Living in Hibbing...

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.

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

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.

Happy New Year!!

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

Chirstmas is over...

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...

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

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.

The tree is up...

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...

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!