Christmas: Part I

 Bebe and Grandpa came to visit last weekend to celebrate our Christmas with one another. We'll be at Grandma and Papa's this weekend for the real deal. We had such a good time together! Connor thoroughly enjoyed opening his presents. He also loved having to help Addie open hers. Actually, he had fun helping everyone! We also enjoyed a yummy lunch together and pumpkin pie for desert. Christmas gets to be more and more fun as Connor gets older. And Addison loves to get her hands onto things so we knew she would have fun with it.

I haven't mentioned this before but we started a new tradition this year - Elf on a Shelf! Connor named him Wilson and it is working like a charm. For those of you not familiar with Elf on a Shelf, he is basically an elf sent here to watch the kids who reports back to Santa every night. His magic powers give him the ability to fly back each night but we can't touch him or he will lose his magic. Every morning he is in a different spot in the house. At first Connor didn't know what to make of him and was maybe even a little scared of him. Now he is having the best time looking for him each morning. If he starts to whine or not do what he is told, all we have to say is Wilson is watching and he stops almost immediately. I'm going to miss him when Christmas is over! :p

 

Our first fire

 The rest of our Christmas pictures with Bebe and Grandpa can be seen here. As I mentioned above we'll be spending Christmas with the Gumula clan in Cape Haze.  We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!



Surgery

A couple of months ago I talked a little about Connor's heavy breathing and our pediatricians suggestion to see an ENT. Well, we took him in a couple of weeks ago to get checked out.  As we expected, the doctor said he had very large tonsils and that she shouldn't be able to hear him breath from across the room like that. She suggested we at least remove his adenoids but thought that we would just be back in 6 months to remove the tonsils. So her recommendation was to remove both. While John and I both hated the thought of putting him through this, we both knew this was for the better. And the younger you can have this surgery the better. I would know, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed at 18 and it was the worst experience of my life (yes, even worse than childbirth!). The doctor explained it would be a 2 week recovery so we knew we had to do this sooner than later as not to ruin his Christmas. So we scheduled it for that very next week (Tuesday, December 12th). In addition to being out of school for 2 weeks he could only eat soft foods and would need pain meds every 4 - 6 hours.

I was doing ok up until the night before the surgery. Then I started to get really nervous. How do you explain to a 2 year old that they have to have surgery when nothing is seemingly wrong? We ended up telling him the doctor found a boo boo in his throat and was going to fix it. He accepted that, probably because he didn't understand what exactly that entailed. His surgery was scheduled for 8 am so we had to be there at 7:15 am. He couldn't have anything to eat or drink and to my surprise was a non issue. I got a little emotional when they took him back when they said we couldn't go with him. I was so worried he would be scared but he wasn't. He went back with the nurse without a fuss. He rocked surgery and came out of it better than I ever could have imagined. When the doctor came out afterwards she said things went great and that if we had any reservations at all about doing this to know we did the right thing. She went on to say his tonsils were huge and that this will definitely help with all of his breathing issues.

We got home around 11 am and Connor was in great spirits, loving his new diet of Popsicle's and Gatorade. Then we got a call from daycare. Addie had a temperature of 101 :( This was not what we needed. So I went and picked her up and took her to the doctor later that afternoon. The ear infection she was diagnosed with the week prior had not gone away and was now worse. So we switched up her prescription but her fever didn't go away for days. She wasn't able to return to school until Friday. This was not our ideal circumstance considering John and I both had to work and take care of Connor. Thankfully Connor continued to do well and hardly complained at all. The only times he talked about his throat hurting was in the middle of the night. At that point he didn't have to tell us since he would wake up screaming in pain. Poor baby. But all in all he has done wonderful. We are on day 9 and can already hear a difference in him. The only thing is his bad breath and higher pitched voice which should subside in the next couple of weeks.
   

SeaWorld Christmas Celebration

 

We headed to Orlando a few weekends ago for one last visit to SeaWorld before our passes expire. We got there late in the day so that we could enjoy their Christmas Celebration with lights and all. I guess everyone had the same idea. The park was packed! We didn't get to do nearly as much as we wanted to but we still had fun. It was so busy that you had to arrive at least 45 min early to the shows. We knew we had to at least see the Sesame Street show which was at 6:30 pm. So we headed straight there and got in line around 5:45 pm. It was a long wait but Connor and Addison both loved it! We knew Connor would but were surprised with how much joy it brought to Addie.

 

We were hoping Addie would sleep in the stroller after the show so that we could enjoy more of the park. Let's just say that wasn't happening. She screamed if we even thought of putting her in the stroller. Unfortunately that meant our time there was limited as her bedtime is usually around 7 pm. So we quickly toured through the Sea of Trees on our way to see some of Connor's favorites - the penguins, dolphins and sting rays!

 

Addison fell asleep as soon as we hit the road. Connor got to enjoy a movie on his new portable DVD player (early Christmas present). Thanks Bebe and Grandpa!

More SeaWorld pics here.

Lowry Park Zoo

We got to go to Lowry Park Zoo last weekend to help celebrate Andrew's 2nd Birthday. It was a lot of fun! The birthday party was at the "Zoo School" where they got to play on the playground before going inside to learn (and pet!) various animals. And of course there were cupcakes which all of the kids thoroughly enjoyed. After the party we had access to the zoo. Before they let us loose they took us back for a sneak peek at the Reindeer! It was pretty cool but I'm not quite sure Connor knew what a Reindeer was exactly or why it was so special this time of year.

They also got to go in and pet/brush the goats. That didn't interest Connor too much though. What he really enjoyed was the train ride. He rode it twice, once in the back and once in the front. He loved being "the conductor" and tooting the horn. :)

Instead of the train ride Ava and Cate went off to ride a llama, all by themselves. We half asked Connor if he wanted to, totally expecting him to say no but he said yes! We thought maybe he didn't realize he had to go by himself. As in without Mommy or Daddy. He did though. We couldn't believe it. He is getting to be such a big boy!!

Not only did he ride the llama but he even rode a roller coaster! Not sure how much he liked it and even told Daddy it scared him when they got off, but he didn't cry or anything. Where did my baby go?!?

Addie seemed to enjoy herself as well. Not much there for her but she took in the sites and cheered Connor on when appropriate.

On the safari ride we got to see a giraffe which John and I thought was really cool. I can't recall ever seeing one up close like that. We will definitely be going back soon though. There was so much we didn't get to see and an overall great zoo.

For more zoo pictures click here.

8 Months!

This post is a little overdue as Addie is now almost 8 1/2 months. But better late than never. Since last month she has joined her brother at his daycare. It's only been a week and a half but things are going much better with her at this school. She is napping better and I feel so much more comfortable and confident she is in good hands. Plus I get to watch her on the webcam throughout the day. Can't beat that!

 She has also started crawling! Forward motion started on the day she turned 8 months. Below is a video clip of her in action (back on 11/30). She is much faster now, you can't turn your eyes for a second! She also started pulling herself up. She gets so excited when she is standing! If you help her get her balance she will even stand alone for a few seconds. I don't doubt she'll be walking before her first birthday. This girl is a mover.

She just got her second tooth a couple of days ago. Finally! She is not a good teether and this one has been bothering her for weeks now. It almost looks like she has a couple more about to come in too. Which would be nice, the faster we can get through all these teeth the better! ;)

Click here to view a few more cute pictures of Addie.

Thanksgiving

Connor and Addison both got sick the day before Thanksgiving. They both seemed to have the same cold symptoms, but Connor knows how to handle a stuffy/runny nose. Addison does not. That's right, this was Addison's first time being sick and she had no idea what to make of it. She absolutely hates you wiping her nose. Or using the bulb to suck the mucus out of it. She also falls asleep sucking on her fist which requires nose breathing...which she could  no longer do....which also meant rough nights. You can tell she is sick when you look at the pictures. Poor baby. We were dreading the 2 1/2 hour car ride to Waldo. It ended up not being too bad. Or maybe we're just used to her crying for 45 min at a time. Either way we were happy to get out of the car. Thankfully traffic wasn't too bad. We didn't need another reason to be in the car longer than necessary.

 

Thanksgiving was great. Bebe cooked all the traditional fixings. Connor's handmade place cards were a hit. There were 13 of us all together! It was great to see all of my family. We don't always get to see one another so it was great everyone was in town, not working and able to spend the evening together.

Four generations!

Grandpa got our old aluminum boat in working order just for Connor. We knew he would LOVE to go on a boat ride and maybe even get a chance to "drive" himself. The first day they got out to try it it wouldn't start :( John still took him out but they didn't go far as he had to use the oars. Grandpa figured out the issue so they gave it another whirl the following day. This time it started up and Connor got to go out on his boat. We watched from the dock but we knew right away when Connor was driving. It was when the boat started going in circles. He had a blast!

 

 

I won't mention the FL/FSU game. John was happy. Enough said. Another fun thing Connor would do over the weekend was get on the treadmill with Bebe. The first time he got on was right after bath time. While he was still naked. It was hilarious!

Lastly, Addison started crawling over Thanksgiving weekend! On the day she turned 8 months to be exact :) It's so exciting, she's looked like she was going to take off for months now. She is slow at it and only goes a short distance but we know it won't be long before she is zipping around the house. I'll work on getting a video posted soon.

You can see the rest of our Thanksgiving weekend pictures here.

  

Pre-Thanksgiving

We headed south the weekend before Thanksgiving to spend some time with Grandma and Papa. Connor was spoiled (as usual). Papa got him a new airplane that he could take apart and put back together all with a working drill! And let me just tell you, it's harder than it looks! Connor knows just what he is doing though, quite impressive.

 

Our friend Jeremy stopped by on Saturday with his new baby Jayce. He just turned 2 months old but is already the size of Addison! :)

Grandma helped Connor make special place cards to bring with us to Bebe and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. I thought it was such a cute idea, and Connor did a great job!

 

Sunday morning we went to Denny's for brunch. It seems like this is becoming somewhat of a tradition. A tradition that needs breaking! Ha ha...but seriously, the food wasn't great but Connor and Addison both had a great time.

 

We went to a marina Sunday evening so Connor could look at boats. Connor had fun pushing Addie around in her stroller. He has reached a new phase where he wants to do everything "by myself." So he (tries) to do everything he can all by himself and is good for asking for help when he realizes there is something he can't quite do. On that note, another new thing of his is asking "Why?" to EVERYTHING. It's cute and all and comical at times, but it can also get old very quickly. I know this is an important learning stage for him, but I hope it passes sooner rather than later :p

 

 

Click here for more pictures from our weekend in Cape Haze. Next up....Thanksgiving!!!!