This is exactly how she said it, too. I swear.

and she was right! I bumped up the heat and waited for it to warm up. And waited…. and waited… but wait…

The "heat" coming out is like 60 degrees!

After a while it became clear that our heat was broken. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t even turn it off. It just kept blowing. So I did a little trick I learned from back in the day to shut it down and keep it from lowering the temperature even more.

I called two friends and we beat the hell of it.

Meg and the girls and I spent our evening like this.

Only we were inside. And the house isn't as nice.

This was us in the morning.

I asked everyone in my family who to call and the answer came back unanimously: Cassell Brothers.

So I called and they came out today. Turns out my unit is more or less shot. There were two options to fix it, but the best idea was a total replacement.

And this is where it gets serious. I can’t afford an HVAC unit. I certainly can’t afford one now, all of a sudden when that was not at all on my list of things I should be saving for. And I hate asking for help. I really do. But I needed help and I damn well knew it. And I find myself extremely fortunate to have loving parents who can come to my rescue at times like this. I called mom and she encouraged me to get the new unit, and she’d take care of it. I was floored. After getting advice from dad to make sure this seemed like the correct move, we went ahead. Mom drove right over. Wow. Seriously mom and dad – thank you so much.

Cassell Brothers were able to put in my new unit today (the same day I called them, remember), and tonight we have heat! How awesome is that?

This is how we celebrated.

This is exactly what happened, I swear. Also, this is totally really us. I even put a hat on Parker to shield her from the Sun!

Thanks again Mom and Dad.

Thanks Cassell Brothers, who I highly recommend.

Night all!

As always, we promise to be more consistent with our blogging. And more than likely, we’ll break that promise as we have before. But for now….

1) Parker continues to do very well. She did get a double ear-infection at 8 weeks and 4 days, which was kind of scary. Her pediatrician said had she been under 8 weeks we would have had to do far more than just take amoxicillin. I guess they would have done tests and blood work and stuff. I don’t know, but fortunately she’s over that now and will finish up her medicine tomorrow.

She was a solid 10 pounds at her appointment and I suspect she’s up to 11 pounds now.

Parker is very alert, and very strong and much longer than Brenna was at this age. She can just about fill out some of our smaller 6-month outfits and certainly wears them without looking silly. She’s also smiling big and loves to play on her jungle play mat, as Brenna did. I don’t know what kind of research goes into making baby toys, but somebody nailed it with this jungle play mat. Brenna likes to “play” with Parker and lay on the mat with her. It’s pretty adorable.

I love it!

Parker and Brenna

2) We had a great Thanksgiving in the Park again this year – our 6th year. We ended up with more food than ever, and a slightly smaller crowd, but we were able to donate the leftover items to a halfway house, so nothing went to waste. Thank you again to everyone who participated. It is one of my favorite things I do all year, and I know many of you feel the same way.

Setting up the tables and food

3) We had a wonderful pre-Christmas with Nannie and Papa this year, and then headed up to High Point for 4 days. It was really a amazing time full of food, drinks, laughter, kids, toys, and late-night lies and bawdy tales from the adults. Basically everything spending time with loved ones should be.

A little early Christmas at Nannie & Papa's

The girls at Christmas

Brenna doing a little Christmas dance

4) Now it’s a New Year, and Brenna has turned 2! OH MY! We’ll be having a small family get-together this weekend, but Meg and I gave her a big birthday cupcake and candle on the 4th. It was fun… and messy! Plus she’s moved into the “red room” at daycare, where the 2 year-olds go, and she continues to work on potty training, and even spends some time during the day in her big girl underwear (actual underwear! Not just pullups!). Her vocabulary and understanding has really exploded in the last 2 months or so. I think it caught Meg and I a little by surprise in fact! It’s a very exciting time, and a really fun age.

For me?

MmmMmMM! Pedicious! (translation - delicious)

I suppose that just about wraps up this edition of  Haven’t Blogged Since October!  Tune in again soon when I will cover fewer topics, but probably in more detail.

Also, even though we’ve been terribad about updating the blog, my Flickr account is almost always up-to-date, and there’s a link over on the left side.

As always, please remember sometimes random party photos appear in my stream. I promise the babies are rarely there. And when they are, they are kept very safe.

I swear on all that is holy she crawled in here herself

I’ll close with another photo of Parker, because I can.

Sleeping soundly

Oh, and for good measure, he’s a photo of Jack.

No reason... he's just awesome.

Love you all.

xoxo

EDIT – it’s come to my attention that WordPress has started putting ads on my blog. Please understand I have no control over this, and encourage you to upgrade your browser to Firefox or Chrome if you haven’t already, and install an ad-blocker so you never see another ad again here or anywhere else. They’re irritating, intrusive, and unwanted on pages such as this small family blog.

Welcome to the world, Thumper!

Megan and Parker - heading home.

Of course many people have heard us talk about Brenna and her reaction to seeing Megan hold other babies. For those of you who don’t know,the phrase “collapses to the ground like a puppet and cries” is occasionally tossed around. Occasionally there’s a “Mommy, NO!” in there. It’s equal parts amusing and heart-breaking. But most importantly it was going to be a problem once Parker was born. We did what we could: we talked to Brenna about the baby in mommy’s belly; we said how Brenna was going to be a big sister; we asked if she was happy about these things and her answer was always, “mmm hmm!” or “yes!” Nonetheless, at 21/22 months, how much of what we were saying was really getting through? Kids also agree that being a firetruck would be awesome. Anyway, the worry was there, but the joke was always, “She says she’s ok with it. This’ll be easy!”

So when we came home, for better or worse, I wanted to record the moment. Bear in mind that Brenna was asleep when we got home, and Megan brought her out of her room from her nap. So Brenna took a nap an only child and woke up a sister!

She was a little confused, and still is a little bit fragile emotionally, but I believe she’s handled it extremely well. She shows great care for Parker, and wants to share her toys and diapers with her. We have to make sure Brenna doesn’t pile up a bunch of stuff in the bassinet! When Parker cries Brenna is often right there to peek at her and say “Uh oh!” It’s sweet. I’m very proud of her.

So now we’re home. Parker is a little jaundiced but nothing major. In the afternoon the sun shines into the front of the house and we lay her in it. The Doctor has said this should be all the treatment she needs.

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, to mom for 4 days worth of dinners, and here’s wishing everyone a very happy Halloween!!

Brenna's costume. Look at that face!

“Brenna, what are you saying no about?”
“no. no. no. no. no.”
“Is it the music?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to listen to something else?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want night-night music?”
“OKAY!”

So we listened to Vivaldi instead.

I don’t know if I should be upset or proud. It’s a very confusing feeling. On one hand, she dissed my favorite band. On the other hand, she requested classical music.

Anyway, she also loves words! One of Brenna’s favorite Abby bits is the Word Song. Here is a quick video of her watching the last minute of the song. I’m biased, but WOW is she adorable at the end.

Enjoy!

So… keep that in mind.

When you have a child that is as well behaved as Brenna, a few things occur to you:

1) “Man, we’re awesome parents.”
2) “Wait… we’re just fumbling through this like everyone else. We just got lucky, didn’t we?”
3) “Yeah… we’re going to pay for this later, aren’t we?”

The other thing that happens is when Daycare calls and says your child is crying and sick, you take that pretty seriously. Brenna gets ear infections and doesn’t bother to show any symptoms or let us know, so if she’s upset enough to cry, and cries enough that she throws up, there’s definitely something wrong.

We got that call Wednesday afternoon. Brenna was so upset she wouldn’t stop crying and had thrown up twice from it. Oh no! Now, we were already dead tired from the “ice cream” demanding night, and we had also taken Serenity into the shop for her 100k mile check up. Neither of us managed to sneak in a lunch break. We were hungry, tired, and without normal transportation. Kids – how do they time illness so well? So I rushed from work to pick up Meg, rushed to get Brenna and rushed back downtown to the doctor to find out she has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. The doctor showed me her throat, and it was very red and blistered… and sore… then the realization – “Hey, that’s why she wanted ice cream all night!”

Anyway, the great news is Brenna recovers from illness quickly. After a bad Wednesday and a rough Thursday, today she’s about 90%. We played a bit, and danced a bit. We read a few books and I made her a paper hat she put on all her Sesame Street characters. She demanded to go outside for a few minutes, but she tired quickly. She took a nap and just had lunch, and I’m about to be off to entertain her some more.

Other than that, Meg continues to do well with Thumper. The due date rapidly approaches! Halloween, here we come!

Going outside is important even when sick

captain Grover of the USS Brenna's Bed

Who would have thought I’d ever be posting online about anyone’s bowel movements other than my own? It’s a weird world, y’all.

No photo updates for this one…. obviously.

xoxo
-Travis.

So how are things with everyone out there? Good? Good. Things are good here as well. We are just as busy as ever and now we are busy and it is, like, a billion degrees outside. Side note, the AC went out on my car. So did….my car? We just had to have a bunch of work done on it. It was not in great shape. And now we wait for the nice people to tell us how much it will be to get the AC fixed. I am not looking forward to that bill but totally looking forward to AC.

I am doing well, as is Magic Sunshine Pufflelump Baby #2. I have no real exciting news to report on that end. Apparently if you are not pregnant for the first time and having no issues doctors just like you to come say hi to them once a month. Or once every two weeks now. Eeep!. I think that means we are having a kid soon. I should empty out that crib…

What? This looks ready to use?

Brenna is….boy, is she Brenna. She is as sweet and happy as ever. Oh yeah, and she never really stops talking. She has been making lots of noise for awhile but now you can actually understand her. (and if anyone in my family says her word for bananas is a little off, don’t listen. They are just jealous of her sunny disposition). She is stringing together words now. One of her favorites is “I need help” which could mean ‘Hey lady, get my ball’ or ‘Yo, can’t you see a baby is out of milk over here’ or even ‘I have been in these damn shoes all day- come take them off immediately before I start shrieking and screaming uncontrollably-Or not, it is your call’. Her current favorite pastime is putting things night night. Elmo goes night night. Grover goes night night. Brobee goes night night. Her cup goes night night. The ball goes night night. Her books go night night. The cats…well, she tries to put the cats night night. Aggie and Jack so far have not gone along with her plan. But she does cover everything with a blanket, pat it gently, give it a pacifier, tell it night night, give it a kiss, and say love you. It is awfully adorable. No matter what Jack and Aggie tell you.

Here, have a pacifier. I SAID HAVE THE PACIFIER!

Nevermind, I will take it.

Smooches,
Meg

Yay Yogurt!

The discussion about having another baby was long and complicated and really there is a whole story involved -there is a band in it and everything! But that is really a story for another time and I promise to tell it one day. The really short story is that in December we agreed to give this second baby thing a shot, in January I went to the Doctor to get the ‘all clear’, and in February we were pregnant.

Baby #2 should make an arrival somewhere around November 1st. We went in for the big 20 week scan this week. Baby got stamp of approval with all fingers and toes accounted for. AND we are having another girl so we are very excited Brenna will have a little sister to play with. I know how much fun I had (have) tormenting my sister. Plus, it was going to be real awkward to explain to a boy why he had butterfly sheets and a pink bouncer as a baby.

So that is our super big news. Everyone is happy and healthy at our house. Brenna continues to be hilarious. She talks a lot now so this good and bad. She has an awful lot to say for a tiny person. Mostly she is just tells me that she does not like her outfit and would like to wear sparkle pink batman T shirt and also to hand over the watermelon. If not that is fine too but she is putting my shoes in the toilet. She also has learned to put her finger to her lips and say ‘shhh’. She often does this when I am telling her to do something she does not want to do. Yay.

And all the pics are on the other computer so I can’t pull any recent ones. Here is one from the sprinkler ball weekend. See how happy she is?! It is because she got her watermelon.

Watermelon Time