Quote of the day

It is so cute to watch Austen take on the role of mommy. She has really started to get into playing with baby dolls. She has a doll named Gracie that she reads to everynight before they go to bed. Being a mommy figure has also translated to other areas in her life as well such as telling Luke what to do, which doesn't always end well. However the funniest of all is when she plays mommy to her mommy. Last Wednesday Austen went to Cary park with the teenagers and played on the playground. She was having a ball climbing this big blue hill beside the slide and sliding down. One time Tonya decided to climbe the hill with her when they reached the top Austen gave Tonya a hug and said, "Yay, you did it mommy, I am sooooo proud of you."

Happy Birthday!! Quote of the Day.

Today is Lukes 1st birthday. When I went to get him out of crib this morning it was like he knew today was a special day. Of course being dad I went in singing Happy Birthday to him and he smiled from ear to ear. Without a doubt he will be treated like a king today. That smile is so easy to love.

This morning Tonya's mother came by to visit Luke and Austen. Austen loves "grandma." They played all morning together in her room, outside under the carport, and in the living room. Well after a while "grandma" had to use the restroom. Evidently she did not close the seat when she left. Austen went in few minutes after and in a very stern voice said "Uh oh, Somebody did not close the seat." She ran to the livingroom and looked at "grandma" and said, "grandma did you not close the seat." And with that statement it became more clear that I am actually living with two Tonya's, as if the picture of them on the pony was not enough proof.

A Day at the Pool

Butner Chickin Pickin

Weekend of Sickness

This past weekend Luke became sick. He began on Friday evening with a mild grade fever but nothing to serious. At 3:00 a.m. he was awake with a full blown high grade fever and a weak cry. I rocked him for about an hour, yes he is a daddy's boy now, and waited for his fever to subside. Saturday he ran a temperature of 103 all day long and was miserable. Everytime he was up his eyes were so weak and his body was so weak he looked like he was drunk. Yesterday evening Tonya took Austen to Papa D's for a family get together. I stayed home with Luke. Everything was going great. Fever had dropped to about 99 and he ate a whole jelly sandwich. We were playing in the living room on the couch when I noticed he was gagging a little. I thought he was choking on something. I was a second from reaching into his mouth to check when he vomited the whole jelly sandwich all over me and the couch. Happy Father's Day dad. It was not what I envisioned being a perfect father's day but it's times like those when they need you so much that it is so awesome to love them, take care of them, and even in sickness, I am so proud to be called Dada.

Quote of the day

At Austen's age sometimes it is more fun to hear the things they say than to look at pictures so I thought that the blog could use an Austen or Luke quote of the day. On the days that Austen or Luke say funny things I'll post them here. Today Austen was having an imaginary conversation on the phone, you know the ones. As the conversation came to end Austen told the imaginary person on the other end "You call me later and I'll send you an email, sound good?" As a her dad I don't approve of email at such a young age so we will have a long talk tonight, jk.

A New Blogger in Town

After a 6 month long "blogger idol" contest at the Minor household we have finally decided on a winner. Tonya has decided that her Minor family pension plan is enolugh to pay for her blogging retirement permanently. So what was once a lengthy vacation has turned into full on retirement. Luke, although he could blog with the best of them, has decided there are more important things to life, like crawling in unusal ways, than spend his time blogging. Austen knows what a computer is, knows what a keyboard is but has never sat still for more than 30 seconds ever in her life to do anything, including blogging. So the bloogin mantle has fallen upon dad. Yes, unfortunantley for you, you have to put up with my unfunny jokes to get your blog fix. I am convinced, however, that no one reads these post anyway but rather scrolls down to see the pictures. The good news is the Minor blog is back, not sure if we still make nine minus some fish and Romeo but a name change would just make things complicated as if it wasn't complicated enough before. Quick Luke story before the long awaited pictures.
Last night the whole family was playing Austen's room when Luke found blue playdough crumbs in the corner of the room. The bright colors were too tempting. He kept reaching to put them in His mouth, at which Tonya would sharply tell him "No Sir." After a few rounds of this Tonya though it best to pick up the pieces and remove the temptation. As soon as she reached and touched the first piece Luke looked at her and said sharply "No Sir!" Thats my boy.

Here they are at the beach a month ago

All is Well

Or at least a lot better. Luke is feeling much better. He's not even really coughing anymore. I've never seen a child get over the croup that fast. Austen coughed for weeks. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him")
Jeremy's finger is also better. All glued up and doing well.
I promise I will post pictures of Luke soon. He is growing so fast.

Luke Was Doing Well...

But now he is incredibly sick. He has the croup. It started when we came home from the doctor Thursday. He woke up with a fever, which is normal after shots, but it continued to get higher (103)as the night went on and he developed a barking cough. THe worse part is because his upper respiratory gets so inflamed he has a very difficult time breathing. Austen had the same thing though not so young and it is very scary when you know your child is not breathing well. It was bad enough that the triage nurse had us call 911 last night after listening to him breatheonver the phone. He had calmed down considerably by the time the rescue people arrived and we were able to treat him at home. Now his doctor has him on steroids to help control the inflammation so hopefully he can breath better.
Please pray that he will have a good night since the 2nd and 3rd nights are the worst and that the virus will leave his body quickly.

As soon as we got Luke calmed down today and taking a nap, Jeremy cut his finger open fixing Austen lunch and had to go to Urgent Care and get it super-glued back together. He is doing well now, he just can't put any pressure on it for awhile.
When it rains it pours:)
Praise God that HE is on His throne and in complete control!
He still takes care of us:)

Luke's Checkup

Luke had his 4 month checkup today. His doctor says he's doing great. Healthy and handsome:) HE weighs 16lb 3oz (80%), and he is 27 1/2 inches long. His height was greater than 97%, which means he's off the charts. HE gets it from both sides of the family.

The doctor couldn't tell me a whole lot about his ears, it's not her specialty, however she did say that his ear canals were bigger than they were before adn he seemed to be responding a lot better than the last time she saw him. He'll go back to his ENT in November.

Priase God for a good checkup. HE is good and he continues to take care of our family!

Pictures

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

Pictures

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

Mountain Pictures

Gigi and Pappy took Austen on a great mountain adventure last weekend. We are still trying to figure out who had more fun:)
Here are some pictures of thier fun times:)
Enjoy!


by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

by GIGIPAPPY

Blessings

Our children really are blessings.
It is amazing to see how fast they are growing. Austen really is a "big girl" now. It seems she learns new things all the time. She absolutely LOVES Luke and is already protective over him. She is quite the little helper and loves to help me change his diaper. She even folds it the same way I do before throwing it away.
She loves church and asks to go everyday (until we get to the nursery and she realizes mommy and daddy are leaving; yes she still has some seperation anxiety:)
It seems like only yesterday she was Luke's age. I know it's a cliche but it's so true. She has also developed an addiction to yogurt. She would eat it non stop all day if I let her. When she wakes up in the morning, before her eyes are even open (I'm not kidding) I hear "Yogurt?" The same is true after her afternoon nap. For those of you with the same fetish you know that much yogurt can get a little pricey.
So I bought her some cookies thinking surely she'll like these more than yogurt. Now for all you nutrition nuts out there shaking your head at me; stop. I know they're not as healthy but they sure are a lot cheaper. Plus she's pretty healthy. Anyways it didn't work because she didn't want the cookies. She wanted...you guessed it: Yogurt. Go figure.

Luke is also doing well. He is absolutely the sweetest baby in the world. He smiles and coos and laughs. We have so much fun talking to him and watching him respond. We don't go back to his ENT until November but we are already seeing signs of his hearing improving. He responds to all types of sound and we are praising God for opening his ears.
I have been working on doing "tummy time" with Luke since his doctor has told me it is very important that he have tummy time every day. I tried to tell his doctor that he doesn't like tummy time but she seemed to think I should do it anyways:)So the other day Luke was having tummy time and I was encouraging him to push up with his little arms and turn over by himself. (Not because I really care if he does or not, I think he's still too little, but the doctor seems to think it's important, you know how doctor's are:) so here he is doing tummy time and I can tell he doesn't like it because he's fussy, not really crying but fussy.So I make sure he's OK and go to sweep the kitchen floor and let him have his time to himself. I walk back in the room a few minutes later to check on him and the little bug was fast asleep! He obviously was more concerned with nap time than tummy time:) Go figure, he is his mother's child:)

"Home"?

A few days ago, Austen and I were eating breakfast (Berry Captain Crunch, our favotite:)as Jeremy was getting ready to leave for work. He grabbed his briefcase to head out the door when Austen looked up and said "Bye-Bye"? "Yes, honey", he responded. "Daddy has to go bye-bye." Austen then pleaded in the most adorable innocent little face, "Home"? imploring her daddy not to go to work but to stay home with us. It was too precious, and although Jeremy did go to work he was still talking about it that night at dinner. She really does hold a special place in his heart:)

Parenting Two:)

When I first discovered I was pregnant with Luke, a very wise person told me "Now the real parenting begins." I am now learning exactly what that means. I love having two children, however there are moments when you pull your hair out. (Those of you out there who have the same blessing know what I mean:) We have been potty training Austen all week and she is doing wonderful. She loves to potty and about every 15 minutes she wants to go. So it's 1:00 and I'm feeding Luke and sure enough I hear, "POtty?" "Yes, baby let's go potty" I say because I'm a good mother:) and put Luke down. Now Luke is crying because he's only had a mouthful of food. So the same thing happens 2 or 3 more times until I end up sitting on the floor outside the bathroom nursing Luke while "helping" Austen potty. I'm telling you mom's really should get a wonderwoman t-shirt to wear every so often:)
I think I may write a poem "An ode to mothers"
Check back next week and maybe my volunteer will have it posted:)

Tonya

Pictures Again

More Pictures:)

I have decided I'm going to recruit a volunteer to update my blog page for me. I simply cannot find the time. I know, it's sad.
Well, we have a lot to catch up on. Since the last time we talked Luke went to his ENT doctor and we were told his ear canals are tiny and that may be part of if not all of the problem. Although there are still no absolutes at this point, we took this as good news and are now waiting for little Luke to grow. Of course the rest of him is growing just fine. At his two month checkup he weighed 13lb 3oz and was 24 inches long. 89% for weight and 80% for height. I love that he has some fat on him because it means he's eating well and for all of you who were around when Austen was a baby you know we struggled with her being underweight and not eating well at all so this is a blessing:)

Austen is also doing well. She is so Austen. It is evident God has given her a precious personality that she will use for him one day. She is officially potty trained. She has gone two days without having aby accidents and has peed and pooped on the potty:)
That's a really big deal when you're potty training:) We are very proud of her and the "big girl" she is.

We also went to the beach on vacation so I am including some of those pictures:)

Luke's Hearing

Today we went back to Duke Children's Hospital to meet with the audiologist to conduct more tests on Luke's hearing. He did great this time. They need him to be a sleep so they can measure the brainwaves properly. He slept through an hour's worth of testing. Austen played with her nana (great-grandmother) in the lobby. The results for his hearing have not changed much. They were able to get a response above 35 dB in his left ear and only at 45 dB in his right ear. Both of these figures are not up to normal hearing ranges. They call this type of hearing loss conductive hearing loss, meaning there is something preventing the sound from reverberating off of the eardrum. They still are not ruling out the possibility of fluid and that is still the most logical explanation up to this point. We will now take him to an ENT where they will determine what is causing the obstruction behind the ear drum.. This could mean an MRI or other scans to see in his ear canal. If it is fluid they will remove the fluid and then conduct the test again at Duke to see how his hearing is. Please keep praying for Luke and his hearing.
While we were there they checked Austen as a precautionary measure. They take her into the sound proof room with speakers on each wall beside her. They call her name from one speaker and when she turns to the speaker a little bunny rabbit lights up that clangs a tamborine loudly. Evidently this is quite exciting for most children. However, for Austen that little bunny might as well have been the boogeyman. She screamed and clung to her daddy petrified. From then on every time a sound came out of the speaker she would jump and scream and would repeatedly say 'No'. By the time it was all over they knew she could hear not because she got excited but because she was shaking with fear. Poor girl. She did not even want a Blue's Clues Sticker with her favorite character, Mailbox. She was just ready to leave. She is growing so fast. Her Gi-gi and Pappy taught her over the weekend to say "aflac" whenever you ask her what a duck says. Yes the child is spoiled.