Not today.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather so no full holiday update tonight. I'm hoping some rest will help me kick this cold/sinus thing. 'night.

This will be short

I promised a long post but it's 1:30 AM and I'm getting up at 5 to start cooking. Also, I'm posting from my phone.
I'm so excited to see Christmas through the eyes if my babies this year. I suddenly find Christmas lights exciting again, I'm filled with the joy of GIVING and I could not have more love for my little family. We have been blessed in so many ways and have so much to be thankful for. Wonderful family and friends and a life we love.
Wishing all of you the happiest of holidays!
I'll post again tomorrow...so be warned. ;-)

Great day!

Well, we had a great day today. We loaded everyone up (excluding Cody - he never gets to go anywhere) and headed to Lexington. We visited both sets of grandparents and had a great time! Gabriel was able to hit the snow and a take a trip down the hill in a sled @ Granny Bug & Papaw Bob's house. He had a BLAST! Don't believe me? Check out the video!

We had some fun too. What a blast!! We've been watching the video over and over just to catch his expression at the end. Priceless!

The kids really enjoyed seeing all of the decorations at Mim Mim and Papaw Eddie's house. Mattie was in awe of it all. Last Christmas she was only 3 months old so this is all new to her. Everyone is right, it's so wonderful to see things through your kid's eyes. Oh, how special the holidays will be this year!

The other big news is that I was able to secure our tickets on the Christmas Train!!!! I hope Gabriel enjoys it as much as his Day Out With Thomas trip. I'll have annoying amounts of pics and video of that event too.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a good week to come.

Love to all!

Andee

Loooooong day

I was up in the 3 o'clock hour this morning and on the road by 4:30. 3 hour drive, several meetings then 3 hours home. I'm barely hanging on at this point. I'm updating from my phone 'cause I'm too tired to get out of bed and go to the computer. Sad, I know.
I'll give a better update tomorrow but we've had a good start to December.
Love to all!

Sneak Peek

Scrapbook Style Blue Christmas Card

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Back home

I made it home safely from my business trip. It was just overnight but any extended time away from my DH (darling husband) and my babies is tough. It was great to get home in time to pick up the kiddos @ school. They were both very excited to see me - that always makes you feel good. Gabriel even told me he missed me. Love those babies.
That's the good news - the bad news is that I'm sick again. This is really annoying. How many variations of a cold can there be? Am I getting hit by new germs or am I just recycling the old ones? I need some medical advice. I can't recall ever being sick this many times in a year much less in a 4 month period. WOW
My mom and dad arrived today. Woohoo! They're home for the holidays so the kids and I went to visit with them this evening. The babies were so excited to see them. While they're gone we keep in touch via video call so they get to see each other regularly, just not in person. We're so looking forward to spending time with family this holiday season. It seems like time flies so much faster with kids. They grow and change so much in a short amount of time.
Well, I'm going to try to get some sleep, if that's even possible with this cough. UGH!
Night all.
ACD

On the road again

Sadly, I'm away from my family tonight. I'll be back with them tomorrow but I'm missing them terribly (and not feeling great so that's making me more pitiful). I'm happy to say that I don't have to do this often but it's still difficult to be away from Bobby and the babies for any amount of time. That's a good thing though.
It's been a long but productive day. I was up by 5, out the door by 6 and in Pikeville by a little after 9. Then I had a full day of meetings and work. Now I'm just hanging out in my hotel room planning for an early bedtime. I'm looking forward to talking to Bobby and the babies before I go to sleep.  
Gabriel and Mattie are AWESOME. They keep us on our toes, and even challenge us from time to time, but I wouldn't wouldn't trade them for the world. Bobby and I are still trying to figure out how to keep from laughing as we try to discipline them. Mattie's new thing is climbing. She's trying to climb the barstools and she has a special love for the stairs. The worst thing is that if she notices we're coming to intercept her, she starts laughing and tries to go faster. Gabriel figures more stuff out everyday. He pays close attention and it's so amusing to see how his mind works. Bobby looked at me the other day and said, "You realize he's smarter than us, right?" Yep, he's a planner.
Oh well, I'm going to go listen to my audiobook and try to get some sleep. Looking forward to seeing my babies and my hubby tomorrow!
Night all
Andee

Great weekend with family

We have had a great weekend at home. I cooked and we ate way too much. We did go to the Cracker Barrel yesterday for breakfast but everything else has been at home. The boys were able to spend a good amount of time outside yesterday before the temp dropped. Mattie and I stayed out for a little while but it was too cool for her to be out too long. She and I read some books and played. Today we've just hung around inside...and eaten. There was also some dancing and A LOT of laughing. We didn't have much to do and that's what we needed. Some quiet time at home to relax.
I don't forget for a minute how blessed I am.
We'll catch up with all tomorrow.
Love to all
ACD

Cheeseburger Loaf Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes

Our Entree for this evening. We are changing it up a little and using garlic & parmesan french bread and NOT Velveeta cheese. Sunday is all about comfort food, right?

Cheeseburger Loaf Recipe Taste of Home Recipes

Good times

I'm happy to report that we're spending some time with our nephew Bradley. I bribed him with food so he had no choice. Ha ha. Spicy Cheeseburger Soup and homemade chocolate chip cookies did the trick. On a serious note, after a year in Iraq we just love every opportunity we get to spend time with him.

Prayers for preemie family

Please take a moment to say a prayer and send some positive thoughts out for a fellow preemie family.  I heard today that little Riley in Michigan is in the PICU with pneumonia. The latest update is that she's improving so that's great news! Keep it up little girl!

Gabriel's Groupies Shirts (and other items...maybe)

Ok, I'm finally doing it. We're starting to work on t-shirts for Gabriel's Groupies. As you may (or may not) know, the name was born shortly after Gabriel was. It's the term we used to address Gabriel's numerous followers on his website. We had a ton of people who checked in on the site to see how he was doing everyday. It is now the name of our March of Dimes March for Babies team. We are going to make shirts available for team members as well as anyone else who wants to purchase them. I haven't decided if we're going sell as a fundraiser or just because. We'll see how much interest there is.
If you might be interested in a t-shirt, or some other item, stay tuned for some ideas. We may post a couple and ask for your opinion.

Guess what

A small person in our house is not feeling well. Shocking, I know! Little Mattie had a bit of a temp this evening and a pretty icky nose. She's sleeping soundly right now but I think she's feeling a little ookie. Hopefully a good night's rest will do her some good. Gabriel had an elevated temp a couple of nights this week but it didn't turn into to anything (knocking on wood) so hopefully hers will pass quickly as well.
On a brighter note, we've been enjoying this lovely weather and have been spending time outside as much as we can...before it gets dark anyway. We are going to use up the whole day tomorrow because I hear the more seasonally appropriate weather is on its way.
I'm also working on some family outings for the holiday season so stay tuned. We might make a trip up to the Newport Aquarium and we are planning on taking the babies on the Santa Train this year. Who knows what else we'll come up with. :-)

Oh no, I'm becoming "that" mom!

I'm in the process of scheduling our days down to the minute. Have I lost my mind? No, I think not. I just think I need to make sure we accomplish certain things and that the kids have a routine. My babies need structure. I've been modifying things that I think are important. For instance,  we are eating at a specific time and we are eating at the kitchen table...as a family. I used to feed the babies first, then Bobby and I would eat but the kids are old enough that I think we can do the family thing. Also, the kids don't just get "open playtime" when we get home. We have been turning the TVs off (unless we have just music playing) and I'm playing with them. Now I've got to work on our plans for the day. I want help Gabriel start reading and it's time for Mattie to start with the flash cards. Much to do, much to do!!
Having said all that, it's time to bathe some short folks, get their jammies on, read to them and put them to bed. Schedules are good!
Love to all
Andee

Uploading Pictures

I'm catching up on photo uploads on our fall page. You can view the latest photos @
http://doolinfall2010.shutterfly.com/

Birthday celebrations

Since I'm a little behind in posting I should update everyone on our fall birthday celebrations. My children's and my husband's birthdays all fall within a 5 week period. I'm not sure how this happened but I had some birthday party planning to do this year! Mattie's 1st, Bobby's 40th and Gabriel's 3rd - which is the first one where he (sort of  ) knows what's going on.
Mattie's party was great fun right up until the point where Gabriel threw up all over me. We still had a good time but that was a little bit of appetite killer. The good news is that he was ultimately OK and most everyone was done eating at the point.
Bobby's party was a big success. We were able to spend time with friends and family and just have fun around the house. We had some pretty good eats and, I'm happy to report, that the weather cooperated so we were able to enjoy outdoor activities.
Gabriel's birthday fell on Halloween weekend so his "official" party is this weekend. We did take a family trip to Gattitown and Toys R Us, just the 4 of us, and we had a great time!

Count your blessings

I just had to take a moment to post something. Just remember, no matter how bad you think things are in your life, there's probably someone who's having a rougher time that you. Just take the time to put your troubles in perspective, that's all I'm trying to say. I'll give you an example where I was smacked in the back of the head (figuratively) and reminded that I needed to do just that, put things in perspective.
As you all know, Gabriel was born 16 weeks early and remained in intensive care for 3 months. Compared to the problems we could have been faced with, we dealt with relatively minor complications - I don't mean minor, I mean minor in comparison to what we could have faced. Got me? Ok, so for any parent of a preemie, weight gain is a big deal. After Gabriel was discharged from the hospital we had follow up visits with the neonatologists so they could check his weight and other growth and developmental metrics. On our first visit, I was so excited for them to see how well he'd been doing. He'd been weighed at the pediatrician's office and we weighed him at home so I knew where he was. I also knew that there were minor variations from scale to scale so I knew the general range where he would tip the scales, give or take some ounces. Well I was broken hearted at the clinic when they weighed him and then said that he was a little under weight and they would like to have seen more weight gain. They weren't overly concerned but wanted to supplement his feedings to get him where he needed to be. The rest of the appointment went well, they were pleased with his progress but I could not let go of the weight thing. I knew he was where he needed to be and I was really upset and concerned that they didn't think he was doing as well as they'd hoped. It really wasn't a huge deal but I was just so focused on his success I let it get under my skin.
Well either that day or the next I received that smack to the back of the head. I checked in on one of the preemie's I'd been keeping up with and he had surgery scheduled for that day. When I read the update, his mom had posted that the surgery was postponed because when they put him under anesthesia, his heart stopped. They were able to resuscitate him but that was it. I realized that a discrepancy in weight was nothing to be upset over. (turns out they had issues with their scale so I was mad for no reason anyway).
I heard some news today that reminded me of this all over again. Today I was just reminded of how blessed I am to have a family and extended family that I love so much and to have my husband and children around me.
Even on your worst day, I bet you can look around you and point out a number of blessings in your life. Give it a try.
Love to all!
ACD

More teeth

In honor of her first birthday, Miss Mattie has sprouted another tooth and we think there is at least one more, and possibly 3 more, that might be making their appearance soon. She has a lot going on. She's walking, her vocabulary is expanding, and she's getting a mouthful of teeth! She's also getting ready to graduate to the Waddler's Room at school. Great stuff!
Gabriel is still doing well other than his repeated attempts to leave his classroom and go outside on his own. The kid LOVES it outside but this could become a problem. We're working with him at home to make sure he knows that just because he is able to open a door, it doesn't mean he should. I think he's getting better but we're working closely with his teachers to try to make sure he stays in place. It's a safety issue, ya know.
I'm finally on the up swing with this bug...I hope. I was able to get several hours of much needed rest yesterday and slept fairly well last night, once I finally went to bed.
Well, the kids are off to school so Mommy needs to attack some housework. With 2 sick days this week I'm behind schedule.
Love to all!
ACD

New Picture Site

You can view our latest pics @
http://doolinfall2010.shutterfly.com/

Guess what

Yep, everyone is sick again...except Bobby. Then again, he usually lags a few days behind the rest of us. We'll share it with him eventually. It's a toss up as to what he's going to get. Mattie and I have had a cold and Gabriel has been throwing up.  I sure hope he doesn't get both, that would be BAD.
Well, Miss Mattie went for her 1 year check up today and the doctor said she looked GREAT. She was 50-75th percentile in height and weight and head circumference was 75-90. Big brain.  ;-) She had all of her shots plus her first in a series of 2 flu shots. She did great!  Gabriel was just along for the right. Since he's been sick the past few days I kept him out of school to make sure he wasn't going to go back and share with any of the other kids.
I guess I am officially between jobs right now. I have a meeting with folks @ the new employer tomorrow but I don't officially start until next week. I'm excited to meet everyone and get started on my new adventure.
Little Miss Mattie's birthday party (just cake really) was yesterday. I'm getting ready to upload pictures to our Shutterfly site so be sure to check those out.

Leaving one job, starting another, babies walking, toddlers talking, soldiers returning and birthday parties galore!

You're right, I don't have a THING going on right now. Where do I begin? I guess I'll take them in order.
Friday is my last day with AT&T. After 3+ years I've made the decision to move on to something else. For the second time in more years that I will acknowledge, I'm leaving the wireless industry and trying something new. I'll be taking next week off (sort of) and then starting anew on Monday October 4th. It's time for a change but I will really miss my AT&T coworkers. Some have become very good friends (you know who you are) and I feel very blessed to have them in my life. We'll be in touch - promise!!
I'm pretty excited about  my new opportunity. I think it's going to be great! I'll share more once I get there and get settled. Technically I'm not really getting anywhere - I'll be working from home. LOL but you know what I mean...once I get started with the new job.
Mattie continues to improve her walking skills. Walking is now her preferred method of getting from point A to point B. She's getting darn good at it too. Yeah Mattie!!
I'm happy to report that my nephew Bradley returned to the U.S. early, early, early this morning after serving a year in Iraq. We are so happy he is now home safely.We had hoped to be able to be in Georgia for his return but the date changed and things just didn't work as planned. We will be seeing him soon!
'Tis birthday season in our family. WOW! I'm currently planning and coordinating no less than 3 parties and we have approximately 4 additional birthdays to celebrate over the next 45 days. That will lead us right up to our November, December, January and February birthdays and we expect to squeeze some holidays in there somewhere. Be sure to keep your eyes open for pictures.

Mattie Walking - Clip 1

Here's some video for you.

Mattie is walking!

Well, the little princess decided yesterday was going to be the day. She officially walked all on her own. I don't mean she held on to something and took off. I mean she was sitting in the floor, stood up on her own and walked across the room to her daddy! It was awesome!!! She was so excited. If you're on Facebook I have video posted of her second successful walk. I'll upload it here soon.
Love to all!

Ready for the weekend

We are really looking forward to this holiday weekend! We get to spend time with some of the most fabulous people we know throughout the next few days. I took the kiddos to spend time with their MimMim, Papaw Eddie and Aunt Jean tonight. They had a blast as always. They were asleep within 5 minutes of pulling out of the driveway. Both are tucked into bed now and Mommy is getting ready to head that way. We'll have some pictures up to chronicle our weekend festivities so be sure to check back in.
'Night all!

Better today

Gabriel had a much better day today. He was pretty cheerful this morning, at least he was after we had to deal with his medicine . he went into school with a smile and went straight into his class to start his day. yeah!
Both babies are officially on the mend and I'm so happy to see the smiles on their faces again.

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He slept through the night

After the second episode Gabriel ended up sleeping through the night. He did well this morning and went into class with a smile on his face. Updates to follow but so far so good.

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Will I ever sleep again?

I'm getting ready to go back to bed and see if I can get some sleep. I have a feeling I'm going to be up again. Gabriel has been up a couple of times. The first time he fell asleep then started whining a little then started crying and calling for Mommy and Daddy. We were able to get him settled down but about an hour later he woke up screaming, kicking, arching his back, very dramatic stuff. It took a while longer to get him to calm down and go back to sleep. He's sleeping now, thank goodness.
Of course I read the possible side effects on the material from the pharmacy but nothing would have prepared me for this. I did some internet reading (yes, I know that's not always the best thing to do) and many people posted about similar things happening with their children. I'll be checking with the doctor but in my NON-EXPERT opinion he could be experiencing nausea or stomach cramping as a side effect and that could cause him to wake up due to discomfort/pain. At this point I don't think it's actually causing night terrors. One of his teachers mentioned that he wasn't himself today. That he was whiny and not interested in going outside. If you know our son, you know that is TOTALLY out character for him.Obviously we'll keep a close eye on him and keep you posted.
I'm going to try to get some sleep and I can't do that in front of the computer.
Momma Doolin signing off (at 1:42 AM)

Family time!

We are enjoying some family time outside. Mattie playing pat a cake with Daddy. This is her "pitch 'em in the pan".

Pictures

I'm in the process of getting our photo share site updated.
http://doolin2.shutterfly.com/

I totally forgot to brag!

I'm not really trying to brag, I'm just terribly proud of Gabriel's progress. As you might have heard (sarcastic tone), Gabriel was born prematurely. I'm happy to report that our little superstar caught up (in size) by his first birthday. He took his time in the speech department and ended up taking 2 semesters of speech class. He doubled his vocabulary in the first 2 weeks and continued to do a great job until they kicked him out (graduated him really).  They advised he had caught up completely and was even a little ahead. Fast forward to last week, you might have read that he started "school" last Monday. He starts out in the 2-3 year old room. He won't be 3 until October 29 so that makes sense right?? Well, I called on Tuesday, about midday, to check and see how everyone was doing and the assistant director told me she was glad I called because she wanted to discuss something with me. My mind immediately starts racing trying to figure out what in the world he (or she) could have done to require a discussion with the assistant director on day 2. She said they were considering moving Gabriel to the 4 year old room once he was completely potty trained and she wanted to know how I felt about that. I told her that was great! She said he was so smart and already knew his letters, numbers, colors and shapes and they thought he might do better in that class. Of course, I was beaming after the call. A little while later I checked the website to get the details on the class she had referenced. At this point I was assuming we were moving from the 2-3 year old class to the 3-4 year old class. To my surprise, I was incorrect. He would be moving from the 2-3 year old class to the 4-5 year old class. Wait, WHAT?!?  Yes, it's true. We still have the potty training hurdle to get over but that's pretty exciting stuff! When I took the tour they told me that some of the kids in the 4-5 year old class were reading. COOL!!
We'll keep you posted on his progress but I couldn't be more proud of his progress. Don't worry, we're not going to be those crazy, pushy parents who are already planning on his college graduation at age 15. We will just continue to work with him and do what we can to keep him interested and engaged.

Daycare Cooties

Well both kids sucessfully completed their first official week of school/daycare. We did not make it through unscathed. Both have had junky noses for most of the week and Mattie has battled a low grade temp off and on. Last night our little princess had a pretty rough time so we went to see the doctor this morning. We now have antibiotics for everyone. I am happy report that the first dosing for each child has been administered and with minimal staining (that pink stuff is crazy!). There was some resistance at first but ultimately Mommy's kind pleas for cooperation worked and we are good to go...until it's time for dose #2. I have a feeling this might get tougher as we go along. We have 10 days of this stuff to look forward to. All I want is for my babies to be healthy so I'll do what I need to in order to get them there. We've been through tougher, right?

Is vacation over already?

Question for you - why don't work weeks go by as quickly as vacation weeks? Discuss...  :-)

I'm winding down from a week off with my kids. What started as time off because my parents (who watch my kids) were going out of town turned into some special quality time with the little ones before they enter the big world of daycare/"school". I know it will be good for them, especially Gabriel. He'll get to interact with other kids ("the children" as he calls them) and have some structure and some formal learning time. Mattie is a social butterfly anyway so she's going to thrive. She may become the Daycare Diva...we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm actually doing OK - we'll see how that goes tomorrow when I actually have to drop them off and leave them. They've already spent some time at the center so I feel comfortable about that. Gabriel may get upset for a bit once he figures out I'm not down the hall in the office but I think he'll be fine. Wish me luck tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be a complete wreck...maybe not. LOL

Welcome

I started documenting my sons life during pregnancy. If you want to catch up on 3 years of reading, feel free to pop over and check it out at http://sites.bundleofjoys.com/adoolin. What started as a site that would enable my parents to track the progress of my pregnancy while out of town became a site to track Gabriel's progress. He was born at 24 weeks (a term pregnancy is 40 weeks) weighing only 1 lb 12 oz. Posting to the web was an easy way to distribute information to many people at once and it was very therapeutic for me. It didn't, and still doesn't, really matter if no one reads my posts - they are good for me. If others read them and find them entertaining then that is just a bonus!
In September of 2009 we welcomed our daughter and life changed again. You can view her story at http://sites.bundleofjoys.com/babydoolin. I was a little weird about posting too much before she arrived so her material is a little lighter than Gabriel's. Plus, I was a little busier after she arrived.
I thought it was time to consolidate my "stuff" and write about the babies, family life and the challenges of being a working mom. Our babies are the joys of our lives so you'll see a lot postings about things they do that entertain us...that happens often! You also might find some opinions about "stuff" from time to time. Visit often, I hope to continue updating regularly.

Love to all
Andee