Grant's first tooth out

Where are they now?

A few things about Grant: -He is starting to enjoy floor puzzles. -He goes to preschool M,W,F morning. He says he doesn't like it but seems happy when I pick him up. -He calls Kate his best friend and always wants her around...but she is still not allowed in his top bunk. -His favorite toy is his Playmobile castle. -He loves riding his two wheeler through the woods with dad. -He can read simple words like "hat," "pop" etc. -He loves when dad reads him the Boxcar children at night. -He is very active but incredibly obedient. A dirty look is all it takes for him to change his behavior. (Most of the time.) About Kate: -She is into babies, shoes and all things girl. -She goes to school M,W and stays home with me on Fridays. After we get housework done I let her choose what we will do. Last week it was to play shoe store. Today it was playing Star Wars. -She has learned to write "Kate" but is struggling with "Niedzinski." :) -She loves to sing. She combines different songs to make her own. -She enjoys knocking over Grant's towers and kicking him when she doesn't get her way. -She loves to snuggle with me and tell me about her friends from school. -She copies everything I do. Today she told me she can't wait to drive a minivan.

Kate on two wheeler

How does your garden grow?

Our kids have never been into fruits and vegetables. At the pharmacists suggestion we blamed Grant's aversion to fruit on the fact that all of his medication was fruit flavored. But, this couldn't be carried over for Kate. Until recently Kate only liked peppers and peeled apples and Grant liked the same plus carrots. But, out of the blue a month ago Grant started saying he wanted to try new foods and has since added pears, cauliflower and oranges to his palate. Oh, and salad. But, only if we are at a Japanese restaurant and it is iceberg with ginger dressing. :) Over the weekend they both tried grapes and liked them. I thought I'd capitalize on their new interest in food by telling them that their cousin Oliver and Grandma Ned were growing gardens. They said they'd like to grow some vegetables too. I got very excited and asked what kinds of vegetables. Kate said, "peppers, grapes and sandwiches." Grant said, "ice cream." I guess we have a long way to go.

Movie with Grandma

I hope nobody tells my mom about all this junk food grandma bought me!

Sleeping Like a Baby

Our kids have funny sleep habits. The best is Kate, who sleeps with two purses, a jewelry box, a baby, a water bottle, a book and a blankie. Grant cracks me up because he takes his shirt off right when we leave the room, no matter how cold it is. He told me the other day that he's big enough to sleep without a shirt on now, so I should stop giving one to him before bed.

zoo trip

Grant has started school on Fridays at the recommendation of his teacher. Up until now he has been going on Monday and Wednesday mornings with Kate. His Monday/Wednesday class is mostly girls (who like to sit in their seat quietly) but Friday has more boys so she thought Grant would enjoy it. He does like it most days... except for those days when I do things like take Kate to the zoo! How could I have done that last Friday?! I should have remembered that I can only do really girly, boring things so he'd have nothing to be jealous of.

I talked to Kate in the car on the way to pick up Grant about how we probably shouldn't talk about the zoo or Grant would get jealous and his feelings would get hurt. She agreed and was totally tight lipped about it even when Grant asked what we did. (I was not encouraging lying, just diverting the conversation.) I was super impressed with her maturity in the situation. Until, I forgot something in the house, and had to run in for one quick minute. When I came back out Grant was wide eyed and voice shaking asked, "did you really go to the zoo today without me?" Kate, you little stinker!

But, I'd have to say it was worth the wrath of Grant. We went with Lindsay and Oliver and the kids spent much of the morning holding hands- sooo cute! They liked to move at the same pace and obeyed really well so Lindsay and I got to relax and enjoy walking and talking. My favorite part was watching Oliver jump like a kangaroo.

Grant and God

Kate: I'm sooo happy.
Grant: Why?
Kate: Because I got new clothes!
Grant: Kate, you are not supposed to love clothes. You are supposed to love God.
Kate: Oh. (sigh)
Grant: I mean, you can love your parents, but you have to love God more.
Kate: I love school...
Grant: Do you love God more?
Kate: yes.
Grant: good.

They're Back!

Last month Grandma and Grandpa Niedzinski moved back to Michigan! We are so thrilled to have them just an hour and 13 minutes away. But who's counting?! They live on about 30 acres in the middle of no where. The kids have never seen woods or streams or anything like it. Every time they visit they learn something new that they could never have learned as city kids. It is so special to have our kids growing up near such loving and godly people. We hope to see tons and tons of them in the days to come. On Saturday while I was sick Jim took the kids there and Grant cam home with all sorts of stories. "I saw an ax and a gun and I tried a new food called lasagna and I heard a coyote (which he didn't). They are having a ball.

Florida

We recently went to Florida to visit grandma and grandpa Koss. We had so much fun making sandcastles, swimming at night and just getting to be with grandma and grandpa. Grant and Kate were so excited in fact, that they often got up very early in the morning to snuggle on the couch with grandma and grandpa while mom and dad were still asleep. Many special memories were made.

Swimming

Over the weekend we went to our good friend, Jack's birthday party at Goldfish Swim School. His parents own the place and Grant and Kate take weekly lessons there. If you live in the area we highly recommend it! :) Grant hasn't been able to swim since he got tubes in his ears several months ago because he was afraid they would hurt. But, he changed his tune when dad got in the water with him and offered to goof around. I think our problem is solved!

Christmas 2011

Here are my very late Christmas photos. I got a new computer for Christmas and I didn't know how to put photos on it so the blog has been a little sparse. There are some funny stories behind these pictures. The guy that so graciously dressed up as santa is my cousin's new Jewish fiancé. What a guy. Thank you, Joe! Another one of the pictures is the kids standing next this year's Christmas tree. I did no decorating this year. We had barely finished unpacking boxes when Christmas came around so I decided I was not going to "mess the place up" by unpacking my Christmas stuff. So, I found this old tree in the basement and set it up on the 23rd so we'd have somewhere to put our presents on Christmas morning. The kids seemed satisfied and that's all that really matters. Kate's big present for the year was a doll house and Grant's was a castle and I'm happy to report they are still playing with them every single day. This is the first year that has happened. The absolute best part of the season (besides celebrating Jesus) was having my brothers and sisters home and spending quality time together at mom and dad's. It was a Christmas I will never forget.

Miss Fancy Pants

Kate is a riot. She insists on wearing her black patent leather shoes to bed every night, without socks. She calls them her "house shoes." The other night she convinced Jim to let her go to bed wearing a black velvet skirt, tights and those shoes. How is she comfortable? She will not use a sheet, pillow or comforter.

During rest time every day she has been trying on ALL of her summer clothes that I hung way up high so this very thing wouldn't happen. But, my little monkey found a way. I explained to her how much work it is for me to rehang her clothes everyday and that she can only try on pajamas, bathing suits and other clothes that are in baskets and can easily be put away. (Yes, we have tons of dress up clothes but that is no fun anymore.) Just when I thought I would find her in some sort of predictable set of flannel pajamas, yesterday she surprised me by wearing Grant's socks, underwear and pants that were in the baskets. I guess there is no harm in that, I just didn't even think of telling her not to try on his clothes.

Besides dressing up all the time Kate can be found singing. Constantly. Mostly stringing lines of different songs from school and church together. I think it is really beautiful but it drives Grant crazy because it interferes with his need to constantly talk! Today he said, "Mom, she has been singing nonstop for two days and it is giving me a headache." We are trying to find a happy medium. One thing is for sure- it is never quiet around here!

OT

From ages 0-2ish Grant had occupational therapy. We worked on getting him to eat and to use his right hand. He graduated OT at 2 1/2 and has continued to favor his left hand. After a few months of preschool it was determined that he should start up occupational therapy again. This time he does it at Beaumont in the very cool room pictured here. They keep Grant's attention by having him do a fine motor activity and then as a reward he can play around in here. He loves going and we are starting to see signs of improvement!

Grant's Birthday

For Grant's 5th birthday we took him to Beauty and the Beast (the play). From the time the first actor came out until the finale his jaw was on the floor. He thought everything was funny and when the actors on the stage would ask a question Grant would yell out the answer. The coolest part was at the end the whole cast sang happy birthday to him and gave him a gift. (They do this if you come within a week of your birthday.) We thought it would be special for Grant to be alone with Jim and me but the whole time he kept saying he wished Kate was there with him!

After the play we came back to our house where Grandma and Grandpa Koss and Lindsay, Josh and Oliver met us. Grant wanted a transformer theme so we ate transformer cupcakes and played pin the helmet on the transformer. Kate pinned the helmet on papa's nose and he kept it there all night. I think it was one of the best days of Grant's life ever.

When he was asleep that night Jim and I went in and prayed for him and thanked God over and over that He saved Grant's life 5 years ago!

Advent

I had been feeling quite proud of Grant's spiritual questions...until today. :) He had been asking if God leaves dirt piles when He moves mountains and had been wondering how exactly God got in his heart? Did he swim in, jump in, or walk in? I thought he had been jiving with the whole advent thing too, until today he pointed at the advent calendar and asked "when are we going to do the chocolate chart today?"

We moved!

It has been a long couple of weeks gearing up for the move, but we did it! We are so thankful to be in our new place. The kids are loving their new pad and especially their new bunk beds. We have a long way to go before we are unpacked and settled but we feel like we belong here. Thank you, God, for your abundant provision.

Health Update

Grant had tubes put in his ears yesterday. He has been on 8 antibiotics this calendar year for ear infections so this was long overdue. He was very brave and lively soon afterwards. Here is a photo of him playing a few hours later.

He also started occupational therapy this week. He did OT until he was about two and it was really helpful. He had a stroke during his heart surgery and wasn't very good at using his right side during his first few years. Thankfully, he got caught up quickly and the last few years has been right on target. Since starting preschool his teachers noticed he could use some help with writing and fine motor skills so we are getting services at Beaumont. He loves the one on one attention and thinks of it as one big game!

Halloween

The kids had a blast trick-or-treating. This is them making their scariest face. Grant was overly concerned that we couldn't see his scary face through the mask and made it very known that there was a scary face under there.

What a week!

I don't know who had a better week, us or the kids!? Jim and I just got home from celebrating our 10 year anniversary in Delray Beach, FL and the kids returned from 4 days in Disney World with grandma Koss! They ate breakfast with Mickey Mouse, rode Peter's Pan's Flight twice, went on a safari and ate popcorn every day. When we arrived home they couldn't stop talking over each other telling me all the fun things they did. I am blown away by grandma's ability to see and do so much! When I asked Kate what her favorite part of Disney was she said it was meeting Cinderella's evil stepmother because she was so nice to her! Grant said it was being with grandma every day. :)