Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Dumb Americans?

HT to Spinenretta at Jacobite Rose. Was hoping I'd come out looking good - and no, I didn't keep taking the quiz to get a better score!

You Are a Smart American

You know a lot about US history, and you're opinions are probably well informed.
Congratulations on bucking stereotypes. Now go show some foreigners how smart Americans can be.


Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Pin Cushion Colin

As I've discussed before, Colin is of what we would call a "slender" build. So slender in fact that he isn't even on the charts. When we still lived in VA, our pediatrician started to become a little concerned about Colin's lack of weight gain at his 6-month well check. We watched him carefully over the summer and he started picking back up. Even though she felt better about Colin's weight, Dr. Shannon wanted us to take him in to see a new pediatrician once we got settled down here.

Before we had the chance to get in to see our new pediatrician for a weight check Colin got sick. When we finally made it to the new doctor's office, she was more than a little concerned with his weight and had us schedule a trip to a lab to get some blood work done to see if there were any underlying metabolic reasons for his lack of weight gain.

On October 12th, the day that David & Lala came down for Sean's birthday weekend, Colin and I headed out to the lab at "O'Dark Thirty". He was pleasantly surprised to be woken up by his mommy and to go on a special trip just the two of us. I was just happy that Dunkin Donuts was open for my caffeine fix! Once again, Colin made lots of friends all over the lab - from the receptionist to other patients to all of the nursing staff and even the administrator. Which ended up being a good thing once they started to draw blood from my baby.Meaghan - our "vampire" was a very nice lady, and felt really bad about making Colin cry. We also had the administrator of the clinic in the room with us helping to hold Colin still. After unsuccessfully attempting to draw blood from his left arm, Meaghan moved on to his right arm, once again meeting with failure. We then moved to the EKG room which had a bed that I could sit on while holding my little guy. While we were waiting for the EKG room to be cleaned the administrator offered Colin a lollipop. At first I balked at the idea of my 10 month old eating a lollipop - especially at 8 am! However, with all of the trauma and crying happening, I gave in. Let's just say Colin is a big fan of the Tootsie Pop!

When we got in the room, they draped a big blanket on my lap and went for Colin's foot. They told me the foot bleeds a lot - hence the blanket to cover my clothes. Well, I guess other feet bleed a lot, but Colin's does not! Our final attempt came on Colin's middle finger. Thar she blows! We got a live one with his finger - and of course after we got all of the blood we needed then his finger wouldn't stop bleeding! As you can see from this picture, my boy was none the worse for the wear - just looked pretty funny with all of the bandages!

Cousin Kelsey

I've mentioned before that one of the nice things about living here is that we have the chance to see more family. Not only does most of Chris' family live about 3 hours away, but my parents and sister Lori live an hour away.

Last weekend Lori and her husband Lou had us over for dinner. The boys all had a great time "playing" with their newest cousin Kelsey. The really sad thing is that for being 8 months younger than Colin, Kelsey soooo outweighs him! She is a cutie pie though, and even gave her Aunt Cindy some smiles!





How to sleep for comfort

I promise, neither of these pictures were doctored. This is how we found them on a couple of different nights.
Strangely enough, I have a picture of my sister Kellie when she was 4 in this exact same sleeping position. I was going to scan the picture in, but unfortunately, it's in box # 312 in storage!
Sean takes the idea of comfort to a whole new level. We had a hard time not waking him up with our laughter!
And here is just a gratuitous picture of Colin. No funny sleeping positions yet, but a cute sleeper nonetheless!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I love orzo!

Father Leo of Grace Before Meals rocks! I can't even remember how I stumbled across his blog, but I am so glad that I found it. I've been looking for some easy delicious meals to make now that we are settling in and not eating out every night. Tonight we had Orzo Ginger Chicken. Orzo hasn't been a staple in our kitchen, but after tonight it's going to become a standby. This meal was sooo easy to make and yummy to boot - can't beat that. The recipe serves 2, so do the math to figure out how to suit it to your family. Enjoy!

Join me at the Book-Walk


Cay Gibson, of Catholic Mosaic fame, is releasing her highly anticipated publication - Christmas Mosaic. And she is generously hosting a book-walk (think cake-walk but without the cake and with a book instead!) all day today. Hop on over to Cajun Cottage and enter.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Wonderment



One of the things that I am truly enjoying about being in Florida is the abundance of "boy" stuff to see. The other morning there was a baby lizard crawling around on the apartment door. Every day since then both Brian and Sean ask me to look for the baby lizard when I go to take the dog for a walk. They also love chasing the lizards when we go outside to the car.

Yesterday there was a baby frog (yes, all of these babies seem to be roaming outside our apartment without their mommies - I should call CPS!) on the railing outside. As you can see from the picture, Brian was fascinated by it. I love all these nature learning experiences we're getting.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

First "Real" Haircuts

I have struggled and struggled with cutting Brian and Sean's hair. Brian, once I started using the clippers, actually did pretty well. But Sean, well, that's a whole other story. I tried bribing them with lollipops to distract them during the cut. Once again, Brian kept his nicely in his mouth while mommy trimmed him up. Sean's lollipop was covered in hair and snot. It took 2 of us to cut his hair as Chris had to basically pin him against his shirt while I tried to rapidly trim the hair. Many times we ended up with either a "too short in the back" experience, or a "slightly uneven" one.

I finally bit the bullet and took them to a salon. But not just any salon - oh no. We went to Snip-its. This lovely establishment was created for kids. When we walked in, Brian and Sean were given an Adventure Card that they were told to hold on to. When we went back for the haircuts, there are seats for mommy right next to their chairs. They were strapped in, draped, and ready to go. While the stylist cuts the child's hair, there are movies playing (or for an older child - computer games), lollipops and wonderful stylists who are so gentle and calm.

There were no tears, no snotty lollipops, nothing. Well, nothing except super cute haircuts!

And did I forget to mention the lovely green...
and blue highlights?
I was reassured that they wash out.

House Progress

I have been meaning to post on the progress of our new home and since the pictures I take are large in size (and I don't know how to resize them) I thought I would take everyone on a pictorial tour of the progress that's been made on our future home.

The form boards go up - should be about 90 days from this point that we close!

Foundation is poured!
The cement blocks are ready to build the first floor...
And now we have our first floor!
And the second story is up!
View from the "foyer" - roof joists
View from my future kitchen window - well, minus the sink, countertops, cabinets, window panes, a nice valance, window sill, a pool out back and grass - but you get the picture!
Side view of the house
Back of the house
This is today's shot - at least from the morning. They are working on the front elevation - see the right side of the picture. As of this afternoon (according to Chris), they had put tar paper on almost all of the roof!
More pictures will follow as I get them. We are so excited about our new house and can't wait until it's complete so that we can make it a home.

A-B-C Adventure

Just found this great tool at Shutterfly called My ABC Adventure. And best of all - it's FREE!







When a boy takes his Halloween costume seriously...

He even wears his eye patch to sleep! Aargh, matey!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

My Middle Man is 3!

I can't believe that my little Sean is a big 3 year old boy. I have been a delinquent mommy - his birthday was actually last Sunday, and I just haven't had the time to put into words how much he means to me. So here goes...

Compared to my first pregnancy, being pregnant with Sean was pretty easy. I had no swelling, my blood pressure stayed down, no bed rest. The only little glitch was that I was measuring bigger at the end of the pregnancy. The upside of that was I got to have multiple sonograms to check on my big baby.

I was scheduled to have a repeat c-section on October 25th (my Uncle Tom's birthday). Due to the excessive amniotic fluid and the size of the baby, my doctor decided to do a non-stress test on the little one during my regular appointment on October 14th. The baby didn't respond very well, so Dr. F sent me over to the hospital to do a pitocin stress test. At this point, Chris figured we were having the baby that day - I mean really, they are going to induce labor in effect, and then send me home? I don't think so. As it turns out, Sean didn't really tolerate that test either, so Dr. F came in and worked some magic and moved us to the front of the line for the operating rooms. My head was spinning a little bit at the speed with which we were moving from just a regular appointment to having a baby. At 4:56 pm. Sean Eugene entered the world weighing 8 lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. Look at that weight again - 8 lbs. 15 oz and remember that he was 3 weeks early! I cried when Dr. F pulled him out and proclaimed "It's a boy!".

We had decided not to find out ahead of time what sex our baby was. We knew that if we had another boy that his middle name would be Eugene - after my dad. Little did we know how prophetic that name would be for this child. You see, looking at Sean is like looking at a small version of my dad. Of course, my dad doesn't see this, but everyone else does. What do you think?Fast forward three years - and believe me, it feels like these past three years have flown by. Sean loves to learn - he's known his letters and their phonetic sound since the time he turned 2. He learned how to say the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be this year. His vocabulary just amazes me all the time. He knows the names of many dinosaurs, and I just love hearing his little voice say - "ramphorincus". I'm not sure how he got so big...
The time I have spent being Sean's mommy have been some of the most intense emotional times of my life. We joke around that Sean lives on the edge. He totally embraces life and lives every moment to the fullest. He can be the happiest little man around; with a smile that lights up a room. His smile melts my heart. When he comes up to me and puts his hands on either side of my face to give me a kiss, I feel like this is what heaven must be like. I am so blessed to be Sean's mommy. I have loved watching him grow these first 3 years, and I can't wait to see what this next year brings for Sean. Happy Birthday Sean. Mommy loves you to pieces!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

100 Acre Woods

Brian and Sean are very much into Tigger and Pooh right now. When we went to Disney a couple of weeks ago (we now have Florida resident passes - woo hoo!), Sean ran up to give both Tigger and Pooh a hug. Brian, while excited to see them from afar, was a little more reticent about being up close and personal with the big guys.And then there was poor little Colin - stuck in his backpack. He was fascinated with all of the excitement, and everyone was talking about how cute he is (of course!). He started waving at Pooh, which of course brought the fuzzy bear on over. Everything was fine until Pooh stuck his hand out to Colin. All of a sudden you heard a high pitch scream! This would be the shot that I got of Pooh quickly moving away from scared little Colin!
So in deference to my little men's current obsession, I thought I would take this quiz that I found over at Jacobite Rose.


Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

I really like the last part of the description! Although the boys have really been good lately - not as much need for time outs - praise God!

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Florida bugs just won't die!

The other night I went out to the kitchen to put my glass in the dishwasher. When I turned on the light, I encountered this...
In most other areas of the country, this is called a roach. In Florida, we call them Palmetto bugs. They are big, and nasty, and when you smash them with a trash can repeatedly, they don't die. I know this for a fact because my Chief Bug Killer, who used the aforementioned trash can, had a darn hard time killing that bugger (pun completely intended here). After he thought the guy was dead, he went back in the kitchen to get a paper towel to pick him up. When he made the three step return to pick up the monster, IT WAS STILL MOVING!!!

Yuck - bugs are something I could certainly live without. Unfortunately, such is my life now.