More stories to share....

Yes... a lot can happen in 2 months.  We went to a water park this last weekend in Brainerd and stayed overnight with my brother and his family.  It was sooooo much fun since the kids loved it more than I ever expected.  I can't believe how fearless they both are.  Gage didn't like it at first but before long, he was walking himself all over the area and going down kiddie water slides without prompting.  Pretty neat.  Logan on the other hand was an accident waiting to happen.  Logan is not able to stand up from a kneeling or sitting position without using his hands.  So, if he falls in the water, he tries to use his hands to help him get up, but doing that means he has to get his face in the water, which doesn't work for him.  So he would just struggle to stay above water - of course he was wearing a life jacket - the whole time with the biggest smile on his face.  I know that if I had him at the parks more often, he would learn not to use his hands which would be great therapy.  Anyway, it was hard to leave the next day.

Now onto priceless stories...

Story #1

Let's start with Logan and potty training.  He's been doing pretty well, so well that we moved to underwear.  After about a week dry in pull-ups, we thought we were ready.  He did well for about 4 days, then we had four days straight of accidents.  But I was determined that Logan really was trying so I wasn't giving up on him.  Well, we had been doing OT twice a week, and it was getting so hard trying to drive to St. Cloud each time, dragging my overactive Gage along, trying to make it home in time to cook dinner and get myself off to Taekwondo so I could come home and do school for a few hours.  Mondays and Wednesdays were no fun.  So, this one Wednesday, I decided I was going to tell OT that I just couldn't do it anymore.  I needed to cut visits down to once a week.  After OT, I talked to the OT person in the waiting area about it, the whole time trying to chase down Logan and Gage.  Logan planted himself down by the desks in the middle of the hall, laid right there in the middle of the floor.  I left him be since he was still and I could keep in eye on him while visiting with OT.  I don't even remember what Gage was doing.  In the end, the OT folks convinced me to try it one more time and gave me some tips.  So I went to gather up Logan and there he was, still laying on the floor, drenched in pee.  So I asked this mom I've gotten to know over there to watch Gage so I could change Logan, and I just happened to have his school backpack with that contained a change of pants and a pull-up.  I finally made it out of there carrying Gage tightly in one arm with him struggling to get down, and Logan in the other carried like a suitcase by his coat zipper.  They just wouldn't listen.  The next week, I enlisted the stroller to help me. Finally, I felt human again.  That's been working better.

Story #2:  Gage and the K-NEX.

I headed to Taekwondo one night and left Dan playing with Gage and Logan on the living room floor with KNEX.  KNEX's are like legos... you put them together to make shapes and other things... but they have many different shapes including long pieces shaped like straws.  Kinda cool.  When I came home, Dan had this face of disgust, like he had been through something terrible.  He said they were playing with the KNEX.  Logan was really into it and Gage was kinda into it, grabbing pieces here and there and walking around with them.  So Dan grabbed a piece to put it into another piece and he thought to himself, "Boy.  That one went in easy."  He picked up a few more, then saw some brown chunks on another piece and gave it a smell.  Sure enough, there were poop on the pieces.  He grabbed Gage and checked his diaper and of course, he had poop in there.  But not just poop, he was putting KNEX pieces down the back of his diaper.  He had like 4 of the straw-shaped ones down there.  By the time I came home, all the KNEXs were in the sink and Dan was looking for other poop spots around the house.  He didn't think it was funny but I cracked up laughing.

Story #3

Logan has now been wearing glasses on a regular basis.  (I have to get some pics posted.)  He's doing OK but he often asks for them off and we don't argue.  We let him take them off but whenever he asks for something, he has to put them back on first.  We spent about $300 on them so we are kinda protective of them, of course.  It's not like there's insurance on them.  The first time we're out in public with them, we go to Wal-Mart.  About 30 minutes into shopping, Dan looks at him and says, "Where are your glass?"  Logan just took them off and threw them on the floor.  We traced back our steps and found  a nice couple who were searching for the owners of these glasses they found in the toy section.  This same thing has happened a few times, including at the arcade this past weekend at the water park..  That's why we say, "Logan.  You can take your glasses off anytime but you have to give them to us when you do."  Logan still calls them sun glasses since that's all he's ever seen us wearing.

Story #4

Gage's words are finally starting to explode.  He isn't quite making sentences but he's close.  Every morning I drop him off at day care, he says, "Hug?" and he gives me a big kiss by grabbing my head and pulling it close, then gives me the sweetest hug.  I am reminded every single second how much he loves me. :)   He slept with me at the hotel last weekend and when he woke up, the first thing he saw was my face.  He got a smile on it and said, "Mama?"  Priceless.

A story I must tell....

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

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...

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

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.