Merry-Go-Round

After many months of sickness, many months of sleepless nights, and many months of winter, we finally made it back to the zoo.

And in all truthfulness, I have never been so excited to go.

Maybe it's because I haven't stuck my head in a Flamingo mask for awhile.

Or maybe it had something to do with Avery finally being tall enough to try on to parrot head.

And give that parrot head a hug.

It could be that Sawyer can face forward in the baby carrier now,

and can actually observe and study the animals.

Possibly it's because Kyle has missed carrying Avery on his shoulders,

or on his hip,

or just holding her hand.

Seriously, I'm a sucker for hand holding pictures.

Regardless of the reason, it was great to be back!

We spent a long while watching that merry-go-round go round and round and round...

And truly must have looked something pathetic. Avery gazing at the carousel and me snapping pictures of her forlorn look with a baby strapped to my chest...

But our pathetic-ness payed off because some nice grandparents came up to us and offered us their tickets! They probably felt bad that Sawyer had been reduced down to entertaining himself by pinching his tongue.

And having no shame, we blessed their names and ran as fast as we could to get on the very next ride!

Kyle and Avery had to pet the gorilla to make sure he was a "nice" one.

Decided he wasn't, and swapped for the ostrich.

Then it was my turn with Avery and we braved the lion.

Overall, Kyle and I may have enjoyed the actual ride more than Avery.

But whether that is true or not is unimportant. This is the story of Avery's first time on a merry-go-round.

And how I love this zoo for that, and for the many other wonderful experiences we have had there! Hopefully we return sooner (next weekend, perhaps?) than last time!

Phases

Honestly, one of the best parts of being a parent is seeing your kiddo do new things.

I love Avery's "I can eat a banana without needing you to cut it up into bite size pieces" stage.

Which, of course, is promptly followed by the "I can't stop smiling because my cheeks are so full of banana that my lips won't shut" stage.

Sawyer is in full swing of the "I'll smile and coo at you picture perfectly. That is, until you grab the camera. Then I'm just confused as to where you went" phase.

And more often than not, Sawyer is doing knuckle push-ups when he's on his belly these days. It's a "beefing up" phase, if you will.

And this phase...well...can't claim that it's a favorite, but I have WAY too many "let me grab the camera" to not count it as a stage.

Oh children...always growing...always changing.

Friends at Last

It's starting to happen.

Avery and Sawyer are becoming buddies.

Well, I guess it's more accurate to say that Avery is starting to reciprocate Sawyer's attention. The little dude has been watching her intently for months with slim to no response from his sister.

But that's changing! Avery's favorite activity with Sawyer is to rock his swing with all her might.

And he LOVES it! You better believe the rocking of a 21 month old far surpasses the settings offered by the swing.

Moments like this is what I envisioned when we found out we were going to have two kids 15 months apart.

And it's nice that they are beginning to become our reality. Keep it up you two!

Golden Birthday

That's right! Kyle went and turned 26 on the 26th of March. And since it was his Golden Birthday (Kyle claims that there is no such thing as "Golden Birthdays." I beg to differ. I have been waiting to turn 28 on the 28th of January since the 4th grade when I learned about them. I am very much a believer in them!) I came up with 26 reasons why I love the fellow.

And I posted them all over the shower. Cards can get lost, but writing in the bathtub? Can't miss it! It was a bit tricky finding a time to write it up. We bath the kids at 5:30 at night, and then spend the evening together.

But since my darling son still wakes up twice a night to eat, I figured I would write it up after one of those feedings. And just so you know, 1:30 AM is the PERFECT time to write in the shower.

That is, if you don't mind having slanty writing and a few smudges along the way. :) I never have been (and probably never will be) a perfectionist.

Which is also shown by these birthday candles. Notice anything funny about them? A "burn the candle from both ends" kind of look, perhaps? That, my friends, is what happens when you stick candles into a pan of brownies fresh out of the oven. The wax melts right off and becomes one with your dessert.

And you better believe the Golden Birthday boy devoured those brownies anyways. :)

Happiest of birthdays to this wonderful guy!

Next Stop: Bloomington!

Okay, so this is a bit wordy, but it's a big enough change in our lives that it constitutes having a blog post.

Here's the concise version:

We are moving to Bloomington, Indiana this summer where Kyle is going to attend Indiana University to get a PhD in Organizational Behavior/Human Resources.

And we are happy about it!

What? You didn't see that coming? Yeah, neither did we. Here's the long version to give you some background.

The original plan was to pursue a job when Kyle graduated with his Masters in Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology next month.

But in November the head of the I/O Psychology department e-mailed Kyle telling him about this PhD program at IU. Kyle saw it and quickly discarded it (afterall, a PhD wasn't the direction we were thinking of going.)

Then in December Kyle's mentor e-mailed him about the same PhD program. This time Kyle and I looked into it a little bit more. The degree would come from the Kelley School of Business (ranked #1 in the country) and it looked like we could get some funding, thanks to an institute that works directly with Latin America, to help offset the PhD costs and also get a living stipend. We weighed pros and cons of attending IU (Pro: IU Basketball. Con: IU Football) and decided there was no harm in applying.

In February Kyle found out he was one of the final candidates for the program. That was exciting in and of itself since they received over 100 applications. 2 Skype interviews followed and an invitation to meet faculty and tour the campus in March was extended.

And, as of two weeks ago, Kyle received an official offer to attend. (Side note: Kyle was the only applicant they even offered a position to.)

 (This originally said "Welcome Home! We Love you! Congrats!" Apparently, Avery thought it was too boring and added a few other finishing touches.)

And, as of today, we accepted.

We honestly feel guided to this point in our lives. If Kyle hadn't lived in Argentina for 2 years as a missionary for our church, if he hadn't been accepted to IUPUI for his Masters (which is a branch of IU), if his faculty wasn't familiar with his connection to Latin America, he would have never been accepted to this program (or have even known about it.) But he now will be working personally with a world renowned expert (!!!) in OB/HR and is setup to pursue his dream of becoming a professor!

We feel extremely lucky.

So here's to 5 more years of school, moving an hour south, and many other exciting changes!

Date Night

Okay, it's no joke that when your husband is in grad school, and your cashflow is minimal, and you have two kids under the age of 2, that date nights are non-existent.

So we decided to change that last week. And since we aren't too original, we decided to recreate one of our first dates.

Feast your eyes on our soap sculptures.

The category was animals and we picked what the other person would carve. Here is Kyle's sea-turtle emerging out of the water.

And this is my...well...it ended up being a hexa-pus.

I tell you, those legs were popping off all over the place. :)

And we've been accused of not being very romantic, so we did it all by candlelight.

Kyle now has fun sea creatures to keep him company in the shower. :)

Raising up Baby

You know those cute pictures of older siblings holding the baby of the family? The really cute ones that make your heart go all mushy and make you feel like everything is good and right in the world?

Yeah. I want some of those.

So I did a test run with Avery and one of her dolls.

And she did pretty good!

She actually did so good feeding the baby a bottle...

that she quickly upped her game to giving two!

Followed by a quick burping session. (Seriously, this is adorable!)

And since Avery never used a bottle herself before,

she gave it a try.

Like I said, I was pretty impressed with her. Sure there were a few headlocks to the newborn in the process...

but overall, she was a pretty good big sister!

We'll see how she does when we try her out with Sawyer! 

I might put a football helmet on him though.

Just to be safe.