Happy New Year's Eve

We just had a nice visit from Bob's parents. They drove down and visited Thursday through Sunday. We got to have a 2nd Christmas when they came since they brought all the presents from Bob's side of the family. There was no napping for Glenn after openning all those presents. The funniest present he got was Tickle Me Elmo. Glenn was terrified of Elmo at first. He still will tickle him and then run away while Elmo is laughing. I'll have to try to get that on video.

Bob got a fishing pole and Bob's Dad was the first to catch a fish in the pond in our back yard, a very big fish. Then Bob caught one, too. The first was so tiny, I think it was smaller than the hook. But the 2nd was as big as the one his dad caught.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

We had a wonderful Christmas. I'll back up a day to yesterday. We got all dressed up for Christmas Eve, went out to dinner and then to church. Here are the pictures just before we left for dinner:



This morning, Glenn woke up at 6:30. So, we all decided to get up. Of course I had to eat something before opening presents, so that was difficult for Glenn to wait. But once we started opening presents, he had so much fun. We filled his stocking with matchbox trucks. He loves them. And he had fun opening our presents for us, too.

We had a delicious ham dinner and then all took a nap. I made a pecan pie when I woke up and just now ate way too big of of a piece. Yum! Here are some pictures of Glenn opening and playing with his presents.

Our Secret

It's time to divulge our secret. Some of our family already know our secret. We are expecting a baby. I am 11 and a half weeks along and my due date is July 7. We're so excited. I had an ultrasound this morning and the baby is measuring right on target. It was swimming around and waving to me. We'll get to find out the sex of the baby in February, which we'll share. But as we did with Glenn, we won't be sharing possible names because we don't want any outside influence on our decision, plus we tend to change our minds. For a long time during my pregnancy with Glenn, he was going to be named Garret Glenn, but as we got closer, we weren't so sure. We switched the names when he was born.

I'm doing well. I have the usual fatigue and nausea that many women get. I'm hoping that will subside soon as I'm getting close to the 2nd trimester. Because of my medical history with the kidney disease and anemia, I'm considered high risk. So, I have double the doctor's appts to go to since I see a high risk specialist along with my regular OB. Lucky me. When I'm 32 weeks, I'll be going weekly to see the perinatologist (the high risk specialist). Plus they are monitoring me closely with lab tests. My kidneys are actually working better now that I'm pregnant, so everything is going well.

Glenn thinks there is a baby in his tummy, too. He lifts his shirt and says "baby." He thinks Mommy is silly for saying there is a baby in her tummy, but he kisses my tummy anyway and tells the baby goodnight. He was with me at my regular OB appt and heard the heartbeat. He thought that was a pretty cool sound even though he didn't know what it was. At first when we asked him if he wanted a baby brother or sister, he said no, but now he's decided he wants one. I'm just afraid he's going to love the baby too much; we'll have to keep a close eye on him.

I almost forgot, the craziest part of all this is that I had an ultrasound at my first appt, but it was done by a nurse on a really old ultrasound machine (not by a tech). She thought there might be twins. We had to wait 2 and a half weeks to find out if that was true. (avert your eyes if you don't want to hear too much information) It was just a little bleed behind the placenta, which has since been reabsorbed. We were pretty relieved to hear it was just one baby. I was freaking out a bit thinking of taking care of not only twins, but having Glenn to take care of at the same time.

So, we're very excited and can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl. I keep thinking of it as a boy, maybe because we have Glenn. I would be thrilled with either.

The Hog Came Back

We've had trouble with a wild hog tearing up our lawn. Our neighbor's back yard is completely torn up, but only a small section of our is torn up. Well, the hog came back last night and extended our neighbor's torn up lawn up to our property line and made our torn up section larger. When Bob told me, I said it's definitely time to get the fence. I think we'll wait until we get the fence before we put in sod because just when we think the hog is gone he comes back and does more damage. I feel horrible for our neighbors. Their yard is just a huge mess.

With less than a week until Christmas, I decided it's time to make Christmas cookies. Today Glenn and I are making gingerbread men. Of course I forgot the cookie cutters, so I have to get them while Glenn's taking a nap. That's what's nice about Bob working at home; I can run errands while Glenn's napping. We already made the dough but I don't know if it's going to work. I asked the guy at the store where the molassas was and he handed me what I thought was molassas. Turns out it was dark corn syrup, and I didn't realize it until I already put it in the bowl. So, we'll seel.

I know, I'm behind again. I developed a pretty bad cold, but I'm doing better now.

Glenn had his last evaluation for the school system. The psychologist evaluating him said that he was in the average zone on everything, but low on communication, which makes sense since he has problems with his speech. So, our next appt with the school system will be to go over what he's eligible for once he turns 3.

Glenn is enjoying the Christmas decorations. He constantly redecorates the lower portion of the Christmas tree. He even finds a few things around the house that he has added to the tree (including London's toy, which London didn't appreciate). He found a muse's harp ornament and pretended to play it and sang a song he heard on Dora. We were looking at the Christmas village yesterday and he counted them by himself. It was the first time we've heard him count to 5, and it was very clear. We were very proud of him.

We're going through a cold snap; it's been in the 50's, but it's supposed to warm up the rest of this week. Try to stay warm, I know everyone has been having some really bad weather.

Since my last post, Bob got the same stomach virus as Glenn had, only worse. He was so sick he lost 8 lbs in 2 days. So I'm working on fatting him up. :) He got sick Friday night and finally felt himself on Wednesday.

On Saturday, my parents came for a visit through Tuesday. We had a nice visit. My mom couldn't bare the thought of Glenn opening his presents without seeing his reaction. I think he got a present almost every day. He really enjoyed seeing them, too.

Glenn finally started his early intervention therapy here. He really should have been able to start in September since he was already getting services in CT. So, that's been a bit frustrating, especially since he'll be 3 in less than 2 months and he'll switch to the school system. Better late than never I guess.

Tonight we went for a walk after dinner to show Glenn the Christmas lights on people's houses and lawns. He enjoyed it. And it was a balmy 60 degrees, perfect for an evening walk (just rubbing it in for all those in the deep freeze). ;)

Our Trip to Disney World

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at our house. I made a full meal and Glenn even liked it (yes, he can be a bit picky about what he eats). It was a balmy 75 degrees.

Friday, we got ready to go to Disney (stayed through Tuesday). About an hour before we left, I was chasing after Glenn and stubbed my toe. We didn't realize it at the time, but I broke it (the toe next to the big toe). We had dinner at Downtown Disney and when we got back to our room, my toe was purple where I broke it. So, we buddy taped it to the toe next to it and rented a wheelchair while at the parks. Glenn sat in my lap, which was kind of fun. Glenn loved the Goofy Barnstormer roller coaster. He would giggle while waiting in line just watching it go by. He and Bob went on it 4 times. He absolutely loved the trains at both the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. He was pretending to pull the wistle as he said "woo, woo!" (that's a train sound for those of you who didn't get it.) We went to the Rainforest Cafe, and they sat us right in front of a gorilla. When the animals were active, Glenn freaked out. He even put his hands on his cheeks "Home Alone" style. He was so cute, but we felt so bad for him. But we made it up to him the next night by going to the Spectromagic parade. He waved uncontrollably at the characters, was pointing at them and when one float was by, he would crane his neck looking for the next float. He was so adorable. Then he got sick. He was sick Monday night and Tuesday. But thankfully he's back to himself today. We were so happy to get home, especially with Glenn not feeling well. We really missed our comfortable bed.

Enjoy the slide show of our trip:

Here are two more videos (well, they are really the same video, but I had to split it up for the hosting site). And yes, Bob is in his pajama pants (his official uniform for working at home). Happy Thanksgiving!

Hunting for Lizards Part 1


Hunting for Lizards Part 2

More Videos

Here are the videos I promised:

Dancing Boy


Message to Papa (half way through, I turned the view finder on the camera around so he could see himself- when he points to his nose)

New Videos

After much demand, I've put some videos together and will hopefully edit more this weekend. Enjoy!

Glenn makes animal noises


Painting

I'm sorry I'm a little behind on the blog. We've been busy. We went to Washington DC Sunday through Tuesday. I had a presentation to make at a conference. It went well, although it started a bit bumpy. They told me to click on my name to bring up my presentation (I was the first one in the session). I did so, and it brought up the presentations for the next day instead. So, we had to wait for someone to fix it. But then it went fine. I'm happy to have it done with. And on my way to my presentation, I saw Michelle, Bob's cousin's wife. She was also attending the conference. That was a nice surprise (hi Michelle). Bob and Glenn came with me to WDC. We did A LOT of walking doing the tourist thing. We went to 2 Smithsonian museums (Air & Space, and Natural History), walked the Washington Mall, went to the Washington Monument and to the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn was a great little tourist in his stroller. Oh, we also walked by the White House. I had never been to WDC, and Bob hadn't gone since he was a teenager. We had a great time.

Glenn had an eye exam yesterday, and passed with flying colors. He needs an annual exam because of his NF1. He does have some Lisch nodules on one eye (just little markers in the iris that indicates that he does in fact have NF1, but doesn't affect his vision). He'll probably have them in the other eye next year. Yesterday was also Bob's birthday. He said it was good one, despite having to work. He appreciated all the phone calls from his family (thanks!). We also heard what sounded like an explosion yesterday afternoon. The house really shook. Bob went outside to see if anything was on fire. Later we went for a walk, and our neighbor said it was a sonic boom from the space shuttle, Discovery, coming back to Earth. It landed at Cape Canavral just minutes later.

That brings us to this morning. I was debating on if I should admit what happend this morning, but it's so crazy I have to share, even if it makes me look like a bad mom. Glenn got up at 6:30 this morning, and Bob and I were just not ready to be up for the day. So, Bob got Glenn some milk and dry cereal and turned on the tv, which is right outside our bedroom door. Well, it was very quiet, so Bob got up to check on Glenn, and the master of disaster struck! Glenn was in the bathroom trying to wash his hands and brush his teeth because there was poop on his hands and he had apparently tried eating it. Yes, that's horrible, but it doesn't end there! As Bob looked closer he had poop everywhere: up his back because of digging it out of his diaper, in his toes (because why not see what if feels like between toes), and all over his clothes. So, Bob brushed Glenn's teeth, cleaned his face, and gave him a bath. I came out to see why Bob wasn't responding to me as to if Glenn was okay, and discovered that the poop was not just on Glenn, but he had used the poop as a crayon and "colored" the carpet. As I was trying to clean that up, I discovered he "colored" some of his toys, as well as the TV. It was a horrible thing to get up to. I'm still trying to get it out of the carpet; he really smooshed it in. You can stop laughing now!

Halloween

Glenn had a great time trick-or-treating. We just went down to the next road and back, but he got quite a bit of candy. Plus, he was walking, so he was getting a little worn out. One house had a lady dressed as a witch; she quickly gave me his candy and told us to go so he wouldn't get scared. He practically ran back down the driveway, poor kid. Otherwise he did very well. We had more kids come than all the past 6 years combined at our various houses. But we didn't run out of candy because my cheap husband only gave one piece of candy to each kid. :) Here's Glenn all dressed up last night with Daisy and London wearing their costumes (I think this was the last year of super dog- the costume finally met it's demise).



While we were out trick-or-treating, we saw a mom that I had met earlier in the week. She told us about a play date for 2 year olds. So, we went to that this morning, just down the street from us. Glenn had a blast, and it was nice for me to get to know some moms in the neighborhood. The house that it was at has two boys, ages 2 and 5, and the mom asked that we stop by on our way to the playground to see if the boys can play. So, Glenn will have some playmates at the playground.

Swiper, no swiping!

Glenn has been trying to say "Swiper, no swiping" which is from Dora the Explorer. Anyone who has watched that show knows what comes next and Glenn figured it out yesterday. He had his hand up and was trying to say "Swiper, no swiping!" and then he said, "Awe, Man!" It was so cute. Now he goes around just saying "Awe, man" over and over again. Adorable except when he starts doing it at church. :)

We went around our community tag sale yesterday. We could have spent the whole day tag-saling because there were so many people doing it. But we stopped when we couldn't fit anything else in the car! Literally! We got Glenn a basketball hoop that goes taller as he grows. And we got him the cutest little bike with training wheels. He could actually use it now, but his legs aren't quite strong enough (plus he still doesn't get the concept of steering, but we're working on that). And we got a dog crate (the one we were using for Daisy was really too small for her). We also went to the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville. It was pathetic and a waste of time. The part we wanted to see most was turned into a haunted house and so we couldn't even go in it (Glenn's a little young for a haunted house). Now we know not to take anyone there.

Dr. Glenn

We had our Halloween party at the soccer fields last night. It was fun. We had a great dinner, Glenn got a tattoo (he's been scraping it off ever since), we went on a hay ride drawn by mules (he loved the mules) and sat around a bon fire. Glenn was a little nervous at first seeing everyone in costume, but then he really enjoyed it. He even flirted with a 1 year old princess on the hay ride, although she was more interested in Bob, tugging on his sleeve. Here's a picture of him in his costume. It must have been one of our nephew's costumes. He actually left the cap on all night. I think he's really going to enjoy trick-or-treating this year.

We had a pretty low key day today. We finally got the office cleaned up and put some shelves up in the office and playroom. While we were unpacking some boxes, we found a Halloween costume for Glenn (you'll have to wait and see the pictures). We had bought him a dog costume, but he really hated it. He freaked out when I put it on him, and would never let me try again. So, we thought we'd try and have some fun with it. I dressed up our dogs in it. The dogs are dressed up as dogs. :) They weren't too pleased, although Daisy is always more tolerant than London when it comes to wearing clothes. Glenn loved it.

And what's really exciting (at least to me) is that we now have both cars in the garage. When unloading our storage containers, most of the stuff we didn't need right away ended up in the garage, and it was packed. I had cleaned up the garage as much as I was going to do, and made it so that one car would fit in the garage. But last night Bob worked on it a bit. It's not a very wide garage, and since both sides are lined with what wouldn't fit in the house, it's a little tight getting into our cars. But at least they're both in there now.

London


Daisy (Glenn's just playing with the tail)

The Beach

Yesterday Glenn had his evaluation by the speech therapist for when he turns 3 to see if he's eligible to go to special ed preschool. He only said 3 words the entire time. So, she's getting a tool that is by parent report and see if her supervisor will use that, otherwise we have to go back and try again. She suggested we do some more sign language. We haven't added any new signs in a long time, so I think we'll do that because he learns the words of what he's signing quicker than words he doesn't sign.

We went to New Smyrna Beach, FL today to visit with my cousin, Susan, and her husband, Jeff. We had a great time. It wasn't really beach weather, but we went to the beach when it stopped raining. Bob got to drive on the beach, which he thought was fun, but would have enjoyed it more if it were sunny out. We didn't put Glenn's swimsuit on since we weren't planning on swimming. Glenn had other ideas. Eventually his shorts were too heavy with water and we had to take them off. The movie is post short removal. He loved it. He's definitely a beach boy.

Pictures from our day

Here are some pictures from our day. Enjoy!

Can you guess which one is not a stuffed animal?


Blowing Bubbles


Using a drumstick as a walking stick


Playing the piano to the music (don't tell him it's not plugged in)

I wish we had more tapes for our video camera. Glenn and I were in the playroom listening to music and playing. A slower sweet song came on and he started to pretend to play a piano while moving his head back and forth. He looked so sweet. I called Bob in and he did it again for Bob.

He's been having a lot of fun with the kids at the playground. He always finds a friend to play with. They follow each other around. And he likes to show them his puppies. One even gave the dogs kisses. The house directly across the street from us has 3 boys, the youngest is 2 and a half, just 2 months younger than Glenn. So, hopefully they'll get to know each other. It'd be great if the were friends since they live so close.

Nothing new going on this week. Glenn and I have been staying close to home this week, which is nice. We've been able to stick to our morning routine of eating breakfast, going for a walk (and to the playgrounds), and coming back for snack and craft time. Glenn always takes a nap right after lunch, but decided it wasn't in the cards yesterday. So, I sat on his bed and read while he played quietly (mostly quietly)in his room. He played for over 2 hours. It was actually quite relaxing. But he's already tired today, so I'm sure he'll nap well. That helps me out if he naps because I can get more cleaning done than when he's awake.

Glenn got to play with his new babysitter yesterday. Bob, Glenn, the dogs, and I went for a walk when Bob was done working yesterday and went to the playground. There are always kids at the playgrounds by the soccer fields after school because of soccer practice and games going on. Our neighbors a couple doors down have 2 girls and the older one is going to be Glenn's babysitter (when we need one). They happened to be there too and played with Glenn for a while. He took to them really well and had a lot of fun. They were very good with him, which was good to see. They're also going to be our dog sitters.

The Zoo

Today we went to the Jacksonville Zoo. It was a nice zoo and reminded me a lot of Animal Kingdom at Disney. Glenn liked the rhinos and antelopes. He fell asleep near the end and slept all the way home (it's about 45 minutes away from our house). Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera. There's always next time. When we got home, of course Glenn was done napping. So, we went to the pool. Glenn's always entertaining when in the water. He also likes to throw water on his parents (good thing his hands don't hold a lot of water). He also carries water from one pool to the next (again, not carrying much water). He's very serious about it.

Since I didn't take any pictures at the zoo, I've attached a picture of Glenn playing out in the lanai with his bat and ball.

Intro to the Blog

This blog is set up so our friends and family can keep track of what's going on in our lives. I'll try to keep it updated and add pictures and maybe video often.

Glenn and I have been busy going to appointments. Last week, we met his pediatrician and had his transition meeting from early steps (like Birth to Three) to the school system. He'll go to special ed preschool when he's 3 (as long as he qualifies). We're waiting on hearing from the school system when they want to test him. We're also waiting on Early Steps on who will provide his developmental services until he turns 3. I've met my primary doctor and hematologist. And Glenn had an EEG today, which the pediatric neurology office required before they would see him. He did really well. He fell asleep just a few minutes after the tech attached all the electrodes.

Here's a slideshow of our house pictures. I got rid of spiderman, so now you can see the pictures more clearly and names of the rooms: