Summer update

Hello friends - here's a short update from the Bergman household. I'm currently on holidays, which is probably why I'm taking the time to blog right now! The summer at work has been pretty busy, so my holidays were quite timely.

Andrea & I successfully returned from our first family vacation with Luke. We went to Clear Lake for 3 nights and enjoyed our time there. It was nice being in a new location - but it was also a lot of work keeping Luke fed & occupied (aka happy!). I'm sure other parents out there can identify. Below are a couple of pics of our time. Luke slept pretty well so we were able to enjoy some reading and a couple of movies after he was in bed.

Just prior to our time in Clear Lake I went on a fishing weekend led by Dean Klippenstein. We went to Grand Rapids with my dad & Woody Cornelson. We had an absolute blast and 3 of us enjoyed the fishing of our lifetime. On Friday night we caught over 80 walleye in about 2.5 hours and then on Saturday we caught over 75 pike as well - many of them having to be thrown back as they were over the 30" length limit. A couple pics are included below.

The shore lunch we enjoyed while fishing for jack

The boys with our killing from Friday night

A bison at Clear Lake (which I failed to

see in person because of a missed turn)

Luke enjoying his time on the playground at Clear Lake

Our little cutie with his new hat!

What a difference a week makes...

Big news on the home front. First off, Luke celebrated the completion of his first year of life last week. It is absolutely amazing how quickly the year has gone by. What a beautiful journey we've been a part of with our little man. He has taught us much...and we know that this will continue as time goes on. Pics of the party with our family will be posted below.


On another very exciting note, Luke has been sleeping much better since this past Tuesday. On Luke's birthday (May 21st) we went to see a homeopath about some of his skin issues (very red & irritated skin behind his knees, around his wrists & ankles, etc). Before we were too far in the homeopath suggested that his skin issues were the symptom of something else. If we could get his stomach a bit healthier (we didn't really identify this as an issue) he would more than likely sleep better. As he sleeps better, his stomach would improve...and in turn, his skin should begin to clear up a bit. Great idea we thought.


Then the homeopath went on to tell us that some behavious modification was in order regarding Luke's sleep patterns. Given that we've felt like we've tried almost everything, we were up for one more plan. Essentially, the plan involved us taking more control of sleep time...with less touch time while trying to get & keep Luke sleeping. The first night (this past Monday) was hard and Luke didn't enjoy the new pattern we were trying to establish. But, we all made it through the first night...and since then, Luke has continued to adapt to this new plan. Needless to say, we are shocked at how quickly he's adapted to the new system. We are very grateful that the new plan has been working because we had no idea what we were going to do with our chaotic night times.


Now, on to the pictures:

First birthday cake - post demolition

Care bear cake - pre-demolition

Getting excited for the party!

Sitting in front of my new car

What to do with all of these presents?

A Change of Seasons

Spring is in the air...and we've been loving it here in the Bergman household. After months of looking out the living room windows with Luke, the beautiful weather of the last few weeks has allowed a number of bike rides, walks and meals outside. Luke seems to enjoy watching the birds fly about the yard, listening to the chirping as they move from feeder to feeder. There has to be something about the fresh air, because his demeanor always improves when we head outside.

In the last week or so the little guy has also had a few more good nights (not without a couple brutal nights in between). We're hoping the new sleeping patterns we've been experiencing continues. As I write this, Luke has been down for 90 minutes during his morning nap with no interventions. This is pretty much a miracle in our books! Here are a few recent shots of us being outside...

Showing off his one tooth (with the one right

beside it on its way)

Enjoying our time at a park in Winnipeg

Hanging out in the tire swing at the

Toews Easter gathering

Another in-house relocation...

As you may have previously read on this blog, our beautiful little son Luke is not a huge fan of sleep. Neither at night...nor during the day. One of the issues we've seen is that he's an incredibly light sleeper and very sensitive to noise. So we picked up a white noise sleep machine, which helped a bit. Given our dry winters, we also picked up a humidifier...which also makes a little noise when the fan is running. We had hoped that both of these units would kill some noise helping Luke to sleep a bit better. Well, things haven't really changed in the last while so we thought we'd try a new approach: moving Luke's bedroom upstairs.

Amy came over this past Friday afternoon to help Andy & I make the transition (and in the meantime, purge a bunch of crap that we didn't need). After it was all said and done, we were both quite pleased with the result. On top of that, Luke's first 2 nights upstairs have been better than what they were when he was downstairs. Below are a few pics of the changes in our household.

This is what the upstairs looked like pre-tranformation

(very cluttered)

This was Luke's bedroom on our main floor
(formerly our master bedroom)

Here is the new bedroom upstairs.

And here is the new office on the main level

This will be a sitting room/office, along with a play

room for Luke.

At 10 months, Luke's first tooth has also started to make it's arrival known. We're hoping that a tooth or two finally coming in combined with the new sleep location help lead to some longer nights!

Some updated photos...

So our beautiful, little son is almost 10 months old. It's been an amazing process watching him develop over the last few weeks. He started bopping around like a seal on ice...and now he's reached a new level of crawling that has him moving all over the house. It's not quite perfected, but it's good enough to get him around. He has also started taking interest in standing beside the couch (and anything else he can get his hands on)...so it looks like he's started training to walk.

Anyway, below are a few updated pics of Lukie. Enjoy!

More than we bargained for...

This past weekend I went ice fishing with my dad & Dean Klippenstein on Lake Winnipeg (north of Selkirk). I hadn't ever really been ice fishing...at least not with someone who knew what they were doing. So needless to say, I was quite excited to get out there.

The day started off quite innocently. We met Dean's uncle Art and another guy that Art picked up. We headed off to find our first spot, and got things started from there. The air temperature was nice, but there was a bit of wind that made it feel a bit nippy. As the day continued we tried a few different spots, until we drilled our last fishing holes around 4pm. This is where the fishing really started to pick up. And that was a good thing...as it had been quite slow for us for a few hours. By this time the wind had picked up and was quite brisk.

At around 5:45 we started to pack up. It was about 6pm when we began our return trip to the shoreline. It had taken us just over 10 minutes to get out to our spot...and we didn't think it would take much more time to get back. Boy were we wrong. It wasn't long before out truck was stuck...being pulled out by Art (Dean's uncle). A minute or two later, we were pulling Art out. And so it went for about 45-50 minutes. Over the course of the afternoon, the path that we had taken onto the lake had been blown in with soft snow and it was virtually impossible to drive on. So we decided to start our own path...and we continued to get stuck.

We were able to get out and get moving, when we saw another truck in some trouble. We stopped to help pull them out (which didn't take too long). At this point we had 3 trucks in our caravan. We once again began to carve out our own path when we got stuck again and a 4th truck that was ahead of us turned around to help us out. We were pulled out, and we began to get going...when we got stuck once again. This time we were really hung up. Shortly after this, the two other trucks behind us got stuck as well. Leaving only one truck that had enough clearance to get through the snow.

Before too long it was decided that we were going to leave Dean & Art's truck on the ice for night...as they were stuck and weren't going to make it to the shore. At this point, I really began to wonder when we were going to get home...and I had figured that a night in Winnipeg was ahead of us - as we'd have no vehicle waiting for us at the shoreline. My dad, Dean, Art, Jaime (the tag along) and myself all hopped into the box of the one truck that was still moving and hung on as the driver pounded through the drifts. Eventually (after a 2 1/2 hour journey) we ended up at the shoreline - safe & sound. We were relieved, but now we needed to figure out where to stay and how Dean & Art were going to get their trucks off the ice.

As we were trying to figure out how to get home, another truck pulled up along side and two brothers jumped out. We asked them where they were going in the city. "South" they said.
"Where specifically?"
"South end of the city...and then way south of the city."
"Really, where?" we asked.
"I'm heading home to Winkler after I drop my brother off at a hotel."
Bingo!

My dad & I ended up catching a ride with these brothers home to Altona. A number of times on the way home I just smiled at the thought of how the day started out so innocently...and became a bit more dangerous or interesting than any of us were expecting. But then again, what's a fishing expedition without a good story to tell?


Here is Dean drilling holes to start the day.

The first catch of the day.


The day's end...a beautiful sunset.

A nice catch to end my day fishing.

A Little more...

And a few more pics for y'all to enjoy. Luke is 8 1/2 months old at the time of shooting.

A Little Something for the Ladies...

This post is dedicated to Luke's most faithful blog follower and girlfriend, Abby. This post (and the next one) is all for you!

An update on life...

So, the holiday season is over. As per usual, the time was full of gatherings and great food. A couple highlights:
- watching Luke open presents and enjoy the wrapping paper (more than anything else)
- watching our families thoroughly enjoy Luke during the festivities
- having breakfast with Andrew B
- hanging out with Dan & Karin (including the annual short court battle)
- going to see Invictus, Up In the Air and Avatar 3D all in one day

The only real lowlight was not being able to stay longer at a number of the parties due to Luke’s early bedtime.

Speaking of which…this brings to the update on where we’re at today. Our son has not been a model sleeper. He rarely goes more than an hour and a half of sleep without needing some kind of intervention. This isn’t good for either Andrea or myself…more specifically for her.

We had a great stretch in November where he was getting a good 4-5 hour sleep before 1am. That changed suddenly and now we’re in a spot where there is no good rhythm (I know, I know – this isn’t anything new for most parents). So to try to help that we are in the midst of a 10-day trial run of sticking with relatively the same schedule each day (Andrea has blogged a bit on how things have been going).

Even though there have been 2 brutal nights, we have noticed some improvements. Luke seems to be falling asleep a little bit easier…and he’s also easier to put back to sleep if he wakes up during the night. Our experience with Luke and his sleeping has reminded me that sometimes you need to celebrate the little things in life…like your son falling back to sleep without you having to pick him up.

So that’s a small picture into where we’re at right now. More updates to come. Here are some more current photos of the little man who runs our household.

Our smiley little guy

Luke's official weigh in earlier today

(21lbs 12oz - 85th percentile)

Luke not really enjoying his first "swimming" experience

(it got better later on)

I woke up one morning during the Christmas break

to find Luke in a new play spot

Impeccable Timing

Last week Tuesday I was in Winnipeg for work and had 2 moments of impeccable timing. At the end of the day I just laughed...and thought I should share the experiences.

Experience #1
A co-worker and I had just finished lunch in the exchange district in Winnipeg and were heading back to my car to get some samples before our next meeting. As we approached the car, we both saw a parking meter dude hanging around the car. I didn't feel nervous, as I still had over an hour before I ran out of time. As we approached he asked, "Is this your car?" to which I answered "yes". "If that's the case, then I'd want to move it up about 10 feet".
Unbeknownst to me, we parked in a restricted area. You see, when we pulled into the spot we were initially parked right behind the car in front of us. It looked a bit tight for that guy if he were to try & get out, so I decided to back up and leave a bit of extra room. Just trying to be a nice guy. As I reversed, I ended up backing into the restricted zone without seeing the sign.
All this to say, if either us or the meter guy had been a minute quicker or slower I'd be looking at a ticket in the range of $150.
(On a side note - who runs into a meter dude that suggests you move your car up instead of giving you a ticket?!)

Experience #2
My co-worker and I continued to our meeting following the parking meter experience. I often use the calendar on my phone when talking about project schedules. I this during our meeting and decided to leave the phone on my lap. This way if I forgot about it when I was leaving, I would feel it slide on my leg or it would fall to the ground. Neither happened. Instead, it fell on the couch I was sitting on and I didn't feel a thing.
If you know me, being without my cell phone isn't the greatest thing. And being without my cell phone during a day of meetings in Winnipeg is probably the worst thing.
So, not noticing that I don't have my phone we leave the meeting and begin walking down the stairs. We're half way down the 2nd flight of stairs when my customer comes running out of their office and says "your phone is ringing". Andrea was calling to check in on something for that evening.
The interesting timing in this case is that had Andrea called 5 minutes later or if we would have left 5 minutes earlier, I may have been halfway around the city before I realized my phone was gone. Which would not have been cool.

Let's just say that karma (or whatever you want to call it) was on my side that day. Very nice.

Missed Connections

So, last week I traveled to the southern US...Texas to be specific. And to travel there I had to fly into Minneapolis.
(Side note - if you have to fly through Minneapolis at any point in the near future, I'd ask to see if the runway construction is done. It's wreaking havoc with flight schedules)
Anyway, back to my story. On the way to Texas I was stuck for one night in Minneapolis as I missed my connection. On my way back home from Texas, I had another night in Minneapolis. Lovely. Here's where the story gets interesting for me.
Obviously, I wasn't the only person who missed a connecting flight. And I have to say, if you want to see how a person reacts to not being in control - an airport is a case study waiting to happy. So I was heading down to the Delta Airlines desk to see if I might be able to get my hotel covered this time (as I had to pay for it the first time). Fortunately, they covered the cost of my room.
In the mean time, there were numerous people beside me getting more & more agitated at the Delta Airlines staff. In particular, there was a younger guy at the kiosk beside me that was uber pissed off. His flight was late getting into Minneapolis and he missed his connection (join the club, buddy). But in his case, he also said that the fact he was getting home a day late also cost him his job. And, he said that he didn't have any money to spend on a hotel room as his room wasn't covered by the airline.
We both left the kiosk area at the same time...so I turned to him and said that he can have my room coupon. I knew that a room would cost me about $60 and I had enough in my travel budget to cover this expense. He graciously received the gift, said bless you, and mentioned that karma would be on my side. Nice.
I booked a hotel room and ended up going to the same hotel, riding the same shuttle, and waiting in line to get our room together. Funny how that works. We checked in at the same time and I paid for my room.
After getting into my room I found out my phone didn't work as I was trying to call Delta's booking agents to see if I could get on a earlier flight the next day. I had to call down to the front desk to see if I could get my phone line opened up to call a 1-800 number. The same person who helped my check in picked up the phone and said, "I'll open your phone line right away. And oh, just so you know you won't be charged for the room you were going to pay for. Someone else showed up with an extra coupon from the airline so we applied that to your room." So I didn't end up having to pay for that room after all.
Karma, baby. Sweet karma.

On Being Content...

Our cell group at Seeds is spending some time discussing money...our goals & dreams, along with what the bible says about it. Last night we had another week of chatting on money and a new concept occurred to me.
I had always seen being content as just that, a state of being. What I realized for myself is that being content is much more a discipline than a way of being. Here's how I saw this for myself:
Overall, I feel like I'm a pretty content guy. I have everything that I need...and more. But my mental tendency is still to want that which I don't have. When the thoughts & desires of wanting more come to mind, I have begun to speak the line "I have everything that I need".
This process is a discipline for me as it does not come natually. What I hear around me and what I feel inside me do not resonate with the line "I have everything that I need"...but my heart knows it to be truth. So instead of having arrived at a place of contendedness it's much more a come & go affair. My hope is that I'm able to stay in that place more often than not...

A Little Photo Shoot

Last Saturday night Andrea & I had the pleasure of hosting both of our parents down for supper. Paul was (and still is) in Europe...and Mark & Amy had other plans. So it was just us and the parents. We had a great time watching videos of Luke's development and also enjoyed a little photo shoot with some new gear that Luke had just received. Here are a few shots from our time:

Big smiles for the camera

Showing off the latest European beachwear from Erin

Not totally convinced of what's going on

A little tummy time after rolling over

(much to the delight of the spectators)

Not to sure about the Winnie the Pooh outfit

The Heart of Life...

Have you ever had one of those moments where you sit back and know that life is good? I had a few moments like that today. And I was caught a bit by surprise.

I spent the past week in Saskatchewan working and came home last night (Friday). We spent a couple hours eating with Mark, Amy, and Paul...and saying our good byes to uncle Paul as he heads off to Europe for a couple months. We got up this morning and then headed off to Pembina Valley Bible Camp for a one day retreat for the iPray team Andrea is apart of at Seeds (I was coming along to care for Luke). I knew this retreat was coming, but I wasn't all that excited about being away from home the day after returning from a week long work trip. Combine that with the fact that it is Soup Sunday tomorrow (a very busy morning for me)...and I had a bit of an attitude thinking about the day away from home.

Anyway, something changed this morning and I began to get excited about spending the day focusing on Luke's needs. In the end, Luke & I had a great day together.

But back to the first line of the post: there were moments today when I felt deep within me contentment & joy. Here are some of those experiences:
- watching Luke wake up in our bed (the serenity of this moment ended suddenly when he gave me a bloody nose with his dagger like finger nails)
- going for a short walk with Luke and watching him fall asleep
- napping in the chalet with Luke on my chest (does it really get better than that?)
- watching a hawk soar effortlessly in the air just above the deck when we were eating lunch
- spotting a belted Kingfisher on the way home and being encouraged by Andrea to pull over, stop the caravan, and take a good look at the bird through our binoculars.

These moments, though none of them were earth shattering, were all moments that caused me to pause and say to myself "this is the good life". In recent months I've begun to realize that the good life comes to me in small, quiet moments where I slow down enough to realize all that's around me. There is beauty in this very moment, if we will train our eyes to see it.

Celebrating Life...

Yesterday afternoon we had another fantastic Bergman-Bergman gathering here in Altona. The Springstein Bergmans came out to visit the Altona Bergmans for the afternoon/evening. Activities of the day included:
- watching an utterly disappointing Bombers game
- heading to the park for faspa
- barefoot tennis
- 500 up - tennis ball style
- 4 on 4 beach volleyball - short court style

Oh yeah...there were also young kids involved who went swimming & sliding at the pool. Good times all around. Here are some of the pics:

Xander playing in the sand with...

Cousin Eli!

Team Awesome

Team not so Awesome

Cousins Avery & Jonah

There were others in attendance behind the scenes and behind the camera who unfortunately didn't make it into any of the pictures. Maybe next time...