Sicknesses are finally getting better...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

illnesses...

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

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

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

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

Progress...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to our movie. We're watching Superman.

Happy New Year!!

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

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.

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.

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!