Tubes

Due to recurring ear infections for Mr. Graham, our pediatrician recommended meeting with a Ear, Nose, & Throat specialist to discuss getting tubes.  Dr. Pichichero does not take getting tubes lightly.  He and his partner are pretty much experts on ear infections and have been doing a multi-year study on them with great results.  Unfortunately, some kids still need tubes.  Graham had three ear infections from end of November to mid-January and in between, when not infected, his ears still had fluid in them.  

We met with the ENT, Dr. Salamone, who told us we could go either way...since Graham was so young and only had three infections, we could wait.  However, chances are he would endure a couple more ear infections during the winter and we would be back to have the tubes done in a month.  Then we mentioned that we were flying to Colorado in a couple weeks and he said, oh, then I would do it.

So we scheduled Graham for tube surgery.  Dr. Salamone does one Saturday a month where they line up the tube kids and send 'em on in.  It was outpatient and at a brand new Surgery Center.

My parents came in town so they were able to stay home with Parker while we took Graham in at 6:30 am.  They order the surgeries youngest to oldest and yep, he was the youngest. 

It was really was such an amazingly quick process.  He stayed in his jammies the whole time.  This picture is before they took him back, note the medical bracelet on his ankle.

Less than 10 minutes went by, when Dr. Salamone came out to tell us he was finished!  It was another 5 minutes before we could go back and see Graham.  He was pretty upset, groggy from the anesthesia, and it took us awhile to calm him down.  And then we headed home!  We were there for about an hour and a half start to finish.  

Now we cross our fingers and hope that the tubes keep him from getting any more ear infections.

Bonus pictures and videos from that weekend (with my parents in town and we had our annual Super Bowl party)

Easy Bake Oven cupcakes

Graham - 9 Months Old

Graham learned a lot of new things this past month.  At 9 months old, he can crawl "normally" rather than the army crawl he had mastered since 6 months of age.  Graham can also wave bye-bye and do "so big".  He loves to laugh at his sister above all else.  

He had a relatively easy 9 month check-up.  Just a second round of flu shot to bear.  Graham weighs 22.5 lbs (75%) and is 30 in long (90%).  His head circumference is 18.5" (90%).  He has four teeth, two on top, two on bottom and still drooling like crazy so maybe more on the way.

Graham is still a good eater and eats pretty much what we are (if compatible for a baby with four teeth).  He has four bottles a day still, but they are 5 oz each and sometimes he will only drink 4 oz of them.  We've had some rough nights, really since Thanksgiving, due to chronic ear infections.  It pretty much just comes down to him being uncomfortable and wanting to be held.  It is sweet, but not preferable at 3:00 am.  Mr. Graham will be getting tubes put in his ears this weekend, more to come on that...

His hair is starting to grow more and more and is a dark blonde or light brown color.  His eyebrows and eyelashes are still very light.

He loves to "drive" in his car around the kitchen and when not chasing Daddy or Parker, will take the opportunity to check out the contents of the kitchen cabinets.

Graham moves fast and is never in one spot for long.

Parker Rose

Just some interesting tidbits about our spunky little girl.

• says "I mam" rather than "I am"
• says "pink tails" rather than "pig tails"
• says "bam baid" rather than "band aid"
• says "crush" rather than "crust" (as in pizza or bread)
• says "very" all the time, many times instead of "really", example:  Mommy, I very love you
• when I talked about us going to run errands, she says "are we going to Aaron's now?"  She has two buddies named Aaron in her class so she just associates the words errand and Aaron, but she knows we aren't really going to their houses
• She can spell her first name and is close to spelling last name
• She is very into sounding out letters, she likes to be able to tell us what letter a word starts with and knows all of the letters by sight
• She has a "tushie pose", where she sticks her hip and tushie out so we can give it a love tap
• She likes to play the game where we make faces, her best on is her "mad face" because she is trying not to smile

• She is still a great eater and even loves to wings and ribs now.  She loves sushi and her favorite is raw salmon. 
• I always say "Sounds like a plan, Stan?" and she turned it into "Sounds like a plan, Stan, Graham?" and says to me all the time 

In the car this weekend, she was babbling and talking to Graham and kept starting off by saying "Ladies and Gentlemen!"

sucking on a peanut M&M

waiting at Dr office

"helping" me fold my laundry

Show Day

Parker's dance/gymnastics class at The Little Gym ended this week.  She loved this class and I am so glad we signed her up but also glad it is over.  It was hard to leave work early every Tuesday.  They did learn a tap and a ballet routine and have a "Show Day" on last class where the parents and other guests sit in the room and they perform in front.  Surprisingly, Parker was that girl who just stood there.  Before we started, she was in front of all the parents dancing around by herself!  And during the normal classes, I would say she was best able to follow the routines, so this really shocked me.  Of course, I had held off getting a video of her doing the routine in previous weeks so I could save it for show week.  The song was Dean Martin, Winter Wonderland, but when I uploaded it to YouTube it recognized the song and gave me copyright warnings, so I had to edit the video and remove the song. 

Parker's Fan Club

After that, I went up to give her a pep talk before the "solos" and she started to cry and ended up sitting on my lap in the audience for the rest of the tap & ballet portion.  

Then it was time for the gym part and she did great.  First they did their tumbling routine:

Then they did routines on the uneven parallel bars and the beam.

Parker skiing!

We took Parker skiing for the first time last weekend!  We have been wanting to go, but the first good snow we had melted and then it got into the single digits.  It was a little tricky because we didn't have anyone to watch Graham so he came along.  The plan was just to get her on skis.  Get her used to wearing all of the stuff and see what it's like.  We know we are not going to be the best people to teach her how to ski so we will put her in a lesson next time.  Hopefully we will also have a babysitter for Graham so Mommy and Daddy can ski for a bit.

We skied at Bristol, which is 40 minutes from our house.  Greg went ahead to sneak a couple runs in while we were waiting for Graham to wake up from his morning nap.  Parker had no problem with me piling on the layers and renting the equipment when we got there.  She put the helmet right on, but did not like wearing the goggles.

Once we got over to the bunny hill, she said she wanted me go with her first, so we walked over and got on the magic carpet.  I had shown her some videos of kids skiing and so she could see what the magic carpet looked like (just like the moving sidewalks in airports), but she was still a little scared getting on the first time.  After that, she was a pro.

This video is of Greg going with her the second time down.  He used his ski pole for her to hold onto and she liked that.

Meanwhile Graham hung out in the stroller.  Thanks to the fancy cover we have, he stayed nice and cozy and eventually took a nap.

Parker's first skiing experience was definitely a good one.  We can't wait to go back again soon.  We have a trip to Vail coming up in mid-February, so we have to get her ready for the big time!

Johnson Visit

As per our normal tradition, the Johnson family came up from Pittsburgh for the New Year.  We do our Christmas celebration together and it luckily coincides with Greg's birthday.  I did not get many pictures, but Parker had so much fun playing with her cousins.  

The Johnsons arrived New Year's Day and we enjoyed a prime rib dinner at Papa G and Sandy's.  

The next day we had lunch out together and got ready for a little get together at our house that evening.  

The Nudds and Burgers came over, in addition to Papa G and Sandy of course, and we smoked some ribs and tri tip.

The next day was Greg's birthday.  Papa G and Sandy were kind enough to come watch the kids so we could go out to dinner.  We ended up with a big group including some of Gennie's high school buddies and Greg & Gennie's cousins.

Sadly our visit came to an end.  Clare was crying on Sunday when it was time to leave and Parker is still talking about her cousins.  A couple nights later she had packed up her "stuff" in this cart and had her backpack full of more "stuff" and was walking around the house.  I asked her where she was going and she said "Pittsburgh".