Another ear infection...

Tommy's first visit with Santa. 11-25-07, 11 months old!

So Tommy went to the pediatrician again today....two weeks ago he was diagnosed with his first ear infection, both ears were infected! No fever no nothing!

Today is day 6 since finishing his amoxicillan and he has had the snotty nose for 3 days, started puking from the mucus yesterday and now today has puked 5 times and it's just after lunch. THANK GOD he has kept his new medicine down. He's either got a new ear infection or the old one didn't go away all the way?? Now he's on augmentin to try and beat this infection to the curb.

We are so blessed, even sick, he's one happy baby. While sick he just needs more interaction time---has no desire to play alone.


Tommy 11 months old
Playing with his homemade drum and his big bro!

Early Intervention has come out and are happy to see him where he's at, at his adjusted age skill level. They will be thrilled to know he is now making the "ba" sound....before this it was just vowel sounds and I guess for this age they wanted to hear other sounds too.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with some friends. Every year I think the turkey and fixin's turn out better, I'm just slightly biased but would be the first to say if it turned out bad.... Made my Grandma P's Butternut Squash Pies....and KIMBERLYN ATE IT!! She loved it and it warmed my heart to have her eating a family tradition!

After dinner, Larry convinced Kaitlyn he could open his Christmas gift early. Ha accidentally found the tracking number link when typing in the store's web address. You know how the browser tries to help you with the drop down of choices, yep...it sure helped Larry know his Robot was DELIVERED! It was fun, and I'll let it be his birthday gift as he must have presents under the tree for Christmas :)




Friday after I was feeling REAL sick and not sleeping well due to a bad cough...so I skipped Midnight Madness shopping at the Outlet Mall...instead went and got a few bargains at the mall before heading to Cincinnati to meet up with Rudy and Erin. We had a fabulous time. We went to the OVERLY crowded Newport Aquarium in Kentucky and then ate at this German place for dinner. At the Aquarium we got to see this Scuba Santa show...kind of cool.
After dinner we went to Downtown Cincinnati to ice skate....it was CHILLY!! We ended up being in JUST the right spot at the very right time. While waiting for the ice skating show to end for the tree lighting before the open skate we saw SANTA and his REINDEER! They flew in to help light the tree. They had a live cam on his sleigh and then we were right near the spot where he landed! He then walked up right by us on his way to "light" the tree! Larry got some shots to include his paparazzi shot of Santa :) We missed the ice skating fearing we'd get home too late and worried about being out in the cold too long. Afterwards we saw horse drawn carriage rides....Kaitlyn had been so anxious to go on one, so we splurged. We got a nice Downtown tour and dropped off right at our van!

Robby, Kaitlyn and Tommy pose with Scuba Santa at the Aquarium.







Kaitlyn's in heaven...she was so happy to be on the carriage ride!


On Saturday Cray, our crayfish molted and WE SAW IT HAPPEN! Way cool, we didn't get the video camera in time and got the camera a bit too late. We do have pics of his shell and him with his floppy body in the background. Today he's feeling feisty and has been going after Baby Cray---our other "baby" crayfish the kids caught JUST before we moved from Oklahoma. They brought Cray home over a year ago....then just before moving they hit the jackpot of crayfish and brought home like 10-15 baby crayfish....Baby Cray was the only to survive....well four of the minnows survived as well and are thriving!





Kimberlyn's first time to enjoy snow (Nov 23), although a small amount, she's never been fond of it in the past. She's gonna have a blast when the real snow comes!



Cute picture from Kimberlyn's Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast at school.

Bye, bye baby!

Today has been a big day! First Tommy was caught standing in his crib when Kaitlyn went to get him this morning!! His crib is now on the lowest setting as of lunchtime today...



Then as the day progressed it became very clear that he was done sitting around and would instead pull-up on anything and everything.
We went to dinner at our favorite Mexican joint (here anyhow---definitely NOT our old Pick Up Taco) and he devoured some refried beans....basically all he'll eat unless it's in a jar or a cracker...
We get home and I feed him his bottle, and then we played on the floor for a bit off and on. That turkey pulled up on the xylophone in my lap, I lifted it so he could use it to balance. HE LET GO and stood for about 5-10 seconds!! Then crawled over to my scrapbooking table and pulled up AND CRUISED 3 steps. Seriously, what happened...our baby ran away last night I think! It's so fun, but so sad to realize our last baby is saying bye-bye to babyhood....







Lastly, tonight while playing the xylophone Tommy CLAPPED!!! We always clap to give him the reassurance needed when he falls or something....and when he does something cool. So he clapped back at us tonight!!

C-R-A-W-L-I-N-G

This is serious now, I know I told you he was mobile and crawling, well now he's really crawling. Still the army low crawl, BUT very efficient! I put him by his toys in th eliving room while I showered. Came back to him on my utterly nasty floors way over due for a cleaning! THEN he proceeded to the kitchen while I made Kimberlyn's lunch! Crazy BOY!

Robby is home today with a sore throat and fever...hoping it is hsort term sickness. Tommy is going in for a check up due to having the cough and snots so long. Last night was his first night w/out puking due to congestion...just a fluke though. He's still very congested!

I'll be back later....

10 1/2 months old...getting scary!!! Too close to ONE!

So here we have another post. Some days I feel I have no clue what to say until I start labeling the pictures....in no particular order.....


First, we'll start off with Miss Kaitlyn! Here are a couple pictures of her with Lacy "her" horse for riding lessons. We (I) were/was very blessed to carpool with another mom last month to the pumpkin patch for Kimberlyn's class field trip. Something came up about her daughter riding and I said "horses??" She said yes! So, these are some pictures from her second lesson, silly Mom forgot to bring the camera to her first lesson. Kaitlyn loves Miss DeeDee and Robby hit it off with her son. Kimberlyn played shy to her daughters (she has 5- one of which is 5 days older than Tommy), but certainly was in hog heaven with the kittens! DeeDee is amazing, she must be the best riding instructor a girl could have! We are so blessed to have found her!


Before leaving to the lesson (a 45-50 minute drive) I was frantically looking for my cell phone, I was starting to feel sick! I may misplace something, but with in an hour, or a few hours I recall where I left it. WELL....I asked Miss Stinker -AKA Kimberlyn- if she saw my phone, if she played with it, if she touched it....no, no and no she told me. Larry forgot his cell phone at home, so I took his just in case. He got home and called his number looking for his phone and got ME! I explained how concerned I was. I finally quit worrying and thought we'll cancel it and i can buy a more simple phone (not a fan of mine). It was still on vibrate from church the day before. Larry kept calling it and hearing the vibrations ALL through the house- in the basement, in the hall, by the computer, upstairs ---he felt like a crazy man...I think he figured out he spent 30-45 minutes searching for my phone...

THIS is where he found it. SLIPPED into this cassette tape slipcover, UNDER Kimberlyn's dollhouse IN her bedroom UPSTAIRS! After getting the news, I question Kimberlyn again. Still no, no and no to all my questions. FINALLY she says "Mom I wasn't playing with it" Mom says did you touch it? she says "I didn't touch it, it was on the floor"....we had a NICE LONG talk about telling the truth and NOT LYING! She is one piece of work....and we love her to pieces!


Here are some pictures from our overnight trip to Indianapolis....we went to the Children's Museum. WOW!! We had a blast! We got in just after dinner, checked in, changed and hit the water park! Yes, WATER PARK-- INDOORS too! It was a huge Holiday Inn with an attached water park. Man...was great! Kimberlyn was sick, but still managed to have a good time. The kids had looked forward to this trip, neither of us had the heart to cancel! Robby and Dad were die-hard and stayed until 10pm-- Mom, Tommy and the girls pooped out just before 9pm!
Daddy doing the traditional "dunking" for the first time with Tommy...my poor baby!
Tommy LOVED lying back and he practically floated alone! He just loved this. OH, I should add this is the hot spa...the pool was chilly and Mom's a wimp!
Dad playing paparazzi snapping pictures instead of grabbing Tommy to help me...
Robby having fun in the water fall in the hot spa...
Kaitlyn giving it a try too!
Mom and kids...
Tommy just got blasted in the kiddie area...it was a neat water park!

The next day we met my friend Katie (with her mom nad son) at the museum....and the kids were amused every minute. We left at 4:45 just 15 minutes before it closed AND we about had to drag the kids OUT! We knew we needed to find dinner FAST before the kids crashed. After a late night before and a long playing day...they were beat.

We used "Betty Lou" (our GPS) to help us find dinner. We chose Steak n' Shake since it was just 3.1 miles away! That darn GPS took us deeper and deeper into downtown Indy...I finally said, she's lost and BOOM right on a corner was Steak n' Shake. Larry's not the downtown type so I said keep going we'll find somewhere else, at the same time he said "look for parking signs".... WOOHOO, we parked, felt lost but came above and right out the doors of the parking garage with Steak n' Shake in plain sight! It was great! Eating dinner and watching the horses go by pulling carriages....ah, I miss NYC!

We also used "Betty Lou" to take us to a church across twon from our house...it should have been a 25 minute drive....BUT "she" took us about 5 1/2 miles the wrong way on the street. We had to call the church and ended up being about 25 minutes LATE to see my cousin Trevor's show. Late is better than never....it was fun and we all enjoyed the show. Afterwards we went to Perkins to get a bite to eat and visit.

http://www.trevorthomasdramaministries.com/start.htm

Lastly-- here's a picture of Robby, Kaitlyn, Kimberlyn and Tommy's cousin holding their newest cousin! Brice is finally a BIG BROTHER!

Patrick William was born on Nov 7th. My brother and his wife adopted him and welcomed him home right from the hospital just 2 days later! What a blessing! So far they say he's a good baby and barely ever cries! He's just waiting to let them get settled in I bet!