Fracture update

No fracture. Hopefully. We took Claxton back to the doctor yesterday. The orthopedic did a very thorough exam of his food and leg. He didn't twitch the whole time he was being examined which was a great indicator of no fracture. We also learned that sometimes fractures don't actually show up on an x-ray until 10-14 days after the injury occurs. So we are going to monitor him a few more days, but we've ceased giving him meds as per doctor's orders. As of this morning he was still limping.

Conversation at dinner tonight

Brian: "We really need to finish setting up your computer."
Me: "Ok, how much more time will it take to complete it?"
Brian: "Not too much longer."
Claxton: "Didn't you break Mommy's computer, Dad? Didn't you?"

Getting a little too brave

It was bound to happen at some point. And it did on Monday. Claxton and one of our neighbors were playing outside running, climbing, swinging, laughing and having a big time. Then Claxton got a little braver than he should have and tried to climb the ladder to the play set while carrying something in one hand. And the inevitable happened. He fell. So the running and climbing and laughing and having a big time came to screeching halt. We checked him over thoroughly at that time and later before bed time. Everything seemed to be just fine. I fully expected a bruise on his knee because I thought he hit the rung when he fell. But it never bruised. He did limp a little when he walked, but that was after we asked him if his knee was okay. So at this point we didn’t know if he was really hurting or just looking for a little sympathy. We decided to go on about our day because there was no swelling or bruising. Today when I went in to get him up he told me his foot hurt. We asked him to walk and again he did with a limp. Then we asked him to run, and he couldn’t. We called the doctor. So he and Brian went off to get it check out and then they were sent to have an x-ray. Apparently the pediatric radiologist saw a line from one angle that he believes is not a fracture but bruised tissue. Our pediatrician got a copy this afternoon and is not yet convinced that it is not a small fracture. So on Friday we will be making our first trip to a pediatric orthopedic. It’s not major, but we are certainly praying that it’s not fractured. He was actually starting to run and jump a little this afternoon so it probably is just an internal bruising. We're still going to have it examined. Better to be safe than sorry.

Family Fun Day at the Circus

Highly recommend the Big Apple Circus for those who have small children who really want to attend a circus. The show was fantastic and we didn't pay big bucks to get in. Kids 3 and under are free at this one. The venue is small and it's true that there are no seats more than 50 feet away from the ring. Claxton and Julia were captivated the whole time - and the show was two hours long. When we asked Claxton what his favorite part was he said, "the doggies doing tricks and the people in the air doing flips."

Here they are - both captivated.

Happy Belated Valentines...

We made cupcakes for Valentine's Day. Claxton always wants to help out in the kitchen, so I try to make something every now and then that he can help with. He's actually becoming quite the little helper. I allowed him to add most of all the ingredients to the bowl as it was mixing and he did so without spilling anything. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased. Red velvet cupcakes, ummm, ummmm good. It goes without saying that you have to taste the batter when baking so I told him he could have one spoon full...yummy!!

The batter must have been totally irresistible because when I finished putting the cupcakes in the oven to bake, I turned around and saw something I just was not expecting...

This is why it's important to unplug the mixer between jobs.

A visit to the dentist

We have been looking for a family dentist and I think we found one today. I could have not been more pleased at how well they worked with Claxton. We prepped him as much as we could beforehand and when we left the house this morning he said he didn't want to go. So we tried to work through that on the drive over. Once we arrived he was just fine. Everyone was friendly and told him exactly what was going to happen each step of the way and he listened very well on when to open and close his mouth. When it was all done he received an excellent report. I asked him what his favorite part was and he said the sippy straw and watching the dinosaur movie from his chair. The first trip was such a success he's already asking when can we go back again.

I intended to take the camera but of course in the rush to get out the door this morning I forgot it. We took a couple of pictures with the phone camera. Not good quality, but works in a crunch.

Getting his teeth examined...



Showing off those pearly whites...

Sweet Girl is Eleven Months Old

Where the heck does the time go? Julia is eleven months old already. She is an adorably happy little girl, minus the squealing that occurs from time to time of course. I'm sure she's just making sure that she's heard and that we have not forgotten about her. Her vocabulary includes "mmmommma" and "da da". She understands kiss and gives them freely. When she wants cheerios, she just squeals...and gets them. It's easy to get a smile out of her and it is beautiful. She still only has two teeth although it seems like the teething process is never ending, but no other teeth have appeared yet. She hasn't met a fruit that she won't eat, yet on the other hand it is rare that she will eat cereal and absolutely will not eat green vegetables. We have not given up on those yet, we camouflage them often to make sure she's getting them. She loves her big brother and her little face just lights up when he comes into the room. She's cruising and we are expecting her to walk at any time, although she has absolutely no problem getting to wherever she wants to go. And everything goes to her mouth so we have to watch her closely with anything on the floor or around some of Claxton's toys. To top it off, she is speedy gonzalez, so we are forever chasing after her and getting things out of her mouth. And can't imagine life without her. We are just so blessed and thankful to have her in our family.

We were watching Claxton and Julia playing on the floor together a couple of days ago. For the most part he plays pretty well with her, except when he's having one of his moments. But we both noticed that it's not going to be long before she is able to fend for herself. I already hate it for Claxton when that day comes. I think it's only going to take one or two times for her to whip him in shape, and then he will be bowing to her every whim. She is sweet, but she is also determined and a little headstrong. When we take her for her 1-year checkup, I'm fully expecting our pediatrician to tell us that she is going to be a more strong-willed child than he's predicting Claxton to be. Boy are we in for a great ride for the next 18 years or so.

Just look at those beautiful curls...

No Pee, No Wii

We are trying to find something that will motivate Claxton to be interested in potty training. We've talked about it and he understands it. This has been going on for months now, but he is just not interested. Now the truth is I am not worried that he will be going to kindergarten and still be in diapers. I'm sure we will have conquered it by then. However, I'm ready now. I've had two children in diapers for almost a year now and I am indeed ready for one of them to be past this stage. We bought underwear sometime ago and had it where he could see it everyday. For goodness sake it has Lightning McQueen on it, what 2-year old little boy would not want to wear that underwear. He wanted to try it on, so we did. And that was the end of that. We have seriously been considering purchasing something (you can call that bribery) that he would want and put in on top of the refrigerator for him to see everyday but not get until he is trained. The problem is he doesn't ask for stuff - at least not yet, so we really don't know what his hot button is that would do the trick.

Every now and then Brian will let Claxton play Wii with him. And there have been days when he gets up from his nap and says "let's Wii, I want to Wii." So this past weekend out of the blue, Brian told him that he had to start using the toilet in order to play the Wii again. He immediately ran to the toilet, pulled his pants down, took his diaper off, stood on the stool and tried. Nothing happened, but he tried. It was hysterical watching this whole thing play out. He did all of this with no help from either of us. He was completely on his own. So now we tell him, "no pee, no wii". We probably will regret this one day soon, but if it works I'll be glad. We didn't have much success today, but we are sticking to our plan. We'll see what happens.

My Vote Is In...

I have cast my vote with confidence here on Super Tuesday...and I vote my husband deserves the Best Husband Ever award. What a fabulous weekend getaway we had. He arranged and planned every little detail and managed to keep it a surprise the whole time.

Here's where he took me. It was truly a magical winter wonderland. We had our own private little cabin nestled behind the main lodge. We each enjoyed a massage both days and a full day of snowmobiling - something we both enjoy immensely.

It was a great time for the two of us to reconnect and for us to have some uninterruped time together again. Although we both missed the kids and couldn't wait to see them again on Sunday night.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Grammy and Grandpa for coming to stay with Claxton and Julia so we could get away. They both miss you already and can't wait for you to come back.

Winter Wonderland

Our private cabin

Surprises...

Have I mentioned that I like surprises? Well, I got one today. My in-laws showed up at my house this afternoon and I had absolutely no idea they were coming. Although I did have a lot of questions for my husband today before he left the house. It went something like this:

Brian: I'm taking Claxton with me today. We are going to have guy time.
Me: Ok....
Me (after a long pause): Why today? It's Wednesday, it's the middle of the week. Are you sure you don't need to be working?
Brian: Not today.
Me: Where are you going?
Brian: Why are you questioning me?
Me: Because you are having guy time in the middle of the week. Where are you going?
Brian: Parker's, Fry's, and the bank.
Me: Oh no, not Fry's again.
Me: How long will you be gone?
Brian: I don't know. A few hours. Enough with the questions already.

I left the house about an hour after them to buy groceries and upon my return they were still not home. I dared not call to check on them. So another hour or so passed and I heard the garage door open. Claxton comes running in the house saying, "Mom, Grammy and Grandpa are here, Grammy and Grandpa are here!!!!". I thought at first maybe he was a little confused but I was wrong.

So the plot thickens. Brian informs me that just the two of us are going away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and that he would give me details as needed. While I'm excited, I'm also worried about leaving Julia as I have not been away from her at all. I have a day to get it all together. I have to pack for cold weather and take a swim suit. We leave early Friday morning and will be coming home Sunday night. That's all I know. Stay tuned...

Fifty is the new Forty

You may have heard that line. It's on a commercial for one of the financial planning companies, I think it's Ameriprise. Anyway, I've probably heard it a dozen times or so but never really paid attention to it. Not until this last week or so when I suddenly realized that I have a 'big' birthday approaching. While that phrase is not the main message of the commercial, it has indeed resonated we me over the past couple of weeks. Fifty is the new forty. I could not agree more. Especially today.

I thought I would share the card that my sweet, loving husband gave me today.

The screaming is baaccckkkkk

And it is more piercing than ever. We had thought that we had moved past this stage. It tapered off around Thanksgiving and really didn't hear much of it throughout the entire holiday season. Maybe all of the fun festivities of the season kept her occupied enough that it was not necessary. For whatever reason, it is back and all of us will be glad when this passes. Everyone here deals with it in their own way. Here's Claxton trying his best to cope with the situation one day during lunch.

Julia screaming to the top of her lungs...

Claxton coping with it...

Not yet

When Claxton talks he often begins his sentences with the words not yet. Here's a couple of examples of things he says:

Not yet it's time to go to bed
Not yet it's time to pick up toys
Not yet it's time to eat
Not yet it's snowing again

Twice in one week

We got snow again this week. Life is good for Claxton! It snowed most of the day so we had enough to build another snowman. In fact, Claxton asked if we could build a real snowman today!!! He could hardly contain himself and Julia just looked on in amusement.

The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry

And so it is. We had big plans to spend the first weekend in January organizing, re-arranging a room or two, decluttering, etc, etc, in an effort to start 2008 off with great orderly fashion. We had a plan of attack. A plan which quickly got derailed. Three of the four of us managed to catch a nasty cold. We took the kids to the doctor only to be informed that they have the preliminary stages of Bronchiolitis. The doc said Julia will probably be clingier and want to be held more than normal. This in fact has been true. He also said we should not allow Claxton to run around too much as it would further irritate the situation. Thankfully we are just coming off Christmas where he received 3 or 4 new DVD's. I think we've seen "Cars" at least ten times this past week. As we were about to leave the doctor's office he told us to be prepared for a very long January. Thanks Doc.

I'm now looking around at all the things I wanted to get done and see how none of it has even been touched. I had visions of all the fun organizational baskets/containers and gadgets that I would so enjoy purchasing and placing in just the right places. Instead, we are now the proud news owners of not one mind you, but three humidifiers. One for each kids room and one for me.

We are on the mend now so we'll see how expeditiously we can execute our plan. I'm hopeful to accomplish everything I had wanted to do by the end of the month. Some of these projects should have been done a long time ago right after we moved in this house. But babies came along and priorities changed. So between changing diapers, feeding the kids, reading to and playing with the kids, laundry, running errands, etc, etc I am determined not to put these projects off any more. I am striving to be more organized in 2008.

Surprise, surprise!!

I love surprises and so does our little man. Today when he got up from napping he had a great surprise awaiting him. We captured his reaction on video but am having trouble getting it posted.

We had snow! He was very excited. Our plans were to go outside tomorrow morning and play, but after listening to the weather report we decided we should let him play on the deck for a few minutes after dinner otherwise he might not get the opportunity at all since it is suppose to rain later tonight. So we wrapped up as best as we could (we really don't have appropriate clothing since it is so rare that we need it) and played on the deck for about five minutes or so. Even though the time was short, Claxton had fun. I'm glad we allowed him to go outside tonight. Seeing him so excited was worth every freezing minute. We built a miniature snowman. It looks more like a duck than a snowman, but it served the purpose and Claxton was thrilled to play even for just a few minutes.

We had 'fat snow flacks' as stated by Claxton

Throwing a snowball at Mommy



Trying to make a snowman



Our miniature snowman



Done! (Dad said it looks more like a duck)



Julia stayed warm and watched from the window

Everybody loves the new train table

A few weeks have gone by since Christmas and Claxton is a little more open to sharing his new toys with Julia. He's starting to find that when he shares everybody is a little happier around here. We are not 100% there with the sharing, but progress is definitely being made. Daddy likes his new train table too...

Dancing Queen

Young and sweet only 10 months old... If anyone has rhythm, it's Julia. There's not a toy that plays music that she doesn't start moving to the beat when she hears it. One day this week I watched her as she pressed the music button on a puppy toy she has over and over, for at least ten to fifteen minutes straight. She was on her knees and happily swayed to all of the tunes over and over and over again. I've noticed that if she is upset, she often calms easily if I just start singing to her.

(I was going to post a video of her dancing but couldn't get it to work. Maybe I'll post it later.)

Claxton reading to Julia

The kids were playing on the floor while I was trying to get a few things done around the house, like the never ending pile of laundry and such. I looked over at them to find Claxton 'reading' Pat the Bunny to Julia. He even made sure to show her the pictures along the way. It was one of Claxton's favorite books when he was Julia's age and it's her favorite now too.

Christmas 2007

Here's a recap of the holidays. It includes days leading up to Christmas, Christmas, and time with our families. It's a little lengthy...sorry about that.