I am not sure if I believe it or not but I will try one last time to see if I can maintain this blog site about our wonderful family of 4. I see that some of my friends maintain their blogs religiously and I enjoy reading them and catching up on their families. Facebook is fine for quick things and sharing pictures but it doesn’t capture the stories. So lets see how this goes. It may just work out this time because I am growing more sentimental and feel the need to share how proud I am of my family.
We welcomed Nellie Mary Hehl into the family on August 28, 2012. She is named after my great grandmother Nellie Abare who was an incredible women and will send down lots of strength, courage and kindness to our Nellie. While my pregnancy with Nellie was tough the c-section delivery was wonderful (big thanks to my good friend Sarah Martin who hand picked the team in the delivery room!). As the doctor was delivering Nellie she first noted the amount of dark hair she had, then as she was pulling Nellie out she said “this one is solid”. It appears that Nellie is pretty much a mini-me of Erik. She is built like him, looks like him, has his easy going personality, and his ability to sleep. Nellie and Erik just go with the flow and don’t get too upset about anything (Jake and I aren’t so good at that).
A little update on Jake
Jake is now 4 and in his second year at the Montessori School of Syracuse. This is the perfect place for him. He has made wonderful friends and is learning so much. One of Jake’s obsessions is maps and the continents. He knows all seven continents and can identify them from a map. Jake likes to pretend to take trips and pics locations such as New Guinea to travel to. He recently made a map of the United States by pin punching out all 50 states. It took him at least two weeks to complete and he talked about it almost every night while he was working on it at school. I had no idea really what he was working on so I was SO surprised when I saw the finished product. On day Jake came home and stated that he worked so hard on his map all morning he forgot to take a snack break.
We recently celebrated Jake’s fourth birthday with a family dinner out on his actual birthday and a friends birthday party the next weekend. Jake had the same request as he did last year for his birthday: dinner out so he could eat muscles and apple picking. The night before Jake actually turned four I was putting him to bed when he got this concerned look on his face. I asked him what was wrong and he wanted me to clarify that the next day was his actual birthday and that he would be turing four. I let him know that was true and then he said with further concern on his face: “Mom if I am going to be 4 tomorrow I will be one year older.” My reply was yes. Then he said “Well what am I going to wear tomorrow. If I am one year bigger than I will need new cloths tomorrow because I won’t fit in the ones that I am wearing now.” Even though I tried hard to let him know his cloths would fit him the next day and I didn’t need to run out that night and buy him new cloths, I am pretty sure he went to bed thinking he would have not cloths to wear that fit him when he woke up.
Update on Erik and Me
I unfortunately lost my position as a science teacher at a local school district last spring due to budget cut backs and decreased enrollment. I truly enjoyed the three years I spent teaching science to 7th and 8th graders. I was luck to work with wonderful colleagues and deepen my commitment to education. I am happy to report that I am back at SU to complete me Ph.D. in education. As hard as it was to lose my job I am very happy about the path that it put me on.
Erik’s business is still doing well. He now has 3 full time employees. He has worked his way to the executive board for the Central New York Chapter of the Home Builders and Remodelers Association. In addition, he recently became a member of the village planning board.
