{catching up #5....gerard's turn}

Baseball season is officially underway.

We bumped Gerard up from tee-ball to little minors and it is MUCH more interesting to play AND to watch. He is the youngest player on the team (it's mostly 7 & 8 year olds) but he plays as well as (or better than) the rest of them. Here are some pictures from a game earlier in the season:

Morgan usually spends her time during the games playing with other players' siblings or playing in the dirt. She loves every minute of it.

A few months ago, Grandma Andrea went to a Sabres vs. Coyotes hockey game and she brought an 8x10 picture of Gerard in his goalie equipment with her. She had hoped that she'd be able to get it to Ryan Miller so he could autograph the picture and mail it back. She was able to get it to a trainer and asked the trainer to give the picture (with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and note) to Ryan. Months went by and we never received anything. Soooo, it came as a total shock to us a few weeks ago when we got this special envelope in the mail from Ryan:

{catching up #4...all about morgan}

Morgan is officially a big girl. Just ask her. She is NOT a baby. She takes offense if you call her a baby. She is potty trained (not at night yet), no longer uses a booster seat to eat, is getting ready to go to preschool in the fall, and sleeps in a big girl bed.

We got her big girl furniture just before her 3rd birthday. Here she is sleeping in her bed for the first time on April 6 (not the greatest picture, but I wanted to capture the moment):

She really likes her big girl furniture and wasn't even sad when she watched us sell her crib and changing table at our garage sale. She wanted a "Princess" room, but I hate all the cheesy Disney Princess bedding so I decided to do a non-character comforter and decorate with princess accessories. Well, who knew it would be so hard to find bedding that matched her purple walls and could coordinate with princess stuff?! Luckily, Morgan has a super talented Grandma who could make a custom quilt just to our specifications!!! Isn't it perfect??!!

When I get around to finally decorating with all those princess accessories, I'll be sure to take a picture! But for now, she's loving her non-princess princess room. Oh, and Grandma and Grandpa got her American Girl bitty baby dolls for her birthday, so of course Grandma Andrea had to make them a matching quilt:

For months, if you asked Morgan what kind of birthday party she wanted she'd tell you a Sleeping Booty party. Aunt Debbie and Grandma advocated for her since I didn't want to do a Sleeping Beauty party (I can't tell you how many times I heard "You do whatever Gerard wants for his birthdays!") In the end Sleeping Booty won out and Morgan was NOT disappointed! Morgan enjoyed having Aunt Debbie and all of her friends here to celebrate with!

Fifth disease spread like wildfire around Gerard's school this fall. Most of the kids on our street got it and Gerard and Morgan were no exception. Neither one of them had any symptoms other than the rash, and both got better quickly. Here are some pictures of Morgan with the tell-tale rash (although I didn't take a picture when the rash was on her face):

And finally, Morgan has a great group of friends. I enjoy our weekly playdates as much as she does and 4 out of the 5 of them will be in preschool together in the fall. It's nice to see her playing with her own friends -- not just with Gerard's friends. Here's the crazy bunch at one of our playdates:

{catching up #3.... a disaster}

Before I move on to April in the next post I thought I'd prove how busy March was so you might have a better understanding as to why I took so long updating the blog...

In addition to Gerard's surgery and my parents being here, we had a minor disaster in the house... one day in mid-March our washing machine died. Overflowed, to be exact. Somehow the machine didn't "know" to stop when it was full so it simply flowed out the top for several minutes.

Did I mention that our washer and dryer are upstairs?

Over the living room?

Yup....

Morgan and I were playing in the living room when she said "Mommy, what's that sound?" I stopped and listened to what sounded like rain above my head. Immediately I knew it was the washing machine, so I ran upstairs to stop it, but not before it soaked into the floor and ruined our living room ceiling.

I won't bore you with the details of me sopping up gallons of water from the floor, placing buckets all over the living room and making frantic phone calls. I'll just let you know that my friend washed all my clothes (the ones that were IN the washing machine at the time AND the towels I used to soak up all the water), we got the washing machine fixed, our friends/neighbors who own a drywall company fixed the ceiling after everything dried out, and we painted the ceiling, the walls and got new carpet (the carpet part was planned before this disaster). Phew. Good as new. Better, actually.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this DOES NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. PLEASE.

{catching up #2}

Grandma and Grandpa came in March so they could be here when Gerard had his tonsils and adenoids out. It was a big help having them here -- they watched Morgan while we were with Gerard during his surgery, and they kept both kids occupied and happy the whole visit.

Gerard was pretty out of it the first day, and spent much of it sleeping on the couch.

He was much happier the next few days, and spent most of the time in his pajamas playing with Grandma or Grandpa, eating popsicles, and watching funny videos of old songs on You Tube.

Gerard is doing great without his tonsils. He sleeps better and seems much more rested in the mornings. I only wish we had done the procedure sooner.

{catching up #1}

To avoid the risk of being further threatened by friends, family and neighbors, I thought it prudent to start posting again. One of the (many) reasons I haven't posted in a while is because I've fallen so far behind and the task of catching everyone up on my life seemed so daunting. So, to alleviate some of the stress, I thought I'd post several short updates, starting with this one from back in...OMG....March....

Being the good Jewish family that we are, we had a nice St. Patrick's Day celebration, complete with reubens and green milk. The kids loved it. Nothing like a little food coloring to brighten a 3-year-old's day!

Be on the lookout for the next update!

{so sorry!}

Please forgive me for my brief (OK, not so brief) blogging haitus. We've had a lot going on here. Our neighborhood garage sale is next weekend, but after that you can expect regular posting again. I have a lot of pictures to share!

{quick news update}

Just a quick update.... Gerard had his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy yesterday and he did great! It only took 30 minutes and he was in recovery for about an hour. The doctor said his tonsils were enormous and his right tonsil in particular was 3 times the size of a normal tonsil. She said the nurses gasped when she took such a large tonsil out of such a small boy. They had to suction "snot" out of his nose -- his tonsils were so big they were blocking anything from draining, so he was living with a perpetually stuffed up nose. Poor baby!!! She told us to expect drastic changes -- better sleep, much better breathing, better attitude, and expect him to grow 3-4 inches by next school year. Crazy stuff!!!!

He was a bit confused and disoriented when he woke up and was in a little bit of pain, so that was hard to watch, but once we got home he was pretty good. They told us to give him the hydrocodone every 4 hours for the pain the first few days (even wake him at night) but I don't think he'll need it that often now. He ate and drank like a champ yesterday and slept through the night (except when we had to wake him). The hardest part of all this may well be keeping him home for 10 days! I think he'll be climbing the walls by day 4. Big Gerard is probably going to take him to see a movie on Monday, so at least he'll get out of the house.

We're very proud of him!

We're also very proud of Morgan.... she FINALLY pooped in the potty!! Hallelujah!!!!!