The Last Couple Weeks

Boy oh boy, does time fly.  For starters, last week my mom took me and Maggie to UWL to visit with the PT Students.  We did this last year (well I did it last year, Maggie wasn't around just yet).  It was pretty neat.  There were supposed to be 4 kids there.  The other 3 cancelled at the last min, so I got the spotlight the whole time - except for when Maggie stole it for a lil bit.  It was a lot of fun and I get to show off for all the students.  Plus, I don't mind them playing around with me.  Its a win-win for us all.  When we were getting ready to leave my mom snapped a quick pic of me and the awesome ladies that babysit me and Maggie.  Sam, Kelsey, and Maria help us out this year.  They took over for Lindsay and Molly, the students from last year.  I am sure lucky that there are some great people who are willing to drive all the way to Cale to watch and play with us. 

 

Then a week before my patient professorship at UWL, we all traveled to my Grandma and Grandpa place in Mondovi to throw my Aunt Ashely a Baby Shower - not too long before we get to meet our new cousin.  We are excited!  Even though the par-tay wasn't for me or Maggie, we sure got a lot of attention.  My Great Aunt Rose loves to make me laugh - I am not sure if that is actually her "title" but that's what we call her, cause she is great :)  Then my second cousin Cassie kept both me and Maggie entertained when the adults were busy.  My mom is excited for her to get a lil older and then maybe come babysit us some.  When Aunt Ashley was opening up all her cool SWAG, Grandma put all the pretty bows and ribbons around her like a necklace - I think she really liked it. 

Anywho, I guess I better get going.  I am getting a lil tired and should probably, maybe, try to take a nap.  At least that is what my mom says...... but I get the last laugh - for some reason I have decided that every time she lays me down for a nap or to go to bed at night, I am going to leave her (or my dad) a suprise in my diaper.  Its pretty funny, I laugh when they come in to check on me.  HEHEHE

My lil sis

Well people, as of yesterday my lil sis is 6 months old.  I think she has learned a lot from me in the last 6 months, so I am doing a pretty good job as a big brother.  In fact, she is doing things that I can't even do - so I guess that means I get brother of the year award or something.  She is sitting up all by herself and playing.  She is rolling all over the place and at times looks like she wants to crawl - thank goodness she isn't doing that yet (My mom hasn't baby proofed the house yet).  At 6 months old she is already eating healthier that my ol' man - she likes carrots, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and sweet peas.  We get to work on eating together, so I get to try all these things too.  I have to admit, she has me beat big time on eating.  But my mom is working with a new OT who really knows what she is talking about when it comes to eating.  We took a few steps back and are starting from scratch.  This was tough for my parents at first cause it feels like we failed, but in the big scheme of things I think we are doing what's right.  I get to try to feed myself, so I like it.  I make such a big mess that my mom has resorted to just takin my shirt off during this time.  The bib didn't cut it any longer.  Anywho, now that I am 2 1/2 (as of 2 days ago) I have to admit..... time does fly.

Weekend Get Away

My mom had to work a lot over the holidays at the hospital, so me and Maggie spent a lot of time with dad.  He did a pretty good job.  So, after the hustle and bustle of the holidays wore off, me and the fam decided to pack up and head to the cities for a mini-vacation.  My dad says vacation is when you don't have to work, you get to sleep in, and you get to eat out.  Seeing I don't eat food, I sleep in whenever I want (which isn't too often cause I like to wake my folks up when I can), and I haven't had to work a day in my life... I guess I am on vacation all the time.  Anywho, I had an appointment with a new doctor to get a second opinion on my eyes early Friday morning at Children's Hospital in St. Paul - this is the main reason we went on vacation.  Good news, the new doc said she wouldn't do surgery right now, so my parents cancelled my appointment for eye surgery later this month for now.  That appointment took a good portion of the day on Friday.  Saturday we went swimming at the hotel and walked around the whole Mall of America.  I was a little nervous about this Mall trip - so nervous I decided to puke all over myself and my stroller the second we got there.  Turns out that didn't get me outta shopping, instead it got me 30 mins of strolling the mall looking for new pants (pantless while doing so).  Saturday night my folks got to watch the Packer game cause me and Maggie actually went to sleep easily.  The hotel room my dad booked us had 2 separate rooms and a living room - which was pretty sweet cause I got my own king size bed to sleep in.  It was awesome!  Maggie slept in a pack-n-play in the living room.  So we all had our own room and it worked pretty good.  However, me and Mags talked it over on the car ride home and decided we would not carry over the whole sleeping in our own room business when we got home.  Back to our vacation, on Sunday we went swimming again (I LOVE THE WATER)  and then hit up the iHop on our way outta town.  All in all we had a pretty good time.  In fact, Maggie had such a swell time she decided that she would get a couple new teeth - yup, the 2 bottom front teeth have made an appearance.

CHRISTMAS..... it twas a swell time

Let me tell you, I think I really like this Christmas stuff.  For starters, we got to drive when it was really dark out.  We got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's place for a bunch of days.  We got to go sledding outside in the snow - I am still warming up to this idea of playing outside when it is really cold.... but the sledding part was pretty fun and my parents learned the hard way how difficult it is to walk up a big hill with a sled and a lil kid.  I think they are a lil out of shape. But we don't have to let them know that.  We also got to open up presents (I love the crinkly wrappings just as much as the presents inside).  And, there is never a shortage of attention.  I thought I would share a few pics my Aunt Kristi took during the weekend in Mondovi.  We had just enough time to drive home to Cali on Xmas Eve to get to church - since me and Maggie are kinda fussy at night, my parents were pretty brave to do this.  But we made it all the way through.  We had Christmas morning ourselves and then packed up again to go to the Servais Christmas in La Crosse.  But that's not all, stay tuned.... the Shay Christmas is coming up this weekend.  So I am sure I will have a few more pics to share.  Thanks for checkin in on me :)  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years! 

 

 

A little Christmas Fun

The other day, Grandpa Servais had to stay home from work because he was sick.  Grandma Servais was at our house that day babysitting us, so Grandpa had the place to himself.  Which means.... he had a lot of free time.  Anywho, Grandpa made this Jibjab card of my fam so I thought I would share it with you all.  It's cute.  Just click on the link below or if that doesn't work you may have to copy and paste it into your browser:

http://www.jibjab.com/view/rqOrt8N2zyHXySyshDhf

 

Time for "A Christmas Story"

The year 2012 has been a busy, crazy, year for us all.  As I sit here and think of everything, I am reminded of my promise to post my kiddos halloween pics...... And now's a better time than any I figure. Since I am such a hilarious person, I dressed my kids up like my Favorite Chirstmas Movie's characters.  Randy and Ralphy (as I have said many a times that I think Conner looks just like Ralphy).  So as promised, here is our Merry Christmas Story - Shay style.

As many of you know, us Shays aren't always on top of getting things done on time.  We got our first Christmas card in the mail the other day and I thought "OOOOH FUUUDEG! ONLY I DIDN'T SAY FUDGE. I SAID THE WORD, THE BIG ONE, THE QUEEN-MOTHER OF DIRTY WORDS, THE F-DASH-DASH-DASH WORD!" I had forgotten to order our Christmas Cards with the kids in their Halloween costumes.  We dressed Conner up like Ralphy, in a pink bunny suit.  Mark took one look at him and said "HE LOOKS LIKE A DERANGED EASTER BUNNY." I did not agree. But Mark insisted "HE DOES TOO, HE LOOKS LIKE A PINK NIGHTMARE!" Then I thought, well good I guess... since this is his Halloween costume.  However, once you look at the pictures I think you will disagree with Mark. Now getting Maggie to look like Randy was something else I tell you.  It was "LIKE GETTING READY FOR EXTENDED DEEP-SEA DIVING".  Let's just say she was not happy.  If she could talk I'm sure she would have yelled "I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!" get me outta this suit.

Now, in these crazy holiday times, I like to reminice of the past year.  We also have to sit back, take a deep breath and remind ourselves to "BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE".  As many of you know, last year at this time I was expecting.  One day, I informed Mark of a craving I was having. His response was "MEATLOAF, SMEATLOAF, DOUBLE-BEATLOAF. I HATE MEATLOAF."  So needless to say, we came up with something else for dinner.  Time went on, and it seemed like July was here in no time.  Suddenly, our lil family of 3 turned to 4 when Maggie was born.  She was soo little and "FRA-GEE-LAY".  Everyone wanted to hold her of course, since she is such a cutie pie.  There were times I just wanted to yell "NADDAFINGA" until you wash your hands (as we were soo used to being extra careful with Conner at that age).  But we got over it, and now she is growing like a weed.

As Christmas gets closer and closer, we are busy finishing up projects around the house.  Of course, when Mark was trying spruce up the man room in the basement for the boys to come over and play cards, a stool at the bar broke.  When he inquired about the glue, I informed him we were out, to which I got a "YOU USED UP ALL THE GLUE ON PURPOSE".  When I protested I did not, we got in a lil argument.  It ended with him tellin me to go stick my tongue to a pole.  After several hours of silence and a phone call, I finally had a response "HEY, SMART ASS. I ASKED MY OL' MAN ABOUT STICKING YOUR TONGUE TO A FLAGPOLE IN THE WINTER, AND HE SAYS THAT IT'LL FREEZE RIGHT TO THE POLE." To which he replied "AH, BALONEY".  The rest is history.

And finally, as the snow has starts to fall, Grandma and Grandpa Servais' drive to visit becomes somewhat of a hike.  The 2 hour travel time becomes even longer when the roads aren't the greatest.  In fact, in order to get them to visit I had to "TRIPLE-DOG-DARE" them.  By the time they got here, Toby was pretty excited.  With the addition to the family, Toby has been a lil ignored.  He was soo crazy excited "HE HAD YELLOW EYES! SO, HELP ME, GOD! YELLOW EYES!"  Grandpa was first through the door, so Toby went crazy with hime first.  Grandpa just "LAYED THERE LIKE A SLUG! IT WAS HIS ONLY DEFENSE" and let Toby jump all over him.  Once things slowed down, we settled in and enjoyed the kids.  They are soo cute to watch.  During this play time, I am sure I heard Maggie ask Conner want he wanted for Christmas, and I swear his response was "I WANT AN OFFICIAL RED RYDER CARBINE-ACTION TWO-HUNDRED-SHOT RANGE MODEL AIR RIFLE!" This was pretty excellent, because we have been working like crazy just to get him to say Hi.   But, me being a typical mom, I praized him for his new found words and then had to tell him, no "YOU'LL SHOT YOUR EYE OUT!"

 

So with only weeks till Christmas, we hope you all have time to enjoy your families and give thanks for all you have! 

 

 

 

 

* For those of you who haven't seen "A Christmas Story" you may not get the humor in this.  I suggest you watch it..... now! And yes, this was my awesome upcoming post.  No "other" new news to share :)

I'm A Good Big Brother

 

Just to give you a lil update before my mom starts making me post holiday pictures.... me and Maggie had a doctors appointment yesterday.  Looks like I am doing my job as a Big Brother - the doc says Maggie is doing well and is even a lil ahead of the game!  She is in the 75% for weight, the 90% for height, and 101% for cheeks - just kiddin, I made that last one up.  But yeah, Maggie is 15lbs. She is gonna catch up to me pretty soon.  I am 27lbs - but my mom always tells people its a heavy 27lbs :)

 

Anywho, mom was pretty proud of us yesterday.  I got one shot and didn't even make a peep.  Gotta show the lil sis that she has a tough Big Brother.  Maggie had to get two shots.  She held her own pretty good, but did cry a tish.  But she's still a kid, so she has an excuse. Once mom picked her up she was fine. 

 

I am going to get a second opinion on my eyes - my mom bugged the people in the cities enough that they got me an appointment early January.  We'll see what this new doc says, and then schedule my eye surgery if she agrees with the other doc.  I'm pretty glad my mom and dad decided to get a second opinion, I don't wanna have surgery unless I really need it.  Anywho, keep checkin back.  My mom has a pretty awesome post coming next - yes, I am giving her permission to post something.  Gotta share once in awhile.