Wow, I knew it had been a while since I last posted… but since mid November? Come on! Like I’m busy or something!?!? We’ve had an absolutely wonderful, yet whirlwind, holiday season this year. We started it all off with a nice quiet Thanksgiving dinner hosted here at our home, with Uncle Chad, Grandma Gail and Uncle Stuart in attendance. In keeping with tradition (as set by Ayden’s first Thanksgiving) we gave Owen his first “real” food on Thanksgiving – and he took to it like an old pro! None of the gagging and dry-heaving that Ayden struggled with – he just gobbled it down and has been doing a great job with our new vegetable introductions (sweet potato, carrot, sweet peas and bananas) since! During the weekend that followed Thanksgiving, we had a second dinner at the home of Patrick’s aunt and uncle (on his dad’s side) in Oregon City. It was the first time we had seem some of the family in literally years! What a treat to have everyone together under one roof!
Thanksgiving was followed by a much anticipated visit from Nanna (great grandmother to the boys), up from the Fresno, CA area. Nanna stayed for two whole weeks, splitting her time between our house and the Boisvert’s. We managed a girls night out to a fantastic dinner at Jake’s Seafood Grill followed by A Gospel Christmas at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. It was a blast!!! Nanna also got her fair share of giggles, smiles, goofing off, misbehaving, and general kidlet mayhem while she was here. I’m sure we all thoroughly exhausted her and she was glad to get back to the quiet serenity of her mountain home (I wouldn’t mind having one of those to escape to every now and then!). It was wonderful to have my Nanna here spending time with us and the kiddos. What great memories we’re making! We can’t wait until her next visit! Soon I hope!!!
Owen had his 6-month checkup on the 27th of November. Everything checked out well and on target. The only question I wasn’t able to answer with certainty was whether or not he was able to sit up on his own. I panicked when she asked the question, because I really didn’t think he could! Oh God, was he developmentally lacking??? I’m a horrible mother! Ahh, but not to worry, as soon as we got home I plopped him on the floor, stabilized his wobbly little body and slowly let go…. wobble… jiggle… lean… correct… he can sit up by himself!!! Yipee! I’m not a failure as a parent! 
So we got the OK to come back at the 9-month mark! Maybe he’ll be crawling by then…
Early December found us at Heather’s community choir Christmas concert. Congrats on a great solo Heather! Hey, I didn’t know you could sing?!?! We also attended the annual MOMS Club Holiday Party and cookie exchange, followed by the MOMS only evening Christmas party. I managed to score a digital keychain in the gift exchange – too bad the thing doesn’t work! The USB cable heats up to near melting point in a matter of seconds – YIKES!
Just before Christmas we had a relatively unpleasant happening while tending to Bill’s goats while he was on vacation. Ayden takes great pleasure feeding hay to the goats, llama and alpaca while I clean and fill the water buckets and take a headcount. Upon opening the barn door, I busied myself with cutting the strings on a bale of hay while Ayden said his hellos to the animals… then I hear him say, “why is that goat sleeping mommy?”. I gulped. Oh no… please don’t be what I think it is… yup, one cold dead goat lying against the wall of the barn. I quickly scooped up Ayden and said that goat wasn’t feeling well and that we needed to go call the goat doctor. Thank God Patrick happened to be with me on this particular trip out to the barn. I ran up and reported what we found… he kindly dealt with the body while I got the vet on the line and had her come out to check the rest of the heard. A long story short, the goat basically died of natural causes, though the rest of the heard had an intestinal bug… all’s well now, though the heard is one head short these days. And so it goes…
No smooth segway here…. then came Christmas! Merry Christmas and Ho Ho Ho! We had brunch and present opening chaos here at our house with Grandma Gail, Uncle Stuart and the Boisvert’s. The kids all got WAY too much stuff. As the Boisvert’s were literally leaving our front door, the next group arrived, consisting of Patrick’s Mom, Guy, and Guy’s three (of four) girls. More presents, more food, more fun. Then on to Grandma Cotrell’s house in Aurora… yet more food, more presents, and more fun. Exhausted, we finally ended up back home at bedtime for the boys… but for a quick visit from Uncle Chad with – you guessed it – more presents! It was a wonderful Christmas all around – but quite frankly, I’m glad it’s over until next year!
In the week and a half since Christmas, Owen has been fighting a terrible bought of croup that started on the 26th. After a visit with the pediatrician, they wanted to hospitalize him overnight – though we managed to avoid doing so by having him injected with a steroid and inhaling a nebulizer full of epinephrine to help him breath. He seems to be on the mend now – but I worry that croup is his own weakness and we may end up fighting more of it in the future. Bummer.
Our New Year’s Eve was a quiet one… just hanging out watching Dick Clark’s Times Square festivities on ABC with Chad. Pretty low key… just the way I like it! Happy 2008 all!
Pictures to follow – I promise!