Birthday

Jacen turned 3 in January. He had 2 birthday parties, so he got a duck cake...

And a sailboat cake!

The littlest kids always get the biggest gifts! This one was a basketball hoop from Grandpa and Grandma.

Papa helped Jacen read his cards.


Whenever Jacen hits a milestone, I like to make a list of where he is developmentally. Here are some of the things he's doing at age 3:

~Has a lot of interest in letters, recognizes all upper and lower case letters, and can name their sounds. He's also starting to point to specific words in books and on signs and ask what they say.
~Counts to 14 without help and 20 with help. Recognizes written numbers 1-5 always and 6-10 sometimes. Can add 1 to a number and give the right answer. Knows that a number minus itself is 0 (3-3=0) using pictures or counters.
~Strings together longer sentences ("Mommy, I wanted to ask you something, where are we going today?") and begins conversations with people. Especially likes to talk about what happens to the characters in his movies ("Lightning McQueen has a friend. His name is Mater.")
~Loves all books, but is becoming interested in non-fiction books. Loves books about animals and fish. Likes to help choose books when we're at the library.
~Loves to build with Legos and Duplos, and is starting to build recognizable objects, like an airplane, a car, or a house.
~Plays computer games and can use either the mouse or the laptop touch pad to navigate through a game or website.
~Has memories of events up to 6 months ago, and will talk about things he remembers (when I mention Uncle Brandon and Aunt Sarah, he will tell me about our trip to their house in June).

Notes for the Christmas Letter that I Never Wrote

January: Ethan began a new law business with a friend from church. They specialized in Elder Asset protection, so Ethan spent most of January learning all of the particulars of that area of law. Amber's nanny job ended unexpectedly when the kid's mom lost her job. Jacen turned 2, and Amber's parents and grandparents came to St. Louis to celebrate, and to help paint the living room and Ethan's office.

February: Ethan's business gained a few clients. Amber picked up a few temporary nanny jobs, mostly overnight newborn care.

March: We found out we were expecting a baby at the end of the month. The baby was due Thanksgiving weekend.

April: We enjoyed Easter with a visit from Mom and Dad Huizenga. Ethan and Amber enjoyed singing lots of Easter music with the Covenant Presbyterian Church choir. Jacen got a lot of use out of the park across the street from our house as the weather started to warm up.

May: The first week of May we lost our baby through miscarriage. We got through it by surrounding ourselves with the prayer and support of friends and family. We took a break from everyday life and went to Orange City for a week for the Tulip Festival. Jacen had a blast watching the parades, riding the trolley, and scrubbing the streets in his Dutch costume. Ethan went golfing with both of our dads, and Amber got to see the flower show at the History Museum.

June: Ethan and Amber celebrated 5 years of marriage with dinner at Ruths Chris Steakhouse and a stroll through Forrest Park. So much has happened in those 5 years, and we thank God for the time we've had together. The rest of the month was not so easy. Ethan's business partner was offered another job and left their business, leaving us unsure once again what the future would hold.

July: We started July with a Steggerda family vacation to San Antonio, TX. We went to the Zoo, the Botanical Garden, the River Walk, the Alamo (though very briefly, because it closed 10 minutes after we got there), saw an IMAX movie, toured the Air Force Base where Amber's brother and sister-in-law live and work, and went to a water park. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. The rest of the month Ethan spent looking for a new job and at the same time trying to keep the business going without his partner.

August: The first 2 weeks of August we decided to go to Orange City to try to get a new perspective on what direction we should be going. While we were visiting, Ethan was contacted by a lawyer friend who knew of a law firm in Orange City that was hiring. Ethan sent them an e-mail, was called in for an interview the next day, and 2 days later was offered a job. God certainly provides in ways we never expect! The third week of August we spent back in St. Louis packing all of our things as fast as we could to move to Orange City, and by the last week of August Ethan had started his new job with the Klay Law Group.

September: We spent September getting acclaimated to a new setting and new jobs. Amber was hired as a server at Blue Mountain Smokehouse and spent the month training and being tested on all of the different beers, wines, and mixed drinks served there. Amber and Jacen also got involved in the local MOPS and Coffee Break groups. Jacen loves being close to his grandparents and great-grandparents, especially since we spent our first time in Orange City living with Mom and Dad Steggerda.

October:

November: In November we found out that we are expecting once again. This brought a lot of excitement, but also a lot of nerves, especially for Amber. At the end of the month we went to Chicago for Thanksgiving with the Huizengas, and also enjoyed staying with friends Dan and Mandy. From there we went to St. Louis to visit more friends, John and Julie, and to check on our house, which we are still trying to sell.

December: The beginning of December we moved out of Mom and Dad Steggerda's house and into Ethan's Grandpa and Grandma Noteboom's house when they moved to a retirement facility. We were able to get all of our things out of Mom and Dad Huizenga's garage, where they had ended up when we moved, so now we are living somewhere that feels a little more like our own home. The week after we moved we got our first real snow, and Christmas week we got more than 2 feet. Thankfully, we didn't have to travel this year, as all of our family is right here in Iowa. We were able to have all of our Christmas celebrations as planned, as well as a 50th anniversary celebration for Amber's Grandpa and Grandma Wissink. We feel that we ended the year in a really good place; Ethan is happy with his job, and is looking forward to being a full attorney with the firm after taking the Iowa Bar Exam; Amber's pregnancy is going very well, and she continues to feel good; and Jacen loves being in a place where he has his own room, but still gets to see his Nana and Papa and Grandpa and Grandma several times a week.

Wishing all of you a Blessed 2010!

Up, Up, and Away!!!

Jacen is totally into superheroes right now. He runs around the house yelling, "I'm Super Duper Jacen!" "I'm coming to save the day!" His sunglasses have become his super hero shades, and he wears them all day, or at least carries them with him. And on Sunday, when Ethan forgot to tell the nursery worker Jacen's name, he introduced himself as "Hero". He loves The Incredibles, Larry Boy, and Super Why! And he can sing all of "Superhero" by Go Fish:

Up, up, and away! is all I want to say
When I fly away and I save the day!
If you're a bad guy on the run
I'm gonna get you just for fun.

Fear is something I don't know
I'll fight for justice wherever I go!

I'm a superhero flying around
No need to worry, you're safe and sound
Battling evil, fighting for good
I'm a superhero in your neighborhood!

No me gusta

This is what I woke up to this morning. Not good. Not good at all.


On the bright side, I have photographic proof that the earth is actually getting colder, not warmer. Eat your heart out, Al Gore.

Too bad she's blind

Here's a great Jacen story:

He and Amber drove past the courthouse this morning on their way to a Bible study. Jacen noticed Lady Justice at the top and said, "Look, there's a man up there!" Amber replied, "Yes, that's Justice." On their way home, they drove past again. Jacen waved and said, "Hello, Justice!"

Priceless.

Would you please sit still?

Jacen has this problem; we call it wiggling. He is incapable of sitting still for more than 8 seconds unless he's watching a movie or his favorite TV show. This becomes especially problematic during payer before or after meals.

A while back we decided it was time for him to learn to pray himself. A side benefit of this has been that he is much much better about sitting still when we are praying, but he's regressing a bit. He folds his hands and closes his eyes when we ask him to, but as soon as the prayer starts, he is talking or banging a fork on his plate or eating what's in front of him. When we pray before bed, he bounces up and down or waves his arms as he says every line.

I started praying with him at bedtime and added a prayer at meal time once last week. I'm going the route of teaching him a sort of rhyme for his prayer, and Jacen is slowly picking up the bedtime one. I'm not particularly pleased with the ones that I know from my childhood, so if anybody knows a good bedtime or mealtime prayer for kids, I'd love to hear it.

Though he's not sitting still while we pray, Jacen definitely knows what we are doing when we pray, and that's one of the best things about being his dad. If you ask Jacen what we do when we pray, he says: "Talk to Jesus!" Awesome.

Mom's Side of the Story

This is my first time posting on this blog. I thought I'd just let you all know what Jacen and I have been up to while Ethan is out saving the world, one legal case at a time.

The weather has been cold and rainy lately. Jacen is a pretty high energy kid, so I try to have some sort of organized activity every day, whether it's something out of the house that we go to, or a craft or activity that we do in the house. Thankfully, we've had a few big things start this week. MOPS started on Tuesday, and Coffee Break started on Wednesday. Both of those take a good chunk of the morning. Jacen loves to go and play with the other kids. At Coffee Break he is part of a Sunday School type program; they have organized lessons and crafts, and even a memory verse to learn for the next week. Today we went to the library, another favorite activity of Jacen's. He can play with the toys and do puzzles in the Story Hour room while I look for books. Today I let him get a music CD also (Veggie Tales!), which was quite exciting. He listened to it 4 times before Ethan came home for lunch.

I completed my training at Blue Mountain today. I passed all of my tests on the first try (yipee!), and have my first shift on Saturday.

Other than that, my days are pretty normal. I spend my afternoons doing laundry and cleaning, or working on my Bible Study (in addition to MOPS and Coffee Break, I'm doing Beth Moore's study of Esther). The evenings that I'm not working I've been enjoying Dancing With the Stars (my current favorites are Donny, Louie, Melissa, and Mya) and the PBS specials on the National Parks (makes me want to travel!).
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Jacen quote of the week: "Super Duper Jacen to the rescue to save the day!!!"