Up, Up, and Away

I don't have much to write about this week.  Ledger is finally feeling much better and acting more like himself.  Daddy had an out-of-town conference yesterday and spent the night in Topeka -- Mommy and Ledger missed him so much!  During our playtime, we discovered that Ledger had a new skill...

Time to get out more baby gates.  :)  Here are some other pictures... I just wanted to share how adorable our little man is.

He said it!

Click on the link below to hear Ledger say that magic word....

From Ledger - 8 to 10 months ...MOM.

Happy 6th Birthday Jayce

Our Great Dane, Jayce, is 6 years old today.  She was my first baby and constant companion through the last years of veterinary school.  Jayce and Ledger have become fast friends since he has learned to drop food on the ground for her.  Here is a little photo tribute to my big puppy.

Jayce at 8 weeks -- the day I brought her home.

Jayce at 11 weeks, already taller than Andy.

Jayce today, 6 years old.

February Birthdays

In my family, birthdays seems to come in clusters -- February is no exception!  So here is our little tribute to the February birthdays --

BoomMa (Feb. 1) and BoomPa (Feb. 20)

Jonas (Feb. 16)

(

Papa (Feb. 18)

We love you all and wish we could be celebrating birthdays together!!!

Dave Ramsey Plan - START

In January, Chris and I started a 13-week course in financial management and debt reduction called Financial Peace University, taught by Dave Ramsey.  The basic plan is to completely eliminate consumer debt and increase savings.  This course has already taught us a lot, but the most important thing it has done is to promote more communication between Chris and I about our financial situation.  After a bluntly honest evaluation of our money and budget (or lack thereof), we knew we needed to make some drastic changes.

So we decided to trade-in our Honda Pilot and pay cash for an older model vehicle that would serve the same purpose -- to be driven around town and to transport our dogs AND a carseat to the lake in the summer time.  After a few weeks of searching, today we took that first step!  We traded in our Honda Pilot and bought a 2004 Honda CR-V.  Pictures are below.  So congratulate us!  Today we got rid of $12,000 of debt.  I think that's an excellent first step!

 

  

 

Big Boy!

Ledger is definitely growing into a BIG boy.  He is using his lion walker/rider to learn to walk and balance on his own.  Here is a video of the boy moving around on his own:

And in BIG news, Ledger has started accepting a spoon.  It's just baby food he refuses to eat.  Just last week, our pediatrician recommended that we visit with an occupational therapist to try to acclimate him to eating from a spoon.  But after a little experimenting today, we realize that he would take a spoon, if it had the right food on it.  Here is a video of Daddy feeding Ledger some Mexican rice on a a spoon.

 I mentioned last week that Ledger offiically has his THIRD tooth.  Well, now he also has his FOURTH tooth.  I tried to get a picture of those upper incisors, but they're tricky.  Here's the best photo I got.  You can definitely see his upper right incisor, but his little peeking left incisor is a little hidden. :)

Snow Skiing in Kansas?

This weekend we planned to meet the Powells and the Perkins' in Kansas City and take Chris on a snow skiing adventure at Snow Creek in Weston, MO.  We hit the slopes on a beautiful Friday afternoon.  I've been skiing since I was a kid and I am really hopeful that we can teach Ledger on future family vacations.  Chris has been skiing once before, but it ended abruptly with a concussion.  He reluctantly agreed to try again, as long as he could wear a helmet.

We started very slowly and took our time practicing on the beginner hill.  But before long, we were in line to use the rope tow and head up the bunny slope.  Chris did a great job!  After a strong start, we decided to give our legs a break and see how Ledger was doing in the lodge (my family took turns sitting in the lodge with him).

Before we had a chance to hit the slopes again, we found out that Josh was injured on the mountain and being attended to by the Ski Patrol.  After a tense half hour, the ski patrol used a toboggan to get him off of the mountain and after another half hour, he was diagnosed with a broken collarbone and placed in a splint to be taken to the hospital.  I took video of him being brought down the mountain, but I promised Emily that I would let her post it on her blog.  At the hospital, the x-rays confirmed that his collar bone was broken in 2 places.  I'm hopeful that Emily will post a picture of the x-ray on her blog.  He was put in a shoulder stabilizer and given some really good pain medicine!

So our skiing day was cut unexpectedly short, but I am so proud of Chris for getting back on the mountain and trying to learn a new sport.  He did very well and he says he would be willing to try it again!

9 Months -- Better Late Than Never

Last week, Ledger turned 9 months old.  He is VERY mobile now and always on the move, which makes getting pictures of him sitting still on the couch nearly impossible.  I know that the one above is not very good, but it's the only one that you can see him SITTING in front of his sign.  I've included a collage at the bottom of this post that has all of the pictures of him with his "9 months" sign.  Next time I won't try to take these photos by myself. :)

In Ledger's 9th month, he...

• ...weighs 19 pounds and 13 ounces.  Pretty good weight gain for being so sick.
• ...cut his 3rd tooth -- his right upper incisor.  Everyone agrees that he looks kinda funny with 3 teeth.
• ...got really SICK -- fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and (we suspect) Roseola.  It was a sleepless few nights in the Michel household.
• ...perfected the art of crawling everywhere, very, very fast.  Mommy and Daddy are having trouble keeping up with him!
• ...swallowed a foreign object.  And then puked it up.
• ...still is not sleeping through the night or eating from a spoon.  Go figure.

Here is the collage for this 9 month pictures.

Look Who's Feeling Better...

Ledger is feeling better today... and Daddy allowed him to play (supervised) with the bubble wrap.  He liked it.  Can you tell?

 And if you want to watch a pretty funny video of Ledger in the bathtub... go here.

Saved by Suppositories

Now there's a blog title I never thought I'd write. :)

Ledger has been SICK all week long.  Fighting a fever and vomiting and diarrhea.  Blah.  To make things even more fun, he refused to take medicine (no matter which flavor-- we bought them all) and would either spit it out or throw it up every time we attempted to get any liquid drugs down him.  On Wednesday night, his fever really started to spike and my Mommy Mania started to kick in.  On the advice of a friend, we purchased Acetaminophen suppositories to try to get his temperature down.  I even called the after-hours doctors line in Kansas City to confirm that it was OK to use and for the correct dose.  Those little "bullets" (as Chris has named them) really saved the day!  It brought his fever down and made him feel much better.  All week long, he's been getting the occasional suppository and we've been patiently nursing him back to health.  Last night was the first night that he didn't spike a fever in the middle of the night AND I didn't have to change clothes in the middle of the night due to throw up!  Yay!  Maybe we're starting to get over this thing, finally.

And here are a few pictures.  Because he's cute... even when he's sick.

He Ate WHAT?

On Saturday, Ledger vomited and threw up THIS mystery item.  In the photo below, it is a red "worm-like" piece of fabric that I'm holding on a burp rag.

After much debate, discussion, and detective work, we decided that it was a piece of yarn that was a "fluff" on top of his red stocking hat.  Somehow he got it off of the hat and actually SWALLOWED it.  Geez.