Wesley, Duke and the fall down the stairs

(I typed this all up before I got sick last weekend with the stomach flu - YUCK!)

Thank you so much for the prayers for my Grandpa. My Dad is down in Florida right now with him and my Grandma, and I hear that Grandpa is doing better. He is out of the hospital, so that alone has to help his spirits. He has chemo again though soon, so please continue to pray for his strength and that the cancer is eradicated.

So I have a crazy little story from this morning...I brushed Wesley's teeth and then we were headed downstairs to get our coats on to leave for story time at the library. Wesley started throwing a fit about something, and he put himself in time out on the top stair (don't even get me started on the time outs). I stepped around him and went downstairs into the kitchen. I had to ask him several times if he was done with the time out, and finally he said yes. He started to come down the stairs backwards, and I told him to turn around and go down the stairs properly. As he turned around, I think he stumbled or caught his toe on the carpet and started to fall. Of course time slows down as I reach toward the stairs (even though I was about 20 feet away from the bottom of the stairs), and suddenly...Duke (one of our dogs) was running up the stairs and Wes stopped when he bumped into Duke about halfway down the stairs (Duke had stopped running and stood still). As I got to the bottom of the stairs, Duke just stood up, ran down the stairs and went to lie on the sofa. Wes cried for a minute, but I think it was because he was scared not hurt.

Now I have no idea what happened - did Duke realize Wesley was falling and stop him or it is a crazy coincidence??

How excited am I that a new season of "What Not to Wear" is on?!?! There aren't too many shows that I can watch again and again and again, but I never get tired of Clinton Kelly and Stacy London. I am a bit sad though that Nick Arrojo (the hairstylist) has left the show because I don't think the new guy does hair as well. More than anything though, I love to see the confidence that people have when they wear clothes that fit and are flattering to their figure.

Happy birthday, Mom!!!

what is going on here in our lives

The weather has warmed up significantly here in good ol' Ohio. The temperature is actually above freezing and it feels like a heat wave!! And speaking of warmer weather, I've purchased the shoes below. These are definitely not going out in the snow shoes. How much do I love shoes?!

On a completely unrelated note - We also have some sickness going around. Wesley has been complaining of stomach pain for the past few days. He hasn't thrown up (thankfully), and then Damon said the other day he was having stomach pain as well. Today he came home from work early. We were hanging out, and suddenly he ran to the bathroom. Unfortunately he didn't make it...what is even more unfortunate (for me at least) is that he had been drinking blue Gatorade. Let's just say that we are going to need to need new wallpaper in the bathroom. So now I'm trying to clean the house and spray Lysol EVERYWHERE! I am determined that I am not going to get sick and Wesley isn't going to get more sick than he already is!

I haven't discussed something yet here on the blog, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because typing it makes it more real...my Grandpa has cancer, and he's in the hospital right now for chemotherapy. Please pray for him, my Grandma, his doctors and nurses, and just for our family as a whole. I haven't been able to talk to him, but I hope to be able to tomorrow. He isn't doing well, and it just breaks my heart. Thank you so much for your prayers - it means the world to us!!!

snowing here in Ohio (and my dislike of actually being out in the snow)

It's been snowing here in Ohio like crazy! I think we have about 6 inches now and it's still coming down. Personally I have loved it because I've been able to hang out here at home in my pajamas (except for today when I went to work). I wasn't too excited to get out in the bitter cold (the wind chill was below zero when I left this morning), but the roads weren't too bad. I have to say though that even though the roads were decent, I still drove cautiously. A woman in her big ol' Cadillac Escalade though rode the back of my Accord for a few miles. When we got to the area where the road becomes two lanes, she pulls up next to me. What do you know - she was talking on her cell phone!! Why must people talk on their cell phone while driving a huge vehicle while it's snowing and the roads are snow and ice-covered?? What must be so important that you risk your own life and the lives of everyone else on the road? Sorry - this is just one of my pet peeves.

Wesley is doing well. We haven't gotten him a snow suit yet, but we're looking for one. I think Damon might have to be the one to take him out to play in the snow. My wardrobe isn't exactly made for play in the snow, even the more utilitarian items I own. I am also cold all the time, thus I would probably only let him play outside for a few minutes. Damon would be much better for outside snow play than  I would. Can you tell that I'm trying not to feel guilty for my refusal to play in the snow? I just don't think I've ever been all that fond of playing in the snow, but I'll have to ask my Mom. (Mom - did I ever like being outside in the cold, wet snow when I was young?)

See - I do think though that Damon is more suited for being outside with Wes...I mean he's going to the Cincinnati Bengals playoff game tomorrow afternoon with my Dad and it's going to be a high of 20 degrees!! I get the chills just thinking of sitting outside in the bitter, bone-chilling cold with snow blowing all around on a hard, plastic seat. You might think I am kidding, but I did just shiver.

Anyone else excited about the winter Olympics? Now with my hatred of being out in the winter weather, you might think that I don't like sports involving cold weather, but this is not so. I don't like to be in the elements myself, but I have no problem sitting in my warm home watching others freeze as they struggle to perform a sport well. I also like that many of the sports are shorter events that finish in under two minutes, so it satisfies my short attention span. Thinking about the Olympics though reminds me of Ukraine. We were completing our adoption during the summer Olympics, so that is pretty much all we watched on television. The reason is because we could watch it with the sound off (not in English) and still understand what was going on. We couldn't do that with any other program, and since VERY little on tv was in English, we loved it.

We've still been working with Wesley on chewing. He does great with mushy food that he can squish with his tongue and swallow. Things get tricky when chewing is necessary. If we don't watch him, he will just swallow the food whole, which does result in some chocking and gagging. I did get some fried chicken from the deli the other day, and I would tear off a piece about 3 inches long. I was able to hold the chicken on one end and have Wes chew the other. He kept chewing until it disintegrated, then he swallowed it. He seemed to "get" chewing at that meal, but apparently he forgot by the time dinner rolled around. I'm not sure what it is, but he understands that some things have to be chewed (like Cheerios and Alphabits cereal). He will just swallow meats, vegetables, fruits, etc., so we have a way to go.

I am still hopeful (dare I even say confident?) that the feeding tube can be removed this spring. I probably need to clear this with the nutritionist, but we have only been giving Wesley about one can of Pediasure a day. It's surprising how many calories you can pack into an almost three year-old through soft or pureed food!

GO BENGALS!!

(or as Wesley would say "Go Who Dey")

Damon partying hard on New Year's Eve

(Do you see the bottle of champagne in the background right above his head?)

here's a shot outside the front door

first accident-free nap in underwear

Wesley had his first nap in underwear and it was accident-free. Wes has actually been waking up from his naps with a dry diaper 4 out of 5 times, but I was a little afraid of switching to underwear just yet. Turns out that when Damon put him down for a nap, he forgot to put Wes in a diaper. He woke up three hours later dry!! I have to say though that Wesley actually took a one hour nap once in underwear, but until today it wasn't a dry nap of any considerable amount of time.

Because I did say that Damon "forgot" to put Wes in underwear today, I must also tell you of something I forgot lately...on New Year's Eve we let Wesley stay up later than usual, but I put him in his pajamas when we got home. We usually put Wes to bed after his last feeding, but we didn't that night. (Notice a pattern of broken rituals?) Anyway, we ended up putting Wesley to bed in his underwear. He didn't tell us, and Damon and I didn't notice...until Damon heard him talking much earlier than he normally wakes up, which was about 6:00am. Guess who had a soaking wet bed and self? OOPS! Damon was such a nice husband and he got Wes and his bed cleaned up without even waking me up (even though I did stir a little when I heard Wes talking to Damon as Damon changed his bed linens). Then Damon wasn't able to go back to sleep, but Wes and I slept in until around 9:45am.

So the moral of the story is that Wes might be ready for naps without diapers, but we aren't even close to all night without them!!! Hopefully we can remember to make sure he's in diapers at bedtime...

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. We went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (I thought it was expensive for the food you received) and then hung out at home. We rented a movie, and I took down Christmas decorations. Finally the house is Christmas-free. It's funny, but our house seems empty now...and I like it!

We've been researching preschools for Wesley to start in the fall. There are just so many choices and looking online doesn't give you enough information. I know that we'll have to visit the few that seemed like a good fit for Wesley and us, and we'll have to do it soon because apparently some are already full for the fall!! One more thing...who knew preschool could cost so much?? I found quite a few that cost as much as one quarter tuition for a public university!! For that much money, Wes better be able to speak and write Mandarin Chinese after a year.

I don't have anything more to say and I haven't gotten the pictures off my camera onto the computer, so I can't post those yet. I just wanted to wish you a happy new year!!

Oh yeah - the Cabbage Patch Doll we got Wes for Christmas is now in the extra bedroom - and still in the box. I guess maybe we'll save it for his "baby sisser" (which is Wesley-talk for baby sister).