My Apologies

as I kind of went private on a whim, and then forgot to invite any readers, except for a couple that called me out on it. I'm still trying to decide if I like it, or whether I'd prefer to just go the impersonal route and [try] to not include our names. We'll see... But for now, while our lovely home is sitting quietly waiting for two boys to return home to daily pillaging it's premises... well, for now our little family blog is private.

So I hope there was no hard feelings, as I realized that after I went private, I didn't have anyone's email addresses to contact them, and was too lazy to retrieve them. If you are related to Joel, or have emailed me recently, well, then I probably just sent you an invite if you showed any previous interest in our blog/lives. Otherwise, if you know of someone that would like an invite, please let me know their email address, or have them email me theirs (bdeer24@gmail.com)... Or tell them to wait 2 months, because I may give up on this private thing!

Applesauce

Like I said earlier, I was only planning on filming the first 5 veggies I fed Aiden. But after seeing his reaction the first few bites of applesauce, I thought I should give you guys a peek too. What the video shows is much tamer then what his initial reactions were (as well as the serious words he had with me after bite 3!)

Goliath, Ninevah... and Pirates, oh my!

These were the three Bible stories that Liam found in his Mommy's Bible this morning. He read them to Nana. Ironically Mom and I were just talking about inaccuracies of certain versions of the Bible... maybe I should question the one I read too ;)

I had to chop the video into parts in order for it to make it to the blog since I don't have the editing software on this comp, so sorry for the choppiness...

David and Goliath

Jonah and Ninevah

(my favorite part of this... Liam says that God told Jonah to go to Ninevah, because the people are doing bad sins there... so "start walking!"... ha! I love it!)



A Story of Jesus...

I guess it was Inevitable

How could it not be when my son was always checking to see if the bathroom door was truly latched? He would actually stand up and fully push on the door just in case maybe we hadn't shut it completely.

Once inside he used to go for the bathtub. He'd crawl over, stand up and suck/slobber all over the edge.

Distasteful, I know.

A couple weeks ago, it changed. I was in the kitchen and noticed he wasn't near me. I rounded the corner and saw the bathroom door open. I went inside to scoop him up and bring him back outside. Well, this time he was sucking on the outside of the toilet bowl.

Gross, I agree.

So that being said, I guess it was inevitable that the bathroom door would continue to forgettably be left ajar... and he would continue to find a way inside. And then he would go after the toilet paper. But why stop there when he has a love for the porcelain and an even greater love for water?? Well, he found out what's inside the bowl. Thankfully he isn't big enough to have drank from it or fallen in it. When Liam told me that baby brother was being naughty in the bathroom and when I rounded the corner, I saw his arms elbow deep in water and soaked tp.

Sigh. Dare I even comment?!

Needless to say, I stole the picture off the internet as that's one behavior I did not want him to continue while I went and grabbed the camera. And let me just say that although they make it look purely clean and angelic... well, believe me, it's neither.

Len's Here

Enough said.

The boys are thoroughly enjoying him. We missed him quite a bit and I'll post more pictures later. For now we are just trying to see him as much as he'll let us!

Valentine's Day

Well, it's been almost a week since V-Day, so I figured I'd throw out a little blip about it... about the same amount of blip that made it onto the Virkler radar this year. Actually, Joel did a decent job remembering (after I informed him it was the 14th not the 18th as he thought). He bought me a cute H&Y card that not only talks but moves too. The boys love it. :) Even better, he ditched the roses, orchid, carnations, tulips, etc this year and got me an original Chick-fil-A sandwich. Yes, after 5 years of marriage, he finally knows the way to this girl's heart!!

And then he was paged. Ha! You see, he was on call. And he might have been able to spend it at home, except his pager wasn't working. Thus, my husband spent the evening/night/wee morning hours before he had to go back to work at the hospital just in case they needed him since they couldn't reach him.

Romantic, huh?!

Good thing we aren't into V-Day too much in this house. :)

Needless to say we partied on Wednesday. By partying, I mean we went to a coffee house (that serves alcohol?!) on Harbour Island for a playdate with other Tampa women (Joel found out about it from a girl named Devin he randomly met on the riverwalk last week) and after meeting the local meteorologist (we had no idea who "Brooks Garner" was until we saw him on tv at the coffee shop an hour after we met him!), we headed next door to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Ideally a nice dinner would mean getting to talk about marriage, our lives, what God's teaching us, etc... but when you have two kids (one who was so excited about the playdate that he didn't take an afternoon nap)... well, let's just say I was in a rush to get back out that door!

I told Joel this is why we need to live near family.

One word.

Babysitters. :)  Ha!

And then there was...

Squash.

Don't worry. I won't post a video update of every new food my son tries. But I keep thinking that maybe he won't like a vegetable. So I am filming the big five (sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, peas and carrots) to see if I can get a reaction... aren't I loving?! :) hehe

Oh. And in case you were wondering where Joel is working... this is one of the hospitals he goes to...

Tampa General Hospital. It's on an island in the bay. He'd probably have a nice view if he ever had time to look out the windows :) The parking garage to the left is where we watched the Gasparilla ships come into the convention center.

Time for Some Greens...

Beans, to be exact.

Another food that Liam didn't really care for. Actually, he refused to eat green beans or peas, unless it was diluted well with a fruit (gross, yes, I know) or carrots/squash.

So what did Aiden think?

In a nutshell (or a 1-pic explanation), this was what he thought.

So yeah, not sure what he thought. He ate it. Willingly too. Never really spit it out. But after each bite, this is the face he made. See for yourself in the video :)

Note that Liam didn't want to eat the green beans even now...

An Introduction into the Realm of...

Sweet Potatoes. :)

This post is for Michelle and Aunt Katie.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Liam. His first experience with food other then "rice milk" (as he now calls it) was less then ideal. He did not enjoy it in the least.

Then came his brother, who for the past 3 days has given me blank stares as he voraciously ate/drank his "rice milk". I asked him if he was ready for sweet potatoes...

Smiles can be deceiving though, so I figured I'd start him off easy (especially since I was fudging a bit on the "4 day" Rule... shhhhhh... ;)

Here's how he took to it...

A Water-filled Weekend

This past week can be summed up by those that love water...

Alligators

Dolphins

Liam

We headed down to Sarasota on Wednesday to be with Joel's parents and grandparents for a few days. While there, we went to Myakka State Park, had a Date Knight, celebrated Grandma Virkler's 87th birthday, and frequented the pool and Siesta Key beach by Grandpa and Grandma's condo! We then reconnected with Joel in St Petersburg, where we hung out with the Siladies for the afternoon and the Koehl's in the evening. What fun!

Alligator boat tour at Myakka State Park

Going through the "car wash"

Playing Dutch Blitz with the Kiefers

 Even surrounded by a life jacket twice his size, my baby is still a Smiley :)

 

Driving the boat in the Intercoastal waterways with the dolphins

This is the life!!

We went on a kayak ride and passed dolphins, sharks and colorful fish ;)

 Chick-fil-a Date Knight

 Before he could eat the ice cream they gave him, I made him hug the cow :)

Finding seashells on the beach

He wanted to wear his bucket hat just like Great Grandpa... and put it on himself :)

My Little Gohan Baby

Liam absolutely loves rice. He eats it best in its plain, unadulterated form, but will on occasion eat it with stuff mixed in. It looks like Aiden might be the same way!

For various reasons, Aiden is just now starting solids. So of course, we went with the traditional beginning of rice cereal mixed with milk. I think it can be concluded that he liked it- by the third bite he was trying to feed himself!  I had to put a spoon in each hand in order to feed him more. He ate about 1 oz worth before he figured he'd had enough :)