We have hit the season of sickies! Evan was up and down and fussy last Sunday and Monday nights, so I headed to the doctor with him on Tuesday morning for his first ever sick appointment. Sure enough, the cold he had been fighting went to his ears and he had a double ear infection! We got some amoxicillin and were on our way! He weighed in right at 22 pounds. We were pretty pleased that he made it to 10 months without a sick appointment, very very very different from Graham for sure! Just hope it is not a sign of a bad winter to come! Well, he took both doses of his medicine just fine on Tuesday and then around 11pm on Tuesday night he started throwing up! He threw up for a couple hours all over me and him until he didn’t have anything left in him! I called the nurse on Wednesday morning to see if she thought it had anything to do with the meds and she said based on the timing, she was sure it was just a stomach virus that he probably picked up at the office on Tuesday! So, we stayed home and I gave him pedialyte and gradually worked back up to food and milk and resumed his medicine. He was a pretty happy little guy through it all!

Graham had a big day at school on Wednesday, they did lots of Thanksgivng art, wore Indian headbands to lunch, had a turkey lunch, decorated cookies and had cupcakes for a birthday! He was in the holiday spirit for sure! He was all excited about eating turkey, mac and cheese and pumpkin pie (none of which we figured he would eat, but he just kept talking about it!). We headed out early Thanksgiving morning and stopped and had breakfast with Dean’s parents. Cal made his yummy Swedish pancakes and we had a fun visit. Graham was proud to show off his Indian hat. We left there and headed to my parents. Kenneth and Lillian joined us and we had a yummy turkey lunch. Right about the time we were going to sit down to eat, Graham started saying that he was cold and sleepy and sure enough, he had a 102 fever! He curled up on the couch under a blanket, took some meds and was just kind of pitiful while we ate. He perked up in a little bit after the meds kicked in, so just a mystery fever. He had a little cough too. We headed out later in the afternoon and my parents followed us home so that mom and I could go do our Black Friday traditional shopping adventure on Friday.

We headed out at about 3am on Friday and shopped until nearly lunchtime. The boys actually slept in a bit, so that was nice. Evan was starting to fight his meds some and we tried hiding it in his food and he would gag and carry on and throw up some of his food. We finally discovered that giving it to him slowly on an empty stomach was the trick, but man, 10 days, twice a day is a long time! We napped and took it easy the rest of Friday and Graham seemed to be feeling better, other than an occasional fever!

On Saturday, we didn’t have swim lessons because of the holiday, so Graham and I had a date to go to the movies to see Tangled! He was most excited to go see the prince and the princess and it was fun for just us to go out. We devoured large popcorn and really enjoyed the movie. Evan took a long nap and slept the whole time we were gone, so that worked out well! Graham and I hit the grocery store and got some fresh steaks to grill for dinner, since we were starting to get tired of turkey leftovers! Right around dinner time, Graham was playing with some cars in the dining room and sure enough, he dropped one of the cars down the HVAC vent in the dining room. It was a cheapy plastic car from a cereal box and we really didn’t want to leave it in the duct. Dean couldn’t reach it as it apparently slid all the way down in the duct where it leveled out. Luckily, the duct below was in the unfinished storage room in the basement, so Dean and Graham made a trip to Lowes for supplies and Dean was able to disconnect it and get the car out and re-attach the duct! We had a long talk with Graham about never dropping things down in there again!

Both boys were fast asleep by 730pm and slept until 730am on Sunday! Graham seemed to be feeling fine on Sunday morning and we loaded up and headed to church. Evan got way too chatty and jibber jabbery so I had to take him to the nursery and then they both came in for communion and did really good. We headed home and sure enough not long after we were home, Graham was running a fever again and just laying around! Evan took another long afternoon nap. If he misses his morning nap, he will nap for about three hours in the afternoon almost every time! Again, Graham just had the fever, but seemed okay otherwise, he was cold and sleepy again and wanted to go to bed early. The meds bring his temp right down every time, so we decided if was fever free when he woke up on Monday, we would go ahead and send him to school (which he was). He had actually talked about missing school and his friends over the long weekend, so he was anxious to get back!<0> Evan is continuing to be more and more mobile and expressive. He is saying more and more sounds and has started clapping his hands, which is super cute. He wants to be on the go all the time and is standing more and more for a few seconds at a time and cruising along things like crazy. If he wants to get somewhere fast, he still drops down and takes off crawling though! We are going to put up our tree next weekend, so that will be exciting. Graham is really noticing all the decorations and keeps asking about ours, he is very excited to decorate our house!

Evan settled in to his new class seemed to enjoy all the new big boy things to do. We struggled a little bit with getting his schedule sorted out, but by the end of the week, he was all settled in. He is eating table foods at breakfast and lunch every day and trying lots of new things and then eats some for us at dinner as well. He sits in the high chairs at school like such a big boy. He is pulling up more and more and crusing along things like crazy, and he will stand for as long as 10 seconds or so before he falls over. Graham thinks that is just the coolest thing ever! Evan still isn't crazy about drinking his milk from a sippy cup, but we keep trying. He is doing better with water from it though. Over the weekend, we dropped his morning bottle and replaced it with yogurt, so he is just down to three bottles a day - one at lunch, one in the afternoon after nap and one at bedtime. Once he settles in to dropping the morning one, we will see about dropping the next one, in preparation for the big switch to whole milk here in about 2 months! He is still hanging at just over 22 pounds, I guess becuase his acitivity level is so high, he is just kind of maintaining now.

We had a fun filled weekend prepping for Christmas! Dean and Graham went to swim lessons on Saturday and I pulled out all the Christmas wrapping goodies. Evan and I had his 10 month photo shoot and he was super sweet for that! LOVE those big blue eyes! When Graham got home, he and Evan both took naps and I did lots of wrapping. After dinner, I took the boys in to my office and let them play around in all the wrapping the paper. Then, Evan went to bed and Graham helped me wrap some presents, he had a lot of fun and is totally in the Christmas spirit.

After church on Sunday, it was such a pretty day, Graham played outside with his basketball hoop and he and Dean went for another bike ride through the neighborhood,so that was a lot of fun. Graham really loves his bike and we are enjoying this last little bit of outside time before it gets to cold to go out. We took some pics of the boys with their Christmas sweaters with packages around them, Evan was pretty cooperative, but Graham is just not very cooperative these days!!!! I got a few...but not as many as I would have liked!!!!

We are looking forward to a short work and school week and to spending time with the families for Thanksgiving this week!

We survived our crazy split up week. I had a good trip to Minneapolis and landed Thursday evening. Dean got caught up on some work and had a couple appointments and took it easy - continuing to change the bandages on his hand, while using it more and more unbandaged.

Graham and Evan had a great week at my parent's house. They got to play with Lillian a few times and one day daddy took Graham on a big adventure, they went to the library for storytime, McDonald's and Walmart for a shopping trip. They had a lot of fun. Graham looked out for Evan like he told me that he would when Evan was trying to get in to any and every thing. Graham did some art and Evan tried lots more table foods, so it was a good week all around. They brought the boys home to us Thursday evening and Graham was excited to show us his art and of course I had goodies to give them from my trip!

Graham was very excited to go back to school and was very concerned about how much his friends had missed him. Evan had a big day as well, he transitioned over to the big babies room. He had visited it a few times over the past couple weeks and he was the oldest one in the first baby room. So, all his mobile buddies were in the new room already. He is keeping his belly off the ground now all the time when he crawls and there are more toys and activities suited to standing and pulling up and such, so it should be a good transition. He also is continuing to try lots of table food, not enough to drop his jars yet, but he is pretty receptive to most everything. He is still holding steady just over 22 pounds, the activity level has probably slowed him down now!

We headed to Graham's swim lesson on Saturday, he is really doing so good. He has been wearing flippers, or duck feet, as he calls them to help him kick and it is wild to watch him going the whole length of the pool with the instructor. Evan slept in the car as usual and then we headed home. Dean and Graham went outside for some fun playtime and Graham rode his bike through the neighborhood, he thought that was a lot of fun. He is great about wearing his helmet and pads before he heads out.

On Sunday, we headed to church and Graham is really thriving in his Sunday School class, between what he learns at First Baptist and the books and stories that we read, but it is a nice compliment! Evan missed his morning nap, so he ended up falling asleep in my arms through nearly the entire service. Graham came in and did pretty good, a little chatty, but overall a success! We headed home and headed back outside to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. This time Dean got his bike out to and rode with Graham and Evan and I followed along in the stroller, so that was a lot of fun! A great end to the weekend!

Here are Evan's school pictures, they turned out great, he was right at 9 months for these.

We continued to adapt to life with Dean's injury and the recovery process. His week was full of soakings and bandage changes and luckily, he was not having much pain. His injury has coincided with Evan's activity level soaring! He is not still for a second and wants to be down and on the go at all times! He is pulling up on anything that he can hold on to and finally is consistently lifting his belly off the ground when crawls, therefore going even faster! He is babbling more and more sounds and continues to be such a smiley happy little guy! He weighed in at about 22 pounds and 2 ounces and officially settled in to a new schedule where he dropped a bottle and has 4 bottles a day for a total of 20 ounces. He is still eating any and all jars like crazy, and has started eating some bites of table food, mainly at daycare so that is good!

We went back to the doctor on Friday morning and got a good report on Dean's finger. The x-rays showed the shortened broken bone is healing nicely, skin grafts look good, no signs of infection, now just a waiting game for about 9 months to see what will happen to the fingernail and if any further surgery will be required. He can gradually start to un-splint it and un-bandage it some to atleast try to type and gradually start using it more, and then we go back to doc in 3 weeks.

We had another jam packed weekend! We headed out Saturday morning and stopped first at swim lessons and then headed to the movies for Reed's 3rd birthday party. We saw Megamind, the newest animated superhero movie. It was only Graham's second movie, but he did great. Evan took a bottle at the beginning and then snuggled up on me and slept through the whole movie, so that was a success! We left the movies and dropped by to see Dean's parents and Evan showed off his new crawling skills and tried to get in to everything and anything! We headed home and called it a day!

On Sunday, we headed to church and both boys did very good! Graham is so enjoying his Sunday school class and Evan wasn't quite as chatty in service this week, so he stayed in service with me until Graham joined us. We left church, headed home re-grouped and then headed out again. We continued our bday party themed weekend and headed to another bday party for one of Graham's classmates. This time we headed to "Thunder Valley," an indoor entertainment center, complete with Gokarts! My parents met us at the center so that they could take Evan and Graham home with them afterwards. I head to Minneapolis on Monday and since Dean still has some restrictions in what he can do, we decided that it would be best to send both boys this time. Graham was of course very excited about the birthday party and also heading to mawmaw and pawpaw's afterwards and he was excited that Evan got to go too! The party was a lot of fun and Daddy took Graham on the big go-karts two different times and he thought that was a lot of fun, he liked how fast they went! After pizza, cake, gifts and more playtime, it was time to go our separate ways! After lots and hugs and kisses, the boys headed out and we went and got some dinner and had a mini date night. The house seemed so quiet all Sunday evening until bedtime without either boy in the house, our first time in the house alone overnight without them! Already counting down to Thursday evening when we can all be back together in our house!!!

Evan doing his crawling thing!