Welcome to Vreeman Family Website
Musings, media, and miscellany from the Vreemans in Fishers, IN
Practice and breakthroughs
Gavin's 10 month old nervous system loves to practice. Squatting up and down, playing catch, investigating how straps and buckles work, splashing in the tub. Ad infinitum. And that's how it was with the first step on our staircase. In June, Gavin started to take an interest in the living room stairs and just kept practicing going up and down the first step over and over. This continued for about a month or so until one night when had the Sellers and Taylor families over for a cookout. Inspired by the older kids going up the stairs and the larger audience, Gavin took off and climbed the whole flight (with me spotting behind). It was a breakthrough moment and now he can't leave them alone. In the time I've been trying to write this post he's gone up them at least 6 times. Here is one of the runs on video (though 2 min 30 secs is one of his slower times).
The last few weeks have been filled fun adventures with family and friends: Mike and BZ's 40th birthday, an afternoon adventure at the Indianapolis Museum of Art with Uncle Joe and Aunt Rachel, visits from both sets of grandparents, fun at the Indiana state fair. Here is the full media collection for the last few weeks:
Gavin waxes poetic and eats some rice
Gavin does the sit n spin with a tape measure- Gavin learns to use a fork
- Gavin climbs the stairs
August 2009 gallery (Gavin 10 months) : slideshow here | thumbnails here- August Indianapolis Museum of Art adventure (Gavin 10 months) : slideshow here | thumbnails here
Dedicating Gavin
We've been a bit delinquent in getting this post up...our travels and catch-up slowed us down a bit. We really want to say thanks to everyone who made this such a great time - especially those who drove from out of town (many on the same day!). What a great way to celebrate God's faithfulness.
We've collected a few photo galleries of the weekend:
- Gavin's dedication and Mother's Day (Dan and Lorrie's gallery): thumbnails here | slideshow here
- Gavin's dedication and Mother's Day (Tom and Jacki's gallery): thumbnails here | slideshow here
- Gavin's dedication and Mother's Day (Rachel''s gallery): thumbnails here | slideshow here
Also forgot to mention that we've got a gallery going of Gavin at 7 months:
- Gavin 6 month photos: thumbnails here | slideshow here.
Gavin's baby dedication 05/10
Lorrie and I are excited to participate in our church's baby dedication ceremony on Sunday May 10. Similar to an infant baptism, this is ceremony is a chance for us to commit ourselves to raising Gavin according to biblical truth and hold fast to God's promises of faithfulness. Details for the service:
East 91st Street Christian Church
6049 East 91st Street
Indianapolis, IN 46250
(317) 849-1261
Service Time: 11:30AM (probably want to arrive a bit early b/c of traffic)
After the service (about an hour), we'll be hosting an informal BBQ for family and friends at our house:
13752 Wendessa Drive
Fishers, IN 46038
Feel free to come even if you can't make the service.
RVSP: dvreeman@gmail.com
Medical myth media madness
My sister Rachel and her IU colleague Aaron Carroll have a paper on festive medical myths published in BMJ
this week - a follow-up to last years wildly successful paper and a precursor to their upcoming book on medical myths called "Don't Swallow Your Gum - Myths, half-truths, and outright lies about your body and health". This year's paper is also generated a deluge of media coverage, including interviews on the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric's Notebook, and Good Morning America! Pretty cool stuff...
Meeting new friends and showing off my skills!
Gavin had a very big day on Tuesday. He and Mommy first traveled to Regenstrief to visit his proud Daddy at work where he successfully charmed everyone who was dying to meet him. I thought that Sandy (Dan’s administrative assistant) might just sneak out of the building with him! He definitely showed off his adorable smile and social skills as he met many new people including Dan’s co-worker/mentor Clem McDonald who spoke Donald Duck to him eliciting many big grins! At his next big debut he showed off his cute personality acting as a model for student Occupational Therapists in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences on the IUPUI campus for Janet Everly’s pediatric elective class. He allowed students to play with him and learn how to elicit primitive reflexes in an infant. After he got over the initial shock of strange new people all staring at him, he soaked up the attention by smiling, cooing and making all sorts of motions and sounds. It was really stinking cute! So much so that I forgot to take pictures with the camera quietly tucked away in my purse! He was also able to meet a new friend, Evangeline (Eva) Grace, who is the new addition to the Mushi (Christina and Cliff) family and was born only 15 days after Gavin on October 15, 2008. She is a beautiful little girl with a head full of hair! Finally, after a short break at home, Gavin was off again with Mommy to meet the Central District committee for the INAPTA at Joanie Essenmacher’s home in Broad Ripple. Gavin quickly loved on Monica and Jessica and suckered them into holding him a large part of the night! They didn’t seem to mind one bit! Gavin quickly fell to sleep on the car ride home after such a big day.
Lots to be thankful for
In the midst of much craziness around here, I wanted to take a minute before the holiday to write a few words about how very thankful we are. In all honesty, I can hardly remember a time when the magnitude of God's provision and grace has been more apparent. I'll start, of course, with Gavin - who continues to charm and delight us every day. In spite of the new challenges of parenthood, we are openly embracing all the changes that come with it. In the process, Gavin is showing us more fully the extent of God's love for all of us. We are also simply amazed by the generosity of so many friends and family who've sent gifts, cards, and offered support in so many ways. We really can't thank you all enough. Clearly there is much still awry in the world, but with the change in our country's leadership coming we've found renewed hope that the world really can be changed. It starts with getting to "maybe".
Of course, we couldn't leave a post without adding a few new Gavin tidbits. So, we've added a few photos to the second gallery over on Picassa: thumbnails here | slideshow here. We've also added a two new video clips: Gavin expanding his vocal repertoire and Gavin trying to replicate his first roll.
New friend
We're delighted that our friends Tracy and Tricia Dierks have had a beautiful baby boy - Luke Allan Dierks. Luke was born on 11/12, weighing in at a healthy 8lbs; all the latest info on Luke is available on their website. Gavin had a great time visiting the 1-day-old Luke in the hospital (see some photos here). We were able to return the favor of bringing some tasty items from Qdoba and a giant under-cooked cookie. Everyone seems to be doing great, so we're very thankful. We're quite certain that these two little boys are going to cause some mischief...but have a lot of fun together in the process.
