look what i can do!

i've learned how to go down the stairs on my belly.  and he somehow learned this all by himself!

for the longest time he would try to go down head first.

he's a quick one too man!  he'll be up those stairs in a flash and then already coming back down before you know it!  thankfully he hasn't fallen down any....although i'm sure the day will come!

test #1

today was test #1 of 2 for the dude.  the upper gi series.

i was pretty worried about how well today was going to go.  first up, not letting the dude eat anything after he ate lunch (11am or so).  all he could drink was water.  i had to pick him up at 1, so i was hoping he would nap for most of the time and he wouldn't have to think about eating.  yeah, no luck!  he fell asleep at school at 940 and woke up around 11.  so when i got there at 1 (while all the other kids were sleeping), graham was laying on his back playing with ms. patricia.  he looked so happy and i hated the thought of taking him away from this and subjecting him to the hospital, barium and xray machine.  i reminded myself....this is necessary.

so off we went.  we arrived at the hospital and got right into registration.  'okay ma'am, all i'm going to need now is your orders for the upper gi.'  D'OH!  yeah, it was at home in my purse because the night before i had transferred everything from my purse to my diaper bag since i knew i didn't want to be left ill prepared for any of the dude's surprises!  luckily the pulmonologist office is literally right across the street from the hospital and a nurse was kind enough to fax over an order for the test.  yeah..not feeling so great about this whole thing since our day just seems to be off.

we only had to wait in the waiting room for about 10 minutes and got brought back to a pediatric xray room...the same one we were in back in august!!  the dude was VERY interested in the IV pole and wanted to push it around everywhere.  the doctor arrived 10 minutes later and was ready to start.  no turning back now!!

the nurse had mixed a bottle for graham, half and half with milk and barium.  i was worried the dude wasn't going to drink from the bottle since he hasn't in so long, and also because of the taste of the barium.  NOPE!  i think he was so thirsty and hungry he would've eaten anything at that point.  we laid him down on the xray table, laid him on his side and on his back while the doctor watched the path of the barium through the screen.  i had to hold graham's shoulders and squeeze the bottle for an even flow, so it was cool to watch the screen and see exactly how the dude was digesting everything.

RESULTS:

everything looked as it should be.  the only thing the doctor noticed was slight reflux, which could be contributing to the dude's wheezing and coughing, but it wasn't significant enough that it would be the sole cause.

NEXT STEPS:

the hospital will send the results to the pulmonologist and we'll go over them when we go to our next check-up on february 3rd.  we also have one more test to get done before then, the sweat test.  that one will be on january 10th in the morning.  the results for that should be pretty quick as well, so we'll definitely keep everyone posted.

THANK YOU...

for everyone's thoughts and well wishes.  they really do help us stay positive through everything.  luckily there are no needles involved in any of these tests, so it makes things much easier!

we <3 all of you!

**ho ho ho**

santa has come to town (well the suburbs technically)!!!

the dude was up at his normal time (645 or so), so we got him changed and ready for the morning and then brought him downstairs.  i don't think he understood what happened last night, but those eyes of his sure did get wide when he saw all the goodies underneath the christmas tree! 

the dude is definitely a dude though.  he went straight to the dump truck full of blocks!  (probably helped that that was one we couldn't wrap)  he eventually got the hang of ripping the paper, but he was more interested in petting rudy and just walking around.  we took a break for breakfast and then went back at it.  kudos to aunt tim and uncle andrea for REALLY making the dude's eyes light up.  he must have seen the pictures of the tunnels and tents and knew exactly what the box was!  and when we finally opened it...oh boy...watch out!  

graham went down for an earlier nap and then was up around 130.  everyone came over in the afternoon and we had a nice evening of appetizers and chili!  it worked out perfectly because everyone was able to graze and no one was tied to the oven.  we all enjoyed hanging out with everyone.  thanks aunt sue, grammie, bruce, justina, sam and garrett for coming over and celebrating the holiday with us!

here is the link to enjoy all of the photos from christmas:

https://plus.google.com/photos/104616318260086788090/albums/5692841344496633745?authkey=CI6HqtWApJeVxAE

christmas eve

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads...

and what a christmas eve it was!

it was just the three of us and we had such a nice time.  in hertel family tradition, we had lasagna for dinner.  but not your regular lasagna...ravioli lasagna!  yup... a ton times easier and quicker (although, nothing can beat my dad's lasagna) than making regular lasagna!  the dude was in bed by the time we ate, but he had pasta none-the-less.  oh...and he helped me cook our dinner as you can see by the photos.

all our presents were wrapped and ready.  and the dude must have been a VERY good boy this year since santa came to our house first to drop off his gifts before mommy and daddy went to bed!  thank you santa! something tells me the dude is going to be occupied for quite some time with all these new toys! 

bubble boy

why do i have a feeling that the dude is going to have more fun with the tissue paper and boxes on christmas than the actual toys?!  if this is any inclination!

video recap

so as most of you have noticed, i've been a little delinquent in updating my blog recently.  disclaimer, it's been busy at work, busy at home, busy going to doctors appointments, busy with derby, etc.  all in life has been a little hectic lately.  throw in the the holidays and WOAH, i need a vacation!!!  

soooo, what being delinquent in postings means is being delinquent in taking pictures as well.  luckily we were able to capture some fun moments in the dudes life on video.  enjoy this video recap!

(as another disclaimer, please note that you can change the resolution of each video to 1080p for more clarity, and please ignore.....ME!)

showing off his dancin moves!

ants in our pants

using a spoon

our little daredevil

playing with our favorite pink ball

happy birthday daddy!

happy birthday daddy!

we hope you have an extra special day.

today we will let you sleep in, play records, play video games, go shopping and basically do whatever you want to do.

today we WON'T let you change a single diaper, feed a dude, cook dinner, clean-up or worry about anything.

we are so lucky to have you in our lives.  you make us smile, laugh and sometimes drive us crazy.  :)  but no matter what happens at the end of the day, we are a family and will always love each other. 

oh yeah, and thanks for having a birthday so that we can eat cake!!! (ps...this is the first time graham actually ENJOYED eating cake of any sort!)

(please ignore my voice!)

lost in the hustle

so somehow in all the hustle and bustle at home and work i forgot to mention a HUGE milestone accomplishment.  the dude is a full time WALKER!!!!  

here are some of graham's first steps that were taken on november 26th.  i'm calling that the official first steps date, since he's been running ever since.

no more crawling for this dude!

the word on the street is....

pulmonology!

yup, we had our first pulmonologist appointment today and everything went great.  the dude still wasn't sounding great, so we were happy the doctor got to see him in action.  the first thing they did when we got there was listen to his chest, give him a duo neb (mixture of two medicines, but i forgot which two!) and then come back and listen to him again.  the medicine definitely helped, but it didn't clear much up.  he still sounded pretty snarfely in there.  

after the neb we sat and talked with the doctor for awhile to give her the history of our dude and his breathing trials and tribulations (i won't go into that again since it's all documented in this here blog!).  what was strange to think about though, was the fact that this has been going on since he was about 5 months old.  that's EIGHT MONTHS we've been dealing with this!!!  the sad part, it's kind of become a normal for us now.  i remember being so worried about doing nebulizers, will he stop breathing at night, etc.  and now we're pros at this!  i honestly think if we've gotten through all of this so far, i'm not sure what we can't get through!

  i think everyone was in agreement though that the alubuterol (fast acting attack medicine) wasn't really helping, that maybe we need to try something new.  we should still keep giving him the pulmacort (inhaled steroid) though since it does prevent the episodes from being horrible.  soooooooooooo....we are now going to start giving the dude singulair which helps treat allergies and asthma.  we're all crossing our fingers that this new medicine will help!

finally, in order to rule things out so we can figure out what's causing all the dude's breathing troubles, the doctor has asked us to get two tests done.

1 - an upper gi series: a radiological test used to visualize the structures of the upper digestive system (the esophagus, stomach and duodenum).  for the dude, they'll actually be looking at the trachea and seeing if anything is pressing up against or blocking it.  which could be causing him to not breath as he should be.

2 - sweat test: this test measures the amount of salt chemicals (sodium and chloride) in sweat and is used to diagnose cystic fibrosis (CF).  during my pregnancy the CF test came back negative, but again, just to rule everything out we're going to have this test done.  the doctor reassured us that she really doesn't think the dude has CF because most patients diagnosed don't gain weight as well as....ahem...well, as well as the dude seems to be gaining weight!!  25 1/2 pounds currently!!!  

so those are the updates.  we're going to try and schedule the tests as soon as we can, so that i don't have to stress myself out about waiting for the results.  we'll also be going back to the doctors office next wednesday for a follow-up.  until then!

holy molar!!!

during the meltdown graham decided to have at the end of our doctors visit today (granted it was 11am, which is his normal lunchtime/naptime!) i got quite the surprise.  i was looking down at graham's wide open and mouth and WOAH!  

hello upper left first molar!  

it's not completely in, but the two of the four points are poking through!

update

so i decided to stay home today since the dude hadn't been fever free for 24 hours.  he woke up not having a fever, but still coughing and wheezing.  i called the doctors office and got an 845 appointment.  score!  got to the office and got brought back.  no big surprise, he sounded junky and was wheezing.  we gave the dude another neb treatment to see if that would do anything.  15 mins later, better, but still not great.  

apparently the doctor thinks graham might have had a touch of pneumonia, but there's no way of really telling unless they did a chest xray (yeah, didn't want to have to do  that today!).  so our diagnosis...nothing really...but we're starting an oral steroid once a day on top of the albuterol and pulmacort to see if we can stomp out whatever this thing is!!  i think the doctors and nurses were all relieved to hear we had made an appointment for the pulmonologist on wednesday.  i think they're just as anxious as us to see what they say! 

fever and chills

so it's been a LONG weekend with a sick kiddo.  not so much the throw up sick, which poor andrea is dealing with, but fever, chills and cough sick!  started on saturday, we skyped andrea, tim, olivia and mason to wish olivia a happy birthday.  graham was in his chair eating his dinner, as was mason who was quarantined from olivia.  we lost our connection and then i made a comment on how pitiful mason looked.  not more than 15 minutes later graham was still in his chair but not eating anything?!

i had made him pasta, and we all know how he LOVES pasta, and nope.....didn't touch ANY of it!  very strange.  i also had heated up a spinach nugget which he loves and nope....didn't touch it either.  hmmmm, something's up.  i just felt like something was wrong and grady tried calming me down.  then he made the comment "uh, his his leg twitching?"  yup, sure was.  me "uh, are both his arms shaking?!"  yup, sure were!  took a closer look and he was shivering all over.  :(  i took him upstairs to change his diaper and get him into some pj's and took his temperature.  101.2!  YIKES!  how did that happen?!  

side note, he's in a fleece foot sleeper, and still shivering.  so i wrap him in a blanket.  still shivering.  wrap him in another blanket.  still shivering!!  wrap him in a THIRD blanket.  better, but still shivering a little.  since he had fallen asleep and was in his crib, i figured i would let him be for 15 minutes or so to see what would happen.  i walk back into his room after 10, because i couldn't wait, and he was shivering again!!  so i picked him up and put him on me, which i think my body heat coupled with his blankets worked wonders.  but...

...since the dude had never had chills before i got a little nervous.  called the on-call line and they said because of his weight we could give him children's motrin and to give that to him for the next does to see if that works better than the infant stuff i had given him before.  i decided i was going to let the dude sleep with me that night since i wanted to keep a close eye on him.  so around 1030 pm for his next dose i took his temp since he felt warm.  103.2!!  OMG!!!  took the blanket off him, turned our ceiling fan on a little higher and gave him the motrin.  30 minutes later he was better.  not great, but at a low grade fever at least.

he tossed and turned throughout the night and at 6 he was up for the morning.  since i hadn't gotten any sleep, and grady had slept in the other room, i asked him to take care of graham so i could try to get a couple hours of sleep.  throughout the day the dude was still running a low grade fever and then before his motrin dosage it would spike up.  no chills today, but i was still nervous that even with the motrin, his fever wasn't going away.

paranoid me, called the on-call again.  same nurse, so she knew i was a little concerned.  i knew she didn't want to have us go to the hospital, so she asked if i thought he would be okay overnight with the motrin, albuterol and pulmacort treatments we had been giving him.  i was pretty sure he would be, i think i just needed reassurance.  so she said, keep doing what we're doing, maybe give him a warm bath, and call the doctors office in the morning for an appointment.

hopefully we'll get some sleep tonight!

we'll update everyone tomorrow!!

derby meat-up

had a ton of fun tonight with my derby girls!  

the fresh meat decided to have a meat-up and i think it's safe to say we all enjoyed ourselves.  no kids.  no husbands.  no significant others.  no pets.  etc.

only good drinks, good  food and good company!

hopefully we'll get the whole group together next time (this is only about half of us).

oh christmas tree!!

now all that's left is for santa to bring the dude lots of present!  :)  he's been pretty good this year, so something tells me it's going to be a good year!

oh, and i should mention...all the ornaments on the tree this year are hertel family heirlooms!!  i found the bag of all the ones my mom gave me from their house and it was so fun to decorate the tree with memories.  i always love hanging my 1981 birdhouse!  graham's 'g' that grana gave him last year is hanging proudly on the front of the tree.  we're working on finding the perfect 2nd year christmas ornament.  think i might have found it, but i'll wait to post until we actually buy it.

hunting

christmas tree hunting that is!

we've had such good luck at home depot in the past, we decided to get ours there again this year since we aren't sure what graham will do with a christmas tree?!  maybe next year when he's walking around we'll go to a tree farm and cut one.

for this year however, we stuck true to the sanner christmas tree hunting tradition:

drive to home depot

walk into the lot of trees and find the balsam fir's

grady picks one up and says "this is the one"

i say "hold onto it, i want to look at one more"

i pick one out

i look at the two of them and have ALWAYS gone with the first one grady spots

we asked the dude what he thought.  we think he likes it!

we went with a shorter tree than normal...in honor of our shorty dude!!

zoolights

dude's first trip downtown!  dude's first trip to the zoo!

zoo lights...how cool!  i love the national zoo to begin with, nevermind when it's full of christmas lights!!

we decided to head downtown a little early so we could walk around during the day and show graham some cool animals.  mind you, it was pretty cold during the day today, so not all the animals were out.

first up...the zebras!  i really don't know what he was thinking.  he couldn't stop looking at it.  helps that we talk about a zebra in one of the books he has.

second stop...an emu!  it was doing funny things at the fence, so we all enjoyed watching him.

third...small mammal house.  phew...we needed some time to warm up too!  we saw a couple small monkeys, several porcupines, but the one the dude loved the best was the small armadillo!!  the exhibit glass was just the right height for him, and the little armadillo was burrying around looking for food.  graham loved it.  

fourth...APE HOUSE!  little did i know there was a baby gorilla too!  graham LOVED watching them jump around and play with each other.   he could have stood at that glass for hours.  

it was starting to get dark, so we made our way to the mane restaurant to meet up with some friends.  we walked around a little more, this time admiring the lights, then we decided to call it a day.  we had been there for several hours and it was getting pretty cold.  and all the big kid things (train rides, ice  skating, etc), graham was too little for.  until next year!!!

mommy

realized there were no pictures of mommy from the holiday weekend!!  guess i need to get out from behind the camera sometimes!  luckily grady was able to capture this moment.  i cherish these times like no other.  i love my little cuddle bug!

future babysitter

yup...i think natalie is going to be a great babysitter when she gets a little older!!!

the dude loved being pulled around by her.  i think we might need to get a wagon for him once the weather  gets a little warmer.

playground photoshoot

one thing i LOVE about our townhouse is the fact that there is a playground, tennis court and pool literally right across the street from us.  we somewhat thought about that when we were buying the place, but didn't realize how much of a luxury it would be until we had the dude.  

once he starts walking completely on his own we'll be at the playground more so he can walk around and move.  for now though, the tennis court and his walker is where it's at!  it's perfect!

even mojo gets some playtime!!

happy feet

woah!  first steps captured with my camera completely by accident!!!

he's definitely a big dude now!!

give thanks

last year we drove to north carolina to spend thanksgiving at grana and grampa's house.  how time has flown by, and wow, how much has the dude grown!!  such a teeny lil' dude then...and such a big dude now!

so this year we decided to head to west virginia to visit with grammie, bruce, justina, sam, kim and her bf mike.  we were so lucky to have AMAZING weather and spent most of the day outside.  we brought the dude's dino walker with us, which was perfect.  he was able to move around on his own and enjoy the great outdoors at grammies!  we also spent some quality time reading stories with grammie and justina.

when it came time for dinner i made graham's FIRST thanksgiving dinner plate.  too bad he didn't want to eat any of it (no offense bruce, because everything was delicious!).  well and i take that back, i think he did eat some of bruce's homemade bread.  and luckily i had made some of our infamous chili sauce and grape jelly meatballs, because that was the only other thing the dude wanted to eat.

 he was so good at the table though.  even though he didn't want to eat much, he sat patiently with everyone and didn't make a peep.  all the fresh air caught up with the dude though.  not too long after we all finished eating the eyelids were getting heavy.  so i brought him back to the main level bedroom and he passed out!  

20 minutes went by and we hadn't heard mojo...hmmm, did we leave her outside?!

NOPE!  such a good doggie!!!

wheezie update

the steroid shot seems to have done the trick!  the dude woke up this morning sounding much better.  not 100%, but definitely better.  what would a holiday be without a sick child right!!  :)

oh...and we'll be making an appointment soon for the dude to see a pediatric pulmonologist.  i'll keep everyone updated on that as well.

wheezie

over the weekend the dude started getting a little snarfely.  we didn't think too much of it though since there were no yellow snots, fever, etc.  looked like a regular little cold.  not much the doctor could really do.  all we could do was continue the pulmacort treatments every morning and night like we've been doing for months.  and to try and prevent a trip to the doctors office we started giving him albuterol three times a day as well.

unfortunately, when i picked the dude up from school today, he didn't sound any better and that's after two days or so of being on pulmacort and albuterol.  mwrrrrrr!!  : (  i don't like to mess around with his breathing, so i called the doctor to see if they wanted us to come in to get him checked out.  YUP!  7pm here we come!

we walk back to our room and even the nurse was like...hmmm, he doesn't sound good.  never like hearing that!  i knew it was kind of bad though.  like the nurse said, you could hear him wheezing from across the room.  doctor fernandez walks in (who has seen graham a couple times before).....'mr. graham!!!  i don't like the sounds of this!!!'

we know the drill though....listen to his chest, give him a neb treatment, then doc comes back and listens again.  i had a bad feeling we were going to see the ER at inova that night.  graham proceeds to scream the entire neb treatment (which is totally unlike him), the doctor comes back and listens to him and still isn't completely happy with how he sounds.  

we had three options:

1 - start oral steroids in addition to pulmacort and albuterol

2 - get a steroid shot and see if that kicks in quickly

3 - go to the ER

it was kind of a no brainer for us.  #2!!  the dude didn't like it, but we knew it would probably be our best option seeing as we didn't feel like being admitted to the hospital!  so we'll see how it goes!  cross your fingers!

#7

yup, that's right....we're working on tooth 7 now!!

hello mr. left lateral incisor!

fun at the park

the weather was pretty nice this weekend, so we decided to walk across the street and play at the playground for a little bit.  we knew how much the dude liked going down slides from bouncing bears in texas, so we decided to see what he would do with the slides at our house.  definitely seemed to like them!

he was trying to do down the little slides head first!  and then jumped in my lap whenever we were near the big curly slide to go down with me.  regardless, he had a great time playing and definitely wore himself out!

indie 500

so not too long ago we had to move the dude's dino walker for him whenever he ran into an obstacle.  NOT ANYMORE!!!  the dude puts his back into it to whip the dino around and go in the direction he wants.  his other favorite thing is running into people when they're sitting on the floor.  yeah, we're trying to break that one!

we don't have walking on our own yet, but i'm hoping a little more practice with his dino and we'll be good to go.  he's getting better about letting go of things after he's stablized himself standing up, but he just doesn't really know to pick his feet up yet and get them moving.  soon enough!

spoon

look ma,  no hands!!

well, he might not be getting food in his mouth, but we're trying to get the dude used to using a spoon.  he likes to just hold it while he eats, and then to bite down and make funny faces with it in his mouth (as you can see in his photo).  

he had already eaten most of the yogurt in this video, so i figured it wouldn't hurt to let him practice putting the spoon in and out of the container.  of course after i stopped the video he put the right end of the spoon in his mouth!  we're getting there!

study break

tiana stopped by our house for the weekend for a little study break and change of scenery!!

during the day she was a little workaholic, but we were all able to enjoy a glass of wine or two at dinner.

it was great catching up and hearing all about the massive amounts of work she has for school.  honestly, i don't envy her!  she had CRAZY amounts of reading to do just in the weekend she was at our house and she had to do more when she got back.

ah, the joys of school!

well, the dude was also glad she took a break here and  there to hang out with him.  hopefully we'll see some more of her soon!

he's a big dude now!

i'm proud to say that we have packed all the bottles away!!
HOOOORAYYYYYY!!!

we are strictly using take 'n toss sippy cups now and it's glorious!  we even got some sippy's that have a spout cover thing, so i can still travel with milk or water in his cup.  

AAAAAAAAAAAND....the bottle warmer is also packed away!!!

HOOOORAYYYYYY!!!

we are strictly giving him milk straight from the fridge and it's glorious!

:)

good job dude.  you're growing up so fast!  

normally i would say slow down, but for these two items i'm ready!

derby

someone was going through my gear bag before practice tonight!!!

texas recap

i can't express how much fun we had hanging out with tim, andrea, olivia, mason, jerry, grana and grampa!  it couldn't have been better weather, better company or better memories!

several firsts happened for the dude this trip:

- first time into another time zone

- first time REALLY playing with his texas cousins

- first time to an inflatable playzone and down an inflatable slide

- first time going underwater

- first time playing with an ipad

i know i've already posted a bunch of pictures, but andrea so kindly shared her photos with me and instead of making collages, i went with the movie route!  here were some of my favorites.

sam's

gotta love family trips to sam's!  

and WOW!!  i realized during this trip that the dudes look pretty similar, and yeah, i think this picture is proof!

jerr-man!

oh jerr-man...you are so photogenic!  and cute hiding behind those bushes!

even though you have a couple more quirks than before, you are still such a great dog.  thank you for letting the dude crawl all over you and possibly pull your hair a little.  i think we're definitely going to have to teach mojo to 'stay still' more.  

aunt andrea

we love you so much aunt andrea!!

love your cuddles!!

he's so excited....and he just can't hide it!

oh man, does this dude LOVE jerr-man!!

and tunnels too!!

splish splash

uncle tim was awesome and fired up the hot tub for the kiddos (and the big kids)!

fact: we have three little fishes on our hands!!!

and here is graham going for a dunk!

grands

we were so happy that grana and grampa could come out to uncle tim and aunt andrea's house.  we had so much fun with them and are sad that they have to go back to san antonio tonight.

i'm not quite sure....but i think grana and grampa might love their grands just a teeny bit!

market street

i really LOVE going to market street.  it's such a fun place to just walk around and snap some photos of some cute shoulder riding kiddos!

and thank you andrea for introducing me to 'charming charlies!'  i went online to see if they had an online store of some sort....only to find out they have stores in VA!!!  YAHOOOO!!!

guess where i'll be soon!!!

copy cat

playtime at the playground

after playing in our pajamas and a little lunch, we all decided to pack up and walk to the playground.  i think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed themselves!!  

there was plenty of swinging, plenty of sliding and plenty of smiles to go around.  

all the fun tuckered out one little dude too!

good morning tey-has!!!

it was so nice to wake up this morning:

 (a) in texas 

(b) with cousins to play with

(c) with aunt andrea and uncle tim

(d) with grana and grampa

(e) and play in our pajamas!!

rewind to yesterday, graham did AWESOME on the plane to texas.  even though he didn't sleep on the plane, he was a perfect dude and played with his books and watched videos on the laptop.  another flying success!!

tooth #6!!!

they seem to come in two at a time.  we now have tooth number 6!

hidey ho mr. upper right lateral incisor!

happy halloween partner!

i wasn't sure what the dude was going to be for halloween this year...that was until i was in crazy 8's (cute kids store in dulles town center if you're not familiar with it) and saw these irresistible felt chaps!!  the price was absolutely perfect for them, and i figured i had enough time to find the other pieces of his costume.

thanks to grana, she was in the grocery store when she saw the sheriff's badge and gun set on clearance.  and then when she came for the dude's birthday she brought along an authentic junior cowboy's hat!  multipurposed his first birthday shirt and we were good to go!

so may i present to you...cowboy dude!

surprisingly, the dude kept his hat on pretty well. only a couple did he take it off and throw it to the ground.  

our first stop of the night was next door to the clay's house.  we were able to catch a shot of the two dudes in their costumes.  liam was a pretty rad monster!  graham scored some candy from a couple other houses, but call me a mean mommy...i didn't let him eat any of it.  i mean come on...the kid didn't even want to eat his chocolate birthday cake, why would i think he would like hershey's chocolate!  :)

hope everyone had a safe and fun halloween!

lazy sunday

we were all kind of cooped up in the house yesterday due to the snow, and sunday didn't seem to be much different.  no snow, but it just felt right to be a little lazy, hang out in our pj's, and watch some football!!  oh, and i made some beef stew.  yum!

not only did my boys appreciate a relaxing day...so did our little miss mojo!

snow-tober

what is going on?!  snow in october!!!  i've lived in northern virginia my whole life, and never have i remembered having snow before halloween!  craziness!!  it did accumulate on the grass, cars, pumpkins, tables, etc...but on the front step and sidewalks it was only really slush.  guess graham won't be out long in his costume since it's not a super warm one!

ps...sorry for the vertical videos.  i'm going to be better about taking the videos horizontally on my new iphone. new phone, new tricks!

new toys!

thanks again to everyone who gave the dude some pretty awesome toys for his birthday.  even though he has played with every single toy he got, i think it's safe to say he has a couple favorites!

uh oh

so i finally got a video of the dude saying 'uh oh!'  it only happens in the very beginning, so feel free to stop the video afterwards if you don't want to watch the rest!

5th tooth!

hmmmm, this probably didn't help the dude's mood at his party.  his 5th tooth (his upper left lateral incisor) cut through today.  from the looks of it, i don't think the upper right lateral incisor is too far away either!

cake part duex

here is our second attempt at birthday cake.  this was the night after his birthday party.  i'm not sure, but i think it's the texture of the icing that he doesn't like.  silly dude!

i'm having so much fun my dear, but i really 'mustache!'

the mustache bash was a success!  complete with mustaches for everyone, famous mustaches in history scattered on the walls, mustaches strategically placed on pictures and mirrors, and quite a cute little dude timeline.  

 

the dude had such a good time playing with his friends, it wasn't until it was time for cake that we had a little bit of a meltdown.  in his defense though, he wasn't really feeling well (we were at the doctors in the morning due to a cough...but he's fine), and he's starting to get used to just one nap a day.  so he was a little bit off his A-game.  

we didn't have much success with him getting covered in chocolate like i had hoped.  but we did have success putting him down for a little siesta and everyone else enjoyed his cake!

once the dude woke up from his nap he was very energized and ready for gifts!  thank you everyone!  i don't think there was gift he didn't like!  we even got him ripping the paper off presents at one point.  guess he's getting ready for christmas! 

all in all, i think the dude had quite the first birthday celebration. 

he might not know it yet, but he's one lucky dude.  he's got some of the best friends and family!

i know we had a blast...but now we really 'mustache!'

365 days. 8,766 hours. 31,556,926 seconds.

yes, our little dude is ONE!!!    he is officially a BIG dude!!  i can't believe the day is finally here.

dude, you have been so special to us.  i never thought i could love something or someone the way that i love you.  you light up a room with your smile and warm my heart with you cuddles.  as much as i don't want you to get any bigger, i can't wait to see what lies in store for you!

you will always have my love and support.
HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY DUDE!!!

stats:
 weight - 24lbs 10oz (76%)
height - 28 inches (5%)
head circumference - 19.75 inches (100%!)

here's what you've been up to:
- still wearing size 4 diapers during the day and 5's at night
- still sleep like a champ!
- not walking on your own yet but it definitely won't be long.  you're little mister independent and won't hold our fingers and walk, but you'll use pretty much anything else to help you move around.
- started saying 'uh oh'
- you've mastered the sippy cup
- you love to sit and read books and play peek-a-boo
- took your first flight to florida and did perfect!
- went to the ocean for the first time and LOVED it!
- you love pretty much anything with red sauce on it...pizza, pasta, raviolis, etc.
- you know how to hold your hands up for a 'touchdown'

grana is here!!!!

we are so excited....grana is here!!!

she flew in just for the little dude's birthday.

unfortunately grampa couldn't come this time, but we'll make sure he comes out the next time!  ;)  well and no worries...we'll be seeing all of you texas hertels in a few weeks!

grana bought the dude a new book with touch and feel animals.  he especially loves the last page...the baby hedgehog!  it's the spikey side of velcro.  too cute!

reduce, reuse and recycle

no, we don't need any expensive or high-end toys.  all the dude needs is some recyclable materials!

new word!

Uh-oh (expression)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uh-oh is a ubiquitous interjection or expression of dismay in the English language, usually said in anticipation of something bad about to happen, with the sly admittance of guilt that one may have caused something bad to happen, or perceiving that something bad has already happened. The speaker often gives vent to the expression immediately upon learning or perceiving of something that presages disaster. It is an expression usually acquired very early in life, typically as early as the toddler stage. It is one of only a few words or phrases in English commonly pronounced with aglottal stop.

ze germans

only were we allowed to occasionally call ralf and isa "ze germans!"  over the past three years though, they have truly become two of our best friends (well four if you count pluto and leica).  we found out last week that they were suddenly going back to germany....for good!!!  we were heartbroken and literally in tears.  we only had one week left to spend with them.  not fair!!

we will miss:

 - sweet and spicy german mustard

 - budvar (sp?) 

- gluvine (sp?)

- authentic german meals

- get drunk in the driveway parties

- long walks with the dogs

- play dates for the dogs (and parents!)

- little wimp

- dance dance revolution

- 3d tv

- the murano

- going to our secret spot in algonkian park

- ralf

- isa

- lt. pluto

- leica

(and isa, how dare we....we didn't get a picture of the two of us at brunch before you guys left!!)

we love all of you, wish you safe travels, good luck in future endeavors, and see you soon!

time to start planning the sanner inaugural trip to germany!!

it's a mustache bash!

so this is a shameless plug for myself, but i'm pretty proud of the cute invitation i designed for the little dude's birthday.  hand drew the mustache and tie!  and i'm usually a pretty big self critic of my work, but this was an exception.  i think it turned out even better than what i saw in my head!!  

can't wait!!!

the disappearing dude!

peek-a-boo is by far one of the dude's favorite games.  he recently figured out he can use his plate when he's done eating to 'hide' behind.  i think it's hilarious how he smushes his face up against the back of the plate.  and i'm not sure if he's trying to say peek-a-boo or not, but maybe 'a-de-de-de' is how he says it?!

we're ready for some football!

florida family

we love our florida family so much!!!  and we're happy to have a new addition to the sanner family soon. a big congratulations to colin and stephanie who are officially engaged!!

and i'm SO happy that we got such a good family picture of the three of us.