The Biggest Snowman on the Block!

Last Sunday before church Rick built a giant snowman for Calvin. It was so big it had brooms for arms. Tyler helped, along with the neighbor kids who provided the potato eyes, PVC pipe, a sheet for clothes, 2 scarves, and the hat. We only had 15 minutes to get ready for the 11:30 service at church because of Rick's masterpiece, but we made it! I had been up in the morning with Fallyn and then had fallen back asleep for a short nap, which ended up being longer than I had planned because Rick didn't wake me up until 11 am! He had spent the morning shoveling the drive--or starting to--but then thought it'd be a good use of the snow in the drive to roll it into huge balls :) Needless to say, Calvin loved his suprise snowman ("heh-man") from Daddy. Rick woke him up and opened his blinds so he could see the snowman out his window. It was so sweet! "Heh-man! Heh-man! Big heh-man! Rickdaddy big heh-man!" Calvin is very into snowmen. As I write this, our poor snowman has somehow crashed to the ground. Calvin saw it yesterday and said, "Jopped it heh-man" (dropped it snowman).

Funnies this past week

We went to a comissioning service last Sunday evening for some friends who are moving overseas, which was so neat. Grandma Pam babysat Calvin. Gave him a looong bath, and he was very concerned about his very wrinkly fingertips. He made Gma kiss all 10, then still seemed concerned that they were still wrinkly.

Calvin was watching Fallyn then all of a sudden started exclaiming, "Two chins! Two chins! Hallyn TWO chins!" :)

He's been mimicking and imitating even more than usual lately. He'll imitate movements of people and objects, expressions, voices, sound effects....we get quite a kick out of it. It really is very entertaining. It's pretty impressive sometimes the things he picks up, too, and how he imitates it.

Rickdaddy's favorite thing right now is probably when Calvin "hovers" while Rick is snoozing on the couch or floor. Calvin will get his face REALLY close to Rick's and just hover and stare until Rick opens his eyes. He'll continue to stare a couple seconds, expressionless, then very quietly and sweetly say, "Hi Rickdaddy."

Fallyn's been eating a ton of infant cereal. The other day I made the normal amount I've been giving her and ended up refilling it FIVE times in one sitting! She's noticeably heavier these last couple days--maybe she had a growth spurt.

She laughed harder and longer than she's ever laughed before. It was all Calvin's doing. She was shrieking and squealing with laughter whilte sitting in her crib--Calvin was on our bed tossing his stuffed kitty into her crib. It was hilarious. Calvin was laughing pretty hard himself. I got it on video! Fallyn will smile soooo big just looking at him, even when he's sitting motionless and expressionless. I just love it that they like each other so much! Seeing her laugh at him is so much more fun for me than if I had made her laugh myself. Love it love it love it.

Rick: Mommy's soooo beautiful; Calvin, tell Mommy she's beautiful.
Calvin: (shaking head) Not bee-dee-bee-dee-bool.
Rick: Mommy's sooo pretty!
Calvin: (shaking head) Not pretty.
Rick: Mommy's hot!
Calvin: Mommy not hot.

Calvin continues to see "Elmo's eyes" everywhere...looking at the top of 2 cans that are touching, 2 round outlet plugs... Cars that don't have an obvious bumper have "chins"--maybe the Cars movie is affecting his perceptions :) --along with the vacuum...

Calvin loves this sort of detail work:

1...2...W! Elmo's eyes & kissing ouchies

Calvin often makes connections in his little brain that never cease to amuse and sometimes amaze us. He's been seeing W's everywhere for several months, beginning as soon as he learned "W". He says "Dub-uh-doo!" at pretty much any objects that are in a set of 3 (I put 2 blocks in front of him and he says "two!" and then add another and he says "W!"), or chicken scratches on a piece of paper, fence posts, the backs of chairs, 3 peas still attached to the pod, things that have pointed tops like crowns, zigzag or wavy edges (Chicken in a Biscuit crackers aka "Ashley crackers"), you get the idea.... I wonder when we'll convince him that 3 objects are THREE...the number 3 (written as a digit) looking like a W to him doesn't help any :) He's known all his letters since about 19 mo. old...numbers will take awhile, I think, because 3s are Ws, 5s are Ss, 8s are Bs, 9s are Ps... :)

He's seen Elmo here and there...a video, someone else's stuffed Elmo, etc. Lately he's been seing "Elmo's eyes!" Today was the first I'd seen of it--he was telling me "Elmo's eye" and pointing into the bathroom. I was immediately amused, wondering what he possibly could think looks like Elmo's eye in the bathroom...it was the flat end of the toilet paper roll. I told Rick and he told me that yesterday Calvin saw 2 Cheerios touching and exclaimed, "Elmo's eyes!"

I was out of the house this evening, came back, Rick told me that he accidentally bonked heads with Calvin and that Calvin told him to kiss his forehead. He then proceeded to bonk Rick on the head with his Twinkie the Kid toy and then told Rick to kiss it, then bonked Rick on the head again with another hard toy and made him kiss that one. As Rick is recounting this amusing and slightly painful story Calvin hears talk of bonking and kissing and attempts to bonk me with his hard plastic giraffe. It was all very cute, though :)

Fallyn had a little giggle fit today which was just too cute. So fun that she's reaching the stage where she is amused by our antics and can express it. I don't think there's a richer sound in the world than of your own child laughing.

Insert catchy title here :)

Rick and I were going to go to KC today for an overnight trip, but due to yucky weather we are staying here. We're not terribly disappointed because it just means more time with our kids! It would've been a neat learning opportunity for us, though, as we were going to hear Dr. Gary Habermass, who is the leading authority on the resurrection of Jesus. Plus we were going to get to spend a little time with Rick's brother, James, and we ARE disappointed to not be able to do that now.

At Christmastime, we basically lived at my parents' house for a week or more. Jeremy and his family were here for a week, his wife Becky's mom was here a few days, Becky's sister, also...Austin and his fiancee Ashley, my Grandma--"Grandma Great" to the great-grandkids, aka "Glorious" to Vivian :), my aunt, a couple cousins... all 4 grandkids were together for the first time and that was so fun! It was just too precious when they'd all go down for their afternoon nap at the same time, then start waking up one by one....so sweet. Calvin and Vivian had a ball together. Rick and Calvin went to Iowa (Grandma and Grandpa Neill live there) the 26-28. Justin and Lesley rode with them. Rick said it wore him out; Justin said he did a great job by himself with Calvin. :) I knew he would. Rickdaddy just loves being with his Calvinbuddy. Of course, the best part about Christmas is the added opportunity to remember God's gift to a broken world...HIMSELF.


Within the last week Fallyn has really become a lot more observant, playful, interactive....she's laughing a little more, smiling all the time (as always)...she had her first taste of infant cereal 2 days ago and I think she's enjoying that. She LOVES to watch Calvin. She's working on sitting on her own. It might take her longer than most...she's got a lot of weight to support!

It seems like Calvin grew up so much in the last month! He will say things like, "please" and "thank you" at his own initiative, or with little prompting. He often gives kisses with his "thank-you". Grandma Pam just loves it when Calvin says, "Hi, Mama" in a slightly hillbilly-ish accent. I used to know exactly what he was saying, now he just jabbers and jabbers sometimes, and all I recognize is the last word. I can figure out what he's saying and it's so amusing to hear how he used thirty syllables to tell me to kiss his finger. Calvin and I spent the better part of the morning making invitations to his 2nd birthday party. They're nothing spectacular, but they sure took a long time.

Tyler and Marie cooked for us last night (well, Marie did...Tyler helped carry it upstairs) so we all ate together. Calvin just looooves "Ty-lor" and "Ah-ree" and played with them for a long time afterward. A month ago their names were a simple "t" sound (Calvin in his little sense of humor shortened "ta-ta" to "t" several months ago) and "eee-eee". "Aiello" (Fallyn) is becoming "Ah-yen" or "All-yen".

A Little About Calvin & Fallyn

Calvin...

...was born 23 months ago. Labor was 13 hours and quite eventful--the Lord really showered us with his protection. Kendra went natural for labor/delivery. Calvin Duane is named after John Calvin, and Kendra's Grandpa Duane who passed away May 5, 2004.
...has been a studious thinker since he was born.
...is quirky, sweet, funny, musical, social, too busy to eat, and such a thinker.
...loves music, vehicles, tools, ladders, Gma/Gpa's dog and kitty
...calls Daddy "Rickdaddy" most of the time now, has called Fallyn "Aiello" (pronounced "eye-yo" except with more vowels...very cute) since she was born.
...has already had a broken arm :(
...thinks Fallyn looks like a seal.


Fallyn...

...was born 5 months ago. Another natural labor/delivery, 7 hours. Fallyn's middle name, Piper, was Rick's choice, after John Piper. We just liked her first name--no significance other than that. We thought is was elegant and unique.
...loves attention. All it takes to make her smile is eye contact. She's a very sweet girl.
...doesn't sit up on her own, doesn't roll over, doesn't sleep through the night.
...SCREAMS and SCREECHES when she is happy! It's very funny....and often ear-piercing.
...started sucking her thumb over Christmas, which keeps her sleeping longer at night between feedings! yea! She was nursing every 4 hours on an average night, now goes much longer.

We're not sure who our kids look like...I guess they're perfectly blended so that it's hard to tell. I think Calvin favors me, though, and Fallyn favors Rick.

Getting Started

We're starting the new year with a family blog in order to let family and friends in on our lives. Today is the 2nd, which means Fallyn is 5 months old and Calvin is 23 months old. Rick and I rang in the new year by putting the kids to bed and finishing the movie Bridge on the River Kwai. Exciting, I know. Good movie, though. We'd highly recommend it if you've never seen it. That's 2007 for us thus far :)

Highlights of 2006:

February--Calvin turns 1!!! Grandpa and Grandma (Kendra's parents) move from Pratt to Wichita--walking distance from our house!

May--Gma/Gpa Fruechting (Kendra's parents), Grandma Great (Kendra's Gma), Calvin and Kendra go to Kentucky to visit Kendra's twin brother and his family (wife Becky, daughter Vivian and new baby Vail).

June--Rick turns 26
July--ran a fireworks tent again

August 2nd--Calvin's sister, Fallyn, arrives, making the kids exactly 18 months apart. Praise the Lord for seeing us through another healthy, natural (ouch!) delivery.

October--Kendra turns 25
November--Thanksgiving here in Wichita with the Neill side
December--Austin (Kendra's brother) proposes to his girlfriend Ashley (wedding in April!), Christmas at Gma/Gpa Fruechting's, Calvin and Rick go to Iowa for Neill Christmas for a couple days.

We can't promise that our blog will be terribly exciting, but happy reading to all! Unless otherwise stated, Kendra will be the one posting.