The Walking Wounded--An Update Head Count

The following have now experienced "The Bug" in some form or fashion:

Jacob Brister-12/23
Davis Brister-12/24
Suzanne Brister-12/25
Patrick Brister-12/26
Nicole Hebert-12/26
Peggy Hebert-12/27
KK Hebert-12/27
Betty Brister-12/27
Ron Hebert-12/28

Amongst the soul survivors:
Ward Brister
Renee and Bill Clements

My ultimate goal after my illness was to make sure to avoid soon-to-be-mommy Renee at all costs to keep her from getting sick. So by those standards, I'd say Christmas was a rousing success!

I will get the few pictures I took online here at some point. At this moment, we are preparing for our trip to Children's Hospital for Jacob to get tubes in his ears. It's early in the morning so say your prayers if you view this late.

Bah Hum-BUG!!!

Well, this Christmas has been interesting for sure. At last report, you knew that Jacob was sick.

I received Jacob's bug at about 10:30PM on Christmas Eve. I was up all night sick, pretty much meaning that Christmas Day was a wash. I participated in Santa Claus but missed the Hebert family Christmas gift opening festivities, informed my parents of my illness literally two minutes before they pulled into the driveway and barely made Christmas dinner. I feasted (Gege, is this a word?) on crackers and a couple of other items in which I should not have eaten!

Then, Suzanne received the bug at about 10PM Christmas night and was up all night herself. She has been in bed all day today. And to top it off Patrick threw up his entire breakfast this morning, which served as our indicator that he had gotten the bug, too.

Also, apparently Aunt Colie was up all night at the Hebert house with the bug.

Most of us are on the mend, except poor Su who is still in the bed.

I feel so bad for everyone who went out of their way to prepare and to get here for Christmas and it's been a downer from that perspective as we can't celebrate in proper fashion. However, I am still thankful to have my family and friends, sick or not!.

Christmas Conversations with Jacob

It's Christmas Eve and been an interesting day or two around here. Jacob developed a stomach bug yesterday morning and threw up all day and night. He did sleep well, was lethargic the first half of Christmas Eve but is doing just fine right now.

He was in good enough shape last night to have this conversation with him mother.

MOMMY: Jacob, what did you ask Santa to bring for Christmas?
JACOB: An ipod....a cell phone....a computer....and a camera.

Ummmm, I hope Santa doesn't disappoint!

The festivities start tonight and I will not wait a week to post the pictures.

Christmas Week!

It should be a fun filled Christmas blog week and we start with Jacob's school sing-along from Wednesday. Suzane and I were invited and boy did we get a treat. The kids sang three songs before enjoying a cookie (I believe Jacob's cookie count this week has been about 17).

If the pictures weren't fun enough, I got some video as well. Yes, that's Jacob you hear screaming. I can frankly say, if one day is an indication, that Jacob is the life of the party. I honestly did not expect that. The funniest moment was when all the parents walked in. All of the kids were quiet until Jacob went and started running in circles on the rug you see in the video. Within two minutes, every kid in the class was following along. I am not quite sure if that's good or bad.

Large and In Charge

Here are a few random pictures of Patrick from the past couple weeks. He is really getting old...six months! With age comes a healthier apetite and he'll pretty much eat anything you put in front of him, as evidenced by his big ole cheeks. Now, maybe he can teach his older brother a thing or two about enjoying a meal.

Also, note he's very, very close to sitting up by himself. Presently, he still needs a bit of support, potentially because of all that food sloshing around in his belly.

Breakfast with Santa

Now that Thanksgiving's over, we can formally move onto the Christmas section of the blog, starting with the traditional Breakfast with Santa feast at the Beau Chene Country Club. Nana treated Su, KK, Jacob, Patrick and I to breakfast. Unfortunately, I am unable to acknowledge her visually on the blog because her eyes were closed in every picture! I did take some good ones, though, of the rest of the family, plus Jacob and Lila and Bennett having good times. However, Jacob was honestly the only one real keen on seeing Santa especially since he scared half the room to death (adults included) with a shouting entrance into the room.

Finishing Thanksgiving

Our final Thanksgiving post comes from the day itself. We had a delicious meal at the Hebert house on Thanksgiving night. Suzanne came up with the idea of wearing the Indian head gear--I truly don't know what to call it although I had a blast helping Jacob pick out the names. Actually, the credit for the original idea should come from Ms. Alexis, Jacob's favorite teacher at school. They all made the hats and the names and Jacob was labeled Smiling Squirrel. Among other favorites that he and I came up with...Crazy Legs (Patrick), Bald Bear (Ron), Hairy Horse (Davis), and Dream Catcher (KK).

Continuing Thanksgiving

Sorry for the delayed posts. I was out of town three days last week and am getting ready to go to Grenada for three days for a business trip! Don't fret, though, I've loaded some future posts in the system which should automatically generate daily for the next couple of days.

We continue our Thanksgiving theme and this latest round came three weeks ago. Uncle Gege flew to Grenada from New York and Cousin Hayes from Chicago and the Brister family had a pre-Thanksgiving Day gathering. I am calling Gege out because he took the bulk of the pictures and I haven't seen any of them! I snapped a few including one of he and Hayes. We had a great time and the kids had even more fun. All the Brister cousins are good looking kids including Tate and Cecile, seen below.

A Look Back-Thanksgiving

Seems I have a bit of catching up to do. We've had quite a Thanksgiving run, culminating in a rare Thanksgiving feast with the Heberts. Normally, we go to Grenada for Thanksgiving but this year, we went two weeks early to celebrate, namely because Uncle Eugene and Cousin Hayes made long trips to see the family--even longer than ours!!! We also got to spend some time with my mom's side of the family highlighted in these pictures. We'll work through Thanksgiving over the course of the next few days.

All Clear

Patrick received a good report this morning from his doctor. His ears are again flowing freely. Suzanne took the boys across the lake this morning and says the appointment took all of three minutes.

I thought this would give me good enough excuse to post a picture from the morning of the surgery. Patrick is his hospital gown.

TLC

What a week! There have certainly been highs and lows.
Last Wednesday, we took Patrick to New Orleans Children's Hospital to get tubes in his ears. As mentioned, he's had four ear infections in his five months of life. Since the procedure required anesthesia, the doctor moved forward with another procedure centered around his tongue. Basically, he was tongue tied and it would've required future attention anyway so they killed two birds with one stone, in essence.

Then last Friday, Jacob kept waking up in the middle of the night. Very unusual. On his third time to wake up, he began crying profusely. I rushed into his room to discovered he'd thrown up all over himself. We felt it was a 24 hour stomach bug and proceeded with the fun filled Halloween weekend you've already read about and seen.

On Monday, Jacob went to school as usual. However, two hours into the day his teachers called Suzanne, suspecting he had pink eye. He did...in both eyes...and he himself had a severe ear infection...in both ears. Suzanne and I felt terrible for not recognizing this.

On Wednesday, Patrick began consistent screaming patterns (really earlier than Wednesday). Su was convinced something was still wrong with one of his ears. She took him to the pediatrician that day and it was discovered that some of the blood from the procedure had dried and was preventing his ear from draining properly.

Thursday, we were back at the specialist (although in her office and not in the hospital). The specialist confirmed the news, dropped some hydrogen peroxide in his ear and suctioned the blood out of his ear.

That's about all that's gone on here!!! The good news is that we've had some great doctors taking care of our boys. We are fortunate in that regard. Patrick is also very fortunate to have a doctor inside his very own home who has compassion for his health. See for yourself.

Batman and Pumpkin

What a week! We have now officially been inducted into toddlerhood. I cannot think of a time where we've ever celebrated so much Halloween. Most of it this past week. I've posted several pictures but am working backwards here. Tonight, we had some friends over to our house for trick or treating in Beau Chene. The mothers stayed back and watched the babies while the fathers hit the trick trail. Jacob was a bat this year and Patrick wore the pumpkin made by my Granny for J's first Halloween. We had a blast and Jacob really enjoyed trick or treating with friends, Lila, Bennett, Elise, Myrt, and Reece!

Saturday night we went into New Orleans for the annual Boo at the Zoo festival. We met the Parnells and the Barrois' there. Jacob went trick-or-treating but I think had more fun dancing, to be honest.

Wednesday night, I took Jacob to the club. We were solo as Patrick had tubes put in his ears and had a tongue procedure and had been very grumpy that day!

Last Sunday, we joined the Mills for Trunk or Treat at St. Timothy's Church, where Jacob attends school.

I'll post Halloween pics first and then work backwards until we get to last week.

Boo At The Zoo-Saturday, October 30th

Boo Fest-Wednesday, October 27th

Trunk Or Treat-Saturday, October 24th

Elmo

The worldwind weekends continue around here. Sunday we had our first experience trick or treating. But Saturday, the fun began as Su and I took Jacob to see Elmo in New Orleans. As we were walking to our seats, I saw a couple of familiar faces as we drew closer. Turns out Nick and Myrt Mills were literally sitting right next to us. That was not planned! But all five of us had a great time. Jacob was really into it.