Our house is small, so in our travels, we've avoided trinket souvenirs that will add to the clutter.  Usually, we remember through photographs, sometimes creating a photobook, scrapbook page,  or a multi-photo frame to group the trip. 

But when I saw that Centsational Girl

We went to visit Rogér's family in The Netherlands when I was three months pregnant with Rowan.  It was my first trip to Holland, and my first time meeting most of Rogér's family. What a fun and sweet bunch they are!

We had such a good time traveling throughout Holland and Belgium and hanging out with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and Oma, of course.

One very special day, the family planned to gather for a little celebration of our wedding and our pending baby. Since almost the entire family was going to be there, Rogér and I decided to have them participate in a simple craft project that would give Rowan something to know them by.

We took a white onesie and cap {from HEMA that was given to us by Rogér's uncle}and bought fabric markers at a random little store. {this was pure luck, since we had no idea where to get fabric markers!}.  We asked all the family to draw or write on the onesie and sign their names.

Now Rowan has a cute souvenir keepsake from far away family that he has yet to meet :)

And we have a little dilemma to try and come up with something like this for our newest little man, Cid.  Hopefully we get a chance to go back to Holland soon!

We've been on the move!  Seriously, I've barely had a chance to catch my breath in the last few weeks. 

It all started with...well...with Cid {our second baby boy}.  I mean, a week after his birth we had a home appraisal.  We'd also been planning to send Ronin, our TB horse {read more about Ronin HERE} up to my family's property in Northern California.  What's that you say?  No, the Bay Area is NOT Northern California, although it technically eeks in there.  There's quite a bit more North to this beautiful state.  But I digress.

We decided that it would be the best thing for everyone if Ronin went to live with my mom for an indefinite amount of time after we had two kids.  At first, this wasn't an easy decision because our riding instructor was turning Ronin into a real champion,

...but it became more and more apparent as Cid's birth approached that it really was our only option.  It was getting really hard for us to properly care for Ronin.  He wasn't getting the attention he needed or deserved.  Luckily for us, my mom was more than willing to give him a home while we figure out this whole parenting thing.  Otherwise, well, I don't even want to think about otherwise.   Planning Ronin's departure had me really stressed, but in the end it worked out well.  I'll try to write more on that later. 

The last day we saw him at the Ranch, was both relieving and sad.  It finally hit me that he wouldn't be here anymore. 

We had planned to follow him up to my parents' place, but as things worked out, he was hauled away much earlier than anticipated, so we waited an extra week to make the trip. 

What an adventure! A 7 hour car ride, winding along the N. California coast with a 5 week old baby, a 17 month old kid, a dog, and a bird is no small feat.  The kids did great.  The dog threw up.




Awaiting us at Grandma and Grandpa's house, were bunnies, horses, kitties, a tractor {okay, a riding lawn mower}, oh, and Grandma and Grandpa of course.  Plus, Uncle Jim and Serenity.  So much fun for us city kids with country hearts.







Rowan's mind must have been an exploding.  He got to help Grandma feed the animals every morning.  He approached it as he does everything; taking serious mental notes so that he can remember each step required.  On the day that Grandma was gone, Rowan showed me how to do the feeding, leading me to each type of food and then pointing me in the direction of who it was supposed to go to. 


Grandma had also put out a little inflatable pool for Rowan,

 
and Grandpa busted out the old "tractor" for some driving fun.


And Rowan got to chase bubbles too!


Rowan wasn't up for riding my mom's miniature pony, Thor, but he did brave the biggest horse with Dad.

Cid got a lot of cuddle time....and that's about it...sorry Cid, next time you can drive the tractor! 


Oh! And we watched the eclipse!  Glasses?  What glasses?  We used welding masks 'cos we're cool like that.


It was a great week, full of lots of things.

With all of this going on, we barely remembered our anniversary!  We celebrated our 3rd year of marriage driving back home!  Prolly could've planned that better, ya think?  My bad. 

But anyway,

 

Now, back to the grind...

SO, three days back home, just getting our bearings and wouldn't ya know it, we wake up to a big puddle in the garage streaming from our water heater.  Love and old house!  The joints at the top of the heater had totally corroded.  I looked up the model and serial number and found out that our water heater was manufactured in 1993!  It's almost 20 years old!!  And it's warranty was only 6 years.  By the way, it was super easy to find this out by the serial number.  Rheemglas SN0293xxxx R-6.3.  The "0293" means February 1993 and the "R-6" means 6 year warranty.  Anyway, lucky for us, it's Memorial Day Weekend and OSH was having their "We pay the sales tax" sale.  We basically got a like for like replacement so that it was easy to {self} install, although our new one is a Kenmore.  It came out to about $400.00. Roger took the old one out and put the new one in with the help of a friendly neighbor while I played single mom.....whew, I think I know who had the harder job!  Five hours later, we have hot water again! 

Thank goodness it's a three day weekend.

Dear 16 Month Old Rowan,

You melt our hearts.

You don't talk much yet, even though your working on it.  But what you lack in words, you make up for in personality and awareness.

Every day you do something new that blows our minds.  Right now, you're putting everything away in it's proper place.  And sometimes we wonder where you got your organizational skills, because both of us are certainly lacking in that area.  We hope you keep it up though!



We love when you plop down in our laps to read a book or put on your shoes, {by the way, you can say "shoes" and you do often}.



You want to help with everything.  But sometimes you get frustrated when your body can't do what your brain wants it to. 

You let us know when you're hungry by leading us to the kitchen and making the "more" sign.  You eat like crazy and it's pretty incredible that your stomach can hold your meals.


You let us know you're ready for bed by leading us to your room and trying to climb into your crib.  But still, you cry a bit when we pick you up to say your "goodnight's".







 And speaking of "goodnight's", you always give your mom and dad a goodnight hug {and if we're lucky we get a kiss too}, you give Domino a hug, Buddy a wave, and your little brother, Cid always gets a kiss on the head.

We look at you now, and you're not a baby anymore.  You're a little boy.  Always changing.






 
At the end of the day, I reflect on the things you've done and I feel so proud to be your mom.  And I'm also a little sad that I can't keep you at this age forever, but I know that as you grow, there will be so many times to look forward to, so I try my best to hold on to the memories we're making right now and continue to enjoy every day with you.

Love,

Mom

Dear 3 Week Old Cid,

We haven't been great about posting your pictures or sharing all the little things that make up your first three weeks of life, but that's because we're busy making the most of our time with you and your brother.  You guys keep us on our toes!

The two of you are the most amazing and precious things in our lives.

You've only been out of my belly for a short time, and you are already amazing us with your ability to adapt to this new world and to show us that our love is infinite.



Your legs are strong and you already hold your head up high. You furrow your brow like your Momma and you smile {gas smiles} to one side like your Poppa.  And you have a bunch of hair on the back of your head that sticks out and curls up like a duck tail, so we call you "duck".

We want to thank you for being a mellow guy.  You eat and sleep.  And cry? Yes, some.  But not much.  Mostly when we change your diaper, or we've left you in a dirty one for too long, sorry. 

And did I mention how much your brother loves you? Rowan gives you kisses whenever he sees you.  He gently rubs your head and touches your hands.  He's the best big brother we could ask for.

The next few weeks might get rough.  You're growing.  We might get frustrated.  Just because this is our second time, we're no experts.  We have to learn what you're telling us.  We have to remember how this works.

We promise we'll always try our best and always, always love you more than anything.

You're our little duck.

And we're your family.

We love you,

Mom, Dad, & Rowan
        Oh yeah, and Domino and Buddy too!