Grandpa Kerschen's Visit!

Grandpa Kerschen came to visit for more that 24 hours and I wasn't in the hospital!  Yippy!  We got some good, quality time with Grandpa, even though he still opted to stay in a hotel.  We'll have a more suitable guest room for him by the time he comes again and he won't be able to use that as an excuse not to stay with us!  Even those he's gone I can still hear Lillian say, "Come get me, Grandpa, Come get me".  She must have uttered this phrase a few dozen times each day he was here and she made that poor man chase her all over the place.  She also made grandpa play ring-around-the-rosie, have tea parties and do all sorts of other fun 2 year old girl activities. 

An empty house under construction sure makes a great play house for young kids! 

Great 3 generation picture of my boys.

An even better picture of Big Joe with Little Joe.

Jak wants to walk everywhere, he's hard to hold in your arms, he dives right out!

Daddy gave Lillian a penny to feed the dinosaur, it ended up costing him a hole pocket full of change!  Pretty smart donation ploy at Red Rocks.  Lillian wanted to hear the dinosaur growl again and again!

The view from Grandpa's shoulders was the best!

But relaxing with Mommy in the parking lot is pretty great too!

Jak at 9 Months

 
Man, it's hard to take this 9 month old boys picture!  He is so active.  He squirms and wiggles right out of your arms if you're not careful.  He wants nothing more than to be able to take off right after Lillian and run.  He's army crawling now - which helps - but he is still so frustrated that he can't get places as easily as the big kids.  He lifts his belly right off the ground and acts like he wants to crawl then flops back down and drags himself.  Jak loves to stand at the coffee table and play.  We throw several toys in front of him and he remains happy for about a half an hour.  When we let Jak "walk" by holding onto to our fingers he takes several steps now - he's catching on - it won't be long.
Jak has four teeth - the bottom two he's showing off proudly in this picture.  He's finally starting to eat more food.  I'm not sure how he's gotten this big, he barely wants to eat.  But like Mike says,  "Have you ever met an adult that doesn't eat?".  He'll come around.  

Lillian is Two!

This picture was taken the morning of her 2nd Birthday on our way to school. 
She was so proud to have purple pigtails just like her Abby doll!

Lillian is a toddler!  Gone are so many of her baby characteristics (except for those cute chubby cheeks!).   She no longer has the saggy diaper waddle when she runs away since she is diaper free all day including naptime.  She constantly demands to do things by her "Self, SELF!" then in the same breath she'll turn and ask for help.  She jumps up & down like a toddler now and climbs on everything!  But the truest sign that she has moved into the next phase of her childhood development is her fine tuned negotiating skills.  If we tell her it's bedtime in 5 minutes, she'll say "No, 6!".  If we offer her 3 chocolate covered ray rays for going potty in the toilet, she'll respond "No, 4 ray rays!".  The negotiating doesn't surprise me, I've babysat and worked daycare enough to be prepared for that.  But her math skills blow me away!  We test her all the time by throwing out random numbers and she always replies with one more.  What 2 year old can count so well? 

Lillian loves to encourage her brother to crawl.  We spend a lot of time on our hands and knees showing Jak what to do.  It must be working, he scoots himself all across the basement, trying to keep up with her.  He hasn't figured out how to use his legs yet, he just drags them behind himself like a wounded soldier (make that a wounded soldier with a grin from ear to ear!).  He's so proud of his mobility and gushes from the attention he's receiving from his sister. 

A little shy when we sang Happy Birthday

Big hugs when Daddy arrived!

Aunt Casey showing off Keira!

Lily Go Potty, Mama

This phrase is being heard on repeat around here and it's music to our ears.  Last Monday when I picked up the kids from school (it's daycare but we sophisticate it up by calling it school), Lillian's teacher Miss Red said she thinks Lillian's ready to get potty trained.  It took a little while for me to get to the store, but Thursday morning when Lillian woke up, she found a stack of 16 pairs of panties waiting for her on the coffee table.  You'd have thought it was Christmas morning or something!  Her eyes opened wide, she started tugging at her pajama zipper and saying, "Lily go potty, Lily go potty".  We pulled off her pj's and sure enough, she went.  Afterwards she stood up and said, "Lily go potty, Mama" with a slightly different inflection.  We couldn't get a diaper back on her after that.  She went to school in real underpants - we were of course nervous, but the drive is only a couple blocks from here and she made it just fine.
Saturday morning, I took the kids to the zoo.  Somewhere in the far corner of the zoo, deep in Monkey, Gorilla and Ape heaven, I heard, "Lily Go Potty, Mama".  I said, "Ok, sweetie, let's go".  It took me a full 10 minutes or more to find a bathroom....but she made it!  My eyes welled up with tears and I got goosebumps telling her how proud I was of her.  Isn't it amazing the things that can make a mom proud?  We, of course, do the typical let's call Daddy, Grammie, Aunt Casey, etc. and tell them.  When she gets the phone in her hand, can you guess what she says?  Ah, yeah, I'll spare you from reading it again.  If you don't know, just check out this blogs title.
That little girl isn't even two yet and she's gone & potty trained herself.  A little peer pressure isn't always a bad thing.  She simply wanted to be just like Levi and AJ in her class.  She's been accident free a couple of days now at school and she even woke up with a dry diaper overnight this morning.  Way to go Lil!  This picture is a thing of the past....but a great memorable moment!

By the way, I should mention, Amanda gave this purse to Lillian as a thank you for being in my wedding gift.  Lillian takes her purse, with the keys and cellphone that came with it and says, "Bye, Bye, going shopping now, Bye Bye" over and over again.  She gets to the front door, puts her hand on the knob, then says, "Kiss!" and comes back to get the kiss goodbye she almost forgot.  Then goes back to the door and says, "Hug!" and comes back for a hug.  Mike & I love it - we get hugs and kisses over and over again!  Thanks Amanda!

Welcome Carolyn Jean Hanou!

 
  BIG Congratulations to Uncle Severin and Aunt Colleen who welcomed Carolyn Jean Hanou at 12 noon on Wednesday, April 24th.  Though the Colorado Kerschens weren't able to be in Maryland for her arrival, Grandma and Opa Hanou were!  And Casey, Rob & Keira almost were - they missed Carolyn's arrival by 4 days.  Carolyn took her time getting here.  Poor Colleen started feeling contractions around midnight Monday night.  You can't tell by looking at the proud new parents, but Severin and Colleen slept very little in the 35 hours it took for Carolyn to make her debut! 

We love the family name - Carolyn was my grandma's name (Carolyn Stockover Lerch ) and Jean is Colleen's mother's name. 

5 Pounds 12 Ounces - 19 inches

Carolyn's deep blue eyes are striking.  She is so alert and only 3 days old in this picture!

 We couldn't be happier for the new parents.  And it sounds like they're both loving their new role as well!

Baby Ava

You may think this is a picture of Lillian and baby Keira, but Lillian will quickly correct you.  She insists on calling Keira, Baby Ava.  The Director of Lillian and Jaks daycare had a baby girl, named Ava a few months ago. Since then all new baby girls are named Ava in Lillians mind.  Casey & I correct Lillian over and over again.  And Lillian continues to hug, kiss and snuggle her new cousin, Baby Ava.   We can't win!
 

1st School Picture!