Someone is VERY excited about Christmas!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Tonight Little Man, Nana, and I took a trip down to our city's annual tree lighting ceremony for an opportunity to meet the BIG man in person. Little Man began clapping the moment he saw Santa and once in his lap was fascinated with his beard. As we walked away, Santa called out Little Man's name and waved 'goodbye' and my little guy shrieked in delight and clapped all the way out of the room. It was awesome! We may have to visit Santa again!

Thanksgiving Week (Part Two)

Our little family has finally been reunited!!! Travis joined superman (pic) and the family on Friday morning, just in time for the Thanksgiving feast and we were incredibly grateful to have the whole family together in one place. Little Man was generally unimpressed with the food and resisted everything but sweet potatoes, dressing and pumkin pie (a man after my own heart).

If you had trouble being thankful this holiday weekend, be thankful you weren't in the same house as all of us...shortly after our feast the family began to fall apart one by one...I threw my back out, my sister and her husband caught the flu, Little Man came down with rotavirus, my mom injured her hip, and my other sister came down with some kind of stomach bug. Not sure what went wrong but it went wrong in so many ways!

On a more positive note, check out the curls on Little Man! We've discovered lots of Little Man's new skills this week including an increased vocabulary (in choronological order):

1. Mama
2. Daisy (day-dee)
3. Don't (doht)
4. Bye-bye (ba-ba)
5. Dada

Other new fun discoveries include Little Man dancing everytime he hears music, clapping for everything from a diaper change to naptime, climbing stairs every chance he gets and his first soccer lesson from daddy (see video).

Thanksgiving Week (Part One)

This week has been like a breath of fresh air for our little family. Little Man and I flew up to Kansas City to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with my sister, her husband, and our family. Little Man and I were really lucky to spend all day Wednesday with my sister before the rest of the fam arrived (and before she came down with something icky) and we had lots of fun shopping, playing and napping.

Thursday we all headed out to Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Chiefs dominate the Broncos in what can only be described as the single most disturbing auditory experience of my life. Fortunately Little Man and I had been warned of the legend of the "Loudest Stadium in the NFL" and were not dissapointed although we came prepared with earplugs. Uncle J had a FLAWLESS game and were grateful for the great game and mild weather.

More to come...

Update

Where to begin...

Since my last post, Travis has received a round of radiation treatment and has been banned from our home (by the doctors, not me) for fear of causing permanent damage to our growing little boy. The doctors anticipated that the radiation would clear from his body in 5-7 days but tomorrow will mark day 14 and as of this morning he was charting at 5 mrems, which is equal to a dental xray. We are hoping that the radiation will have cleared by Friday when he will fly to Kansas to meet us for Thanksgiving. As far as his eye is concerned, not much has changed. After his initial visit to the opthamologist it was predicted that the ulcer would be cleared up in a few days but as of yesterday and 3 rounds of treatment it has not changed at all. Travis was referred to UT Southwestern to consult with a corneal specialist team and they didn't have a clue what was going on either.

To say we are frustrated wouldn't begin to describe what is going on in our family. Please keep Travis (and us other Blocks) in your prayers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Copycat

Today I figured out the mystery of Little Man's new 'ball in the mouth' thing. This afternoon when I was taking him out of his carseat he turned and looked at me very intently then began looking around in his carseat for something to pick up. His little hands found a plastic ring and he promptly put it in his mouth, turned towards me and began giggling. It was a that moment that I realized I was holding my keys with my teeth...he was copying me!!! Now that I am aware of how often I stick things in my mouth it makes me laugh to think that I thought he was copying the dog. It is amazing the things we do that we don't even notice - makes me wonder what other things he will pick up from me!

Camping, Graves, Eyeballs and the ER

It has been a pretty crazy week (hence our absence in blogland). It started when Travis went back to the doctor because his 'eye infection' hadn't cleared up and some comprehensive tests revealed that Travis has hyperthryoidism in the form of Graves disease (hence the bulging eyes). Don't worry, it sounds a lot worse than it actually is, we are just glad to know what has been going on with our big guy and he is scheduled to have his first radiation treatment on Wednesday.

This weekend was also our semiannual small group camping trip and while Little Man and I had a blast hanging out with the group on Friday, things took a turn on the downwardside for the Block family after that. When Trav arrived on Saturday his left eye was significantly more swollen than the other, bloodshot, foggy, and sensitive to light and air. We immediately headed to an urgent care facility to find out what was going on and they immediately sent us to the ER where they determined that he had something rather large lodged into the cornea. Six hours later the doctors were still unable to remove the 'object' and sent a very miserable man and his frustrated wife home to wait until Monday to meet with an opthamologist. This morning we finally were able to get a definitive answer to the new eye mystery when the opthamologist discovered Travis had a corneal ulcer.

Needless to say, it was a tough weekend.

On a lighter note, our Little Guy has developed a pretty strange habit that has us all scratching our heads (see the picture). At first we thought he was just alleviating the teething irritation but he pretty much just walks around with it in his mouth all the time. Kids do the s-t-r-a-n-g-e-s-t things.