"My Juice" and Giggling

Well...it finally happened - Eban put his first two words together. I thought it would be "Hi Mama" or "Bye bus" or something cute like that. Two nights ago, I picked up his sippy cup and he glared at me and yelled "MY JUICE"! I just knew it would be a sweet articulation of his first two combined words - I couldn't believe he used his first two words in anger. Funny!

Jack is finally eating foods and he loves his little purees which he eats. He is also giggling and I love to hear him giggle like an old man.

Eban also has a favorite movie...the Pixar movie called Cars. He now will look at me and point to the television and say Cars. If I turn on another show or what have you, he'll point again and say Cars louder. This morning, he handed Ryan the remote control for the tv, then he found the remote control for the DVD player and pointed at the tv. Ryan knew exactly what he wanted so on came the movie Cars

for the 20th time. When the kids are sick, I will do anything not to hear another fussy kid...so I'm all about the movie at this point.

It's been a crazy week with Ryan super busy at Microsoft. He works all hours of the day and night getting ready to launch their new product "Virtual Earth." I really mean he works all hours - he gets phone calls at 2:00am to 5:30am to 9:00pm and sometimes he needs to immediately leave and go fix things.

As an update to the last post, Eban loves the bus and the bus driver that pass our house each morning at 7:04am. The bus gets to the bottom of the hill and we watch it intently for 4 minutes until it turns on its lights to start its morning commute. Well, we met the bus driver last week and it's a bus for disabled children. The children were so nice when we approached the bus and were waving at Eban and screaming "baby!" The bus driver said he's happy to wave at Eban every morning and he has kept his word. Every morning, he slows down as he passes our house, opens his window, and sticks his arm out to wave to Eban. It's just so nice of him to do that. Now I have an additional person to give treats to at the holidays! See the pictures and the videos...which aren't that good, but they give you a good idea of what happens.

On Wednesday, my friends Liz and Dan came over after being in Florida for way too long. I ordered Chinese and finally like a Chinese restaurant near us - about time I found a Chinese joint I like! They even brought a chocolate cake for dessert - talk about yummy!! Liz is pregnant with her first child and due in a month so that will be nice to have another kid Eban and Jack can grow up with! I forgot to take photos but they did...they only took photos of Seamus as they are talking about getting a mastiff now. It would be great to get another one as I've been hinting to Ryan about getting another dog since we lost Murphie. I know that seems crazy, and it probably is, but oh well.

The big news is the household of sickness this week...Nani called on Tuesday to say to come home as Eban wouldn't stop crying and was holding his nose saying OW. I immediately took him to the doctor and he said it was viral. He also gave us marching orders to not take any cold medicine as kids can no longer take it until they are 10 or older. So he's on a regiment of Tylenol three times a day and the nebulizer (which he absolutely hates). He immediately started doing better on Wednesday and then on Thursday, I got the phone call from Nani that Jack had a temperature and was totally fussy. I came home and he had a temperature of 102 and Nani had a temperature of 100. Lovely.

Cool compresses, Tylenol and fluids have become my friends for the past two days. Right now, they are both sleeping so I'm able to update the blog - but it was challenging last night dealing with a baby who had a temperature. At least he's eating and not getting dehydrated, but I need to make sure Nani drinks as she doesn't like water. This morning, before Eban went to school, she said she felt nauseous too. Ugh. Poor things.

So I'm guzzling the coffee and getting ready for both of them to wake up miserable and decide who needs what...

Tomorrow, we are supposed to meet Grandpa Bob and go to the Colorado Railroad Museum to take a train ride with the Easter Bunny and find Easter eggs. I'm hoping we can do that as Eban will just go nuts (along with Grandpa) about the different trains...

JACK GIGGLING VIDEO

RANDOM VIDEO OF EBAN WITH HIS DOG

When one gets sick, they both get sick

Last Sunday, we spent a lovely night in the hospital with Jack. Then Wednesday or Thursday, Eban got the crud. He even got sent home from school on Friday because of the "bug" and then again, Jackson got sick for the second time in a week! So to have two sick kids was REALLY tiring...I felt terrible for them, but we gave them each Pedialyte and lots of love so they could fight the "bug" together.

On Saturday, I thought Eban was over it (boy was I wrong) and we went downtown to the Tivoli theater - they have a free kids movie at 10:30 in the morning every Saturday. We saw the first 40 minutes of Veggie Tales and then Eban lost it. It was time to make a hasty exit prior to ruining the rest of the movie for all the other kids and moms and dads. Eban and I then went to the closest Light Rail station where we rode three exits up and then got back on a train to head back to our initial stop. He loves trains, planes, trucks, buses, boats, etc. Any type of big machine is aces in Eban's book.

At first, he cried when we got on the train and then he warmed up to it in less than a minute. He was loving it and yelling TOOOT-TOOOOOOOT at the top of his lungs while sitting on my lap smiling from ear to ear. He made a little spectacle with all his cheering and tooting, but no one cared. I wish I had brought my camera, but oh well - next time.

Tomorrow morning, Eban and I are going to meet his first real bus up close and personal! Every morning at 7:00am, we have to sit and stare out our living room window down the hill at a bus that parks there. At 7:04am on the money, it starts on its morning run by driving past our house. Every morning, we have to sit and stare and point at the bus. Eban has to make ooooh oooh noises and make the sound of a honking bus. That's the BIG excitement every morning. Even the dog barks now when this occurs. So tomorrow, for a little excitement, we will leave the house at five to seven and walk down the little hill to the bus. I plan on knocking on the bus door and I hope the bus driver will let little Eban look inside the bus. We'll see how this silly adventure goes.

EBAN LOVES BATH TIME

Riding Eban

EBAN LOVES WHEN JACKSON DOES THIS (SEE VIDEO)

I forgot to include this video two days ago when I uploaded pics and what have you. Sunday night, I pulled an all-nighter staying up 21 hours with Ryan and Jack. The last time I did that was when we spent all night in Jamaica Harlem Queens Hospital (something like that) in New York City with Eban...we had a layover there and Eban was dehydrated and sick as a dog and we had no choice but to go to the closest hospital when we landed at JFK Airport. All the staff were very nice and asked us where we were from as we were definitely out of place.

Sunday night, we had a lovely evening at The Children's Hospital in Denver as Jack was sick as a dog and wasn't getting any better. After x-rays and other tests, it was determined that he had a severe ear infection. So we have numbing drops for him and antibiotics. It was more intense than this, but I like this version better.

Anyway, got to work late yesterday and couldn't talk so well...thank goodness we have decent amounts of coffee in the President's Office as I drank all of it!

Nani sat on a cactus

It's been forever since I've written on this and of course, so much has happened!

Yesterday, Nani went up into the mountains with two of her friends - one from Chile and one from Ecuador. She promptly sat in an area filled with weeds that had "stickers" attached to them. She could barely sit on the way home and she said she had WAY more than 10 slivers she had to pull out of her behind. She was miserable! I offered to take her to the hospital, but because they were so small, I bet they would have told her to take many hot showers and hope they eradicate themselves in time. Poor thing.

Last night, Nani and I went to see Ryan and Liza's show in Boulder at the Fox Theater. It was fun to see them sing together again...it was great with the exception of all the smelly people. I swear that half the crowd on the side we were sitting in had failed to bathe for a month. It was nauseating for me. I just can't stand that type of intense body odor.

I put up the jump castle for Eban this morning. He LOVED it so much as he now knows how to jump. He loves to jump all over the place and laugh hysterically. Yet, he also loved the swords that come with the jump castle, so he took every opportunity to whack anything he could - please see the attached videos. We were all subject to his giddy wrath! Thank god Seamus is such a champ and tolerates all his antics!

Yesterday, Ryan, Eban, Jackson and I went to the park around the corner from our house. Eban loves the slides! We left after two young little punks came to hang out on the swings with their BB guns. They kept walking around the park with the guns in the hands and their fingers on the trigger. I'm so unimpressed with that - maybe because I'm a mom now and I don't want that to influence Eban. I don't think he noticed, but I sure did.

Last week, Jackson's godfather, Chad, came into town. It was great to see him and we'll see him again in April (along with Kara and fiance Rick) for Jackson's baptism on April 13th. Last year Eban got baptized with Dennis and this year, Jackson is getting baptized with Morgan. I'm very excited that they each have a "friend" for life in baptism! And speaking of Morgan, here is a picture from last week's visit with her family! AND Eban only wanted her daddy to hold him when we were at their house. Above is a pic with Eban and Bernie, Morgan's dad.

Yesterday, Sean and Jenn Rich came over with their new baby, Ryan Patrick! We thanked them for naming him after our Ryan! Grace, who is Eban's age, was just as cute as can be and they rode their little trikes all over the house. Grace alos loved playing with the baby and even Seamus joined in on the fun! At the end of their short visit, sweet little Grace hugged and kissed Eban from behind and our little man just ignored her. He'll be sorry he did that when they both grow up!

Lately, Jackson is growing so fast and he seems to be all eyeballs. It's amazing to see his huge blue eyes and long eyelashes...and that's it!

I know I'm all over the place with stories, but I can't help it. It's been crazy busy. Well...that's it for now! My white mocha from Starbucks is coming from Daddy any minute and I desperately need a big fix of caffeine this morning...I'm going to go wait by the door and hope that he drives up in two minutes!

Enjoy the brief videos

SEAMUS THE PACIFIST...HE DOES NOT LIKE FIGHTING

ATTACKING MOMMA WHO IS HOLDING THE CAMERA

SAYING HI TO THE GEESE

GOOD THING HE TAKES GENTLY FROM EBAN!
We always try to make Seamus feel apart of the pack so that he doesn't resent the kids. Obviously, we've done a good job as Eban can lay on him, feed him and chase him and Seamus is as good as gold. BUT, as always, I keep a sharp eye on them when they are together - I think that's sound advice!