Merry Christmas!

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! We trust everyone is having a fantastical day opening gifts and generally being merry. We attended the children's program at church last night, which Quinny thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun to see all the little kids performing. We could envision Quinny and Gavin up there causing all kinds of trouble while teachers were trying their best to corral them. Maybe next year.

After church we headed home for some gift opening and dining. We had a spread of shrimp, a nice plate of delicious Wisco cheese, various dips and an assortment of candies and cookies. We were still munching at midnight. The boys opened some gifts and the fam was given Rose Bowl T-shirts. Not every team can play in the Prestigious Insight Bowl. Check out our championship pic posted.

This morning we're heading out to the Reiter's to continue our 12 days of Christmas literally.  The boys have opened gifts now for four different days and we woke up saying Merry Christmas! again because there will be more celebrating tonight.  Here are a few pics of the last few days.

'Twas the Night before Christmas....

Santa's little helper

It's Christmas Eve and we have officially arrived in the cold north leaving 78 degree Florida yesterday and landing in 28 degree Wisconsin. Ironically my sister and her family arrived in sunny Florida to spend Christmas at Disney World. She was raving about the weather once she arrived. It's been a really warm winter for everyone this year. People were talking about how great the 28 degrees has been. "It's not even cold!" It's too bad we won't have a white Christmas to enjoy but it will be nice to see all our friends and family.

Leaf blower goggles

After getting picked up at the airport we hit the road to drive to Lake Geneva and it started snowing. Not enough to accumulate but it was nice to see. The boys were good on the plane considering we're traveling over the holidays with a 1 and 3 year old.  How many people are doing that this year? The first leg went really well and we had good seats on a big plane. We had a short layover in Cincinnati before boarding a tiny little tin can to Milwaukee. These small planes are a killer.  There are only 2 seats to a row so we're separated and both boys and Carrie need to be in the same row because the plane only has 2 seats with more than 2 masks that drop down if the cabin were to depressurize.  Strangely there were few people traveling. We didn't wait in line at all; not to check in, not at security and the airport was no more crowded than usual. Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty were at our gate wishing us a Merry Christmas and handing out candy canes to send us off.

We celebrated our family Christmas before leaving and Quentin was so excited we got zero sleep. He had a tough time going to sleep. The 7 cookies before bed may have contributed. I will take full credit for that one. "Come on Care it's Christmas! I paid the price being on Quinny duty all night. He was up at 10:30, 12:00, 4, and at 4:30 I threw in the towel and he climbed into bed with us. Gavin was already in there so it was a 4:30 am family Christmas in bed. Not sure what we would do if we had 3 or 4 kids. Do they make bigger beds than a king? At 6, giving up on sleeping, we headed out to the tree to see if Santa was able to sneak in the house for the 20 minutes the whole family was sleeping. Q couldn't understand why he couldn't see Santa. I think he wanted to wait for him, which is why he didn't get much sleep. Jimmy the Elf took off with Santa and is back at the North Pole until next year.  We'll all miss Jimmy.  He was such a nice addition to the family.  The last night he was hanging upside down from the fan so he pulled out all the stops for his last 48 hours with the Spiegelhoff's.

Quinny enjoyed opening as many presents as possible more so than what was inside. He tore through all of his, most of Gavin's, most of mine and wanted "More! More! More!" all day long. It was nice but a little strange being in shorts, no fire place and no other family to share the day with. Quinny and Gavin got a new sandbox to play with, a school bus and Q received a leaf blower which he loves and won't put down. They had a nice little haul and we had an enjoyable family day eating and playing all day.  We're looking forward to spending the next few days celebrating the holidays with our extended family.  Merry Christmas!

I'm growing up

I'm not sure if Quinny is hanging out with some older boys or what but he's really tearing through the potty mouth vocabulary. Let's put this in perspective. The word fart is funny until you're what? (male perspective here) 23 years old? Does he really need to start throwing it around six seconds after turning 3? I'm positive he'll get tons and tons of mileage out of it through the years.  I was thinking that sort of thing wasn't funny until they were 7.  It's not a word we use in the house so he has to be picking it up from school.  We prefer fluff or toot. Much tamer wouldn't you agree?  Maybe he gets beat up at school for saying he just fluffed a little.  Ha! 

He told me he was going to kill me the other day.  Um, no sweet, sweet boy of mine.  You're going to need me around for a little why to keep buying you fruit snacks.  We have no idea where he got that.  Is he growing up or is it the rough and tough landscape of the urban city environment he's now part of?  What's next?  I'm going to pick up him from school and he'll let me know he joined the Hell's Angels?  Isn't that an oxymoron anyway?

It's been unseasonably warm here like in the 80s and I think normally this time of year it should be in the frigid 60s.  We hear there is no snow on the ground up north and wonder if we'll have a dead grass Christmas instead of a white one.  You know we could host Christmas if you wanted the kind where you put your toes in the sand and say nasty things about the poor people up north having to warm up their cars just to drive them.  Anyone game?  The weather has been great and I think I'm going to play golf tomorrow.  I look forward to shooting in the 120s and losing as many balls that want to get away.  Jimmy the elf told me it would be cool if I took a little time to hack away.  Golf in December.  Sounds great.

Jimmy has been using his mighty elf magic flying back and forth to the north pole each night landing in various spots like the plant on top of the kitchen cabinets (AKA the jungle), on top of every picture frame we own, in the blinds, the doorbell, alarm system, Christmas tree and so on.  Poor Jimmy is running out of places to perch. One day he found himself inside the aquarium.  Turns out Jimmy can hold his breath for a really long time!  Christmas will be coming early down here.  Santa is set to arrive on Thursday morning.  Wednesday night we'll lay out the cookies and milk to help entice him down from the North Pole a little early.  I'm sure he would like a reprieve from all that cold.  We hit the road on Friday to head up north so the boys will get 3 Christmases. Living far away has its perks too.

We're loving the Christmas cards.  It's great to see the pictures and hear how everyone is doing.  Keep them coming.  Ours went out with a website stamped on the back that reads www.babyannouncements.com.  We just wanted to clear up any confusion.  As far as I know we're still having twins.  No, no we're not.  We're looking for a 2012 filled with nights of long uninterrupted blissful dream filled hours so no announcements happening here. 

Tis the Season....

Everyone slept last night - hurray!  I literally went to bed before Quinny did around 7:30 pm and slept the whole night.  Quinny and Gavin did too.  You should see how joyful our household is this morning.  Everyone is rested, happy and enjoying each other's company.  Who knew what a little sleep could do for a family?

Carrie and I took the day off and did some Christmas shopping yesterday.  There are multiple malls down here so we went our separate ways and ended up at different ones.  Just to give you an idea of the differences between the mall down here and the mall in Cedar Rapids I parked in the normal jammed mall lot next to a black Ferrari 458 spider.  As in this guy isn't concerned about door dings.  (I drive the same car I bought when I graduated college - black beauty-it's not a Ferrari).  On the way out I can see through the glass doors of the department store and I believe I see a Lamborghini parked outside.  Yup, there it was.  Also a convertible just parked right outside the front door.  If you care you can view it here.  It's the white convertible in the corner.  The point is I need to make more friends.  Oh and there are a lot less pick up trucks in the mall parking lot in comparison to Cedar Rapids.  And there is a Gap.  A Gap!

It's fun, actually fun shopping for your kids.  I used to just dread going to the mall.  I hated it.  I think for the past decade I've done 95% of all my shopping online, but now that I have a three-year old, a kid that loves opening up gifts, hangs with Jimmy the she-elf (more on that in a minute) and let's us know what he told Santa he wants for Christmas a few times a day makes this whole shopping, pushing people out of your way to get the last spider man toy while waiting in line for 45 minutes to pay for something that's ridiculously overpriced it may give the average human a coronary is fun.  Legitimate enjoyment!  We get to play with all the toys to try them out and we know how much he will love X when we stumble upon it.  This regular Scrooge might have turned the corner.  I might be a Rudolph this year.  I'm sure it helps it's 78 degrees outside and I'm trying to get to my car to blast the A/C to cool off instead of scraping the snow off.

Quinny definitely thinks Jimmy is a she.  I'm sure our little elf has no issues being a semi-transsexual at which point Carrie chimed in that they sell skirts and we could get him one.  Now, I'm just looking out for Jimmy but if I was an elf, one that can't talk to us mind you, hearing all this and only being able to talk to Santa at night I would be freaking out.  So, being the only adult male I'm just trying to do Jimmy right and vetoed the skirt idea.  Don't forget the golf clubs this year Jimmy when you talk to Santa tonight - wink, wink.

Here is a link to our family photographer's blog that took hosted a holiday party and tooks some pics of the boys.  Click this link to get there.

PS  I did get a permanent link posted in the upper left corner to Mindy and Cory's blog so you can come here to link to theirs if you wish.  They have a tough holiday season coming up so I know they will appreciate your well wishes.

Jimmy the Elf

Some of you may be familiar with Jimmy the Greek the gambling guru but the Spiegelhoff's now have Jimmy the Elf.  I was told last year about this Elf on the Shelf book that would keep your children semi-in line for the holiday season.  You buy the book, which comes with an elf.  You let your kids name him.  Quinny originally wanted Cocky.  Not sure where that came from but we didn't think it real appropriate.  Every morning I was going to have my children running around asking, "Where is Cocky?  Is Cocky going to tell Santa I was good?" You get the picture.  We settled on a timeless holiday favorite, Jimmy. 

Jimmy sitting on a pitcure frame

Jimmy the Elf is a skinny little dude with a nice Florida tan. Check out the picture.  Jimmy secretly told me he loved the assignment because spending so much time at the north pole is very cold so it was nice to be able to get a tan in the middle of winter.  The kids can talk to Jimmy providing their Christmas list or anything they want Santa to know. Jimmy just takes it all in.  He doesn't speak back.  He saves his words for Santa.  He makes sure to tell Santa everything that goes on whether the boys have been naughty or nice throughout the holiday season including what they do at school.  Then Santa will decide what they get for Christmas.  Jimmy can't be touched because we wouldn't want to jinx any of his elf magic so the boys cannot touch them.  Jimmy has helped out the boys in this arena by only "hiding" in high places.  Every night after the boys go to bed Jimmy uses his elf magic to whisk himself back to the north pole to fill Santa in on the day's events.  When he comes back in the wee hours of the morning he's in a different spot the so boys have to find him each morning.  It's an entertaining hoot!  "DADDY! DADDY! I FOUND JIMMY!!!"

So far it's worked pretty well.  Anytime we're on the verge of a three year old tantrum we just say Quinny, do you see Jimmy over there?  He's watching buddy.  It causes great confusion and reflection on Q's part.  He really wants to throw the tantrum but he really wants Santa to be happy with him too.  We usually settle on a happy medium, a shortened tantrum.  It definitely helps.  The book isn't cheap and can be found everywhere like Target if you're interested.  I suppose they imagine you are only going to buy one in a lifetime.  I was told to look for it after the holiday season for next year as it will be on sale. 

It worked out really well for us because we saw Santa at the Christmas party and we told him that Jimmy hitched a ride home with us.  That's gold, Jimmy, gold!  This parenting thing is too easy.  You just have to spend some time getting out of the box and enlisting a little holiday help from Jimmy the Elf.  On a side note we have some good friends that are going through a tough spot this holiday season and have started their own blog to keep their friends and family posted. I'm creating a link here for Cory and Mindy's blog.  If I can figure out how to use this technology I will post a permanent link somewhere on this site. 

Birthday Bash

Getting the new train set up

Q had so much fun at his birthday bash.  We went with a Cars theme.  Not sure how he is so in to that as he's never seen the movies but he loves Lightning McQueen and was stoked to get an RC McQueen car.  The reaction was priceless. We wish we had it on video but we just couldn't get it set up as fast as he opened up.  He was screaming with joy.  Cousin Rachel and Risa were there along with Aunt Peggy and Nana and Poppa so we had a full house.  He started realizing that every time someone walked in the door he got another present which prompted to start asking, "Who else is coming?"  Yup, that's it little buddy.  End of the line. 

So stoked to get an RC Lightning McQueen!

He's been on a three week birthday binge.  My parents were down for two weeks showering him with gifts.  And let's not forget we took him to Disney World.  Kids, they forget so soon.  What's next, what's next, what's next?  He received a buzz Lightyear talking action figure, which he also loved.  To infinity and beyooooond!  We gave him a wooden brio starter train set and some puzzles.  The kid loves puzzles and is really good at them.  He got his first video, Beauty and the Beast (the man version mostly about the beast) and some new dinosaur PJs.  All in all he had a great time. He received a card with a $20 in it - high rolling! And he wanted to take the bill to show and tell at school. Hilarious!  This is what money looks like people. Hard to find these days.  Everyone was so generous.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes he really loved and I mean loved the never ending celebrations.  It's a great age for him and he so enjoyed every moment I'm smiling ear to ear right now just thinking about the little turkey. 

The cake

I have so much to write.  We finally got all our computer equipment up and downloaded all these pictures.  I'll try to post a few of each in the coming days to catch everyone up from the last few months of Halloween, moving, Disney, Thanksgiving and his birthday. 

 Gavin is finally showing some interest in walking.  We can't tell if it's our fault or his laziness.  Carrie and I agree that we haven't spent nearly as much time with him trying to get him to practice as we did with Quinny so we'll make that more of a priority.  Maybe by Christmas.  I don't think so but we'll see.  Enjoy the pics! 

Happy Birthday Quentin!

Bringing cookies for my friends at school!

I cannot believe it but we have a three year old on our hands.  It was around 9:30 in the morning that we headed off to the hospital on a Thanksgiving Saturday to have our first born.  We can't believe it's been 3 years already.  He can talk, run, jump, skip, ride a bike, he's lived in two states, taken more plane trips in 3 years than half the population does in a life time and still, I mean still he doesn't sleep through the night.  He hasn't made it one night yet since moving back to the sunshine state.  He's Quinny, baby!  He didn't sleep all that great last night because he was so excited to wake up and have a special birthday breakfast of pancakes, muffins and COOKIES!  We told him he could take the cookies to school. Here is a picture of how excited he was to do that.  He's so cute and can't wait to come home to his Lightning McQueen cake with Tow Mater as his trusty side kick.  And PRESENTS!

A quick side bar to tell you how much he enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner.  He has his plate full of food and mom asks him what he likes best.  His reply, "I like that, I like that, I like that, I like that, I like that and I like that."  He officially pointed to everything on this plate and deemed it his favorite.  So easy to please!



2nd Birthday!



Carrie's parents, Poppa and Nana, flew in last night much delayed due to mechanical issues. They needed a new cockpit seat.  I suppose that's important.  We didn't get back to the house until after 12:30 am so no one got any sleep.  Of course this is our house, so that's par for the course.  We should have more family coming over to help celebrate with cousin Rachel and Aunt Peg with possibly a few more cousins in tow.  Last time Q saw Aunt Peg he would snort like a pig every time someone said her name.  He has a much better grasp of his venacular today from that stage.

 

We're very proud of him.  I am going to post some pictures here of the last year of Q and then I'll add another post with some pictures of the celebration. 



X-mas 2010






Havin' some morning joe






Easter 2011






Halloween 2011

 


Practicing those hops!






At the river, fishing July 2011

  

I will get back to blogging!  I promise.  We moved and then the renters sort of trashed the place.  It wasn't physically damaged with holes and such but they smoked and I mean chiefed em' down like it was an Olympic event.  That has caused us to do an enormous amount of cleaning and painting.  Add children of ages 1 and 3 and you get very little free time.  We painted the master bedroom Sunday and finished around 10:30 pm and then realized we couldn't sleep in the room.  Ha!  Not really thinking things through.  At any rate we'll get back to blogging.  Since being back we've installed an attic floor (storage - hurray!), painted Gavin's room, the master bedroom, the master bath, got the Christmas lights decorated outside, the tree up, done some much needed yard work, went to Disney World (kids are free until age 3 so we snuck that one in by about 10 days) and hung curtains like a real house!  I'll get more posts I promise so check back.  I am committing to a minimum of 2 posts a week for the foreseeable future.  I'll get another one out tomorrow with birthday pics!

hanging with lil' bro



July in Door County, WI 2011

















Gavin's Surgery

I wanted to get a quick update out there so everyone knew the surgery went well.  We had Poppa Steve drive over to our house before the rooster crows arriving just before 6:30 this morning.  We wanted Quinny to keep his routine so they spent the morning together so we could get off to the hospital.  Carrie, Gavin and I arrived around 7 am complete with valet parking.  Wow.  Valet parking at the hospital.  Now we're talking.  We met with all the doctors, anesthesiologist, surgeon and a handful of nurses and got all the questions and answers we needed. 

We got him dressed in his surgery gown complete with Badger red socks.  Gavin was so happy this morning, making me feel ultra guilty. It was just like when we dropped the dog off to get neutered.  The Luckster was so happy to be going for a ride.  Next thing he knows he's half the man he used to be.  Gavin was goofing around, smiling, laughing and entertaining the nurses.  He was hamming it up and then he was on his way.

We said goodbye and they took him back.  We really liked the doctor, Dr. Carpenter.  He was great and everyone we interacted with made sure we were comfortable with everything that was happening and about to happen.  We went back to the waiting room and within 20 minutes it was all over. 

We went to see him and he wasn't crying.  Everyone was preparing us for a very crabby child and shortly after we got back there he started crying for the next 30 minutes or so but it wasn't too bad.  He was really out of it, just groggy.  Everything went fine and 20 minutes after that we were in the car on the way home.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts.  We should have a child that can officially hear!

Happy Birthday Gavin!

Happy first birthday to Gavin!  He celebrated his first with family last weekend and we had a nice “Look Hoo’s turning one” party.  You know complete with hooting owl.  It’s the newest rage.  C’mon you haven’t heard?  You must not be rolling with a posse of one year olds.  We had three great grandparents in attendance (hooty hoo!), all four grandparents, some uncles, cousins and friends.  Both boys had a great time and Quinny scored some gifts as well so he wouldn't get too jealous of the birthday boy.  Gavin was fortunate enough to receive some sweet Badger gear, a sit and scoot that can transfer into a scooter when he gets older, some music, sweet fireman PJs, books, a talking dog, some toys, and a Badger pillow pet.  Too much!  Gavin wanted me to thank everyone for attending and for all the wonder gifts. 

The cake, oh do the boys love the cake.  Quinny loves parties and was talking about digging into the cake weeks before it happened.   You should see him buzz.  We came to the realization this morning that our oldest son might have a problem, a sugar problem.  Here is the morning routine.  Now before you read on remember we’re not judging your parenting.  Well, at least not to your face so keep that in mind.  Quinny gets up between 6:30-7.  Yup, it got dark out and our kids rise and fall asleep with the sun.  I wonder what would happen if we moved to Alaska?  Would the kids sleep 20 hours a day?  Hmmmm.  I hear there are great tax incentives and non-stop Palin entertainment.  “I can see Russia from my hot tub!”  He gets up, hopefully dry, uses the restroom, finds his way to the kitchen, lobbies for a bag of fruit snacks (we generally deny him), gets a juice box, grabs a yogurt and plops into our bed.  He then gets cozy under the blankets, asks politely for Mickey Mouse Club conveniently on at 7 and starts chowing away.  Approximately 5 minutes later he’s a crazy sugar maniac.  It didn’t really dawn on me that it was sugar.  I thought it was simply crazy two year old but this morning we started wondering; is it too much sugar?

We shall see but tomorrow we start to wean him off.  If he gets the chills and starts throwing up due to the tremendous headaches we’ll keep you posted.  “Hi, my name is Quinny and I have a sugar problem.”  Pause for round of applause.  “It all started back when I was two and my parents used sugar to potty train me.  Although, effective, it’s been a lifelong burden of snorting pixi sticks in back alleys, shoving ho-ho’s two at a time in my gullet when no one is looking at the office and occasionally, if it’s really bad, slamming straight sugar packets in my mouth one delicious spoonful at a time.  It was my childhood, my parents.  Oh, my parents…”

Please forgive us son for we know not what we do.  Gavin is headed to surgery.  It’s been on, scheduled, doctor canceled, we bowed out, he got sick, back on again.  So, officially the big day is this Thursday.  Think about our little guy.  I think the procedure itself will go fine and we think he’ll be much better off in the long run.  He’s got a flight coming up and I am hopeful this will make it tolerable.  I’m only concerned about the anesthesia.  He could be allergic or you might get someone that can’t do math and he'll get the wrong dosage.  That’s the only part I think we need to be worried about.  He’s only under for 5-10 minutes so it should be short.  If all goes according to plan we’ll be home by lunch time on Thursday.  We’ll keep you posted.

For his pre-op physical/one year check up he weighed in only a half pound behind big brother Q so he’s going to be a big boy too.  He’s in the 95^th percentile for height.  This family will be a force if they decide to play sports.  They could be on the same varsity teams.  We’ve been practicing catching footballs lately.  We’ve been playing some golf too.  He’s not walking yet but we think before Thanksgiving. He’s moving around a lot and loves getting into mischief.  Oh, to have boys. 

Quinny’s going to the pumpkin patch on a field trip tomorrow so more blogs to follow.  We’ll keep you posted on that, the surgery and a couple of big ticket items.  Cheers.

I can pedal!

Had a nice weekend of chilly temps and rain.  Fall has arrived as fast as summer came and disappeared again.  Time just moves too fast.  Both the Packers and the Badgers are undefeated and the Brewers look destined to win their first division crown since 1982.  I was 6!  The leaves are starting to turn their autumn colors and it's getting dark all too soon.  The house has turned to talk of going to the apple orchard, pumpkin patch and deciding what to be for Halloween.  Justin Bieber?  Too much?  Quinny does have the sweet hair.

While enjoying the temps outside Carrie and I were hanging out in the front yard after work discussing how Quinny never learned how to ride his bike we gave him for his 2nd birthday.  His bike is stationed horizontal like a big wheel instead of a more traditional tricycle that sits high.  I thought maybe this was why he was having trouble mastering the pedal action.  The trikes they make these days sit that way so kids don't have as far to fall if they bite the dust.  As we were literally talking about it, our big boy busts out his bike and decides he's going to ride it down the hill.  Sounds good to me.  I know, but he doesn't think I do, that he's going to test the waters and see how close he can get to the street before he gets in trouble.  You can see it in his face.  I wonder where he gets that defiant attitude? And then, bam!, out of nowhere the kid turns the corner and is pedaling like he's riding a chromed out hog through the neighborhood.  Our jaws drop.  We are literally sitting there discussing it and he walks into the garage, almost to prove he heard us, and just starts riding that puppy.  So, one more thing for Quinny to cross of his bucket list - learn how to pedal - check.

While Quinny was learning how to pedal in secret, son number two is starting his own little, but less fun, adventure.  Gavin was practically born with an ear infection. He's been on antibiotics maybe six or seven times so we made the visit to the ENT today.  He was a hit.  I know I've been to an ENT before but not for a while.  In case you haven't been lately the average age in this place was approximately 107.  You can imagine the effect the cute lil' G had on the patients as well as the nurses.  When the nurse comes out it's GAVIN! IS THERE A GAVIN HERE!?  Yup, we're not deaf and we're over here.  I bet the jokes in that place never get old.  "Did ya hear the one about the...no, I guess you didn't. Ha!  Now, I can't hear in my left ear, had plenty of my own ear infections and from about 20 on have been consistently dizzy due to an inner ear issue they can't quite fix for me so I'm actually pretty concerned for our little turkey.

He starts off with a hearing test, which he can't hear very well due to the fluid in his ear.  The doc described it as listening while under water or Charlie Brown's teacher.  Click here for Miss Offmore's voice demo.  In the short term this will cause him to speak a bit later.  Carrie did some research and said it would even out by the time he was 3-4 but we're not ones to start from behind the pack.  They recommended we put some tubes in so I think we are going to do that in the next couple of weeks.  It's a fairly big deal because he gets a general anesthetic and goes completely under for roughly five minutes.  They puncture the ear drum and throw a little tube in there until his Eustachian tube grows a little bigger allowing fluid to drain easier.  It should do away with ear infections altogether because the ear can drain excess fluid automatically through the tube.  In the rare case he does get an ear infection you can treat it with a direct ear drop antibiotic that, according to Dr. Ear, is 400 times more potent/effective than taking an oral medication.  He will get through any ear infection in 3 days and no more doctor visits - hurray!  We'll let you know if we go through with it.

We asked what it would be like for Gavin and he said it will hurt like hell and he'll wake up screaming so at least we know we can trust the doctor.  I can't recall too many doctors telling me to sit down and grip the table because this is going to hurt like hell.  So I feel good about the doctor.  Iowa - you really can't beat how nice people are.  Even the bedside manner is top notch.  He said after 20 minutes of screaming while coming out of the drug induced haze he'll realize mom and dad are there and relax a bit and calm down.  He'll be fine once the pressure equalizes and he realizes he can hear for the first time since birth.  Wait until he realizes how loud he's been screaming this whole time.  I wonder if we have a shot at peace and quiet?  You're totally right, we shouldn't be getting so greedy.  And yes we're still getting up every day around 4:45 am.    

Straight Up Solo Parenting

Friend's B-day party

I solo parented this past week and I don't know how any single parents can make it through a week much less a year or a lifetime.  Sheesh.  You're up at 4-5 am and you sit down around 9:30 pm.  And as soon as your comfy rear hits the couch you realize you don't even want to be sitting on the couch. You want your booty in bed because you see the clock, do the math and know you have to get up at 5 am again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and the next day.  You try really hard to not think about the fact your wife is enjoying Will.i.am and her favorite band, Metallica.  It's fine.  She should enjoy a little headbanger's ball once in a while too.

After the first exhausting day I knew I was going to have to reach deeper if I had any hope of surviving munchkins v. dad II.  By the second day I realized consistency is key.  I cheated a bit too. Chef boy R dad served up some succulent frozen pizza on day 1.  Bon appetit!  My coworkers lobbied for McDonald's for night number two but I knew I could do better than that.  I did the only thing possible.  I left work 90 minutes early so I would have time to cook something before the boys finished school.  I still barely had the ridiculously delicious cheese and noodle casserole (and no that's not code for macN'cheese.  It was better than that.) on the table by dinner time.  It's impossible to hang on to two kids and cook at the same time.  Impossible.  It's no different than cooking with no arms.  (I'm sure there are great no arm cooks out there. No offense meant). 

Mobile! - loves all things Lucky including his bed

By day three I had this thing totally mastered.  It was like Camp Pendelton and I had a couple of grunts working for me.  The boys were on a regimented schedule and unless you like a clean house I was dominating single parenthood.  I was still working 9 hours a day, and up for another 20 but bottles were getting washed, dinner was getting served, baths were being handed out and I still managed to find the time to win a charity golf tournament during the day on Thursday with my trusty teammates.  I'm awful so they carried me but we still won and I had a handful of nice shots in there.  Yup, things were rolling by day four.  Carrie finally decided depart the west coast choosing a red eye home.  Ugh.  I can't believe there is enough people wanting to take those flights.  They are brutal.  She got home shortly after we took off for the day.  It was nice to have her back and we took the long weekend to re-energize and just relax. 

The weather was freezing here this weekend.  I woke up to 46 this morning and we have more of the same tonight.  Yowsers.  The heat index was 105 on Thursday when we were on the course.  So we're talking three days and 60 degrees.  I believe that was September 1 and we set a record high than yesterday we set a record low.  Seriously who can take this kind of weather drama?  Doesn't everyone have enough drama without the weather chiming in?  I can't imagine what it's like to be a farmer glued to the TV where a 23 year old weather gal that basically gets away with saying anything, because let's face it - it could snow tomorrow or be 110.  Last night she was blabbing about how it hasn't been in the 40s since May.  So, you're saying it's only nice here for maybe 90 days a year?  Rrrrrrrrrrrrright.  It rained so hard on Saturday, opening day in earnest for college football, that every game worth watching was rained out during the day (Iowa V. high school team, South Florida v. Notre Dame (first upset of the season) and whoever Michigan played).  I can't recall a game ever being rained out.  I'm sure it's happened but what was a fella to do?  I was out on a man-date with a buddy trying to regain some testosterone after a long week with the kiddos and we're watching reruns of last season.  Unbelievable! 

It's 5 O'clock somewhere

The boys are doing fairly well.  Gavin is still struggling a bit.  He can't seem to kick these fairly minor issues and they escalate into more serious problems. We are digging deep into research on putting in tubes and other alternatives.  Something has to give because he can't put a month together of being healthy.  He had another day of a high fever this weekend and has a persistent cough with lots of wheezing.  He's sleeping okay and I hope he's feeling better for school tomorrow.  He's moving around and starting to say more words.  He's working on bah and bye-bye.  He's got the wave down and he's good at shaking his head no like are the Bears going to win 5 games this season (wagging his head no- see he's doing it right now)?  Sorry Bears' fans.  Wait he's doing it about the Vikings too.  Well, ya, they wear purple. 

Promoted to 3s room!

We told Quinny we would take him to the magic kingdom for his birthday.  Might have been a little early for that.  It's pretty much all he talks about.  Dad, we're going to the clubhouse right?  For roll call?  Ah, ya, something like that.  Then he whispers, "meeska, mouska, Mickey MOUSE!"  Oh boy, Mickey better show.  He's also obsessed with his cake. He gives us a daily update on what he wants on his cake. Tha

t may be tricky too as he's thrown so many ideas out who knows if we're going to get it right.  I hope we nail it.  C'mon buddy consistency!  He's also massive.  We checked his height and he's just short of 40 inches.  He's really going to be a monster.  He told me the other night during bedtime routine he didn't want to be tall.  I explained to him it was going to be really hard to play any kind of professional sports if he wasn't tall so I think that helped.  He's pretty decent about hitting a ball pitched to him with a bat from maybe 5-6 feet.  He's not clearing fences but making regular contact.  Baseball seems the safest and no salary cap!!

When I picked the boys up one day last week there was an organized soccer pamphlet to sign him up for.  I went home and threw it away without reading it, thinking to myself my kid is two.  Really?  The next day as I was driving to daycare to pick the boys up I was thinking to myself, "What would Carrie do?"  Then I recalled Tiger Woods was playing golf at two.  Then I started digging through the garbage trying to find that pamphlet.  That might have been a daddy-oops in all that dad had going on.  But alas I couldn't find it.  There really isn't any money in soccer these days so I'm probably okay.  (Quinny, don't read this when you're older if baseball, football and basketball don't work out).

We hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend.

It's about the Festivus Festival

Another weekend, another festival.  It was a crazy end to last week.  My brother bought a house (Wahoo! Congrats!) and my parents sold a house (Wahoo! Congrats!) and Gavin survived his bout with RSV.  I took off Thursday afternoon with Q in tow to help my brother move, which puts the moving score at about 12:1.  I guess I'm fortunate he doesn't like to move as often as I.  His new home, all the walls pink on the inside, didn't have stairs so that made moving easy but it made you really non aggressive.  One might say passive.  I think the Iowa football team may be on to something (visiting football locker room is all pink including the toilets, walls, lockers and carpet).  I think the next day he was going to paint it Badger red for football season.  Atta boy!

Gavin is doing much better and is back to his old self.  He's still on meds and hacking a bit but sleeping fairly well.  He was so babied during his tough seven days that we are weening him back to falling asleep by himself so he's having middle of the night fits.  I'm solo parenting next week as the wife is heading to San Fran for a business trip.  She's a baller.  Entertainment for my conferences - dumpy tavern around the corner. 

Her?  She's got tickets to Metallica.  Ya, Metallica.  Really?  We've been practicing her mosh pit skills to make sure she properly fits in.  I'm sure she'll survive.  At any rate Daddy needs him to be sleeping through the night or it's going to be a long week.

He's ultra mobile at this point.  He's full fledged crawling and gets in bear mode all the time where he has his hands on the floor but is on his flat feet. I take this as a sign he wants to walk but can't figure out how to get his top half vertical. He can pull himself up and is officially standing so it won't be long before we have a walker.  I am predicting 6-8 weeks which would put him right around 1.  October 13th is his birthday.  Wow.  Time is flying by these days.

Quinny and I got some nice bonding as we continue the festival tour.  When in Lake Geneva to help with moving, the 49th Annual Jaycee's sponsored Venetian Festival was going on.  I don't think I have attended since high school so it was fun to be on the parenting end of the event. The entire 4 hour drive Quinny was repeating about a million times, "Dad I want to go to the CornBestibal.  Yup, we'll go tomorrow buddy.  Dad, I want to go to the CornBestibal.  Yup, buddy, we're definitely going to check that out tomorrow.  Dad, I want to go to the CornBestibal."  Dude!  Nowhere near as cheap as Cornfest 2011, though. I was dropping $20 bills in 30 minute intervals to go on the kiddie rides.  I mean it was $5/ride for the kids!  That's approximately $1 every 15 seconds.  Yikes.  Corn, our abundant supply of corn, was going for $2.  Wowsers.  I need to get in the commodity market.  I kept reminding myself it's all about Quinny's happiness.  Seriously, how many years are you going to ride the strawberries with your ultra-manly son?  I did run into an old classmate that I hadn't seen in probably 10 years with his two girls, wife and parents in tow.  His wife was an aeronautical engineer, as in way out of my buddy's league. Ha!  Oh, how time does fly.  My mom was able to join us as well and after riding all the rides Quinny played on the playground near by for probably an hour.  Hmmm, maybe should've started there and we could have saved a few bucks.  We finished the night by riding the ferris wheel, a first for both of us and were rewarded with some beautiful sunset views of Lake Geneva.  He hit the balloon ride, plane ride, strawberries again, carousel again and the aforementioned ferris wheel.  The kid does enjoy a good ride.  And I enjoyed visiting with the carnies.  Such pleasant folk.

 

This weekend we are doing a last hurrah at the river.  We probably don't have too many more weekends and the Stinks gets to come and enjoy the great outdoors with us. We'll head up to Prairie Du Chien on the big muddy Friday afternoon.  And speaking of Stinks he got a modeling gig this week.  We entered him into a cutest pet contest and it sounds like we are dominating the voting.  $65 in gift certificates are on the line.  The old dog needs a new bed so if he's a winner he'll be sleeping on a bed again.  Here is the pic we submitted.  Cheers!

Gavin Update

Oh man!  Our little guy is really in rough shape.  He made it to the doctor still sporting a 101+ fever and it was not good news.  He has a double ear infection and was diagnosed with RSV.  Yikes.  RSV is not cool and takes a long time to get rid of, up to 3 weeks.  You can read more about it here.  It's rare to have it in the summer time so they tested him on a whim and were surprised to find out he had it.  It sounds like one other baby in his class was extremely ill over the weekend as well.  We'll call that kid patient 0.  Wash your hands once in a while dirtball!  Geez, my kid is practically dying.  I know he'll tough it out because he's such a nice baby with his good natured disposition but it's going to be several more long nights and probably a couple more days home from school. We're not sure how much sleep or work is going to be getting accomplished. 

They recommended we see an ENT to explore the options of putting tubes in.  This kid always has perfect timing.  I figure by the time we get an appointment for the consultation and get the procedure scheduled, well, let's just say it's unlikely to happen.  These kids sure do keep it interesting.  On top of that he lost weight since the last time he was in there, which was about a month ago.  Obviously, that's not a good sign either.  I'm sure with some meds he'll gain his appetite back and start getting his strength back.

Last night he was vomiting more and kept that up this morning.  He's on both antibiotics for his ears and on breathing treatments for his lungs.  He can't cough hard enough to break up the mucous in his lungs so the treatments help him do that.  He's having a tough time keeping food down so dehydration is a concern.  Carrie spent some time with the nurse so she knows what to look out for.  They said he probably won't turn the corner for about 7 days.  Saturday would be day 1 so we have probably until the rest of the week.  Hopefully Care and baby can make it.  It's exhausting and almost like reverting back to newborn status where you're at Gavin's mercy for when you can catch some Z's.

On a more positive note we received his 9 month pictures in the mail. I posted a couple here but Carrie can get you copies of whatever you would like or pass on the proofs electronically if you're interested in ordering some.

Rough Night saved by Corn Fest

Welcome back blog readers.  We have so much to catch up on after such a busy summer.  Last night was like going back in time to when we only had Quentin to deal with but he didn't sleep a wink.  It was discovered after a long day with little napping happening for either boys that Gavin was sporting 104 degree temperature.  We were planning on going to the Sweet Corn Festival (oh, Iowa!) but since neither of the boys took even an hour long nap I could see the crabby map on the wall and saw numerous public tantrums and didn't want to go down that path.  We hoped we could squeeze it in on Sunday.  Turns out Gavin was having a tough time sleeping because he was sick as a dog. His screaming led to big brother not being able to get to sleep and the afternoon adventure was in full swing.

We had our typical long, tear-filled afternoon when the boys don't get a robust nap filled with, "Dad I burned my hand touching the hot grill," touching the hot pan the cookies came out of the oven for the newly moved in next door neighbors (oh Iowa!) and my play lawnmower attacked me and smoked me in the chin.  We literally ran out of ice packs.  When is bed time!?  We finally got Quinny tucked in without much fanfare, after all the Brewers had a late afternoon national game (national! - they are so going to the World Series.  You know they haven't won a pennant since 1982 and made the playoffs exactly once since then as a wild card team in 2008) and that game was immediately followed by the first pre-season Packer game.  Boys, oh boys, can't you throw me a solid on a such a sporting afternoon?  What happened to the Sundays of, "Go Pack Go!"?

Carrie and I got little sleep with Gavin trying to navigate his way through his fever.  He was burning up, which put us on edge and was having such a tough time.  We were giving him ibuprofen and Tylenol, which helped bring his temperature down to the 101-102 range but all day today he was still sporting it.  He was still eating pretty well and wasn't dehydrated.  We can't really find any other symptoms.  By the time we were getting ready to put everyone to bed tonight he was feeling a little better but not much so he'll shuffle of to the doctor's office tomorrow.  He just made it to 10 months and we're pretty sure he's been to the doctor's every month.  I think it's just daycare.  It's been so hot that the kids don't go outside for recess so they've been trapped inside most of the summer.  They get stuck inside all winter and then it's too hot in summer to go outside?  This is bizzaro world! I don't get that but then again I'm not running a daycare center.

He's in full motion these days crawling all over the place.  He's still mostly pulling himself around army style but can prop up on his knees and crawl in the traditional sense if he wants.  He's able to sit up and down now and has begun pulling himself up.  The other night he woke up and I went in there to give him his bah and he was standing, much to my astonishment.  It freaked me out a little.  I think we may need to lower the crib again. He's entered the realm of table food as well so he's trying new foods on a regular basis.  We haven't found anything he doesn't like but we haven't given him too much either.  We're taking it slow but he's well on his way to walking, talking and eating. 

Since Gavin was sick we didn't think it a good idea to bring him to Corn Fest 2011 so Q and I went on the adventure together.  All morning long Quinny kept saying, "Dad we're going to the cornfield right?  Dad, I want to go to the cornfield!  When are we leaving for the cornfield?"  It's funny when he gets mixed up.  It's crazy to go back just a few months on video and hear what he was saying.  In just that short time his vocabulary is larger and enunciation is so much clearer.  He's growing up big time.  He and I straight up dominated the fair.  The Corn Fest is totally set up for little kids under 10.  The thing is super cheap (free parking, free to get in, $1 for an ice cream cone, corn on the cob for $.50, brats for $3, rides for a $1, games for $.25) so we did everything.  Deep breath - we rode the ladybugs, bumper boats, spinning strawberries, rocket ship, and the swings.  He won tic-tac-toe, played the ring toss game, played the launch a frog onto the lily pad game and finished it off by winning the catch a fish game.  And of course Quinny ate a ton of food.  He had an icee, a brat, a hot dog, a bag of popcorn and finished the day off with an ice cream cone.  It was good fun but we missed the other half of the fam.  Best of all it was a tantrum free day.  Hooray!  We're very much focused on listening these days so it was nice to hang out with such a good listener.  Enjoy the pics!