Happy Father's Day!

JB here, I don't normally post a lot here, but I figured this blog with its daily readership of 1600 people* would be a good place to post about my dad.  We've shared some fun adventures throughout the years including ski trips, furniture building, and a trip to Ireland, but none have been more rewarding that watching Jackson and my dad become the best of friends.  It's a unique window into what my early childhood may have been like to see them constantly giggling and playing and to see how much J adores his Grandad.

 My dad models fatherhood for me in a few different ways.  The first of which is dedication.  Being a father can be exhausting, especially in context of Jackson's endless supply of energy.  But Grandad always seems to be available to play with Jackson and interact with him even when the easier thing would probably be just to turn on a kid's show on Netflix.

The second thing I see in my dad's interactions with J is being a servant.  This does not mean catering to a child's every whim, but rather working to provide for Jackson even at the cost of one's own personal time or "to-do"list.  Examples include the things that my dad has built for Jackson including a table for his trains and a stool to help him get into bed, or just taking an afternoon off from work to help take care of J when we have childcare issues.

Finally (and this list is by no means exhaustive) I see fatherhood modeled in my dad's relationship with Jackson in their friendship.  I see their faces light up when they see each other.  I see how they really enjoy spending time together, whether it's walking on the beach or trying to play baseball.

So all of this is to say, Dad/Grandad we couldn't ask for a better father, grandfather, role model, and friend.  We are so thankful you are in our lives and wish you a

Happy Father's Day!  

*this is an estimate, not based on actual numbers or readership

Favorite Books, 2 1/2 years old

I don't remember a ton from growing up, but I do remember a few books. Mom and dad were generous and let me have some of them to fill Jackson's book shelf. Many of them have been looked over, tossed over and just plain ignored until recently.  Here are some my favorites turned J's favorites

 There's a Monster at the End of this Book. I mean, who doesn't love Grover and how 'interactive' this book is. Cousin Riley has it on her iPad which makes it truly interactive as you click away at the brick wall, etc.  But even in hard copy, J loves when we act scared and he is the brave one turning the pages.

Miss Nelson is Missing. A great story about rowdy kids and a teacher who teaches them a lesson when she comes back to school dressed as the evil Miss Viola Swamp! A great, funny mystery for little kids. 

Ten Apples Up On Top. This was not one of the books I read growing up but came in a group of books from Jamie and Jim McNabb and we read it several times before nap and bed.  It is really helping J to count objects as he points to them and he can usually get up to 4 reliably and 7 more recently.  Of course he loves the big crash at the end where all the apples fall (sorry if I spoiled it for anyone). 

The Clown Arounds. J loves the nutty adventure of a clown family and their sweepstakes entry to win the grand prize of a new clown car!!

Henry's Awful Mistake. This is the story of a sweet duck who cooks dinner for his friend, Clara. The dinner, and his house, are increasingly ruined as he chases an ant around his kitchen.  When his house floods and Henry is forced to move, he invites Clara over for dinner in his new home...and sees an ANT. He looks the other way. J loves finding the ant on each page and talking about Henry's silly antics. 

Wishing all of you happy reading!

May 2014

This post takes it way back to January for some pictures since JB just downloaded his whole album for the past 6 months or so!

Jackson is just the love of our lives. He's just over 2.5 years old but I round down to an even 2.5 until he becomes "almost 3" about when our baby is due, in September. Oh and speaking of baby, it's a GIRL and she will be named Rachel. We are in love and so is Jackson. We moved him out of the crib into a big boy bed on Memorial Day weekend and it went much better than we expected. He was enthralled by Lightning McQueen sheets (even though as my friend put it, they are 50 count and so uncomfortable)! Whatever it takes to convince him to sleep in the bed. We are making it without a guard rail and have placed a few pillows strategically on the floor to protect him from falls (2 small ones so far).  He does great with staying in bed but has recently shifted back to waking at 5am. Listen my sweet little child. I love you SO much but I like you less at 5am!  I'm in the process of searching for a good toddler sleep training book, but I don't know that I can convince him to sleep later if he got my early-to-rise genes. I have cursed myself! 

We love playing pretend and it has been amazing to see his imagination take off! We play firemen, zoom our cars around the racetrack in the living room and play forts and castles. He is much better at playing by himself and I will usually find him laying on the floor talking to himself with all of his toys in a line in front of him. Who knows what goes through that little brain of his but it sure is cute to watch. Favorite toys are still cars and now sporting equipment of all types (see below). 

This was a hard-to-get picture from Ellie's second birthday party, which was super fun! 

Many mornings are spent building forestations, firetruck garages and ramps. If we come downstairs at 5am, I try to keep him indoors until at least 6 out of respect for the neighbors. J is all about ambulances, police cars and firetrucks. I have accidentally taught him that firetrucks go one of two places. As he remarked the other day, "Two firetrucks!! One goes to the hospital! One goes to breakfast!" Well, what do you expect? It's pretty quiet around Norfolk most of the time (thank goodness) so we usually see firetrucks at De Egg, Harris Teeter and Farm Fresh. We have taught him that firemen and police officers are people to help him if he is in trouble. So, they are helpful people who like to eat breakfast! Daddy is also a helpful person, or maybe part of the mob. As J puts it, "Daddy puts boo-boos on people". Well, not quite. 

JB and I took a trip to Charlottesville for my PT state planning meeting. It's been such a treat to vacation at the Boars Head Inn for the past few years and we can't wait until next year! 

I really love spending time with Jackson. We still love the zoo, the botanical gardens and watching airplanes take off near the airport. We play ball and go on walks to explore. He continues to be our sensitive little guy and has started asking us, "Mommy, how was your nap? Daddy, how was work?" It's so amazing to see how our patterns of behavior, phrases and the way we love and care for each other are being mirrored in our child. It also makes us think about how easily we get angry and frustrated and to try and take a step back, breathe and pray when that happens. 

Happy birthday to Charlotte and Caroline! We celebrated at the park with pony rides, a petting zoo and delicious strawberry cupcakes. He thinks these girls are the bees knees (with Katie McNabb too). Again, we are grateful for our little 'compound'. 

J is all about sports now. He really has a great arm and it can be trouble if you are not looking when he throws something. He loves anything that can be used as a bat...tennis racquet, bubble wand, lacrosse sticks. JB is working on skill development with his soccer and lacrosse game, and surprisingly J is pretty good. He knows how to dribble the soccer ball and he can make a proper attempt to scoop the lacrosse ball up. I just love seeing my two boys having a blast together outside. 

He is Risen!

You can tell how behind I am on blogging as this is our post from Easter. It's been a busy two months of traveling! For Easter, we celebrated with a Nurture Mom's Ministry Spring Fling at the Trinity playground. We blew bubbles, decorated (and ate!) cookies and learned the Jesus story for the holiday. The kids all made a set of Resurrection Eggs (see below), which were a perfect take-home for us to use on Easter morning. 

We had some friends over on the rainy Saturday before Easter to have an in-house egg hunt. Evan, Lizzy Kay and Jackson ran around grabbing eggs, eating goldfish and having a grand old time! 

On Easter morning, we hid some eggs for Jackson to find. 12 of the eggs were our Resurrection Eggs, which told the Easter story. For example, one has a thorn in it for the crown of thorns, one has a dice for when the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothing, one has a rock for the stone that was rolled in front of the tomb and the last one is empty because Jesus lives! We wanted to be able to balance the fun of hunting for eggs but also to focus on the meaning of this special holiday and we feel that this way has allowed us to do just that. Once he found all the eggs, we opened the 12 to learn the Easter story and then we did the goldfish/chocolate eggs after church. 

We headed out to BB and Grandad's house following church for a delicious brunch with extended 'family' and for an outside egg hunt. This kid is getting really great at finding eggs in all sorts of places. For weeks following this search, he continued to check those bushes to see if there were surprises lurking inside! 

He is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed!! 

Stay-Cation #1

We have had many opportunities to travel, as we realize that Baby Byrne #2 is closely-approaching in late September. This April, we used one of my parents' timeshare weeks and stayed at the Ocean Beach Club in Va Beach. What a wonderful week! Aside from JB getting called in on the majority of his on-call shifts, we had a great time relaxing in the cooler weather with our little family of three.  J loved the outdoor and indoor pool, the playground at 31st street and spending time eating ice cream with BB and Grandad. 

mountain climber

early morning play-time at the beach in PJs 

ice cream at North End with Grandad

chilly post-pool Boo! 

dump trucks on the beach

J's job: pushing the elevator buttons

making Easter cookies

JBs indoor soccer game

Trip to Chicago for JB's Oral Boards

In early April we set-out for Chicago for JB's Oral Boards, the culmination of his long journey through med school and residency. Many thanks to Pop Pop and Grandmom who were able to watch J while we jetted off. The first night there, we were able to see our friend, Jonathan, who moved to TN for his first job and to be back near family. We miss the Koertens so much, especially now that they have TWO little kids, but we enjoyed the time we did spend together and now have an excuse to make the long drive to Tennessee sometime (who are we kidding...we will never drive that far...hopefully they will get a desire to visit Virginia again!). 

With a belly fully of steak, JB was all set for his Oral Boards on Sunday morning. I held down the fort in the lobby, catching up on a good book (Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver) while JB made his way through 7 cases with various attending physicians proctoring.  The test is very hush-hush, but as of this past Tuesday, we know that.....

HE PASSED!!!!!!

JB (and Jonathan too!) are now officially board certified emergency medicine physicians. The long journey is over! Congrats hubby. 

While in Chicago, we ate good food (of course), such as steak and crab cakes at Gibsons, deep dish pizza at Gino's and classic soft pretzels at a great brewery off the main drag.  By the second afternoon, I was stuffed but somehow pushed through for some more delicious meals later in the weekend! 

The Byrne Baby Bean (15 weeks) at The Bean!

We walked around Chicago, starting at the John Hancock building where we enjoyed a drink (manhattan for JB and a $10 fancy juice for the pregnant lady) in the sky bar overlooking the whole city. What a way to start the vacation part of our vacation! The river was pretty but we opted to avoid the architecture tour by boat as it was slightly to very chilly on the water. Instead, Jonathan found this amazing, eclectic tour of the Pedway System led by a local Chicagoan. The Pedway is a little-known system of connections between buildings that allow people to walk inside over 5 miles of Chicago during the cold winter months. It takes you through the subway, the basement of Macy's, food courts, City Hall, lobbies of fancy office buildings and overpasses. The woman leading the tour did a phenomenal job and we felt like we had a great understanding and appreciation of the city when we finished.  

We even managed to get out for a 5 mile run around Chicago, to see Millennium Park, the Navy Pier and anything else we could stumble upon. Most of our vacations recently have involved sitting in lounge chairs on a cruise ship or at the beach so this was a great change of pace back to our usual active vacation routine! Another enjoyable vacation for the travel journal and best of all, a passing board score! 

Swinging

Our dear friends Reid and Allyson did a babysitting swap with us the other day and Reid was kind enough to snap these amazing pictures of Jackson and LK out on the swing.