"Generations" - Baby Picture Sundays

Debi over at Who says 8 is enough? is hosting Baby Picture Sundays and this week her theme was Generations. I immediately thought of this picture of my Grandma. She is holding Jack and Quent for the first time while they were still in the special care nursery, her 7th and 8th Great Grandchildren. Even though they were 38 + weeks gestation, they still had to go there after delivery and then Jack had a heart murmur so he had to be monitored for 24 hours there anyway. Luckily, they kept Quent in there with him so that we could just be in one place to visit them both. It is one of my favorite pictures of them together. Jackson and Quentin do love their GG and she loves them too.
Love you Gram!

Boys LOVE cars!!

Okay and not only do I mean these cars:



but these cars, too:

Yesterday was the End of Summer Cruise in our town, and we took the boys downtown to check out all the cool rides! The one above was one of Tom's favorites.
There were lots of people and TONS of cars! Not that I am some car enthusiast or something, but it is pretty cool to see all these really nice, mostly old, cars.


The boys got to ride in style for some of the trip


Hmmm.... Daddy, which one can I have?


I liked this one, if we won the lottery - maybe?!
It was immaculate and had pink and brown seats, very cool!


Jack - loungin' with a snack, soaking up some rays


Quent always turns his hat this way, is it not the cutest?


I told the boys that Papa used to have a car like this one and they were very excited about that!


No, no, Papa is not IN the car!


Okay Mom and Dad, let's head on back home.



In other my other Cars news -
We had Jack's follow up sleep study this Wednesday and I took along our Cars movie so that he would have a distraction while they did all the hooking up. Thank goodness for this movie! He is totally mesmerized by the thing and we probably could have done anything to him as long as he could have seen the TV during it. He did really well throughout all the getting hooked up and ready.

I wish I would have brought my camera to take a picture of him in all the stuff they put on him. I mean you can do a Google image search and find lots of pics of people hooked up for a sleep study, but its not nearly as cute as Jack all strapped up and ready to go.

Good news! - He slept much better this time and the tech said that most likely they will find no issues in his readouts! Hooray! If that's the case, then the tonsils/adenoids were definitely his only issue! I can get official results next week, but I am sure all will be fine.

I am just so glad it is over, OY! I don't really sleep at all during these tests because I am working like crazy to keep him calmed down or from pulling something off or to readjust the thing in his nose so it picks up correctly (See, I learned that if this one number went to low on this machine, a red light would flash and then soon after that the tech would come in and adjust that tube in his nose. Well, as nice as she was, Jack screamed every time she would come in and touch him, so I figured if she is just moving that tube because of how he is laying, to get the air to move better, then I could do that. So, each time I would catch it first and adjust it myself. Jack rarely woke up for me and she rarely had to come in. But that equals no sleep for Mom - the upside is a much better rested guy who takes far less time to recoup his energy from the test. It was worth it.)

Fun Happenings

As promised, here are some pictures from our zoo trip, playing outside at Gramma and Papa's. and from GG's birthday party. These are all from last weekend, it was a busy weekend of fun and excitement with family!

Quent and Alex looking at the wolves, they were actually out this time (I think it was feeding time).


Alex, Quent and Jack all lined up looking at the noisy crow


Jack was taking a spin in this old truck, everyone else was in the butterfly house, but Jack and I hung out here instead.


GG,
Quent, Gramma,
Jack and Alex
riding the train around the zoo. This has to be one of our favorite things to do!


Its was hilarious how they were all crouching down to talk to this pig!


The boys were so excited to feed this cow, but a little afraid of him actually taking the hay from their hands. So, Gramma helped out. And after the cow was done, Jack and Quent were picking up any little bit of hay on the ground trying to give it to the cow!



Watching the ducks swim - don;t worry we did not lose Jack, he is missing from the photo because he is on lockdown on the stroller. The little booger kept running away from us and when we would go after him and tel him to stop, he would run faster - and laugh! So, his consequence was some time in the stroller, which he hated, but I don't really know if that deterred him from running away or not. He spent a lot of time in there that day.


Oh Boy! The penguins actually were swimming!!
It was hard to tell if the boys were following the penguins back on forth or if the penguins were following them!


All the boys loved this and we stayed here until all the penguins were out. And from this angle and when they are dressed alike, Jack and Quent do look very similar.
It was a fun, fun zoo trip!


Avery is getting Gramma's toes with the cool pool water!



Rob was chasing all the kids and splashing them.
Avery was pretty good at getting him wet too!


Tessa thought those kids were pretty funny!


Daddy giving Jack a spin!


Quent just got a big splash! He loved it, he loves the water!


All the guys (Rob, Len, Tom) chasing after all the kids
Ky-Ky is getting some cool shots, I'm sure


GG, Aunt Jean and Tessa swinging. GG's birthday party was at Aunt Margaret and Uncle Eldon's house. It was a beautiful weather day.


Avery and Rob in the water, Tom and Quent behind them.
Avery is so brave in the water and with her swim vest on, she wanted to go on her own! She really swam around pretty well.


Quent taking a big jump into the pool with Daddy's help


Jack is a little more timid, but he likes to jump too. Uncle Lenny is ready to catch him!


GG (my Grndma) opening her gifts. She is wearing the bracelet that I made for her, I loved how it turned out, she seemed to like it too. It had her and my Papa's birthstones, their wedding date stone, and all their children's, grand children's, and great-grand children's birthstones in it. 42 stones in all!! What a legacy!


Kyle and Tessa helping GG open her gifts.
Fun birthday party and we had a good time visiting with everyone!

Funny Man!

Here is a video I took (finally!) of Quentin's very cute joke that he tells. He came up with this totally on his own a little while back and since I laughed so hard when he said it, he has continued to do it!
My future comedian!



"Garbage?!"
Too cute, such a silly boy!
(Jack is in the background saying "Bye Baby!" - sweet!)

Boy - Am I behind or what?!

Lately, I have been pretty bad at keeping up with my blogging and with my blogger friends' blogs. I would say that I have just been busy, but it has been just as busy as it normally is. And it really has been because a lack of cute and funny things my adorable boys have been doing, its just that time gets away from me and here I am playing catch up again...

Just so much to share, I will start with some from 2 weekends ago and that following week:

Avery and Tessa came to play, we had so much fun!
Here's the 3 Brittkateers dancing to The Wiggles (one of our favorites!)
Earlier that day when we were playing outside, we had our first bee sting. Quent had tried to pick one up out of the pool and it got him. He did really well though, no severe reaction. Whew!
But he still talks about "not touching those bees" and " It can't get me, Uncle Robby squished that bee"

Tessa decided she would cook up something in the kitchen.
Look at that big girl pulling up and standing!

Quent and Jack having some fun in their jungle pool

Little Miss Avery with her Butterfly wings on!

In the early morning one day, Quent discovered how cool his shadow could be.
And he played and played, doing all sorts of movements in the sunlight!
It was super cute!

Cutie Jack wearing his favorite hat and racing his truck along the table.

Playing with the vehicles in the kitchen has been BIG fun lately!
And since it lets me get some stuff done in their while they are busy, we all win!

Okay, well I will stop there for now and update more later.
Still to come: A trip to the zoo with GG, Gramma, and Alex, more fun with Avery and Tessa this past weekend and GG's birthday!

Way Back When-esday

Just because we will be getting a visit from Avery, Tessa, Rob and Abby tomorrow, I was thinking back on the first time the cousins got to play together...

This is the first picture taken of my niece, Avery, with the boys (Quent on the left, Jack on the right). More than 2 years ago! It was July 2, 2006 and the boys were less than a month old, Avery was almost 6 months old. I guess calling this "playing together" is stretching it a bit seeing that Quent is snoozing and Jack is close too. Avery was ready to go though!

I remember wondering what it was going to be like to watch them all playing together and growing up so close in age. Wow - is it ever great! My boys LOVE Avery and talk about her all the time and have such fun whenever they get to play with her ("Baby Tessa" too!).

Tomorrow should be a fun day with them all together!

Check out Twinfatuation to see who else is playing Way Back When-esday!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks for all you encouraging remarks, it has been a rough recovery for all of us, but HOORAY Jack is finally showing real signs of improvement. He had a pretty good weekend, is definitely eating/drinking better and we have been able to cut back on the pain meds. He only got up twice last night and he was easily calmed back to sleep. I am so relieved that he has some relief.

Whew!

We are slowly getting back in the swing of things and I will be able to get back to doing some blogging. Our last week was pretty much survival mode, but hopefully we will get back to some more fun summer stuff soon!

Thanks again for the good wishes!

Is this the "rock bottom"?

Gosh, I hope so.

The instructions from discharge said:
"Pain starts off at a lower level for the first day or so. It then gets worse and hits 'rock bottom' over the next few days (days 4-6). It then levels off and gets better over the next few days (7-10)."


Sunday I thought we were on our way out of the most terrible of the tonsillectomy/ adenoidectomy recovery, but alas, no. The last 2 nights have been progressively worse and worse. Jack is up multiple times each night, not only because it is time for medication, and he is like clockwork for that, waking up at exactly the 6 hour mark for another ibuprofen dose, but also he is waking up just whining this siren-like noise and crying. (We switched to ibuprofen yesterday from the Tylenol because he had always responded better to that for relief before and we thought we were past the point of increased bleeding worry. Seriously considering doing the Rx Tylenol/codeine tonight, if we can get him to gag that down, he was refusing that when we stopped giving it on Friday).

Once he gets himself really upset, he begins to cough, which I am sure really hurts, so he cries even harder. It becomes a vicious cycle. It takes a long time for us to console him, get him to take the meds, and calm back down to go to sleep. And we try to keep poor Quent sleeping through all this, so sometimes Jack in our room which then for sure we are both up. This morning at 5:00 we finally bribed him into quiet with a DVD. Not one of my prouder moments, but tom and I were getting so frustrated we just needed to stop the crying. And sadly, it worked. He calmed right down, watched a few stories from the DVD and then I took him back to his bed and laid with him until he went to sleep.

During the day, he is somewhat better. He was on more of a normal schedule with eating and napping yesterday. He has times where he plays and dances and seems to be in an okay mood, but we still hit those walls where the siren-like noise comes out and he will do that for a long while. And God forbid if Quent touches him or tries to play with him, then it gets really bad.

I know he hurts, I know he is miserable at times and has no idea why this is going on, but I am so ready for this stage to end. For him and for the rest of us. Momma and Daddy are just really tired. Gotta go ...

I hear that siren calling.

Baby Picture Sundays - Smell the Flowers

I took Debi's Sunday Baby photo challenge and looked for pictures of Jack and Quent with some flowers. I must have some right. I literally have thousands of photos of these kids, I am sure to have some with them smelling flowers, touching flowers, looking at flowers?

NOPE.

After I read Barb's post on this, about her not remembering Jacob having pictures with flowers, I thought "hey I am not alone, see - another boy with no flower pictures."
I don't feel so bad.
Then later in that post, darn it, she found some!

Although I must say in my defense, Barb and her husband have great pictures of their beautiful flower gardens around their home on the blog. Obviously they have pretty green thumbs, I do not.

So, maybe I just need to have more exposure for my boys. I wondered, are they just boys and therefore are innately not interested in flowers? Or, have I fallen into that stereotype that boys don't like flowers, so I don't encourage them to explore flowers?
Hmmm... Something to think about.
Again, in my defense, I must say that Jack and Quent have a play kitchen, a baby doll, and are extremely nurturing little men, when they are not wrestling and throwing things that is :)

So, here it is - the ONE picture that I found. It is of me and the boys on Mother's Day of 2007 in front of our Lilac bush in bloom. Basically, there are flowers in the picture, not that the boys are necessarily aware of them, we just happen to be posing in front of them.

It still counts, right?

Check out Debi's photo challenge and see who else is playing along!

Pictures to catch up on and what Quent's been up to

Here are some cute ones we took for Tom and my Dad's birthday:

Happy Birthday TOM!

Mmmmmm...
Daddy asked for chocolate cream pie for his birthday

As you can see, Quent likes his pie.
That boy wears everything he eats! Silly Baby!

Jack is helping Papa with his candles on his favorite cake, fruit cocktail cake!

Quentie giving Papa a Birthday hug.

On Friday, while Jack was home with me recovering, Quent got to go with Gramma to a party for her boss. He loves a party! Gramma says he was really good and he charmed everyone. No surprise there! He brought back balloons from the party for himself and Jack and they had a ball running around and batting them all over. Here they are the next day, still playing with them.

Of course, Quent's was orange. His favorite color.

Jack having one of his more energetic moments swinging the balloon all over.

Here are some pics of the shiner Quent gave himself just before we came home with Jack after surgery. He was playing and ran into the door handle - ouch! But Lenny and Ky-Ky were there to make it better!

Today - Sunday - was my Mom's family's reunion. I took Quent and went for a picnic in the park. Jack was still not quite up to that kind of outing, but he got to stay with Daddy have some fun of his own. Daddy took him in the wagon for ice cream downtown. They also napped and had lunch too.
Here is some of the fun we had today:

Quent was playing a golf ball toss game. He thought it was much easier to just walk up to the bucket rather than try to throw it.

Quent and his 5th cousin (?), Brianna, playing a popcorn scooping game.
He kept saying, "it's not food, don't eat it, it's not food."
You think he may have heard that 1 or 2 times before?

Playing with a punching balloon after Uncle Lenny blew it up for him. That was loads of fun!

Uncle Lenny helped him climb up on a big rock,
although Momma did not get the big rock in the picture :)

Len, Gramma (my Mom), and GG (my Grandma) hanging out at the picnic.

GG is playing BINGO, no Polish reunion would be compete without cabbage rolls and BINGO!

Quent, Kyle, and Brad playing with BINGO chips. Quent was the BINGO number echo, after each of the numbers was called out he would repeat them. It was cute.

And lastly, here is the Lightning McQueen Pez dispenser that Brad had given to Quent. (Luckily Brad had eaten the Pez first.) Quent loved this thing and carried it around the rest of the day. We had to put it in a special place and say goodnight to it when we went up for bath so that it would be waiting for Quent tomorrow morning. It's the little things, you know.