Bruiser

At his 19 month check up we learned that Ethan is big. Nothing new there..

Naomi tells me that she has people ask if Ethan and Adelaine are twins. She says no and then asks them to guess which one is older and about 50% guess Ethan is the oldest. Adelaine (3.5 years old)  is only slightly taller, but Ethan outweighs her by 2.2 kg (5 pounds)!

Here are some Ethan stats:

Weight:  96th percentile at 14.5 kg (32 lbs) – and that’s after he lost four pounds a few months ago.

Height: 75th percentile

Noggin’ size: 95th percentile

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That big head on top of his body helps explain his method of walking. To walk like a Bruiser:

First, point your body at your desired target, feet wide apart.

Second, lean forward with your head out in front of you.

Third, hope your feet can move fast enough to keep you balanced and your face off the ground.

Fourth, get your face back off the ground, reacquire target, repeat process.

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The nurse had to give Bruiser two needles at his check up. He didn’t fuss with either of his shots and the nurse noted that he has a high pain tolerance and asked if we noticed that around home. Yes, we do notice it, especially compared to his two relatively wimpy sisters. Maybe it has to do with how often he falls down.

That’s ma’ boy!

Easter

“What? A pink comb?!?”

The kids’ aunts and Nanna sent out a ton of new clothes for the kids with Auntie Stacy for her visit, including new Easter Sunday outfits. After church we headed out to get some photos of the kids.

Later on we had some friends over for lunch and we took the kids outside to find their Resurrection Eggs, little plastic eggs with little visual aids inside to help teach them the Easter story (i.e. strip of leather to remind us of Jesus being whipped, nails to remind us of the cross, etc).

After the egg hunt we came back inside to review the Easter story.

It was a really nice day for us. The girls were really into the day and understood the importance of Easter, with Adelaine repeatedly saying excitedly that, “Jesus died on the cross for our sins!” We also got to spend the day with family (Auntie Stacy) and some good friends. Thank you Lord for a wonderful day of remembering your love for us.

Ellie is Five

Today was our big girl’s fifth birthday! Sometimes I look at Ellie and think I am too young to be the father of such a big girl, then I remember that my dad had three teenagers by the time he was my age…

Ellie has been asking about her birthday every week for at least 8 months. She looks forward to it sooo much each year. For the last several days as she has been counting down, every few hours she would proudly say that she will be five. Finally the day has come and she was almost vibrating with energy.

We had just a small family celebration tonight and have a bigger party planned for her with one of her friends, Evan, whose fifth birthday is only a few days later. It was so much fun for us to see her excitement for her special day. Today she also started the countdown to # 6 when she asked how many days were left until her next birthday. For us, we are hoping that sixth birthday doesn’t come too fast.

Happy birthday Ellie. We love you!

On White

As a gift for Naomi’s 30th birthday, I wanted to give her some nice photographs of herself. So one day after work I dragged home a ton of lighting equipment and set up a studio in our living room after the kids went to bed.

My beautiful wife:

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The next day I dug out the white paper background again to get some pics of the kids. It was a challenge getting the kids to sit still and smile, but we managed to get a few photos of the munchkins that are keepers.

The perfect family:
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But of course, photographs lie.

The reality was more like this:
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Squinty eyes, big eyes, bye byes.

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“Enough of the cute stuff, I’m outta here!”

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For this one I asked friends on facebook to come up with a caption.

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My submission was “Why are girls so weird?”

A few others were:
Becky: “What are they so happy about?”
Nichole: “uh oh, my sisters have gone stepford!”
Adam: “There are two of them, and only one of me…this can’t be good.”
Scott: “Smile and wave… just smile and wave.”

Ellie

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Adelaine

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And Ethan Buddy

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We got one of me too, trying not to look like my usual grumpy self.
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