Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy birthday to my wonderful, funny, smart, amazing, goofy husband and help-mate, Todd! 

My babies

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my babies????

I just love these kids.  They are so fun.  Grant loves his big sister.  He laughs at her so much... and every time she comes in the room, he is all smiles.  Don't they look alike in the picture below?

Lastly, Grant is pushing himself up pretty well these days.  I'm hoping he at least rolls over before Natalie did (around 7 months!).  Both kids seem(ed) content when they were babies.  Like if Natalie were sitting, there wasn't much that could motivate her to reach for toys or start to crawl.  She was just really happy sitting in one spot and looking at the world around with her and playing with her own feet.  Grant seems that way too.  If you lay him on his belly, he usually just lays his head down and is content to lay there and suck on his hand!  But sometimes he does push up...

He can push himself higher than this, but I thought he looked so cute here.  I just want to kiss those cheeks!

Todd's shoulder surgery

Todd's shoulder surgery was a success!  Thanks to Maureen who took the kids at 5:30 am since we had to be at the outpatient center at 6 am (yawn!).  And thanks to all of the prayers and well wishes.  Todd's surgery actually started closer to 7 am and went until about 9:15. 

It took a little longer than they expected (although I expected that.  When does it ever take exactly the amount of time they say it will???).  They shaved off a bit of his shoulder blade, which got rid of the bone spur he had, cleaned out the bursitis, and checked on the small tear he has in his labrum.  They decided there wasn't much they could do about that.  Apparently, he also had some worn down cartilage, and by removing the end part of the collarbone, it allows soft scar tissue to form so that he doesn't have bone rubbing on bone again.  NICE.

This is my favorite pic.  It makes me laugh (but grateful) that they "autograph" the shoulder they are going to work on.  Just in case.  You hear stories all the time about doctors removing the wrong limb or some other awful procedure mishap.  So here are Dr. Tierney's initals on Todd's shoulder!  Say bye bye shoulder!

Todd was a little woozy coming off the general anesthetic, but he wasn't nearly as loopy as when I went with him in 2004 to get his endoscopy.  He was talking all kinds of crazy nonsense then!  This time, he was alert and awake and eating graham crackers and apple juice.  Just like pre-school.

We finally got home around 11 after dropping his prescription off at CVS.  I ran out to get ice and pick up the prescription and when I got back, he was asleep.  But after he woke up from his nap, he said he felt great.  He watched movies the rest of the day and had to wait for the nerve block to wear off before he finally could feel his shoulder.  But between the pain meds and the large ice packs he has on his shoulder, he is doing okay.  He says it's sore, but isn't awful.  I hope in a few weeks, he is finally pain free!  It's about time!

Prayer requests

My wonderful, sweet hubby is having surgery on his shoulder tomorrow.  They think the surgery will take somewhere between 4-6 hours.  The surgery includes a distal clavicle resection (cutting off the end of the collar bone or clavicle) and subacromial decompression (cutting off the tip of the shoulder blade). Hopefully, it can all be done arthroscopically. Todd has been having a lot of pain in his shoulder for a few years now, so hopefully this will do the trick!  (It had darn well better, since they are cutting off about 1/3 of his collarbone!).  Prayers for me are also welcome, since Todd will not be able to lift the kids for about 6 weeks.  This means lots of work for Mommy!

Also, I need some prayers for my Uncle Dave.  He had a valve in his heart replaced yesterday and the surgery went well.  But he need some prayers for a speedy recovery!

Lastly, one of the blogs I read (Toddler Planet) by a woman in the DC area who is an astrophysicist and a mom (no kidding... I've never known any astrophysicists!!!) just got told that she has a recurrence of breast cancer.  http://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/  I don't know this woman, but she is a mom, just like me.  I can't even imagine what she must be going through, or how scared her little boys and husband must be.  She is having surgery today to remove some tumors from her lymph nodes.  So send lots of prayers her way!  Her name is Susan Niebur. 

I will keep you posted about how Todd is doing tomorrow!

Natalie's Boo Boo

So, last week when she was at daycare waiting for lunch to be served,  Natalie fell off of her little chair, foward and onto the table, where she split her eyebrow open.  Maureen called Todd to let him know, and he took Natalie to the doctor to get it looked at.  Thankfully, he did not call Mommy until AFTER the whole event was over.  Smart Daddy.

So they used this special skin glue on her face to close the wound.  I hadn't heard of this before, but I really like the concept.  No stitches?   Boy, this would have saved me a lot of agony when I was 4 and had to get stitches in a similar place on my face (right next to my right eye). 

In the picture below, you can barely see it, but there is a bit of purple glue still holding on strong to the end of her eyebrow (toward her temple) of her left eye.  Don't mind the orange Skittle mess on the rest of her face.  Someone had a little too much fun with her Easter candy!

The Easter Bunny came to our house!

The Easter Bunny came!  The Easter Bunny came!  But can mommy eat the delicious treats he brought?  NO!  Mommy has been dairy free lately to try and see if we can clear up Grant's eczema.  It seems to be working ... a little bit.  The crazy bad eczema on his face is gone, but now it is really bad on his arms, near his elbows (but on the top part of his arm).  I'm going to give it another week, and see if the arms clear up.  We also bought the California Baby eczema cream and that seems to work wonders on his face.  I think it might not be working on his arms because I put it on his arms, and then put his arms into long sleeved shirts.  Now that it's a little warmer, perhaps it will clear up.

Anyway!  On to Easter...

We did give Natalie some candy for Easter, because after all... it's Easter!  But we didn't want her tons of candy, so we gave her little gifts instead.  Of course, you KNOW that Santa and the Easter Bunny talk, right?  The Easter Bunny taps into Santa's naughty or nice database to make sure he can deliver goodies to the kids on Easter.  Natalie must have been pretty good between Christmas and Easter, because she got a basket full of fun things.  I think the Easter Bunny was very pleased with her potty training.

After church and the finding and opening of the Easter basket, we went to Wilmington.  Natalie had about 4 pieces of chocolate while she was playing with those little capsules that, when you put them in water, they grow to little sponge-like animals.  In the car on the way there, she had a bit of a sugar crash.  This kid NEVER sleeps in the car, and I mean NEVER.  So this was funny enough to take a picture of!

When we got to Wilmington, we took some Easter pictures outside before Natalie's nap.  Here is the Bailey gang under the Birch tree at Todd's sister Helen's house.

Next up, we took a picture of the kids.  In the back, we have Lauren, Gordon, and Madison, holding little Buddy G.  In the front, we have Natalie, Deven (Gordie's sister Janelle's daughter), and Seth.  I thought Natalie looked cute in this picture.

After pictures, little man Grant was hanging out with Daddy.  He looked so cute in this picture I couldn't resist.  Poor little guy seems tired, but so content to hang out with Daddy.  He'd better get some good Daddy-holding time in now, before Todd has his shoulder surgery later this week!

We had quite the tasty meal this Easter, made up of ham, potatoes, rolls, cesar salad, green bean casserole, maple carrots, and other fine goodies.  After dinner, we finally woke Natalie up (seriously, she could sleep forever if we let her) and went outside to do the annual Easter Egg hunt.  This year's eggs were full of money or Skittles.  Natalie has decided that she likes skittles.  Here is a picture of Natalie and Seth, inspecting Seth's loot.

Lastly, we can't forget that my BIG nephew/Godson Seth turned 7 (yes, I said 7!) on the 5th!  So at Helen's, we enjoyed some cake, cookies, and brownies to celebrate his birthday.  Candy AND cake on Easter????  This girl was over the moon!!!  Notice the various colors of chocolate cake and skittles across her face.   NICE!  Happy Easter everyone!

Fun at Endicott Park in Danvers

This weekend was just too beautiful not to be outside.  It was in the mid-upper 70s all weekend.  Just perfect.  So we met up with the Morris family at Endicott Park in Danvers and the girls- Annabel and Natalie - played on the playground. 

They were so cute!  The boys (Mike and Todd) hung out in the play clubhouse for a while, enjoying the shade with Grant and Evan.  Evan is about 2.5 months older than Grant.  Afterward, we went to check out the horses, but on the way, we ran into some birds that looked like pheasants, but might have been just young turkeys (Todd called them teenagers, ha ha). 

After our animal sightings, we went to have a picnic on the grassy area in the sun.  The weather was so nice, but it was actually WARM, and even I was sweating!  The Bailey's enjoyed hummus and pita, cheese and crackers, a fruit cup, salsa and garlic chips.  After lunch, Annabel shared one of her blue raspberry Dum Dum lollipops with Natalie, who was over the moon about it.  By the time she finished it in the car ride home, her entire mouth was blue, including lips, teeth and tongue.  She had it on her cheeks, hands, and even in her hair.  Awesome!  On a good note, Natalie went potty at the park and didn't have any accidents all morning!  She hasn't had any accidents in weeks, but I just wanted to point out that she spent all morning at the park and didn't have to go!

A weekend with Aunt Betty

I still can't believe I didn't take a picture of the lobsters, scallop cakes (like crab cakes, but with scallops), macaroni salad, Chilean red wine, and strawberry rhubarb pie with ice cream that we ate at Aunt Betty's this weekend.  Seriously.  Many other fun things went on this weekend at Aunt Betty's, but this was truly amazing!  And somehow, I forgot to take a picture.  Grrr....

ANYWAY... This weekend, we went down to Great Island to visit Aunt Betty (Todd's parents also live there -- but they are in Florida).  We had to pick up a few things at Todd's parents house (from their basement, where we store things!), so we spent Saturday and Saturday night at Aunt Betty's.  Natalie just had a blast.  We went to the BRAND NEW indoor heated pool.  It is AWESOME.  Great Island is a 55+ community, but from 2-4 each day, it's "family swim."  Kids who are still in diapers are not allowed in the pool, but of course, Natalie is potty trained now, so she was able to go in the pool. It was kind of a chilly day outside - I don't even think it hit 40 degrees, but it was balmy at the new pool.  We forgot to bring the diaper bag to the pool, which is where Natalie's ear coverings are, so we put this lovely shower cap on Natalie to block any rogue splashes from getting into her ears. 

Todd and Aunt Betty held her above water, and they had her floating on a noodle, which also helped.

Grant couldn't go in the pool because he still wears diapers, but he had fun hanging out with mommy anyway.  We played with some of his toys and watched Natalie swim.

Natalie is a little fish. She just loves being in a pool, and cries when she has to get out. But have no fear! Aunt Betty always has fun things to do at her house. When we got back, Aunt Betty and Natalie played in the basement, drawing with sidewalk chalk on the concrete floor, banging on drums, bouncing balls, and doing puzzles.  Aunt Betty also always showers Natalie with such fun gifts.  Natalie LOVES the books that Aunt Betty gives her -- we got 4, count 'em FOUR books!!!  Meanwhile, Grant got the OK from Dr. Meisheid to go in the Jumperoo and the exersaucer.  Here is the little man in the Jumperoo.

He wasn't all that enthused... but he didn't hate it.  He stayed in there for probably 20 minutes.  He couldn't quite get the idea of jumping, even though it came with a "reward."  The jumperoo plays a song and lights up when you bounce.  But he didn't seem to care about that.  Oh well, maybe in a few more weeks!

Potty Trained!

Well, it's official.  Natalie is potty trained!  This has been a major work in progress.  We started potty training right around her second birthday.  (For those who are counting, yes, it has been a 9 month process!)  We started by introducing her to the potty, having her sit on it, play with it, etc.  Then we moved to pullups, where we majorly stalled for many months.  Pullups for her, were kind of a crutch.  If we mentioned going to the potty we got one of two reactions.  Either she would agree and go happily with you where she would do her pee pee in the potty without incident, or we would get a screaming fit.  Mostly it was the latter.  Grrr.  In November, we picked a weekend where we tried to do big girl underwear ONLY.  We had a 100% failure rate.  What was frustrating was that she knew the feeling, but she would ignore it until she was all wet.  We knew she didn't like the feeling of being wet in her big girl underwear, but it didn't seem to make a big enough impact for her to correct the behavior.

For whatever reason, last weekend, she decided she wanted to be a "big girl" and start doing more pee pee in the potty.  I don't know if she finally feels settled (new house, new baby brother in the last few months), or if she feels challenged that her BFF Gaby is in big girl underwear and using the potty.  Whatever the reason was, we jumped at the opportunity.  She had one accident Sunday afternoon (while watching Dora... I think she wasn't paying attention).  She went Monday and Tuesday at daycare without any accidents.  Wednesday, because Daddy had a 2 hour doctor's appointment, I picked the kids up from daycare and took them to Friendly's for dinner. I asked Natalie no fewer than 4 times if she had to go potty, but she said no each time.  As we were packing up to go home, I noticed she was walking funny -- a sure sign she had an accident.  I changed her pants in the parking lot (LOL!!!) and she hasn't had another accident SINCE!  I'm so proud of her!   We even went out Saturday for about 2.5 hours.  We went to Wellesley College to walk around the campus and then into Wellesley Square for lunch.  She waited until we go to the restaurant and went potty there.  She didn't have any accidents.  We are so happy!!!!  I can't believe my baby girl is becoming such a BIG GIRL!!!!!

Next up this weekend... sleeping in a big girl bed!

My little leprechauns

Natalie decided she wanted to wear shamrock stickers on her face yesterday.  And Grant is, once again, looking like a deer in the headlights.  As my mother-in-law pointed out... it kind of looks like they're up to no good!  ("What?  Who me? I didn't do it!")  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My mom wanted me to point out that Grant is giving everyone the bird in the picture below.  HA HA HA!