blessed beyond measure

We had such a great time splitting our Thanksgiving day between my parents' house and Brandon's parents' house. At his Grammy and Pawpaw's house, Trey was charming and chatty, being around many people who had not seen him in a while. He gobbled up some turkey and green beans. Then our after-lunch exercise was chasing three dogs around in the backyard. It was such a beautiful day outside. Then in the evening we headed back to our neck of the woods and ate a small dinner with Brandon's family. We also took up our yearly tradition of helping them put up their Christmas tree. I had figured Trey would be fascinated by all the lights, but he didn't seem too impressed. What really got him was his Granddad's choo-choo train, with lights and sounds and everything. They had a blast together. On Black Friday, Grammy and Pawpaw came over and made a special delivery - an early Christmas/birthday present for Trey. His very own play yard! This thing is a toddler...

The climbing has kicked into high gear lately. This week, Trey managed to climb onto his Nana and Granddad's couch all by himself. Then tonight Trey found another fun activity for when his crib mattress is on the floor - not only can he climb on the mattress, he can also climb on the crib! And to round out his transformation to monkey, Trey insisted on a "nama" right before bed. It took me quite a while to figure out what that meant. He repeated "nama" several times and pointed toward the kitchen counter. Finally I lifted him up, he grabbed a banana, held it up to me and said, "nama", very slowly. Yes, it's sometimes hard for a grown-up to learn new things! As tomorrow so many of us will gather with those we love, this family wishes yours a very happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is our little monkey Trey. Our families, friends, health, home, good jobs... But most of all we are thankful for our L...

Happy Trey has returned to us! Every once in a while his twin Grouchy Trey comes to stay with us for a few days (or in this case a few weeks). That's never very much fun for anyone. We do have to cut Trey a little slack this time, as he was sick for part of the time. Anyway, playtime is in full swing again. Which translates to Trey running circles around the house at 90 mph, climbing on anything he can get one leg on top of, and finding all sorts of trouble. Such as the trouble he found when he decided one of our houseplants had too much dirt in it. Sigh. I'm so glad he's back! We are also pretty sure the little stinker was holding out on us for a long time with his talking. Trey surprises us every day with some new word or phrase we've never heard before. He's a pretty smart cookie. He can identify hot and cold, several animals and their noises, and name the people and animals he's around a lot. This is fabulous! Since we haven't posted pictures ...

I promise, there will eventually be pictures again on this blog. Until then... Trey has had a fever off and on since Wednesday evening. I hate it when my baby doesn't feel well. Even though I love that he's very cuddly when sick, I'd still much rather have him running around and practicing his ever-expanding vocabulary. We're hoping he'll be back to his normal self soon. On another note, Brandon and I took Trey to a specialist this week. I don't want to get into my rant about healthcare, but we certainly pay a high price for expertise. After driving AN HOUR AND A HALF and waiting THREE HOURS to see a doctor for TEN MINUTES , we were informed that Trey has 2 hernias that will require surgery to remove. This will most likely be done in January. So please help us pray for our boy. He doesn't appear to be in any pain, but still. It's a toddler going through surgery. :(

A little background: Trey is a bit of a late talker (we missed all of the talking milestones at his last checkup). Over the last month or so, though, he has been picking up all sorts of words. And not only the words themselves, but actually pointing at an object and saying its name. Which is very exciting. Trey has known "no" for a while now, and will use it in triplicate whenever we offer him something he doesn't want. "No, no, no." He has just recently learned yes, and I wan't sure he knew what it meant until... Mama: C'mon Trey, it's time for your bath. Trey: No, no, no. Mama: No? But you like to take a bath. You can play with the duck. You want to play with the duck? Trey: Yeah. Woo hoo! That was the neatest thing, the first real exchange we've ever had. I am overjoyed at the prospect of being able to talk back and forth with my son! A few other cute things Trey has always been pretty vocal (read loud), but lately when he rea...

I was reading some news items on the Internet today at lunch. I saw a headline that read something to the fact that "teens that watch sexy TV shows were more likely to become pregnant"..........REALLY? There was a quote in the article that the originator of the study was surprised by the results.............REALLY? Here some unbelievable facts about this: 1. Money was spent on this survey when anyone with a brain could have confirmed this. They could have taken the money they spent on it, given it to me, and I could have told them this. It amazes me that so many people are just blind to the obvious. 2. The teens that watch these shows were twice....TWICE as likely to become pregnant. 3. The survey was call "groundbreaking"..........REALLY? 4. "TV-watching was strongly connected with teen pregnancy even when other factors were considered, including grades, family structure and parents' education level." This statement proves that it only takes a little ...

You were expecting someone else?? Trey loooves him some Elmo, and he made such a cute little Elmo! A very, very big thank you goes out to Cindy and Shawn, our Sesame Street hookups, for getting this costume for us. We did Trunk or Treat at church last night, and it was great as usual. We gave out every piece of candy I had bought, plus a bag and a half of donated candy. Except of course those pieces Brandon snuck out of the basket while he was in charge of giving the candy out. Final head count for the night was over 440, and that's just kids. Not including parents or trunk-tenders. Pretty dern good for a rural church if you ask me. Glory to God! Anyway, besides running amok for the first 15 minutes and climbing on some stairs later in the evening, Trey didn't enjoy himself too much. Not sure what it was - being tired, not being able to run completely free like he can at home, or that early in the night he ran into a kid, fell down and hit his head pretty hard. Could...