Pumpkin Patch 2009

Every year my sisters and I meet at a pumpkin patch to take pictures of the kids. Well, this year there were two new additions to the group shots...Drew and Malachi. It's amazing how each additional child makes a "good" shot that much more impossible. One's always looking away...or should I say that only one's looking at the camera?! Some are talking. Others are giggling. And right when we get everyone to look...Ryan acts silly. He's quite a ham...always wanting attention on him acting goofy! So, we didn't really get a good group shot, but here's what I got. (Note: there aren't very many of Ryan because he was busy running laps around the pumpkin patch and playing soccer with the white pumpkins the entire time!)

Little brother likes to do whatever big brother does! Here are Mommy's two little pumpkins looking at all the pumpkins.

Drew is one cute little pumpkin!

Fell off of the bench and the big pumpkin steam-rolled over him! (And of course, Mommy had to grab the camera and take a picture before she could console him.)

Look Mommy...I can stand up with a pumpkin! How exciting!

Who needs pumpkins when there's grass to chew on?!?

Here's Ryan showing me one of the white pumpkins. He was calling them "soccer balls" and kicking them all around the patch! I just knew we'd have to pay for them if he kicked 'em too hard!

Here's one smile I got from Ryan...after bribing him with a bag of Spiderman fruit snacks!

Ryan and Jacob playing what looks like Pumpkin Poker. "I'll see your one pumpkin and raise you three!" Hmmm....where have they seen that?!?




Enough's enough already...it's time for my nap!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, it's official...I'm no longer in my twenties. Today I have been on this Earth for three decades. Man, makes me sound really old, huh? Not to mention the massive amount of heat put off by 30 candles on a cake. Ryan helped me blow them out...and it had us both sweating. (Not sure if it was the heat or the numerous breaths we had to take to get them all blown out..or a combination of the two!)



Rob made shirts for both of the boys to wear to church that said, "Today's my Mommy's birthday!" They looked so cute in them. The plan was to take a picture of the two of them in their shirts. But as we walked in to church, Drew had a massive poopy diaper and had to change clothes. His outfit didn't last long...and so much for the cute picture. I did manage to snap a quick picture of Ryan in his shirt while we were eating cake at home. Thanks Rob for the thought that went into this day....it was great!

Some Advice for Parents of Little Ones

If your baby has recently become mobile, I have some words of advice. They might seem obvious, but even as a second-time mom, I still forget the simple things!

First, don't take your eyes off of him (or her) for too long.




Second, if you do and he (or she) gets into a bag of "Blazin' Buffalo" Doritos, follow with a cup of juice...QUICKLY!

Thinking Outside of the Box

When I was in kindergarten, I brought home a paper that I didn't do so well on. When my mom looked at it, one particular question had a picture of one side of a bus. The question asked, "How many wheels does this bus have?" Well, being the genius that I am, I answered, "4." My mom proceeded to help me count the wheels, and we found that there were only 2. My response was, "Yes, but there are 2 more on the other side." Smart for a 5 year old, huh?



Well, I guess I have passed those genius genes on to Ryan. The last time we went to storytime at the library (which was a while back...it's just taken me this long to write about it), the craft was to make a bird. They gave us half of a paper plate. The kids were supposed to glue on little squares of tissue paper, two long tail-feathers, and one eye (since you're only making one side of the bird). Well, everything went fine until I told Ryan to get one eye to glue on. His response was priceless, "No Mommy. Bird no have one eye, bird have two eyes. Me need two eyes." How do you argue with that? So, Ryan's bird officially has two eyes...like all birds should!

A future in the ministry???

So...how young is too young to be called in to the ministry? We have started a Monday night tradition in our house. We have a family devotion time. Right now, since the kids are still really young, it's nothing too complicated. We're going through a Veggie Tales family devotional. It's really neat. It gives you a little story about Larry the Cucumber or Bob the Tomato. Then it tells a Bible story and gives you a fun activity to do with your kids. (It also includes some discussion questions, but those will still have to wait a while.) Last night's story was about Baby Moses. How "his mommy put him in a basket and gave him a push into the water to keep him safe from the king. A princess found him and kept him." (That's the story in Ryan's words!) The book had us put the boys into a laundry basket and act out a "shipwreck." Rob pushed them all around the living room floor, and they had a blast! Then we shipwrecked on "Ice Cream Island." We ate ice cream and talked about the Baby Moses story. (If you ever get a chance, you'll have to ask Ryan to tell you that story and the one about Jesus and the blind man. It's too cute!) After ice cream, it was time for a family prayer and bath. I don't know if Ryan got the idea while he was in the tub, or what. But he ran out of the bathroom with the toilet paper holder. He ran into the living room, turned it upside down, and set his "Bible story" (the devotional) on top of it. Then he was going to each of us (Rob, Drew and myself) and asking, "Do you want to hear a Bible story?" I guess he's using the toilet paper holder as his podium to hold his Bible, like our pastor does on Sundays. After he went to bed, we cleaned up the house and put away his podium. When he woke up this morning, he was upset that we had moved it. He found it and set it up again in the middle of the living room. So maybe now instead of wanting to be "a man" when he grows up, he'll want to be a preacher!

Who knew our house could be so quiet???

Today was Ryan's first day of "school." He is attending the MOD program at our church. We took him last week to meet his teachers. He got really sad at one point and thought we were leaving him. So I was dreading dropping him off today. I didn't want to deal with lots of tears and having to convince him that he was going to have fun. We had really been talking up the whole idea of going to school (although he REALLY wishes it included a ride on a school bus). He woke up early this morning, a little after 7:00. He came bolting out of his bedroom door and shouted, "It no dark outside, me ready for school!" (He's been getting up before the sun comes up, so we tell him all the time that he has to wait until it's not dark outside before he can get out of bed.) He had a hard time grasping the concept that there was still more than 2 hours until we needed to leave. The morning went by pretty smooth. I got him all ready to go and took him outside for our "first day of school" photo shoot. We grabbed all of the necessary things, or at least I thought we did, and were out the door with time to spare. As I got him buckled into his seat, he said, "Mommy, you forgot to make my hair spiky." So we had to get out and head back inside to spike up his hair using Daddy's gel. Well, me being the crazy-camera-mom that I am, we had to re-do the entire photo shoot...so that 40 years from now we'll remember that he had spiky hair on his first day of MDO. We got back into the car and buckled when he said, "Mommy, I need to go pee pee." So out we got (again). We ran inside just in time to make it to the potty. And out the door we went. (Thank goodness for the "time to spare" that we started the morning with!) He was SO excited to go to his class and see his teachers. He ran in so fast that he almost forgot to kiss me goodbye.

As I walked into the house from dropping him off, I realized that I had forgotten to pack a diaper for nap time (a necessity). So, I had to head back out the door. What a morning! When I finally got home, Drew fell asleep for his morning nap. And, for the first time in a LONG time, the Nordlander house was silent. I thought of all the things I should be doing...but a nap sounded much better. Ahhh....is this what it'll be like every Tuesday and Thursday? Should I feel so guilty for having someone else watch my child so I can do whatever I want? Hmmm...

I went to pick him up at 2:30 and they told me that he had a GREAT day. (In fact, he was the only one in the class to participate in the "Creative Movements" class. And let me tell you, he can move quite creatively....so I'm sure they'll really enjoy him during that time!) As soon as we got out of ear shot of his teacher, he said, "Mommy, my teacher no let me eat my cookie." Immediately I felt guilty...thinking back to the note they sent home. Had they told me not to pack a cookie? Did I pack too much junk food? When we sat down for dinner that night and Rob asked him about his day, he told him the same thing. "My teacher no let me have my cookie." Rob thought to ask the obvious question: Why? His response, "My teacher turned off the light....and nobody could see!" I guess we need to get him accustomed to eating a little quicker. He can prolong the meal process for hours, if allowed. I guess he took too long eating the "healthy" things that he ran out of time for the "goodies." Oh well, maybe he'll learn.

(Update: When I picked him up on Tuesday and asked about his day, he said, "My teacher no let me eat my brownie." Guess he hasn't learned yet!)

There's a whole new world out there....FOOD!

For the past few nights, Drew has been waking up every 2-3 hours wanting to eat. I guess this was my first sign that he's ready for some REAL food. Well, if you consider rice cereal "real food." So, tonight was the big night. Follow along as I take you through his experience....

He was so hungry that he was gnawing at his toys in anticipation of what was to come. (In fact, his shirt was soaked in drool....he could hardly wait!) I guess he could smell the boobie milk being warmed. (When I pulled it out of the freezer, Ryan said, "Baby Drew eats ice cream??" I guess he thought he was getting to eat his dessert before he ate his dinner!) Drew had a huge smile on his face as he awaited his yummy cereal.


In the midst of feeding him, the cereal was a little too soupy, so I decided to add some more cereal to the bowl. Rob, who doubled as the photographer for the occasion, brought over the container of rice cereal. I scooped some out and added it to the bowl. As I put the spoon back in, Rob obviously didn't have a good hold on the container and the weight of the spoon caused it to fall out of his hand...and all over the table, floor, my lap, etc. Drew was not too happy to wait while we cleaned up the mess. But as soon as he saw the spoon coming back towards his mouth, he was happy again.


By the time he was done eating, he was covered in cereal from ear to ear, and head to toe.


He immediately went for an "after dinner" bath. He can't wait till tomorrow night when he gets another taste of heaven! (And he hasn't even had the good stuff yet!)