Happy Father's Day!

Happy Fathers Day to Zach! he is such a good daddy! sawyer and zach have so much fun together already and sawyer thinks daddy is so cool and so funny :) i can tell that they are going to be best buddies forever.

Breastfeeding, it does the body good

So recently i have discovered that i have a slight problem. its really isnt a bad problem to have, in fact- i sort of LIKE having this problem. maybe i shouldnt even describe it as a problem at all, but it seems that suddenly none of my pants fit. they are all too big! when i went back to work, dr d told me that i looked very tiny and asked if i weighed less than before i was even pregnant. i told him i thought i was about the same- since i had returned to pre-pregnancy weight about a week after having sawyer (i fear i will NEVER be this lucky again) but then gained a few pounds after he was born because i was STARVING all the time. then i noticed that one of my favorite pairs of jeans were literraly falling off while i was at the post office and one of my friends from work commented that my scrubs were really big looking (ok, not that i own any tight scrubs) so i decided to weigh myself (which i rarely do because i dont care) and i weigh LESS than i did before i got pregnant with sawyer (only by about 4 pounds but hey ill take it). i think that it is from breastfeeding- and now i just might breastfeed forever- BEST DIETPLAN EVER. for real. today im wearing capris from when i was in highschool. and im totally not trying to brag- truth be told my stomach still slightly resembles a ball of dough and my chest is disproportionatly HUGE compared to the rest of my body (which im now used to and enjoy) and im not tonned one bit and sooo out of shape. im just saying- mammas, breastfeed your babies- because obviously breastfeeding does the body good :) and as you can tell, its working on someone else too! look how big my tiny baby is! it is insane how fast he grows!

Deer Baby, Sawyer Sleeps, and a Nice Weekend

We had a pretty great weekend at our house! The forecast called for a yucky, rainy weekend but the days turned out to be nice with thunderstorms at night! saturday we got a bit of planting done in the yard. everything is so green finally!! my peonies finally started to bloom, they are so pretty again this year, and the peonies we planted last year that didnt grow, grew this year which is awesome!!!! they didnt flower but perhaps next year- i was just excited that they grew! we also went on a nice walk on the path behind the house. zach has been seeing a tiny baby deer in the "green space" area and we wanted to see if we could see it again. we didnt, but the walk was nice- sawyer fell right asleep and cooper had a blast-of course he found a mud puddle to play in right away! i tell him that he is the dirtiest dog in the world!






























here are sawyer and i in the yard near the garden.
















this was the prettiest thing! on the bank of the big creek in our yard there are a TON on dasies growing this year- twice as many as last year. it is georgeous, but sadly it was hard to get a picture of how neat it really is!






























here sawyer and i are under the giant tree by the creek- it is the most awesome location for his future tree house- right next to a bend in the creek, and its so nice and shady under there.
















We had friends over Saturday night. Zach has mastered making amazing bbq chicken on the grill It was so good. Also Saturday night was the first night that we ever put Sawyer to bed in his crib in his own room- he has been sleeping right next to me in a little "van wyk baby bed" which is the bed that every van wyk in Zachs family has slept in since his dad and aunts and uncles were babies. It was awesome because he was just right there next to me and i could see him..but he wasnt in the bed with me. But Zach's cousin just had a baby so it is time to pass it on. He can't sleep in our room untill he goes to college :) He had a rough time last night and woke up a few times after i put him to bed. I had to let him snuggle his puppy toy and listen to George Strait to get him to fall asleep (a habit that daddy started..) he finally stayed asleep at about 10 and slept all night long, even through the thunderstorm which was awesome because it woke me up! Tonight he went to bed at 8 and has been doing great! He cuddled puppy and listend to George Strait again :) but he fell asleep and didnt cry! He loves puppy. Here is is on Saturday playing in his exersaucer AND of course giving puppy a big cuddle at the same time. He is such a snuggler!! I love it!
















Today we went to a cub's game with Chase's parents. The Iowa Donor Network was giving organ donors familys tickets so they brought us along. Saldly the cubs didnt win but it was really nice weather today! I totally got some sun-FINALLY! Here we are with Chase's family.
















Paul and Zach had matching hats, shirts (chase's organ donor be someones hero shirts that we all wore to the game) khaki cargo shorts and matching blue tounges :)

















I am hoping for nice weather this week! I really want to head to the pool this week and get a bit more color. I have a bit of a farmer tan after today!

Sawyer eats Cereal

A few days ago we let Sawyer try rice cereal for the first time and he LOVED it! he ate it right down! it gets pretty messy but he seems to really enjoy getting to eat some food- though i think he def. still prefers to nurse the best. he is also allowed to start eating some baby food now but we havent started that yet...dr w said to start with orange veggies when we start him on food. im going to make baby food for him though as much as possible- i read some not so great things about the store bought kind! i think we will do carrots first and then squash, maybe sweet potatoes...

here is sawyer eating cereal for the first time

things have been busy here with graduation, ect. This weekend we went to uncle marcus's grad party-what a great time! Sawyer was so happy the whole time and was a big hit with everyone there. zach epoxied our garage floor this weekend and it looks great! i cant park my jeep on it for 3 more days though!- thats the only bad part because it looks so so so much nicer now. we also got a blueberry bush and a raspberry bush for our yard this weekend! and more strawberry plants too! and i have been putting my clothesline to good use with these nice days!

here is Sawyer giggling!

4 months Old!

still makes this face (1month and 4 months)

Where has the time gone? This time last year I had just found out that I was pregnant after taking 4 tests...all were positive. I was just so excited that I couldn't believe it. Sawyer is pushing up on 17 pounds already he was 16lbs 9 oz and 26 inches today at his checkup- yes he is huge! i guess he gets it from his grandpas- its not from zach and i! that puts him in the 86th percentile for weight and 82nd for height- big dude! wonder what the 99th percentile babies look like!

He can smile, laugh, coo, sit on his own for very breif periods, stands very well with us holding his hands, and he is getting a tooth already! Yep, he is super drooly and has a little rough bump on his gums- bottom right. Crazy! he ate rice cereal for the first time today (organic whole grain brown rice mixed with breastmilk so no worries!) and he loooooooved it- he ate it right down and didnt spit it out at first like babies often do- i tasted it though and it was pretty good- tastes like cream of wheat! he had to get his shots today though and he did fine- but tonight about the time the tylenol i gave him wore off he started bawling- so loud that zach came in from outside to see what was going on- it was terrible actually- broke my heart. i gave him more tylenol and put him in a warm bath to try to make him feel better- he just pulled his legs up and then wouldnt move them at all like "oooooowwwww"...now he is using me as a pacifier and seems ok.

he was really happy before the shots though- we had a med student today before we saw the dr and he LOVED her- he likes to flirt with ladies- go for it buddy, she is probably smart!

Poison Control

i was working on friday and things were getting a bit crazy- i had just gotten an ambulance in, we already a few patients in, and two others checked in right as the ambulance was rolling in. Well the other nurse I was working with asks me right during this wildness..what is the number for poison controll...some kid had swallowed something i guess. Anyway, i tell her the number and she writes it down and calls. She dials the number casually and cradles the phone on her shoulder, poised to write down the operator's suggestion. She looks a bit confused- here is what she heard on the other line (and what she told me she was thinking)
Hello and thank you for calling. You will be charged between 37 and 67 cents a minute for this call (hmmm when did poison controll start charging for these calls)

You must be 18 or older to place this call, if you are not 18 please hang up now (wait, you have to be 18 to overdose now or eat things you shouldnt)

Welcome to the seduciton hotline (WHAT!!)

she had dialed 1-900 instead of 1-800... what a difference one little numbe can make :)

Other than that it was just busy...i worked memorial day because I want the 4th and christmas off...work was busy and now im so tired. I cant wait to sleep in tomorrow and cuddle sawyer...i missed him SO much. Im going to start doing sign language with him tomorrow also. im going to do milk, bath, eat, drink, sleep, please, thank you, and book for now and then go from there in a few months when he starts picking it up. We also have his 4 month shots and checkup on friday and im sure that dr w is going to give us the go ahead to start giving sawyer food! He is def. intersted in food so i think that he will enjoy it. Also i weighed him at work and he is almost 17 pounds already which would put him in the higher percentiles again. LOL- i guess he got both his grandpas heights because zach and i both are kinda little!

Oh, and I found a deer tick on me on friday night- my knee was hurting like a bruise and i kept rubbing it, i thought i felt a tiny scab and when i looked it was a deer tick...i hadnt been outside at all that day because i had been at work the entire day.... it was all red and sore even after zach pulled the disgusting thing off...so dr g wrote me a script for a z-pack so i dont get lymes disease... and it is ok to take while nursing thank goodness...and the redness cleared up within 24 hours which is good. Zach put some sort of tick killing stuff down in the yard the next day, and down by the fire pit too....now i want to get a few chickens again...they eat ticks.

"Soy Sauce" is good at Sushi

Well we have had a pretty busy week and weekend. friday night we went out to dinner and sawyer was so good! we brought along his bumbo seat and when the food came we let him sit in it in the middle of the table- he loved it! the waitresses thought he was so cute and the people at the other tables were impressed that he could sit so well- one grandpa type guy thought he was 9 months old because he was sitting up- guess they have never seen a bumbo before lol- he can only sit on his own for about 5 seconds. saturday we drove to iowa city to see anna and nate who were in iowa just for the weekend for nates brothers med school graduation.

sawyer snoozing on the way to iowa city

Seeing aunt anna and uncle nate

With Aunt anna

Aunt anna hadnt gotten to see sawyer since he was three or four weeks old and uncle nate hadnt even met sawyer yet!we all went out and had some delicious sushi together- the bumbo was still in our jeep from the night before so we let sawyer sit in it on the table again..and he loved it again!

Our little "soy sauce" with the kikkoman's soy sauce

Then zach, marcus, sawyer and I had to go home because uncle marcus had to work and zach, sawyer and I had to get our pictures taken at church- sawyer LOVED the lady that took our pictures and he kept laughing at her. He looked really cute!

snoozing on the way home..using his binky which is rare for him

Oh and my new laptop came awhile ago, making it- as you may have noticed- so much faster to upload pictures!! I love it! so in honor of my new faster laptop here is a video of sawyer sort of laughing..its the best on i have gotten yet, he gets super distracted by the camera and wont laugh!