, and please pray for our adjustments as a new family.

Alice Florence Wiegers

our little girl Alice was born this morning at 5:48am, weighing 7 lb, 3 oz, measuring 20". everyone is doing quite well, as God answered all of our prayers. more details later. more pictures here, and many more to come.