Garrett & AC/DC

Garrett's cute little new Easter outfit reminded me of Angus Young from AC/DC so when I got home I had him put on the matching hat that came with the outfit and had him hold his Sesame Street guitar. I have to say it was pretty cute.

Cute Garrett story - afterwards he was changing into his pajamas. He insisted to Amy that he wear the vest from his outfit over the blue pajamas. He even made her button it up. It reminded me of a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney is found to wear silk pajamas that look just like a business suit. Anyway, after he got on the vest, he looked at me (dad) and said, "Looking Good!". He was so proud of his Easter outfit.

Garrett's nose goblins part 2

Gross story warning...

So Garrett had a stuffed up nose yesterday after dinner. He couldn't blow it out so he decided to fish it out himself. At first I tried to stop him but gave up. I told him he at least had to make sure he put it on a kleenex before we washed his hands. He was fine with the deal. Anyway, he went to bed good at 8:30 and was asleep for about an hour. At 9:30 I was finishing reading my Stephen King short story and was about to turn off my light. I hear Garrett's bedroom door open and him walking in. He walks quietly up to my side of the bed. He has his thumb and pointer finger pinching something. He proclaims, "Daddy, I have a booger for you.". I told him to wait a minute to find a kleenex to put it on. He wiped it on the kleenex and I told him thank you for bring it in. He said, "thank you, daddy". And quietly walked back to his room, slowly shut his door and went back to sleep.

Garrett's nose goblins

So Garrett is in the car and tells Amy and I that he needs a Kleenex. We're pretty excited because he usually doesn't tell us. Amy's fishing in her purse and then Garrett says, "I don't need one now". We ask him what happened. He says he doesn't have a booger anymore. We ask him where the booger went. He says, "I put the booger... Umm... I put the booger... I put...I put the booger...". He usually does this when he's struggling to find the word he's looking for with his limited, but growing vocabulary. Amy and I are wondering where he stuck it. On the car seat. On the door. On his shirt. On Aislinn. Finally he gets excited and shouts, "I put the booger in my mouth."

Buy stock in HMO?

I (Jeff) have been wondering if we should be buying stock in our HMO or just a health-related stock fund or something. On Monday we had a wonderful MLK day off (one of the great perks of working for a bank is getting bank holidays off). One of the daycare places (New Horizons) that we were strongly considering had vouchers for a free day there to see if the kids like it. We did a half-day on Monday morning so we wouldn't be leaving them for too long all at once. We got to go to The Roasted Pear (local restaurant) for an early lunch with a gift card we got for Christmas. The food was great and we got a little wine. Having kids will do wonders for lowering your body's alcohol tolerance level.

Anyway, Aislinn had a little stranger anxiety an hour after we left but once she got her special blanket, she was fine. Garrett loved it the whole time. We noticed that the baby next to Aislinn looked flushed an very irritable. Both kids were really good though.

On Tuesday night Amy had a small party to go to with a friend and brought Aislinn with. Aislinn had some rich foods but had a red face because she's been working on popping out several new teeth. She fell asleep on the way home right away though.

When we got her home, she got transferred to the crib right away but she woke up not too long afterward (maybe 9:00 or so). So we gave her a bottle and she fell right back to sleep again. After putting Garrett to bed around 9:15 Amy noticed Aislinn babbling across the room to Garrett. She was on all fours and all of sudden starting vomiting.

Four bouts of vomiting throughout the night was pretty disgusting to clean up because she doesn't give us much of any warning signs - it just comes. We both took a half-day off work to keep an eye on Aislinn to see if it was bad food or just too rich for her 10-month old stomach. Since 3 AM she seemed fine and had no problems at all so we both went back to work around 11 and let Ruthy, our home daycare, watch her. Aislinn was fine the rest of the day but threw up again at 5:00 PM immediately after her bottle. We started to suspect that maybe she was having a milk allergy so we picked up a sample of soy formula.

On Thursday we heard that Ruthy's baby was sick. I felt awful of even leaving it an option for Ruthy and her baby to watch the kids like usual. We honestly were pretty sure if was either a milk allergy or that the food was too rich. Aislinn didn't show any symptoms or problems up to the point she threw up.

On Thursday night, at bedtime Garrett threw up too. He had two more small bouts but at least we could get him to do it in a bowl so it wasn't messy. The smell around the house on Friday was pretty disgusting. I tried valiantly to keep up with it as well as I could.

All day Friday and all day Saturday they've been pretty good now. Garrett is doing well with milk again now. Aislinn is taking her soy formula very well but her diapers are absolutely disgusting. Amy is helping with a wedding photo shoot for Joyce (Grace Park Design) today so I've done more blow-out diapers for Aislinn than I ever care to.

At least with Garrett we knew what it was and didn't have to pay $130 to bring him into the pediatrician.

Ann called today and mentioned that Amy's brother Bryan was sick today. It sounds like a pretty nasty 24-hour flu bug.

Anyway, Amy and I have *so far* managed to avoid it. Given all the germs we've been exposed to with this, I think we should be fine if we haven't gotten it by now.

We'll try to get some new pics posted soon. I set up a Facebook page but don't really feel like I have the time to keep it up as well as everyone else seemes to. Oh well.

Best wishes to everyone - stay healthy!

Happy Holidays

YES!! We made it! 2009 is right around the corner and we are hopeful for an uneventful year. We can always try anyhow! Where did that last month go? We started off with Garrett recovering from his tubes, we thought. Two ear infections later, we found out that one of the tubes is in crooked. We go back to the specialist on the 9th of January to see what they say. Aislinn Marie continues to amaze us at every turn. She is standing on her own and pushes herself away from things just to stand...it will be a matter of time until those first steps are taken and once again life will change. She just had her 9 month check up and once again she is in the 100 percentile for height and weight. 25lbs and 31 2/2" long! She is only 6 inches shorter than Garrett!

We had another wonderful and blessed holiday season this year. We had an early Christmas with my immediate family on Dad's birthday. The boys go to go to the ACES and fly a jet simulation while we girls shopped. It is always great when we get to see Cody and Kel and Brian and Dee. Then Christmas eve with The Andersons! Always fun and chatioc! Susie and Ryan and Jude where home for a week so that was nice. The kids got spoiled as usual and it was a joy to see Christmas through the eyes of Garrett and Malia. Then that evening our favorite time with the Scheibel side of the family. We are so blessed that all of the cousins and aunts and uncles get together. It is loud and crazy and wonderful! We now have 5 great grandchildren on this side of the family!

Christmas day is always special. We have the morning with our family and Garrett was so excited that Santa came! What a miracle! It was so amazing for Jeff and I to see the excitement. Then we get to go to the nursing home with my Grandma and aunts. It is so bittersweet because we know that Grandma may not be with us next year so we are sure to get that quaity time and memories in. Auntie Marce is so wonderful and does such a great job getting it all organized. We love the family time that we get to spend together, I was sad that the rest of the family did not make it this year as it is probably the last Christmas that we would all have together with Grandma.

Then on Friday we got to celebrate Malia's 3rd birthday! She has a Christmas Day birthday and so the presents she did get! I cannot believe that it was her 1st birthday with the famiy. She just fits right in with everyone. Auntie Shelley is doing a great job raising her.

With all of the changes in our lives in 2008 we are so thankful for our health and our families. God has truly blessed us!

We Made It

Well, we made it through Friday! Garrett was such a trooper at the hospital. Jeff had a hard time when he had to hold Garrett when they put him to sleep because he fought it. Today he is playing better and says that his ears just hurt "a wittle bit". We are so proud of him.

Aislinn is fighting a cold. She has a slight fever today. Her teeth are coming in like crazy and she is walking around the house with her walker like she is a pro. It is just a matter of time before she is off and running! We were hoping to start getting some of the Christmas stuff up today, but with my arm still in stitches, we will have to wait another week or so. Who would have thought it would take so long to heal. I should know this week what exactly the lump was that they removed and the stitches come out on Thursday we hope!

We got to go and see Baby Ava this weekend. She is so precious! Tricia looks wonderful and makes pregnancy and delivery look like child's play. I am so proud of her! You can tell that she and Brian love that little girl! We will have some pictures posted sometime this week. I have not had time to get pictures of Aislinns room yet either. Not enough hours in the day!

We are so thankful for our families. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving getting to see Grandma Marie and Auntie Marce and then getting to spend time with Jeff's Aunts and Uncles and cousins. We are surrounded by great family!

Christmas Lists

Okay, so to minimize having to send this out we are posting the list that Garrett picked out at the store today, this way everyone can see the list. If you are planning on getting something for them off the list, please let us know as not to duplicate gifts. Thanks

Garrett:

Movies:Horton Hears A Who
Games:5 little Monkeys, Wack a Mole
Toys:Word World Barn, Lego blocks Duplos, Activity Floor Pad,
For his Kitchen:Betty Crocker Pots and Pans set, Ice Cream Play set

Aislinn:

Crawl and Cruise Musical Jungle, Fisher Price Shape Sorter, VTech Nursery Farm, VTech Learn and Dance Zoo, Seseme Street Singing Pop Up

They could both use clothes. Garrett is in need of 2T jeans with adjustable waist (target has the best price) and he could use 2T shirts

Aislinn needs everything and she is in 18 month clothes now...the girl will not stop growing!

Hope this helps everyone.

Enjoy

We are really enjoying this Holiday season. Garrett is REALLY into everything. Talks about Santa all the time. It is wonderful to see Christmas through the eyes of a child. Today we went to Toys R Us to pick out things to ask Santa for...the list is HUGE. I have to narrow it down. Aislinn continues to amaze us. She is such a mover and a FLIRT. She is so funny. Taking slowly to a sippy cup and plays so great. She likes to do whatever her brother does. Jeff and Grandpa Bob painted her room Pink this weekend and we moved her into it. Garrett went to go to bed and stopped dead in the room and looked at Jeff and said...."IT'S PINK", poor boy has to share a pink room. We enjoyed the first night with out her in our room! Garrett cracks us up daily. The other day his daddy gave him a cup of new juice and he told his dad it was "delicious"..we laughed so hard. Tonight he helped me write a letter to Santa because he REALLY wants the World Word Barn set from Target. He loves World Word. I asked him how to spell pig and he said P-I-G. WOW!

I am loving my job. Keep thinking I will get this balance thing going and still waiting. Joined Weight Watchers to try to get this baby fat gone. I hope to be down a lot by the time Mike and Meagan's wedding in June.

We are still waiting for Miss Ava Howell to make her appearance. She is choosing to be late. We missed Jude's 1st birthday this weekend and were all sad about that. He was sick (not a very fun way to spend his birthday) we can't wait until he comes home for Christmas!

That is all for today...more to come!