Thanksgiving 2009

We have Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family every year. My grandmother, "Granny" ("Pa" passed away several years ago), lives out in the country, and growing up, we loved the freedom that came with being there. Mitch was no exception. He had a wonderful time running around outside with his cousins, who he only sees about once a year. You might think that would make him a little stand-offish, but not Mitch! :)

Mitch and his cousins Brody, Tyler, and Aiden playing Army with sticks they found, all wearing my grandfather's hats! Good thing they were there since none of us moms brought any...and it was REALLY cold!

Mitch and Brody sitting on the stairs. Pa did all of this stonework himself many years ago!

Jake and his cousin hoping to escape to the outdoors with their brothers

The red heads stuck together! Jake hanging out with my cousins's hubby, Zack (left), and my brother, Uncle Josh (right)

I told you there is height in my family...I'm just the runt!

A rare photo of me, Daddy, and Josh And an even rarer one of all of us. I think it may actually be the only one ever!

Left to Right: Gary, Jake, Me, Mitch (look low), Leah (with Baby Beccah in her belly), Josh, Kathy (Dad's wife), and Daddy
Granny and her kids

Left to Right: Daddy, Debbie, Granny, Teresa, and Vickie

On Friday, we all went to Mom's and played. Gary brought the smoker, and he and Josh played with it. Mitch brought his football, and he and Jake played outside in Mom's big backyard. Mom, Leah, and I had a great time watching all of the boys! Notice the big swing in weather...it was perfect weather on Friday, after being so cold on Thursday. Gotta love Tennessee weather in the Fall (and Spring)!

Mitch playing football, and Jake pushing one of his toys

After a while, Uncle Josh decided the kids needed to learn to climb a tree, so he helped them into one of the trees in the backyard. He saw fun...I saw photo op! I love the pictures I got of them in the tree! Check out Mitch climbing in Crocs...hmmm...maybe not the best shoes for climbing trees!

"Look at me!"

"No hands! I'm Superman!"

My little poser!

Don't ask...I have no idea what he's doing, but I love it!

Uncle Josh had as much fun as the kids did!

Are you kidding me!

Okay....first let me say that this is a post out of order. Let me also say that this is a post for me more than anything else. I use this blog as a sort of journal to keep up with all that the kids do, and this is one I want a record of.

My mom has been staying with us for about a week and a half, while her floors were repaired and refinished. Thursday night, after putting Jake to bed, Mom was is in the living room and I was in the office, and Jake "escaped" from his room. He was very sneaky about it, too. He snuck into Mimi's room and got "candy" out of her closed overnight case. Unfortunately, that candy was actually Synthroid (thyroid medicine) and he finished off the bottle (16 pills). He also got into one of her multi-vitamins and the capsule broke open in his mouth. He didn't much care for the taste of that one and started crying, which is when we found out that he was out of bed...and that he was eating something. It took us a little while to figure out what it was, though.

Once we realized what he had done, we called the pediatrician and poison control. They said that it was not a toxic dose, and that we didn't need to take him to the ER. So, Jake slept with me and Gary that night (what a little snuggle bug!), and I took him to the pedriatrician on Friday morning. They checked him out and then drew some blood. They had a hard time getting the needle in his vein, and they ended up having to try both arms. The first time they stuck him, he didn't even flinch. Then they had to move the needle around trying to get into the vein, and he was fine for a little while, and then he got upset. They got the second arm pretty quickly, but the damage was done by then. As soon as he was done, though, and he got a sticker, he was a happy little dude again. All the poor little guy wanted was some fries, so we ran through McDonalds, and got him a Happy Meal. Poor thing, he fell asleep before he even could eat his fries!

He never did show any of the symptoms they told me to expect and looked perfectly healthy to the doctor. By the time we got the bloodwork back I was pretty much convinced that he hid the pills instead of taking them. WRONG! The bloodwork showed that he definitely took them!

Because of the pills, his thyroid was compensating for the excess and not producing whatever hormone it is supposed to...which is a good thing, and why he wasn't showing any symptoms. I had to take him back on Tuesday (yesterday) do the labs again to see how it was progressing. Bless his little heart, he started screaming as soon as we walked out of the waiting room and into the office! He remembered... They knew which arm to try this time though, and it was over very quickly. He screamed the whole time though until his was done and got his sticker!

The labs this time showed that the pills were basically out of his system, but his thyroid hasn't kicked back in yet. His doctor said he is progressing exactly as he would expect. Now I have to take the poor little guy BACK AGAIN on Tuesday to do it all over again. The hope is that his thyroid will back to functioning at full speed then! I'll keep you all posted.

Long story short, though...HE'S OKAY and quite a trooper...not to mention a stinker!

As for Mom, she went back home this morning, about 3 hours ago, and I already miss her! She was such a huge help. She did my laundry, kept my house in perfect order, cooked dinners, played with my kids, kept them while I worked, and did diaper duty for a week and a half. Not to mention, kept me company! It was so nice to have another adult in the house, especially one I love! Thanks, Mom! I love you!

Random Fall Photos

Stacey, Lindsay, and me in line waiting to see New Moon!

Cooper and Jake playing at Cooper's B-day Party

Jake still likes my headbands

Mitch's Pre-K class at their Thanksgiving Program

Mitch and Lily (he says he is going to marry Lily)

Mitch (aka "Howling Coyote")

Jake wearing my boots

Alex driving Jake and Mitch in Mitch's Power Wheels (I'm sure Alex will love me for this one!)

Jake playing in the "jumpy" that Mimi got him for his birthday

Mitch running in the backyard. I just love this picture of pure joy!

Jake's 2 Year Update

On November 10th, I took Jake for his 2-year well visit. He weighed 31 pounds and was 36 inches long. That put him at about the 80th-85th percentile in weight and about the 90th percentile in height. Even the doctor keeps asking me where that is coming from! Apparently he takes after his Uncle Josh in more that just hair color. He is perfectly healthy and happy little boy!

I have been somewhat concerned about his speech. He's not talking as much I feel like he should, so I asked his doctor about it. He felt like he was a little delayed but not enough so to be overly concerned. He referred me to Pediatric Speech Pathologist for an evaluation, but said there was no rush. So I waited until we got through the chaos of the holidays and took him.

She tested his receptive language (what he understands) and his expressive language (what he actually says). He tested ahead in the receptive and a few months behind in his expressive. She said that the gap between the two told her two things: 1) We notice the delay in speech more because he understands so much that we expect him to be able to talk more, and 2) He is not generally delayed, which means that most likely he will have to have to some sort of speech therapy along the way. It is definetely something he is struggling with.

She felt also felt that there was no rush, since we are not currently seeing any behavioral issues associated with frustration from not being able to communicate. Gary and I decided we would wait until he is 2 1/2 and see how is doing at that point. We feel like he will benefit more from the therapy when is a little older and a little more capable of focussing for a longer period of time. If it gets to be a problem behaviorally before then, we'll start sooner. She did give me some suggestions of things that I can do at home to help him, and we've been working on that.

Jake doesn't complete his words. For example, bed is "beh", Mitch is "Mi", dog is "dah", and so on. He does have some words that he says very clearly, such as "Mommy", "Daddy", "Mimi", "Pa", and "Papa". Most of his words (other than names), are one syllable words. He also doesn't put multiple words together yet, which most two year olds do.

Aside from his speech, he is a perfectly normal little 2-year old, in every way! You've heard the phrase "Terrible Twos"? Before Jake, I thought it was a myth. Mitch never hit that phase. Jake...is making up for it! The child is into EVERYTHING!!!! And he has more energy than any one person should have! It's impossible to be mad at him, though. He still has that sweet little smile that will get him out of trouble every time. He still likes to be carried, and I'm just sucker enough to do it way too often. He plays great. He loves other kids. He still loves to eat. He loves to play ball and race cars. He has started wanting to play PlayStation and Wii with other boys, and they let him (with a fake controller). He is definitley a morning person. Regardless of what time he goes to bed, he's up by 6:30 every morning (occassionally I get lucky enough to get 7:00am). He and Mitch are in the room together, and they both love it. He is quite the little copy-cat. He is really good about going down for his nap, but not so much for bedtime. He usually take about a 2 hour nap, with one or two 3 hour naps a week. He almost always wakes up from his nap grumpy and isn't happy until after he eats his dinner. A snack just doesn't cut it for him. He still likes to wear my shoes, and it still drives his daddy crazy! He is very loud! As a matter of fact....he is JUST LIKE HIS DADDY! :)

Jake Turns 2!

Well, 4 months ago he turned 2, but who's counting?

What do you do for a 2 year old birthday party? PANCAKES & PJS'!!!! Is there anything that Jake likes more than food? I don't think so!

Jake had 5 of his buddies come (and some of Mitch's...most have siblings that are friends with Mitch) play and eat with him. I have to say, those are some of the best 2 year olds I have ever seen in my life!

On to the pictures...

Mommy and her not-so-baby Jake! (Seriously, could he look any LESS like me?)

Mimi and Jake
Jungle Pancakes with all of the "fixin's"!

Birthday Boy with Mommy & Daddy
(and his sippy cup, of course!)

Jungle Pancake Creations

Jake's B-day Cake

So cute and so easy!

Time to blow out the candles! We didn't catch a picture of it, but he actually did blow out his own candles. We couldn't believe it!

Mimi bought him a "bouncy" for his birthday, and we set it up for the kids to play in. It was a gorgeous fall day! So, after we stuffed them full of sugar, we sent them outside to jump and run around. Amazingly, no one got sick. This is one of Jake and Cooper playing.

After the party....enjoying the wrapping from his presents....isn't that such a typical two-year old? :)

WRONG!

When I finally caved and let Gary talk me into Titans PSLs, we agreed that 4 seats would be plenty (and my Mom got two a few rows down from us). I mean, by the time Mitch and Jake are old enought to go and really enjoy it, Jack and Alex will be out of the house, right? WRONG!

One weekend, we didnt' have anyone to keep Jake, so we decided to tak him with us. He's still free and Mom let ustake Mitch with her second ticket. So...we had all 4 of our boys! We took two cars, knowing that Jake wouldn't last the entire game, and I would leave early with him and maybe Mitch. Again...WRONG!

We tailgated for several hours before the game, which the kids LOVED! Jack and Alex have several frineds who also tailgate in the same lat that we do, so they all played together. They even let Mitch and Jake play with them...they are all such great kids! When it was time, we headed to the stadium, and Gary sat in our seats with ALL FOUR BOYS, and I got to sit with Mom and not have to take care of any kids! (What a hubby, huh?!?) Jake and Mitch both lasted the entire game...and every game after that! Yep...it went so well, that we took all four boys to the rest of the games this season...And decided that we need two more PSLs, since Jake won't be free this next year, and Mom didn't really buy the extra ticket for us to bum every week!

As for tailgaiting, a while back I teased you with a new addition to our tailgate party. For Gary's birthday, his dad (Papa Jack) and brother (Matt) fixed up a smoker (that Papa Jack built) for him. It's absolutely huge...and AWESOME! Of course, I was certain that we couldn't possibly need that much room and would never fill it up...it's just too big! Again...WRONG! I should have know better, huh?

So...in a nutshell, we had a great time tailgating and going to Titans games with the whole family and some great friends. It was a good move, and I'm glad I finally caved...but don't tell Gary! :)

"The" Smoker

Mitch, Jake and Alex playing BAGO (or Cornhole...whichever you call it)

Mitch staking out the prime seat in the house (or tent)

All of the boys playing football

This is what happens when you leave the kid alone with his Daddy! :)

Our first game as a family

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (a.k.a. Alex and Mitch)

My guys...enjoying the game (do you see them? right behind the rail)

Group shot! (you have no idea how many tries it took to get one decent shot)

Ahhhhh...me and my hubby!

Redneck Paper Towel Holder

More of the boys playing football

Gary and Jeff (the cooks) before the "new addition"...look at those tiny little grills...how did we ever manage?

Mimi and Jake at his first tailgate

Mitch hanging with the big boys!