7th Anniversary!

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary!  We celebrated last weekend on Saturday by eating dinner out at Marx in Stillwater in the midst of a great thunderstorm.  It was lovely - and symbolic.  Amidst many storms (jobs, school, houses, losing the car keys...you know, the usual!), our love has remained a constant through it all.  And now we enjoy life each day with our wonderful little boys.  What a blessed life we live.

Sooooo ready for a nice dinner out - no kids!

Seven already???

Happy #7, babe.

Bennett gets another party...

Bennett is one lucky one year old.  Last week, Baggie and Bopbop came over for dinner and brought Bennett a great party!  Balloons, cupcakes, presents and dinner for everyone.  It was so much fun!  I think my favorite part is that even though the party was for Bennett, Logan was so excited.  This was the first time we saw B & B since being home from camp and it was a great visit!

Logan loved decorating cupcakes with Baggie!

The Man

Cute cupcakes for the birthday boy!

Singing for Bennett.  I don't know if you can tell, but Logan was just so excited!  He sang the birthday song just perfectly!

Oooohhhh...

Yum!

Bopbop reading Bennett his new book.

Bathtime with new bath toys!

 B & B stayed for bathtime and playtime before bed.  The boys were so riled up - and so adorable - playing together in Logan's bedroom.  It was fun!  Thanks for the marvelous visit!  Come again soon!

Summertime Concerts

Being that we've been away for so many weeks this summer, we're trying to cram all the great things about summer in EC while we're home.  A few things we love the most: the downtown farmer's market, summer concert series at phoenix park, and just hanging out with our neighbors.  Tonight we got to enjoy the summer concert with our neighbors and it was a great night to be out!  We were sure Logan would love dancing around with the little kids, but he was pretty shy.  Bennett was itching to get out and shake around, though!

Bennett and I on the dance floor!

B and I with our neighbors, Lauren and little Ellen (15 months).

The boys climbing on Dad!

Bennett's 1 Year!

Today we finally had Bennett's 1 year check up at the pediatrician.  At over 13 months old, he is meeting all his developmental milestones: walking and talking included!  Bennett says "Ma", "Da", and "Ball".  He began walking this week once we were home from camp.  Of course, he is thrilled that he can take off on his own and soon he will be keeping up with Logan (and giving Logan a run for his money when it comes to toys and attention!).

Before we left for camp, we had a visit to the neurologist again because we had noticed new symptoms in Bennett's shivers.  We had to get some special treatment to find a time we could get into our specialist before leaving for camp for the whole month of June.  Luckily, the staff were amazing and fit us in - with time to spare.  In our meetings with Dr. Hanson in March, he said if we noticed any changes, we should be sure to call right away.  At that time, Bennett was deemed "normal" after an EEG and some other assessments.  In May we began to notice Bennett forcefully nodding his head, sometimes uncontrollably.  As we watched for about a week, we became nervous about the newly developed behavior.  We knew we had to get it checked out before leaving town for the first half of the summer.

We had a great assessment with Dr. Hanson again and after examining and playing with Bennett we showed him video we had taken of Bennett nodding his head.  Luckily, we had plenty of footage for the neurologist to see Bennett's behavior in different contexts.  We were assured his head nodding was nothing pointing to a developing seizure disorder.  Rather, the head nodding is related to his previous shivers, which have now subsided.  Often, children with the shivers will develop head nodding as a stimulatory behavior.  Apparently, Bennett just liked the way it felt - and likes making his parents worry.

With Bennett's great check up today with Dr. Gilmartin, we are so thankful for healthy kids.  We do not take for granted that the boys have been strong and healthy this far - what a blessing!

What a big guy!  

Bennett weighs 21 lbs, 11 ounces (23rd percentile) 

and measures 31 inches (72nd percentile)!

His head, of course, is in the 98th percentile.

Look at that crazy hair!  Bennett is a wild man - hard to contain for any amount of time, especially now that he is walking!

Missing this...

Now that we're home, we are missing lots about Castaway.  One thing I'm missing is this view from the house.  We're missing friends, kids, staff, big spaces to run, the beach....  But, it's good to be home and house all our memories in our hearts.

Castaway Club 7

One last day at the beach!  After a couple days laying low, we took advantage of our last day at camp with some family time at the beach.

We love Castaway!

Castaway Club 6: Sick Logan

Sadly, Logan is sick.  Its no fun being sick away from home and its no fun having sick kids away from home.  We noticed Logan seeming run-down the last couple days and this week, after a couple visits to the camp doctor and a trip with John to the ER in Detroit Lakes, Logan has Croup.  They were worried about him developing walking pneumonia because of some fluid in his right lung, so we got antibiotics (his first ever!), a steroid and a nebulizer.  Yikes!  He's been such a trooper.  He is Super Logan, after all.

Logan was lucky to have Daddy close by while he was not feeling well.

Watching a video and doing the nebulizer.

Meanwhile, Bennett learned to climb onto the toy bin and then onto the bed!  He is becoming such a little monkey!  As you can see, he is very proud of himself!

Get well soon, Super Logan!