Mimi and Jack visit College Station

Jack has been with Mimi and Papa since last Friday. My mom took Jack to visit Uncle Bill, Aunt Sonja, Mama and cousins Ashley and Cody on Tuesday. Jack idolizes Cody and follows him around like a puppy whenever he sees him. Cody will be the kicker for UNT in Denton next season and has given Jack lots of football paraphenalia. My mom told me that Cody got Jack a practice football and a tee and showed him how to punt. Too cute! Sorry I missed the visit guys, but love the pictures (thanks Ash!!!).

Theo's baby

We've had this stroller and baby doll for a couple of years now, reserved for the occasional girl to come over and play. Theo has started giving baby doll a ride around the house and is so sweet while doing it! Nothing like his big brother and the precarious "strolling". So sweet!!

Ewww

Our fridge died on us. It was a slow and misleading death, so we found ourselves with rotten food before we realized what had gone down. The freezer died first and the fridge came later. Dave and I had to seriously clean out the funk last night.......... even using the little shop vac to get coffee grounds out of the freezer. This is deja vu since we did all of this 4 months ago from Gustav. Drat!

Only child

Jack went to Houston with Mimi and Papa for a week. Theo was supposed to go as well, but the whole RSV thing messed up that plan. Now Theo is an only child and enjoying our undivided attention, not to mention all the toys that he can play with without having to share! Here Theo is enjoying the train table. Jack was such a huge fan of the train table and we are overjoyed to see Theo taking an interest now. It sure is quiet around here without Jack :( Theo's nose is disgusting from the RSV and oxygen cannula, so sorry.

Christmas Eve

It was a rushed Christmas Eve! We had medications to figure out (and fill), bags to be unpacked, children to bathe, cookies to bake, gifts to find (Santa hid them in some strange places this year!) and stockings to fill. Luckily, Papa filled in with the baking so Dave and I could give Theo his medicine. He's a little gun shy from the hospital and he threw up all over his Dad from screaming so hard when we were trying to give him his medicine. We learned to skip the crushed stuff and do all liquid medicines until this phase passes. No more chasing the baby around with Mucinex sticks for us! We let the kids open half of their presents since there were so many. The adults opened most of our gifts since there were only a few (in comparison) and reveled in having the boys together.

We also said goodbye to our elf friend, Eli, as his job is over until next year. It was getting harder and harder to come up with places for Eli to "hide" and even harder to remember to move Eli each night :) See ya next year, Eli!

Christmas afternoon

We got a Wii at Thanksgiving and knew it would be so much fun to play at Christmas with everyone. Boy, were we right! We all sucked big time at Dance Revolution and played tennis, bowling and golf. We must have worked up quite the appetites playing the Wii........ because we feasted on a turkducken as big as Theo! A turducken is part turkey, part chicken and part duck with stuffing all mixed in between the meat. It was interesting but also very good. The boys mainly ran around and played while we feasted. Jack crashed at 6:30 pm and Theo took a 3 hour nap, only to be woken up for a breathing treatment and medicine. Thanks Santa!!!

Christmas morning

We got everything we asked for......... Theo home from the hospital for Christmas! The only thing we couldn't get was to spend Christmas with Dave's parents (Glynn is getting over a cold and Theo can't be around more germs than he already has). They did come over the day Theo was discharged from the hospital to spend time with Jack and to see him open their presents to him. My folks came here for Christmas and brought more presents (from several family members) than their car could handle! I could barely plug in the tree lights with all of the gifts piled around.

Here are some pictures of us opening the second round of presents. I don't have any of Jack opening Santa's gifts because I was taking video for Dave's parents to see. Jack was so tickled to see his "list" with "nice" circled and the cookies for Santa eaten (mostly). Theo could have cared less about opening anything. He didn't even assist with tearing paper! He pretty much spent the day eating candy canes, hunting for candy canes, or eating other things in between candy canes!

It was so neat to see the magic of Christmas through Jack's eyes this morning.

Home

Theo was discharged from the hospital around lunch time today. We're home and settling in. Merry Christmas! We got the best gift of all.

On the move

Theo is still in the hospital and tonight will be the test to see if he can come home tomorrow. Here is how sad he looks with the oxygen cannula on his face. The tape made his cheeks all red and irritated :( I let Jack pick out two presents to bring up to the hospital and he selected two from Aunt Jen and Uncle Brian. Theo got a gear toy that he loves! Especially taking the little gears and throwing them from his crib :) Jack got a really cool Batman toy that has a cape and neat tricks. Both boys were happy and that was priceless. There is also a picture of the adorable stuffed animal and balloon that my friend Mandy sent for Theo today. He's had more fun playing with the balloon Mandy!!! We took it for a ride tonight after shift change so I could keep Theo awake for his assessment and respiratory treatment.

Thanks for all of the well wishes and prayers. We're really hoping that tomorrow is the day so we can spend Christmas at home.

Theo was admitted to the hospital last night for respiratory distress. He had a 103.8 temperature and has had round the clock breathing treatments. He does fine during the day with his oxygen levels but when he falls asleep, his levels drop in the 80's and they are supposed to be near 100%. He's sleeping with a nasal cannula tonight and that has helped keep his oxygen sats in the 90's. Poor baby Theo has an IV and has to be suctioned after his breathing treatments every 4 hours. He's pretty tired of being poked and prodded and did not sleep at all during the day today. The only thing that kept him happy today was eating Skittles! He's finally konked out and I'm praying he gets a solid few hours of sleep tonight. Jack and Daddy came to visit today and play with Theo. Theo was so happy to see his brother :) Please say some extra prayers for our little one. We're hoping to be discharged home for Christmas eve-eve, but we'll see.........

Teddy Bear Tea in New Orleans

Jack and I met up with our friends Frances and Madeline today to go to the Teddy Bear Tea in New Orleans. It was such a fun event! The kids enjoyed hot chocolate and kid-centric tea items while Frances and I noshed on traditional tea fare. They had a parade of winter characters, including Santa and Mrs. Claus! Of course neither Jack nor Madeline would come close to any of the characters! Jack did warm up after the tea was over and I managed some pictures before we left. Frances and I decided to take a picture with Santa and made sure to tell him that we've been very good this year! Mrs. Claus led the children in Christmas songs and then read them "The Night Before Christmas". The hotel was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The pictures really don't capture to beauty at all.

Thanks for the great day Frances!! She drove Jack and I downtown because poor Theo caught RSV (again) and is in seclusion. Good thing we bought the nebulizer last year!

Pasghetti

I made the most amazing spaghetti sauce for dinner last night. The boys devoured it! How silly is it that little brother was less of a mess than big brother??

My presents!

Here's what Jack made for me at school. I tell ya, these teachers are so creative!

Counting down

Jack made this paper chain at school to count down the last 10 days before Christmas. Every morning he gets to move the snowflake on the advent calendar and now remove a chain from the bell. We are getting pretty excited around here for Santa to come! This is all welcome to me since it's getting harder and harder to find spots for "Eli" the elf to hide.