Slacker

So, it's been far too long since my last post, when Bella was turning 6 months! The child will be 9 months this week! :)

So, what have we been up to for the last few months? Here's just a sampling....

Mike, Leslie & Bella went to Seattle for a few days.

Bella learned to crawl (just this weekend actually) and eating tons of cool foods!

Zane started soccer, pre-school and choir---big year for him!

We took a trip to San Antonio, which included the zoo.

And Sea World...the boys still talk about Shamu!

The annual trip to the State Fair for some fried goodies!

And of course lots of other fun, everyday stuff too! Mike has traveled for about 7 weeks straight, so Mama has been a little crazy! :)

Maybe it won't be 3 months until my next post!!!

She Has Arrived

Our baby girl arrived at 8:41 pm. She weighed 7lb 12oz and was 20in long. She is doing fine. Leslie is doing much better now as well. Her blood pressure has stablized and she is resting.

Zane and Eli were glad to welcome their baby sister. Eli was a little unsure but Zane was super excited.

We're Back . . .

We’ve been back in Texas for two weeks. The new job is going well and the house hunting adventure might be coming to a close. We had found a home in McKinney that we really liked but it was a pre-foreclosure and the bank was not in any hurry to make a decision on our offer. So this weekend we hit the streets again and found a home in Allen that we like. It is close to our previous home and the neighborhood is great. We also have several friends in and around the neighborhood. If everything goes well we will close in three weeks. We haven’t scheduled the official move from Philadelphia but it will be coming soon.

Zane and Eli are having a blast spending time with family. They are adjusting well. Zane keeps asking why we have to get in the car and drive so far to everything. They are enjoying that we are in an apartment with a pool. Today we went to church and were able to visit with friends and Eli successfully stayed in the nursery for the first time. We were a little worried because he really hasn’t been away from Leslie. Our little boy is growing up.

Texas, Our Texas

We’re heading back to the Lone Star State. And no, it’s not just for a visit. We are moving home. We could not be more excited. We’ve enjoyed our time in Philadelphia, but this chapter of our life will soon come to a close. We do consider the time we’ve been here an adventure. Zane has enjoyed living the city-life and will have many great memories. Philadelphia is all little Eli has ever even known. We don’t know if he will truly remember anything from his time here, but we will have lots of pictures to share with him when he’s older.

Mike has been given a great opportunity to work for a major retailer in the metroplex. So far, they have been gracious and welcoming to him and our entire family. He is excited about making the transition into his new role. And we are all excited to be back among our family and many dear friends. We can’t wait to reconnect with you all!!!

Edited to add: While we won't exactly be on the 75 corridor, we'll be close. We plan on looking for houses in the McKinney/Frisco area.

There Will Be Blood

As a parent I think one of the hardest things to deal with is your child being sick or hurt. I didn’t realize the truth in this until recently. As a baby, Zane was sick often with earaches and colds. As first time parents we would get alarmed with a spike in his temperature, a funny sounding cough, or excessive fussiness but we were pretty rationale and low key. Along came Eli and I think second child syndrome kicked in because we didn’t get as alarmed. We still attended to the boys as normal but it was more routine. We knew what needed to be done and did it. We went to the doctor when we needed help. Both boys have had cuts and bruises along the way. They will be boys.

Now to the blood. . . Zane was playing in the kitchen as he often does. On this particular Saturday afternoon he had a pair of kitchen tongs that he was pretending to pick berries or tomatoes with. I was washing something in the sink and all of a sudden I hear this scream and I turn to see him dancing around grabbing his finger. I look over at him and I start to see blood. I try to comfort him thinking that maybe he just pinched his finger or something but he is screaming like he is dying. The routine first aid father figure gear shifts into panicked dad that has a son that could have cut his finger off.

At this point Zane is “gushing” blood. (defined as non stop red blood dripping from a screaming child) I tell Leslie that this may be serious because it has not stopped bleeding and Zane is usually not one to cry non-stop once he has the necessary attention and comfort. Let me insert a time reference for you. It seemed like 20 minutes of bleeding but I guess a screaming child and red blood has a way of multiplying 5 into 20. After I couldn’t control the bleeding I uttered these words for the first time since the birth of our children: “I think we need to go to the emergency room, this is serious, and it is a major gash that may need stitches.” Zane’s reaction as he screams and blood drips, “I can’t feel my finger”. The thought running through my head “My son is going to lose one of his fingers”. Of course this was not vocalized because my rational wife says, “Just apply pressure” then scoops Zane up and applies pressure. Within a few minutes Zane is fine, a band-aid is applied and we go about our day.

What caused such a low key dad and son to give an Oscar winning performance? I’ve thought about this over the last couple of days and have no response. I’m just glad to have a wife who knows that there will be blood.

Lancaster County with Granny

We went to Reading, PA and to Lancaster County, PA. It's not a trip to Lancaster unless you stop at Kitchen Kettle Village to decorate a cookie!

Granny & Zane decorating a cookie.

Zane enjoying some birch beer (like root beer). We stop at this Amish Farm and buy the birch beer.

We stopped at a new place where we enjoyed some ice cream, playing on the playground and feeding the animals!

Unplugged

We are officially on a TV sabbatical. At first it wasn’t by choice because our TV gave up on us, I’m sure from overuse. Actually it was 9 years old and had been warning us for sometime now. However, after much discussion we have decided not to buy a new TV. At first there were some withdrawals from not being able to watch some of our favorite shows but we’ve had the infamous writers strike and a trip to Texas to help us cope through the first couple of weeks. We are officially at day number 39 and counting. We cancelled our cable but are hanging on to our online movie rentals--since we do have a computer.

What have I learned during this transition? 1) A new big screen plasma with all the bells and whistles that my heart could desire doesn’t come cheap. If I give it some time maybe I’ll convince my self that a television that has images as tall as my children is not a necessity in life. 2) As a family we’ve gained a huge chunk of time back in our lives that we didn’t realize was missing. We’ve become more oriented and tuned into each other instead of the box in the center of the room. We play games, talk about our days, read, play outside and just rest. We’ve also been able to reorient our living room. 3) It is not necessary to keep up with the Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, House, American Idols and Wolf Blitzer’s. (There are many, many, many other shows that filled our time) The world around us will go on and so should we. 4) I don’t feel as isolated as I thought I would. The water cooler talk that I thought I would miss really is very minimal. Again more time in my day. 5) Children really are like a sponge. Around the time that our television was going out we had been watching a lot of CNN and there were several election ads, not to mention the fact that we were in Texas just before the primary elections. Needless to say Zane now does a really good imitation of Barack Obama. Whenever he sees a picture of him online or a billboard he says in a deep voice “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”

I’m sure we’ll have a television again some day but for now we are enjoy being unplugged.

Michael

Happy New Year

It’s been a while since the last blog, but like everyone else, we’ve been busy with the holidays and family visiting. Mom joined us a week before Christmas and we had a great time. We went to NYC for two days and really enjoyed all of the beautiful decorations and hustle and bustle. We went too Macy’s and got to see the most wonderful Santa! It was such a great experience. A terribly long line but it went really quickly thanks to the inventive people at Macy’s who have multiple “Santa rooms”…and the kids don’t have a clue. They also have a great winter wonderland that you get to wind through while in line. You can see pics of the great Santa on our home site. Neither of the boys were excited about Santa once they were there, but it made for cute pictures (which by the way, they let you take with your own camera….much unlike other places).
Then Dad came just before Christmas. It was so wonderful to have them both here to spend the holiday with us. For Christmas Eve, our church had a candlelight service and impromptu Christmas pageant. Mike and the boys had cute homemade costumes but we got there a bit late and only Zane got to participate. So that explains the strange looking costume Eli is wearing on Christmas Eve!
Then, Zane had a blast decorating cookies for Santa! We planned to do homemade cookies, but just flat ran out of time. So we opted for slice and bakes and I made some homemade frosting…supposed to be red, but how on earth do you ever get it to turn red instead of pink?
The boys really enjoyed Christmas morning and loved all of the gifts. Zane is in love with all things Thomas so he loved his train sets. He also loves his guitar from Granny and Pa. Eli loves his Exploration Station and they both love the puzzles, books, tent and animals.
The rest of the week is a kind of modge podge of activities. We did finally get Mom to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Four trips later and we finally made it! We also had a fun day in Lancaster County. We can never get enough of the sweet slow-paced lifestyle of the Amish…and the yummy sweets don’t hurt much either! We also did our New Year’s Eve tradition one night early and headed out to the Cheesecake Factory. For the past several years, we’ve gone with Mom and Dad to Texas Land and Cattle for some steak, but they just don’t have TxLC here in Pennsylvania! So, next best thing….cheesecake.
A very low key NY’s Eve and then the Mummers Parade ( www.mummers.com ) on Jan 1, 2008. This is something we will not soon forget. We had no clue about even what a Mummer was, but it turned out to be a whole day blast. Then Mom and Dad headed back to Tejas in the afternoon. Boo Hoo! We’re trying to get back into the swing of things on our own here. Of course the boys (and us) miss Granny and Pa.
Big news is that Zane has stopped sucking his thumb!!! He’s been greatly attached since 12 months and he stopped in just one day. My dad showed him his fingers and told him to not suck his thumb or it might fall of like his did. (Dad severed his fingers the day before Zaney was born and lost part of his pinky). I guess this really scared Zane, ‘cause we haven’t caught his thumb in his mouth once!