Vandervaart Family: April 2011

April was a very busy month. For the first weekend, we went to Ohio and celebrated Claire's brithday with our Ohio family and friends. It was a great day and Claire had a blast. Then, we celebrated my dad's birthday by doing a balloon release at his gravesite and then having a nice family dinner back at our apartment. It was a nice celebration but still a very difficult day for everyone. The girls continue to go to school every Monday and Thursday and really enjoy it. We went to church on Easter and then had breakfast with my family. Then, we went to dinner and had an Easter egg hunt and Frank and Jan's house. It was a great day! We ended our month the best way possible...we welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family! Keith and Debbie welcomed little Allison Catherine into the world on April 27th. She weighed 6lbs 12oz and is 21 inches long. Claire and Grace have met her once and did a good job only touching her feet - they were in awe and did a lot of staring.

Claire update: Continues to be a busy bee but has become a wonderful communicator. She is so polite and says "please, thank you, no thank you, bless you," etc. She loves to show Grace how things work and what noises animals make. We are still working on potty training. We expected her to regress with my dad's passing and expect some trouble when Jake is born but we are hoping she will continue to potty fine - she just doesn't like to go #2 on the potty!

Grace update: Continues to be a mellow kiddo. Her latest thing is whenever you upset her (i.e. tell her no or discipline in any way) she runs away crying and then drops to her knees and buries her head into the floor. At home, I ignore it, but in public it is a real treat to deal with! :) She is communicating better - she understands so much but still doesn't verbalize too much. I am sure it is hard to get a word in with big sis around!

Jacob Update: On April 6th, we had an ultrasound to see if my placenta was in a better place and it was OK but still problematic. I will have another ultrasound in May. Our little man was measuring 3lbs 3 oz. On April 23rd I went into some sort of labor and had contractions every 3 minutes. Luckily I was at work so I just walked over to triage. It took them about 6 hours to slow my contractions down and get my blood pressure regulated but I am now off work for the rest of the pregnancy and supposed to "take it easy." (How do you do that with two toddlers? Ha!)

The following are pictures from Easter...

Jacob continues to grow

Daddy and his girls

Claire and Grace coloring a picture for their new cousin Allison

Claire and Grace like to play in Claire's room and we often find them reading with chairs pulled up onto the bed.

Grace has started to say "cheese" whenever I get the camera out

Aunt Beth reading to Claire and Grace

Claire relaxing in mom and dad's bed

I took the girls out for ice cream for a little "Girl's Night Out"

Our little engiNERD :)

With potty training, we often have to pull over in the middle of errands for her to jump out of her seat and go in the potty chair we have in the car...classy! :)