Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Been a while...

Hey guys -it's been a very busy month. I had surgery on my eyes to help straighten then, and in a few hours I have to go back to the doctor to make sure they are okay. I was great for the surgery - only a little cranky afterwards. It's amazinf that I had surgery on both my eyes and went home 2 hours later!!!

Anyway, my brother keeps getting bigger. He's a monster-weed! He's started smiling at everyone lately, trying to get in their good graces. Whatever - I'm the favorite!

Mommy will have to go abck to work soon and I'll have to share Christy with Drew. I hope he knows how to share? I am learning all about sharing at school, where I am still a star pupil. We go to the library on Mondays and I get to bring a book home every week now! Very, very cool. Mommy and I read the books every night before bed, and it's cool because with my new eyes I may be able to see better, and the pictures will make more sense. I've also started using more consonant sounds - "j", "g", "n" and "b" have all made appearances lately. I guess I am trying to say Jug or Nub. Or Jag or Nab. Or...you get the picture!!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Check it out...

If you look to the right, you'll see a new blog listed in my favorites. Mommy has started Drew's blog! Yaaaaaaay! No more having to report on my stupid brother ;)

So, if you want to learn more about Drew, click to the right...

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Halloween...on Election Day!



by the way...exercise your RIGHTS today! Participate in the longest-running modern democracy. Please go vote.








Monday, November 06, 2006

Good News

I know I said, as Connor, that we'd get Halloween photos up, and that will come tomorrow. But today...today was great. Today we went to see Connor's neurologist, Dr. McClintock. It was a good appointment, but the best part was at the end, when he said that he thinks Connor will stand independently someday. This is by far the most positive he has been about Connor's potential and it was truly exciting, and unexpected, to hear.

I hope each of you reading this is as happy to read it as I am to write it for you.

And I do promise - Halloween photos tomorrow. And look for a companion blog soon - for Drew! I think we have a good nickname started, so I can finally arrange for the new blog address.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Almost Forgot!

If you look to the right, there's a list of blogs you can visit from here. The last one listed is "Connor's school blog" and is the page that his teacher, Ms. Rachael, updates. There are frequently photos of Connor doing great things at school there, so you should check it out!!! (signed - Mommy)

All Hallow's Eve...

Today, I am a MONKEY MAN!!!!! I can't wait for the party tonight in the neighborhood. I am going to be a monkey, and Drew is going to be a banana. I promise not to eat my little brother, though. He is 4 weeks old today! He slept for 5 hours a few nights ago. Mommy is very excited about that. He's over 9 pounds, too.

As for me, I have been the usual star pupil at school. Yesterday, my job was to help my teacher go get lunch for eveyone, and she said I did a fantastic job. I held on to the papers with everyone's order the whole time. I never hold things that well at home... But that's okay, because when I got home, I was playing with Mommy and Christy and when Mommy said "Hello!" to me, I would lift up my right hand and wave it at her! Every time!

Yes, I know. I'm so cool. We'll post some photos from Halloween tomorrow. And lots of new Drew pictures on the website, too, if I can get Daddy to do that...

Monday, October 16, 2006

My first full week as a big brother


Wow. Can Drew cry in the night! He keeps Mommy up a lot, but he's growing a LOT faster than they expected, so he needs all that food to keep getting bigger. He's pretty quiet and looks around a lot, otherwise.

I went back to school last week and had my best week yet, according to my teacher. They were very pleased and wrote a lot of notes home to Mommy and Daddy about how well I was doing. I even learned to bowl, and got a strike in my first try! That's what this picture is - me learning to bowl. I'll have to teach Drew when he gets a little bigger...

Saturday, October 07, 2006

HE'S HERE!!!!!!


I am so excited! This week, Mommy and Daddy ran out to the hospital on Tuesday morning, and yesterday they came home with my baby brother, Drew! He's pretty cool. You can tell I think so from this picture Daddy took when we went to the hospital to visit Mommy and meet Drew.

So far he isn't too noisy or bothersome (to me, at least) and I find that I can sleep through his crying no problem. I hope I can keep doing that.

If you want to see more pictures of me and my brother, go to www.leeandcolleen.com

Friday, September 22, 2006

Homework, what??


So school is going very well for Connor. Here is a report from his teacher today:
"When we first got to the classroom he was sitting on the floor with minimal support and then he drank some. Then in the motor room today we had him on a ½ round foam block (on his stomach) and he kept picking up his head to look at the other kids. For ot and speech connor was in his stander and finger painted and listened to a story and we worked on pointing! Then we started a few pages from our "fall counting books" all before lunch and naps!
But it is all going so well..everyday he seems to keep his head up a little longer or seem a bit stronger when he sits..I hope that all of this leads to great progress for Connor. The other students are interacting with him..he is the first student that gets hugs during our "4 hugs a day" song. Even when he was crying another student went to hold his hand!"

vocabulary key:
motor room - a special room where all the equipment they use for physical therapy lives.
ot - occupational therapy - fine motor skills (finger work, etc)
speech - speech therapy

Needless to say, we are very proud parents. :)

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

SCHOOL!!!!


I started school yesterday! It was really cool - first I had to get in my new stroller (the stupidly expensive one that my parents found for WAY less on eBay...) and they had to figure out how to close all the straps. That took a few minutes. Then I had to wait - the bus was late! But Mommy, Daddy, Christy (my nanny) and Granny Kate waited with me. You should have seen my face when the bus lift started to rise to bring me up! It was so cool! My teacher sent home a note to Mommy and Daddy that I had a good day, even though I got tired a little earlier than nap time. Then again, if you had all those changes, you'd want a nap, too. I came home and played and worked with Christy until she had to go, then I took a catnap with Granny Kate until Mommy and Daddy got home. It was a great first day of school!

And on top of all that, I only have three and a half more weeks before I become a big brother! I don't know how I'm going to handle all this change... I promise to keep you updated!

If you want to see more pictures of getting ready for the bus on my first day, you can go to my Mommy and Daddy's website - www.leeandcolleen.com.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Late breaking news...


Well, we don't really have any, as everyone knows that (1) it's crazy hot outside and (2) things are relatively normal, for us. Last week, Connor tried to take a step forward, literally, which was a new thing. I haven't seen him replicate that yet, but I know he will keep trying. He will roll to both the left and the right now as well when on his bed. but since he was only rolling to his right, and only in his bed at first, and now he's rolling to his right all over the place, we figure it's only a little while before it's left, right, left, right... everywhere!

Connor has also left the wilds of daycare behind, and is now staying at home with our nanny, Christina. We decided we had to go that route because of Connor's school schedule coming up, and found a wonderful woman who has many, many years of experience, and seems to love Connor a lot already! It's certainly an adjustment for me (Colleen, the control-freak in the relationship) but I think I'm doing okay, esp. at this late stage of the pregnancy.

Speaking of that, everything seems to be moving along swimmingly in that regard. I am in my 30th week, which means less than 10 to go! I am commonly mistaken for a woman only 6 months pregnant, which is totally okay with me! And my friend Anne will welcome her second in only a few days time!!! Her daughter (Connor's betrothed) Olivia was born the day after Connor - how her son will be a few months older than our second!

I've also included a photo of Connor that we recently uncovered that was too cute to keep to ourselves - enjoy!

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Rain, rain...

Whew - well, we made it through the drenching rainstorms that hovered over the east coast for the past few days. Our basement stayed dry, though our backyard is somewhat swampy now. We expect that in a few days, we'll have approimately one MIIIIIIIIIILLION mosquitos hanging out back there...

Anyway, nothing truly exciting to report - Connor is having an off week - much crankier, and possibly more 2-ish? His second to last baby tooth has started to erupt. Now we just need that last one to come, and no more drool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, no more excessive drool. I hope!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

30 days

I am a terrible blogger. Terrible.

See, what happened is this - my office moved, then 14 of my 21 summer clerks started working simultaneously, and suddenly, I barely had time to breathe at the office!

So I'll try to make up for it all here...

Okay, so Connor is a ROCK STAR in his stander. He has done incredibly well, and Miss Megan could not be prouder of him. Within days he was up to 30+ minutes in the stander being all engaged and playful. We are very proud of his progress, which is evidenced by the fact that he will now pull/push himself into a standing position when he has additional support (such as, one of us is holding his hands)!!! It kind of came as a surprise, but a lovely, lovely one. That was the first of June.

He also moved into his big boy twin bed over this past weekend! He takes after his father and is a side sleeper, which is a little disconcerting but we are trying to adapt. We'll go up for bed and he'll be settled in, all snuggled onto his right side. If we move him to his back, within 5 minutes he's back on his side. If the flash weren't going to disturb him, we'd take a picture. Maybe this weekend during a daytime nap. I'll see what I can do. Lee will be in NC at school so my sister, Shannon, is coming to help me while Lee is gone. We had our first true DC summer day last weekend, and I was kind of a wretched lump upon completion. It was saaaaaaaaad. But today we are six months along, and so far everything looks well. The Little Monster inside is very active, but not painfully so. That will come in August/September. We had our first sonogram, and the doctor was very kind and spent a great deal of time on it reassuring us regarding the brain's development and why everything looks to be good right now. Of course, we may never be truly calm about it, but we are trying.

Anyway, we'll be away on vacation soon so I'll try to add one more update before we go in an effort to reinvigorate my NY resolution here!!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Lest I forget...

I didn't mention in my earlier post on the new stander that you can also see videos of Connor in the stander playing on www.leeandcolleen.com. Scroll down near the bottom of the main page to see where Lee has linked the videos. :) Happy viewing!

My new stander!


This is my new stander! We got rid of Hannibal the Stander on Tuesday when this little beauty came in. You can see more pictures at my parents' website, www.leeandcolleen.com. Just click on the picture of me, and then on the thumbnail that says "My New Stander". I did really, really well for my first time. My awesome PT, Megan, (as opposed to my awesome Aunt Megan), told me that she was so proud of me. So I had to reset her expectations and cried for 20 minutes inconsolably. It went better the next day.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Back in the saddle...


I made it back from California, and Connor was allegedly well-behaved in my absence. I'm still waiting for him to crack and tell me all about his time while I was away. He did get a haircut from his dad, and a very good one at that.

Today, Wednesday, his school went to the Washington Monument grounds for a kite picnic. The photo included shows you Connor's level of excitement for the kites. It was windy, definitely good, but also a little cool. Sort of like the backseat of the car on a nice afternoon when his Dad will put the windows down...

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Good heavens

Has it really been 2 weeks? This is what happened. Lee came home from Europe, and promptly fell into the despairs of a terrible headcold. For a week. Then one day after he began to feel better, I did the same. Same cold. My deal, of course, was that I couldn't take anything except Sudafed for it. I'm more a NyQuil girl, so let's just say that sleep and I became separated. So it took me a week to feel better.

Then this week was just full. The good news is this - we are FINALLY finished the eligibility process for Connor's school. He is, in fact, eligible, and he will be going to Ashlawn Elementary School starting in September as a member of their 2-year old classroom for special needs children. He'll get dedicated PT, ST and OT at school, in part or whole, each day that he's there. That's WAY more than he gets now. We're very excited.

Anyway, that's why I haven't posted. Now that I'm mainly healthy and not insane, it should be better. Having said that, I leave on Tuesday for a business trip, so there may be nothing here until next weekend. But all is well in Wright-land these days, finally! :)

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Gait Trainer

So in addition to Connor's new stander (arrival date TBD, but soon!) Ms. Megan has been bringing something called a gait trainer to therapy as well. It's somewhat similar to a stander but it is on casters, and will move with him and continue to support him, should he choose to move. So far, he's pushed himself backwards on it, but he is lifting up his left leg as though he were trying to take a step while supported in this machine. It's pretty cool looking, and very exciting to see him figuring out one leg at a time.

We also have the Eligibility Meeting for preschool on April 18. We expect to know then which class Connor is going to be assigned to, either at Reed or Ashlawn school. I'll certainly keep people apprised here of his school plans so we can coordinate the school colors into our daily outfit choices. Or something to that effect. Maybe bumper stickers that say "Connor goes to (BLANK) School" for everyone?

Friday, March 31, 2006

Big Week!

Connor's had a picture perfect week, culminating in a great therapy session with Ms. Megan and Ms. Kristy yesterday. And we found out that his new stander, the one we ordered in November, has been paid for by insurance and should be at our house in April. Very exciting stuff. We cannot wait to get rid of the Hannibal Lechter stander currently scaring people in our house. YAY!!!

And then, Connor is pleased to announce...he is going to be a big brother in October!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What else could one say to follow that up?

Monday, March 27, 2006

Weekend Fun!

Late last week, Lee went to Europe for a 10-day trip with school. Well, really, his school time is only 7 days, but with time difference and jet-lag-depleting days built in, it comes to 10. Anyway, Connor and I decided that a long weekend spent at "SpoilLand", aka, my parents' home in Wilmington, DE, was the right way to go. I mean, who wants to be a single parent for 10 days when it's just not necessary?

Anyway, so Thursday, after Connor's PT and ST evaluation for preschool, we packed up and headed north. A few words on the eval. They. Love. Him. He was Mr. Personality and the teachers at both schools he is eligible for are just over the moon with him. They atmosphere is so much like his current daycare that we think this will be a really good thing. And then, on top of all that, I was sitting there answering their questions when the PT asked me, "You look familiar to me - do you know me?" I had to admit not, and that she probably knew me from the halcyon days of the Nose. That, in fact, was that case, and all the women in the room with me found that to be completely interesting. I reminded them that we were there for Connor. Oops. Anyway, so much for that.

Anyway, we drove home, and I MISSED the DUKE-LSU game. I was quite unhappy about that. I mean, really! We spent Friday and Saturday visiting with folks (friends and family who came to see my little guy, and even sometimes to see me) and relaxing. But two exciting things happened!! First of all, on Friday morning, Connor pushed himself off the sofa. Once it was established that he wasn't actually injured, only scared and a little bumped around, there was much rejoicing because he's never done that before, and it's a BIG muscle output for him. (As a side note, Lee was very unhappy with me about that, even though I pointed out that Connor did it to himself, not someone doing it to him.) Then, on Saturday morning, as I was changing his diaper, he planted his left foot against my right shin and pushed himself over from his back to his belly. He's been able to do belly to back for a while, but that was the first time we had back to belly. And, I was treated to an adorable view of his little boy bottom as a reward!

In any case, we're very excited by these new developments, and by the lack of a bump on his noggin.

More later this week - for now I have to go put out some fires in the office...

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Nothing to report

I guess that's a good thing, though, isn't it? Connor is still thriving and has become pretty much the most hilarious little boy in the mornings now. He's Mr. Crankypants until he gets about an ounce of milk into himself, and then he magically transforms into Cute Boy Who Loves to Chatter and Kick. I'll be trying to sleep but he's talking so loudly with Lee that I lie awake upstairs and giggle in my sleepiness.

This past weekend, we had LOTS of visitors! Our house was bursting. My parents came to see Connor (and us, too, I suppose) after their first true Retired Couple Trip, to Australia and Tahiti. They brought Connor, among other things, a miniature didgeridoo. What's that? Well, you can learn official things here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo. Connor's isn't the more traditional, 1+ meter long version. His is only 12 inches or so. As a joke, I told them that he wanted one more than anything. I have yet to learn, apparently, that when I tell my parents outrageous things, they do their best to nail me. You'd think 32+ years of this experience would have taught me something, but this is the latest evidence to the contrary.

In addition to my parents, my best friend from my littlest childhood came to visit with her son, Julian. I don't even know when Michele and I met, because as far back as I can remember, she is there. I know for a fact that couldn't have met prior to 1975, because that is when we moved to Parkersburg, WV, and that is where she lived up until college. However, Michele and I have, against pretty much all the odds, managed to remain in touch through our lives, and eventually married unrelated guys with the same last name and had our first children, both boys, within 4 months of each other. No small feat for women who hadn't been in each other's pockets since I moved away in September, 1981. In any case, Michele and Julian came to see us/meet us and Michele had the extra bonus of seeing more than half my family. It was fun, and really nice to see her and meet her awesome little boy!

And then, because it still wasn't truly a party, Shannon & Todd came up as well. And Erin came over at times as well. At maximum attendance, we had 2 toddlers, 8 adults, and 4 dogs all at the house.

No wonder I am still tired!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Late, late...

Broke my resolution again, but mainly because work has been pounding me lately. Connor is doing wonderfully! If only his mommy were in as good shape as he were! :)
Seriously, though, things are well, and our computer is almost back to normal, so we'll get that sledding video up as soon as we can - hopefully this weekend!

Monday, February 27, 2006

Waiting Rooms

We spent a while this morning in the waiting room at Connor's neurologist. I don't look forward to these appointments as it is, but 45 minutes in the waiting room and I was pretty annoyed. However, once we were in, it went pretty well. We found out that the episodes we mentioned back in December/January aren't what we hoped - they are partial seizure behavior. For us, it's better to know - and do what we can to take care of that. Connor's had a really good month, only a few episodes, and he's been very happy and working very hard at therapy. So it was disappointing but not too surprising. Then the doctor told us how pleased he was to see Connor looking and, from what we told him, working so well. We were happy with "pleased" as it now sets a new high for enthusiasm from Dr. McClintock. Connor, of course, was full of vim and vigor at the doctor's, and then promptly fell asleep on the way in to day care. Anyway, that's the news, and I wanted to get it up on the blog as soon as I could. I'd say 3 hours is pretty good turnaround time for me!

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Preschool

I know it sounds crazy but it is time for us to start looking into the county-sponsored preschool programming for special needs children. We've had some meetings, and next week we get to go see one of the 2-year-old classrooms. It's very exciting - I've heard from some people that the transition into the classroom has changed their child's life (and usually, for the better) so we are hopeful that being in real school will make Connor's development continue! He'll even ride the school bus every day. I'm still nervous about it, but am "on board" per se since basically I don't have much choice anyway.

Now that we've started this process, it means two very significant changes for Connor. Change one, of course, is that he'll be in school and not in daycare, and the wonderful people at his daycare are very unhappy about this. It's nice to know that he will be missed. While the program isn't a full day, we're researching other care options (daycare closer to home, in-home care) for the second half of his days as the school bus will only take him back home or to another facility in the county, which his current daycare is not. The second is that he will no longer be working exclusively with his current therapists, Megan and Kristy. Lee thinks that they will find "replacement Connors" in their roster of kiddos. I know that is not the case. I expect that they will be at Connor's graduations, Connor's birthday parties, and Connor's wedding way off in the future. If he's lucky, one of them will wait for him ;)

Monday, February 13, 2006

Connor's first blizzard

So if the biggest news in your weekend actually WAS that the vice president SHOT another man accidentally over the weekend while hunting, you may have missed the large snowstorm that covered Virginia to Maine this weekend. We had a LOT of fun with Connor this weekend. For Christmas, we bought him a special sled that would work for him, and hadn't been able to use it until now! Well, Lee spent quite a while on Saturday night inflating it. While he was doing that, I fed Connor his dinner and started singing "Let it Snow" which, in fact, it had been doing for hours at this point. I know it's a Christmas carol, although it never mentions Christmas in the first verse, which is all I sang to Connor. Mainly because I started singing to him and he treated me to a HUGE smile. It was gorgeous, and hilarious. Gorgeous because he is. Hilarious because he had a big spoonful of sweet potaotes at the time, and when he smiled, I got an orange-slice-smile, basically. You remember those, right? When you'd put an orange quarter (or one-sixth) and fit your teeth into the orange pulp against the rind and then grin? That's it, but with sweet potato. It was great.
In any case, then it was Sunday morning, and the snow had pretty much stopped, about 14 inches or so in. We bundled Connor up and then took him out and put him in the sled - he sat PERFECTLY in it! Unfortunately, as we started to pull him in it, it tipped over (no rollover bars on this bad boy) and Connor faceplanted into the snow. You can imagine his feelings about that. We calmed him down and changed our approach. Unfortunately, that didn't work so well, either. You can see why on the video...which we will post as soon as we get our computer working again. We had what Lee is calling a "total hardware failure" on Monday. Very not good. Movie to follow.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

I'm TWO!!!!!!!


Here's me and my birthday cake yesterday!

I loved being sung to - thanks to Aunt Erin, godparents Jon and Kelly, and of course, Mommy and Daddy!

Mmmmmmm - pound cake!

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

D-Day Approaches

Thursday will be a good day. Thursday there will be cake and celebration as Connor turns 2! Connor's godparents Jon & Kelly Discount will be here to celebrate with us, along with Aunt Erin. Connor will have to work for that cake, though, since Miss Kristy and Miss Megan will be here to give him his therapy. In preparation, Connor worked out today with his daddy, sitting up on the floor (a little bit on his own, but also with some assistance) and rolling from belly to back on both sides! We started using a new toy last week, but the ER incident kept us from incorporating it more over the weekend. I'll take some pictures of him using it with his therapists this week and post them here.

More on Thursday. For now...bedtime!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Technical Difficulties

Now, admittedly, I did not post anything this week, but I tried to this morning and it got zapped somewhere else and I can't seem to locate it and make it post here properly.

The general gist was this - I was sorry I missed a whole week of posting. I went to NYC for a business trip, and then Connor was sick, culminating in a late night visit to the ER thanks to a very, very high fever. Fever is gone now, but I did have the joy of working on Friday with 3.5 hours of sleep. Just like the old days, with the band. Except with the band I would get such a small amount of sleep because I was out with friends, doing my favorite thing, and getting adoration AND cash. Not quite the same at the ER.

Now, hopefully this will post. And with no business trips - or ER trips - on the horizon, you can expect great things from me!

Friday, January 27, 2006

New year's resolution

This year (well, the rest of it) I resolve to be better about posting here.

January has been very good to us. Connor has now spent more than one year without being admitted to the hospital! This is a big hurdle for us. The 4 hospitalizations in 2004-early 2005 had quite an emotional/mental toll on Lee and I, and we were so pleased to pass by the date that Connor was last a patient at Fairfax Inova Hospital. Only 10 more months, and I'll have my own one year anniversary of that :)

Lee has a birthday, which I'm pretty sure he would not want me to mention, but since he rarely, if ever, checks this blog, I feel safe in reporting. Many members of my family came down to visit and fill in as his parents and sister's family were dealing with our nephew Mac's illness, which unfortunately required a hospital stay as well. We're glad, though, that Mac navigated his time in Richmond at the hospital well and is back home, thriving again. We did get to visit Nana and Poppy prior to that, and have a little birthday for Lee and late Christmas then.

Connor's been having some unexplained behavior in his left arm lately, although it's been many days now since any occurrences, which is a good sign. It's a mirror image of some activity in his right arm last September, and there are a few theories of the reasons behind it. One theory (and Lee's and my favorite one) is that his arms nerve systems are starting to fire up properly, and the neuromuscular electricity is causing, in essence, muscle spasms. His therapists think it may have nothing at all to do with his brain and only a revisiting of the reflux which he suffered from right after birth. We're okay with that theory, too. The doctors seem reluctant to state any theories, although they are trying to warn us that it's more seizure behavior. We're waiting for some responses from them - they have videos of a few episodes to review.

Connor has also been doing excellent work with his therapists - they just completed a six month review of his goals and he is accomplishing, in part or totality, several of the goals we set for this year. He will be 2 in less than two weeks (OH MY GOD!!) and once he passes that, his name is up for pre-school. The pre-school early Head Start programming in Arlington County is well-regarded, and he will receive daily PT and OT from qualified teachers each week day while in school. This will certainly be an uptick in his therapy now, where he gets the qualilty stuff from his therapists once a week, and the jerry-rigged version at daycare and at home when we can.

Okay, I hope this long posting makes up for my terrible showing so far this year. I promise weekly, if not more frequent, postings. Take care out there.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Oops, part deux

So on my sister's blog (http://lagniappeca.blogspot.com/) I commented on her posting about our annual family Amaryllis bulb that our mother sends each year. Including giving her tips on how to keep it alive from year to year. You can link to the post here (I hope):
http://lagniappeca.blogspot.com/2005/11/annual-amaryllis.html. Here's the quick & dirty - I have a history in my family that I am a plant-killer. Sometimes out of sheer meanness (telling a clematis that I hoped it would die...and it did) and sometimes from overwatering (poor, poor little cactus). This year, we have hit a new high, or low, depending on your perspective.

Every year, my parents send each of us an amaryllis bulb, and so far, I have managed to not only not kill them, but to have them bloom successfully 2 years for each of them. Then this year rolled around, and I had to open my mouth. I mentioned to my sister on her blog that I found that the best care to get the amarylli bulbs to bloom for a second season was essentially to ignore the "damn thing" until December. This was a mistake. First, my 2004 bulb decided that it didn't like being spoken of that way, and flatly refused to grow any new leaves or bloom. Then, last week, my 2005 bulb decided that it had enough of my verbal abuse and THREW ITSELF OFF THE COUNTERTOP, breaking off 3 of it's 4 blossoms, and ending it's life too soon. Lee was in the basement and Connor and I were in the family room. I heard a big splat, and when I made it into the kitchen I found it, broken and sad with dirt pooled all around it, on the floor.

I'll never give gardening advice again. I am the Grim Reaper of the Garden.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Oops...

Those cute pictures we promised? Well, they are in Uncle Todd's camera, which was left at our house after New Years. Looks like a week will pass between when the pictures were taken on NYE, and when they will be available for posting. Sorry, Mom!! We'll take some sitting photos of him this week and get them up, but the cute outfit from his great-grandparents will have to be put on the backburner...