Sickos

We had a fun weekend! Not really. Gabby started it Saturday with fever, stomach ache, head ache, etc. Then Sunday Ry and I got it. By Sunday night, Steve was in full swing. Thankfully it was only 24 hour and no puking or diarrhea. I enforced strict baby sanitation rules to try and avoid CJ getting sick. So far just a cough. Hopefully it stays clear of him. we're leaving for Florida Thursday!

Shistosomas Jinx

So Monday I'm driving down the road thinking about if we hire a new vet how many strange things we'll have to bring them up to speed on. One of those is shistosomas reflexus (spelling I have no clue). This is a congenital abnormality of calves where the body esentially forms inside out - the organs are on the outside and sometimes the whole torso of the skeleton is inside out to some degree. I've seen it twice since I've been out of school, but it wasn't something they taught about in school, so when I first saw one I was shocked. So I'm thinking to myself, well, it's been a while since I've seen one of those.

About 36 hours later at 10:30 pm a friendly farmer calls me to tell me "Doc, the heifer has a big purple bulge coming out the back end with the feet. What do I do?" I was hoping it was simply a vaginal prolapse or something he could deal with, but I had already jinxed myself. Thankfully, I'm figuring out how to use a fetotomy much better than my early days, and with just one cut of what was supposed to be the hips/back, we got it out! Remind me not to think ever about strange and rare occurrances. Oh, by the way, it was also a full moon.

Steve and C.J.

So one of my favorite things is seeing Steve adore his little boy. He loves the girls to death, but there's a special sparkle with his son. They are so cute together! Most of the time, Steve ends up putting C.J. to sleep, but they are discovering a new common love (besides me) -- football! Since da Bears aren't playing still, it's hard to tell if they'll be cheering for the same team. I'm encouraging him to have Tommy (Brady) as a role model.

Daddy and C.J. watching the Packers battle the Giants

C.J. has his own little "recliner" set up to watch the game This picture is worth a thousand words. All of those white marks are the result of a MAJOR spit-up. Daddy was thrilled!

Thunderstorm

For the record, today is January 7 and we are having a thunderstorm tonight. Complete with thunder, lightening, wind, rain, and even tornado warnings in some counties. Crazy!! It was 60 degrees today! Just for perspective, 4 days ago it was 6 F! Gotta love Michigan! Actually I'm hoping it all freezes again b/c we're supposed to have an open house this weekend and everything is currently mud.

Here's a picture of Dixie snuggling with CJ tonight b/c she's not a big fan of thunder:)

Happy 2008!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve. We spent it at the Hughes' and they put on a great international dinner party. Our country was Morocco (does it have 2 C's or 2 R's or both?). I made Casablanca carrots - they were ok, not a recipe I'd repeat, but edible. Today is going to just be a chill day thankfully. We got like 6 inches of snow last night, so things will be slow. Maybe we'll do some more sledding. The girls are into the playing in the snow thing. I have to admit, I mostly use the excuse of the baby to send them out without me. It must be an old person thing, not wanting to go out in the cold. When I was a kid, I'd play in the snow or ice skate for hours. Kind of like the whole swimming thing, that's also lost some of its appeal. Oh to be a kid again! Speaking of age, welcoming in 2008 was a little bittersweet as I realized that I, and some of you, will mark this year with the number 30:( We'll have to commiserate on that later, I don't want to dwell on it.

So here are some belated Christmas photos of the fam.

Christmas party #1 was at Steve's family in Chicago the weekend before Christmas. This is Steve's cousin's wife Margie with Gabby, Rylee, and cousin Amanda.

C.J. playing with Auntie Tina.

Christmas Eve - we went to candlelight Christmas service at church then over to mom and dad's for Chinese dinner. Then we had Christmas #2 with Jason and Danielle. I think this is our first non-hospital family photo.

I'm not going to enter the world of drama that was Christmas Day. Let's just remember it by these pics of G.G. with her grandchildren. It was amazing how content and peaceful she was when she held C.J. in her arms. It was beautiful! It brings to mind one of my favorite Sarah McCloughlan songs "In the Arms of an Angel."

Here is the very cool snowman Gabby and Rylee cooperated to create! He was awesome! After an early attack by Dixie, he was restored to his full grandor. Aunt Marilyn gave us a great Christmas gift that was a box of snowman decorations, all you add is snow. Gabby later made a baby snowmas as well. It's great to have "good snow." For all you southerners, this is when the snow is actually useful for building and fighting. When it gets too cold, the snow doesn't stick together well and is really good for nothing - this is when we up north wonder why we live here. But we just got another dousing of "Good Snow" so hopefully I'll have some more cute winter pics soon.