Christmas Morning video

For those true blog fans I have uploaded the video from Christmas morning. It is about 9 mins long and includes Christian first seeing his toys on Christmas morning, his reaction to opening more presents and his parent struggling to take his toys out of the packaging.

Dump truck races

Since Christmas we have new sport around our house. Dump truck races. This is where Christian finds an interested party and then he grabs his smaller dump truck and then points the interested party to the larger dump truck. Then he says "Ready, set GO!" and you race. His biggest competition is his Dad, but he has also raced with Aunt Sassy and Mommmie.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY !!!!!!!!!

Here is a pictoral of our Christmas

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at our house started with Christian getting his bath early along with his breathing treatment. He was put into his warm PJs and prepped for a "Ride" in his stroller around our neighborhood to look at Christmas Lights. We all dressed warm and checked out some of the Christmas Lights around our neighborhood. He enjoyed the ride around to look at the lights and picked out Santa several times and said "Ho Ho Ho". Once we got back we tried to get a good Christmas Picture of the family, but Christian was not in the mood. He wanted to take the pictures and kept messing with the camera. Then it was off to bed for Christian so Santa would come visit our house.




Once Christian was asleep we decided to get Memaw and DooDaddy's present to Christian put together. It is a great little piano and was not hard to put together. Christian loves to play pianos so we expect this to be a big hit in the morning.

Gammy and the Quilt

Here is a little video from when we all went to visit her and Uncle Mark at Thanksgiving. We gave her a quilt made by Gran (Teri's Mom). It was shaped like a Christmas tree with presents at the bottom that were drawn by Abby. In the Christmas tree were hand prints and foot prints of all 3 of Gammy's great grandchildren.

Daddy drop off update 12/19/2007

Christian didn't want to go to school this morning.. As usual he stalled and stalled until Daddy picked him up and put him in the car. As soon as I got him he started the ear and nose game. (Editor's note: This is a new game for Christian. He grabs your nose or ears and says "NOSE" or "EARS" kind of like when grown ups pretend to get little kiddos nose and say "I got your nose". ) It was pretty funny. Then we sang Jingle Bells for a bit. Once at school he "Handed me his lunch to carry to class". I thought I had him trained to take his own lunch from the car to the lunch bin, but lately he just picks it up and says "Have it". We took different paths to the door. He went to the steps by the baby room and I took the long route. But we met up at the door and headed into class where Roxy was hanging out. After putting his lunch up he walked around the room with me and I said good bye. He then turned and walked into the baby room to say hello to everyone.

Love,
Chris

Trail of Lights 2007

For about nine years Krystal and I have been going to see the Trail of Lights. It started out with just us two girls and has now grown. Our tradition now includes our husbands and friends. This is Elise and Christian's second year to see the Trail of Lights together. It is like their yearly "date". Their birthday are just 3 days apart.



The night didn't start very well for Christian. He was not happy sitting in his stroller for the lights. I can't really blame him. There were lots of people and that made it hard for him to see the lights from his lower prespective. He wanted out and he wanted out bad. I carried him some and Daddy carried him some. That still didn't make him happy either. He wanted to run. But that wasn't an option with so many people around.

Our entire group was scattered along the trail until we finally reunited for the last half of the walk. By then Elise was taking turns being carried by Mommy and Daddy too and Christian was strapped into his stroller...notice that he was STRAPPED in...he went in kicking and screaming. He perked up a little and just sat and watched the lights.

Then we went over to see the Zilker Tree. There were less people and we could stay in one place for a while. This is were Christian had the most fun. I bought some kettle corn, which both Christian and I loved. The kettle corn kept Christian from running away and he really enjoyed dancing and running around under the christmas lights. Christian and I spun around under the tree looking at lights. Christian put on quite the show dancing around under the lights. I guess he was enjoying the freedom finally.

The other fun thing that happened was that Christian added another saying to our game "The _____ says _____." Christian and I added "What does Daddy say?" Answer "BUDGET!"

He woke up this morning saying "Daddy says....budget" (that just makes me smile)

Jingle Bells

Sorry for the lack of posts to the blog lately, but the primary blogger (Me) has been super busy and a little sick too. But here is something fun for you.

You can't see anything really, but this is video we took on our way home Friday night. It is Christian singing Jingle Bells. He did is all by himself on the way home. Chris and I didn't even realize he knew the song, but he does thanks to daycare. Notice how he draws out "Allllll the way". We tried to get him to sing it over and over again on the way home. We had so much fun with him singing it. Hopefully our next song will be "I want a Hippotamus for Christmas"

Weekend fun

We had a fun weekend visit with lots of family. Memaw and DoDaddy came to visit for the weekend and that is always fun. We went to Marble Falls to visit Gran, Pa, Memaw's Aunt Phyllis and Cousin Glenna. Then we had brunch on Sunday with Cousin Susie. So lots of visiting with lots of family. Christian had a fun time watching the Christmas train at Gran and Pa's house. Gran and Pa think that it is coming home to our house after Christmas, but we will have to find the room first.

Then on Sunday after we had all had our afternoon (and much needed) naps. We went for a little walk and then we all helped with christmas lights for the house. We are almost done with the lights and almost ready for Santa to come visit.

Sleepy Boy

"Mom, just 5 more minutes!!!! "....this is what I get to wake up most every morning. such a sleepy boy.

Dumptrucks and puppy

Christian's new favorite thing to do with Daddy is to look at Dumptrucks on the internet.

He also looks really cute in his puppy dog towel too.

Christmas is Here

We were able to get some of our Christmas decorations up. I put up our tree and a few other decorations. Christian helped some, but I have a feeling he will be more help when we take the tree down. He enjoys taking the ornaments off, much more than he did putting them on.




This picture is of Christian watching a singing ornament. It hangs in the tree and sings "Rockin' around the Christmas tree".


Now this last picture is of something Christian's Daddy would rather he not play with. Funny how little boys aren't supposed to like playing with dolls (but they do).

Thanksgiving

We are home from our Thanksgiving trek to Wichita Falls to see Gammy. We never know what the weather will be like. Last year, I had to face the crowds just looking for some short sleeved shirts and this year we all had to bundle up because it was COLD!!!! We missed out on snow, but we were rained on most of the way home.

We started off the holiday with dinner at Pa and Gran's house with special guest Great Grama Nita. Christian was treated to a tour of the christmas lights too. He was ready for Mom and Dad to leave, but he didn't want to leave the comfort of Gran and Pa's. You really can't blame him. He gets extra special treatment there, but he didn't realize he would be going to see his other great grama and his Memaw and Dodaddy, where the treatment is just as special.

On a side note: He can also now call out to all his granparents. First he could say "Pa", granted that one syllable is pretty easy. Then there was "Memaw", which is shouted gleefully through out the Pagosa Springs Grocery Store. Then came "Gan" aka Gran, he is really close on this one, but you know exactly who he is talking about. And finally this weekend "Dodaddy" was prefected, he has been really close in the past, but this weekend he nailed it.

He loved playing with his cousins. We loved seeing everyone too. We were sad to see Texas lose, but Christian did his part by wearing is Texas Orange on Friday. Saturday was time with Santa at the mall. Abby was very interesting in sharing her list with Santa, but Emmy and Christian weren't as interested.

So much to be Thankful for this year. Family is at the top of the list. Special great-Gramas are up there too. Friends, health and happiness are right behind.

Drop off update

Today was PJ and Movie day at school, so Christian wore is BIG TRUCK pajamas to school today and they are planning to watch a movie this morning.

Here is a drop off update from Chris for today.

Christian did not initially want to go to school. But, after a few minutes of me packing the car and talking about school.. (And turning off the lights in the house) he decide to grab a few toys for the road. Two trucks and a ball. He couldn't carry them all (but he tried to .. several times he tried) and I asked if he needed help. He brought me his ball and went back for the two trucks. Then we were ready to get into the "Big Truck".. So he said "Big Truck"... then "Big Car".. When I placed him in his car seat I told him that I was buckling him up and he said "Buckle?" Then he said "Jungle Book" several times. Every time he said "Jungle Book" I said "Buckle up".. this went on for several iterations. Then we were off to school. Upon arriving to school I forgot to get his lunch and things out of the trunk before getting him out of his car seat. He was very confused about his lunch not being on the ground for him to pick up. This was funny. He then proceeded back to the back seat of the car to look for his lunch. I think he thought "Maybe it is on the floorboard".. "no not there".. The he started looking under the car for it and was confused by it not being where it usually was.. On the ground next to the car... I told him it was in the trunk and he looked confused. Then I opened the trunk and he saw it and immediately started laughing. Then we were off to school.. He said "Ride" as we passed by the "Angel Buggie". As I left him he said "bye" and waved.. Seemed to be in good spirits.

Love,
Chris


I think this shows how much Christian is talking these days. It just takes saying something once for him to repeat it.

The games we play

Christian and I have a little game we play when we are driving home from daycare. It reminds me of the game we used to play with my niece Stacy (Aunt Sassy to Christian). We would ask Stacy what sounds the animals made and she would repeat them. I think he favorite was "What does the horse say?", her answer "Na-Na!"...just like her nickname. Christian and I play this game now and he really seems to like it. Christian's horse is more like a whinny that a horse would make. I throw in a few different sounds to stir things up a bit. We will see if you can make out the last sound. I will show the answer at the very bottom of this post if you need help translating.












The very last one is "What does Lightin' say?" and the answer is "I am speed".

Dinner and a Movie

Today was a day of firsts for Christian and more evidence that he is becoming a big boy. Today he and I had the day off for Veteran's day. We took the free time to go see a movie, Bee Movie. He loves movies at home.....we all know how much he loves CARS. So I thought I would give a theatre movie a try. He did really well. We bought our kids pack, small drink and small popcorn. I had packed extra snacks for him. I snapped a couple of pictures with my cell phone. He loved the popcorn and sat quietly watching the movie.

He continued to do really well, until about 1 hour into to the movie. At that point he didn't want to sit still anymore and I really couldn't let him run around the crowded theatre, so I need to see Bee Movie again to see how it ends. But all in all, I think it was a success.

Earlier in the day I took the time to pick up some clutter and we can now see and use our dining room table again. Chris thought it would be a good time to start having family dinners in the dining room. So Christian was a big boy and sat at the table and we all had dinner as a family. We normally have dinner as a family, but we are usually at our small bistro table in the kitchen and Christian is in a high chair.

Here he is sitting down eating like a big boy.



Here he is on the edge, ready to bolt

Slipping out....

And now his is off to find Katy. Shouting "Kitty, where are you?" as he runs off.

Veterans Day 2007

We all dressed in our Red, White and Blue and went downtown to the Veterans Day Parade. Christian really enjoyed the marching band, cool cars, motorcycles, military vehicles, airplane flyover and firetrucks.

It was a wonderful tribute to our veterans and we were happy to have been there to watch.

In the blink of an eye***UPDATED***

I know I'm not the first parent to feel this. That time if flying and our baby boy is growing up so fast.

Last night I went out to dinner for a friend's birthday. While I was out Aunt Sassy stopped by and gave both of my boys haircuts. Pictured above is the little boy I woke up to this morning.

I woke up to a full fledged car racing, monster truck loving, Lightin' watching, rough and tumble little boy! Oh I know, he has been on the path to this. Talking up a storm, quick to repeat what we say. Learning new words everyday. Putting them together in sentences so it is easier to understand his wants and needs. Most of his wants include "Lightin'" and "Jungle Book" and "Big Trucks". His needs include the need to tell us "It's hot" when we give him something warm to eat and his need to tell us "I got it".

Most of his sentence start with a jumble of words that are hard to understand and end with someone's truck. That includes, Aunt Sassy Truck, Uncle JJ's Truck, Daddy's Truck, Gran's Truck, Pa's Truck, or Mommie's Truck.

We are just loving the memories and enjoying watching him grow. We hope you are enjoying the ride too.

I tease Chris all the time about not posting on this blog even though he really wanted to be able to post here in the future. Well he sends me updates on Christian most mornings. He recounts the daily drop off. Here is my update for today (Nov. 7th) and even more evidence that our little boy is growing up.

"Christian no longer tries to take ANYTHING out of the car! He had a waffle and a cup of milk and as soon as I stopped the car he tossed them onto the floor! WOW! Then he grabbed his lunch and took off towards school. After putting his lunch up he insisted that his trucks be made available to him, and then proceeded to start playing. I told him good bye and that it was time for me to go to work. He let go of my hand and started to play with his trucks. I got a very quick and small good bye from him, but he was more interested in the trucks."

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christian was "The King of Rock 'n Roll ~ Elvis" this Halloween and the costume was a hit. Thanks to our friend Diego for letting us borrow his costume from last year. It fit great. Christian loved running around tonight.

We started off the evening by going around to a few neighbors houses. The funniest part of trick or treating was going to visit the neighbor 2 houses down. Their house layout is almost identical to ours. Christian must has really taken to it, because he walked right into their house without a second thought...like he was making himself at home. Their dog Mike was the only one bothered by this. He barked at Christian several times, but that didn't stop him from walking around their living room.




Our neighbors Hooper and Milam were dressed up like Batman and Spiderman.



















After making our way to a few houses, we headed off to the Carnival at the Church where Christian attends daycare. On our way there we stopped at the Assisted Living Center near the house to do some trick or treating. Everyone there was so nice and we had lots of fun.

Then it was off to the Carnival. Chris and Christian threw darts for prizes, Christian dug for buried treasure for candy and prizes and he had a great time on the bouncy castle.



All in all it was a very busy and fun Halloween. If in the pictures it looks like Christian was in constant motion, running to and from everywhere...it is because he was. He was a ball of energy. Aunt Sassy met us at the Carnival so she could see Elvis in all his glory. By the time she saw him he had green lollipop juice all down his chest and was running around. The three of us could barely keep up with him. It was a great Halloween Night for Elvis and his devoted fans.

Viva Las Vegas

We arrived home from our brief trip to Vegas just in time for Halloween. Vegas was a blast. I viewed the fountains of the Bellagio from about every angle you can think of. I loved them. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel (it is half the size of the original). We went to see Spamalot at the Wynn Hotel. It was hilarious. We walked all over the strip and left our money at several casinos. Chris did well at craps and slots, I didn't do as well at video poker and slots....but we had fun no matter what. We toured the Bellagio and the goregous Atrium they have there. It was decorated for fall and was beautiful. We missed our little guy a lot, but he was in good hands with Aunt Sheri, Gran and Pa and Aunt Sassy. We hear they watched lots of "Lightin' "

Telephone

Christian is learning what the telephone is all about. He has started to pick up play phones and use them just like Mommy and Daddy does. He talks to Aunt Sassy quite a lot about her big truck. Today Christian's Daddy called him from the couch. Here is what followed.

Grown-up fun

Chris and I attended an adult themed Halloween party (it was a Sexy Halloween party) hosted by the Goerlitz in Kingwood. Since this is a G rated blog I will only post this picture.

Most of the other pictures fall into the PG-13 and above ratings category. I am a pink bunny (ears and tail) and Chris is Hugh Hefner. We did win a couple of "awards" at the party. I won for Female with the most clothes on and We both one for Male and Female that were the 1st to leave (really no surprise there). We had a blast! Christian had fun playing with Gran and Paw (or as he says it Gan and Paw-paw) while we were out and about in Kingwood.

Pumpkin Patch

Christian wasn't too interested in sitting down and getting his picture taken with us. He was ready to pick out a pumpkin or two though.













Oh! This one looks like a keeper









He and Paw looked over lots of pumpkins.


Oopps! I think we broke this one.

Here is a slideshow of all the pictures.

Fire truck

The Austin Fire Department came to Christian's school today and brought their "BIG TRUCK".

Today's Christian note from daycare said "Christian was so excited he could hardly wait to get in the fire truck".



I don't have any pictures since I found out about the visit after school, but his teachers told me about it. They said Christian LOVED the fire truck (big surprise there huh?!?). He and another little girl were the only ones that wanted to get up on the truck and explore.

He apparently had the firemen cracking up laughing by telling them "BIG TRUCK! VROOM, VROOM, VROOM!" over and over again.

He also received a "Detector Inspector" Badge too. What an exciting day!

Daycare

Christian's friends and teachers at daycare made him a cute get well card.


It is a cute Truck (imagine that) with all the kids finger prints on it by their names and all the teachers names.



Here Christian is "driving" his card around the living room floor.

Car wash

Just one day out of the hospital and Chris is making Christian do chores...can you believe it?!?!?!

just kidding.

It would have been hard to tear Christian away from helping Daddy, especially since there was water and bubbles involved.

Discharge

(In this picture he looks like a prisoner with his legs sticking out of the bars...if you are wondering about the pictures, no I didn't bring my camera with me. These pictures were taken with my camera phone.)

We were finally discharged on Saturday at 11:10 am. We checked into the ER at 8pm on Thursday so this was our 1st 2night visit to the hospital and our first stay at Dell Children's Medical Center. All totaled about 39 hours in the hospital .

The final diagnosis was bronchiolitis.

What is bronchiolitis? Bronchiolitis is an infection of the bronchioles, the small air passages in the lungs. It is common in children and is the leading cause of serious lower respiratory illness in infants.

What causes bronchiolitis? Bronchiolitis is usually caused by a virus, especially respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and frequently occurs in the late fall to early spring.

What are the symptoms? Symptoms of bronchiolitis include runny nose, cough, and fever. After a few days, your child may experience shortness of breath and/or breathing that is rapid and labored with wheezing. A severe infection in infants may cause a noticeably increased breathing rate. Seek immediate medical attention if your infant develops difficulty breathing.

Call a doctor if:
Your child is vomiting and can't keep liquids down.
Your child is breathing rapidly. (this was Christian)
You can see your child's skin pull in between the ribs (retractions) when breathing. This is a sign that your child is having difficulty breathing. (this was also Christian)
In severe cases, your doctor may suggest hospitalization and supplemental oxygen. (this was his treatment while in the hospital)

We are now home and all of us are resting up. After having some lunch at home we all took naps. Mine was for about 3 hours, Chris' was for about 2.5 hours and Christian's was for 4 hours. We were all so happy to be home in our own beds. As of right now (8pm on Saturday night) Christian is in his bed asleep...Thank God for being home and back on routine.

We have learned a few things about going to the ER.
# 1 - Always pack like you will be admitted. This came in handy for us this time. We had toys, our video player and movies (of course CARS, but we also watched Toy Story, Madagascar and Ice Age) a change of clothes, toothbrushes...etc. We didn't realize our stay would be 2 days, so we called Aunt Sassy to help us out by bring up another change of clothes and some essentials.
#2 - Always call someone and let them know what is going on. The last thing family wants to hear is that you have been in the hospital for several days and they didn't know about it.
#3 - ER's take breathing problems very seriously and you will general get moved back to a room very quickly.
#4 - Don't second guess yourself when your child is having problems breathing.

We have an appointment to discuss all of this in depth with our pediatrician next week. Hopefully we can be proactive about not getting to this point again, but when it comes to viruses there isn't much you can do.

Three strikes and it is asthma??? well maybe

Well this is our 3rd visit to the ER in 11 months. Our 2nd admission to the hospital and they still can't officially say Christian has asthma. Seems that way, but they are the doctors.
(this picture is him in the ER on an oxygen mask, not a fun thing to try and keep on a toddler)

To catch everyone else up here is the story. Daycare called me around 10:40 am on thursday to tell me Christian was coughing and coughing and coughing and having problems breathing. Chris went home at lunch and gave him a breathing treatment. He seemed to be doing better. He ate lunch, took a nap and played. Then at 4pm when I got home he got another treatkment. He can only have treatments at home every 4 hours. Well in 2 hours he was coughing again and couldn't breath well. I called he Pedi's office and on their suggested we headed to the ER. They gave him more treatments and oxygen. His breathing was still labor and his heart rate too fast to send him home.

So here we are at the hospital. By now you are asking, how are you blogging from the Hospital (and why)? Well Chris and Christian are playing ball in the hospital room and since Chris works at Seton (Dell Children's is a Seton Hosp.) and he brought his lap top...I can connect to the world wide web.

Just a few things about Dell Children's hospital. Great new hospital and wonderful ER and staff. They have always been wonderful when we have been here, but now we are in a nice new hospital. I think it is only in Austin that you can get live music in your hospital room. About 30 mins ago 2 nice men stopped by and played Christian a song. He loved it and it calmed him down a little. He is full of energy now and doesn't like that he is being limited by being attached to the heart rate and pulse ox. monitor.

The picture below was taken in the ER when he received his 1st breathing treatment. It lasted an hour and luckily he slept through most of it.
We will hopefully get out later today (friday). He is off oxygen and his levels are holding steady, but he is still coughing from time to time.

On a side note. He has watched CARS about 6 times since last night so if anyone is thinking about Christmas present....a bigger variety of Disney DVD's would be great and Christian would love anything Lightin' (
aka CARS related).

Chores

My chore everyday is to go feed the puppies outside. I can think of a couple of days when Christian had helped me with this chore, but those days haven't been recently. Now it looks like Christian wants to do my chores and I would be more than happy to turn this one over to him. I think the dogs would enjoy it more too.

Footloose

Christian gave me the best material, so I made little music video. Enjoy!

Safety First

Jenn at Mayhem Mania had a wonderful post about carseat safety awhile back.

I just had to rave for a minute about Christian's new carseat. As many of you know we just got a "new car". It is a 2001 LeSabre. Our other car is a 2006 Pacifica. The Pacifica has the LATCH system. The LATCH system makes car seat installation a breeze in my honest opinion. The carseat we use in the Pacifica is a Britax Marathon. It will hold Christian until he is 65lbs. This car seat will not budge when it is installed using the LATCH systems.

We bought another Britax Marathon for the LeSabre. I love our new car, but the 2001 LeSabre doesn't have the LATCH system. This became standard on most cars in 2002. So we have to use the shoulder seat belt to install the car seat. When we installed our Graco seat (the seat we used before ordering the new Marathon) with the shoulder belt, it would move every so slightly. We were used to the Pacifica and the car seat not moving at all. We thought well this must just be the way of the world without the LATCH system. Much to our surprise it doesn't have to be this way.

Once we installed the Marathon in the Le Sabre last night it didn't move just like when we use the LATCH system in the Pacifica. We were so happy about this!!! The Marathon has something called a Built in Lock-Offs, "both forward facing and rear facing, are designed for easy reach and operation when using traditional belt routing". Britax car seats are expensive ($200+) but they are so worth the investment.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for "Ey Keem"!

On random nights during the week the folks at the Wenck house get a sweet tooth. We try not to keep much sweet stuff around the house. So on nights like this, a road trip is required. The sweet treat of choice is of course "Ey Keem" as pronounced by Christian.

Our favorite place to visit is Austin Scoops.

On this particular night it was Sweet Cream for Christian, Milk Chocolate for Chris and Coffee for Me.






Check out our "new car". Memaw and DoDaddy bought brand new car so we took the LeSabre in to give it a new home.

Checking in

Hi there...sorry for the lack of posts recently. Christian had a hard weekend and hasn't been feeling well. I guess it is that time of year again when the cold season combines with the ragweed season and our house is full of sneezes (Chris), running nose (Christian)and itchy eyes (Teri).

I thought I would post a few pictures from this time last year. We are hoping to visit a pumpkin patch this weekend if everyone is feeling well. There is a place in Marble Falls called Sweet Berry Farms.

These pictures were taken last year by our friend Starlyn Aurit . Christian has 2 full blown ear infections in these pictures. He is such a trooper.

Halloween is right around the corner. If you don't know about the plans for Christian's Halloween Costume this year, I won't spoil the surprise this early. But check back Nov. 1st for pictures, I promise you won't want to miss them.

Here is his costume from last year.

Best Friends and Birthdays

Today, September 27, 2007 is Tallie Elizabeth's birthday. What is Tallie to me personally and my family...Well I will tell you.

She is a Matron of Honor


She is a Hostess


She is Dare Devil, that is afraid to fly in a plane, but not out of one!


She is a God Mother






She loves animals.


I am a lucky girl because I can say I have some great friends. Real friends that have been with me through thick and thin. Ah, but Tallie has been there the longest. 29 years to be exact.

Love ya Tal!

BBF until I don't cry thinking about how special you are to me.

Love,
Good Ol' Ter!