A few days before Thanksgiving

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I took the boys to see my brother and his family in Portland, Oregon. On the way there, Jack was totally entertained by the things we brought for him to play with and watch and Luke was quite content to be held and sleep the entire 3.5 hours! Such angels!

Here are some videos of our time there. We did fun things like the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), the Portland Children's Museum and World Forestry Center. We also hung around the house and played and slept.

At home





At the Children's Museum






At the World Forestry Center


One of the funnest things ever is that my big brother has a baby three days younger than our sweet baby, Luke. My SIL had a photographer come to take their family pics while we were there and one of the special pics she had done was of the sweet baby cousins. Here you can see how close they are in age and size. So so so fun!




Our flight home wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped it would be. Jack and I both fell asleep right at take off and slept for some time (not sure how long). but then we both woke up. And for the next hour or so, poor, sweet Jack struggled and struggled mightily to get comfy in that huge airplane seat without much luck. Had I been able to hold him, I think we could have succeeded in getting him back to sleep quickly. But because I had to hold Luke, I couldn't hold the big boy. So finally we all quite trying to get him comfy and whatdya know? He fell back to sleep for the remainder of the trip. So while it wasn't a total success he did get some sleep.

At landing, we parked at terminal E...which was unfortunate because we took out of (and parked at) terminal C. So, we had to walk a bit to get our luggage and make it to the van.

One other bit of trouble we had was that the parking garages aren't color coded correctly. Inside the terminal, the garage we needed had a yellow sign...when in fact it was the BROWN garage. That made finding our van a bit of a challenge which was unfortunate b/c I was wearing Luke in front, the backpack on my back, pushing Jack in the stroller and pulling a piece of luggage with the car seats on top. It was needless to say a bit of a challenge. But we found the van eventually and were outta there.

Luke, who'd slept since about 10:30 p.m. Portland time, was RAVENOUS at 7:00 Houston time, so we had to stop at McDees for breakfast. Then it was on to Samantha's school so we could see her before her day (and Michael's day) began.

The boys and I finally made it home about 8 am and I began the task of furiously cleaning the house. Michael had done a great job of picking up, but it needed "cleaning" in the worst way. Michael arrived with his parents about 5 o'clock and I'd done about 85% of the cleaning so we left it at that.

It was a SUPER trip to visit my brother and I was sooo proud of my boys. Jack certainly enjoyed his first plane ride and I enjoyed giving him that experience.

BTW, one video I unfortunately neglected on my Thanksgiving post was Luke talking to his PawPaw. Priceless...



Up next...Ice skating.

Going backwards

Well, it seems I'm behind again on my blogging. So, in stead of trying to catch you up in order, I'm gonna work backwards.

Michael's parents came from Kansas for Thanksgiving. They arrived in Houston the same day I returned from my trip to Portland (next blog post). We had a great time together cooking, watching movies and playing with the kids.

My part of the cooking included the turkey and ham, bread, tea and pies (chocolate, pumpkin) and pumpkin cheesecake, Michael's only request.

We had guests from church who didn't have any family close and one of Michael's co-workers from India. He hasn't been home since Julyish 2008. It felt good to share our home and family with him.

Enjoy...

Luke speaks and Jack spells

I was lucky enough to catch some of Luke's very earliest purposeful talking. So sweet.


Jack spells something...not sure what, but he'll come up and say, "Mommy, what does this spell?" and then proceed to string a bunch of random letters together. Thought maybe some of you brilliant people can figure it out.

An update on everyone

Starting with the youngest to the oldest...

Luke

I hope I don't look as tired in real life as I do in this picture!!

Luke enjoys the wrap as much as I enjoy wearing him around.

Jack

Jack and I found this cool praying mantis yesterday at my mom's house!! He's pretty cool!

My boy loooves him some scooter!

Samantha
She had the day off from school on Monday Sept 28th so we headed to the zoo with some friends. It was NOT fall weather like the previous week...definitely still summer. :( Notice Luke...that's all he did at the zoo! Notice on the carousel and in the praire dog tunnels that it's not my kids waving at me...they didn't even notice I was there. Thank goodness for our friend (also named Luke) who WAS paying attention!

In other news, Samantha got her first babysitting gig this week. She watched Luke on the bed while I dried my hair. She rocked it! :)

his video debut

I got a COOL Flip camera as a gift from my hubby when Luke was born, and it's so easy to take and upload video with this little contraption that I'm hoping it will make posting videos so easy I have no excuses.

Here's one of the first that we've taken...

Another update

Update:

We have the MOST wonderful practice of pediatricians in the world. I just received (within 10 minutes of each other) calls from both our regular pediatrician (who we didn't get to see on Monday and who has today OFF) and the pediatrician that we did see. They both had questions that I couldn't answer, so I will call back on one of them and our regular doctor (Dr. L) will have a conversation with Dr. G about his questions.

I feel VERY blessed to be in Houston where there is so much technology available to us and where we have so many truly caring doctors.

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We had Jack's hip aspirated this morning and it turns out that there was hardly enough fluid to actually aspirate. But what fluid he did get, he's 99.99% sure is NOT infected. They're doing a culture just to be safe.

So, the next step is a perthes test in a "couple of months"...the thing the orthopedist doesn't know is that we've met our deductible this year! We'll be back sooner rather than later!! :)

The waking up was the hardest part. He wanted that IV OUT NOW!! Eventually we were able to get through to him and he drank his sprite and peed and then they took that darn IV out and we were out the door in less than 5 minutes. It was none too soon for Mommy and Daddy.

I have to say that I couldn't have done it without my Michael. He's been my strength and my equal partner in all of this. I'm soooo thankful for you, Michael and wouldn't want to go through this parenting roller coaster with anyone else! *smooch*

Jack update

Found out this morning that there is "non-specific fluid" on his hip. Will have it aspirated tomorrow morning. Should be interesting.

He's able to walk around (on his tip toes) but we're trying to keep him still...wish us luck. :)