The Adventures of the Tader Tot's

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Family

The calling hours were this evening for Mamaw. I went alone as I didn’t think it was appropriate for the boys to come along given the length of time and the lateness we would have been out. I was not happy when I arrived and everyone else had brought children along. I t would have been nice for the boys to have been there to spend time last time as I knew they would not be going to the funeral tomorrow. I must have answered 50 times, “Where are the boys?” and “Where’s your wife?”

We got the greatest compliment regarding the boys and their now infamous Christmas card, one of my relatives sent us a card in response to say how the picture of the boys made her entire day. Now when you read that on a card you think they’re just being nice. Well at the calling hours, her daughter came up to tell how much the picture had made her mom’s day. She said her mom had called to just talk about the card and how cute they were. It was good feeling. Then she came up to me and personally thanked us for the lovely card and to tell me again how cute and adorable they were. It’s glad to know that we not completely biased….

Summy has been working on waving bye to people and he is getting better. I taught him high five and he’s getting really good at that one. Jack on the other hand is starting to give out kisses. If you are lucky enough to receive one you also get a smile and high pitched squeal. He also is getting close to crawling. He’s going to be off and crawling in no time. He also managed to break my phone. I let him play with it and he likes to flip it open and closed. So he opens it up and drools down in it and the screen went black. Thanks buddy, I tried everything to dry it our but no luck with that. We are going to try and get new ones so I have something to use. I am borrowing M’s until we get this squared away.

I guess while I was gone they decided to start feeding themselves. This is from M’s blog: So tonight they PIG the food down. They ate 2 1/2 stage 2 jars, I'd say Sumner had 1 1/2 alone. He kept crying for more food. Then, I put their trays on their highchairs and put puffs on them. AND THEY PICKED THEM UP! AND FED THEMSELVES! Sorry to use caps, but this was big!!! Sum got about 50% in his mouth, Jack only about 10%, but it was SO amazing!I caught it on video for David too!

At least I got to see it on video.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Xmas

Today we celebrated the boys first Christmas. It was a nice to have everyone over and start new traditions for our family. We invited M’s family over as mine lives out of state. Hopefully they will make the trip in the future to celebrate with the boys. I made the meal and it went along pretty much as we planned. The boys got way more stuff than they ever needed. We only got them a few things because we new everyone would get them a ton of stuff. They got the leap frog learning table and the seemed to like it pretty well. They got lots of books and clothes and stuffed animals. One funny moment was M’s mom got them each their own teddy bears. For months she was telling how great they were and how much they were going to love them. At the last minute she threw in 2 little stuffed animal, one dog and one horse. So what does Summy instantly go for…the little horse. M and I got a good laugh because it just goes to show you that you can get them everything but in the end they will gravitate to what they like. Other than that the morning was filled with lots of excitement of tearing colored paper. M and I knew they would enjoy the paper far more than any gifts they would receive.

Everyone left around 11:30ish and we headed to Dayton to spend some time with my family who was gathering. It wasn’t anything formal and everyone wanted to just be together to for sake of being together. I felt like it was something I needed to do being the closets one here for my dad. I think he was just happy to see the boys and have somewhere there to talk to if he needed. It felt good to be around everyone.

Erin and Josh came over for the evening and we did our normal Xmas thing together. I’m not sure how out of all the things I remember I can’t ever remember whose year it is to host. It was fun and there were more gifts to pass around. We ate food and had fun and I am really liking all the little traditions we are starting to carve out as a family.

Monday, December 24, 2007

You will be missed

After putting up a brave battle, Mamaw passed away today. Although my dad had called me yesterday to say it would be within the next 24 hours it was still a sad time. Thanks to all who said prayers and well wishes on M’s blog and her message board. It certainly makes the Holidays all that much more stressful. All in all I think I did pretty good at not letting is ruin the boys time. I really would have preferred being at home and not talking but then again what good would that do. I know everyone wanted to talk about it and say something nice but I just didn’t feel like talking about it. I don’t know that I still want to talk about.

Death and I aren’t friends and I don’t have any plans of changing that anytime soon. I am mad that a woman who did everything in her power to stay healthy and happy was taken from us and there was nothing that anyone could have done to prevent. I am mad from a spiritual level and from a science level. I feel both let us down. I know that science can explain a lot of things but there are some things that are certainly miracles that can only be attributed to a higher power. I guess in the back of my mind I had always hoped for a miracle that I knew wasn’t coming. Someday I hope I will get to a point to where I can understand it all and be at ease knowing that everything has a place and a reason and I’m not always going to know the reason but there was one.

All day I thought about the trip both Mamaw and my aunt made to Columbus to see the boys in the NICU. I remember taking them back to see them for the first time. It was the same day that Summy got moved to his big boy crib and wasn’t in an incubator. I am happy she got to be there for that and I know it affected her as much as it did us. I remember over the summer before her surgery at a family get together someone commented on the boys and how small they were. I can still remember how mad and defensive she got about them. Pointing out to the people that they had no idea how much the boys had been through and how great they are doing. It’s one of the few times I can ever recall her getting angry at someone. I guess for now I can take comfort that somewhere there is reunion taking place and what a great day it must be for my grampa.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Punkin

On a sad note, we had to take our oldest cat punkin back to the shelter. She had begun to pee all over our house. We tried every otc and home remedy under the sun to get her to stop but in the end we think she was just not able to adjust to the boys. From the moment they came home, she was the only one that never interacted with the boys. All the other cats would sniff them and check on them from time to time except for punkin. To be completely honest I can’t believe Meghan actually returned her. I was all ready to say no that morning and keep trying ways to have her stay in our house. When I got up Saturday morning she had peed again right in the middle of the living room floor. At that point I knew no matter how much we loved her and what we tried she was never going to get better. With the boys starting to get more mobile, we could not have them crawling around in cat pee.

Although I still miss her, and I know M misses her, we made the right decision with the boys. We had always said when she was pregnant that if the boys came home and they were allergic to the cats, all of them would be gone in a heartbeat. It would have been heartbreaking to do so but there would have been no other options.

Friday, December 14, 2007

You say it’s your birthday…

You say it’s your birthday…well it was my birthday and we went out last night with Caitlin and Mike to a Marcela’s. Not sure I am sold on the “_____ Experience” For the lines insert the name of you server. Essentially they will give you their suggestions of what to order and it will end you up in the $80 - $150 price range. No thank you. We did have a sweet spot in the back corner of the office and it made it nice to take the boys. I could tell our waiter was annoyed by the kids but they were great as always. I had the braised lamb shank and it was excellent. Not sure why it wasn’t on the servers list of things to have…probably because it didn’t fit the sharing motif of the restaurant. Who cares, it was the most expensive thing on the menu ($18.95) and was worth every penny. Happy Birthday to me.

After dinner we went back to our house. Mike and I went to Target because I wanted to use my birthday money to get Guitar Hero for the Wii. I hated it for a few days. The game didn’t make sense to me. I can play a guitar a little and this was not guitar playing. I eventually figured it out and am really loving the game.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

On the move?

We have noticed Jack is ready to get moving. We catch him up on all fours rocking. So keep you fingers crossed that he will be on the move. Up until this point he could get his legs straight and ride around on his forehead. It doesn’t look all that comfortable but apparently this is a sensory thing and we shouldn’t be too worried about it.

Summy on the other hand is not going anywhere. In fact I could probably use him to prop stuff up. If he has his toy or it’s within minimal rolling distance he is all for it. Otherwise you would swear his legs were made of rubber.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Hive Five!

Things have been moving fast these days. It’s so much fun to see the guys start to pick up on things. I have taught Summy to high five. It’s so much to see him actually understand what I am saying. Ok, so he probably just knows to put his hand up when I put mine up and we call that high five, but I will take it. Hopefully by next football season we will know how to do OH and IO. Jack is only sort of getting it, but I am sure he’ll catch us soon.

So Jack has been getting teeth. He has two bottom and started on the first upper tooth. I think he looks hilarious when he smiles but I am not looking forward to braces for these guys. Good thing M’s insurance covers them a little. Hopefully it’s still a benefit when we get there.