Wall Letters

The wall letters I made for Mark's cousin's impending. This has become my signature baby shower gift.

Big Sick Household

This year is not starting out well for our family. On top of Mark's surgery and problems, Seth got Pneumonia and I had Pneumonia, Bronchitis and a double ear infection. We had so many prescriptions that we had to hang medicine charts to keep track of when the medications were taken.

Toothless

One night, while I was staying with Mark in the hospital, Seth spent the night with Stacy, Bobby and Trey. Seth woke up in the middle of the night because his tooth had fallen out. I'm so glad he didn't swallow it or choke on it! The next night he wrote the Tooth Fairy another letter. He asked her if she was the only tooth fairy or if there was a team of them. She let him know that she was the only true tooth fairy, but that she had a few other fairies she had trained to help out if she were to get sick or go on vacation. He got some stickers and another "Gold Doubloon."

Under the Knife

On January 17th, Mark checked in to the hospital. That morning he had the pleasant experience of a colonoscopy and stayed the night in anticipation of surgery the next day. The next morning he went in to surgery and had a sigmoid colectomy - about a foot of his colon was removed. They also did a hernia repair while thy were in there. He was in extreme pain the first day but made progress each day. He was expected to be in a whole week but got to come home after five days. He ended up with some bed sores and an infected incision but overall doing well. We are so relieved to have him home and on the mend!

I Have a Dream

"Martin Luther King had a dream that everyone would ride on the same bus. My dream is that everyone in my school will get candy."

Last Hurrah

Since Mark's surgery was quickly approaching and he wouldn't be doing much with Seth for a while, we decided to have one more family fun day on Sunday. We went to the movies to see Chipwrecked, went to a Chinese restaurant and spent a quite evening at home playing.

Boba Seth

Star Wars Collage

Star Wars Mania has been sweeping our house! Seth got all the movies for Christmas, but since we no longer keep the DVD cases, (We just put the discs into a travel case.) we decided to make a collage out of the inserts. Seth hung the collage on his bedroom door and wrote on it "No not disturb while sleeping."

Happy Birthday Papa R!

We had a great time celebrating Papa R's birthday and grilling out with the fam!

O Canada

Our second cultural exchange package was from Canada. We got coins, a post card, a map, stickers, pencils, iron-ons, a silk maple leaf and a letter teaching us all about our neighbor to the north!

Lost!

Seth finally lost his first tooth. It had been loose for a while but he never could bring himself to pull it. By the end it was dangling by a thread. We were sitting on the couch watching a movie and Seth suddenly was shouting, "Mom! Mom! My tooth fell out." There was much excitement and celebration. Seth wrote the tooth fairy a note asking if he could keep his tooth and also what her name was. He also drew a picture of her. That night he put the tooth under his pillow and when he woke up there was a "gold doubloon" (a golden dollar) and a Lego Minifig. There was also a note telling him he could keep his tooth and that her name was Lucinda. (Get it Lucinda - as in Loose Cinda - as in Loose tooth?) Sigh. I cannot believe how fast he is growing up.

Initial Bird Feeder

We had this wooden S hanging around the house for awhile, so we decided to turn it into a bird feeder. We covered it with peanut butter and then put birdseed and Cheerios all over it and hung it in a tree.

A Sure Sign That the Holidays are Over

Let the Post-Chistmas Blahs begin!

Congaree National Swamp

 On New Year's Day, Stacy and I decided to take the boys to the Congaree National Swamp. Both their dads had to work, but we had a great day enjoying the 70 degree weather. The boys got tired pretty quickly and we had to turn around, but I hope to go back again soon. After, we grabbed lunch and then hit a park with a playground, since there was a bit of confusion about what kind of park we were going to in the first place. To a two-year old park=slide! Ha ha! It was nice to squeeze in one more fun thing before school started back.

A Simple New Years

We had a nice little New Years Eve, with just Mark, Seth and I. Mark was working and called when he was leaving. I started to get worried because he was taking a long time to get home and I couldn't get him on the phone. I should have known he had stopped by one of those roadside fireworks stands. He is a sucker for fireworks! I made crab cakes for dinner - my first attempt. They were pretty good but I think I'll do better next time. Seth loved watching the fireworks and doing sparklers - almost as much as his dad did. I told Seth he could stay up until midnight, but was absolutely shocked when he made it! We watched the ball drop on tv and shook our money outside - a tradition I got from my grandma. (Each year, right after midnight everyone goes outside and shakes a handful of silver coins and yells "Happy New Year."  No pennies allowed! After, the male with the darkest hair has to be the first one back in the house. This brings good luck to all who participate. I have always done this on NYE no matter where I was and have never seen a neighbor doing it too, so it must be fairly unusual. I tried to google it and from what I can tell it looks like a combination of Scottish and Filipino NYE traditions.) After the shaking of the coins, we promptly hit that hay - Mark had to work the next morning at 7.