The big ONE!

Well, its true. My sweet baby boy is no longer a baby. Sawyer turned one on Monday. It is still hard for me to believe that it has already been an entire year since I first held tiny brand new baby Sawyer. In a way it makes me sad- that year went way too fast and he will never ever be tiny and new again, but at the same time he is so much more fun now! He has a huge personality and he loves to play- I think his favorite game right now is the modified version of hide and go seek that he and I play in the basement toy land. He pushes one of his push walkers and I run away from him and "hide" ussually in the same few obvious spots (in the ball tent, behind the door to the stairs, behind a chair, around the corners of the "loop" ect. He walks around looking for me- and he knows where to look since it is ussually not much different from time to time, and when he finds me he goes crazy laughing ,and then he gets a big kiss from mommy and we do it all over again in a new hiding spot. The kid loves it! He is so close to walking on his own, he just still dosent quite have the confidence- he has taken two steps on his own, twice. He is saying more words every day now- and uses his signs correctly for drink, eat, and more. He can say more also and sometimes does the sign and says more along with it. He can shake his head yes and no now also which is nice.

Im trying to think of all the words he can say and so far I have come up with more (mo) , night night (nye nye), bye bye (bah bah), momma, dada, dog, ball, bath, brush, block, papa, bubble (buba), bad, no (snow),good, balloon (ball-oo), that (dat- this is probably the word he says most often, he points at EVERYTHING and says, dat, dat DAT!) and sometimes what sounds like "I like it" some of them he says a lot, and some I have only heard a few times.

And other people have heard him say juice, grandpa, and "I like dogs" a few times but I wasnt there..

We go for his well baby check on monday- Im guessing weight wise he is between 24 and 25 pounds. He is pretty tall too. He is wearing 18 month clothing and it is fitting pretty well.

We celebrated his birthday with a "Winter ONEderland" Birthday party at our house on the day before his birthday. He LOVED it. He must have remembered what presents were from Christmas because he pointed at them, said "dat" and then dove right in ripping the paper off. And man was he ever excited about getting new toys. Zach and I got him a bookshelf for all of his books and a push ball popper that he picked out. I forgot that we had gotten him the ball popper and when zach brought it out for him he went nuts! He was so excited, he was yelling and giving it hugs and kissing it. It was hilarious! He pushed it at the dog and laughed and laughed. He loved getting to eat his cake, he dug right in and made a pretty good dent in his "snowball".

Now that Sawyer is one, I am attempting, somewhat, to start weaning him- I wouldnt even try at all but we are leaving for Cancun in 5 weeks and I would love it if I didnt have to worry about pumping while I am there. He is nursing three times a day, when he wakes up, nap time, and bed time, so I have started giving him a cup of milk in the mornings now instead. The first day he did great, and the next day I worked so he did fine again, but the day after that he looked at the cup, looked at my chest and said, night night- which is what he calls nursing... he drank half the cup of milk and then I let him nurse.... not sure how things are going to go with this but I am glad that I made it to my original one year breastfeeding goal I set when he was born. Not that I thought it wouldn't happen but it is nice to accomplish something I had hoped to do.

On Sawyer's actual birthday we went to see my grandma and papa- and my oh my Sawyer loves his papa- he says papaapapappapa!!!! the whole time we are there and loves to show off for them. We were supposed to have our first class of swimming lessons that night but they were cancelled due to poor weather (almost the exact same weather we had a year ago on his birthday too, how strange!) We took Sawyer to happy joes instead- he loved when everyone sang to him but the horn freaked him out- I think he would have cried if ice cream hadnt been involved...

What a Decade!

Ive seen a few people doing this and thought it was neat- here is what I was up to this past decade!

2000-I was a freshman/sophmore in highschool. A big 14 years old- turned 15 in April. This is the year that I took drivers ed and had the best summer ever with my friends because none of us were old enough yet to have jobs. We rollerbladed everywhere and layed out at my pool every single day-I had the best tan EVER! Im pretty sure this is also the year that I started wearing make up everyday. A decade of mascara is under my belt now- im pretty proud- the days when I dont wear at LEAST mascara are few and far between- thats almost 4000 days of mascara now.

2001- I was a sophmore/junior in high school. I turned 16 and got my driver's lisence but I didnt have my own car. I drove my mom's Tracker around- oh how cool. I worked at the College this summer on the paint crew- mostly we took lots of naps. On christmas Day of this year Zach and I started dating "officially." I knew I would marry him before he was ever even my boyfriend- because he was my best friend and he made me laugh.

2002- I was a junior/senior in high school. I worked at the college again for the summer but worked catering/food service which was SO much better than painting because there was air conditioning (but no naps). This year I think is the year that Zach and I spent New Years in Florida with his family- what a blast! It is also the first year that we went to the Ozarks together!

2003- I was a senior in high school. I was a wrestling cheerleader so I could get into Zach's wrestling meets for free- what a smart plan! It is the only "sport" I ever participated in- im so athletic. I graduated in May and spent the summer working catering/food service at the college again. I was so excited to finally get my very own car! A beautiful ford mustang! At the end of the summer Zach and I decided to be just friends to so we could still actually be friends instead of going to college and breaking up as we had seen so many couples do. It was sad, and hard, but it didn't last long. In August I headed off to Cedar Rapids to attend Coe College- little did I know what was in store- It was AMAZING! I made lots of wonderful friends there who I still adore! Freshman year goes down as the craziest year of college for sure- I think because we didn't have to take anything too seriously. I lived on 4th floor Douglas and made so many great friends on that floor. Zach and I started hanging out again almost immediatly. Guess we are just supposed to be together.

2004- I was a freshman/sophmore in college. Still having the time of my life at Coe. In the spring I joined Delta Delta Delta sorority with some of my friends. Best decision I ever made- I LOVED it and made even more amazing friends. I took the CNA class that summer in preparation for the nursing program at Coe. I headed back to Coe at the end of the summer and live in Vorhees hall in a triple on the Tri Delt wing. I was sad because some of my best friends had decided to transfer to other schools for finances, ect but still had a lot of fun with those that were still at Coe.

2005- I was a sophmore/junior in college. At the end of the year I was elected Vice President of Membership in Delta Delta Delta putting me in charge of rush for the year. We had a hugely sucessful recruitment period that spring and fall and I like to give myself credit for it :) Zach and I decided that we would start dating again- "officially" even though we had been hanging out almost every day since we started college. I worked that summer as a CNA in long term care of the hospital in my hometown. At the time I liked it, but I know now I could NEVER go back and do that again- that was the hardest job EVER! I returned after the summer and had my own "single" but I had to live in the haunted room on the tri-delt wing- scary! I finally started my two years of nursing classes and internships. My first nursing internship was on an oncology/neuro surgery floor. It was ok- my how far I have come since then! That winter Zach suprised me with an adorable Boston Terrier Puppy for Christmas. We named him Cooper, after Cooper Tires. He was so sweet and mild and quickly grew to our boisterous BIG boy!

2006-I was a junior/senior in college. I started my second nursing internship on a cardiac/telemetry floor- I learned a LOT but knew tele wasnt for me forever. Sadly- our friend Chase was killed in a motorcycle accident- he died on good friday and easter has never been the same. I think this is why I ended up as an ER nurse- I still have a tender spot for motorcycle accidents and I have seen a few bad ones. Shortly after I turned 21 and celebrated with a group of girls in my sorority who all had birthdays that same week. That summer I worked as a nurse intern in OB, surgery, and ER. At this point I still thought I wanted to be an OB nurse. I actually did NOT want to work in the ER because Chase's accident seemed to "fresh". I ended up loving ER and knew that is what I was meant to do. On July 27, 2006- Zach and I got engaged. It was truly a magical day. I spent the year planning our wedding. That fall I returned to Coe for my last year and lived in an on campus apartment with three wonderful sorority sister roommates. I loved that! Three of us were nursing students so we walked to class together everyday and did homework together. I did my internship in OB and NICU. I LOVED labor and delivery but not post partum care, and I really loved NICU. Sometimes I still think I might like to do NICU nursing again. Those tiny babies are just so adorable. I was the maid of honor in my sister's wedding that fall. What fun!

2007- I did my last internship in the ER and knew it was what I wanted to do. I loved the excitement. I finished up my nursing classes and continued wedding planning. In May of 2007 I graduated from Coe College with my RN, BSN. I took boards and passed on my first try at the beggining of June and started working right after graduation at my "dream job" in the ER. July 28, 2007 I married my best friend. It was so much fun! Our wedding def. got crazy! We honeymooned for a week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. THAT was a blast! I moved in to Zach's house on E. Third street. This was also the year that Zach bought Midtown Custom Bending- we were busy!

2008-At the very beginning of the year, we bought our new home. We moved in the middle of February and Brrr was that ever cold. We spent lots of time painting and decorating and in the spring we spent almost every day our in our new 2 acre yard! Cooper was one happy dog- he had so much more room to play! In the middle of May we were excited to find out that we were expecting. We told our families the good news as a Father's Day Suprise. My belly started to grow and in September we were absolutly thrilled to find out that we would be having a son. Zach admitted that he very much wanted it to be a boy and I really wanted a son too! We started preparing for our bundle of joy and my beloved mustang had to go. I still miss it on hot summer days- icy winter days, not so much. My belly was quite large by the end of the year- I was due almost any day!

2009- We welcomed our wonderful son at the very beggining of the year. One week late on January 25, 2009 Sawyer William Van Wyk joined our family. I enjoyed three months off work to be home with him and at the end of April I returned to the ER two days a week. This has worked very well for our family and I enjoy being home with my buddy most days. We spent the year watching in amazement as our little baby grew into quite a big boy who is talking, almost walking, and changing every day! He spent time in the Ozarks, and had his first trip to the beach at Lake Michigan. We look forward to watching him grow every day, and can't wait to see what the next decade has in store for our family!

Christmas and a New Decade to Enjoy

Christmas at our house was so much fun. Sawyer loved his playland right away and crawled right over to it and went through the tunnels. We also gave him a ton of those plastic balls to put inside and he didnt even want to open any of his other presents- he just pointed at the bags of balls saying "ball, ball ball!!!" We had to move them where he couldnt see them to get him to open anything else! We also got him a balloon and I think that it was one of his favorite things- now he loves balloons and whenever he sees one he points and points and says balla Ball! The kid def. loves balls! He didn't care much about opening presents but once they were open he loved getting new toys! We spent Christmas morning at our house and then spent the rest of the day with Zach's Family and My family. My sister and nate got stuck in Omaha on Christmas Day so we got to see them the next day instead which worked out ok- it was like an extension on Christmas!

Sawyer was so funny- on christmas day we saw my grandparents and sawyer walked all over their house with papa's walker-we gave him one of those baby push toys for christmas but he hadnt seemed to care too much, but when we got home from grandma and papa's house, he pushed the toy all over everywhere! I dont think it will be too long before he is walking all on his own!

One of Zach's family christmases was held at a hotel and we all went swimming in the pool- Sawyer loves the water and swam until his fingers were wrinkled and his lips were purple! What a little fish- I just signed him up for swimming lessons that start at the end of the month- I think he is going to love them!

We had a great time ringing in the new year too! We stayed at the Embassy Suites up in Des Moines and went to the party there which was so much fun! There was an awesome dinner and drinks and a huge balloon drop at midnight. We had so much fun- my parents watched Sawyer for us and said he was very good the whole night!

We also got to spend lots of time with some of our friends who were home for the holidays which is always wondeful and we have enjoyed having daddy around so much these past few weeks! It is amazing to think that a year ago Sawyer wasn't even born yet! 2009 has been such a wonderful year for our family- we cant wait to see what 2010 brings!