Celebrating Joel

Since birthdays are a pretty big deal around here, we knew we had to make Joel's extra special. His brother and sister are old enough to have big parties with all of their friends, but he's still at that age where it's pretty much just a family celebration. So, we planned a few fun things - pleasing a four year old is quite easy!

For months, he'd been saying he wanted to go to "Mariodonalds" (I believe that's a combination of Marianos the grocery store and McDonalds). I would distract him in order to prevent a typical three year old meltdown by saying that maybe we'd go there for his birthday. Well, unlike his siblings, this kid remembers EV-ER-Y-THING! The day before his birthday, he reminded me that he had plans to go to "Mariodonalds". Though we had already made plans for later in the day, our morning was wide open, so we decided to make it a pancake breakfast and playtime date with our close friends, the Gilberts. The kids played for almost two full hours and had a blast! They were happy to climb all over the indoor playset and we were happy they burned some of that built up wintertime energy!

By the time we got home, the kids were quite hungry, so we made Joel one of his favorite foods - hot dogs! We ended the meal with Zebra Cakes, which he had picked out at the store several weeks prior. He's a big fan of anything zebra related, so finding little cakes with a zebra on the box was about as exciting as it gets in the world of a preschooler!

For the family celebration, we thought it would be fun to take the kids ice skating. They've never gone before and I found a great deal at the ice rink I grew up going to. Unfortunately, Joel was quite excited to go, but totally chickened out once we got there. He was quite happy to sit and hang with Nana Pam and Grandma though! The other two had a blast! They were terrified at first and it took about twenty minutes to make it one time around the edge of the rink. Eventually, they got very brave and had fun skating (and falling) around in the middle of the rink. They both are already begging to do it again sometime soon!

Since the skating rink was a bit far from home, we decided to just go out to dinner to celebrate. We went to one of our favorite restaurants in that area (where we also happened to have our wedding shower ELEVEN YEARS AGO!!!) called Flossmoor Station. Grandpa, Grandma, Nana Pam, and TiTi joined us for dinner and it was wonderful getting to be together as a family to celebrate one spectacular four year old!!! This little boy has just about every single one of his birthday guests wrapped around his finger, so celebrating him was a joy for us all!

Dear Joel,

Every birthday that you celebrate comes with incredibly bittersweet feelings and this year is no different. Now that you're four, we know that you are so much more of a "big" kid than a baby. Though that is definitely sad, it's also incredibly relieving to let go of all those parenting challenges that come with having a baby or toddler. You have a sense of independence that has given us a chance to finally feel like we have our heads above water. You are always eager to be just like the big kids and you finally can handle playing with them without getting frustrated that they're bigger, faster, and stronger than you are.

When it comes to playing with the big kids, you are 100% your sister's shadow. You follow her everywhere she goes and do everything she does. When she started school five mornings a week, you were absolutely lost without her. Though she's only gone for a little under three hours, it feels like forever to you. You've learned to make the most of it, though, and sometimes you spend the entire morning playing peacefully by yourself in your room. You've learned there's something so wonderful about not having anyone to boss you around or force you to share. You carry on happily by yourself and sometimes you're so content and quiet that it's hard to remember you're even there!

In true third born fashion, you do seem to just take everything that comes at you and roll with it. You make the most of anything and still help everyone around you appreciate the simplest joys. Those things that we all get too busy to see are the exact things that you stop and take notice of. While everyone else is carrying on with life, you are a stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of kid. Your wonder and innocence refresh us on a daily basis and we are so thankful for it. Just as we think our baby is growing up way. too. fast, we're allowed to slow down time for a bit and cherish the little things again.

Though time doesn't stand still, and you are indeed growing up, we're grateful for the little Joel"isms" that still make you our baby. The way you still carry your blankie all over the place and occasionally get caught sucking your thumb while clinging tightly to that wad of a blankie. The way you are still small enough to be carried around and willingly let us do that. The way you love to snuggle and give kisses. The way you still pick the classic board books that we've read to you and your siblings countless times. The way you mispronounce big words and nobody has the heart to correct you.

In the past year, for every little boy moment you had, you had at least a dozen big boy moments. You've grown and changed so much. You have an amazing vocabulary. You've learned so much academically and have adjusted wonderfully to being at preschool twice a week. For about the first two months, you'd cry the night before and cry before we'd leave and cry in the car. Then, one morning, it all just seemed to click. You now march eagerly and excitedly into that classroom every Monday and Wednesday morning. You have truly grown out of your shell and are so bold and fearless. Your sister takes advantage of that quite often and sends you to ask for a cookie from the baker at the grocery store or for a sticker from the cashier at Target. You've also developed a great attention span and love to build things, color, do puzzles, or watch shows (yet you RARELY get the chance to watch one geared towards preschoolers). This year, you have become completely self-sufficient at home. It takes multiple reminders every morning for your brother and sister to get dressed, brush their teeth, and so on. Not you! You jump out of bed and take on all those mundane tasks with such excitement. You're so eager to please Daddy and Mommy. That's not to say you don't still have major meltdowns and throw occasional tantrums, but you truly try so hard to make us happy. And at times when your brother or sister have an attitude with us or get sassy, you quickly come running to give us hugs just to try to make us feel better.

We certainly don't know what life would be like with you. A typical third child can often be overlooked or "forgotten", but you are most definitely the final piece to our family puzzle that makes it all make sense. Not a day goes by when we don't adore your unique personality. Not a day goes by when we don't long to see your precious smile that melts our hearts. Not a day goes by when we don't thank God for the blessing that you are. It is a gift to be the parents of such a wonderful child and we are incredibly grateful for another year of raising you. Happy fourth birthday Baby Joel, Joely Joel, Boo Boo...we love you more than you'll ever know!

Little Miss Daisy

We officially have a Daisy in our home. Leah started this past November and she had the official investiture ceremony this past week. I was borderline crying when I saw her do the Girl Scout pledge and then sing the "make new friends, but keep the old" song that I sang when I was a little girl. I have such wonderful memories of my years as a Brownie and Girl Scout and I hope the same will be true for her!

Birthday Fun

January 9 was a monumental day in Leah's world....her first friend birthday party. We recycled the theme from Caleb's first party two years ago and did the "Pancakes and Pajamas" theme. It was much easier this time around because we learned from our mistakes the first time. We also really enjoyed having such a large open space and a table with room for all 16 kids! Everyone seemed to have a great time making fruit loop necklaces, playing games, making a craft, eating tons of yummy food, and celebrating our favorite six-year-old! A special thanks goes out to Grandpa Rob, Grandma Leslie, and TiTi for helping make the day go a bit smoother with their help!

Monopoly Fun

A new and glorious phase has begun in the Sturm home. The one where your kid discovers the magnificence of the game Monopoly! Caleb played quite a bit of this game over break and he sadly didn't win at all. On the final day of break, he wanted to play just one more game. He asked if Alec (his best friend from a few houses down) could come play and it turned into an even bigger game than planned. Alec, Blake, and Bryan all decided to play with Caleb and Tyler. The game lasted for almost three hours and the best part was...Caleb WON!!! It's so great to have such fun neighbors and friends to make memories like this with!

Unfortunately, this guy just doesn't have the attention span for the entire game of Monopoly yet!

A Special Visitor

One of the best things about Christmas is the time spent with those we love. This year, we were lucky enough to have a wonderful visit from someone we love, but sadly do not get to see nearly as much as we'd like! Aunt Denise flew in the day after Christmas and spent the next several days hanging out and relaxing with us and we laid low during the tonsillectomy recovery. The kids absolutely adore her and we love her to pieces as well, so it was such a blessing to have her with us. There was lots of book reading, movie watching, naps, snuggles, and of course - ice cream!!! It's never easy to say goodbye, but we are hoping to get to see her again soon. She even tossed around the idea of driving up during the summer for a visit....yippee!!!

Two for One

For a year or so, every single time the kids went to the dentist, he would comment on the size of Leah's tonsils and suggested taking her to an ENT. I asked our pediatrician and he said that as long as she's not sick a lot or having episodes of sleep apnea, we shouldn't be too concerned. To be honest, we didn't know much about how she slept at night because we never have our kids in our bed and rarely sit and watch them sleep! Fast forward a bit and at Joel's first dentist visit, he also commented on his tonsils. I figured we'd go ahead and check in with an ENT just to see what he'd say. Sure enough, after nightly observations and a short checklist of other symptoms, it was clear that both kids would need their tonsils and adenoids out. 

The first time we did this was with Caleb, shortly after he turned three. It was right at the beginning of summer and the entire experience was one we weren't thrilled to repeat. He had to lay low for several weeks, which isn't easy to do in the summer. We knew we wanted to do it in the colder months this time around so that the kids didn't have to miss out on any of their summer. In order to make sure they didn't miss much school, it just made sense to schedule it at the beginning of Christmas break. Of course, the doctor only does these surgeries twice a month, so December 23 was the best we could do. So, we braced ourselves for the worst and hoped that Christmas wouldn't be too terribly bad this year. Thankfully, we had a much better experience this time around. Right away, the kids were eating and drinking way more than we remembered Caleb doing. What helped was the round-the-clock Motrin and Tylenol rotation. With Caleb, we had to give him Tylenol with Codeine and it was awful...tasted terrible, made him feel nauseous, and overall was bad news. We are thankful that the procedure and recovery plan has changed a bit over the past four years....because this went a million times better than we had expected! We are also thankful for the many prayers, visitors, yummy treats, and gifts that people blessed us with throughout the recovery!