It's not Christmas for us without a visit to the ER...

We had a good start to Christmas, in terms of having a fun time hanging out with g'parents Wisc., but it's been a bit of a roller coaster in the health departmnet. The morning after they got in, Den and I spirited Josie to the doctors (on a Sat.) to have her diagnosed with a double ear infection -- and g'ma Wisc. discovered she is cutting her first tooth (Josie, that is). G'parents Wisc. rotated feeling under the weather the whole time, but they were troopers going to all the activities I had planned.

Then it was time for a visit with g'parents Ohio. We've all been taking turns being under the weather. G'pa Ohio threw out his back and is on muscle relaxants. G'ma Ohio is fussing over everyone like the mother hen she is. Aunt L. is battling something, I'm battling something, being ready for bed at 8pm every night and having that forboding feeling that in a couple days I will be less than 100%, but Aunt L. and I continue on, never quite getting fully sick. Eddie and Josie are both running 99-100.8 degree fevers. Ed has had an afternoon fever for 3 days and Josie just got her fever back today. Ugh. Sure getting use out of that 1 second ear thermometer. Plus, Ed had a croupy cough the last couple days, which is a little scary.. each afternoon he collapses into a nap, just about passing out, not even protesting when Josie is playing with his favorite toys (this tells me is isn't feeling well more than any thermometer).

Fun times. I've not been in the mood to take any photos, feeling like such crap, but I think everyone else has been taking photos, so I think we should be able to post some soon. Ed is still trying to open presents, 3 days later. It's not that there were a ton of gifts, but he opens one and spend a long time with it and then just hasn't felt really well enough to open them.

And if that weren't enough excitement, G'pa Wisc. called on Thurs. night to say that he and G'ma Wisc. were in the ER back in Wisc. G'ma sounded bad as she left our house, but she was determined to get home. They were bounced around from place to place as all the doctors were booked up and finally ended up in the ER where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She'll be there through the weekend and hopefully home before the New Year begins.

Look for some pictures soon...

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick note to say hello. Will post more later. Great xmas so far...more to come.

Den had Eddie set out carrots, a cookie and milk for Santa, then Den insisted we eat all but a little bit so Eddie would think Santa had come...more on that little game later.

Remind me to tell you about the top to the yellow marker that got some distance in church...

Below is self explanatory, but Josie "opening" a gift with g'parents Wisc.

Hope all enjoyed the day--oh and if you haven't seen a Christmas card from us it's because we now do New Year's cards...look for yours in the first 2 weeks of the new year...

8 months and 34 months...

Physically Josie is doing so much more than Eddie was at this age, but then he was the Michelin baby at this age (see link). http://watchusgo.blogspot.com/2005/11/gobble-gobble.html#links

Otherwise, she is about like him developmentally, I think. She has become a breakdancer, Den likes to say, as she flips to her stomach as soon as you lay her on the changing table. To add to the excitement, she then tries to stand up. She also just rolls herself over, kind of like a turtle to get on her stomach. It's not such a big deal--except when poop is involved...

I think I've wrote this before, but in the space of about a month, Josie got from being able to get herself to a sitting position (about the first of Nov.) to crawling about 10 days later, to pulling herself up and then finally, I kid you not, by Dec. 4, she surfed the furniture. And today she crawled up the steps for the first time. Wow!

She is starting to do better with solids. We still give her milk of magnesia to keep her regular (I'm astounded at the number of references to my kids poop on this blog). We've not been as good about expanding her mealtime selections, but given her milk allergy and difficulty adjusting to solids, I've been a little cautious. She still eats with gusto and in fact cries when you've ended the meal too soon.

We wound up canceling her eye doctor appointment as her eye gunk appears to cleared itself up--she was fine shortly after we made the apointment back in November, so that is thus far, a relief. I don't know if I've written this before, but she definitely knows her name, seems to respond to Josie more than anything, I think because Cookie calls her that. I typicaly call her baby J or Josie. I love that her name has so much potential for nicknames--watch her HATE that aspect of her name :)

Cookie has pointed out that she is standing with flat feet and she thinks this means she will walk sooner than later. So, I'm taking bets. My own bet (and if you remember for Eddie, I was off by a lot), I think by Eddie's birthday for sure and more likely by Feb. 1.

We've been trying CIO, or 'cry it out', which with Eddie was a disaster. Instead of gradually calming down and falling asleep, he would just get more and more upset until he'd be up for another hour after you were holidng him. Josie thus far seems to be farily reponsive and we are almost used to just listening to her cry. It sucks, but 15 min. or 30 min. tops of crying at night, versus going up 10 times a night...theoretically she is supposed to learn this sleep thing soon. She's been able to get herself to sleep (w/o crying) for a couple naps, so we're hopeful.

On to Eddie. He is having his own bit of growth. We've had to put him back on the pulmicort for asthma (we took him off for the summer per doctor's orders to see if he'd outgrow the asthma)--no luck. He's gotten a little better about taking the meds, so that's good.

He is REALLY into 'art projects'. He loves painting and is drawing faces, including cheeks. He draws horns on his cows. He also recently likes us to label all his drwaings--that was kind of my fault. I don't remember what is pictured here. Usually dogs are blue. He especially like 6 or 10 legged cats. They are usually yellow.

Ed has also pretty much given up his nap. What this really means is that we can't take him in the car anywhere after 1:30 or he will fall asleep. I took him shopping yesterday and he fell asleep to the point that I put him in his stroller, he was STILL asleep as I wheeled him around, woke right before we got in the car and then fell asleep again.

This was not exactly a conscious decision. If he takes a nap, he is up until 10 pm, even a short nap. He resists naps like they are punishment, and if he takes one, typically wakes after an hour.

Here is Ed after a painting session--he ocassionally has a bit of a problem with licking his fingers to get the paint off. Yuck!

We've been making Christmas Tree decorations, making chains with construction paper and using special tape with goofy on it. Ed has also gotten more into TV, his favorite show being Micky Mouse Clubhouse. His record is 4 shows in a row when I was so exhausted, I didn't care what he did.

When he doesn't want to watch that, he'll watch sports--just about any sport. It's just bizarre to me, it is nothing we have done, but he will ask for a sport--football or baseball, basketball, soccer, and if it isn't available, but we find something else, like golf or volleyball, he'll be happy. But not with other TV programming. He really is into sports.

One thing I'll say about 2 kids is that it really helps illuminate their differences, similarities and personalities. Previously things Ed did were just cute, or 'him', but they weren't striking in the same way they are now. Now with Josie, she is not into exactly the same things he was at this age and even more, it really shows me more of how they are individuals. My mom likes to say she raised 3 only kids, and we couldn't be more different. Josie and Eddie are clearly still developing, but coming from the same house, they definitely have different interests and approaches and it's wild to see.

Both are easy going. Eddie is more of the negotiator, as Den says, working to get what he wants without you realizing what you are agreeing to, and with Josie, there is no negotiating, she just holds out for what she wants. I think we'll be in BIG trouble very shortly with this trait.

Below are both kids with some of their respective favorite toys at the moment...

From the Last Week

I know I still owe an 8 month update, but here goes on the last week and a half:

Josie, after she ate a teething biscuit. She really devours these now. She doesn't go for the fruit puffs so much (those star shaped things that are supposed to aide in self-feeding development)--her brother sure like them tho'.

He also LOVES his tinker toys. With all the toys with small parts we try and stick to a rule of only when the baby is asleep/not around. I'm not sure how long this will last, but long enough for her to get past the major putting things in her mouth stage, I hope. Below is one of his first tinker toy creations.



Last week we got some snow. It finished falling by around 11pm, but the inch or so was enough to delay school opening 2 hours. Gotta love our area...Eddie and Cookie made this snowman complete with hat.

Den, ever the engineer made Eddie a cat and a dog with the tinker toys.

Just after I took this photo of Josie, she hosited her leg right up on top of that garage...

We are still alive!

I had been promising Eddie for a couple weeks that when g'parents Ohio came, they would take him on the blue train at the local mall. It was time for him to cash in--I also got the kids' pictures taken with Santa--the first time for Eddie. Just seemed to weird to do it when he was younger.

Anyway, he loved this blue train. He fully expects G'parents Wisc. to take him on it too when they come at the end of the month. It's actually a sad commentary that this mall in particular is so dead that a train can run nearly unobstructed through the whole mall. But that's a whole other issue.

G'parents Ohio came out for Den's work xmas party as they do each year. And each year I decide I don't like what's in my closet (or am too pregnant to fit) and decide to get a new dress. This year, I vowed to just buy a shawl for an existing dress. Then I peaked in at a couple dresses and below is my favorite dress of any I've worn. The shawl was the exact perfect shade--it was meant to be (I have this thing against black dresses, as everyone seems to wear them).

Meanwhile here's a cute one of Josie. More on her with another post--I owe an 8 month update--even tho' she's acting like a 12 month old.

Thanks to g'parents Ohio for coming. Several more posts to come...maybe even this week.