I took Caden to the doctor today. He's had a cough, a lot of congestion, and for a while he was choking a lot. I was pretty much over-reacting though. His lungs, ears, and throat all were clear so it's just a plain old cold. It's horrible though because he's so small I can feel all of the congestion when he breathes. Hopefully he'll get over it soon though.

Corban has been staying with Craig and Diana the last two Wednesday nights while Johnny, Caden and I have been at small group. They have a HUGE dog, he's a Goldendoodle which is a standard poodle and golden retriever mix. Anyway, Crosby gets all of Corban's "leftovers" that he drops along the way so he loves to see Corban come to play. Today after his nap Corban was eating a cheese stick and dropped some of it on the floor. He looked at me, put his hands up in the air, and said, "doggy?" Like, where is that doggy that comes and eats all of the stuff I drop on the floor? He kept pointing to the cheese and saying that. He's repeating just about everything we say now too and just now he walked up to me, and kissed at me until I leaned down to give him a kiss then he grabbed my hand and said, "Five" until I gave him a high five. Yesterday I asked him where Nana and Poppy live, he said, "tucky." I think that's just about all that's new in Corban world for now.

We had a great visit with Nana and Poppy this weekend. They got here Thursday night, Friday we went to a pumpkin patch. Corban got to go on a pony ride and a hay ride. Both of them were a rip-off as far as what you got for what you paid, but the look on his face when he got up on that pony's back was absolutely priceless! We didn't get any pumpkins though. We don't do halloween, so we weren't going to be making jack-o-lanterns out of them and it was honestly just too cold out there to deal with picking one out and paying for it. I'm hoping maybe we can come to KY in October next year to go to Evans Orchard and the Tuttle hayride. Saturday I had to go to Wal-Mart to replace my phone. It was a long time in coming, but my old one finally broke. Then we took Nana and Poppy out to dinner for both of their birthdays. It was actually on Poppy's birthday, but Nana's is coming up soon. We went to the Texas Roadhouse and had a nice steak. This is where Johnny and I were going to go out on our date a few weeks ago when everyone ended up getting sick.

Monday was the usual crazy with both boys and babysitting and getting groceries. I end up doing a lot of running around on Mondays. Yesterday was pretty nice though because Johnny ended up being around most of the day. He's going fishing on Friday though, and I'm not looking forward to that. He'll leave around 4 am and probably won't be back until the rest of us are all in bed. Tonight is small group, our last one before the end of the year. I really enjoy our group, but it's getting harder and harder to find someone to keep Corban and I hate to ask the same people to do it all of the time. We're lucky people around here love our kids so much though. Sunday morning Craig showed up at the door with a toy for the boys. He was acting like it was no big deal, but I could tell he was really excited about it. Well, I've got to go clean up a mess Corban made last night. Happy Wednesday all!

We skipped MOPS this morning. I wasn't going to take Corban because he had no business being in the nursery with his cough and runny nose and Johnny's got a lot going on this afternoon, so we just stayed home. We were watching a show this morning though and Corban fell asleep sitting on my lap. He's been asleep for about an hour now on the couch. I hope this isn't the only nap he gets today. I need to do lots of laundry before Mom and Dad get here. I'm hoping that they're going to get on the road soon. Mom had some office work to do for CopperWood and Dad is getting a massage for his birthday. Happy Birthday Daddy! He's 62 on Saturday. Oh, have I put in here that my Aunt Phyllis is engaged? I've never met the guy she's dating, Mom and Dad just did at the Wilson reunion a few weeks ago. They haven't set a date yet. Mom is bringing pears to can. She got a bunch at Mike and Martha's and hasn't had time to get them done yet, so we're hoping to get to them this weekend and she will have to share!

Took Corban to the doctor yesterday morning. He has a bit of an ear infection, so he's on medication for 10 days. Since he's 19 months old and this was his first "sick" visit, I feel pretty good. The doctor was impressed that this was his first too. One good thing about me getting sick, I lost my last 3 Caden pounds! Now I need to lose 13 more to be at my pre-Corban weight and 15 more after that to be at my goal weight! And don't anybody even ask, I'm not telling you what my goal weight is. In case that doesn't answer your question Sherry, yes, I threw up. Since I got sick last Thanksgiving when I found out about Caden I've gotten sick twice. I think once I started "letting" myself get sick, I do it a lot easier now.

Yesterday Johnny was dressing Caden and I couldn't believe how big he's gotten! I can't believe that my baby is already growing up! Did I already say that we're getting a family picture for Nanny when we're in for Thanksgiving? It's not really the whole family, it's just her great-grandkids. So it's from Whitney who is 12 or 13, Blake (5), Skylar and Grace (3), Corban (1 1/2), Annabelle (5 months), Caden (4 months). That's going to be one crazy photo shoot! It's a secret from Nanny for Christmas, so if you see her don't spill the beans.

Oh, more exciting news. Mom and Dad sold their house! The couple is from New York and I think they have horses. They looked at it sometime last month I think, made an offer yesterday, they haggled a little, and they're going to close in the middle of December.

Now I'm sick too. Yesterday Craig and Diana were going to keep the boys and Johnny and I were going to go out to dinner and maybe a movie. I woke up not feeling great, but thought I would be OK by dinner time. Not so much. I "got sick" at the church while I was doing the bulletin. After that I just felt yucky and Corban wasn't doing much better either. He just wandered around and fussed most of the day. Last night I even sent Johnny to the guest bedroom so that I could take care of Corban if he got up in the night and so that I wouldn't keep Johnny awake being restless. Corban slept through the night though - actually the longest he's ever slept at one time. Today we're feeling somewhat better, but obviously didn't go to church. If he was still the only kid in nursery, I maybe would have thought about it, but didn't want to make everybody else sick. I'm letting him watch A LOT of cartoons this weekend. I just feel so sorry for him. Hopefully this week we can get better. Other than babysitting not much is going on until Thursday - my Mom and Dad are coming up. Saturday is Dad's birthday so I'm glad they'll be here for that.

Corban is sick today. He fell asleep in the car on the way home last night and went straight to bed. He woke up at 2:30 but we didn't check on him, he went back to sleep pretty quickly. Then he woke up at 5:30 and when I went to check on him he had soaked through his diaper then I realized that he had a fever. He had a temp of 101.8 this morning, but it's already gone up to 102.8 this afternoon. He's down for a nap right now, so I hope that does him some good. He's not thrown up or anything, so that is good, but I feel so sorry for the little guy. Caden pretty much slept through the night last night. He woke up at about 6 because I had brought Corban into our room and he was crying. I fed Caden and he went right back down until about 10 so I was glad to have that time to just focus on Corban. Pray for us, it's bad enough having one sick one in the house, but Caden still requires so much attention that it's hard to do it both.

Caden slept through the night last night! I fed him at 9 and he went to sleep on the couch, we went up to bed at 11 and for some reason I thought he was waking up and needed to eat, but he wouldn't and when I looked at the clock it was only 12 so I put him back down and didn't hear anything from him until he woke up at a little after 7! Of course Coban woke up at 5 and was awake until 6. Hopefully we'll get both of them sleeping through the night soon. Yesterday I went to pick up pictures at JC Penny and did a little shopping on their clearance racks. I bought Johnny two shirts and me 4 - and paid $19.05. All but two of them were short sleeves, but dang, that's a good deal! Corban didn't feel great last night. He spit up a little bit at the mall, something he hasn't done for a LONG time and then he just looked weak. He was perfectly content to just sit on our laps most of the evening after he had dinner. Tonight we've got small group so Corban goes to see Patti and her girls and Caden comes with us. I need to read my chapter, but I'm not sure when I'm going to get that done since Nina comes in an hour and I've got to get her to dance, come- home and eat dinner and then go pick Nina up and take her home and then come back here for about 15 minutes before we leave. Wednesdays are crazy, but once it's over I feel like I can breathe pretty easy.

Coban says, "All gone" all of the time now. He watched a helicopter fly over this morning and when it was gone said, "all gone," and then asked for more. I think that the DVR has spoiled him; I don't think he realizes there's not a rewind button for life. Wouldn't that be cool though?

What a week! We spent most of the week in Williamsport with Johnny's family. Kenan is tiny - Johnny's calling him "mosquito." Caden is 6 weeks older I think and is literally almost twice his size. Kenan is growing though and doing very well health wise. He looks just like Abby and Cameron and seems to be a pretty content little boy. While we were there we took a long walk on the "rails to trails" it's old railroad tracks that have been cleared and made into really nice walking/biking paths. We took all of 4 kids and 6 adults - that meant a regular stroller, a double stroller and a wagon. At one point all of the kids were out and all of those things were empty. The next day we went to John's hunting camp. Corban got to "catch" his first fish. He liked to help reel it in and look at it for a minute, then he would say "bye bye." Johnny would throw it back and Corban would say "more." He was one tired boy at the end of the trip. He hadn't taken a decent nap the whole time and didn't sleep well at night. It has taken us until today to start feeling normal again.

When we got home Johnny had a sermon to write then he had to visit a family of a member who had passed away. Yesterday was church and the viewing and Johnny had to write the sermon for the funeral. This morning he's been up working on that sermon and getting ready for the funeral which is at 10. I'm not going because of the boys and Nina is getting here at noon. It's going to be a long day, so I'm extra thankful that both boys slept well.

Corban is pretty much eating on his own now. He sits in the booster seat at the table and has his own plate and utensils. I dreaded doing it, but he actually does pretty well. He ate lasagna the other day and hardly spilled any. He has also started singing this little song sometimes, he says, "Daddy, Mama, baby, paci" or whatever else comes to mind. The other day it was "Mama tractor." Caden has been cooing and smiling so much lately. Johnny and I think he's going to be much more expressive than Corban. We think his highs are going to be higher, but his lows are going to be lower too. Kim, I have a picture of both of them together now. I'll try to get it downloaded today. Well, my little one is fussing. Have a good week all!

Crazy Day

OK, I have no idea of how that other post with nothing on it got on here, so just ignore it. It's been a CRAZY day today so far. Corban got up in the night, so we all slept in a little - it was almost 8 before I got up and got in the shower. Everybody got ready and we headed out by 9:30. I dropped Corban off at Bonnie's so that Johnny and I could both go to Caden's doctor's appointment. Bless Bonnie's heart, when I dropped him off, I just asked how long I could leave him. I realized I had very few long sleeve outfits for either one of the boys. Anyway, we took Caden to the doctor. Everything looks fine. He's 12 lbs 7 oz which puts him in the 75th percentile for his age and means he's gained 2 lbs 3 oz since his 1 month check up. His head circumference is just 15th percentile too - it's gone from 30th to 20th to 15th - that's why I call him "pea head." After the appointment I took Johnny back to his truck that we had left in town and fed the baby in the car while we waited for his lunch appointment. Then I headed to the mall. Someone gave us $50 in gift cards at Macy's so I went there first. I just bought 1 pair of pants because everything is so expensive there! I know it's basically free when you're using gift cards, but when I can get the exact same things someplace else for much cheaper, it just galls to have to "spend" the money. Anyway, I did much better at Children's Place and JC Penny - I do love those two stores. I bought Corban a pair of shoes for less than $1.50 plus I had taken back a few things so I didn't actually spend any of my money there.

After all of that I picked Corban up and brought him straight home to put him down for a nap - a very late nap. He's sleeping now but I'm going to have to wake him up early because Nina and I will have to leave before 4 to go to her dance class. Johnny's gone all day with visitations so I'm on my own.

Both boys were WONDERFUL last night at Luke and Nadine's. Corban didn't get into anything and Caden was content most of the time. It was such a pleasant evening AND the Steelers won!

Today Corban did the cutest thing. He has decided lately that he doesn't want to sit in his high chair, so he sits in the portable high chair booster seat thing. Today he was eating leftover soup beans for lunch and doing it completely on his own. Johnny was holding the bowl still for him and he was using the spoon and doing a good job. He had a little on his face, so I got a napkin and wiped him off a little and put the napkin down beside his bowl. After the next bite, Corban picked up the napkin and wiped his mouth off himself! I think he must have bit it a little because he had pieces of it in his teeth, but still, it was the most adorable thing ever! Yesterday we went to the park for a while and it was just really sinking in what a big boy he's becoming. I can't believe he's growing up so fast. It makes me even more sad to think that at this time next year I'll be saying how fast Caden is growing up.

I think we're going to Luke and Nadine's for the beginning of the game tonight. I need to think of something to take over, but I'm not sure what. It doesn't start until 8:15, so I'm sure we're not going to stay for the whole thing, probably not even the whole first half. It's a good thing they live so close, we'll just put both of the boys in the stroller and head out whenever we need to. Tomorrow is Caden's 2 month check up. He gets shots this time, which I am absolutely not looking forward to, especially since we're going to leave for Williamsport Tuesday afternoon. Johnny's family hasn't gotten to see Caden yet, and we haven't seen Kenan yet either. We'll not be coming back until Saturday, which is hard, but I've already got the bulletin to the point that I can print it if I have to - just not sure how Johnny's going to get the sermon finished.

Corban is saying two words together now. Yesterday morning during breakfast he told me that it was "all gone." He's been saying that a lot now, but yesterday he also said, "baby paci" meaning, Caden is crying so stick a paci in that baby's mouth. And he walked by the pack-n-play and said, "bye baby." I can't believe what a little boy my baby is becoming! And then when I look at how much Caden has already changed in the last 9 weeks I'm blown away!

We went Thursday to get pictures of the boys. I can't wait to get them back. Corban held Caden sitting on the floor and kissed the top of his little head - too cute.

We just got back from the park. I was glad to get both boys outside for a little bit. When we got back I fed Caden and got cornbread in the oven for dinner while Johnny and Corban played more out in the yard. We're having soup beans and cornbread for dinner - even if I don't like the idea of colder weather, I do like the food better!