We had another busy week as we adapted to life with Dean's injury and preparing for Halloween festivities. I did all the drop off and pick ups for the week so that Dean didnt disturb his injured finger any and tried to limit how lifting, etc he did. He worked all week, so that was good. Graham seems to understand that daddy is hurt and that there are some limits, so that is helpful. He is still very in to being a helper and likes to have jobs to do, so we certainly take advantage of that!

Evan had his 9 month check-up on Wednesday. He weighed in at 21 pounds and 14 ounces (71st percentile) and was 29.5 inches long (82nd percentile), and his head was 18 inches (63rd percentile). He got two shots, the rest of his HepB and half of his flu shot. He goes back in a month to get the second half of his flu shot and then not back unitl his one year appt in January! She gave us instructions to keep offering lots of table food (so far he isn't interested), lots of soft fruits and veggies and things that he can easily pick up on his own. She said he should be down to around 18 - 20 ounces of milk a day now, he is taking in about 24 ounces most days, so she said he can probably drop one of his day time bottles now and gradually start to phase the others out. And, she said to just keep working with him on the sippy cup with water in it, offering it to him all the time and he will finally get it and the water can start replacing some of the milk. He cried just for a second for his shots while we held him down and as soon as I picked him up he was back to being all smiles. We got him a sticker and were on our way. Graham had a talk with him this morning about all the things that the doctor would do and told him to be brave and that he would get a sticker. For the first time in ages, I took Evan to Graham's school since we were going to doctor as opposed to dropping Evan off first. Graham was very excited to show all his friends and his teachers his baby brother and of course, all the teachers wanted to hold Evan and he was all smiles.

We left there and headed to Honeytree, there were in the midst of school pics, so I had dressed him in a pretty fall outfit and got to see him have his picture made. He was a superstar and the photographer told me that he has clearly had lots of practice, ha ha! I talked to his teachers about dropping one of those bottles that he has there, actually just combining two small bottles and they ajdusted and that worked like a charm. So, he is just taking four bottles a day now, the morning, midday, late afternoon and bedtime. Pretty soon, we will work on eliminating the next one and see how that goes. He is starting to drink some sips of water from a sippy cup, so a little progress there. We have started offering him bites of table food at home and daycare and he will take the bites, but boy, does me make some faces!

Our week built up to Dean's follow-up appt at the hand doc. We spent a LONG morning at the hand doc (over three hours). His healing and recovery is going well, there was a little bit of moisture that she was initially worried might be infection, but then after further examination she decided it was just a little blood and wet tissue. So, he is off antibiotics for now. She removed nine stitches from the tip of his finger and then explained the wound care process to us. For the next three days, he has to soak it in a mixture of warm water and antibiotic soap for 10 minutes, three times a day, then twice a day for the following two days and then once a day until Friday when we go back again. After he soaks it, we have to re-wrap it with a couple layers of bandaging and then when went to occupational therapy and they made him a smaller custom splint to put on and then we wrap over top of it. He will at least be able to type a little easier with the less bulky splint. We go back next Friday morning at 830am and she will determine further wound care and recheck for any signs of infection. He can have it unwrapped in the shower and water can run over it, but he can't use it for anything and still shouldn't lift anything with his right hand or strain it, as the broken bone, nerves, tendons and skin are all healing. Overall, she was very pleased but advised that we still need to be cautious and gave us all the signs to watch for possible infection to call in about it. If all looks good on Friday, then she won't need to see him until about 4 weeks later. He is still just managing his pain with ibuprofen and has practiced changing his bandage by himself, so he is doing pretty good, but there are still random daily tasks that just require two hands that he struggles with. There is no sign of any fingernail, and she said it could be as long as 8 - 9 months before we have an idea of what kind, if any, fingernail will grow back. The shortness, at first glance, doesn't seem too noticeable. There is a lot of dried caked blood on it, so still kind of hard to tell exactly what it will look like. She or we can't scrub it clean, it just has to come clean through the soakings, water running over it in the shower, etc. So, all in all, a good report, and we just pray for no infection and for the healing to continue.

He headed home to soak his finger and finish out his work day and me and the boys headed to my office for our annual trick or treating bash. The office was more decorated than ever. The boys looked great in their cowboy costumes and Evan was quite content riding around in the stroller taking it all in, but he wasn't so in to the hat! We hooked up with Josephine and Vivienne and the "big kids," had a blast. There were lots of spooky tunnels and haunted house type things and Graham loved every minute of it. He is now very picky about what kind of candy he likes, so he was in search of M and Ms and suckers as we trick or treated! We left there after about 2.5 hours and both boys conked out in the jeep on the way home!

Dean rested on Saturday morning and me and the boys headed to Graham's swim lesson. He had a substitute teacher and it is nice that we are past the days of it mattering who the teacher will be. He was very excited to come and tell me that they got to wear duck feet - flippers - to help them kick and swim faster, so that was a fun lesson. We headed home and worked around the house a bit and set out on our next adventure. We met up with the Coleman gang at the duck pond at VT's campus and they took family pics of us for our Christmas card. We were all color coordinated and the boys hung in there pretty good. It is a challenge to get all four of us positioned and looking but I think we ended up with a few that will work and lots of fun shots. We fed the ducks and played around a little and then got some burgers for dinner and headed home.

We headed back to church on Sunday and everyone was glad to see us back. Evan is just getting noisier and noisier, so I finally had to take him out for a little bit. Then, he came back in with Graham for blessing. Graham did pretty good, he was quiet mostly and really enjoyed his sunday school class again and told us all about it. We left there and headed home to get ready for trick or treating! We had some pumpkin fun on the deck first. I figured we didnt need to pull out any knives and mess with the pumpkins and cause any more ER visits, so Graham and I got some markers and drew faces on the pumpkins, he thought that was great fun! We had made plans to go up to our old neighborhood with Carson and Julie and Mike, since there are a lot more houses there than our neighborhood. I got Evan all fed and changed and in his jammies and plopped him on the floor and Dean kept him alone for the first time since he hurt his hand. We were only gone about an hour and half and they managed pretty well. Graham and Carson had a blast going from house to house and getting candy. Lots of people were dressed up and there were lots of fun decorations along the way as well. We walked ALOT and they finally started to get tired so we called it a night! We got home and Graham was most excited to hand out our candy to the late arriving trick or treaters, so that was a fun end to our Halloween! It seems like Halloween stretched out quite a bit this year!

So, what a crazy week we had!!!!!!! I headed out with the boys early Monday morning and left Dean resting at home. I was able to get him an afternoon appointment to see the hand specialist and so I ran home and got him and we got the official verdict - surgery on Tuesday in the outpatient clinic at Roanoke Memorial Hospital! We picked up the boys and got in the mode for a long day on Tuesday. Dean wasn't in a terrible amount of pain, mainly a lot of discomfort and some anxiety about what was ahead, but basically he had ripped the tip off his finger, lost the nail and a significant amount of the nail bed tissue and then the broken bone and she was going to basically have to reconstruct the end of his finger!

We dropped the boys off on Tuesday morning and headed to the hospital, the day was one big delay after another, with surgery not actually occurring until nearly 3pm. Dean's parents came to the hospital and kept me company during the long afternoon wait, so that was nice. Finally around 430pm, we talked to the doctor and got to see Dean right after that. The doc was very pleased with how things went. She did not have to graft him skin from his arm or any nailbed from his toe (as she had on the list of options we pre-approved), but was able to do the repair completely using tissue and skin from the finger. She closed the wound and covered the exposed broken bone and grafted the skin over and then did some repair work on the nail bed from the small amount of nail bed that was left. The finger is slightly shorter, but not as short as she thought it might end up, so maybe less than a half inch shorter. It has to stay totally bandaged and splinted and cannot get wet for 10 days, then we go back to the office on next Friday for her to look at it and determine next steps. She might take the stitches out that day or the following week and then she will turn daily bandage changes and wound care over to us.....so the main concern now is for the skin grafts to take!

Since things ran later, there was no way we could get to First Baptist to pick up Graham in time, so he went home with Josephine, thanks to Tyler and Bobby! We got away in time to pick up Evan, swung by and got Graham (who was having a blast and didnt want to leave) and then headed home! Needless to say everyone was very very tired, dinner and bedtimes were all late and it was a long night for all of us! Everyone was up at some point!

Dean's dad came to spend the day with him on Wednesday and the boys and I headed out after he got to the house. Dean was still taking some pain pills, but trying to wean himself over to ibuprofen. He felt well enough in the afternoon to work a little, so that was good. Graham seemed to understand that daddy was hurt and knew that he was limited in what he could do and was being a pretty good helper. Luckily Graham has gotten very independent and can do so much stuff for himself now, so that is great. Evan, on the other hand, is in to everything! He is standing every chance he gets and trying to pull up and climb on whatever he can! So, needless to say, he is way to squirmy and active for Dean to be able to handle him with one hand!!!! So, we are adjusting to that change in day to day life.

On Thursday morning, Dean decided he wanted to head back in to work, we all got ready and were about to head out the door and Dean's car wouldnt start! The boys were very patient while we got someone to come help us get the car jumped and then dropped it off at the shop and then Dean dropped us all off and took the jeep to work and had to pick us all back up that evening! We stopped and got dinner at the mexican place, so that was atleast a fun end to yet another crazy day!!!! Dean dropped us all off again on Friday and headed in to work again. He is keeping his arm elevated as much as he can and typing one handed for the most part, but otherwise not in alot of pain. I was able to get the car back on Friday and he even worked a little late to try to catch back up on things. I stopped and got pizza with the boys and we headed home and were very happy to see this week finally come to and end!

On Saturday, we got up and headed out for a busy mid-day. We went to Graham's swim lesson first and then across town to a new rec center for an indoor pool party for one of Graham's classmates. Originally Dean was going to get in the water, but since he can't get his hand yet, we had to switch places. He and Evan had to tag along though since he can't take care of Evan by himself at home. Evan took his morning nap in the car during Graham's swim lesson and then we headed to the bday party. There were quite a few of his classmates there and it was a fun pirate theme. They had pizza and cake and then we hit the pool. Dean and Evan hung by the pool and watched us, of course, Evan was quite entertained by all there was to see! There was a big playset type thing in the pool with lots of fountains and water squirting everywhere and Graham had a total blast! We left there and stopped and got some groceries and headed home!

My parents came for the rest of the weekend. Daddy dug up a couple dead trees and replanted them with new trees that we bought last Sunday at Lowes that Dean intended to plant after we got home from church...... then the accident happened! Graham was very eager to be a little helper and had a lot of fun with Pawpaw, he rode his bike, did sidewalk chalk with mawmaw and enjoyed lots of outside time. Evan was all over the inside of the house showing off all his new stunts! We had a yummy dinner (the first one that I had cooked in a week!). Dean was able to get in a nap in while I had my parents there to help me with the boys, so that was good.

On Sunday, Dean slept in and further caught up on his rest, so that was good. We headed out about mid-day to another pumpkin patch, one we had not been to before out in Bedford. Mama and daddy went with us and we met up with Bobby, Tyler, Josephine and Vivienne. There were lots of fun things to do and Graham and Josephine had a blast - there was a bouncy pillow, hay ride to the pumpkin patch, a cow train - pulled by a tractor, a mine shaft tunnel slide, a corn box, petting zoo, corn blaster and of course the corn maze! We had lunch and then ran from activity to activity. Dean and Tyler and the little ones hung out in the shade for a bit while their big brother and big sister got to have all the big fun! They did get to pose for some pics, so that was fun atleast, ha! All the kids (and adults) were worn out when we left! Both boys slept all the way home and even a little bit after we got home. We ate some dinner and took very much needed baths and they were both in bed early!

Evan is still holding steady just at 22 pounds. He has his 9 month appt on Wednesday and then school pictures when we arrive at school after his appointment! He is still pretty set on jar foods and not really interested in any table foods that we have been offering. He eats his jars so well, devours every bite of them, still not drinking his milk out of a sippy cup either, just a little juice here and there, so lots to ask her about at his appointment for sure! And, of course, it will be interesting to see where he is on the growth charts and I am assuming there will probably be some shots involved as well. He has never had a sick appointment which still just amazes us, but he is keeping a runny nose pretty much all the time these days. His 8th tooth popped through a couple days ago, so that could have something to do with, but there seems to be some junky congestion stuff too, of course we all have it these days it seems!

Here are some pics from the pumpkin patch!

We started off the week with Graham's 4 year appt, he was pretty excited to show the doc how big and strong he was now that he is four. He weighed in at 37 and a half pounds, 64th percentile and 40 and a half inches, 54th percentile. His height seems to have really slowded down from when he was younger when they kept saying he was going to be tall, now he just seems to be average for height. He was very cooperative with the nurse as she took his vitals and even told her that he had a blood pressure cuff at home, but it was a toy. Then, it was time for a hearing and vision test. I had no idea what to expect, we went in to another room and she showed him some flashcards with pictures and arrows and he breezed through them all and then she put them in the viewfinder and he had to look through it and read them again, he aced it. Then for the hearing test, he had to put on headphones and raise his arms when he heard the tone. He had the biggest smile on his face sitting there waiting for the tones to go off and then raising his arms. We headed back in to wait on the doc to come in.

Doc Johnson has a new baby as well, so we asked about him and then Graham shared about his baby brother, so that was cute. She asked him some questions about school and he was chatty with her. Then, she did some basic examining and we talked about eating and sleeping and such. The main takeaway was that he needs to be eating more veggies. She said to offer them every single meal and he has to atleast try them, so I guess we will start trying that and see how it goes. She wasn’t concerned at all about him still being in pull-ups at night and said there is no rush on that, so that was good to here. She agreed that with him being such a hard sleeper, it will just take longer. She was glad to hear we aren’t starting him in school next fall and supported our timeline on that fully, so that was good. We told her that he will go to a half day kindergarten at his church preschool next year and then do full day regular school kindergarten the next fall as he is turning six.

Then, it was shot time! He was due for four (Polio, Dtap, MMR/Chickenpox and Flu), but she said he should not need any more until he is about 11. We tried to explain and prepare him, but when it boiled right down to shot time, he screamed and cried during the actual shots. He got two shots in each leg and on the second shot, he kept yelling, “I am done, I am done!” He was pleased afterwards to see his four bandaids……for being four……. He was still a little upset, but I took him to potty and to get his stickers and he calmed down and we got the paperwork and headed out. He was very excited to put his sticker on to show his friends when he got to school, although he kept telling me that he wanted to show them his bandaids too, but I told him to NOT pull down his pants to show them his bandaids (on his thighs). So, all in all, a good appointment!

Evan is starting to pull up and get even more mobile. A couple times we have went in his room and caught him standing up in his crib and he is trying to pull up more and more on anything that he can! He can get his belly off the ground when he first starts to crawl, but then it immediately drops down and then he takes off! He is still eating and drinking good, loves puffs and mum mum rice crackers and finally is taking a little bit of juice out of a sippy cup, but not formula. We will just have to keep at it! He is still weighing in right around 22 pounds and seems to have slowed down a bit, so that is good.

On Saturday morning, me and the boys headed to Graham's swim lesson and Dean stayed home to mow the yard. Graham loves going to swim lessons these days and continues to improve on his strokes. Evan hangs out with me during lessons and everyone comments on how it wont be long until he starts his lesson! We left there and headed home and had a fun day at home the rest of the day. Graham and Evan dressed up in their Halloween cowboy costumes and posed for some pics and Graham tried to teach Evan to say trick or treat, it was really cute. After that, we went ahead and had Evan's 9 month photo shoot about a week early. He was most cooperative and we had a lot of fun. It some ways he favors Graham's shoot and in some ways, he looks totally different. Graham and I ventured outside for some playset fun, but it was awfully windy, so we didn't take Evan out with us.

On Sunday we headed to church. Evan stayed in service with me, but again he got pretty babbly and restless, so his days are really numbered before he heads to the nursery for all of service. Graham did pretty good when he came in, he was quiet but very fidgety. We ate some snacks after service and then made a quick run to Lowe's . Evan can ride pretty good in the shopping carts now and Graham thinks the big car style ones are great fun for him and Evan to both ride in! We left there with some trees and a few other projects to do. We headed home and both boys fell asleep. We tried carrying them both in the house asleep, but both of them woke up! It was such a pretty day, we were going to head outside for some fun and I was gonna take some pics of the boys outside while Dean was doing some yardwork. Dean put some new weather stripping on the deck door and right as he finished admiring his work....... he slammed his finger / hand in the door. At first, I just thought he smashed the door on his hand and it was hurt / bruised, but when I got closer, I could see blood pouring out of his ring finger on his right hand (his writing hand). He held it over the sink and we took a peak and it looked pretty mangled. So, I quickly grabbed the boys, stuck them in the jeep and we headed out. I wasn't sure exactly where we should go, it was hard to tell the exact nature of his injury, other than a lot of blood..... so I called in to Carilion and asked about going to the urgent care that was put in to the former Community Hospital ER, as I knew the wait would be less and the parking entrance situation would be much easier to get the Dean and the boys in than going to Roanoke Memorial. They advised there was basically no wait and to come on in. So, we got there and basically got taken straight back to Triage, then to a room and then doc came right in. He wanted to do an x-ray and was concerned about the damage to the nail bed. The x-ray showed a fracture in the bone in the very tip of his finger.....so he needed to go ahead and send us over to the ER at Memorial, but we could basically bypass the steps we had completed there as the records, xray and all would be zapped over there / in the system and they would call ahead for us. The doc numbed is finger for the pain, so that was good and by this time Dean's parents were in route to meet us. The boys did great. Evan was chilling in his umbrella stroller having a bottle and Graham was playing with latex gloves, having a snack, and observing everything going on. He did want to play with the doors that opened and closed in the hallway when I was on the phone, but overall, did pretty good......

We spent about 45 minutes at the urgent care (about the amount of time that it took Dean's parents to drive to us) and they arrived at the ER just as we did. We got parked and got the boys out again and headed in. As I suspected, the ER was slammed and even though, we called ahead, it was a good 15 mintues before they took us back to get up to speed in a mini-triage version and then another 15 minutes to get taken back to a room. Thank goodness, there was a room in the waiting room called the pediatric waiting room that had some puzzles and was actually closed off from the main waiting room, so Dean's parents and the boys hung out in there and I was able to go back to the room with Dean, which wasn't really a room, but a bed behind in a curtain in a long row of the same.....with all kinds of craziness going on, typical busy urban trauma center! The ER doc was also more concerned about the nail bed than the break and as it turns it he lost his entire nail and a good bit of tissue and so the bone is actually exposed. He paged the hand ortho specialist and they advised to bandage him up, start him on an antibiotic, give him some pain meds and have us call in on Monday morning for an appointment at the Hand Clinic....(who knew there was such a thing in Roanoke!). So, he was bandaged up good and then a split put on - making it very bulky - and we were on our way with prescriptions. This process took about 2.5 hours and I went out and checked on the boys a couple times. Dean's mom fed Evan two jars of food for dinner and Graham had plenty of snacks (thank goodness for an always stocked diaper bag in the jeep) and they sang every nursery rhyme song there is! Graham wanted to go check on daddy, so two different times I took him back to visit Dean and he was very concerned. He was right there in the kitchen when it happened and explained it all to Dean's mom and dad.

We headed to the drug store to the get the meds, hit the McDonald's drive thru for dinner and then home. We left the house at 230pm and got back home around 730pm, so quite the afternoon! We managed to get both boys settled and in bed just about at the normal times and then Dean talked to his boss and sent some work emails (partially via dictating to me and me proofreading) and we called it a night! Hopefully we will get in to the hand doctor as soon as possible and find out next steps!!!!! We are glad it isn't any worse than it is, but it seems like he is gonna have quite some recovery ahead of him and likely will never have a fingernail on that finger again!

So, as you can see, I had the boys all dressed and ready for a photo shoot, so needless to say, they were dressed quite cute for the ER! Here are Graham's souvenirs from the ordeal!

We started off the week with me getting a nasty stomach bug! It hit me right as we were getting the boys in bed on Monday night and knocked me out of commission all day on Tuesday. Thank goodness none of the boys ended up getting it, so that was good! It took me a couple days to feel back to normal, but luckily it was a quick moving bug!

The highlight of our week was our annual trip to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. Graham has been leaning about the seasons at school and is very excited about the leaves turning colors and all things fall, including the pumpkins! We headed out early on Saturday morning, stopped of at swim lessons and then on the pumpkin patch. We met up with Brad, Kelly, Grey and Reed and Kenneth, Danah and Lillian. All the kids had a blast! We did it all - corn maze, carriage ride, pony ride, hay ride to the pumpkin patch, petting zoo and a picnic lunch! We took lots and lots of pics. Graham loved running all around and checking everything out and Evan was quite content to just sit in the patch and bang on a pumpkin! It was crazy warm, in the 80s, so we were quite hot and tired when we left!

We left there and headed out to Brad and Kelly's housesite, Graham loved playing on the big dirt pile, needless to say, so that was fun. We left there and headed to Dean's parents for dinner. A great way to finish out the day! Both boys konked out in the jeep and even slept late on Sunday morning (well until about 8am!, but that is late in our house!).

On Sunday morning, me and the boys stayed in from church and had some fun time at home. Graham and I watched a movie that he got for his birthday, complete with popcorn, so that was a lot of fun. Dean got home and we ate some lunch and then headed out on what seems to be our fall birthday tour. This time it was Emma's bday party, back at Pump it up. Graham was quite excited and loves partying with all his friends. We have another party to go to in two weeks for another classmate, this one is an indoor pool party! So, we are making quite the rounds!

Evan is continuing to get more and more mobile, still mainly army crawling, but really trying to lift that tummy up more and more all the time, so that is exciting. He is very grabby hands and alert and in to everything around him. He can stand for little short spurts until his legs give out. He still loves being in the jumper and can move around more and more in the walker. His fave thing to do in the walker is to get over to the frig where all the artwork is hanging and tear it down! He is eating all kinds of jar foods, but still refusing to take a sippy cup with anything and has even cut back his milk some. So that is pretty different from Graham, who loved his milk, any way that he could get it! We found that he moves out of the infant room and in to the next stage room on November 15th. He will have more room to get down on the floor and crawl around and play and will settle in to more of a schedule. He is pretty much taking a morning nap and afternoon nap each day, but the times vary some. He will settle in to the breakfast and lunch routine and start gearing up for table foods! He is right at 22 pounds now and solid as he can be!

On Monday morning, Graham has his 4 year check-up! He is excited to go and show Doc Johnson that he is four and how big he is! Hopefully, it will all go as smooth even if some shots are involved!

Here we are at the pumpkin patch!

We were in birthday mode the rest of the week and still have the remnants of the big fourth bday around! Graham enjoyed playing with all his new goodies and then on Wednesday, his actual birthday, we got to party all over again. He wore his birthday shirt to school and I arrived at snack time with cupcakes, party hats, the remainder of handy manny plates and napkins and goodie bags! The kids had a big time celebrating, about half of them celebrating again that is, with Graham. They even posed for a group photo, complete with the teachers. It was a lot of fun. Graham also got to do all the jobs all day, so he was the line leader, the blessing leader, the napkin helper and the calendar helper. He had been telling us about that for some time, so he was quite delighted! I headed back to work as they headed to the gym and then when I came back to pick him up, he got to pick where he wanted to meet Daddy and Evan for dinner - he picked CiCi's Pizza! SO, that was where we went.

After dinner, we headed home and he opened the final couple presents that we had for him. He had quite the big 4th birthday. Of course, he is already talking about his number 5 birthday now and what kind of party he wants and such. So, hopefully, he will settle down once we have a little distance, ha!

On Thursday, the big week continued as Graham headed to the dentist for his 2nd visit, but this time, he had a full blown cleaning. He was a little superstar. He sat right up in the chair and chatted with our hygienist and then let her count his teeth (although, before she started, he told her that he had 20!), she brushed them and flossed them and then the dentist came in and checked them out! He got a great report and they said he did awesome. So, now he is on the every 6 month routine, so we made his next appointment! He got a goodie bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, and stickers. He was very excited to go to school and show all his friends his very shiny teeth! Then, that evening, we headed to Rachels for Dean and Graham to get haircuts, so quite the week!!!

We had a jam packed Saturday, as usual. We headed out early to swim lessons for Graham. Evan fell asleep in the car as soon as we left the house. I took Graham in for swim lessons and Dean stayed in the car with sleeping Evan. Graham had a great lesson and learned some new "tricks," he told me. We grabbed some McD in the car and headed to church for Father Paul's institution as priest at St. Thomas. Dean had to be at church early for choir practice, so since Evan was still sleeping, Graham and I hung out in the car with him until he woke up a little bit before time for service. Evan ended up being asleep in the car for 2 hours, so when he woke up Graham and I and him headed in to church and he was ready to eat needless to say. The service was very long and Evan made it for about the first 45 minutes, but then I finally took him to the nursery to join Graham, because he was starting to get to fidgety and babbly and service had about another hour left!!!! They both did great in the nursery and we grabbed a snack and headed home. Evan fell back asleep in the car on the way home!

My parents arrived shortly after we got home to watch the boys, so we could go out to Elaine's wedding reception that night. We headed out around 630pm and the boys did great for them and settled in to bed super easy, so that was great! We had a fun night out and then got to sleep in a little on Sunday. There was no sunday school and the choir got the sunday off as a thank you for the Saturday service, so we decided to just stay home all day long. Mom and dad left about mid-morning and then we just hung out at home all day long for the first time in a very very long time! Graham got some outside time each afternoon to ride his bike and he is loving that. He knows that he has to get his helmet, gloves and pads before he goes out and he is really getting the hang of it!

Evan has been waking a couple times a night most nights the past week or so. A little rocking and soothing and he goes right back to sleep. He still has several of those teeth breaking on through the skin and is keeping a runny nose, so not sure exactly what the cause is, but hoping it doesn't become a new pattern! Otherwise, he still continues to be super laid back and happy. He is eating all different kinds of jar foods, some puffs and loves the rice crackers. He will NOT take a sippy cup at all though, we have tried his milk, water and juice and he will just have no part of it! So, we will just keep working with him on it and they are also working with him at school too, so hopefully it will click soon! He weighed in at 21 pounds and 10 ounces this weekend!

Evan is really on the move these days as well, still doing the army crawl, but he is fast and reaching and pulling and grabbing everything that he can! He will occasionally sit and be satisfied for short periods of time, like here with his piano. This was a fave of Graham's and clearly Evan is going to enjoy it just as much!