twelve is the new ten

Hopefully you can hear him counting to "ten" even though he has Blue's tail in his mouth. Holding Blue was the only way he would sit still long enough for me to try to videotape him...

river rats.

After a couple of rough weeks health-wise (hence the lack of recent blog posts), the Kriegers are doing much better. Before the stomach bug that got all 4 of us, acid reflux, a week long clogged milk duct, and nursing strikes, we had a long weekend at the bay with my parents.

This year Caleb had even more fun swimming in the water and playing in the sand. Berkley Grace even enjoyed the beach, being only a month old. With the waves as white noise and a nice breeze to keep her cool, she took several naps under the umbrella.

The weekend consisted of swimming, getting some sun, making puzzles, watching the Olympics, eating popsicles, going on boat rides, fishing, etc. Here are some pics to show all the fun we had!

One Month

Berkley Grace,

We did it. We survived the first month of your life with only a few glitches - one being you losing a lot of weight at first and the second being all four of us getting a stomach bug (thank goodness for family living close by to help out).

You obviously did not want to be a June baby, being that you were 4 days late and born on the first of July. I have to admit, you had me a bit stressed out there those few days leading up to your birth. On the day you were born, Leslie, the midwife who delivered your brother and you, was on her last day of work until she went on vacation for the entire month of July. But thank goodness you were born just in time for her to help me through labor and to deliver you.

You take after your brother and are a laid-back baby. That's actually what got us in that first glitch of you losing too much weight- you were such a lazy eater at first and wanted to sleep instead. After a 2 week period of feeding you every 2 hours around the clock, I'm happy to say you were back at your birth weight by your 2-week appointment and we can now let you sleep and eat whenever you want. You typically want to eat every 2.5-3 hours during the day and have gone up to 5 hours at night (although it's not every night).

You don't like being swaddled - you love having your arms free and usually fall asleep with them near your face. You sleep on your side most of the time, but are beginning to sleep some more on your back now that your startle reflex has gotten more under control.  You love bath time and your bouncy seat, which is where you take most of your naps during the day.

You took your first trip to the bay when you were 4 days old and went to Smith Mountain Lake when you were just over a week old! Needless to say, you are quite the traveler already. However, you're not a big fan of your car seat like your brother was, so car trips are bit more tricky with you.

One thing that surprised us this month was that you gave us your first smile! And it makes us fall in love with you all the more. That little dimple on your left cheek is irresistibly cute and kissable.

Berkley Grace, you have been such a joy to your dad and I this first month. We were nervous about having a colicky baby since everyone told us we weren't going to have another baby like your brother. But it looks as though you're going to follow in his footsteps and be a good baby for us. Thanks for that. We look forward to seeing you grow and interact with all of us more in the months to come!

We love you!

namesake

Berkley Grace's namesake is my Grandaddy, Floyd Burk Lowder, who went by Burk. I have so many memories of this man - too many to list here. Even as I sit here to write about why I wanted to name my daughter after him, I know this post will not even come close to giving a clear picture of who he was and the qualities that he possessed.


he was strong. he was brave. he was proud. he was generous. he was kind. he was impatient. he didn't take flack from people. he was funny. he was successful. he loved to fish. he was protective. he loved to garden. he couldn't stand cats and called any and all of them 'wampus'. he had a short temper when it came to technology and automated messages. he always put his family first. he never owned a credit card and paid for everything with cash. he loved being on the water. he didn't know a stranger. he was a hard worker. he loved his family. he loved the Lord.

He also loved his grandchildren and spoiled us rotten. I remember he always would slip a 20-dollar bill in my hand before leaving to go home. He came and supported me and my brothers at our sporting events whenever he could. We never questioned nor doubted his love for us. Looking back I think my brothers and I looked up to him more than we knew.

I miss being called "Sugar". I miss the prank gifts we would give him each year at Christmas. I miss listening to his stories of growing up and of the 'good ol days'. I miss the never ending supply of butterscotch candies and peanuts on his coffee table. I miss the summer days at Sunken Meadows.


Even though it's not as customary to name a girl after her great-grandfather, I hope Berkley Grace will appreciate where her name comes from as she grows up. I hope she comes to know what a great man my Grandaddy was and the impact he had not only on my life, but also everyone else in our family. 

We then decided to make her name a double name with Grace because of the grace that has forever changed my life, Steve's life, and Lord willing our children's lives. We want Berkley Grace to be reminded of God's amazing grace that He bestows on her every single day. We want her to understand and believe with her whole heart that it is by His grace that she has been saved - not by anything she has done or will do.

Berkley Grace, your name is more than just a name to us. We cannot wait to be able to tell even more stories about your amazing great-grandfather and to share all the more with you about God's abounding love and saving grace.

Berkley Grace Krieger

We welcomed our beautiful daughter, Berkley Grace, into the world Sunday, July 1st at 1:30pm. She weighed 9 pounds 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She has a head full of dark hair, a dimple in her left cheek, and cheeks almost as big as her brother's.

There is so much to tell about her namesake, her birth story, and how we all are adjusting to being a family of 4 that I'll save those for future posts. For now here are some pictures of her birthday!

 My amazing midwife who has delivered both Caleb and Berkley Grace

First family photos

priceless.

why we love spring attire...

because it's so much easier to just run around in a diaper than to have to put on all those layers!

snow morning

Caleb and I played in what little snow there was on the ground this morning. He loved the snowflakes touching his face, but wasn't too sure of the snow piling up on his shoe. I even pulled him around in his sled, which he thought was the most fun thing in the world. Too bad the snow didn't stay around longer today!

backyard fun

big boy

Caleb has been showing interest in using his own utensils for a while now. He's been practicing with a spoon and bowl, but no food - until yesterday. I figured since he was in his pajamas that needed to be washed anyway, I'd let him try feeding himself his yogurt. I was surprised at how well he actually did!

CMoR

Last weekend Steve and I took Caleb to the Children's Museum and oh my goodness did Caleb have a blast. We literally tired this boy out because he took his longest nap yet that afternoon - over 3 hours!

Instead of telling you everything he enjoyed (it's a rather long list), I'll just show you pictures of his favorite things from that day:

happy valentine's day

This melted my heart when Caleb gave this to me today....


The first (of many to come, I hope) Valentine's from my son.

where did this boy come from?

This is the question Caleb's pediatrician asked me Tuesday at his 15-month check-up.

Being that Steve and I aren't big people and weren't big babies either, she couldn't help but wonder this after seeing Caleb (once again) is in the 97th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. He continues to be just an all-around big boy.

His cousin, David, is following in his footsteps too - he's actually weighing more than Caleb was at 5 months! What is it with big Krieger babies??

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not complaining one bit. I LOVE big babies. The rolls are endearing and the chubby cheeks are so kissable! I just can't help but wonder if this is just a Krieger BOY thing or if the girls are going to take after the boys too...

Perhaps we'll have to make sure Caleb does this a few times a day....you know, just to make sure he's burning some calories throughout the day :)

and the verdict is.....

No twins.
Girl.
Due date the same (June 27).

Apparently the combination of the size of my uterus and lil' missy's positioning makes me measure bigger than what I should be at this stage. Regardless, praise God for another healthy baby!

this boy

is almost 15 months. Wow. Here's what he's been up to lately.

Continues to favor the word hot, but added up and daddy to his vocab. Everyone is daddy, including himself. He also says animal noises for dog, cat, horse, monkey, and cow. Lately he likes to try mimicking the noise for snoring as well.

Has taken interest in wanting to use a spoon. He'll walk around the house with a spoon and bowl all day, pretending there's food in there.

Loves what we call rolly polly time. It's usually right before bedtime - he likes to get on the floor and roll around with momma and daddy.

Is kind of down to one nap per day. Some days he needs 2 naps. But for some reason, going from 2 to 1 nap has made him sleep longer at night. This boy sleeps from around 7:15 until 9:30 in the morning some days! Is that normal?!

Going through separation anxiety. He's never cried when dropped off at the nursery or at the daycare in the gym. Those days are gone for now though. Hoping this phase won't last too long.

Loves being outside. He enjoys finding sticks and poking the ground with it. He also loves to rake the yard. He'll always make a fuss when it's time to come inside.

Has been cutting teeth forever it seems like. He now has 4 front teeth on top, 3 front teeth on bottom, and 4 molars.

Continues to be a little ham. He's the most charming little boy, which makes it so hard to discipline him!

Baby Krieger #2: boy, girl or....twins??

Yesterday I had my 16 week appointment, which went great overall. I was looking forward to scheduling my 20 week ultrasound, where we'll find out the gender of Baby Krieger #2. Instead of having to wait 4 more weeks for the ultrasound though, I only have to wait 12 more days. Why?

Because I'm measuring at 20 weeks already.

They said that means I'm either having twins or my due date is 4 weeks earlier.

Without going into too much information, I don't see how the date I calculated myself would be a whole 4 weeks off what I'm measuring.

However, they've only heard 1 heartbeat at my previous 2 appointments, but yet my dad is a twin - and so if anyone in this family is going to have twins, it would be me.

I asked perhaps maybe this just means I'll have another big baby? No, they said - all babies grow at the same rate pretty much the first 20 weeks.

And so I just really have no idea. I could be way off my due date or I could be having twins. We'll just have to keep guessing until my ultrasound on January 25 to see if Baby Krieger is a boy, a girl or if there's a Baby Krieger #2 and #3 in there!

why we need a great dane.

I've been trying to talk Steve into getting not only a dog, but a big dog ever since we got back from Tanzania. I grew up with dogs and having 2 of them in Tanzania made me remember just how much I love having a dog of my own. To this day though, we are still a dog-less family, so obviously my arguments for getting a dog haven't been too persuasive.

Well I attempted to remedy that yesterday. We dog-sat a friend's Great Dane for several hours and let me just mention that Caleb was in heaven (and perhaps so was I). So in order to better my argument for needing a dog, I took full advantage of this short test run we had as dog owners to try to win Steve over.

Some examples of my persuasive arguments that I used throughout the day:

When I saw Caleb giving his cracker to the dog - "See Steve, a dog will teach Caleb how to share."

Or when we were all on the front porch hanging out and the dog growled at the mailman who instantly got scared and backed away - "See, people are scared of big dogs. No one would ever think about robbing us if they saw this huge beast in our house."

Watching Caleb laugh at the dog, pet the dog, mimic the dog's panting, follow the dog everywhere she went - "See, every little boy needs a faithful pup to grow up with. They'll become best buds."

Going for a walk down the block with Caleb chasing after the dog - "See, going for walks are so much more fun with a dog!"

In the backyard doing some work on the garden while Caleb and the dog played with sticks - "See, having a dog would entertain Caleb and enable us to get things done around the house a lot quicker!"

Lastly, when we were just hanging out in the family room - "See Steve, a 100lb dog can actually fit in our house just fine"

Don't you agree??

a few firsts

here's a list of a few firsts that have been happening around the Krieger household lately:

*caleb took his first steps a couple of weeks ago

*caleb said his first word - 'hot' - and now points and says 'hot' at everything

*caleb got his first real shoes last week

*last night was the first time ever that we hit a 6-point buck (that may have totaled our car) AND got our other car towed because of street cleaning.

hoping Thanksgiving week will get a little better today :)

halloween fun

The two main objectives for Halloween yesterday were to keep Caleb in his costume as long as possible and to get as many pictures of him as possible. Fortunately the first objective was easy since 1. he loved his costume and didn't mind having it on for most of the day, and 2. we were invited to a costume playdate at Cartwheels and Coffee during the day and then went trick-or-treating last night in the rain with Tom, Amanda, and David!

Unfortunately it was hard to get a really good picture of him in his costume - he was totally distracted at our playdate and then it was raining when we were trying to take pictures last night. Nonetheless, here are some pics:

birthday party.

We celebrated Caleb's 1st birthday this past weekend with a fall-fun-filled-party. The weather was perfect for chili and hot apple cider, which both were thankfully on the party menu. For sweets we had an arrange of pumpkin cookies, carrot cake cupcakes, caramel apples, and a pumpkin shaped birthday cake.

the spread

dessert table #1

dessert table #2

pictures of caleb from each month this past year

Unfortunately, Caleb was not very enthusiastic about eating his first ever birthday cake (or any sweets for that matter). I think it was the consistency of the icing that he didn't particularly like. One of his favorite things the entire night was having the lights go out (this is his reaction whenever a light turns on or off). hilarious.

After singing Happy Birthday and blowing out his candle, we opened presents. Caleb got a great mix of clothes, books, puzzles, and toys. We also got a radio flyer wagon which we've already used and Caleb loves!

We are so thankful for all the family and friends who came to celebrate Caleb's first year of life. Steve and I couldn't have gotten through this past year without all of your support and encouragement along the way. (I realized I didn't get pictures of everyone who was there - huge bummer.)

And a special thanks to my mom who helped cook, bake, and decorate for the big day!