Grandma and Grandpa come for a visit

My parents came for a visit this weekend. They were planning on coming anyway, but they came a day early to help distract us. It was really nice to have them here. We unfortunately didn't get any pictures of my folks while they were here. But we did get some pictures of the evidence.

They brought Stian a bike cart.





And my mom made Stian a pumpkin hat.





And then a few more pictures from the weekend. Here Stian pulled himself up on the dishwasher. He later tried to crawl all the way up into the dishwasher.



And here he is trying to go up the stairs to the second floor. We didn't really encourage that. But he is very good at the two stairs that go down into the living room. Or rather, he is very good at going up them, but not down them.

Toop & Morri 1996-2008

Today is a very, very sad day. We had to put both Toop and Morri to sleep this morning. We are devastated. We love them so very much and will miss them terribly, we already do. We are so thankful for the 12 years we had with them. No two dogs have ever been more loved than Toop and Morri.

Pulling Up

Stian has been trying to pull up for the last few days. He has done it successfully a few times. He doesn't stay standing for long, so no pictures of it yet. Man he's also getting fast crawling! I need to put leather patches on the knees of his pants so he can get better traction on the hardwood floors... or maybe not.

Toddler Shower for Kevin and Dawn

Our good friends Kevin and Dawn are adopting a little girl from China. They've named her Quinn and she will be about 2 1/2 when they go get her in China in probably early December. Kris and I threw them a toddler shower on Sunday. It was a really nice party and they got lots of great gifts.

Columbus Day

What did the Native Americans say to Columbus when he got here?

"Nei! Er det deg Columbus?!"

ha ha ha

That joke never gets old.

Well... to me.

Kris and Laura may beg to differ.

Poor Little Guy - Take 3

Stian projectile vomitted all over the place at daycare this morning. Good times. I called the pediatric help nurse to see if this might be a reaction to the Amoxicillin or Motrin or Tylenol. She said it wasn't likely. More than likely he has a stomach bug on top of the ear infection now. Poor kid. Fortunately he's in fine spirits. If he pukes again we're supposed to bring him in to the doctor tomorrow.

Scenes From a Wednesday Evening

It started off a cool and rainy day, but it turned into a beautiful evening. So we went for a walk and then played in the grass after dinner and before bedtime. Stian is feeling better - at least as long as we keep him drugged up on Tylenol and Motrin. I think he's healing, but he's not very happy when the drugs wear off.

Happy Birthday Toop and Morri!

Toop and Morri turn 12 today!

I really didn't think Toop would make it to 12. I haven't posted about her lately, but she's doing okay. She's still hanging in there. I don't think it will be much longer now. She still seems like she feels okay. But that knot on her leg is getting so big.

But happy thoughts today! They're 12!

Poor Little Guy

We ended up in the ER last night.

Stian has had a nasty cold for several days. He's been miserable at night. He has cried for hours on end. But he would calm down if we held him. He just cried in his crib. So we could eventually get him to sleep with lots of cuddles and patience. A couple times it took close to 3 hours, but we could eventually get him to calm down and go to sleep.

But last night he would just not stop crying. Cuddling and patting and shushing wasn't working. So after two and half hours we talked to the nurse help line and they said to take him to the ER.

So off we went. We didn't have to wait as long in the ER as I thought we would. Stian was running a fever of about 102. Incidentally, he now weighs 27 pounds. Finally a doctor came and took a look at him. He has a nasty ear infection in his left ear. So that explains all the crying. Poor little guy.

So we got a perscription for amoxicillin and went on our way. We stopped at the pharmacy on the way home. We got him good and drugged up on Tylenol, Motrin and Amoxicillin. He finally got to sleep around midnight. The ER nurse told me to wake him up to give him his pain meds. So I woke him up at 4:00. He was not at all happy about that. But he went right back to sleep. Then he woke up at 6:45 and was not happy. But he calmed down pretty quickly and was happy. He played until about 8:45 and then went down for a nap. He's napping now.

I hope he starts to feel better! Poor little guy!

Poor little boy

Stian is sick again. And miserable. And making Mommy and Daddy miserable keeping us up all night.

But he sure is cute. The weather has been beautiful. Here he is enjoying some outdoor time yesterday afternoon.

Communicating

Stian has started to be more interactive and is even starting to communicate with us in more ways than just smiling or crying. And he appears to understand a fair amount of what we are saying to him.

For awhile now if you blow raspberries at him he’ll blow them back at you. He and Kris can have quite the conversation in raspberries. I don’t know what the name is for the other thing he does – but it’s where you run your fingers back and forth over your lips while sort of humming. He’ll do that back at you if you do it to him. Stian also waves regularly when someone waves to him.

He’s also starting to say words though. He has said “Daddy” and “Mama” for awhile, but he said them indiscriminately. But he appears to be saying them discriminately now. He says “Daddy” much more than he says “Mama”, but he does say both.

When we were at Kris’s parents’ house Stian slept in his pack n’ play in the room I was sleeping in. Kris always gets Stian up in the morning. So one of the mornings he woke up a little earlier than normal, and was waiting for Kris to come and get him and he started babbling. But then he very clearly said “Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy…. Mama? Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy…. Daddy? Mama?” I just laid there listening to him chuckling.

When we were leaving daycare today Miss Jessica waved to him and said “bye-bye”. And Stian waved back and said “bye-bye”! We were all kind of shocked. We’ll see if he does it again or if it was just a fluke.

Jessica, one of his teachers at daycare, has also told me a couple of times that she thought he was signing “more” to her when she was feeding him lunch. She’s been working on it with him. I was kind of skeptical. But today when I picked Stian up at daycare Jessica showed me. She said to him “show Mama more” and Stian brought his hands together similar to the sign for “more.”

And finally, Stian seems to have pretty good comprehension in both English and Norwegian. He knows the names for some of his toys and will pick them out of a pile of toys when asked to do so in either English or Norwegian.

It’s so fun to see those wheels turning in his brain and to have him be more interactive.