Memorial Day 2011

We spent Memorial Day on Wixom Lake this year!  We had tons of fun and the weather was perfect!  We went up the day before Memorial day, had a cookout and let the kids play.  The boys were supposed to camp that night, but that plan was put on hold due to soggy ground from thunderstorms earlier in the day. Here's some pictures from our weekend...

Caden drove the Gator for the first time.  Matt and Joel stayed very close because turning was still a concept that Caden struggled with.  He figured out what the gas pedal did pretty quickly, but not the steering wheel.  He just assumed that Trees, bushes, Daddy's Truck, would get themselves out of the way of his path.

 

Carter was brave enough to join Caden on his maiden voyage.  Mommy stayed close...

Once the other kids got wind that the Gator was out of the garage, all of them took their turns driving.

Breakfast on Memorial day!

Caden and Jackson watching Star Wars before naptime..

First trip on the boat this year!  Caden still doesn't like his lifejacket...but he was distracted with his juice.

Maddie was squished a little in her life jacket.  The good thing about it is that it held her head up for her!  :-)

Throwing rocks into the lake while we had our cookout...

Yes, that is a (empty) pony keg of Oberon.  Caden is showing off his strength. We'll have to compare this picture to a similar one when he is in college.

Maddie's Pooh Pics

Here's Maddie's first two Pooh Pictures!

Two Weeks Old

Two Months Old

Outnumbering Mommy

This past weekend, the kids outnumbered the parents - 2 to 1.  Matt went to North Dakota with his buddies, leaving me all alone with the two munchkins.  This would have been fine, however, Caden decided to run a 105 fever for most of the weekend.  Awesome.  

We were pushing fluids all weekend.  Caden wouldn't give up his Di-Di (Blanket), his Juice, or his Water.  He's must be the kid of two engineers, because he found away around this problem...



Oh Mom, I'm so TIRED of Caden being sooooo needy all the time.  What about me??

On Monday, while getting ready to take Caden to Cheryl's, I came back into the room to find the following:

I had only been gone a minute!  In that minute, Caden decided Maddie needed a little bit more from her bottle. After getting over my initial shock, I realized that:

1.  She was actually drinking

2.  The bottle did not appear to have been stuck in her eye or ear first

Caden was being very gentle, and was doing a good job feeding his little sis.  Maybe it's time to try him out on other tasks around the house.

Dow Gardens - Tulip Time

The Tulips are in full bloom at Dow Gardens, and we had one sunny day this week so we took advantage of it!

It was a little nuts getting pictures with the kids. Out of all of the pictures, probably only 10% have all of us looking AT the camera, not blinking, and Caden not trying to run away. Only one tulip was harmed in the making of this album.

Maddie goes to U of M

Quick update on Maddie - we went to U of M today to meet Dr. Ivancic, Maddie's Pediatric Urology Doctor. We had a fantastic visit and learned that Maddie has a 50% chance of growing out of her VUR by age 5. We will be keeping her on a daily antibiotic for 4 to 5 years, and doing ultrasounds and VCUG's every 6 months to check progress. In 5 years or so, she will have either grown out of it, or we will start to consider doing surgery to permanently fix the condition. Her Kidneys look just fine, so the only issue is the reflux. We'll keep a close eye on her to prevent any UTI's - getting one of those could mean surgery right away, but they think she will do just fine.

Here's a picture of us relaxing at a Coffee Shop before heading home after a long day. We are very lucky to be so close to such a great Pediatric hospital and we know they will take good care of our little girl.

She's still going to Penn State though, let's not get crazy... :-)

Spiderman and Maddie's Two Month Birthday

Oh Boy was it an exciting day this Saturday! The one and only Spiderman came to Superhero Night at the Loons Stadium. Kids were encouraged to dress up as their favorite superhero and Caden of course obliged. Since he normally wants to wear his spiderman costume at least three times a week, I think he was a little shocked when he woke up from naptime and we put him in his favorite costume.

Here he is with his superhero....He might have forgotten about Buzz Lightyear for only one evening...



The game was COLD....so we left in the 6th inning.



We tried out the timed picture setting on the camera - here we are at Maddie's two month birthday dinner. She is in the guest of honor seat on the table. :-)



By the way, Maddie has started smiling - and we actually got one on film! Usually she gets a very serious look on her face when she sees the camera light up right before the picture - so it's hard to get the smile on film. :-)



Caden has taken a renewed interest in his old Bumbo Chair - now that Maddie is using it...


We're off to U of M on Monday for Maddie's first consultation - updates after that!

Pics around the house

Here's a few random shots from the week.

Momma and baby at the dinner table...Momma trying to finish her dinner, baby trying to prevent it... :-)



Yes, this is Caden in SHORTS! No, it's not a picture from last summer. Despite the fact that it did snow 7 MONTHS out of the last 12 in Michigan, it was warm this week!


Chicken Legs!! They are already getting chubby so we took a quick picture before bathtime. Her head looks really big to me in this photo, but she's 75% all the way around - Height, Weight, and head. (Unlike her brother with the 98% noggin)



Aw, Daddy and Daughter...

ROAARRRRR!

That's what Caden was saying all night last night and this morning - after we visited the Dinosaur Exhibit at Midland Center for the Arts! He was ready for the trip yesterday - he was practicing his roar, wearing his dino shirt, and had his best bud Jackson coming with him. They had a blast - here are some pictures.

I was pretty impressed with the main feature - the recently discovered “Twin Towers of Terror”: a 45-foot Giganotosaurus skeleton.



Here's a re-created head of the above large dino - supposedly bigger than T-Rex.


On the left is a Stegosaurus. On the right is the 24-foot juvenile Mapusaurus skeleton - looks a lot like T-Rex.



Here's the cuddly, adorable Velociraptors....remember Jurassic Park?!


They probably make GREAT Pets!

There were crafts of course - Caden is getting better at this, now that he is a little older. I still had to stop him from stamping his hand though.






This was a neat feature - a Fossil dig in a big sandbox - but the sandbox was filled with plastic pellets so the kids didn't leave too dirty. Excellent!






Here's a video of Caden in the dinosaur exhibit...




And no visit is complete without a visit with the fishtank...