Friendship

I've been putting this post together in my head for the past several days and just need to get to it...so here I go. It's random how I've come to wanting to write about this, but it will all come together, so stay with me.

This past week has felt very stressful to me. I think there were a few underlying reasons, and then added ones, too.

We learned two weeks ago that our offer on a new house was accepted! It's a house, and neighborhood, that we've been keeping an eye on for several months now, waiting for the right time to possibly place an offer. It's a bit surreal, but after a week of back and forth between our realtor and the builder, they accepted our offer! So, we'll be closing in the next couple of weeks and listing our house on the market. We won't move likely for a few months, until our house sells. It's all working out quite well, as the builder will be renting from us while he builds his next house. So, with the new home comes extreme excitement thinking of this next phase in our future. It's a beautiful, newly constructed craftsman style ranch with everything we're looking for, including a wonderful neighborhood with close proximity to our favorite park. It's also creating some anxiety - just the thought of the busyness that buying and selling a home brings - packing, moving, a larger mortgage payment, though this is what we've been saving for and working toward - it's all a bit overwhelming to think about at times.

All week, I've been thinking of Grace and the nine month milestone we passed on Friday. I'll frequently check back on the blog to when Gavin was the age that Grace would have been. It was emotional looking back on nine months. It was just after Gavin turned nine months that he started crawling. And he was eating finger foods. And easily maneuvering into a sitting position on his own. Grace would have likely been doing all of those same things...in cute little pink outfits with bows in her hair. On Friday, I had to travel to Detroit for the Michigan Pharmacists Association annual convention - for some CE and also to deliver a presentation. The weather was horrid on Friday morning, so the very long drive and day added some extra stress.

So, back to the title of the post...friendship. Amid the stress, I've come to a deeper realization this week and really over the past year that friends are such a blessing. I've been getting together with a group of high school friends about monthly for the past year or so for dinner. I was reflecting on my drive on Friday about all of them, and certainly other friends, and all that we've been through in the past couple of years. I think getting together with this particular group of gals brings such great comfort, as they can relate to the pain I've experienced in life, my grief and my struggles to "keep going" even when I just don't feel like it. They've been there, too. I'm not sure how among the eight of us, we've all had such hard lessons in life at such a young age.

What brought us all back together a couple of years ago or so was one of our friends who's husband was ill with terminal cancer. Not even thirty yet, and just a dreadful diagnosis and courageous fight for life. Ben's passing hit home for all of us - it could have been any of our husbands who we lost...just when we needed him most, just when our lives together were really getting started. Lindsay is one of the strongest people I know, even though she would never admit it. The rest of the group - there's me, and all of my baggage from the past year, and others who are struggling with other significant life events - an ill parent who's too young to go, fighting against the odds like Brad's dad (stupid, retched cancer), miscarriage, divorce, and most recently a wife who walks hand and hand with her husband as he seeks sobriety and seeing the world in a whole new light.

None of us ever imagined in our care-free days as friends in high school that God would call us to travel these journeys. None of us, as we wed our husbands, would have REALLY taken to heart the vow in "good times and in bad". Life is good, right? Everything is going to be a fairytale. And here we are, at times wishing the world would just stop turning, trying to manage through these very real, not so great experiences. Being strong women. Keeping our families going.

I've really enjoyed having these friends...and so many more than just this group of eight. My support system of family, co-workers and friends are such a blessing. So much so, that I just really wanted to blog about them. To document this point in my life where I can really say it's been nice to have them through the bad times - and the good times. We do a lot of laughing when we're together which is so therapeutic, thanks for that ladies. And here's to hoping that the crappy life events subside a bit and we can regain some normalcy. It would be nice if life was a little more boring at times, huh?

Cheers to good friends!

Three!

Saturday, Gavin turned three! We started the day at the local YMCA for that last class in a series of six weeks - a sports sampler. Gavin has really enjoyed the class and interaction with other little boys his age. Crazy, but today was the only day we took pictures. So, here's my favorite...Gavin walking on the balance beam, picking up tennis balls along the way on the "course" set up by the coach. Gavin has excellent balance, so this activity was right up his alley. He also got exposed to the basics of rock climbing today, though he's too little to "really" climb. Over the past weeks, Gavin has been exposed to soccer, basketball, running (which he's also really good at), hockey, duck-duck-goose, walking like various animals (dinosaur, crab, elephant), and of course today's wrap-up gymnastics/rock climbing. It's been fun!

Busy day...we went right from the Y to final touches before the big party! This year, we opted to buy a cake instead of making our own. I've had a great time the past two years making an extra special cake creation, but this year, I couldn't find just the right Thomas idea. At least one that I felt I could successfully accomplish. Nothing like going to a kids birthday party only to find that the mom went crazy staying up all night and there is no cake to be had. To keep my sanity (what little I have left some days), I decided I was fine with buying the cake. In exchange, I was able to focus more on the food - turned out good, complements 50% to Pinterest.

Here's the cake. It's "okay", not great, but okay...

Gavin's favorite part of a birthday party...BALLOONS! We rarely have them in the house, so they're always a hit when they're here.

It was a Thomas theme...with an angry bird thrown in. We went to a birthday party last week for a friend's daughter who had an angry birds theme. Gavin fell in love with giant red bird balloon, so Elizabeth promised him one for his party. He didn't forget the promise and was ecstatic to have him join him on his birthday!

All grins for the happy birthday song and candle...

And the gifts couldn't come soon enough. So many thanks to our friends and family for your generosity. Gavin loves all of your creative birthday gifts!

So, three. Gosh, can't believe it! Gavin is growing so big in all that he does. He's certainly building his personality and pushing the limits for more and more independence. And just when we think he's too little to do something, he surprises us by accomplishing it. For Christmas, he got a few 25 piece puzzles. We opened one of them a few days after Christmas and forgot that it was open sitting on the floor. Next thing we knew, we turned around and he had it all put together...in a matter of five minutes or so! Who knew he could do it all by himself!

Gavin's creativity seems to grow exponentially lately as well. He reenacts stories and adds fun little twists. He's very into the word "and"...really more like "AND" (major emphasis on the word). Here's how a typical statement flows (actual example from today, after playing the game Mouse Trap, talking about a couple weeks ago when he played it at Brad's aunt and uncle's house...took me a minute to place what he was talking about): "Ava and Lexi chased me up the stairs, AND they took balloons from my hands AND they stuck them to my shirt and hair AND we ran around AND the marble on the game didn't work right"....the story goes on. He really is growing to love playing with his cousins. We got iPhones a month ago or so, so a few nights a week we get a FaceTime request from them. On both ends of the phone, it's all giggles and amazement that they can talk to each other and see each other and run around and still see each other. Gavin finds it quite amusing. We're fortunate to live so close.

Potty training is usually going okay, though the past few days there have been more accidents than normal. Typically, Gavin is able to stay dry all day, though we still put him in a Pull-Up for naps (when he takes them, he's been "playing" through them most of this week). And he doesn't stay dry at night yet. A few nights, but not most. We have our days that using the potty is a struggle. Mainly, I think it is just that sense of independence and not wanting to do what we think he should do just to be different than us. Ah, the joys of toddler power struggles! We learn to pick our battles I suppose.

We go for a three year well child appointment tomorrow morning, so we're anxiously awaiting the update. We haven't had to take Gavin into the doctor at all the past year (quite an accomplishment really! Though we've seen the dentist twice for tooth/mouth injuries.). So we're excited/nervous to see how he's doing. I've blogged about Gavin's history of falling off of the growth chart for weight around one year old, then back to the 3rd percentile at two years (another huge accomplishment). We'll see where he ranks now. He's still generally a skinny kid, but around average height. If only they made 3T length pants in a 24 month waist, we'd be all set!

Gavin's doctor is my primary care physician as well. I haven't seen him (other than bumping into him at a restaurant) since a few days before Grace was born. He cared for me during my entire pregnancy with Gavin and delivered Gavin. He's been my doctor for about 25 years. With all that happened with Grace, I of course was referred to an OB and MFM specialist, so I only saw my PCP once a week or so in the hospital. It's going to be emotional seeing him tomorrow, knowing how much he cares for our family and our well-being. And knowing that he won't get the chance to care for Grace and watch her grow at each well child appointment. She would have been 9 months old this week. Gavin's birthday party would have been so fun with her crawling around!

Anyway, here's to hoping that three is just as fun and rewarding as two. We're very blessed to have our Gavin! Sorry God, you can't have this one!

Our Almost 3 Year Old

Gavin's big boy skills have really been advancing lately. This week, we made valentines for Grace. The heart below was the "body" for an owl made from different size hearts (we copied it from Pinterest, so cute!).

And Gavin started to practice writting his letters on a new reuseable mat we picked up last week. He did pretty good, with little direction. Brad just told him to use the pen to stay in the lines. I think the "S" is my favorite...it looks really nice :)

Big Boy Bed!

We made the transition to the "big boy" bed over the weekend. You can see the excitement in Gavin's face! Tonight is night three and he's doing well. He did realize just today that he can get out of the bed, so we'll see how that transpires in the days to come.

So, the baby crib (that should still be in use) is taken down and stored away, sigh.