We, the jury...

can't seem to be able to come to a unanimous decision. After debating our viewpoints on a battery case for about 2 1/2 hours, we informed the judge of the situation and he had to rule the case to be a mistrial. This was the first jury I had ever sat on, but the third time I had ever been summoned for duty. I was excused from federal court duty when my grandma was failing and in the hospital shortly before I was married and again excused when I was pregnant with Andrew. I actually could have been excused for being a full time mom with a child under the age of 6, but for some reason, I think they might stop calling me if I just go do it. And maybe now I'll be blacklisted for being on a case that was mistried. I really did find the whole process very interesting, but feel a sense of failure that the six of us on the jury couldn't render a verdict, therefore pretty much wasting a lot of time and money! If any good came of it, I would have to say that it reaffirmed that I'm still an intelligent person as I thouroughly enjoyed arguing my points to my fellow jurors in hopes of swaying them. In fact, one of my fellow jurors commented that a sheriff that had mistook me for being a public defender earlier that morning was pretty accurate as he said I was very persuasive. I guess my mom and husband could affirm that too. Ah, so back to persuading two toddlers to be nice to one another, so they don't end up in court one day for resorting to physical force when they get upset at someone. I guess this mommy job is more encompassing than it may appear!

A Pirate's Life For Me!

Sam is Officially a Two-year-old! Somebody help me!!!!

Since we had a larger party for Andrew this year, the original plan was to have a small evening get-together at our house on Sam's birthday. I don't know how it got so "not small", but we ended up with roughly 12 adults and 7 children. So much for an informal evening, but it was really fun!

The dinner consisted of two pans of good ol' Stouffer's lasagne, salad, and breadsticks-I didn't have to do any real cooking!! The most time consuming part of the whole celebration was the preparation of the Lightning McQueen cake that I constructed the night before. (That whole process could almost have a post of it's own!) Let's just say that Sam was lucky to have a cool cake like this one, but chances are slim that it will be an annual tradition. Check it out, though...admire what 3 1/2 hours of decorating a cake till midnight will get you. Please comment that you have seen the most beautiful cake in the world and that you would have a hard time eating such a work of art!!!
The highlight of Sam's big day was a tie between two events at his party. He really enjoyed opening his cool gifts....
...but, the opportunity of getting kissed simultaneously by two girls at the cake table took the grand prize. Thank you Morgan and cousin Isabelle for making this two-year-olds day! A funny note about the kisses is that after round 1, Sammy used sign language, as well as verbalizing that he wanted "More."
So there it is folks, an updated entry from Christa. See you all in another month! No, hopefully before then.

Andrew turns 4!

We can't believe that we are parents of a four-year-old already, but so proud of our Andrew for all that he is and all that he means to our little family. We celebrated #4 at Sylvan Lake park with friends, family and classmates. It was a beautiful and windy afternoon and lots of fun was had by all that came. Spiderman was the theme as Andrew is really into this character for some reason, though he has never seen a movie or show about Spiderman.? We played bean bag toss into hula hoops and a tic tac toe ball game.



Andrew's "girlfriend" Morgan was the event coordinator and assisted Andrew with the gift opening ceremony as well as presenting metals to game participants.

It really was a great afternoon, but I think Sam might have got tired of all the activity and decided to spend some time in the sand volleyball court that was adjacent to our pavillion. Grandma let the boy be a boy in the sand and when all was done, I think there wasn't a square millimeter on his body without a grain of sand on it! Oh well, good thing kids are washable.

Those Lazy Crazy Days of Summer

Well, the days are crazy and I'm just lazy for not keeping up with my blog. But, Sam is sleeping and Andrew is in school. So in the next 40 minutes, I'll add as much and as many pictures possible.

Andrew amazes us every day with something new. Check out what he did with his letter magnets while I was cooking dinner one afternoon! Okay, so it's misspelled, but it's pretty darn close, he's only 4 after all. Sam is my little flirt and we're almost convinced that he's going to be a veterinarian as he has such a special relationship with Olivia and seems so interested and gentle with all animals he sees.

A few more pictures I added were of just another afternoon on the patio, when I heard a rustling in the backyard and looked up to see an entire Sandhill crane family taking a stroll behind our house. Mama and the two babies, who were still sooo little, stayed at the edge of the grass, while papa bird came within about 18 inches of the screen where Andrew and Sam stood to watch in amazement. Maybe Sam coaxed him over to them with his special animal presence. Enjoy the pictures of my two kiddos!

Do you hear what I hear?

With Andrew's speech blossoming like crazy in the past month (thanks to little brother doing the same), I'm actually starting to hear more than just the little voices in my head talk to me during the day. Andrew is starting to express more frequently what he wants as well as getting my attention to share with me things that he observes...BIG steps for our Andrew!!! He's also starting to try and understand emotions; a complicated area for children with autism as emotions are not concrete things such as numbers, colors, letters,etc.. He gives me a status report on Sam every day as we pick him up from school; "Sam is awake. Sam is happy"
Let's not forget Sammy. His favorite things to say usually involve informing me that something just "fell down" or was dropped. "Uh oh, the melon fell down!", he announces a split second before he launches a piece of his lunch on the floor. He also likes to walk around the house and search for brother calling out, "Andrew, where are you?"
We are all pretty much healthy now as I am now on antibiotics for a sinus infection, but I'm feeling better. Demel is looking forward to a "week off" when the boys and I join grandma for a trip to Wisconsin for cousin Ian's first birthday over an extended Easter weekend. We're looking forward to that very much!

Stayin' Alive!

That about sums up the past weeks in the Gonzalez house and gives me at least a partial excuse for not posting in such a long time. It's amazing how your world can change in a matter of hours. Two weeks ago, the day was starting as usual. We went to church, then out to lunch with friends, then home for Sam's nap before the rest of our day's events. Shortly after returning home from lunch, however, I plopped myself on the bed and told Demel that I didn't feel so good. I thought maybe my lunch wasn't settling well. I then proceeded to take a two-hour nap. (A treat I don't normally enjoy) When I woke up, I felt worse. Sam woke up grumpy and threw up and I did the same. Oh no! Long story shorter...by midnight, all four of us were ill. Sam slept through the night without a peep which was a Godsend since Demel and I were tending to Andrew the vomit launcher while weak and queasy ourselves. This was some nasty virus that we had. My mom came over Monday to help us out, all the while exposing herself to whatever it was that we had. I was starting to feel better by Monday night and was fine enough Tuesday that I even shampooed the family room carpet as it had been on the receiving end of a few"episodes" when the bowl didn't make it to the child in time. (Anyone want to come over for a slumber party on our floor?) Well, things were starting to look better even though we were still having a hard time getting Andrew to drink anything, since he couldn't even keep liquids down on Monday. Wednesday morning started at about 4:15am for Sam and myself as he was having a little relapse and I went in his room to find that he had thrown up but has also, how should I say, exploded from the rear as well. Good old mom came over again to help on Wednesday as I was getting overwhelmed with sick kids and starting to stress out over the fact that Andrew was not eating anything and drinking only about 6 ounces of fluids a day, clearly not enough. In fact it was bad enough that his pediatrician suggested that we take him to the ER to get IV fluids. We spent 4 hours there in total, only to be sent home after they drained his bladder with a catheter and we managed to get him to drink some juice there...that was a waste of $100. This is a long story. Are you all actually still reading this... Okay, Thursday was not better, it was worse. Demel, Sam and I were on the rebound but poor little Andrew was showing no signs of improvement. I nervously took Andrew to the doctor's office that afternoon only to experience the worst possible experience with the pediatrician. While Dr. Karen (a friend of ours, by the way) was checking Andrew's throat, it triggered a gag and he proceeded to throw up all over Karen, himself and me. Sam trotted over to see what all the commotion was about just in time to "catch" the second round of Andrew's stomach contents. So now the two children in the room are both crying and the two adults are trying to calm them down and wipe off the yuck that covered us. Fast forward a few hours...Demel, Andrew and myself arrive at the hospital children's ER once again but this time, Sam is with us because my mom was now at home sick with the virus that she got as a thank you for helping us earlier in the week. Demel and Sam went home to sleep after the nurse told us that we would probably be there for a while. And were we ever. Andrew had two x-rays to make sure there were no blockages anywhere, since it had now been 24 hours since he had peed. They came back okay so it was determined the next step would be to get an IV going. Poor little guy was still pretty strong as it took myself and two nurses to hold him down and still so the third nurse could put in the IV. He was so dehydrated that the first two veins actually collapsed! After a 1000 mL bag of IV fluids he started to be a little alert... even though it was 4:00 in the morning. The doctor wouldn't release us until he peed and drank something. Well, he did finally pee...but it was an uphill battle getting anything in this kid's mouth. After trying for 5 hours to get him to drink I finally put it God's hands. I prayed and cried that he needed the help of his Heavenly Father because his Earthly mother has done all she can and is exhausted. Upon saying "Amen" I offered him his cup once again, and he took it and drank it down...all 10 ounces!!! Prayer answered, miracle performed!!!!! The road to recovery was slow, but we are just about back to normalcy in the Gonzalez house. Back to swinging dining room chandeliers and pushing each other down... ah, life is sweet!