Lazy Days

There's not been much going on here. We took all of our Christmas stuff down yesterday and now it looks like we just moved in. All of my shelves and my mantle are bare. I was glad to get the tree down though so I could see out my front window again.

Gabe is now taking naps again (well, he is today). He's also talking a lot more. Today he handed me a plastic candy cane filled with m&m's and said, "eat". He is getting it little by little.

I have been sick since last night. It is either the flu or food poisoning. We're not quite sure. I ate some toast and am starting to feel a little better. Madison has been talking about calling the doctors all afternoon and then just came over to me and introduced me to Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. Dennis, the doctors. She told me they're going to take care of me (which Dave has been doing a great job of, by the way). She has such a wonderful imagination. I hear her talking to her "friends" or "children" all the time.

That's about it for now.

Big Boy Bed = No Nap

Enough said.

What color Christmas tree should you have?

You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace. You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy! You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better. You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that. Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Reminds me of Christmas when I was little...

Merry Christmas To All!

So, we're going to be pretty busy from now until Christmas so I wanted to post this while I had some time.

While my side of the family has some interesting history when it comes to Thanksgiving, my husband's family has Christmas covered in that area.

Charles W. Howard is my husband's great, great, great, great, great, (give or take a few more greats - I'm not exactly sure) uncle. He is known as the most noteworthy santa of all time. He began enacting as Santa in 1935 after working as a toy manufacturer. He worked as the Santa-in-chief at Macy's in New York. During this time he appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and in the store throughout the season.

Charles W. Howard opened the first ever Santa School in Albion, New York in 1937 because he saw so many Santas perform poorly. Department stores would send their Santa impersonators to his school in the fall for training. They learn everything from proper Santa hygiene to how to answer children's questions to the history of St. Nicholas. The school is still open, but is now located in Midland, Michigan.
Here is an old brochure from the school:

According to Dave...

When Dave took Gabe to speech tonight he said two, three word sentences.

1. This my cup.
2. This my bowl.

Madison - 3 going on 16

We were driving along this morning and out of nowhere Madison yells out, "Dude, this guy won't get over!" I laughed so hard. This time I know exactly where she got it from - me. I was out with my friends last night and out of nowhere I caught myself saying, "Dude, I can't believe you saw so and so." Here I am a 20-something (closer to a 30-something) using the word "Dude".

She also gets the backseat driving thing honestly. I am the worst. I usually apologize in advance when riding with someone.

13 Weeks From Thursday

Dave just called and told me how he just talked to his college advisor and he only needs two more classes to graduate with his MBA. He wants to take both classes next semester so he can be totally done on March 20, 2008. He's all signed up for both classes now and his books are ordered. Wish us luck and for the sanity to get through the next 13 weeks.

Little Mr. Perfect Butt and PyroMaddie

We went to the mall yesterday after I picked Maddie up from school. When we got there Gabe was asleep so I put him in the stroller and Maddie and I pushed him into the mall to the play area. As soon as we got there Maddie ran off and made friends with some little girl, but Gabe was still sleeping. I picked him up to see if he would wake up because I know how much he loves the play area at the mall and didn't want him to miss it. Sure enough, as soon as he opened his little eyes and realized where he was he was off and running. He was so happy!

There was a group of older boys (3&4) under one of the slides and they were pretending it was their house and Gabe wanted to get in so bad. They kept pushing him away so he finally reached in there and pulled one of the kids hair and then turned around and walked away like it was no big deal. (nobody cried or acted like they were hurt) Yeah, Gabie can stick up for himself!

We went out to lunch and Maddie kicked Gabe out of the stroller and he had to walk to the whole other side of the mall. It took us a while, but he never complained and then at lunch he just sat as quiet as can be and colored. He ate pretty well too which was a bonus.

He's such a good little boy!

Now Maddie, on the other hand, is a whole other story. We put her to bed last night at 8:00 and she cried and fought it at first (she does this every night) and then calmed down. I thought she was asleep when Dave and I went to bed. Our heat has been kind of funny lately so around 11:00 I got up because I wanted to make sure Gabe's door was open so he didn't freeze. When I got up Maddie's light was on and she was hiding under the covers and there was a really bad smell and her room looked a little smoky. I couldn't figure out what had happened. When I asked her she said, "I burned myself on the light bulb." When I asked her more questions it turns out she put a plastic band-aid on the light bulb and it burned up which caused the smoke and the stinky smell. She is ok, but I never dreamed something like that would happen. Who puts band-aids on lamp light bulbs? We'll be taking her lamp out of her bedroom today.

Maddie's 1st Christmas Concert

The whole thing lasted 45 minutes. Maddie was on the stage singing for about 4 minutes. While her class was up there all the kids stood still and sang their song and used all the hand movements. All the kids except Maddie, of course. Maddie jumped from the top stair to the bottom stair and then danced around, all while singing the song as loud as she could. She is such a ham! I wonder where she gets that from? LOL

We Elfed Ourselves

We Elfed ourselves at Office Max. Check it out here.

Joey

Madison has been in bed for 45 minutes, but isn't asleep so I went in there and here is what we said:

Madison: Mom, I gotta show you some-ping.
Me: Ok. What is it?
Madison: See that shadow on the wall?
Me: Yes.
Madison: It looks like Joey. I miss Joey.

FYI: Joey is my cousin who lives in Colorado. When we see him he plays with her and she loves it!

Addison Emma

Madison: Mom, I want to change my name.
Me: Why would you want to change your name?
Madison: Just because.
Me: What do you want your new name to be?
Madison: Addison Emma

P.S. Addison Emma is what she named her new build-a-bear Kitty.

Best Wedding Dance Ever!

I saw this on Two Peas this afternoon and had to share.

Yummo!

Dave and I had a great dinner tonight. We had Alaskan Barbecued Salmon with a spinach salad and garden herb linguine. The best part though, was desert. We had a Newton Baked Apple from www.kraftfoods.com.



It was so yummy! It was even better when, during dinner, the Schwann lady knocked on our door and gave us a carton of vanilla ice cream for free. It was like she knew that these apples were baking in my oven and the ice cream would make it even better. She was right, it did!

One More Thing...

It really sucked that we were at the hospital this weekend, but there were some fun things that happened while we were there and after we came home.

1. Gabe talked up a storm while we were at the hospital. Here is a list of the words he said while we were there: Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, bee, flower, Dora, Boots, Snowman, Ape, Turtle (they had pictures of all these characters along the walls and we would name them off as we walked by), toes, knees, nose, eyes, ears, chin, shoulders, elbows, teeth, fish (there was an aquarium that he absolutely loved).

2. We got an 5 gallon aquarium for our house to reward Gabe for being so brave and good at the hospital. We have 3 mollies and 3 bala sharks. We think two of our mollies are preggos.

3. Maddie had her dance show and did her "Baby Duck" number with her classmates. She was a little ham out there. She did so good and smiled the whole time. We were sitting in the front row and got it all on video camera.

4. We were a little nervous at how Gabe would act at the dance show and even talked about how we should have gotten a babysitter for him, but he totally surprised us when he sat pretty still through the whole thing and watched all the little girls dance with a big, silly grin on his face. After each number he would clap and yell, "Yeah!". He also jabbered through the whole thing and at certain times would yell, "Go!" It was so cute and funny!

Gabe's bump is gone!

Well, it is basically gone. There is still a little tiny bump, but you have to have known it was there to begin with to see it.

On a side note: Madison mooned me today. She was in the living room and said, "Hey, Mom, look!" I looked over and there she was pulling her pants down to show me her tiny, little, cute butt. I couldn't help but laugh. Then, because I laughed, she kept saying, "Want me to do it again?" Needless to say, we had to sit down and have a talk about showing our butts to other people. I wonder where she learned this from...

It's Time To Celebrate!

Yeah!!! Gabie is ok. His bump is not infected and he is good to go. We're at my parents house right now picking up Madison and we are planning on having a few drinks to reduce our stress level later on. We have a follow-up appointment on Tuesday just to make sure everything is going well.

Emergency Room, Part 3

We're going back to the ER. Our Neurosurgeon, Dr. Maher, called us this morning and advised us to go back to the ER so that they can stick a needle in the bump and test the material inside to see if it's infected or not. If it's not infected we will celebrate and jump up and down and watch while his body absorbs the uninfected hematoma (maybe administer some antibiotics). If it is infected he will have surgery today - not good - do not want this to happen - I am praying to God with all of my heart to please let it not be infected. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.

Poor Gabie

So, we ended up taking Gabe to the ER again last night. We got there at about 6:00. We basically sat in a room and watched movies until 9ish and then poor Gabie had to get an IV put in and had to have a contrast CT scan so they could figure out if he had an infection or not. The whole thing was confusing and Dave and I feel like we have been given the run-around by everyone involved.

First, the doctors were concerned that it was getting bigger and then a neurosurgeon comes out of left field and starts talking about infection and if it's infected Gabe would have to have surgery to wash it out. Than they said if it's a hematoma it doesn't matter if it's bigger or not. By the way, here's the definition of hematoma from Wikipedia - Nancy and I weren't quite sure of the definition last night.

A hematoma, or haematoma, is a collection of blood, generally the result of hemorrhage, or, more specifically, internal bleeding. Hematomas exist as bruises (ecchymoses), but can also develop in organs. Some hematomas form into a welt-like formation that is hard to the touch, which is a sac of blood that the body creates to keep internal bleeding to a minimum. In most cases the sac of blood eventually dissolves, however in some cases they may continue to grow or show no change. If the sac of blood does not disappear it may need to be surgically removed.

So, we called both sets of parents around 1:30 a.m. and told them what the ER doctors told us - it's a hematoma - which we were told was a good thing. Then about an hour later then neurosurgeon came in and showed us pictures of the CT scan and told us he thinks it's still inconclusive if there's an infection or not in the fluid surrounding the hematoma.

Now we're all laying in bed waiting for the neurosurgeon to call us back. He should be calling by 9:00 a.m. so I'll let you know what we find out then.