What's New at The Drews?

Spring is in the air...

2009-05-06T11:54:00.007-05:00

The weather is steadily improving and before long, we'll be complaining about how hot it is out. Unfortunately, we did not take advantage of winter like we should so we won't make that mistake again. We took the boys ice skating just once and they loved it and still ask to go again. We continue to make our house in Hibbing but we hope that changes before winter. We have been working towards building out in Chisholm and just about have all the plans in place to make it happen. Just a few more details are left to work out, such as whether the well is good, what kind of septic we need, and who exactly will do the work. I know the boys will love being at the new house, especially with all that land to roam free in. Each and every time we're out there, the boys play very nice with one another. I know they will get more and more adventurous, so much so, that we'll have to work hard to rein them in. We've even played with the idea of putting up a fence, even though they have 40 acres and complete seclusion to play in.

I've been spending a lot of time with different folks gathering up quotes and information on the construction phase. This last time I was out there, across the yard, Logan pulled his pants to his ankles to go pee. We all looked over there and just kind of laughed at this bare-butt little boy peeing right there where he was playing. A short time later, I see Logan with his pants down yelling at me that he went poop. Embarrassing because I had to ask the guys to excuse me while I went and tended to Logan. Before I got there, he pulled his pants back up but it was too late because he was full of poop inside and out. Dan arrived a short time later and we cleaned him up with wet wipes and grabbed a pair of sweats from storage and were set to go. I had to tell Logan to be sure and go potty at the edge of the woods so people wouldn't step in his pee and poop. If I told this story in person, it'd be pretty funny.

This past weekend, we went to the Split Rock Lighthouse. I must say that this was a life-changing experience for the boys. It was actually a completely spontaneous trip that went incredibly well. We arrived at the Split Rock State Park and purchased a State Park Annual Pass and headed in. The visitor's center there is incredible, brand new with some fantastic exhibits. There's weren't too many people there either because the tourist season hadn't quite hit yet. We looked at the exhibit area and the gift shop with the boys behaving pretty well. We decided to sit in on a 23 minute movie they show as requested. The move was made probably 30 years ago and described how the light house came to be as well as what it was like to manage it. Logan was very interested in this even though it was geared towards older kids and adults. After the movie, we finally headed out to see the light house. The movie helped explain everything they were about to see so actually seeing the light house just brought it all together. All the way home, that's all they could talk about. And still, Logan talks about how he wants to live in a light house. We've discussed it and I think we're going to have to build a light house play area instead.

I went sturgeon fishing for the first time up on the Rainy River. I was pretty thrilled with my catch and was so excited. I now want a boat to expose my kids to big fish fishing. How cool will that be?

Gage's potty training is still a work in progress. He has only pooped on the potty twice in the past year and will only go pee when told. I definitely need to do some research on this one. Sometimes, he looks at me as he's going in his pull-up and says, "I go pee."

Daycare has been going OK. I miss the structure Lola's daycare in Little Falls offered but I really like the flexibility this one offers. I know my boys would benefit from a different, more organized day care, but I just can't get the time to search out one that offers both the structure and flexibility. I'm fortunate right now that I am not traveling for work because otherwise, with Dan working, I'd have to try and find some nanny type to help out. When the boys first started going to this day care, they acted out, threw fits, screamed and cried, and were completely disrespectful. I see this behavior almost each time I'm there, but it's mostly because of their own son. I had to tell Logan especially that how he acts at day care is not acceptable behavior for home. It's made a difference.

Work has been going well but with the falling of the economy, things are a little scary around here. I am surrounded by layoffs of 7 to 15 weeks although I have been spared for now. That may change but I'm OK with that, as long as I still have a job to go back to.

Moving along...

2009-03-02T07:42:00.003-06:00

Things have been moving along nicely.

We all went ice fishing yesterday. I wish it'd warm up though. Anyway, it was the first time we went as a family and neither of the boys fell into a hole. The first time we went, it only took about 1 minute, didn't even get a line down, and Gage's foot went in the hole. The next time, we went 2 weeks later and Logan fell and his arm went in - again before we even got a line in the hole. This time, we protected those holes full time. We stayed for about 1 hour and caught a bunch of little perch. Gage enjoyed it but Logan couldn't care less. Logan wanted to just play outside and avoid the ice house all together. Gage hung out by the door the whole time to see what was going on, or he sat on the bench between and Dan and me to hold the pole or reel the little fish in.

Logan is still our little clean freak and really enjoys how nice he can make things look. Every day, he makes his and Gage's beds, and he does a great job. When he cleans up toys, he wants to do it the best he can so he not only picks them up and puts them where they belong, but he also makes sure the containers they go in are neat and straight. We have a hard time getting Gage to clean and when he does, he goes real slow.

Potty training for Gage is no where. He just doesn't want to try. I am going to have to go to the sticker chart pretty quick. We went to pull-ups this summer and seemed to be making good headway, then it just stopped. Now he cries because he doesn't want pull-ups. I need to sit down and really think this one through.

Last night, the boys were going to bed, and they should have been pretty tired, but instead of falling fast asleep, they sang Bingo together. B-I-N-G-O. Gage wasn't quite saying it right and Logan was arguing and trying to sing over him. But Gage has that super loud voice so all we could hear was, "B-A-N-G-O". Dan and I stood outside their door cracking up. It was so very cute. Eventually, they were truly singing together. Very funny. Logan is improving on his musical abilities and now seems to be able to hold a tune. And Dan really thinks Logan has good rhythm.

We had a litter of puppies back in December and now have just one left. We had two go to Texas, one to Maryland, one to North Dakota, and 2 to Central and Southern Minnesota. Our last one is soo adorable and so smart. Even though we wouldn't mind keeping him, I just can't help but think we have our hands full already. So we may have to post another ad to get rid of him. Dan already has him pointing to a grouse wing and whoaing on command - a very smart puppy.

Life in Hibbing has continued to go well. There's a lot of layoffs in mining right now but I think I'll be alright. As for Dan, he spent 4 weeks working as an iron worker, and it went well. He's laid off right now but that's alright. The four weeks he worked were long 6 day weeks so he was ready for a break. But he's ready to go back now.

Living in Hibbing...

2008-12-26T09:50:00.005-06:00

I feel like the family has finally made the move. We are now living in Hibbing. It's a long story but we did manage to buy the property in Chisholm, and wholeheartedly intended on living there, but upon getting possession and trying to make the most of it, we realized that bringing the kids into that home was not a safe thing to do. So we found a home in Hibbing to buy as well, kind of like an investment, and intend to sell it come spring if all goes well.

When I say if all goes well, I mean if Dan's back continues to heal. He had surgery about 7 weeks ago to remove some disc fragments from his L4-L5 area. The timing couldn't have been worse as he didn't have short term disability or any sick days to fall back on at his job in Little Falls. So he quit work the week before his surgery, did some final work around the house in Little Falls, and made the move to his folks to recover from his surgery. He was up and about shortly after and so things have gone well. He will hopefully be starting a new job shortly with the Iron Workers Union. With all the construction projects up here, we are hoping for plenty of employment for some time.

Of course, the boys are getting huge. The summer brought us lots of great memories. Being at Grandma and Grandpa Goehring's proved to be more valuable than we could have imagined. The bonding went both ways. Towards the end of our time there, we noticed the boys were quietly "playing" in the bathroom. With a strong odor coming out, I went in to see what was going on. There Gage was drinking some 10-year old bottle of Stetson colone. His breath smelled like that stuff for hours after. I really don't know what he was thinking.

This past summer, Logan got pretty darn good at riding his bike - with training wheels of course. Our big problem has been keeping him from going too fast. When he gets going, he tends to get a little wobbly and those training wheels can send him right over. He did wipe out once but it was in the grass so no harm was done. Now this winter, Gage has picked up peddling with a big wheel in our basement. I can tell this summer will be a fun one. Gage will be 3 and that's how old I was when I learned to ride a bike without the training wheels.

Gage loves to play ball. With the right ball, he can play catch with me forever without dropping it. Then Logan wants to play but he just runs around with it and plays keep-away from us. Of course, Gage responds by crying. Both boys want to be good but they just have such a hard time. :) Gage will often point to himself and say, "Me good boy?" Then he'll point to Logan and say, "Logan, naughty." Over the summer, he'd even tell Logan to take a time out by pointing to his wrist and hollering, "Two-minutes. Two minutes." just like Grandma did for Gage.

Logan spent September through November at Grand Rapids schools. It went pretty well I think. He only went twice a week. Now that we're in Hibbing, we open-enrolled him in Chishom as they have school for him 4 days a week in the afternoons. A suburban comes and picks him up each afternoon and Dan drives to the school in Chisholm to bring him home. We could let him ride a school bus home but he'd have to transfer at the HS with the help of a 3rd grader. Ummmm.... Let me think about that.

Christmas was a blast this year. Gage could be seen hoping around the room Christmas morning saying, "I'm so excited." And Logan said, "This is the best Christmas ever!" Very neat, and very fun. Santa brought them a couple GeoTrax plane sets to go with their train sets, a Matchbox car park, long johns, a fireman helmet for Gage, Handy Manny Tool Set for Logan, and of course lots of goodies. Grandma and Grandpa Ed and Nancy got them both bomber hats, mittens, and wool socks. The puzzle they got for Logan has been his favorite. I marvel at how well he does those things... so impressed. Gage's favorite toy was from Aunt Sarah who gave him a Elmo phone. Gage doesn't care about the phone unit that makes all the sounds. All he wants is the plastic handset that has no buttons or sounds. He carries it with him everywhere and pretends to talk on it.

Ava had puppies a few days ago - 7 of them. Very cute, and very healthy so far. We have a web site for them at http://www.rangeuglydogs.com/. Yes. Ugly dogs. German Wirehaired Pointers are also affectionately called Ugly Dogs. We have no idea why because we think they are the cutest. Hopefully, we'll be able to sell them without too much hassel. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have 9 large dogs at our little Hibbing house.

Lots going on...

2008-09-04T21:06:00.009-05:00

Above is at Grandma's and Grandpa's house.

Time has flown by and I can't remember ever being as busy as I am now... final project for my masters, starting a new job, getting Logan enrolled in a new school, finding therapy for Logan, trying to sell a house, trying to buy a house, filing a complaint against our realtor, dealing with the relocation company nearly daily... it goes on and on. I keep telling myself, "It's only temporary." And as a co-worker says so well, "It will all work out, and if it hasn't, things aren't done yet."

Logan is doing quite well. I am thrilled with the quality of care he's getting with OT and PT. We decided to put him at the Duluth Clinic in Hibbing even though we are living in Grand Rapids. The PT is better than any I've seen work with Logan. She is on it and is constantly re-evaluating him. In St. Cloud, a PT would do an evaluation then pass him off for therapy, and reassess after a period of time. With this PT, she is truly evaluating at each visit until she gets him figured out. In addition, she has tons of neat tricks and tools to help him along, such as resistance bands, neoprene wrap, and more. In addition, Logan will be fitted with new orthodics and she works very closely with the person who will do this. Often times, she goes along to discuss options.

Logan starts preschool in the Grand Rapids School District next week. Unfortunately, he will now go twice a week instead of the 4 times a week Little Falls offered. That's a bummer. Oh well.

Gage went potty in the big potty for the first time this evening. He was very clearly requesting and he did go. Hopefully, it will click now. After all, he is 2 1/2 and is ready to get going with it.

Grandma and Grandpa Goehring are doing fabulously well with the boys and keeping them busy as well as being kept busy. They have a pretty good system worked out where my dad gets them out of the house to the park each day while my mom cleans and does the chores. Here, with them, the boys are able to have more freedom than they've had so far. The boys help Grandpa out with working on cars and motorcycles, yard work, cleaning out the garage and sheds, and anything else outside. It seems to be the highlight of their days. I'm not sure how long we will continue to live here with Grandma and Grandpa. Daddy is still stuck down in Little Falls until he can either find a job or sell the house, and neither of the two have happened yet in the last 3 months. Dan's getting a bit depressed... well very depressed, and hates being away from us. I was hoping it would get easier but instead it seems to be getting harder. Yesterday morning, Gage woke up crying for Daddy. He even made my mom cry as she tried to deal with his emotions. Then later in the day, Logan came out of my bedroom with our weekend bag packed and ready to go to Little Falls. When I said we weren't going, Logan cried and wanted to see Daddy. Very sad. We are soooo hoping that change is around the corner.

In less than 3 weeks, I will be done with my masters and can try and keep this blog up more. I wish I added more as it's such a great way to remember memories.

I just reread the previous entry. Funny how it states we are moving to St. Cloud. Yeah. The job kinda fell apart after I didn't meet their educational requirements (no masters yet and no undergrad degree in a computer related field). They still wanted me but had to put me on a temporary contract until my masters was complete. That didn't sit so well. So I contacted Hibbing and the job was still available, so the rollercoaster ride seemed to finally come to an end. Whew! It has been meant to be. Even though the distance is killing us, I am constantly reminded of how nice it is to bring my family together with the rest of my family. the other day I got to witness my 16 year old nephew playing with Logan while watching my 14 year old niece play volleyball. That would have never happened before. These are the memories my boys will remember, and the relationships their building with grandparents and cousins are priceless. I'm sooo glad I figured this out sooner than later.

We're movin'?

2008-05-19T07:34:00.003-05:00

Over the past couple months, I decided to explore further job opportunities. So I applied for 4 jobs. One in my district, one up in GR at ICC, one in Hibbing at HibTac, and one at SCSU. I didn't get an interview for the one in my school and was disappointed about that. The one at ICC, the one I really wanted, was filled internally and no interviews took place - another bummer. I got interviews at both HibTac and SCSU. The SCSU interview was 4 intense hours long with two open forums, one-on-one interviews with the big shots of IT, and the actual interview with the 6 person search committee. I had another interview a few days later that was just with 3 people. Then a couple days later, I was called in one more time and offered the job. With an interview with HibTac just a few days away, I asked for the rest of the week to think about it. I interviewed for the job in Hibbing on a Friday afternoon for which I could tell they very impressed. I told them of my dilemma in needing to know if I was a candidate for the job. They told me they'd do their best to get back to me on Monday - and I said I'd check my home voice mail over lunch. Well, Monday came and after they contacted me at work at 7:45 AM, had me talk with two corporate people in Cleveland, I had a formal job offer at 11:00 AM to add to the mix. I rejected the SCSU offer at 3 PM Monday. I got a call from SCSU at 6 PM that evening asking me to reconsider. The next day, I rejected the offer again with SCSU with them not knowing I had another offer. The next day, SCSU again extended the offer and I then asked to think about it for the weekend. During that weekend, I went up north and looked further into "the life" we'd live up in the Hibbing area. Dan and I both felt that Hibbing was not for us, nor for Logan. So on Monday, I accepted the offer from SCSU.

My last day with my job is this Friday...

Anyway, things have been hopping around here as we work to have a garage sale this week and put our house on the market the next. Lots to do....

Gage is now 2 and Logan 4. Gage, as usual, continues to have me wrapped around his finger. His words are coming along and sentences are beginning to form. Him and Logan still argue as if they were the same age but they also get along so well at times. Both of them will call Scooby their favorite show with Franklin a close second. Gage is still obsessed with balls and has quite the arm. Logan is completely potty trained. He wears pull-ups at night but is always dry. We have to remind him to ask for help wiping but that's about it. Gage still has no interest but is always quick to tell us when he needs a diaper change.

Logan wouldn't go to sleep last night and came upstairs knowing that he shouldn't be. When he saw me, he ran up to me with the biggest smile and said, "Happy Mother's Day". He thought he could sweeten me up. Funny.

As the days go on, I will try and update this blog more regularly. I am missing too many memories here.

A story I must tell....

2008-01-24T16:33:00.001-06:00

I keep forgetting to tell this story so I better get it out now.

Logan has been working on potty training for quite some time. He has his moments where he does well but more often than not, he just doesn't consistently get the job done. Well, we were at a friends house for New Years Eve, celebrating in family style, when Logan disappeared. Then I heard one of the other dads yell that Logan was walking around with no pants on. I ran upstairs to see the scoop and noticed he had seemed to go potty on his own and needed a new diaper. When I got closer, I realized that he had pooped in his diaper, removed it himself with the help of his feet, and threw it in the trash. Then he wiped himself up putting the icky toilet paper in both the toilet and the dog's water dish that was also in the bathroom. Of course, the poop soaked socks that helped get his diaper off showed the path he walked throughout their over-sized bathroom. The mom of the house came up stairs and asked if I needed anything. I responded with, "Some paper towels and 409 please." So, I washed Logan up, dressed him in the change of clothes we had with us, borrowed some socks from their boys, and sent him out so I could clean up the poop that was all over their floor, toilet, dog dish, and yellow bathroom rug.

Amazing. I felt terrible but fortunately, everyone had kids themselves and understood.

Logan's getting glasses... and starting OT

2008-01-11T19:44:00.000-06:00

We had a follow-up appointment for Logan's eyes this week. We have been pretty happy with his alignment since recovering from September's surgery so I expected his appointment to be similar to the ones in the past.... ya know... "Everything looks good so we'll see you back in 6 months." That wasn't the case. It was a good appointment but Dr. Christiansen said that with situations of over-correction, often they will again begin to drift out over time. To prevent this, the Dr. suggested glasses. Otherwise, it's back to the knife. So, we go back in three months to see how his glasses are working out. We have to try our best to keep them on his face so we'll see how it goes.

We went into town today to try some on. We pretty much figured out which ones we want to get. They have the cord ear brackets (they wrap around his ear) and will be lighter in color. They didn't have the exact ones that we liked so we'll go back in a week when they and others to look at come in. Then a week later, the lenses will be put in. I couldn't believe how cute he looked. I really wasn't looking forward to all this but it wasn't bad. I am hoping his cousin Brandon will motivate him to keep them on.

On other news, I got a call from St. Cloud OT. It sounds like Logan will now be getting twice weekly visits starting in two weeks. Now that will not be fun. I really celebrated when the PT was over.... and here we go again. Of course, the school doesn't feel he needs these services, and I understand where they are coming from, but of course, they support my decision to give Logan every opportunity to grow. I know he has made light years of improvement since his eval so we'll see how it goes. Insurance approved 80 visits. Wow.

The boys...

2008-01-05T11:46:00.000-06:00

Logan and Gage have been growing pretty fast. They are getting old enough to take places without getting headaches. :) Right now, Logan is with Dan making a dump run. I could tell both of them were excited for their day ahead.

Logan's eyes are still doing very well. We have an appointment on Tuesday as a follow-up. I will be interested to hear their thoughts on him. Last month, Logan saw Dr. Chip and his staff for his neo-natal followup appointment. Everyone he saw were so impressed with him. He has come so so so far. He's quite social and inquisitive, and of course very active. He is also very loving and even positive. For example, we bought a new toilet seat for the downstairs bathroom. Logan noticed it and asked Dan, "Who bought that toilet seat?" Dan responded, "We did." Logan then came to tell me, "Mommy? I like that new toilet seat. Thank you." Very very cute.

Gage is starting to enter the terrible twos. He's very independent and whinny. Drives me nuts. But him and Logan, when they play well together, are priceless. Logan is always asking Gage to come with him. "Gage. Here's a truck for you. Ca'mon. Ca'mon Gage." Before too long, they are would up so tight that they start running around the house giggling. Eventually, Logan can't control himself any longer that he throws whatever he has in his hand at Gage. It always happens.

School continues to do wonders for Logan. He really really enjoys it. Below are pics of him getting off the bus at daycare this past fall:

Christmas

2008-01-05T11:32:00.001-06:00

Christmas came and went way too fast. Unfortunately, Logan was sick Christmas morning with what I had had on Christmas Eve. Poor kid laid on the living room floor rather than opening presents. Kinda broke our hearts. Gage gave us the Christmas morning show that we had expected from Logan. Fortunately, by about lunch, he was playing with his toys.

Santa brought the boys each a pirate ship, books and puzzles, CAT construction vehicles, cars and trucks, a remote control car, a really cool ImagiNext rhino, and a new big boy car seat for Logan. Logan's favorite was his car seat. He loves seeing how big he's getting. Logan has also enjoyed his 24-pc. puzzles and his working hard at putting them together.

On Christmas Eve, we put out cookies for Santa. Christmas morning, Logan was most interested in if Santa ate the cookies than all those presents under the tree. Gage on the other hand went nutts over the presents.

Dan and I got each other a couple new kitchen appliances this year and that was it.

Here's some pictures of the holiday season:

It took so much work to get a good picture...

During the picture taking process, Logan got frustrated and began to cry, and Gage had to copy him.

Daycare puts on a Christmas party each year. Above are the rest of the daycare crew with Santa.

As expected... The boys with Santa.

Hunting....

2008-01-05T11:10:00.001-06:00

It always takes me so long to update the blog but I thought I would take the time to tell how Dan's deer hunting season went. As we all know, he spent every weekend for a couple months prepping his hunting shack, and I have to say it was pretty nice when it was all done. In the end, his buddy Chuck took the only 2 deer off our land in the same few minutes. Pictures are below.

As you can see, they had a pretty good time and pretty excited about their success.

Below is the picture of the cabin right before hunting season was to begin.

Logan can color... and can color very well.

2007-12-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

It takes me so long to update this thing since I've been going back school. It's been going very well but I am soooo busy now.

Anyway, let's talk about Logan.

We have been working hard on getting him potty trained and have made some success. He has moved on to pull-ups but still has regular accidents. I know he wants to stay dry but it is hard for him to know when it's time to go. Going #2 is now a piece of cake for him, and that makes a big difference for us. He has a had a few days where at the end of the day, he is just a little damp. Not bad.

Logan finally has started to enjoy coloring. See the picture below.

This picture he colored a couple days ago in two sittings. I have to pinch myself over this because it wasn't that long ago, like 6 weeks ago, that he wouldn't even pick up a crayon, and he certainly didn't enjoy coloring. After I had him evaluated by an OT, she gave me some suggestions. One of these was to buy those clear markers and color sheets where the color would just come out as he colored. That did the trick. He now has a lot of pride in the pictures he colors. The other day Logan drew a picture on the MagnaDoodle. He said, "Look. I drew a truck." When we looked, there were two circles with a line connecting the two. It was pretty cool to see things come together for him.

Logan's eyes are doing great. I am soooo happy with where they are right now. Most of the time, they are perfect and I haven't really noticed any misalignment unless I'm looking for it. I still have to schedule another visit soon and of course we'll keep up with eyes for the years to come.

Now, let's talk about Gage.

Gage is doing as good as ever. He is about 25 pounds now and as happy as can be. We did have his ears checked today and he's on antibiotics for an infection, but this is nothing new. Dan and I cracked up with him last night when Dan asked him to say sorry to Logan and he responded with a pathetic little face and a little "sorry". When I say pathetic, you'd know what I mean if you saw it. I'll try to tape it tonight. It is sooooo funny. What extra funny about it is how he puts on the face to go with the phrase even though there's nothing wrong.

Christmas!

With Christmas around the corner, we are getting more and more excited about it, especially now that Logan understands what it's all about. He talks about Santa and the North Pole often and has even started asking what he should get Santa for Christmas. I am expecting gifts for the boys to be books, trains, cars... the typical I guess. We'll hopefully get our tree up today or tomorrow and go Christmas light driving tonight... even though there's a snow storm outside right now.

I'll try and update again soon with some nice videos and more pictures.

The kids are baptized

2007-10-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

Hello all. The boys are finally baptized. I'm so glad it's over, and what's even better is that we really like the church. Here's baptism day for Logan... Crawling on our rock outside the house.

Since Logan's surgery, he has come a little ways. I do still feel he's now over-corrected but not nearly as bad.

Dan's been up north every weekend working on the cabin. Here's a picture from a few weeks ago. There's been a lot more accomplished since then like backfilling and chinking.

Here's some more pics I like from August...

Finally, a new family picture... from baptism day.

Logan's eye surgery

2007-09-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

Logan had his eye surgery three days ago. It went OK as he is now a little over-corrected. This is a real bummer because now we're pretty certain he will need at least one more surgery. We'll go back in 3 months for a follow-up. Disappointing.

Logan's eyes look rough, like raw hamburger on the whites of his eyes. I guess the pain is minimal and requires to pain medication. They itch a little bit but not bad as he isn't itching them at all.

Logan did a great job at surgery and tolerated the anesthesia nicely. That makes it a lot easier to deal with as parents. The surgery was about 1 1/2 hours long and we left the hospital a few hours later. By the time we made it back to the hotel, he was ready to play. A few minutes after that, it seemed, he was hungry. So we went to Baker's Square right next to our hotel where he ate like a pig. That was nice to see. He had a hard time adjusting to the change as he could not quite grab the things he was trying to. His hand would reach out for his milk or spoon only to find air. He remained pretty patient I'd say. It was hard for us to watch... broke out hearts... watching our son in pain and not able to function as he did. We really questioned our decision to go ahead. "Maybe we should have waited."

The next day, Logan started to adjust a bit more. He was his normal self in spirit even though he had little sleep that night and at nap time. Now today, he has adjusted even more and seems to be playing almost normally. Really, he has started using two hand to kind of gather up the toys as he still misses some times.

Logan still talks very fondly of the hotel. He REALLY enjoyed staying somewhere new. We'll have to do it again sometime. Also, Logan has enjoyed the 1 on 1 contact he has been getting. He's really soaking it up and we're enjoying the spoiling.

If I ever get the time, I'll try and post some picture of Logan's eyes. I haven't taken any yet but they haven't changed in the last 3 days.

Wow.... A lot to say.

2007-09-09T09:11:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's taken me so long to update the blog. I guess you can say grad school is taking up all my free time, which by the way is going really well. Having a blast and learning a lot.

So let's talk about the boys.

Logan is a potty training fool. He always has to go and sometimes he goes and sometimes he doesn't. I think he does this so he can wash his hands 20 times a day. For the longest time, we'd put Logan on the potty but he wouldn't do anything. Then he started saying he had to go so we'd put him on again just to have him again do nothing. Once he could go potty by himself - take his own diaper off and get on the potty without any help, he began to take off. He can go a day with just one or two new diaper changes. Sometimes, he doesn't do as well. And poops.... They are coming along nicely.

Logan started preschool this past week. I guess he gets on a school bus each morning and after his 3 hours at school, he gets a ride back to day care. For his first day on the bus, I specifically tried to make it back to day care to film his first day but the bus came 15 minutes early so I missed it. :( I was pretty bummed. He loves school and loves the school bus. It's pretty amazing the America feels a need to give extra help to those who need it. We're one of the only nations to invest in special education. I really feel that Logan has come a long way. He is very verbal and pretty easy to understand. He's just becoming a big boy.

PT ended late last month so I no longer drive to St. Cloud twice a week. After I stopped coming into therapy with him and instead waited in the waiting room, he just took off and blossomed. It was amazing to see. The St. Cloud PT people are amazing there. We'll go back in 6 months for a re-eval just to continue tracking his progress.

Logan will have eye surgery the week after next. I am a little nervous about how he'll do not that he's bigger. He was about a year old the first time and so his recovery was pretty easy. His inner eyes looked like raw hamburger but he didn't seem to care. This time, we'll have a little boy who will communicate how he feels and require us to communicate back in a way he can understand. We'll spend one night in the cities.

Gage is approaching 18 months of age and he's as busy as ever. He has started to beat up on Logan - - pulling his hair, hitting him, taking toys away from him.... Logan just takes it for the most part. I try and get Gage to stop it but he just keeps on going. It is hard to know what kind of temperament Gage is going to have. I guess time will tell.

Gage still has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. This seems to be enough for him though as he's a pretty big eater. He's catching up in size as well. I would expect at his 18 month appointment, he'll show some good growth and catch up to the 50 percentile. We'll have to see though.

Gage still sucks his fingers but he seems to listen to Daddy and Lola when they tell him to get them out. He listens to me, too, but only for a few seconds.

Dan has been spending a lot of time up north finishing his hunting shack in time for deer season. That's where he's at today and has been all weekend. I would expect that the end result of his cabin will be exactly what he's looking for. At least that's what I hope.

I will attempt to update again soon and this time try to include pictures.

I've been tagged....

2007-07-24T22:15:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by Jessica to post 8 random facts about myself.

I have to post these rules before I give you the facts:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

So, here's my 8 random factoids:

1. My husband and I both grew up in the same town but never knew each other. I was 5 grades ahead of Dan but only 3 years older. We met through our sisters who had been friends for years. The funny thing is that I was friends with Dan's middle sister for a couple years in late elementary school so I am sure I met Dan but never really "met" him. Funny. Anyway, his oldest sister and my sister set us up even though we were complete opposites. Look where that landed us.

2. I spent 5 years in college for Music Education but after 4 years of teaching, I left the profession for something with less pressure. I play a mean saxophone although I haven't picked it up for a few years.

3. I would love to build and live in a log home some day. All I need is a little land, complete privacy, and no sounds of traffic.

4. I love Taekwondo and consider it my favorite hobby - I just got my purple belt. If I had more time, I would pick up wood carving and quilting as hobbies as well.

5. I am about to launch my own web design business as I keep running across web page jobs. I have come up with a name but I need to sit on it for a while before I go for it. With grad school starting in a little over a week, I don't know how I plan to have time.

6. I enjoy watching TV evenings and some of my regular shows are American Idol, Hell's Kitchen, Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Intervention. I cannot sit and focus on just TV so I usually sit with my laptop, too.

7. I love my job because it feels like I get to put together puzzles all day long. It's challenging and rewarding. Speaking of puzzles, I am the queen of Sudoku. I picked it up while on bedrest and I am proud to say I have completed about 2000 puzzles, the latest of which are very complex (they have no numbers in any spaces and instead list sums of 2 or more squares - hard to explain).

8. I have an interview up in Virginia for the position of Director of Technology for the Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in a couple days. We would like to get back up north someday. We'll have to see how it goes.

Unfortunately, I do not know ANYONE who has a blog except the person who tagged me. Boy, I really do come from a small town.

Lots to say

2007-07-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

Boy. A lot has happened since I last posted anything of length. We just got Ava home from the vet yesterday after nearly a week long stay for Parvo. We are sooooo thankful she made it through OK. She's really skinny but pretty darn happy.

Logan went to the UofM for an eye appointment last week and it was decided he was ready for another surgery. So we are scheduled for September 19th. Poor kid has no idea what he's going to be going through. The first surgery, he was just a bit over a year, they loosened the muscles of each inner eye. This time, they will tighten the muscles of both outer eyes. I have to assume this won't be the last one.

Gage is growing up really fast. He feeds himself and can express exactly what he wants with grunts and screams and a strong pointing gesture. His new thing is throwing anything and everything, which is usually a matchbox car that pegs Logan in the head (which just happened as I typed this). Gage is also into puting things into containers - or just containers in general. This he learned from Logan. Gage can now climb on the couch but refuses to be patient enough to master going down stairs. He would really prefer to walk down them, and of course when he tries to do this, he'd take a nice tumble down if I weren't there to catch him.

Logan still exhibits frustration over everything and now that Gage is taking things away from him, there's a lot more frustration to go around. Between the two boys, there is always some dilemma. They are starting to learn to play together but it is evident it will take time.

I bought Logan a skateboard from Target yesterday. It's just a little thing but Dan and I caught Logan using one of his toys like skateboard so we thought we'd give it a try. Since I brought it home, I've seen Logan on it a handful of times. He uses his foot to push just like you would expect. I guess it's just natural to him. In my eyes, it's good therapy.

A few weeks ago, I found out about a job up north and decided to apply for it. I have an interview next week. If by chance I get offered it, there would be some biiiiiiiiig decisions to make. I don't want to think about it yet.

I got a much needed haircut yesterday. I chopped it all off and boy, does it look better. I look at my old pictures and wonder what I was thinking. Hopefully, I can take care of it. My cut can be described as a Meg Ryan look.

Pictures at last!

2007-07-08T15:46:00.001-05:00

I've finally gotten around to posting some pictures. The boys are napping but will be waking up soon. Forgive me but some are old.

We'll start with the 4th of July. Below is myself and the boys. We went to Brainerd for the fireworks. Very impressive. Logan thought they were too loud and said, "Turn them off." We found that to be pretty funny but then again, maybe they were seriously too loud for him. Maybe we'll bring ear plugs with next time. Gage on the other hand truly enjoyed them. Last year, he slept through them.

This past weekend was the Little Falls Dam Festival. The Clydesdales were AMAZING.

Above is Logan watching the parade.

We were up north a few weeks ago for grad parties. Our niece Jessi played with the boys and Ava in the picture below.

Gage and I posing for the camera.

We ventured to the Zoo here in town last month. They've done a lot of recent improvements which have really made a difference. It's a pretty nice zoo. The pic below was taken there while visiting.

Of course, Logan's favorite thing is the "4-wee-wee" as seen below.

Below, Gage is playing in our new fenced in yard. I suppose this was taken over a month ago.

For Mother's Day, we went to a water park in Brainerd. It was fun. Sarah, Emma, and Jace joined us in the fun.

It's been a while...

2007-06-20T22:38:00.001-05:00

Yep. It's been a while since my last post. I have been way too busy with soooo much, and the weather has been pretty darn nice.

I've been busy preparing to go back to school for a masters in technology management. It will be all online and I'm planning on starting Aug. 1. Also, I've been working on a website for a business in town - - which has taken more time than I ever thought possible.

Today, Gage fell and nailed his cheek and eyebrow on the bottom hinge on a closet door. He cried pretty hard and ended up with a nice bruise on his cheek and a small gash on his eye lid. I wasn't sure how deep it was but it was wide open. I brought him to ER to be sure and after the dr.'s close exam, he decided that nothing needed to be done. He said he would have liked to glue it shut but the edges were so bad since his injury was from blunt force.

Logan has been growing up. He has more good days than bad days now. Verbally, the kid just doesn't stop talking. Sentances left and right. He got new orthodics a couple weeks ago that are spiderman in decoration. It took him a while to adjust but he's not complaining about them much anymore.

Gage is walking pretty well but still has to have his fingers in his mouth. That is going to be a hard habit to break.

Lately, Logan hasn't been eating real well but Gage is a pig. It's like Logan doesn't eat so he can get attention. Hard to explain. After sitting there for 45 minutes, he'll start eating everything up.

Well, better get to bed. No time to proof read this.

Logan is 3

2007-05-14T21:03:00.000-05:00

Yes. Logan turned 3 last week, but we were so busy preparing for his party and getting our fence up that I have had no time to write.

We had his party this past Saturday. Considering it was opening fishing, it was surprising that nearly all our families made it. The weather was beautiful and the food was great. We completed the fence the night before which made the day that much better.

For Logan's birthday, he got a turtle sand box that has since become a pool, a wiggly sprinkler to jump through, beach toys, remote controlled airplanes, jumpy ball, swim pool playground thingy, some clothes, and much more. Thanks to everyone for their gifts.

The next day, Mother's Day, we went to The Lodge in Brainerd for a few hours. It's a hotel water park. I think Gage enjoyed it more than Logan but we'll definitely have to do it again soon. We were able to go with Sarah, Jace, and Emma, which made it a lot more fun that it would have been otherwise.

Speaking of Emma, Logan LOVES Emma sooooo much. They spent all weekend holding hands and playing together. She's such a good cousin.

Today, after work, I was able to fully enjoy the fenced in yard. I set up the sprinkler, filled the turtle with water, and let them have fun. Ava ran wild as well. It was fun and relaxing. Soooo nice. Gage really liked the sprinkler. He'd fuss a little as he would find himself in sprinkles and not able to get out as soon as he'd prefer. But eventually, he would get a bit more brave and venture in further and further. Logan would run pretty wide by it but he was getting a little closer near the end. Once I filled up the turtle with water, the sprikler was history.

Logan goes on streaks of good and bad behavior. He has been on his best since this weekend and it has truly been a pleasure to be his mom. His conversational abilities are growing so fast. He still gets really whiny here and there but he's getting better I'd like to think.

Gage is a full-time walker now. He falls often but get's right back up. He now has 4 teeth - the middle bottom two and the two top "fangs". Funny. Logan's top fangs came in first too. Weird.

Appetite-wise, Gage is a total pig and Logan has slowed. It is difficult to get him to eat, whereas with Gage, it's hard to satisfy his appetite. A growth spurt must be around the corner.

Logan has his 3 year appointment with the local ped. Friday. Should be fun, I hope.

It's been a while...

2007-05-05T10:10:00.000-05:00

Things have been going well ever since Dan bought a tie out for the dog. Now I can keep Logan and Ava separated while maintaining my sanity. The two together are just way too much.

Gage is walking about 95% of the time now and is improving every day. I think he probably has about 3 teeth now. 2 on the bottom and 1 on top. And the best news, everyone is sleeping through the night. Gage, Ava... everyone. I haven't gotten up with Gage in several weeks now so I think it's official.

We went and got Gage a haircut yesterday. He is like a whole new boy. It's weird how haircuts do that. We used the sucker trick again and he did real well. The color of his hair is much lighter now, unfortauntely, as I was hoping he would have Daddy's hair. None-the-less, he looks so much older. I was watching him in the mirror sucking on his sucker for quite a while, thinking about how cute he was. Then I glanced at my own reflection. It hit me how dark complected Gage really is. I am fair skinned but I already have a bit of a tan, but after looking at Gage, I appeared as white as a ghost.

I went and saw the preschool Logan will be attending next fall and was very impressed. Because of his grade III brain bleeds upon birth, Logan has automatically qualified for Early-Childhood Special Education services. He's been getting weekly home visits for about 2 years. Now that he will be turning 3, he will no longer get the home services and instead will have to go to the elementary school. He will be picked up by the short school bus at daycare at 8:00 AM each morning and will be back to day care at 11:20 or so. This happens Tuesday-Friday each week all school year long. There are approximately 1 adult for every 2 kids and the classroom is madeup of 3 to 4 year-olds with varrying disabilities. There was one boy in particular who totally reminded me of Logan... the way he walked and played and talked... neat. I think it will be a good thing for him.

Logan's been working on counting and singing these days, not because we are guiding him to do so, but because he is into that right now. View the video below to listen.

Dan has been outside this morning digging post holes for our fence. Exciting but it will be a long process to get this up and going. I wish I could get out and help him but the boys make it kind of hard. Once they take their afternoon naps, I'll be able to assist with the harder parts, I hope.

I took pictures of the boys this morning and will attach them below. For some reason, Gage was VERY photogenic today. Maybe it's the new haircut. Logan was in a serious mood but believe me, that has since changed.

Gage is a walking man.

2007-04-26T17:37:00.000-05:00

Yep. It's true. Gage is walking more and more everyday and is almost past the whole crawling stage. Here's video to show:

Breath...

2007-04-25T18:40:00.000-05:00

Dan came home last night around 9:30. I have to admit I was a little crabby - but not bad. I told Dan about my "wonderful" evening with the 3 little rascals. It took me about 2 minutes to feel like a million bucks. Dan shared with me how his trap shooting went and how much fun he had. Just him being happy made me feel tons better. Anyway, the fix for now is to lock the puppy up if necessary. I'll then work on controlling her whinyness.

After work today, the boys and Ava went on a short walk. Then we came home and I threw dinner in the oven and read to Logan for a while. The whole time, Ava was pretty good.

Well, I'm off to TKD.

I'm going nuts!

2007-04-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

OK. I spend all my energy just trying to contain Logan. And then add Gage... And then add a puppy. Then make it nice outside... I would so love to spend time outside but Logan runs away (walking in the woods, Logan will even take off and run anywhere he can). And Ava can't stand the leash. And Gage isn't walking yet so instead, he eats everything he touches, including grass and dirt. It's a disaster. Logan is hyper already and now with Ava, he's out of control. I let the puppy outside once every 45 minutes all evening and she still peed on the kitchen floor. Since we got home from Logan's PT, all I've been doing is hollering at either Logan or the puppy, except when Logan's in a time out, which he's in right now for pulling on Ava's ear. Now, I just holler at Ava. She chews on everything... And every day I get home from work, I'm greeted with chewed up magazines in the bathroom, or toilet paper, or anything else she manages to drag from the counter.

I don't think I can do this much longer. The puppy has to go outside, or she has to grow up pretty darn quick... or we need a fence now. I didn't bargain on being a puppy sitter as this puppy is Dan's birthday present. Dan has been clay shooting all evening as he's in a league, so now I'm beinging to think I need to have a talk with him.

On better notes, Gage is nearly a full-time walker around our house. He teeters everywhere he goes and falls often, but then he tries to stand up right away.

I have to take care of business around here. Logan NEEDS to go to bed.

2007-04-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a video - my first on a blog. This will introduce our new family member. She's a sweety.

We need a fence.

2007-04-17T22:14:00.000-05:00

I can't do it anymore. We need a fence. So begins the journey. I picked up a building permit today and this evening, Dan met with our neighbor to get the ball rolling. Hopefully, it will be up by Logan's birthday. It would be soooo nice to just go out side and relax, rather than chase after Logan every second. He is unable to stay around me and ventures off frequently, and he doesn't listen when I ask him to come back. It's definitely something we have to work on. And now that there's a puppy in the picture, it is that much more difficult to enjoy the weather. I definitely can't chase a puppy, a one year old, and a rammy 3 year-old. We need a fence. Can't wait for it.

I'll try and attach more pictures soon, especially of Ava, our new puppy.

Pictures, finally.

2007-04-15T09:13:00.000-05:00

The boys, thankfully, have been healthy lately, and Gage has even started sleeping through the night. I would say he makes it all the way through about 1/2 the time. Also, we have teeth!! Two on the bottom. I think they came in about 5 days ago or so. I guess we can stop saving for those dentures we thought we might have to buy.

Gage is almost walking. His max is five steps without falling. He does, however, prefer to walk places and spends most of his time on his feet. He has also started imitating lots of things. He tries to put his hat on by himself, holds the toy phone up to his ear... things like that. He isn't all that vocal which I think is because he has two fingers in his mouth all the time.

Logan, Gage, and I went to see Iain and his family yesterday. Iain and Logan were NICU roommates. Both were 13 in. long at birth, both weighed 1 lb, 11 oz., and both his mom and me are named Heather. Logan was born at 25 weeks and 5 days and Iain was born at exactly 25 weeks. They spent a considerably more amount of time in the NICU than us due to lung and feeding issues, but today, Iain is doing great! It is obvious his 2 older brothers are keeping him on his toes.

Later today, we are going to visit Jacob and Madison. Logan loves Jacob but we haven't visited them in quite a while. It is supposed to be nice today so hopefully we can spend some time outside. Dan is in Iowa picking out his new puppy. Another German Wirehair for hunting.

Well, I will attach some pictures below. :)

Gage (1 day old) and Daddy

Gage (1 day old) and Daddy

Gage's first birthday

Notice the two fingers in the mouth - with frosting as a bonus!

Daddy reading to the boys (nightly ritual)

Rusty

Will the illnesses ever go away?

2007-04-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

We were pretty excited a few days ago as Gage was finally seeming like he was on the mend after nearly an entire winter of ear infections and colds... then BAM! He's sick again. I have not brought him to the Dr. yet nor do I intend to at this point, but I am hoping he comes around. Since getting his immunizations last week, he has been pretty irritable and working on kicking a cold. He was doing well the last couple days, and even spelt though the night two nights ago... Yes! But now, he looks a little off, has a runny nose, cough, and is quite crabby. Poor guy. I have tomorrow and Monday off from work and I hope the extra sleep he'll get will help us out.

On a more positive note, Gage is approaching the next big milestone: walking. Yesterday, he was walking about 4 steps with confidence and control. Now that he's feeling under the weather, he's slowed a bit. I'm still hoping for some walking this weekend. We'll see.

For Easter, we are staying home and doing it as a family. We'll color some Easter eggs and hide them. Should be fun. I'll definitely record it, and once I get recording, I'll start dumping some videos to Youtube and linking them to this site. That will be nice to share. Daycare colored eggs today and Logan brought the 4 of them home. He got a hold of one and took a bite right out of it, shell and all. He had just watched me peal one for him a few minutes before.

Dan has spent the last 2 hours searching for another puppy... a female German Wirehaired Pointer to go with Rusty. Dan really wants a companion for him and wants to do some breeding. Dan's been looking constantly for quite sometime now... 2 weeks probably. They're just so hard to find.

Logan and Gage are all over the house right now. Logan's running around scaring Gage and Gage is chasing him around. Logan's laughing the whole time. And laughing hard, especially after he scares Gage. Gage is totally into it too as he continues to chase Logan everywhere. Logan will say, "I scare me". Logan's not quite the perfect big brother like he used to be. He pushes Gage over often, especially as he's trying to walk. He takes every toy away that Gage plays with. He won't share his toys with him... The list goes on. But I guess that's typical. There is no doubt though that Logan loves his brother.

Well, Logan just came up to me whiny and saying, "I poopied" and "You're all done." I guess he wants me off this thing.

Nothing new but...

2007-04-01T16:38:00.000-05:00

It seems Logan may have my ears, I hope. And I'm talking musically. Last night, he sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and although he messed up the words here and there, his relative pitch was spot on. Very exciting to me. Now if he can get Daddy's rhythm, we should be set to go.

Gage has been exceptionally crabby this weekend. Today has been the worst. His nap was by no means peaceful, and after 1.5 hours, I went down to a crying baby and spent about 5 minutes trying to calm him. Eventually, he went back to sleep but I laid with him for the next two hours with him waking here and there. Poor little boy. He doesn't have a fever so I am thinking this is all teeth stuff combined with his cold (coughing, runny nose, sneezing). I hope he snaps this cold soon.

Right now, he's playing at my feet contently while his brother and dad are at Wal-Mart getting more diapers. Before that, Logan and Dan went on a short 4-wheeler ride around the yard. Logan didn't want to get off, I guess.

I went through the toys in the toy box earlier today and took out all the baby toys (rattles, mini-blankets) as I try to make more room for Birthday gifts. I've also spent the last week or so shopping on eBay for flap books and 2-piece puzzles for Logan. I think I won about 5 items and will get them soon I hope. Logan is attached to flap books we've discovered as every time we arrive in St. Cloud for PT, he picks up the exact same book in the waiting room: Frosty the Snowman with little flaps that have pictures hidden underneath.

My friend Denise called me up yesterday to share her new purchase with me. She bought a 2004 BMW Z4. Nice car. Now if only she would just give me her Harley.

Also, with Dan's birthday around the corner, we are looking for another German Wirehaired Pointer as a companion for Rusty.

Hopefully, I'll get some more pictures on here soon.

Gage is 1!

2007-03-30T20:56:00.000-05:00

Yep. He's one already. And to celebrate, Gage took his first steps... 4 of them. Pretty exciting. Today, he had his well-baby check-up and thankfully, his ears were clear. Still, he has been waking up constantly through the night and there seems like there's no end in sight. Finally, Gage's teeth are visibly on the way. His lower gums are twice their size with two lower teeth bulging their way - nearly through. I think it should be real soon that we get to see what he looks like with teeth, not to mention a little development in his eating habits.

As for eating, Gage has been doing real well with solids and I even introduced a spoon to him. He certainly isn't ready for it yet as he wouldn't even grab it but I do think he got the idea. Yesterday, he chowed down quite a bit of meatloaf, stuffing, a baby jar of veggies, and a tub and a half of applesauce-strawberries. He ate about the same tonight. What's interesting about this all though is that he has been protesting the bottle at day care. Two days ago, he had 0 ounces. Yesterday, he had 2 ounces. The 2 ounces has been pretty standard for him. We aren't too concerned as he is still having wet diapers. He did weigh about 20 lbs even so that's a little concerning. It seems he either plateaued or even lost a little weight. Across the board with weight, height, and head circumference, he was about 10% on the baby scale. Another peanut on our hands... I will be interested to see how this bottle thing works out. I think he may not need it much past next week, but we will see. I myself am no longer pumping. I hope it's not too soon. And since he isn't into the bottle, I'll probably throw out the 5 gallons I have stored downstairs in the freezer. He seems to prefer whole milk. All that hard work...

Logan is doing well with PT. I was offered an evaluation to fill out on Logan which focused on sensory issues. His melt-downs, his on-the-go behavior and always having something in his mouth, and the constant figiting encouraged us to check him on this. After the evaluation was scored, it was decided that he should have a formal evaluation done. We'll do this in St. Cloud sometime soon, I think.

Logan's jumping and running skills are improving. I find him sometimes building little platforms to jump off of. The other day, he put his magnadoodle down first, then a little laptop, and proceeded to carefully step up... then bend his knees... and jump. Otherwise, I can catch him perching on the wetwipe container. This evening, I was laying on my belly and he took advantage of the opportunity to step up on my back and jump off. Fun to see.

Logan's other new found skill is singing. He can often be heard singing to the radio. When Gladys Knight's song, Midnight Train to Georgia comes on, he's right with it. On the way to St. Cloud this morning, a morning radio show had a caller on singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and seeing that Logan knows that song well, he sang along. Of course his many musical toys around the house can give him something to sing to, too.

Today I picked up an application for a building permit so we can finally build a deck for our house. That will be sooooo nice.

Spring is in the air...

2007-03-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

The snow is almost completely gone and the roads are clearing off. Yesterday, I even got the motorcycle out for a short ride. What nice weather.

Yesterday, we celebrated Gage's first birthday. The grandparents and Jess and Megan were in attendance for the event. Gage didn't go hog wild into his cake but did dip his magical two fingers into the frosting and then proceed to suck on them. Cute.

This past Thursday, Logan had his eye appointment at the U of M with Dr. Christianson. There is no doubt he is the right Dr. for Logan. He was great with him and had tons of direct experience to draw from. In the end, he pretty much said everything the past two ophthalmologists said, but just in a different way. Since Logan's eyes and his strabismus has not become consistent, we will continue to play the waiting game. Once his eyes make up their mind, then we can make decisions about his care. At the beginning of his 2.5 hour appointment, Logan's eyes were measuring 40 diopters misaligned. By the end of his appointment, he was straight. The Dr. spent time testing for his vision correction, looking into his eyes for any irregularities, and looking at his strabismus. In the end, the Dr. was VERY pleased with Logan and gave us many reasons why we should be happy with Logan rather than concerned. First, his prescription is completely normal and average for children his age. Secondly, his eyes have no damage from his prematurity. Fourth, Logan's brain is able to read what his eyes see perfectly well. And finally, his first surgery has given him quite optimal results. So, Logan has beaten the odds. We were told that Logan eyes should stabilize in the next couple years. The discussion made me ask about the chances that his would never stabilize. He said that can happen but based on Logan's intellect, we should expect his brain to stabilize his eyes. We go back in 4 months.

Last week, Logan did really well at PT. Julie was busy with paperwork so we had a new girl work with Logan. She had him riding the tricycle unassisted 4 times around the gym. His feet were strapped in but he was pedaling on his own and steering everywhere he wanted to go. He even peddled backwards when needed. He got pretty good at it and found himself going into the adjoining rooms with ease. I had a blast watching him. Friday, Dan brought him there and this time, he did not do nearly as well. Just wasn't in the mood to do it I guess.

Gage was back at the Dr. this past week for another ear infection. He's finishing up Zythromax and seems to be doing well. I have to bring him in for his well-baby check either this week or next. We'll have his ears looked at then. At his last appointment, his weight was much lower... not quite 22 pounds. We'll see what is next week.

Gage still has no teeth but is starting to stand unassisted on a regular basis.

I had a TKD tournament last weekend in Alexandria. I got a 3rd in board breaking, a 2nd in pattern, and 1st in sparring. In each of my divisions, there were about 6 of us. The sparring was just among women but the breaking and pattern included men. I was pretty happy with myself, and I had a lot of fun. In a few weeks, I should be testing for my next belt (blue).

Not to compare....

2007-03-15T18:41:00.000-05:00

I was going through Logan's old website to gather information for his eye appointment next week. Did you know that 11 month-old Gage now weighs what Logan weighed at 17 months - 22.8 lbs. It's not that Gage is big, it's just that Logan was so small.

Amazing.

In going through the timing of some of his milestones, I was surprised at how well he was doing then... really on track.

Beautiful weather...

2007-03-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

As I type this, Logan is down stairs in bed falling asleep, and to help him, he's going through his entire repertoire of songs... Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABC's, Old McDonald... Very cute. And his mumbling has turned into talking so it's fun to hear. "Happy Birthday to me... Happy Birthday to Mommy... Happy Birthday to not Tistian, not CaCa, not Lola... Happy Birthday to Daddy." Very very cute.

After all that snow, the weather turned to record temperatures. With 58 degrees, Logan and I made it out to build a snowman without snow pants and no coats. I don't think he quite knew what I was doing but he saw the end result and that sure got him excited. I got him to hold some snow in his mittenless hand after some coaxing. "It's cold," he said. But he held it for a little while. Since our snowman day, Logan has decided he's the snowball fight champ. He gets me every time.

Logan's vocabulary continues to grow. He is starting to tell us how his days are and what he did. If I ask what he did at Lola's, he'll answer, "Play toys." And he does elaborate, and with some guidance, we can really find out what he's been up to while we've been working. He'll often ask me questions about what I'm doing, where we're going, where everyone is, etc. It's fun to be getting to the point of having a conversation with him.

I broke out the 3T clothing tonight and it's in the drier right now. He's growing out of 2T slowly, but surely. Maybe if I give him more room in his clothes, he'll fill them up faster. ;)

Lola has now been helping Logan with the potty and she's had some success, but nothing more than we have. But now we're doing it on two fronts so progress will be more swift, I hope.

Today, I had a Special Ed meeting with his EC teacher, OT, PT, elementary psychologist, and the Director of Special Ed. It was interesting and at the same time, a little disappointing, but just a little. All year, Logan has been working with this team of people to achieve some set goals, and he has not met very many. His progress has slowed significantly and we can't figure out why. We have theories like he has a hard time transitioning, likes to be a tease, is having a hard time grasping concepts... What we know for sure is Logan's attention span is insufficient to do what we need him to do. He has some days where he's just on and others that he can't do a thing. For example, about 6 months ago, he was stringing beads. They haven't been able to get him to do it again since. He still is having a difficult time matching colors to the same color, naming colors, categorizing shapes, etc. On the other hand, he is able to do some amazing things. For example, we have this puzzle set that has about 40 different pieces that make 20 separate puzzles - 2 pieces per puzzle. The puzzles are of animals and their homes. A dog in a dog house, a bat in a cave... I can spread them all out and he can find the matches. Amazing. We will continue on with his SPED services as always but I think I really need to work more with him too. This fall, he'll start preschool already. I get to see the classroom sometime soon. To think he'll be riding a school bus soon.

Gage... well. He's Gage. A funny delightful little boy who loves mommy. He's walking around furniture all the time and will walk all over if I hold his hands or give him the walker. At 11 months old, he still has no teeth, but maybe in a month or so we'll see a pearly white. He's been nursing or getting a bottle just 3 times a day now so we're getting there. The cool thing is he is no longer belly crawling and is instead a full-time normal crawler, except when he's walking.

Next week, Logan see the specialist about his eyes. I am VERY excited about this opportunity.

Let it snow again...

2007-03-03T22:05:00.000-06:00

It snowed again... another 15 inches or so, I think. We shoveled and snow blowed 3 times in one day alone to keep as it fell. It's so deep out there that Logan can't really play in it. Can't even climb the snow bank, so Dan snow blowed a little path for him to walk in. I think the most fun was when the boys were in the sled together.

We broke out the little toy walker for Gage, the same one that Logan used over a year ago. As I expected, Gage just took off with it. It was soooo cute and all of a sudden, in just one second it seemed, he grew up. My big boy. He'll be walking in no time. Logan was so into the walker that the only time Gage could play with it was with me right there or while Logan was napping. I'll try and get video out of it sometime soon.

Dan bought Logan, and himself, a 4-wheeler today. We've been looking for one for several years and we finally sucked it up and got one. Logan was excited about it, but not as much as we expected. "4 we we" he says.

(http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/products/modelimage/498/1/1/0/image.aspx)

Tonight, I went to the boys hockey game with Leslie in St. Cloud. The boys won 10-1 and are going to State. It was great fun, and I was so impressed. Well coached team but they'll have some tough competition there.

The boys are a little sick once again. Gage is on antibiotics for an ear infection and Logan just has the runny nose and a cough. Hopefully, we can contain it and keep it from hanging around for too long.

Let it snow...

2007-02-26T21:37:00.000-06:00

Well, the big February snow storm left us with 15 inches of new snow. Unbelievable. Lots of shoveling but also lots of fun for Logan. We did get out to enjoy it a little bit but with all that snow, there's not much for Logan to do. We pulled him around in a sled and Dan built a little snow fort with him. All this had such an impact on him that at day care today, all he could talk about was going to see Daddy to play in the snow.

We're supposed to get more snow throughout this week. Considering that we had really none to start with, a few inches will do us some good. By this next weekend, we'll be making our first snowman.

This past weekend, Daddy and I were wrestling in the living room. I looked over at Logan and he was staring at me all concerned. When I smiled at him, he smiled right back and came over and hugged me so tight and asked, "What Daddy do do?" It was cute to see how much he cared about me. Then we got Logan involved in the wrestling match. Also, Gage showed his concern by crawling on my face and grunting at Daddy. Very cute.

Gage recently started showing that he can crawl the right way. For the past months, he's been "GI Joe" crawling but lately, he's gotten his belly off the ground. I never thought I would have a child that would crawl-crawl. Nice to see.

I am soooo hoping Gage will start sleeping through the night soon. For a while now, he's been waking up about 2 times a night. I am getting soooo tired. I don't know what the trick is. I can't let him cry it out because he will keep on crying. When I get him in the middle of the night, he just eats real quick and back to sleep he goes. He was doing so well for a while. I don't know what's happened. Maybe he's teething. By the way, he still has no teeth and he's 11 months old.

Pictures!!

2007-02-04T16:01:00.000-06:00

Logan in his new bed

The boys in the bath

Hanging out

Logan and Mommy

More news...

2007-02-04T12:11:00.000-06:00

Some new things have happened around our house and it's been neat to see. First off, Dan and I went to Hennings Furniture in St. Cloud Friday night and bought Logan a new bed. After a lot of searching and thinking, we decided to go for quality and bought a solid birch bunk bed and a couple matresses. It was assembled in time for him to sleep in it Friday night but in the end, he slept in the crib instead. But for last night, Logan fell asleep in his new bed and slept straight through the night. His bedroom is all Thomas the Train which Logan affectionally says, as he points to his bed, "Choo Choo Tain".

Also, this morning, Logan went poopie in the potty for the first time, although it was one tiny little terd, and after putting his diaper back on, he finished the job. But it's a start.

I had a TKD tournament yesterday, but because of my hand, I wasn't able to participate in all events. I did do the board breaking and pattern which went well. Lots of fun. I am excited for the day Logan can participate.

When I get some time, I'm going to try and post some pictures here.

Sicknesses are finally getting better...

2007-01-25T16:10:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-01-14T10:17:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-01-05T20:55:00.000-06:00

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!!

2007-01-01T15:37:00.000-06:00

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.

Chirstmas is over...

2006-12-27T16:41:00.000-06:00

It was a good Christmas this year, as usual, and I can only imagine what the years to come will be like. Little Logan kind of comprehended the concept of the season, but even more so, was really into opening his presents. We bought Logan a GeoTrax train that he showed little interest to, yet, and also bought him more musical instruments, of course. Gage got mostly clothes since the clothes big brother wore during his 12 month era were all summer clothes.

Gage is getting huge, and I mean big. He's still his same happy self and continues to sleep through the night. He isn't crawling yet, and I'm thinking he never will. His GI Joe crawl is totally working for him. He still isn't sitting up but I'm not too concerned with this as we've learned every child develops at a different rate.

Logan starts his PT twice a week soon. I'm interested to see how this is going to go. It will just add one more thing to our weekly events.

My hand is healing well. I got the stitches out yesterday and will go back in two weeks to have more X-Rays taken. I really hope it heals this time because I can already tell that my hand will never be the same. A lesson learned.

I'll try to include more pictures soon.

I think we're ready for Christmas...

2006-12-22T14:41:00.001-06:00

All the shopping is done and the presents have all been somewhat unwrapped over the last week or so, between Curious Logan and Cruiser Gage. Tomorrow we head up north to hit our families, then it's home for Christmas Eve and Day with just us 4. Looking forward to it. :)

My hand has begun to mend nicely. I cannot yet make a fist but my pinkie is starting to bend. I think I'm about where I was when the injury first happened. I am hoping in 2 weeks, I will be where I was before surgery. I think in a week or so, I'll be cleared to start PT - just for a pinkie. LOL.

Today, Leslie, a friend from work, came over to help me bathe Cyrus, since I can't get my stitches wet. Cyrus may be moving in with Leslie and her family since I am not able to give Cyrus the love and attention he so very much deserves. We are heading to their house today for dinner to try it out. I think he'll be a good fit over there.

Logan will start PT twice a week now. We'll add Friday mornings into our routine in St. Cloud as we continue to work on his legs and feet. The hopes are that since he's still so young, therapy now will make a huge difference in his future. This past Tuesday, Dan was able to attend Logan's PT for the first time. It was amazing!! Logan was a total show off for daddy. He rode the tricycle like a champ and jumped on the tramp like there was no tomorrow. It was really neat to see. He was so wound up though that it was hard to keep him on task.

The potty training at home has slowed to a crawl. He asks to go sometimes but when we put him on, he does nothing. Oh well. Maybe in a month or so, he'll show some genuine interest. Gage still isn't crawling although he continues to be quite mobile. At this time, he is on the living room floor rolling around next to Cyrus. Cyrus keep looking at me as if to be sure he's not doing anything wrong.

We've almost all beat our colds now. All of us except Dan are ridding ourselves of running noses and coughs. Dan has yet to catch the bug.

Christmas Shopping

2006-12-17T22:04:00.000-06:00

Today is the first day since surgery I've felt like typing much... much less pain now. Not too bad. I go back Tuesday to get "the club" removed from my hand, as Dan calls it. From there, I think it's to a splint for a few weeks. All this because of a silly little bone chip. I'm looking forward to actually hearing what was done.

Dan went to Brainerd with Logan today and I went to St. Cloud with Gage, just to shop for each other. I think it went well. A lot of people were looking at me funny, especially on the way out of the mall. I was pushing a jam-packed, heaped stroller with one hand, the other arm carrying a big black bag looped to my elbow and almost touching the ground. We'll shop one more time as a family on Tuesday after Logan's Dr. appointment. We still need to shop for the boys.

Logan and Gage are kicking nasty colds, especially Gage. I think they've both turned the corner though, thank goodness.

Surgery tomorrow.

2006-12-12T19:19:00.000-06:00

I went and saw the orthopedist today about my hand and they decided I'll need surgery. I was originally scheduled for Jan. 3rd but I got a call tonight that there's an opening for 7AM tomorrow. This works out much better because now I can have it done without paying a penny out of my pocket as my deductible was met nearly 7 months ago (birth of a baby, Logan's PT, my 1 week hospital stay at Abbott, my constant perinatal visits all winter...).

The boys are doing well as always. I still can't believe how perfect life seems right now... I have to pinch myself. Being a mom to these wonderful boys is such a blessing. I had no idea that they could be so entertaining.

They took a bath together again and this time, I got it on tape. Sometimes our camcorder works and sometimes it doesn't. Also, Logan went potty again. He's been doing really well with this, sometimes going 2 times in one evening. Lola says he hasn't shown an interest there yet.

The tree is up...

2006-12-10T21:26:00.000-06:00

It took a while but the tree is up and decorated. Already, we can see that monitoring it will be a full time job. Thank goodness Gage isn't walking around and pulling himself up on things. Then we'd really have our hands full.

Logan has been doing pretty well with the potty. He is now going nearly once every day - no poop yet though.

We went to St. Cloud with Marla, Austin and Alyssa today to do a little shopping. We pretty much just looked around though and didn't buy much of anything. I'm trying to do most my shopping online and it's going pretty slow. It'd be way quicker in the stores.

I'm going to cut this short since I've been battling a cold, but I will include two pictures. One decorating the tree (above), and the other of Logan being his typical self at Grandma's. Notice the ring of chocolate around his face (below).

Daddy's on the outside...

2006-12-08T19:17:00.000-06:00

Daddy's sitting on the outside of the couch this evening, and what fun he's having. About every minute or so, he has to get up and either separate the boys, take Gage back into the living room, or take away something from one of the boys. Talk about exercise. He is sitting closer.

Today, I took Logan to the eye doctor to have another look at his eyes. I agree this time with what has been said all along. We will continue to play the waiting game with his strabismus. Our next appointment is June 6th at which time we'll hope he can communicate a bit more with us. I think the long term plan is to make sure he continues to use both eyes, even if independently, and if one becomes stronger than the other, to patch the strong eye. If as he grows a little older, we find the crossing is too striking, then we'll opt for surgery. I'm relieved that I finally feel good about things. I certainly don't want to put Logan through surgery again. Of course, another option is to bring him to a pediatric opthalmologist. That time may come but not right now.

Reffing was fun last night. I certainly have a lot more learning to do. I feel like I'm one of those blind refs that don't see a thing. Last night, I never called one penalty and my reffing partner called about 5. I must not see a thing. I did make one nice off-sides call. :) Like that's real hard. None the less, my next game is not until January.

I think Gage is days away from crawling. He spends a lot of time on his knees until he wants to go somewhere. Also, he's quite vocal, but VERY happy. Logan was so easy, but Gage is even easier. What a delightful little boy. It's easy to forget he's even here, except he's so cute you just can't stop looking at him.

My hand appointment went poorly. It seems it's done no healing so now I have a choice to make. I'll see an ortho on Tuesday at which time I'll ask some questions. My Dr. said that the chances of it healing are pretty unlikely. So it comes down to if I want to continue dealing with the pain or not. When I think about going through the rest of my like with this pain, it doesn't sound good. Here's the thing. i can go nearly the whole day without noticing it. It doesn't hurt hardly ever until... I pick up squirmy kids, work out, put my weight on it... Things I don't do that often. So, I think I'll make sure it won't do any healing before deciding on surgery.

We're trying to decide when to put the tree up. I'm in the mood to do it tonight but I think we'll wait until sometime this weekend. I wonder what Logan will think.

We are starting to plan my Dad's 60th Birthday/retirement party for the last Sat. of January. What a celebration that will be!

Logan's favorite phrases...

2006-12-05T18:59:00.000-06:00

I hear this all day... "Mo wata peaz"... "Where Lola?"... "What's that?"... "Where daddy go?"... "Hi, Gage"... "Turn TV on"... "A ca-ca. Vrooom"... "All gone"... "Hungy, Hungy, Hungy"...

Of course, all these phrases have different pitches and tones attached to them.

At this moment, Logan's digging in his toy box, playing with his toys and destroying the house. Gage is laying at his feet waiting for dropped toys like a baby bird waiting for a worm from mom. When he gets one, he squeals in delight. Gage consistently army-crawls his way to Logan just to hang out. I hope they continue to get along as well as they do right now. When they have each other to entertain, I get entertained, too, and much less effort is required to maintain the household.

Last night, Logan went on the big potty for Daddy while I was at Tae Kwon Do. Still no poop but pee here and there works for me.

Right now, Logan saw Gage by one of his toys, the air popper, so Logan went over there and sat down next to him and the toy, turned it on, bent over and looked at Gage's face and laughed hoping to get Gage to laugh too. Very cute. Now he's patting him on the belly and giving him hugs and kisses. I have to constantly remind Logan to be gentle. "Careful" and "Watch out for Gage". Logan eventually starts to wrestle, at which time I have to get up and break things up. No harm is meant but he's only 2 1/2. :)

Both boys bathed in the tub together again but when Logan started throwing toys across the tub, separation was required. Logan had a short bath. Gage could have stayed in there all day but of course the water gets chilly.

Today, Logan had his PT appt. in St. Cloud. It went real well, although we still can't get him to jump. The funny thing is that last night, Logan was jumping all over the house to entertain Gage but his jumps were from his knees - hopped around like a Frog - knees banging on the linoleum. (Logan just got a time out for throwing toys in the house.) That takes coordination, too, yet he still can't jump.

Dan's getting his hair cut right now and picking up more diapers. It feels like we've been buying diapers all our lives. Tomorrow night is Tae Kwon Do and Thursday is reffing for me. Marla's coming to visit Friday and Saturday. Friday, Logan has an eye appointment in St. Cloud... Maybe we'll get the tree up this weekend.

A quick update... Thanksgiving, etc.

2006-11-28T20:13:00.000-06:00

We went up north for Thanksgiving... Dan's side on Thursday and mine on Friday... then we came home Friday night. There's no place like home. It was great seeing everyone as usual and the food was wonderful.

On Sunday, I was giving the boys a bath together and Logan said, "poopie", so I took him out and put him on the potty. After about 10 seconds and some toots, he said "All done." So I put him back in the tub and let him play some more. He then said "poopie" again so I put him on the toilet again. And again, he farted and said "all done" after just 10 seconds or so. So I put him back in the tub and finished with Gage ASAP. Sure enough, Logan pooped just after I got Gage out of the tub. Two little terds floating in the water. So I emptied it all out and showered Logan instead. Little stinker. :)

Gage is edging closer and closer to crawling. He spends a lot of time on all fours but can't quite figure out how to motor. There's no doubt that it's just around the corner.

I keep hoping that someday soon, Gage will sleep through the night. It's just not happening which is starting to wear on me. I get up usually twice a night. I am looking forward to the day when Gage is a year old and can handle just solids as his main source of nourishment. He's 8 months old so I only have 4 months left. Chin up.

Logan is still my perfect little angel. I hope it never ends. He's been so good and communicative. He requires a lot of attention but the way he goes about asking for it is easy to manage. He gives hugs and kisses and follows me every where, babbling about his day... It is impossible to do anything requiring concentration until the boys are to bed. Ahhh... Motherhood.

I do have one complaint and that's how difficult it has become to take Logan out to eat. I know we need to keep taking him out so he can learn how to behave. I think we need to stick to typical family restaurants and not the fancy ones.

Gage has had some pretty dry skin for quite a while now. I am starting to really watch this and see if I can't get it under control. He'll have to go back to the Dr. soon for his flu shot follow-up. At that time, I'll visit with the Dr about it and see her thoughts. One of his cheeks is really dry which may be caused by his drool and sleeping in the wet drool puddle all night.

Together

2006-11-22T19:31:00.000-06:00

Today was a REALLY rough day at work so it's awfully nice to be home with the family.

Logan's whining ways are nearly a thing of the past. For the last week or so, he has been able to control his frustrations pretty well as it's becoming apparent to him that whining over little things is not acceptable, especially when a few words can explain feelings and wants much better. I sure am hoping he keeps up the great work.

When I picked the boys up from daycare today, I saw Logan's turkey card he made. I set it down in a place where I wouldn't forget it and proceeded to get Gage ready for the ride home. By the time I turned around, Logan had picked all his feathers off the turkey card with no regret. Funny. He's been playing with those feathers nearly constantly now. Dan noticed all the feathers laying around and said in subtle frustration, "Man. How many feathers are there?" Logan responded, "Un, to, fee, fy, un, to, fee..." It was hilarious. I guess we know the time at day care is paying off

The boys have been playing well together as usual. The living room is full of all the toys Logan drags out. I don't help much either by making so many available. Gage moves all over the place, rolling and edging forward. He's growing up so fast. Logan continues to be the perfect big brother.

Today was Ruth's funeral. I had intended on going until 11 AM rolled around. At that time, it was obvious that it wasn't going to happen with all the issues at work. I feel terrible for not attending.

Josh, our nephew, had an emergency appendectomy today. While they were removing it, it ruptured. Thank goodness he had the procedure when he did. By the sounds of it, his appendix was in an odd place to start with. We wish Josh a fast and complete recovery.

Nothing too new but will post any way...

2006-11-21T21:21:00.000-06:00

Gage is starting to get up on all fours for a little while... He is much more interested in crawling than sitting up. No teeth yet either.

I was gone most of the evening and left all the boys alone. I first reffed my first hockey game ever and then did Tae Kwon Do. Busy day, but fun. It's amazing how nice it was to come home, to hear Logan as I walked in the door and see Gage's big smile when he saw my face.... bliss.

Logan helped me do the laundry today as usual. It's his favorite task. He takes the clothes out of th dryer and pushes the basket to our bedroom for emptying... then pushes it back into the laundry room. Very helpful.

A post from Daddy...

2006-11-20T20:57:00.000-06:00

Logan went pee-pee in the big potty again at 8:32 p.m. on Monday the 20th of Nov. . Heather wanted me to put this in this blog. I hope I don't have to enter a post every time he goes.... this could get repetitious. Anyways I (Dan) shaved my beard off after deer hunting and all I get now is crying from Gage, and "beard all gone" from Logan. Probably won't hear the end of it from those two or Heather "great the pricklies are back". Well that's all for now, until we write again, so long, fair well, and good day.

I must be insane... I'm hooked

2006-11-19T20:59:00.000-06:00

I just received some pictures from our friends Laura and Eric. The weekend before Halloween, we went out for pumpkins. Their son Brenden was also a preemie and was born at 23 weeks. It was a lot of fun to see these two playing together. I've included lots of these pictures.

Have to write again....

2006-11-19T17:48:00.000-06:00

Logan tried the potty thing again tonight. After a few minutes of trying with no success, I took him off the potty and went in search of a diaper. To his surprise, and mine, he peed on the floor outside the bathroom door. This potty thing will take a long time, I can tell. I've dug my feet in for the long haul. :)

On a sad note, Amy and I went to visit a friend 3 days ago in Long Prairie that we used to play softball with. She had been battling cancer for nearly 2 years and had taken a turn for the worse. On our visit, she slept the whole time so we didn't get to talk with her. I received word that she passed away this morning. She was 68 but certainly never acted like it.

In brief...

2006-11-19T13:47:00.000-06:00

Today, Logan is 2 1/2 and Gage is almost 8 months old. I have time to type now because both boys are down for their naps.

Gage is the most delightful baby on the face of the planet. He is always soooo happy and easy to please, and seldom ever cries.... and if he does, he is easily soothed. At this time, he is starting to pull himself forward to get things he wants. As for sitting, he can sit up but it isn't his favorite way to be. He prefers to be on his belly so he can move around to play with different toys. Right now, he is eating lots of solids. For lunch, he had an entire green bean container as well as half a container of bananas and applesauce. Gage goes down for naps and bed like a champ. I put him to sleep in his crib while he's awake but tired and he falls asleep on his own. I really couldn't ask for more than that. His favorite toys right now are the soft plastic books and Logan's tab blanket. Gage enjoys time in his exersaucer that Amy gave us. He gets really excited and jumps up and down in it. I think he likes the perspective from up there.

Logan is the typical 2 year old. Very very energetic. He wears everyone out within minutes. However, he too is a perfect little boy who is very manageable. For discipline, Logan responds best to timeouts as well as rewards. For example, today Logan got his hair cut. And he knew if he was a good boy, he'd get a sucker. He certainly deserved the sucker. We've been working on potty training these days. He currently has peed in the potty two times. Yesterday was the second time. I can't believe how exciting it is when he does go. A few days ago, Logan was sitting on the potty. I turned my back on him for just a minute and I heard him saying, over and over again, "Oh, Oh." He had pooped on the floor, 2 inches from the toilet. Even that was exciting. Recently, Logan started jumping while holding one of my fingers, and he now can go up and down a sinlge step without hanging onto anything. He is still quite the klutz but he's coming around. His eyes are a little crossed still but not bad. Last night, I was looking at a few of his pictures from his first year and was shocked at how crossed his eyes were. Logan will see the opthalmologist again December 8th. I really don't want him to go through surgery again.

One of the most enjoyable times in the house are when the boys play together. Logan can sure get Gage laughing hard. Recently, Gage was cracking up because Logan would put a toy on his head and let it fall off. This went on for about 10 minutes, and none of us tired of it.

Logan does PT in St. Cloud every Tuesday. He works with Julie on his balance and strength. Some of the things she does with him are the following: jumping on a little trampoline that has a handle for him to hang on to, walking up and down stairs trying to alternate his feet on each step, riding a trike, squatting to standing... and more.

Gage was being seen regarding his head shape (plagiocephaly). After about 6 weeks of cap treatment, Gage's head was nearly normal... normal enough for me. So we have since kept him out of it. He didn't mind it much but I did. Also, it's nice not having to go all the way to Gelette in Minnetonka bi-weekly like we were.

Dan has been hunting and has spent the last 3 weeks searching for that trophy buck. I do hope he gets one today as it is the very last day of the season. He says if he doesn't, he'll be taking up muzzle loading, which will then give him a few more weeks of hunting. Before deer season, he was pheasent hunting, and before pheasent season, he was grouse hunting. Now after deer season is over, he'll still be pheasent hunting.

For me, I am involved in Tae Kwon Do. I've been at it since May and have totally fallen in love with the workouts and the people. I needed the exercise badly after 3 months of bedrest with Gage and nothing else had worked in the past. But this is great. Right now, I am nursing a chipped 5th metacarpal bone (that was caused by my bad block of a right round house kick). If it isn't healed in 2 1/2 more weeks, then I'll have to have the chip removed... which I really don't want to have happen. Well, I am currently a Yellow belt and will hopefully get my Green belt next month.

My First Blog... It's been long awaited I think

2006-11-19T13:35:00.000-06:00

I am terrible at keeping baby books so I will try my best to keep my kids' lives remembered by logging things here. Hopefully this way, when someone asks how old Gage was when he got his first tooth, I just might be able to go back to look and see. Besides, I think it's about time I enter the blogging world.

What's New at The Drews?

Spring is in the air...

Moving along...

Living in Hibbing...

Lots going on...

We're movin'?

More stories to share....

A story I must tell....

Logan's getting glasses... and starting OT

The boys...

Christmas

Hunting....

Logan can color... and can color very well.

The kids are baptized

Logan's eye surgery

Wow.... A lot to say.

I've been tagged....

Lots to say

Pictures at last!

It's been a while...

Logan is 3

It's been a while...

Gage is a walking man.

Breath...

I'm going nuts!

We need a fence.

Pictures, finally.

Will the illnesses ever go away?

Nothing new but...

Gage is 1!

Spring is in the air...

Not to compare....

Beautiful weather...

Let it snow again...

Let it snow...

Pictures!!

More news...

Sicknesses are finally getting better...

illnesses...

Progress...

Happy New Year!!

Chirstmas is over...

I think we're ready for Christmas...

Christmas Shopping

Surgery tomorrow.

The tree is up...

Daddy's on the outside...

Logan's favorite phrases...

A quick update... Thanksgiving, etc.

Together

Nothing too new but will post any way...

A post from Daddy...

I must be insane... I'm hooked

Have to write again....

In brief...

My First Blog... It's been long awaited I think