Christmas

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....

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.

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

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

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.

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....

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

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!

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...

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.