Dave's Post

Ok, so vacations over and back to the grind it is.

Baby Jeydan is growing like a weed. He has started to really take to eating baby food and can down a jar in one sitting without blinking an eye. He is really starting to develop his own unique personality and is quite a happy, smiling baby. He loves his jumper and spends at least an hour a day hopping around. He is getting quite stable sitting up and his even able to stand and hold on to the sofa if you don't distract him or try to get him to turn around.

Kaelan is also having a growth spurt. He is still our little midget and potentially has movie star opportunities in shows based soley on the fact that he is a midget; however, his vocabulary is skyrocketing. It is just one of those things where he will throw down a phrase our word that surprises you sooo much that you almost convince yourself that he didn't really say what he just said. Anyway, he is now fully potty trained except for the occasional accident at night time. He is beginning to refuse to sit down to use the toilet and that always opens up a can of worms with the boys and their ability to aim correctly while maintaining adequate concentration. So far, not to many misadventures but I am sure that there are many waiting around the corner.

Lathan is loving his school right now. He opted not to continue with soccer. He never liked the idea of everyone running towards him whenever he had the ball. He was much more content to follow the pack and watch butterflies and airplanes while people dribbled around him. Hard to watch as a parent but good training for the whole " I love you no matter what you can or can't do" mentality. He is really getting his creative side down, spelling, and numbers through his preschool. One of his favorite things is to draw his pictures on the kitchen floor while Griselda gets lunch or snack ready.

Griselda is also doing great. We finally have begun to organize the house in a manner that is agreeable with Griselda. It is amazing how much stress an organized house can cause that you really don't realize at the time. After pulling a late night cleaning monday, the house is really clean down stairs. Griselda has worked really hard everyday to keep it that way. She also gets the mom of the week award for actually making fancy dinners 4 out of the 7 nights this week. I am talking gourmet dinners that everyone wolfs down, even the vegetables.

I am the same old same old. Nothing really new. Griselda and I have talked over fellowships and unless something different really comes along I am probably going to start looking for a job in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, or Arizona around this time next year. I also was nominated and got elected to a national surgical board as a resident member. It is through the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons. It is a Doctor appointed position and lasts one year. It places me on the Resident Evaluation and Standards Committee of the ACOS. This appointment also places me on the resident council in ACOS. One of my trainers happened to be on the committee and got me nominated. So, the opportunity really fell into my lap. I am not quite sure what this whole thing entails other than two weekend trips during the next year and a few extra meetings at the ACOS Conference next year. I really am not one to be involved in the political side of things; however, this opportunity fell into my lap.

Anyway, we are all doing great. Hope to hear from you all soon.


Dave

More Fun Pics from our Vacation Week

Not much new info to add, just lots of fun pics/videos!

Vacation Week of October 28th

Well it was a very busy week again - but this time it was a good busy in a good way. Dave was on vacation and it was not long enough, of course. I thought I'd be extra nice and let Dave take the first three days of his week and let him sleep in as long as we needed. First, this is nice for me because I'm still getting up twice a night to feed Jay. I also was looking for the good karma to come around by the end of the week, giving me a good day to sleep in, too.

Dave started out by fixing toilets. He bought the super-duper stuff so that the toilets would stop running forever. It's funny because as soon as he fixes one, another goes on the fritz. He hit the two upstairs bathrooms at once. Too bad they are still not perfect. One of them stopped running, while the other is making what we like to call "Transformer" noises. It no longer runs (as the package he bought promised), but it makes a subtle jack-hammer-like noise most of the time. It's a little freaky late at night. I think I have little Bob-the-Builders in my guest room working all-nighters. I thought we would have a good chance to clean up the clutter thats been building up over the last month, but we found ourselves swamped with other chores outside the home. I had meetings to attend, Halloween celebrations to participate in and actual normal family time to have fun with. I at least pulled out and put away all the summer clothes for the winter clothes. Jay's clothes are not in his drawers yet, but they are no longer tucked away in the basement. It is astounding to see Jay in clothes Lathan wore that I thought were "toddler" clothes back then. He is growing up so fast. The good thing is that Jay follows the same season as Lathan did, so clothes are working great. I always have to fudge a little with Kaelan's clothes since he's our midget.

So Halloween was a hoot. Lathan performed in his International Festival at school in his Chilean getup. He did some fun crafts, then headed home with Dad. I got to watch and help for a little, but had to head home early to feed and take care of Jay. We had a good friend (our other grandma) watch the boys and she was able to hold down the fort quite well. Jay slept super and was eating vegetables when I walked in. Boy is she good!

The boys did great in their costumes again. Kaelan was so tired since he missed his nap that day. He made it to 3 houses, then hung out with Dad to pass out candy. He would give out a piece of candy, then take commission from each handout. He found this to be more lucrative with less work. Lathan made it through a few more houses, but then wanted to eat his candy, so we stopped after about twenty minutes. It was nice that it was light for most of our Halloween night.

We left on the Canadian Via Rail for Niagara Falls on Thursday after Lathan's school got out. The boys were loving the adventure, but after about 30 minutes they began to wonder when it would end. They were very well-behaved the entire time, though. The train can only hold so much excitement, especially after it gets dark. We arrived at the Hilton with little drama, thankfully. We were all starving, so we paid a hefty premium for room service and we all ate it in a matter of seconds. Our room rocked, too. We had a family suite (a nice premium, too) that allowed all the kids in one room, separate from ours. We had a large jacuzzi tub that had French doors opening up into our room with a view of the American Falls (we would have had to pay $60 more to see the more spectacular Canadian Falls). We were on the 31st floor of 33, too. The restaurant had a wonderful breakfast buffet included and a $75 voucher for dinner (which covered only half of the bill). Dave had some awesome lamb and I had some lovely halibut. Can't say I'm a fan of capers or olives, but they were easily removed. The boys had their requisite chicken and papas (french fries). We had a chocolate/raspberry gelato in a pastry cup for dessert, which was yummy and refreshing.

The next day we saw the falls by walking to it, then we took the "Journey to the Falls" down below and the boys were hilarious. The mist sprays with such force that no one could keep their eyes open and we were all miserably cold and wet. It was fun for a second, though! It was a beautiful day - not a cloud in the sky - but the mist sprays a good two blocks around it, so the air is full of cold mist. It's not bad until you get right there.We took a taxi back to the hotel after the sky-wheel ride and then went swimming.We hoofed it for quite a while to get to the bird aviary. Lathan was super tough and walked probably a good 2 km without a complaint. After swimming we all bathed in the big jacuzzi, then headed for dinner. Kaelan was not willing to wake up for dinner. We was seriously passed out from our day. Dave tried to wake him up and we was like a rag doll the whole time. We got some good laughs out of it at his expense.

The next day we went for a big breakfast again, then finished off our stay trip back was uneventful. Everyone was just a little bit more tired than when we left. We had a fabulous time! We cleaned up, headed out, then hit the casino across the street for a little souvenir shopping. The boys got little airplanes to come home with. Our boys crashed hard once we got home. Dave changed the sheets right before we left and I didn't want dirty boys in clean sheets just changed, but Dave brought up a good point that no one will be happy bathing at 9:45, so we compromised and put the boys in sleeping bags on their beds. They slept very well. Lathan got up at 11 this morning. Dave let me sleep until 10. Such a good guy, huh?

We are now unwilling, but unable to avoid facing the grind tomorrow. Dave is on the ugly team this month, so I will cherish the weekends a little more now. I look forward to Thanksgiving. Sorry Mimi and Dan that we couldn't make it to AZ. We wanted to and then we couldn't, but then we could, but then it was too late. That makes sense to me. I hope it works for you. Maybe next time.

Have a wonderful week! We miss you and would love to hear from you.
-griselda

Now it's Griselda's Turn for Week of October 22

So we had a pretty mellow week for a change. Monday was my last class to teach for this session and it went rather uneventfully. I begin a new session tomorrow AND Thurs for the next 7 weeks or so. I'm really still recovering from my past crazy weeks. I've had not too much happening in the morning and in the afternoon, if it is at all possible and I can avoid reality momentarily, I enjoyed taking a couple short snoozes throughout the afternoon while the boys were down. Sadly, with all the trekking I did in the car to prepare for my multiple activities, JJ didn't get much of a chance to sleep consistently in the afternoon. He survived just fine, but we were definitely thrown off our usual schedule. So this past week I realized how affected he was because he was unable to stay napping for more than 40 minutes at a time (usually the time he spends sleeping in the car when we are out running errands). If he awakens like this, in the past I have soothed him with his blanket and pacifier and then he tosses and turns momentarily only to eventually fall back asleep for another hour or so. He was not so happy or willing to do this last week. He SCREAMED and cried and I think put together a few offensive remarks to protest his crib time. He DID NOT want to be in his bed. This is quite unusual for our I-only-will-sleep-in-my-bed boy. I was a little worried when 3 days of this attitude persisted. I th0ught perhaps I lost my little angel once and for all. He was SO angry with me. He eventually found comfort in his bed, but I was definitely worried for a time. He seems back to his old self, but with a newly developed skill of screeching (not screaming) and shrieking. The other boys are thoroughly entertained by his antics.

Tuesday night we went swimming as usual. Lathan is really becoming an AWESOME swimmer. He loves it while Kaelan (my daredevil) clutches my neck as we tour the pool. I think he is not so much afraid as he is cold. He does not retain heat nearly as well as Lathan and I think he's figured out that by staying up against me he feels so much warmer. JJ stays in the child watch and seems to like taking a short nap when he visits them.

Wednesday I had my Young Women's activity that seemed just fine. Many of the girls were MIA, but we had fun just the same. I'm really feeling a much closer bond to them as of late. Maybe it's the blood, sweat, and tears sacrificed for their sake that draws me closer to them.

Thursday Lathan had his best buddy from church come over to play pretty much all day after school. They got along super well. Sometimes they have their issues, but not this last time. I think they are getting so much more mature because now they talk their issues out and explain to each other how to be more like Jesus. It's a hoot to listen to their conversations.

Friday was my last day to endure before David's vacation time. I was so excited because we were invited to an adult Halloween party and I thought this would be a great kick-off to OUR vacation; but in the end it was more disappointment because Dave didn't get off of work until 7 and we couldn't find an available sitter, so the party was a no-go. The boys watched "Transformers" instead and loved every second of it - again. I let Dave take the lead on the movie-watching, but I think I'm going to start stepping in because I'm not so sure that this movie was age appropriate for my babies. Although they do have the Gonzalez blood and thirst for scary and thriller-like movies. After being in my bad mood for an hour or so (I was angry I had to do Costco dinner alone with 3 kids), I got over it and realized how cool it was I got to hang out with my main men (all of them for once) in a relaxed setting.

Saturday we had the ward Trunk-or-Treat Halloween party. The boys were so darling. Their costumes rock. I can't wait for them to wear them on Halloween again.

Today I was all over the place again because I had my FHE (Family Home Evening for those of you not familiar) group tonight and I had to finish my project for the girls. It was a success, but I had many project glitches to get over. I finished, so that's all that mattered.

I hope to hear/see pics of the rest of you reading this. We miss you all. Please keep in touch!

-griselda

Week of October 22

Well, Griselda left me alone with the three boys and told me that the blog was my responsibility. Hopefully I can tell our stories as well as she can. Anyway, here it goes....



So, Baby J has figured out how to stay stiff as a board to pull this trick off. This is one of the reasons to have kids. The fun you can have with a little baby. Also, aside from learning this circus trick, Baby J has decided that he likes baby food. He hates the baby rice cereal but is quite content to eat winter squash baby food. This is a pretty big accomplishment. He has learned to scream reallllllly loud when he gets excited and can spray a good three to four foot radius of winter squash if he gets too excited while eating. All I can say is, safety goggles.

We also had our church halloween party this weekend. The boys had a blast. Lathan was a knight. Kaelan was a pirate. Jeydan was a handsome devil baby. They ate hot dogs, got candy, and ran around creating havoc all night. They were soooo wired. They couldn't go to bed once we got home so Lathan and Kaelan stayed up until midnight watching "Evan Almighty". Well Lathan was able to stay up. Kaelan crashed about 10:30. They thought that the movie was pretty cool.

We were going to go to arizona this upcoming weekend but had an unexpected expense. Our garage door busted. That is definitely not something that we were expecting. Evidently we had the oldest door in the world on our house. It was the solid piece garage door that swung open. Anyway, one of the springs busted and we need a new door. Ended up costing us a pretty penny. So, sorry Dan and Mimi, guess we won't be making it to the baby blessing; however, we were against wasting my vacation week and set up a little weekend get away for this weekend. We will be going to Niagara Falls via train from thursday to friday. We are all pretty excited, having never been there before.



Lathan also had his primary performance in Church today. He did great. He got all of his sentence right and was pretty proud of himself. He has been practicing it for weeks and has a tendency to show off and say it as fast as he can. When a four year old tries to speed talk you tend to lose a lot of enunciation. So, he has been practicing on saying it nice and sslllloooowwww.

Anyway, that is all the news that I can think of. Griselda is having fun being a three time mom, the boys are constantly trying to show her the ropes, often using the tag team approach, and I continue to work like a surgery resident (long hours, little pay, and more hours moonlighting to pay for it all). Hope everyone is alive and well.

The Skeehans

Week of October 15th

Ok, so I did it again. I overbooked and overstretched myself. But this time I think I went beyond my limits. I'm still here, so that's good news; but my children have suffered - poor guys :(
Lathan eating calamari at a Mongolian BBQ place in Ann Arbor
Monday was typical in that I taught my normal swim lessons at our gym then continued along as normal (to put things in a little more perspective, Monday tends to be my "busy" day because of teaching). I totally spaced when it came to my JC Penney portrait appt for J's 6 mo. birthday, which was supposed to be at 6pm.
Boys hanging out at the Cider Mill last weekend
Tuesday I realized I forgot the appt. and called in to reschedule. I was lucky because someone cancelled and a 7pm was open. Now Tuesdays is normally our night as a family to swim because Dave is normally moonlighting. It sort of worked out in my favor because I wanted J to have his portraits taken BEFORE his shots on Wed, but I promised swimming to the boys on Tuesday. Tuesday morning was the time the new garage was to be installed. I called the sketchy salesman and he didn't seem to be aware of that. He said he could get it in on Wed or Thurs afternoon, but I had plans and couldn't swing it. So it was delayed until Saturday. Tuesday afternoon Kaelan didn't make it to the toilet, which then gave me permission to say that swimming was out and pictures in. In the morning, after dropping off Lathan at school, we went to a ward member's house to pick apples from her apple tree for my Stake Activity on Saturday. The plan was to make a whole lot of caramel apples as the party favor. 200 or so apples later, we left to pick Lathan back up. The boys were spent after our day.
The boys sharing J's "manta" (blankie)
Wednesday we went for Kaelan's 2 1/2-year appt and J's 6 mo. appt. J is huge according to the scale. His weight is a pound less than Lathan's at the same age, but J's height is greater. J is 21.75 lbs. and 30.5 inches long. Head circumference is 18 in. (I think she said that, but she didn't give me a stats sheet this time). He is WAY off the charts for height (I'm SO PROUD, being vertically challenged myself). To think that he came through me! Kaelan is 28 lbs, I think and I can't remember his height. He, on the other hand, gets his size after me. They both received shots and J surprisingly didn't cry for one of them (he received two, Kaelan only received one). I had my YW's activity to attend that night and then I called it a day. The poor kids have been with only one parent for the past few weeks it seems.

Thursday a new outdoor mall opened next to our house and they had a lot of activities going on, including a free breakfast for the 1st 2000 people, starting at 8:30am. I figured that since I drop off Lathan at 8:30, I would swing by for the fun. Fun it was not. It was raining significantly, and apparently people were waiting overnight for the opening (these people need to refocus their lives) so there was nothing for breakfast. The kids were in a double stroller, so as hard as I tried, my huge golfing umbrella couldn't consistently reach baby J in his seat. He was pretty wet by the time we returned to the car. I ran many errands after that for Saturday's activity since I was out already. I spent nap time finding cheap prizes online for our carnival theme (with great success). That night was a leadership mtg from the Stake for YW. I was very late since Dave didn't get home until 7pm.
David posing with his pink pride. Apparently the hospital staff was finding great humor in his display. Props to Dave
Friday was Dave's bday and I didn't have anything special planned except for some friends from up north were coming down to eat sushi with us at home. I didn't even have a cake (everyone has been neglected by me this month). I realized, or remembered rather, that we had a court appt with small claims at 1pm for money we were owed by a car dealership. We settled out of court about a month ago, but I forgot to drop off the written explanation that we were cancelling our suit until that morning (I wanted to be sure the check cleared and I never was in that part of town - 40 minutes away - to do the cancellation), so time just slipped away. I freaked out and had Dave come out of the hospital to give me a note. I dropped it off, then went to pick up the toys after I got Lathan. My YW secretary came with me, so she helped me with the kids a ton. We went to Costco to pick up the remainder of the refreshments, then headed home at about 3pm. The kids had a late lunch, then I remembered we had gymnastics and had to leave in 15 min. I considered not going and making it up next week, but I didn't want to add to my confusion. Poor J and K... they were in their carseats for 6 hours already before heading out to gymnastics 30 min away. On our way into the gymnasium, Lathan took a good spill on the cement and was having a breakdown over it and didn't want to do gymnastics. I understood and tried to calm him down, but in my heart I was thinking that we made such an effort to get there with miserably tired babies only to cancel? No, this was not an option anymore. I sat there and said that if he couldn't pull it together, he would not celebrate Dad's bday with us and his favorite friends from out of town - he would just go straight to bed (I know, I'm awful - he was so tired, though). He was so big. He pulled it together after getting a bandage and really had a good time in class. There was only one other student there that day. Dave's bday was so mellow, but really nice to have friends we love celebrate the occasion to make it that much more special. I went and bought a cookies n' cream cake on the way back from picking up the sushi. They all seemed to enjoy it. I hopefully will get another chance to do something special next weekend, when Dave's not working.

Saturday and today Dave is working. So we are apart most of the time lately. Yesterday was my big activity day. I had the morning to make 80 caramel apples. One of my counselors was there to help. It actually went rather fast once the caramel was ready. The caramel took its sweet time to cook, though. The children took that opportunity to get into everything and become very distracting throughout the whole process. A few bumps and hurt feelings, but thankfully no blood. They were completely neglected the entire 1st half of the day. They were on their own for bathroom, food, entertainment - everything. The house was so chaotic. We all survived, drove the boys to another counselor's house, so her husband could watch the older two, and then continued on to the Stake Ctr 35 min away. Once setup was finished, things went smoothly, although I have this one Young Woman's advisor that is like a tornado. She goes through things with such passion and intensity that by the time you're done with her you hardly know what hit you. And that's my take. I generally am a tornado of my own. Anyway, she totally took over (I'm not ever offended by such things) and things unfolded in sort of a different direction than I was anticipating. Nothing huge, I was just bugged a little bit. The kids had fun and so did we, so we were happy. We had a huge turnout and none of the youth left (I was told that is a BIG deal for our stake), so we rocked in other words. Great success, now I can collapse.

Today is not much easier since Dave is working. So I really wanted to stay home from church. I didn't, of course. I just wanted to. Now we are all home and chaos still feels present because now the remains of my tornado are evident in every part of the house. Laundry, although clean is in total disarray. Dishes are everywhere. Family on the fritz. Babies overtired. Exhaustion overbearing. Life is good.

We want to hear from you so please call/write.

Week of October 8th

So another week has passed. We were able to survive a packed end-of-week. Thursday I came home from dropping Lathan off at school to find that our garage door busted with the roller popping off. So half of the door was hanging about 2 ft off the ground while the other half was attached. It's one of those old "flap" doors that doesn't hinge as it goes up or down. Anyway, thank goodness for our internet connection because I spent all the rest of Thursday finding a new door to be installed. I encountered some questionable door salesmen, but I think I found a great deal, so in the end I think it will work out.

Friday we were busy with school in the morning as usual, then we headed straight for a friend's b-day party at Chuck-e-Cheese. We'd never been there before so it was interesting. Because it was in the middle of the day, Dave was unable to attend and I had all the babies. What's even better is that it was during the two younger ones' nap time. Kaelan and Lathan loved playing the video games and eating their cheap pizza, but there favorite is the soda/juice. Much to my disappointment I realized too late to harp on Kaelan's attention to the toilet. So he peed in his big-boy pants about 1.5 hours into the party. So we thankfully had an excuse to leave early. From there we went home to change clothes and then headed to gymnastics. Lathan appears to be getting more skilled at all the different apparatuses. He is getting stronger and much more brave with every week. Then straight from there we headed to the mall to see our outdoor family photos in the studio. That was a disaster because we had to use an employee toilet (very grimy and dirty) with all three kids whining while Lathan had his BM. Meanwhile, Dave was late meeting us there so we headed out of there very late for a school show that started at 7pm. We got there at 7:30 with exhaustion. After the show baby J cried the whole way home, I had a miserable headache and the other boys were in bad moods because Lathan wanted to stay and play more and Kaelan was asking for his bed and for more food since we didn't have any time for a real dinner.

Saturday we went to a fun cider mill and they went on a hay ride to a corn maze, played on hay bails, went down a gigantic slide with Dad, and fed some farm animals. Of course we all partook in the mandatory homemade donuts (no cider) and kettle corn. From there Dave and I rushed back for a Little Caesar's pizza for the kids and picked up our babysitter with everyone in the car because we were going to the temple and we were on our way to being late. It was the first time we attended in a couple years, I think. I believe Kaelan was born the last time we went. I'm not sure, though. It's been that long. The bonus to all of this is that I forgot my recommend in the other car because I had to remove it from my wallet for the "new" recommend switch. So we missed the session, but we made it to the temple no less. A counselor in the bishopric vouched for me to enter. So much mayhem on my end, but I have to hope that it will only get better and I'll be able to breathe one of these days.

It's a funny story how we ended up at the temple, too. I was trying to call my cell phone to check the messages on Thursday (it's a pay-as-you-go phone so I use it only for pressing matters) from my home phone and I must have hit the phone book button before dialing because when I hit "connect" I heard "Detroit Temple" from a lovely lady on the other end. I figured out that since my last number on my cell phone is an "8" or also "T" that's how I got them. So I figured Divine Intervention took place and I went ahead and reserved a spot for us for Saturday. We didn't make the session as you know, but we still got to go. Huge for us.

I have to work on keeping myself hydrated in order to not get those nasty headaches. I also will not be pulling off a full day like those ever again. The boys are great with the occasional bruising from Dad.