Sicknesses are finally getting better...

It's been a while since the boys have behaved "normal" but today is the best day in a while. Logan and Gage are both getting their appetites back even though they both rmain on antibiotics. Logan is still a little short wired but not bad, and Gage is pretty much his usual self. I am hoping after 3 rounds of antibiotics, we finally will have his ear infection taken care of.

Logan has shown us he likes to sing and dance. His favorite song right now is Jingle Bells which goes something like this: "Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way. hey." And this repeats. He also has been heard singing his ABC's as well as Happy Birthday to Me. Cute and funny.

Gage enjoys being verbal with his big brother because Logan will laugh at the sounds Gage makes. So he feels totally encouraged to keep on babbling and screaming. Still, Gage has to be where ever Logan is. Right now, the two of them are playing in the hall. Logan is playing a little bell type keyboard and singing Happy Birthday to Me and Gage is trying to get in on the action too.

Gage had his well baby check last week and it went OK. After breaking 20 lbs a couple weeks ago, he's now under 20 with his illnesses and all. I am confident he'll pick back up soon though. We did move Gage to a bigger car seat although it would have been easier to stay with the carrier a little longer. It's working out though.

Gage still isn't crawling at all but he gets around fine by army crawling. He is constantly pulling himself up on furniture but seems to get stuck in the standing position until he falls or someone picks him up.

I ref again tonight and am looking forward to it, although I am not looking forward to being chilled afterwards. Dan and I are both battling the starts of colds ourselves. I also got my Green Belt last week. It went well and was lots of fun.

Grandpa Goehring is having his retirement party this weekend as well as his 60th birthday. Amazing how fast time goes. I remember visiting him at work when I was a kid and having a bottle of soda with him in his office. :~)

illnesses...

We have a lot of illnesses going on around here. It was a couple weeks ago that Gage started waking up often in the night. So I brought him in, as he's been battling colds for about a month straight, along with Logan. The Dr. prescribed him amoxycillin for 10 days. By about day 5, Gage's condition worsened with more time awake in the night and total crabiness. Also, Logan started running a temp. We stayed home this past Wednesday and brought them both to the Dr. By this time, Logan's temp was normal but Gage was still pretty sick. It turned out that Gage had a double ear infection as well as some grunty breathing. He was changed from amoxycillin to Zythromax and prescribed a nebulizer. Gage and Logan are now doing way better although they really have some terrible coughs and running noses. It's funny to watch Gage sucking on his top lip in search for that salty booger taste. And Logan has mastered the sleeve wipe as apparent by the dried white stains on his dark blue sweatshirt sleeve.

These days, the boys are playing much better, rather than requiring lots of cuddling. And the two constantly play together, although Logan can often be heard saying, "No, Gage." As usual, Gage is constantly following his big brother everywhere.

Logan said an 8 word sentence this week: "I want to go to St. Cloud, Mommy." The kid loves to go for car rides. And pizza??? I have never seen a kid like pizza as much as Logan does. He saw me take a frozen pizza out and went crazy. All excited, he said, "mmmmmm. Pizza. I love pizza." Funny.

And then one day last week, Gage stayed home sick from day care and Logan went. After the was through, I went and picked Logan up and brought him home. When he came upstairs and saw Gage sitting there, he got all excited and said, "Gage!!! My buddy!!! Hi, Gage!!!" And ran over to him and gave him kisses and hugs. He truly missed him. Very very cute.

Progress...

Tomorrow is a big day. The boys are going to their first birthday party. Chad and Amy are hosting a party for their kids Jacob and Madison. Jacob is just a few months older than Logan. We're really excited about it.

It's official. Gage is sitting up now and can go in and out of sitting up if he pleases. Also, he started standing by putting his hands on something about 6 inches tall and getting to his knees and then to standing up. He can't quite straighten out his torso so his butt sticks up in the air. It's still pretty cool to see. And of course, he follows his big brother everywhere, and Logan totally eats it up. Daddy often chases Logan around the house and scares him by jumping out at him. Now Logan does that to Gage. And Gage laughs and laughs. Tonight, as Gage laid on his back, Logan was kneeling on Gage's belly. Of course, we disciplined Logan for that behavior even though Gage thought it was funny and laughed. Tough kid.

I had Gage in the Dr. office yesterday regarding a persistent cold. They prescribed him with antibiotics, although I may have passed on those but Gage has been ultra-crabby for past couple days, yet he's not running a fever. Strange. I'm really hoping he gives me a night of rest. Anyway, Gage weighed 20.3 pounds. Holy cow! I can't remember how old Logan was when he reached 20 pounds, and oh, how we celebrated. Well, now it becomes apparent we need to get Gage a new car seat. He's grown out of the infant carrier. How exciting.

Logan still has slowed on the potty things, but it doesn't help much that Dan nor I want to put him on the potty since every time he asks, we strip him down just to have him do nothing. So, Logan wanted some M&M's but I said he couldn't unless he went on the potty. He looked at me trying to comprehend what I had just said for just a moment, then said, "Go potty?". So we put him on the potty and pee he went. It has worked pretty well but still little progress.

PT in St. Cloud has continued to go well, although the 2 times a week is already getting to be a little much. Last week, I dealt with new snow and icy roads, and today, I had the ice (freezing rain). And of course, we're in St. Cloud by 7:30 AM each Friday. Tuesdays are after work so we don't deal with darkness. At PT, Logan has been progressing on the tricycle which is great in my opinion. I think that the tricycle will really build his muscles which is the whole point of PT. The thought is that if Logan can gain strength, he'll gain balance, and with better balance, he'll gain more coordination, and with more coordination, he'll fall less. The good thing is that Logan doesn't mind going and actually enjoys it. He works hard for his 30 minutes and when it's time to go, he's ready.

Gage has his 9 month appt. soon. I see the ortho about my wrist next week. And Logan will continue his twice a week PT.

Back to our movie. We're watching Superman.

Happy New Year!!

We were at Dan's aunt Val's for a Christmas celebration a few days ago and we just got some pictures from the event that I will post below. Logan was the only kid in his age group not deathly afraid of Santa. Also, I will post a picture from this summer that I ran across and it's awfully cute.