ELK, JAK and KWC

On Monday night we went to see Jayce's aunt Erin's basketball game at KWC. It was a good game and KWC was victorious!

Here are a few pictures of Erin making a shot. She made more than this, it's just the one shot that I caught on film in it's entirety. If you scroll through the pictures quickly it's almost like a little flip book action, at least it looks that way on my camera.

Jayce was so enamored by the basketball court that he couldn't take his eyes off of it. We were calling his name, snapping fingers and everything else, but he just wasn't interested in posing for pictures when there was such an exciting game going on behind him.

1st Christmas

We celebrated Jayce's 1st Christmas this year and it was great! We were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Keith side of the family, which we were happy about since Chris hadn't been with them for both in 6 years! We had a tradition of spending Christmas Eve with my side of the family b/c we have a huge extended family party on Christmas Eve, and it is also my Mom's birthday. We would leave around 8.30 or 9 pm, basically as long as I could stall, and then drive to Chris' family's house. We'd get in around 3 am, but this allowed us to make Chris' extended family party at lunchtime. The drive made both of us miserable and exhausted, but we were happy to put forth the effort so that we could each hold on to our own family traditions. But after we got back from Scotland we resolved to never do this again (that whole miserable and exhausted thing), and to spend Christmas with a different family each year instead.

This was our year with the Keith's and we had a great time! We were able to see all of the family, and it was great to at least touch base with everyone. Jayce got to spend a good amount of time with his grandparents, even though I know they would have liked more, and was spoiled by staying up late(ish), being rocked and snuggled to sleep, and a new variety of things to entertain him, including 2 golden retrievers.

Additionally, since Jayce was born in Louisville Kentucky, we are training him early to be a U of L fan and a basketball player. Okay, we're not really training him, but all of Jayce's family members have played or are playing basketball, and so he got several really cute basketball things. This includes a basketball hoop for the bathtub, which might end up in our bathroom instead of his at first. (It looks fun! Who doesn't want to shoot hoops while they shower?) He had a great time and is still having a hard time figuring out which of his new toys to play with, and is instead trying to get them all in his mouth at once.

Pneumonia Blues

Jayce has pneumonia. It is incredibly sad. The worst part is that his chest has been so congested that he seems to just choke for no reason. He also chokes easily when he's eating, and when we're holding him we can feel the gunk rattling around in his chest as he inhales and exhales, and is too young to understand that he needs to cough and can't be prompted to do so.

Jayce became congested on Thursday and I called the dr Friday to see if they had any suggestions for things I could do to help him breathe more easily. They ended up telling me to bring him in right away so that they could rule out bronchitis, but instead the dr found pneumonia! We got some antibiotics and scheduled a re-check for Monday. On Monday the dr thought that he was sounding worse, and gave us more antibiotics to add to the mix. We're going back tomorrow, and hopefully he'll have improved significantly. He's already doing better since we started him on the second antibiotics, so we hope he keeps going in that direction.


The saddest part of the dr visit was that Jayce had to get a chest x-ray and had to sit in this infant immobilizer to do so. It was basically this plastic tube that wrapped snugly around his body to keep his arms in the air and him from wiggling around while they took the x-rays. He looked so pitiful while they were doing it but didn't fuss or cry. Both Friday and Monday's technicians commented how amazed they were that he didn't cry, and they couldn't remember the last time they'd had a baby that didn't. They might say this to everybody, but it just made me feel worse for Jayce that he was so lethargic that he just didn't bother. I stood in front of him holding his arms straight up, and he just looked around the room (as much as he could) looking miserable. Poor guy!

(Found this pic on the internet, it is not Jayce. I just wanted to show this terribly sad contraption.) He seems to be on the mend now so we're hoping for the best!

Big Happenings

I feel slightly guilty for posting things that seem so mundane on here even though I know some people do care about them. I just wanted to state once, after which I will stop apologizing for this, that I really don't post every single thing that Jayce does. This is obvious from the lack of posts entitled "Jayce raises left arm," "Jayce chews on fist" and "Jayce wears a sock." That said, we've captured some milestones on film recently that I thought I'd share.

In the last few weeks, Jayce has graduated to his booster seat, and then his high chair. He seems so little in the high chair, but that could be due to me not ready for him to be there.

Last night we tried out the big(ger) bathtub, and Jayce was completely enamored with all of the water in front of him. Actually there are 6 pictures on the camera before this shot where he would look at the camera for a split second, but as soon as Chris would push the button, he was already looking back at the water in front of him. And once he started kicking he wouldn't stop. Chris had to hold onto him while I washed him because even though he was slipping around in his little seat, he literally never stopped kicking until we pulled him out of the tub. Needless to say, he likes it.

Yesterday we started using his sippy cup with lunch (not pictured), and though he doesn't quite have the hang of it, he was very interested in it and did drink some milk. He's always trying to grab my water bottle from me and started holding his own bottle last week, so I figured I'd give it a shot and he seemed to be up for it.

I know it's an old cliche, but I can't believe how he has grown so much and so quickly! The high chair, big tub and sippy cup are the last of the "big kid stuff" that I had in storage with the mental tag of "for when Jayce is much bigger." I didn't think "much bigger" would be here so quickly!

Christmas in Our House

Here are a few pictures of the festivities around our place. For now the festivities include, I put up the tree and Jayce playing in his little Santa hat. He is particularly fond of when it falls down over his eyes and will kick and squeal until I pull it back up. But since he had his 'Baby's First Christmas' shirt on, I just had to get a few pics.
Also, here is a tree and (rough) mantle picture for you, Mom. And we will do something about these white walls in the new year!

We Do More Than Just Biblical Studies

An article that Chris co-wrote this summer is now available in the December issue of The Construction Specifier, Insulated Framing Assemblies and ICF Construction. See their website below.

http://www.constructionspecifier.com/index.php

What does this have to do with Biblical studies? Well, nothing. Chris worked at Atlas Metal Products in the research and development department this summer, and co-authored this piece then. He is multi-talented. But we're really excited about this article-it's a great magazine to promote the benefits of the new IFAs produced by Stala.

New Senate Seat

Has anyone seen this already? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_us/blagojevich_corruption_probe Illinois Governor Blagojevich was arrested today on charges of trying to sell Obama's former seat in the Senate. I just so happen to already have a sign for our next pick for Senate.

(I know I'm such a dork. But Justin and Tasha found this cool sign last month and gave it to us, and I just couldn't resist.)

As Heard at Our House Tonight

Me, sniffling: "Chris, will you do me a favor?" I look at the roll of toilet paper on the coffee table in front of us, and just out of reach.

Chris: "It's closer to you than it is to me." This is not true, it's 2 feet from him, 3 feet from me.

Me: "I'm trapped by all of these plugs." I gesture towards the two plugs coming out of the computer on my lap.

Chris: "See what happens when you unplug one."

Me, realizing I am about to lose and grabbing for straws in desperation: "Chris, look at all of the lights that are on. The bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and two in the living room. I bet the bathroom light is on."

(This stems from an old conversation where I harass Chris for ensuring that our house is the shining beacon of the neighborhood, by turning on every single light in the house for no apparent reason. I wish I could say that this stems from noble reasons having to do with my carbon footprint or something, but I'm afraid it's plain old fashioned conditioning from my childhood. (I think my brother is the same way). I actually turn off the lights in other people's unused rooms as well. It's a problem.)

Chris then surprises me by getting up, tossing me the toilet paper, and then turning off most of the lights! I'm not sure why this made it's way to the blog, other than this is what I was messing with when Chris took the high road. What a nice husband.

Santa

I couldn't, or I guess I didn't, resist the Santa picture this year. It is Jayce's first Christmas after all, and since I was with Mom and Chelsea at the time, I knew that they would help me distract him and get a good picture.

This is the picture we ended up getting, a very cute one with a sly little smile. But I wonder if maybe we didn't quite get the best picture? I wish that someone had taken a picture of me while this picture was being taken, when I was jumping up and down, clapping my hands over my head, and saying Jayce's name repeatedly. Is this what motherhood has reduced me to? I think so, and I guess I care(d) more about Jayce smiling than the mall go-ers looking at me like I was crazy.

I also wish we had gotten a picture of 10 seconds after this shot, when Jayce looked up at Santa's face inquisitively, looked again, his bottom lip popped out, eyes crinkled and his aunt Chelsea had to reach in to rescue him from Santa's lap. Though the smiling pictures are so sweet, the crying ones are hilarious. Maybe next year.

Playing With Dad

We took a little video last night of Jayce's favorite new game to to laugh hysterically at-don't worry grandparents, Chris doesn't actually throw him. We think 6 months old is such a fun age! Jayce is so playful and full of personality, we spend about as much time laughing at him as he does at us.

Home For Some Holidays

Chris, Jayce and I were able to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Akron this year and we had such a great time. We haven't had Thanksgiving with my side of the family for 6 years, so I was really looking forward to it hanging out and my aunt Barbara's cooking! Jayce also hadn't seen my side of the family since he was about 5 weeks old, including his two 3 year old cousins who apparently had been talking about "Baby Jayce" nonstop.

Jayce and I went a week early so that we had plenty of time to hang out and it was great. I have too many pictures of our time there but here are a few, including this one of Jayce, Chelsea and I talking to Chris on Skype while he was in Boston. It was hilarious, Jayce got so excited when Chris was on screen talking to him, as you can see in this pic.