Papa's Gift

My dad decided he wants a dog. So we (me & the kids) took him last Saturday to a kennel he found on the internet. Here is his new dog, Hershey. It's an early birthday present to himself. Hershey is an 18 month old male dachshund. He's not exactly house-broken yet, but is supposed to be crate trained. The kids aren't quite sure if they like him or not. They usually won't get close enough to pet him - although they're getting more courageous each time we go for a visit. This is the best kind of pet to have - one you don't have to feed or clean up after, doesn't leave "presents" all over your house, and someone else takes care of it.

Grammy has the best toys!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Today is one of my favorite holidays. Part of the reason I like it so much is because there are Irish roots in my family. I guess it's also because we lived in Dublin OH for awhile and it was a big deal there. Do you know the story of St Patrick? The short version is that Patrick is the one who brought Christianity to Ireland. He was thought to have died on March 17th sometime between 463AD and 493AD. I made sure we all wore green today so we wouldn't get pinched (I know the kids don't understand that now, but they may thank me for it one day).

Daniel received his progress report today - can you believe there are only 9 weeks of school left this year?! Time sure does fly! We're hoping to make a few trips sometime over the next few months to visit family and friends. Let us know what your schedules look like and maybe we can work out a visit.

Once again just wanted to wish everyone a Happy St Patrick's Day!

Did you say beach?!?

Although we are not going to the beach for several more months (and have not even been talking about it), I guess Daniel had it on his mind when he dressed himself the other day... After I had given him his bath, I thought he had gone downstairs to have Daddy get him dressed. Instead, Daniel got clothes out of his room and dressed himself - swim trunks (just in case he had the opportunity to go swimming, or at least build a sandcastle), beach shirt (to protect him from the hot sun and, yes, it's on backwards) and long sleeves (you know, in case the weather turned cold while outside). Well, you can't blame a kid for trying - he did do it himself. Oh, did I forget to mention, no big boy pants or pull-up. Afterall, why would you need that if you were going to the beach? Don't swim trunks have their own built in anyway??

Today was better...

My wonderful husband sent me some flowers today for Valentine's Day. Isn't he sweet?!

When the bus showed up this morning, I had to physically carry Daniel on again. However, once on the bus, he went directly to his seat and climbed in. Then he waved to Emma and me through the window - smiling and without tears.

Now I have two other problems to deal with - Daniel came home from school early on Friday because he had a fever and wasn't acting like himself. Friday night/Saturday morning his temp was 103/104. As long as I kept Tylenol and/or Motrin in him on Saturday the fever stayed down. I kept him home from church Sunday morning and he seemed fine (no fever all day). This afternoon I picked him up after school and his fever has come back tonight (102). In addition to the fever he pulls his legs up and cries - just like he used to do when his bladder infection would rear its ugly head. That's problem #1. I'm taking him to the pediatrician tomorrow morning to see what I can find out.

Now, problem #2 -- Emma...she's been fine until last night. She went to bed around 9:00pm and woke up crying about 10:30pm. I took her downstairs with me and she laid with me on the sofa until I went to bed about 11:30pm. She was still awake but went back to bed without complaining...and slept through the rest of the night. Today, she's been fine all day...we played, read books, she took a good 2 1/2 hour nap...all seemed fine. Until she got up from her nap. For 2 hours (off and on) she would just start crying for no apparent reason. She didn't eat much dinner but afterward she seemed fine...she has no fever and went to bed about 9:00pm without complaining. At about 11:15pm she started crying. Whenever I start to go check on her she settles down; hopefully she'll sleep comfortably the rest of the night. My plan is to take her to school tomorrow and just ask the pediatrician about it while I'm there with Daniel (it's just too difficult still to deal with both of them at the doctor's office at the same time). If they want to see her I'll see if I can take her in later in the day. Hopefully they'll say everything's fine with Daniel and I can take him to school - I'd hate for him to miss school on Valentine's Day.

It's now 11:30pm and all is quiet. I think I'll take advantage of that and try to get some sleep myself. I hope you each have a great Valentine's Day!

Riding the Bus!!

Daniel loves going to school...he is at the elementary school 5 days a week now (and not at the church at all for preschool). He rode the bus to school Friday for the very first time! Of course, it was the coldest day we've had all winter and the bus was late (we were standing outside for about 20 minutes instead of what should've been only 5 minutes). Also, he had a big bag of stuff to take with him to school (notice the big Target bag in the background). If I had been more efficient and forward thinking, I would have taken his bag to school the day before when I dropped him off.

He was so excited about riding the bus...until it actually pulled up to our driveway. He got scared when he heard the airbrakes and wouldn't get on the bus. I had to physically carry him onto the bus and put him in a seat (he cried the whole time). When we first walked onto the bus, one of the kids on the bus said "Hi, Daniel!" It was one of the boys from his class; I think that helped calm him down some. He didn't actually fight getting into the seat so I'm sure it's just that it was such a new and different experience for him and he knew that I wasn't going to be riding with him. I could only get a picture of him on the bus from inside because the windows are tinted and you couldn't see him from the outside. Hopefully he'll be excited again on Monday when the bus pulls up to take him to school, we'll see.

Is she cute or what!!?!!

Emma at Sticky Fingers Restaurant,
Myrtle Beach SC in Sept 2005
(obviously not right after she ate!)

This child loves to eat!!

Daniel at Sticky Fingers Restaurant,

Myrtle Beach SC in Sept 2005

Getting much sleep these days?!

OK, so I just gotta tell you what happened last night! My husband and I were trying to enjoy finally having a few quiet moments alone last night when our son decided he didn't want to go to bed so he cried, got out of bed and kept coming downstairs only to be sent back to bed. Eventually, we put the gate back up across his doorway so he at least would stay in his room. No good, he decided to climb over it and once again came downstairs. So, after sending him back to his room, he decided to stay in his room, but would stand at the gate, crying and calling to us to see if we would let him come out. After trying to ignore his crying for over an hour, we finally let him come downstairs and lay on the sofa to fall asleep. When my wonderful husband took him upstairs to put him back in his bed, he woke up and started all over again. We finally gave up and headed upstairs to go to bed ourselves. At the top of the stairs, we were greeted with Daniel standing (still fussing), leaning over his gate, butt naked - he had thrown both his pj's and pull-up out into the hallway. So, we got him re-dressed for bed and just let him sleep with us. Big mistake! He is a very restless sleeper so, needless to say, we didn't get much sleep last night.

Tonight, the crying started all over again. So, I let him come downstairs and fall asleep on the sofa again. When I brought him upstairs, and put him in bed, all was well. Hopefully this will last all night...we'll see. Sleep tight!!

Flat Rock Park, Columbus GA

Check out the pix in the sidebar. These are ones that my cousin took for me one weekend while we were visiting back in August 2005. The park is close to their house and a great place for a photo shoot.

Here we go . . .

Ok, so I'm finally going to try this blog stuff. I'll try to keep up to date but I'm not making any promises. You know how it goes when you have two small, very active children...