The Anti-Sleep Child

We keep thinking it's going to get better and it doesn't. We continue to have lots of drama at bedtime and naptime, with it sometimes taking most of our night to get this kid to go to sleep. This morning he was up at 4:15 and has refused to go back to sleep, and it's not like he went to bed early, and he took only a short nap yesterday after nearly 2 hrs. of fighting it. This routine is so old; I can't believe how much time we waste trying to get the kid to sleep and lack of sleep we get ourselves from all his antics. The night before last it was vomitting, and before that it was the ear infections, and before that it was coughing from the croup- and those are legitimate issues but most of the time it's just him wanting to stay awake. Don and I have already decided that when he's a teenager and actually wanting to sleep, it's payback time.

Big Tractor Ride

Jordon went to Grandma's yesterday for the day, and all I heard when he got back was about riding the "Big Tractor" with Uncle Tim. Yes, he can now call him Uncle Tim, but still also knows him as Uncle Scary. In fact, it sounds like he was crying while Tim was holding him, until they got on the tractor and took off, then things were ok. Sounded like he had a great day there, and Grandma was pretty tickled when he gave her a "Mooch" good-bye.

Dad and Jordon

First Bubble Bath

Dad picked Jordon up some Elmo Wet 'N Wild Watermelon bubble bath the other day, and it was a big hit. We got a good video of this too.

Hats and Scooter

We went through a period when he would not wear a hat for anything, but now he actually likes to wear hats and puts them on himself. He's becoming much more independent and wants to do things on his own, like dress himself. He's doing pretty well with putting his shoes on, but beyond that, he can't quite manage it yet so we often end up with a screaming fit and either Mom or Dad out-muscling him to get him dressed. We also recently got over a bout of croup that he picked up from daycare, that let to a nasty ear infection and sinus infection. This is the first ear infection he's had since his tubes were put in almost a year ago. I took him to the ENT last Friday and had to hold him down while she suctioned the drainage and nasty stuff out of his ears. That was not a fun experience. Now he gets the yummy pink antibiotics and ear drops, and he is really good at taking medicine (he's become an expert).

Scooter is in one of these pictures- Don's been taking him to the vet quite a bit lately since he's lost so much weight and has been having diarrhea. The vet thinks he has a stomach lymphoma so he's not really expected to be around much longer. Right now they've got him on some steroids and a mix of other meds to try and keep the diarrhea at a minimum-- what do you know? Palliative care for pets seems to be similar to palliative care for adults- Don said the vet actually used those words "palliative treatments". Guess I was just impressed because in the world I live in, it's rare to hear others in the health care field talk about palliative care, aside from those of us who actually do it on a daily basis.

Winter Snow and Ice

These are a couple pics outside our house. We had some pretty impressive icicles hanging from our roof. Don estimated that we probably got around 12-16 inches of snow total here in KC. It was really a messs trying to get around (even in our driveway) for quite a while. Thank goodness we finally have some warmer weather that has melted most of this.

I love Elmo

He loves the Elmo Grandma gave him for Christmas. It is a tickle me Elmo so it giggles, talks, and moves if you push it's belly or foot. The uncles think it's pretty funnny and cheesy when he says "Elmo sleepy now". We've also got a couple of Elmo books that he likes to "read". He can name most of the Sesame Street characters and is pretty fond of Cookie Monster too.

Christmas Goodies

Jordon was very fortunate this year and got lots of good stuff for Christmas, including gifts such as the following: a tricycle, a train set, books, a talking Elmo, a toy combine and tractor, a race track with cars, and other toy trucks, as well as lots of great clothes sent from Grandpa Don and Joyce in Idaho. He was out in the snow for only a short time since it's sooo cold, and he doesn't quite know what to do with the snow yet. By next year he will probably be itching to get out into it.

Merry Christmas

After we celebrated Christmas eve day at Nate and Stef's, we decided to head on out to the farm as the weather was getting bad. This is the first year I can remember in a while where we had a really white Christmas. We ended up staying till Saturday at the farm cause we were a little afraid to drive back to KC- when we did get back, we found we had a lot more snow than Concordia-- we had around 8-10 inches of snow waiting for us when we got back! Anyway, Christmas day was nice as we all went to church together, had a ham dinner, and I think we all took a nap that afternoon, and Sarah had made lots of cookies to eat. Jon and Jordon had a good time playing together. Jordon loves being thrown around, and any Superman-like activity. He now is saying "Jon" and "Tim" (although he still also recognizes him as Uncle Scary). He knows Grandma, and was saying "PaPa" when we were watching the video of Dad. His vocabulary is growing more every day- everyone was getting a kick out of how he says "teapot"-- it usually comes out as "peatot". He also can say he's "handsome", and really likes to say it if he gets to put mousse in his hair.

Christmas Eve

Jordon was lovin' playing with trucks and toys at his cousins' house on Christmas eve day. Logan clocked him in the head with a truck and he got a pretty good goose-egg but he didn't cry for long and was back in the mix of things. The shot of Mom with her gift from Don and I is a classic throw-back to the days when all of us kids would get gifts with various patterns of used wrapping paper from Mom and Dad-- Mom didn't want to waste anything so we would usually get not-so-pretty gifts, but what did we care? It was just something to tease Mom about, so she got a kick out of this one. I made my siblings and Mom an ornament with a favorite Christmas picture of Mom and Dad, with Dad smiling all cheesy and wearing a Carhart hat. Christmas was really not the same without Dad around chowing down on popcorn and nuts. It really sucks having all these holidays so soon after he's gone. The up side would be enjoying Jordon and seeing how much he's grown since last year at this time. And then of course, the red cow dispenser we found for Tim that poops candy into a stocking.