Moving along...

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.

Wow.... A lot to say.

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.

Lots to say

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.

illnesses...

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

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

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

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

Progress...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to our movie. We're watching Superman.

Surgery tomorrow.

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.

Logan's favorite phrases...

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.