Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent Christmas eve at Nana and Poppy Wonsettler's house. We came home to have Christmas morning at our house and then went to Uncle Shaddy and Aunt Evie's house later Christmas day. Santa came to both houses ang gave gifts to the kids from his sack. Payton loved that part. Of course the kids were spoiled with gifts. Payton got a new dollhouse, clothes, coloring books and crayons. She also got a puzzle and piano, just to name a few. Caleb got farm tractors, a toolbench, a racetrack, and the Little People Fire Station. There are plenty more things he got but too many to list. I can't post all the pics(there are too many) so here is a little snipit!


























MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Binkies gone bye-bye

Last night Santa made a special apperance to our house to collect all of Payton's binkies so that the baby elves could have them. In return Santa was going to leave her some Dora and Princess stickers for her. We wrote him a note and left all the binkies on the table for him to collect. After Payton fell asleep, I went in and took the one from her room. Santa wrote back to Payton telling her what a big girl she was and how proud of her he was. He indeed left the stickers she was asking for along with a fancy jingle pen. She LOVED them.....and then came naptime. She was not happy about going to bed without a binky. She came out after about 1/2 hour and told me she needed her shirt changed. She had sucked on her shirt and it was soaking wet. She layed back down after I changed her shirt and about 20 minutes later she started crying. I let her go for about 10 minutes. (The crying got louder and then she started knocking on the door while crying, asking for me.) I layed her on my chest and she almost instantly fell asleep. I carried her back into her bed and she woke up as I layed her down. Shortly after that, I heard her door again (so i pretended to be asleep on the couch), she called my name, went back into her room, and got back in bed. This happened twice. Finally, I went into her room a little after 4pm because we needed to take Caleb to the dr. and she popped up and said, "Hi Momma. I not sleeping!"
Tonight she went to bed without crying. I explained to her again that her binkies were all gone and that she is a big girl now. Let's hope that she makes it through the night without waking up.

Cookie Exchange 2010

Every year my girlfriends from work have a cookie exchange right before Christmas. When we first started this it was about 5 of us ladies looking for some adult time. That is not the case anymore. All of us have children (some more than one) and there are a few in the group that are expecting. It was such a great way to spend some time together as a group and allow our children to play with one another. Here are some pics of the clan.


They practiced standing on one foot.


Payton was hard at work on her snowman ornament.


Left to Right
Kaitlin and Eddie Krajacic, Emma Precek, Olivia Peters, Caleb, Payton, Maddie Peters, Ally Demaline, and Lexi Ditz

OUCHIE!!

Payton has the BIGGEST, UGLIEST sty in her eye I can honestly say I have ever seen. She has had it for about a month now and it seems to be getting bigger by the day. The doctor has prescribed her an antibiotic eye drop. Needless to say, it is a HUGE ordeal twice a day as I try to put the drops in her eye. It looks like something from a science fiction movie. It is really hurting her and I hope that I don't have to take her to the eye doctor to have it lanced. YUCKY!!!

Waving

Just wanted to document that Caleb started waving bye-bye yesterday Decemeber 10, 2010. It was just before dinner time and he looked like he was waving so Shane and I started to wave to him and he waved back. He has been doing everytime we have waved at him today. Yeah Caleb!

Hilton Head Here we Come!!

AGAIN!!
We just booked our yearly trip to Hilton Head Island, SC for the 2011 year. We use this amazing website vrbo.com and booked the condo that we wanted for an AWESOME price. Our balcony overlooks the pool and we can walk to the beach!! Yeah for great deals! Let the countdown begin!

BIG girl!!!

It is a happy day for Payton and a sad day for Me. We transitioned Payton to a full-sized bed today. So I guess that means my baby isn't really a baby anymore. We picked out bedding at Target and got one of those mesh side rails to keep her from falling out. She is sooooooo excited about her new bed. I hope she sleeps good tonight in it. Here are some pictures.



After bath Payton likes to watch a movie on her "wittle t.v." while I put Caleb to bed. Tonight she wanted to sit in her new bed to watch her movie.






The front and back to her crib make the head and foot board to her new big girl bed. Cool eh?


She is so happy!!

Here is a 9 month pic

Spotlight on CALEB!!

Today Caleb is 9 months old. Where has the time gone? I am going to give a quick update as to what he is up to so that I don't forget anything.....

He is a very happy baby. Even when he isn't feeling good (like today-getting another cold, complete with a VERY runny nose and cough...blah!) he is still happy. He follows Payton around where ever she goes. This includes, the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and family room. He gets around rather quickly and now has begun to furniture walk with ease. He has started to be able to bend down and pick up an object with one hand while holding onto something else with the other hand. In other words, his balance is greatly improving. I found an entire basket of matchbox cars at work and brought them home for him to play with. He automatically took one to the kitchen floor and began to push it around...must be a natural boy instinct. He is curious about everything. In fact, we went outside yesterday to enjoy the nice weather and he couldn't stop putting helicopters in his mouth. Not kidding!! =(

He is an eating machine. He still gets about 5 bottles a day of formula and is still eating 3 meals a day. He has been increasing his intake of solids to a jar and 1/2 for lunch and dinner. I have started him on a sippy cup but he doesn't have a clue how to use it yet. It is more of a chew toy right now. I have tried giving him small pieces of "real" bananas and he seemed to like those.

Sleeping is still going good. He sleeps from 9-11ish in the morning, 1:30-4ish in the afternoon, and is in bed by 7pm for the night. He is awake in the morning anywhere from 6:30-7am. He goes down for naps and bedtime very easily without any trouble at all.

I just started bathing him with Payton. Boy is that an experience. He is not afraid of the water. He crawls to get the toys while in the tub and is very interested in the faucet. He especially likes to splash is sister with water. She, in turn, likes to pour water on his head.

I can't believe that he is almost a year old already. It seems as though I just had him. I have been truly blessed with two AMAZING children!!! Thank you God! =)

Slacker

Okay so I have been a bit of a blog slacker lately. I have been busy with the kids (aren't we all), and work and it seems as though I have something to do just about every weekend. So that leaves very little time for me to write about what has been happening in the Berger household. Here is a quick recap:

We traveled to Columbus to visit with the Guinthers. It is always nice to spend time with them and Max just gets cuter each time we see him. We took the kids to Boo at the Zoo. A good portion of the zoo was closed but it was still a good time. Payton had a great time looking at all the interesting animals they have there and Caleb was content the entire time.

On Halloween, Shane had to work so Nana and Poppy came over to help me with the kids, candy, etc. In the morning I took the kids to our school district's pancake breakfast. The third grade students were performing so I got to see their performance while we were there. After dinner, I got the kids in their costumes and took Payton up the street for trick-or-treat. Caleb went to one house and then Nana put him to bed. Poppy was in charge of passing out the candy (except we had to take shifts because it was sooooooo cold.) Overall, it was a fun night.

Caleb is almost nine months old. He is growing more and more everyday. He is officially crawling and pulling himself up. He follows Payton wherever she goes. I constantly have to check on what they are doing because all I hear is giggling. He is eating like crazy (three meals a day) and is sleeping great! He takes two naps a day and sleeps from 7pm-7am every night. He had the surgery on his ear and did a great job recovering. I only had to give him Tylenol once since there was very minimal pain. The site looks amazing. The only problem we had was that he got a secondary infection from the anesthetic which caused him to be on two different antibiotics. He recently had the flu (which he kindly shared with me) but recovered very quickly. Other than that he is a very happy, easy baby.

Payton is quite the character these days. We have thrown ourselves fully into the "terrible twos." She throws tantrums just about every day and sometimes they are over absolutely nothing. She is often put in time out to cool down because she is so worked up. She is extremely verbal and knows exactly what she wants. She loves Caleb. I have to keep an eye on her because she likes to pull him around the house by his clothing. She likes to put things on his head and push him around (literally). Payton often needs reminded to share, as she takes Caleb's toys and puts them places he can't reach. Overall, these are trying times with her but she is learning and growing everyday too. She makes me laugh more each day with her silly statements and contagious laugh.

The last thing that is new with us is that we have purchased 2.72 acres of land in Granger Twp. Is is a 40 lot development where each lot has to be at least 2 acres. We wheeled and dealed with the seller for a few weeks and finally came to an agreement on price. We go to closing at the end of November. The next step will be to get our house sold (not going to start that until after the first of the year) and then meet with builders to start the house building process. As I am very overwhelmed with the idea of building, I am excited to start this new chapter of our lives. I am ready to move out of this neighborhood and set the foundation to where my children will be living and spending the rest of their childhood! Here are recent pictures of all our adventures.

Canfield Fair 2010

We took the kids to the Canfield Fair over the weekend. They had a great time. Payton and Kiera rode a lot of rides together and had a ball. The only ride Payton did not like was the dragon rollercoaster. I think she would have liked it has she not hit her face on the bar when it went around the first bend. They had to stop the ride so that she could get off since she was crying. Oh well, maybe next year. Caleb was great all afternoon. He napped a little in the stroller and was pleasant all day. We saw lots of animals and ate lots of greasy food. Overall, it was a great day. Here are some pictures.

First Haircut

I had Payton's hair trimmed last weekend because it was out of control. It is not long by any means but it was all different lengths so it needed to be trimmed up. My sister-in-law cuts hair for a living so we did it at her house. Here are some pictures of this adventure.

Catch up

Okay, so I have been a slacker lately. I have been busy getting back into the routine of a "working mom." I have been teaching for three weeks now and am just now starting to feel like we are back into our daily grind. Here is what has been happening at our house.

Caleb: He will be 7 months old in four days. He is the happiest baby on the planet. There is very few times that he cries and it usually means that he is tired or hungry. At his 6 month appointment he was 16.1 pounds and was 27.5 inches tall. He is a great eater. He takes 4-5 six ounce bottles a day and is eating two meals a day. He loves veggies and some fruit. He has started to get up on his hands and knees already and rock back and forth. He has also figured out that rolling gets him places. We often find him in the toy shelf trying to get at anything. Many times he has pulled one of the buckets off the shelf. He is not ready to sit up yet but we are working on it. Caleb absolutely LOVES Payton. Whenever she is around, he constantly has his eyes on her and is often laughing at her. He is an amazing sleeper. Two naps a day and sleeping 12+ hours at night. He is a WONDERFUL baby!!



Payton: So much to say, so little space. She is a riot these days. Most everything that comes out of her mouth leaves me in stitches. She loves watching Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears. She has just recently gotten into the movie "Follow that Bird." For those of you who don't know what that it, it is a 1983Sesame Street movie about Big Bird. She is very bossy, so we are working on using our manners when asking for something. It is getting better but we still have some work to do. The potty isn't as interesting as it was a few weeks ago. She will suggest when she wants to sit on the potty and other than that, it is off limits. Her imagination has begun to take off. She often asks me to play pretend with her. She can sing Twinkle, Twinkle, and knows her abc's. She is good at knock-knock jokes. Payton has also taken more of an interest in Caleb. She has tried to pick him up and loves to make him laugh! She is the light of my life!

Self-directed

in potty training of course.....only in my household would this be the case. When we first got Payton's potty she was really interested in using it. I think we had one actual success during that time. Then she decided it would be more fun to put the adapter (for lack of better words) on the big potty and use it that way. We had two successful attempts. Then she became completely disinterested in using the potty altogether. That is, until yesterday. She was pretending to use the potty on Monday. Sitting on it with her clothes on and even pretending to wipe herself with toilet paper. Yesterday she sat on the potty for Shane and actually urinated. Then at night she went on the potty for me. So that brings us to today (and the self directed part.) I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty when I got home from work and she said no. So I left it alone. I was in the kitchen, feeding Caleb when I hear the sounds of a diaper being removed. I went to see what she was doing and there she was taking off her diaper, lifting up her shirt and sitting on the potty. It was a successful attempt!!! About 2 hours later, she was watching Beauty and the Beast and did the exact same thing. Again, we had another successful attempt! So I guess if this continues, we will officially be potty training. My baby girl isn't such a baby anymore. I think that will really hit me when I no longer have to buy diapers for her. =(

Breast Cancer 3-day

My girlfriend Megan walked the breast cancer 3-day walk this weekend. In total, she will have walked 60 miles by Sunday. Not only is this a huge committment physically but also financially. She raised $2,301 for breast cancer research! Two other friends of mine and I decided to go to one of the "cheer stations" to cheer her on. We had a wonderful time. The cheer station was at Lakewood Park. As the women and men walked by, we clapped, used thundersticks, and gave them lots of encouragement. After Meg and her team went by, we walked over to the playground and down to the lake. Payton had so much fun. Caleb and baby Aly slept most of the time. After we played, we found a picnic table and had lunch. It was a fantastic way to spend the morning!

We are so proud of you Meg!!! Because of you and your team, we are that much closer to finding a cure for breast cancer! Way to go! Here are some pictures for our adventure.


Payton loved smacking the thundersticks together as the walkers went by.


Meg and Payton!


This was just a part of Team 36 long. There were three others on their team as well.


9 miles down, 51 to go!!!


Caleb and baby Aly are only one week a part. Can you see this budding friendship?


Payton loved playing on the playground!


This is one of my new favorite pictures. Unfortunately, Caleb was sleeping in his carseat.


This was the view from the pathway in Lakewood Park. Pretty cool.

Shane's first parade

Payton and her friend, Nicholas Hyatt, were great at getting candy that was thrown to them.


Payton loved waving to everyone that went by.


This is the honor guard team.


Shane is the one on the right carrying the ax.



Today Shane had the opportunity to march in his first parade as a member of the Parma Firefighters Honor Guard. This is a group of men from the fire department that carry flags and axes in parades and most importantly to honor those who have died in the line of duty. Today was a very small parade in the city of Parma to kick off St. Charles' Carnival. He did a great job. Payton really enjoyed the parade because they threw out lots of candy. We are proud of you, Shane!