End of a year

Well, its after midnight so its officially next year. I can hear all the fireworks going off at 6 Flaggs right down the street.

These past few weeks have been crazy and exhausting and wonderful.

Sue captured it all on film and Wolfgang loves to relive it whenever he can.

This was his first real Christmas (with a Christmas tree and all). You'll notice that there are bumper pads tied to all hard corners. He takes a lot of spills. And the couch cushion absorbs a lot of spills, hence the Pink Snack Blanket.

Christmas morning we were all up before he was. I was so excited for him to open things.

He absolutely loved his little bike and helmet from Grammy and Papa. We're waiting for a little more coordination before we let him loose on it (so he got another "in the meantime" toy to make up for stashing the bike in the garage. More on that....)

After he went to bed that night everybody (but me) blew up 47 million balloons and we made a huge Birthday Balloon bouquet to hang from the ceiling (for his b-day which we celebrated with the other kids the day after Christmas).

The next day all the cousins drove in from Georgetown and waited patiently on the floor for their stockings.....

....and their presents.

We had cupcakes after that and sang Happy B-day to the Goo.

This is his new favorite thing in the whole world.

The Car.

Its all he talks about.

He sits in there with his juice and waits for someone to push him around.

On his actual birthday day we were busy. Cathy took me and the Wolf to my last doctor's appointment and then met some of her family at Chic Filet. They had cupcakes! And Wolfgang played in the toddler area. He had such a good time. I'll get pictures of that soon.

That night Grammy took something special out of the fridge.

A fruit bouquet with candles!

He just about flipped his gourd.

(and then he spat out the candles)

And then he dove in with great enthusiasm (and chocolate dip and whipped cream).

But this is what we do before bed.

We push Mindy around in the car.

Its been a good holiday season.

BLOG!!!!!!!

Its really early and I've been awake since WAY earlier, so I thought I'd post a blog (not that anyone is reading, but I thought I'd do it just for kicks).

Less than 3 weeks and I'm having this baby. I'm uncomfortable *understatement*. I've been waking up around 3 or 4 and I just can't get back to sleep. Various things hurt. Other things are numb. Oh well. What are you gonna do.

This is going to be a busy time up ahead. The Wolf doesn't know whats about to hit him.

(Here he is at the Zoo with Daddy)

(Randy took him on a cold morning and the Wolf literally had the entire zoo to himself)

(And especially the sandbox)

(...Which is good because he is a sand-thrower)

(Sweet, lone Wolf)

I can't believe its only 5 days until Christmas. We went to Target last night and it was Grand Central Station. Yuck. Glad we wont have to do that again. All of our "shopping" is done. Not that we really did any shopping. I'm doing a Little House on the Prairie Christmas and I'm making all the gifts I can. Its been fun.

(Grammy and Wolf at the Christmas concert at church. It was laundry day......)

Friday is our 15th wedding anniversary. 15 years! I love it. God has definitely had mercy on us. We're going to go eat some fondue together before our world explodes again. It will be nice.

(Juice)

(The sharing of the juice)

Then Saturday is Christmas. I'm basically immobile, so its a good thing that we are going nowhere. I'll sit on the couch and watch Wolfgang experience his first family Christmas in blissful confusion. He still has no idea what the presents under the tree are.

On Sunday Randy's brother David (and wife Kristi and their 5 kids) are coming into town to do Christmas. That night we'll celebrate Wolfgang's birthday. Cake. Candles. Gifts.

Let me tell you, he's going to think this is HIS weekend.

The fun before the storm. :)

No more blogs

This is the last one.

It hurts to sit in the hard chair.

I stay up too late shrinking pictures.

I'm tired.

So many excuses.

Maybe later on I'll start again but for now....No more blogs.

The End

Trees

We needed to get out and see some nature.

Actually, Randy needed to get out and see some nature, Wolfgang needed to get out, and I just wanted to be with my mens.

We heard there were some cool trees in Medina, about an hour from here.

There were a few. :)

Heaven. I love these minutes of my life. The ones that look like this.

We've had a rough few weeks. Doctor visits. More doctor visits......MORE doctor visits.

It was fun to get out and throw some rocks and see some cool cool trees. Wolfgang could have spent a week chunking rocks in the river.

We went into town and had hamburgers and fries. Man they were good. We had fun.

We then found the coolest rest-stop on the planet. How beautiful is this area?

The trees were so....rooty. And the water was so clear!

We could see our shadows on the bottom of the river.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I can't wait. Actually, last Thanksgiving our South African friends had us over because they wanted to cook real American Thanksgiving food. It was fun but really really hot.

The cousins are coming in and we are going to eat real turkey. I'm looking forward to mashed potatoes and Cristin's green fluffy salad stuff. Man I could eat my weight in green fluffy salad stuff. Thankfully my doctor weigh-in was TODAY and not Friday.

I had a sonogram today and Max has an enormous amount of hair. I can't wait to see him! We are scheduling a C-section for January 7th. Soon!

Friday!

TGIF

This has been a long hard week. I'm glad its over.

My mom is getting married tomorrow. I've been dreaming about this day for years. I wish I could be there. I just have too many factors working against it right now.

I'm exhausted.......

I found this oinker of a picture and thought it was a cute one of the Wolf. Don't let my doctor see it or I'll get another lecture about cutting out deserts.

Another hard day....

....or two.

I'm glad its over. I'm glad its bedtime and I can turn my brain off.

Monday night Enkidu got out of the yard. We couldn't find him all night. The next morning we got a call from an animal hospital saying that he was there. He had been hit by a car and a nice man found him at 7:30 in the morning trying to drag himself up onto a curb. He took him to the hospital and paid for some pain relief.

We went to see The Doon. It was bad. His lower half was paralyzed and he had broken teeth. And who knows what else. We gave him the rest of the day to respond to some meds but he didn't. He couldn't go to the bathroom and his bladder was swelling up. So we had to put him to sleep.

It was really hard after all this time. We got him in Chicago and took him all over the world with us. He was Randy's baby.

We all miss him already.

This afternoon we had an appointment with the neurologist about Wolfgang's MRI.

What the test discovered was that at some point before birth, Wolfgang had hemmhoraging in his brain. Where the blood clotted, it left a 1"x1.5" space on the cerebellum. This has affected several things, most importantly his sense of balance.

All we can do at this point is work with him to learn to walk and hope that his brain heals itself in some way . Poor little boy. The doctor said we will just have to wait and see how and if his body will compensate for the loss.

Its going to be a interesting year with 2 babies who can't walk. Thank the Lord for strollers. And thank the Lord for a boy with a good nature and a happy disposition.

This picture appeared on my camera. I'm sure it has something to do with Daddy.

I have been sewing headbands. I looked up from my work the other day to find all of my headbands around Wolfgang's neck.

"Ney!" he said, pointing. That is his word for Necklace.

He crawled off and played for a while with 6 bands hanging off him.

Devine

We had a big day on Saturday.

All 5 of the cousins came and spent the night. When Wolfgang woke up on Saturday morning, he was beside himself with happiness to discover all the kids there.

We left San Antonio at about 9 and drove to Devine to go to the pumpkin farm. But first we went into town for the parade.

Wolfgang had no idea what was going on, and even before the parade started he was just thrilled to be there. Fists wiggling. Legs kicking. Squeals. He didn't know why we were sitting on the curb eating breakfast tacos and he didn't care.

He was stunned when something finally happened.

It was one of THESE kinds of parades.......

Anyway, then we went to the farm. The kids loved it!

There were mazes and fishing and a hayride and animals and pumpkins and Christmas Trees.

And then there was the playground. By this point I was barely hobbling along.

We both made use of the cane.

Look at that stomach! Ack!