counting according to boden

so boden has been quite proficient at counting to two for some time now. we worked and worked to get him to say three, which he would often skip anyway and go onto other numbers. well, lately his counting has taken off and he seems to have some understanding of counting objects. his latest feat is counting to twelve....well, sort of - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12. this has not just happened once or twice, but multiple times. eric and i have really gotten a kick out of it :)

2 year birthday bash

so, boden is two years old! crazy! hardly know where the time went! i still remember holding him all tiny and curled up against my chest the night we took him home from the hospital... *sigh*

anyway, we did up his second birthday party with a bang! all of his steenwyk family was in town and amma and uncle bobbie came up for the fun too. since boden loves tractors so much, we decided to have his party out at papa and ammy's farm, for a true barnyard bash! i put a ton of pictures in this post because i just couldn't choose, so i'll use it to narrarate as we go. if you haven't gotten your fill after this post, i put the complete footage in its own special photo folder entitled 'birthday 2008.' also, don't forget to check the 'july' photos as i've added more to that one as well.

we stacked hay bales for our table and chairs for our meal.

daddy grilled burgers and hot dogs. we also had corn on the cob, watermelon, and chips. i don't think the kids ended up eating much as they were hot and too excited to play on papa's new slide. I know boden pretty much only ate chips, and then later cake. bad nutrition, but we figured we could turn a blind eye on his birthday, right? :)

all of us chowing down.

boden got a dump truck from amma and big papa.

he got a really cushy doggy from uncle bobbie.

papa helped boden open his green monster dump truck, which cousin jenna enjoyed reading the 'paper' after it was opened (see photos in 'birthday 2008').

boden intent on his new race track from uncle mike, auntie em, naty, jason, and nathan. do you think he'll get the big hopped up truck from auntie liz and uncle mike to go down it as well??? :) in the courner of the picture, you can see the cool color wonder coloring book and sidewalk chalk from aunt shell, uncle chad, katie, jenna, claire, and micah. since his birthday, boden has pretty much made the rounds between all of his new toys. i think his family members know him well!

boden's happy birthday cake! i looked and looked for just the perfect thing. very happy with zeeland bakery. they even put a blue tractor on it just like papa's!

oh the suspense of the birthday cake!

good thing daddy had an extra big piece (seriously, it was huge), otherwise i don't know if daddy would have gotten any cake for himself. where did boden get his sweet tooth??? i didn't even allow any type of dessert to touch his lips until his first birthday. hmmm, it was shortly after that that we started having trouble with him trying new food... the kid will refuse to try hardly anything new, but put something sweet smelling in front of his nose and he doesn't miss a beat...

yummy!

papa took the slide from school that was deemed 'unsafe' and decided to put it up for his grandchilden:) with rave reviews i might add. papa even went down it a few times. somehow i didn't manage to get a picture of it, but i know i got video, so we'll have to see if we can pull that up :) below is cousin naty taking a turn on the giant slide.

think cousin katie likes the slide??? :)

boden couldn't get enough of the slide, kept saying again, again. would go down with about anyone who was willing to take him -daddy, papa, uncle bobbie...

like all good barnyard parties at papa and ammy's house, we ended out the night with a hayride (actually, we lit off a bunch or firecrackers after the hayride that uncle (brother) mike brought, but i didn't get any pictures of them). boden got the seat of honor, and choice, to ride up front with papa on the big blue tractor! second birthdays only come around once, right? :) wonder if he'll remember any of it...

the boys will play...

mom goes away for an evening and this is what the boys got themselves into... daddy is going to turn boden into an exhibitionist like himself...

cousins

ok, ok, ok. i know we are long overdue for a post here, and i will try to do better. blame it on being pregnant (this pregnancy has actually been quite a bit harder on me than boden's. thought the 2nd was supposed to be easier. go figure.). anyway, here is just a little tidbit. i'll try to do more later.

last night the 3 of us were eating dinner (the 4 of us if you count the baby, as eric almost always does now days :) ). boden started talking about micah (micah is boden's newest cousin and we had just looked at pictures of him that aunt shelle sent out earlier in the day). i was like, yes, micah is your new baby cousin. then boden said, katie. this surprised us, and we said, yes, katie is your cousin too. he immediatly went on to say nathan. we were very surprised. we have talked about his cousins and all, but have not made a huge effort to categorize them into the whole cousin thing. he couldn't come up with any more on his own right then, though i thought i'd get him to say jason, because he will often talk about jason (jason has made an impact on him with sharing his stickers and cars and riding his scooter at the campground). so, we talked about his other cousins then. today i tried it out again and asked him who his cousins were. he repeatedly offered up micah again and naty (natalie). so anyway, we thought this was a pretty big deal. boden just continues to amaze us! the best part about it all is that all the cousins will be getting together plenty this weekend, so that will be for sure a bunch of fun!

news flash!

check out this video for the latest news from our home...



we are 12 weeks along and have heard the heartbeat. thus far, everything is checking out well.

we are all very excited, though boden really has no clue what is about to happen.

all better

the older boden gets the more he is scraping knees, stubbing toes, ect. a couple of times lately i have kissed his 'owie' and said it was all better. this has seriously only happened a couple of times. yesterday, boden had dropped something on his toe and i kissed his foot and said it was all better. he stopped crying and went on his merry way. this afternoon after his nap, we were laying on eric and my bed (a habit i've gotten into at times to give him a transition time as it really helps his mood ). We snuggle and talk sometimes. the talking has been becoming some of my favorite times with him as he brings up all these people and things to talk about. like today he had to run thru about everyone he knew and say where they were and what car they drove and sometimes what color the car/truck was as well. anyway....... this is not what this post was going to be about! at one point he started pointing to the scab on his knee and saying 'owie'. then he stuck out his foot and put it to my face making his kissy sound, so i kissed it, not even remembering the day before until he said 'all better.' seriously. so cute! he made me do it several more times always saying 'all better' after i'd kissed it. later as we were downstairs, he hurt his finger. he came right up to me and said 'owie,' pushing his hand to my mouth, then after i'd kissed it said 'all better.'

another little thing, but huge to me, today he started saying 'i love you, mommy' back to me after i told him i loved him. usually you have to tell him to say it, which he will with lots of 'l' (any of you that have heard him say it know what i'm talking about :) ). he kept saying it over and over holding out the 'e' in mommy for quite a while. it was very fun!

big boy

just wanted to post quick about boden being cute, as usual, again tonight.

at supper time tonight, eric and i were putting things on the table, when we turned and looked and boden was already halfway into his highchair. he has tried before, but has never really made it much off the ground. eric said something like, "wow boden, are you going to climb up into your highchair?" boden stops and says, "big boy!" it was soooooooooo cute. we tell him he is a 'big boy' when he does something well, but he has never really shown that it connected or was desirable. we all said yeah and he climbed the rest of the way into his highchair. maybe you had to be here to get the full effect (or be bodenstruck parents :) ), but it was just about the cutest thing ever!

'daddy fun'

so sweet yesterday! after eric came home from work, boden and he played in the living room together (which is not unusual). they were having a great time with boden squealing in delight. when it came time to eat and we loaded boden all up into his highchair, eric made a quick check of his email (our computer is in the kitchen) while i put some finishing touches on dinner and boden sat sipping his milk. boden initiated a conversation with me (which he is doing all the time now). he started pointing toward eric saying 'daddy daddy.' when i finally said 'yes, that's daddy on the computer,' boden said 'fun fun, daddy fun.' he went on to repeat it a few more times. is that not one of the sweetest things ever???? what a doll! :)

monster cheese!

boden eating monster cheese

elmo wants to be a chicken

yesterday, when katie was babysitting boden she brought along elmo/chicken. boden sure loves elmo/chicken. he wasn't hardly out of bed and he was already talking about elmo.

here is boden with his elmo/chicken