Dear Christmas: Please slow down!

It is so unbelievable that Thanksgiving is already over and Christmas is so close to being here! I feel very rushed and not ready. There is a lot to do in the next few weeks, but it is going to be so fun.

The past couple of weeks we have just been basically adjusting to the winter. Being indoors is proving to be even more difficult than I anticipated. Oden has not been napping regularly lately. When he doesn't nap he is 10X crazier and crabbier than normal. This makes for some very long days. In addition to Oden being terrible at times, Ramsey has started teething. It makes me so sad to see my happy boy in pain. Hopefully they come through soon so he can have some relief! Ramsey has also entered, what I call, his 'boredom' stage. He is getting so smart and strong and just can't do anything with it yet. He rolls over almost instantly when he is set down, and then cries because there's nothing to do. The only thing that will entertain him for longer than a minute or two is the Johnny Jumper. He LOVES to be on his feet. He's been able to bare his own weight on his legs since he was born. Perhaps he will be a runner of some sort? Only time will tell :) Oden got his cast removed a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty painless since he is comfortable with the hospital and the doctors office, since we are there so often. We are still trying everything under the sun to get him potty trained. I am proud to say, that we bought a train almost two weeks ago and told Oden he could have it when he started going to the bathroom on the potty. He has gone once or twice and, despite his begging and pleading, I have not caved in and given it to him! Usually, I'm a big softy and he can get me to get him anything. I am standing strong on this! He needs to go on the potty!! That's about it for now. I will try to post again before Christmas because after Christmas I will most likely have a bunch of good pictures and good stories :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TOO!

Our buddy Maddie came over to play! We miss her!

Happy Birthday Grampa Dee Dee!

Our family on Thanksgiving day <3 style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 314px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549052905872076162" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3k8w2tK-c4OA7OqJomBSlZ1ITB9ZomHdjHNJybhbY_6j0IStigC0J8iU_LomDAGefkz-jIY8maF-Ba6lhfddtXgs7ySk3V5r6cHoX0A0zZ-zdAkRFQ8uHbXT-u9llinlvd2gDUqW0aM/s400/DSC06127.JPG">

Ramsey's 1st Thanksgiving
Oden looking so handsome!


On Thanksgiving, Oden playing with cousin Taylor
Ramsey caught mid-rollover

Halloweenie 2010

I think the only thing better than every Holiday is the Holiday that follows. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!

Here are some pictures from the Brookfield Zoo's "Boo At The Zoo" and also a few from Halloween day:

Any family picture we have attempted has pretty much ended like this;

BAHHH Mr. Goat!

Oden and his buddy, Rylan (aka Mr. Potatohead)

A perfect day with friends at the zoo....

Oden on the playground. Not even a broken arm can stop that boy!

Halloween morning.......CHEESEBURGER!

At Papa and Gramma Lore's house looking for trick-or-treater's

They're coming!!! Helping with candy distribution....

This is Oden's 1st Halloween costume. It's a bat (size of the costume is 6-12 months. Ramsey is not even 5 months in this picture!!)

Ramsey and Grandma KiKi

A week in the making.....

There has been so much going on lately that it is hard to keep up with just about everything. This will most likely be an excessively lengthy blog so please bare with me :)

Ramsey's 4 month wellness checkup was on 10-12-10. He weighed 15.11 lbs and was 25.5 inches long. The doctor said that he is still around 75th percentile in both categories. He was in a great mood, smiling and talking to everyone at the doctors office. Then that mean ole shot lady came in! He got three shots in his legs and it was so sad. In other Ramsey news, last week I started feeding him baby cereal in the morning. He is really starting to get the hang of it. We will try veggies for dinner later in the week. I'm not sure how much of the food he's actually getting. It seems like the majority ends up on his face, bib, hands, or on me! It is fun though. A new activity for us to do everyday :) He is still IN LOVE with his feet! He can get his left big toe into his mouth! He really hates it when we over his feet with clothes or socks. He has already rolled over a few times out of anger and/or frustration but he is on the verge of rolling over just because he wants to. It won't be too long before he's going a million miles a minute, like his big brother!!

On 10-20-10, Oden broke his left arm. Our first broken bone! It was my craziest experience with Oden to date. Oden, Ramsey, Michael, and I were outside playing. Oden loves running. It's difficult to make him stop, ever. He was running down our driveway when he fell and tried to break the fall with his arms. I knew in an instant it was going to be bad. Michael scooped him up and brought him to me. He was screaming while I was looking for blood. Then, I lifted his sleeves to check and I noticed his left arm looked odd. It was slightly bowed. No bruising, no swelling, it just looked strange to me. Not knowing what to do, we tried to divert his attention to playing some more. It became clear very quickly that he needed to go to the ER. So in sets the panic. I made about a dozen phone calls before I decided I would take Oden, and Michael would wait with Ram at the house. Gramma Dee Dee came over to watch Ramsey. After our experiences with the Bolingbrook Hospital we decided to go to the Edward in Plainfield Quick Care. I made the right choice. They were very catering and sympathetic towards Oden, who was not a happy camper. To make a long story short, they x-rayed his arm, then put a soft cast on it. We were only in the ER for about a hour. We went straight to Target and bought him a new train. Bribery was the only was we could get him to kind of behave throughout everything. The following day we went to the pediatric orthopedic. He looked at the xrays, determined it was a 25 degree break (which is pretty significant), then we discussed our options. The possibility of surgery was mentioned. Depending on how the break heals, he still may need surgery. He now has a hard blue cast all the way up past his elbow. It will be on for about 4 weeks, and we go back weekly to get xrays and make sure that it's healing correctly. Oden is doing pretty good with his new handicap. It was difficult for him to adjust the first couple of days but now I think we all forget that he even has a broken arm! He's one tough little dude!

I have been working on posting this blog for a little over a week. Now I will have to get all of the Halloween pictures on here!! Perhaps later in the day...... if the boys allow it!

Our poor blue armed boy :(

At Dollinger's pumpkin farm

Oden loved the goats! I didn't love all of the goat poop on the bottom of our shoes!

The train wasn't running because it was a weekday, but we still had to pry Oden away from the train tracks screaming..... the boy loves his trains!

Jess and I with our little pumpkins

Tiny baby pumpkin

Running through all of the play houses....

SHORTY!!

newness

Hello everyone!! I hope that it was less difficult for you to get here, with the new blog name.

Both of our boys are doing great! I forgot to post Ramsey's last doctor stats! At his last appointment, which was on 8-27-10 (@2.5 months old), he was 13.06 lbs and 24.5 inches. He was 75th percentile in both. He is a very healthy boy. Although, both of the boys seem to be getting their first colds of the fall season. They are both miserably congested and have nasty runny noses. Poor babies :( Ramsey is now about 3.5 months old. His new fascination is his feet! He likes to grab them both and just hold on, almost like they're handlebars! It's really cute. Oden has gained no further interest in potty training. It's starting to feel like we're changing man poop in his diapers. We talk to him about it all the time, so hopefully he will catch on soon. We are not excited for the change of seasons. The colder it gets equals the harder it is to go outside. Oden needs his time outside daily to get rid of his crazy energy. We will have to get a bigger house soon and designate space for him to run around and be crazy!

Until my next post, here are some recent pictures:

Our friends! Baby Mason, Big Sister Laney, Oden, Ram, and Maddie!

At the end, Sonji's new little girl, Bayleigh :)

Running around like a nut while visiting Dad and Papa at work.

Showing off our babies around the plant....

Playing with Uncle Mikey

Coloring with chalk. He calls chalk 'color crayons'. LOL!

Our happy baby Rammy!

So Happy Together

We have been having a great time together! Oden and Ramsey are getting along so awesome now. We had the initial phase of excitement, followed by the period of crabby adjustment, and now we're all settled into everyday life. Oden is so loving towards his baby brother. When Ramsey cries now Oden says, "It's Ok baby Ram" and then tells me Ramsey is crying (even if I am a foot away). Oden also started to gain interest in holding Ramsey. He will occasionally ask me to help him hold the baby, his attention span is minuscule so the hold lasts about 15 seconds, it is really cute! Oden also kisses and hugs Ramsey a lot! By far his favorite thing to do is to get in Ramsey's face and say, "AHH-GOO-EEY!" They both smile, which they do a lot when looking at each other. Overall I would have to say I am very lucky, and I have the best boys ever!! On individual levels: Ramsey is awake a lot more during the day, and his colic is dying down. He has started to notice his hands and is always trying very hard to put them in his mouth. His face of determination is so funny! He is cooing often and starting to babble. I think he will be an early walker because he is soooo strong. When we stand him up, he'll lock his knees and support his whole body and for longer periods of time than you'd think were possible. I predict that Ramsey will be our football player. Now Oden, on the other hand, he will be our baseball player. Oden has an awesome throw, we just need to work on his catching skills. He has been asking about school buses a lot lately, he wants to go on one. He was even calling the animal trolley at the zoo a school bus. I guess we will have to take him on a ride there soon. Potty training is at a stand still. I have been trying various things, attempting to gain his interest but nothing really works. Other than that, we are enjoying the not so hot weather by hanging outside more often. Oden loves playing with Playdoh at his little picnic table in the garage, and Ramsey just likes being outside and not sweating like crazy. We hope the cooler weather is here to stay.

Oden playing Playdoh with Uncle Mikey

I am the king of this tractor!!

The start of giggles....

Ramsey's first trip to the zoo and.....

......he loved it!

It's hard to keep up......

I'm sorry that it has been so long since I last posted. These boys keep me running, actually it's more like sprinting! It's hard to believe that Ramsey is already 2 months old! We have his 2 month doctor appointment towards the end of the month, so I will be sure to post his stats. I think he is getting pretty huge and should be in the top percentiles. We have been doing all kinds of fun things to make the days go by faster. I also try to do a lot to keep Oden busy, and to tire him out so he sleeps better. He's doing great in his own bed! Now if I could only get him to potty train. We have been hanging out with our friend Rylan a lot, he is 3 and potty trained. Oden usually shows some interest after seeing him in underwear and going on the potty. My hope is that by seeing another little boy doing it, and by talking about it a lot, we will get there sometime soon. It sure is expensive buying diapers for two!! At this point Ramsey just eats, sleeps, cries, and poops. He is focusing on objects and faces as well as gaining some head control, but that's about it. Oden is being a great big brother. For a while anytime Ram would cry Oden would ask with great concern, "What happened?!" Now he says, "Uh, oh! Baby Brother crying!" It's cute the things he comes up with! Our house is crazy at times, but I wouldn't have it any other way (well.... maybe we'd like Jess home more, but that's it!).

Baby Rammy!

Grandpa Dee Dee caught some turtle eggs and this is the second times he's helped them hatch and then let Odee help him put them in the river behind their house.

Uncle Al and Rammy at the birthday BBQ

Grandpa Scott and Odee on his first John Deere ride!
He was always too scared to go before this...

Odee playing in the Buzz sprinkler with Rylan

The boys after a tiring afternoon outside

Swimming with Auntie Stephie on her birthday

Grandpa Dee Dee spending some quality time with Ram

I think he got out of the pool to pee in his swim diaper, good boy! LOL!

Helping with the candles at Great Grandpa Pete's surprise party

An attempted family picture on our 5 year anniversary <3

Video: The Brothers Meet

Ramsey is here!

As of 5:46am on June 8th Ramsey Xavier Hogan has arrived!

His entrance into the world was nothing short of incredible. So here it goes: right around 3:00am on this Tuesday morning Jess and I were soundly sleeping when suddenly my water broke! I had never experienced this sensation with Oden so it was very strange for me. I didn't start contracting right away so Jess and I showered, took our time getting ready, then called Gramma Dee Dee to come and watch Oden. When the contractions started getting intense it as a whole new feeling too. I had a lot of back labor with Oden, which was basically constant pain, so this was a completely new scenario. We left our house around 4am, and arrived at Hinsdale Hospital around 4:30. At this time my contractions were getting stronger and I was VERY uncomfortable. They wheeled me up to labor and delivery where I was immediately checked for dialtion. Upon inspection the nurse said, "You're about 4-5 and I don't want to scare you but, I feel a foot." Jess and I were both taken back but thought maybe when our doctor came we might discover that this nurse was mistaken. I was taken into a room immediately where then hooked me up to all of the necessary equipment. After a few minutes the nurse checked me again. After she had a few words with the other nurses in the room everyone started to scramble about. Then she looked me in the eyes and said, "There are no doctors here, so you DO NOT push! If you feel the sensation, blow out birthday candles!" We asked what was going on and she told us that Ramsey was breech (feet down) and he was ready to come out now! She said I would need a c-section. I was slightly disappointed, but ready to have Ramsey by us and safe. They quickly wheeled me into the Operating Room. Jess barely had enough time to put on his scrubs. As soon as I entered the room they informed me that my doctor had called in a colleague of hers that specialized in breech baby delivery. I saw him and he started to talk to me about pushing. I said, "What about the c-section? Or the epidural?!" The nurse and doctor had to assure me multiple times that there was just no time for either. Before I knew it I was pushing. It was the most intense moment of my life. After about 7 crazy pushes, Ramsey arrived at 5:46am, purple feet first! They took him right away. He needed a little bit of oxygen so they transferred him to the NICU for observation. He was only in there for an hour or so because he is perfectly healthy! He was 7 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long, and absolutely beautiful! All of the nurses were thanking me for such a beautiful delivery. Almost all of them had never been a breech baby delivery before. It was an intense delivery for all involved!


We came home on Thursday and we have been adjusting nicely. Both Oden and Ramsey have their moments of crazy, but overall have been pretty good.

Here are some pictures of Ramsey's Birth Day....

On our way to the hospital...

Oden's first time meeting his baby brother.