Happy Birthday Jordan

Jordan’s three today. We have a true little boy running around the house. And we do mean running around the house!

We had Jordan’s birthday party at our house Saturday afternoon. This one was just a family party, which meant just 18 people at the house: Emo and Papa; Aunt Cristina; Gee and Jojo; Jordan’s cousin Everett, Aunt Deona and Monica; Uncle Jim and Aunt Diann; Mimi; Uncle Jay, Aunt Kelly, AJ and Brittany; plus Matthew, Mom and Dad.

The party was at lunchtime with hot dogs, pigs in a blanket, fresh fruit, trail mix, cream cheese and salsa and queso. It was all delicious, and Jordan loved it all.

Originally, we planned the party — at Jordan’s request — as a Clifford the Big Red Dog themed-event. After we printed the invitations, though, Jordan announced that he was having a Go Diego Go party. So, it was (in the words of our friend Wendy) a Clifford the Big Red Dog Party, featuring Go Diego Go. :)

















Jordan got a lot of great gifts: Clifford and Thomas the Tank Engine books, pieces to his train set, a plastic slinky, magnadoodle, a Veggie Tales castle, a Lincoln Logs set, a Diego field journal, a baseball set, a University of Texas Longhorns T-shirt, cash and more.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, especially Jordan. Here are some pictures from the day:

We're back

Where have we been? Well, around town. Busy as a mosquito on Galveston Island. More on that in a second...

Matthew is doing just awesome. He had his two-month check-up Aug. 4. He had his first round of immunizations (which he didn't care for one bit). Matthew had grown quite a bit: 13 pounds, 7 ounces and 23 1/4 inches long, officially at the appointment. (We've weighed him on our scale at home since then, and he's almost 18 pounds -- he's even wearing clothing for nine month olds).

Matthew made his first two trips to church (two different churches, including our home one) and did great in both nurseries. He slept through both. :)

Jordan, Pa-pa, Mom and Dad went to the Texas Rangers/Cleveland Indians game Saturday evening, Aug. 23. The Rangers blew a 7-1 lead at the end of four, allowing Cleveland to score six runs in the top of the fifth. Oh well, there's always next year. Or the year after, or oh well, it'll never happen (at least until Nolan Ryan fires a certain GM; or better yet, if a certain team owner would cash out and move on).

But I digress...

We also headed down to Galveston for a somewhat impromptu family getaway (this was before Hurricane Ike washed Galveston out to sea). Jo-jo, Mom, Jordan and Matthew drove down on Wednesday morning, Aug. 27. Dad drove down after work on the 27th, and Gee flew down on the morning of the 28th. We spent some quality time at the beach, by the pool and eating shrimp. Jordan and Dad made it to the beach each and every day, and loved every second of it: jumping in the waves, building a sand castle and digging in the sand looking for seashells. (OK, Jo-jo did more of the digging stuff -- I was too busy trying not to burn).

Gee flew home on Saturday morning to make sure he was home before Hurricane Gustav made landfall in Louisiana (and impacted East Texas weather). We left Sunday around lunch time by car. Traffic was much heavier than normal as evacuees from Louisiana and the Beaumont area made their way into North Texas. We stopped for shopping at the outlet mall in Conroe, north of Houston, then made dinner at Sam's in Fairfield. We were home by about 8 p.m.

Matthew didn't care for the ride one bit. About Corsicana, Matthew lost it and screamed for about 20 minutes, until we stopped at a really nice Whataburger in Midlothian. He still wasn't thrilled getting back in the car, but made it home without too many problems.

Today is full of rain as what is left of Hurricane Ike drops buckets of rain on Texas. It's not too bad here in North Texas, though the occasional wind gust kicks up to Tropical Storm strength. At least, that's why I assume we were under an Inland Tropical Storm Wind Warning this morning. Never recall seeing that one in the forecast before...

Not much else is going on. Dondi took two sections of the CPA exam at the end of August. (We have test results back on one of them: She passed). Roy started the MBA program at Texas A&M - Commerce this semester and is taking Accounting and Statistics. We're not sure why.

Pictures, you ask? See below.





















A shrimping boat comes very close to shore. Behind it was at least three or four dolphins.















Jordan and Dondi watch the Volcano dessert inside the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston.















The four of us aboard a ferry sailing between Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island.
















Dad and Matthew kicking it on the beach after Casey's shrimp one evening.
















Mom, Dad, Jordan and Matthew enjoying the beach.



















Matthew's first outting to the beach was very short. He didn't care for the wind, the sun, the birds, anything.
















Mom and Matthew hang out while waiting for a table at Sam's in Fairfield.

Matthew's first 4th of July

We had a very busy weekend. No pictures (forgot the camera), but it was a good time had around town.

* Friday we skipped our annual trek to the Arlington Independence Day Parade. We really enjoy it, but were afraid it'd be too hot for Matthew to tolerate. Emo and Papa went, and they said it was great fun, as always. Friday morning, Jordan decided we needed to have a "Happy Birthday America" party. So, Jo-jo and he went to the party store, loaded up on red, white and blue decorations and we had ourselves a party. Hot dogs, watermelon, birthday cake, and that very American side dish: queso. Friday night, we went down to Mansfield for their 4th of July fireworks.

* Saturday morning, Matthew and Jordan went to Emo and Papa's while Dondi and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. If you haven't seen it, it's worth seeing in the movie theaters, but it's really not all that great of a movie. Saturday night, Jordan wanted to see more fireworks, so we went to the display at the Arlington Highlands. We found a secret spot to watch from (perfect access, could see everything and no traffic, unlike in Mansfield). Unfortunately, the wind picked up and they had to cancel the show midway through. It was a lot of fun, though.

* Sunday was pretty uneventful as we attempted to get laundry done and ready to go back to work.

This upcoming weekend, Kim and Dusty come up from San Antonio and we're going to hang out with some of our old Fielder friends. Should be a lot of fun.

Texarkana

It's been a long time in between posts. Sadly, we've been busy.

Dondi's godmother has been fighting cancer since last November, and ultimately went home to be with her Savior on Sunday morning. Dondi, Matthew, Jo-jo and I drove to see her Friday in the ICU at Christus St. Michael hospital in Texarkana, Texas.

Dondi had her four-week checkup on Friday morning (it went well and she's healthy). Pa-pa and Emo came and took Jordan to their house for the day and night, so then Dondi, Matthew, Debbie and I headed northeast on I-30.

Including a stop for lunch at the Chick-fil-A in Greenville, it took us about four and a half hours to get to the hospital. Due to some cell phone issues, it took us about half an hour to find "Pop" and Dondi's Aunt Jackie. We had a good visit with them in the waiting area while waiting for visitation. (Visitation is four one hour time slots throughout the day). Joy was on a ventilator and was in a drug-induced coma. After visitation was over, we headed over to Pop's house for Jackie and Pop to eat dinner and to visit for a while.

During the drive home Friday night into Saturday morning, Joy's heart gave out and she was removed from life support. She died around 5:45 a.m. Sunday.

The funeral was Tuesday afternoon, back in Texarkana. Tuesday also happened to be Jordan's first day of summer Mother's Day Out. So, we dropped him off at "church school" and then Debbie, Dondi, Matthew and I made our way to the memorial service. (Don went in a separate car with D and M and Pa-pa picked Jordan up from MDO). We had a good visit with some of the Jordans' close friends after the service, and then packed up and headed back to Dallas. Since Debbie and I both had to get to work, we booked it back home (thankfully, DPS had no patrols along I-30 westbound between Texarkana and Rockwall).

We got to see Joy one last time while she was still healthy back in November. The picture above is a shot from my camera phone of Jordan, Dondi and Joy. (This is on the swing in Joy and Pop's backyard in Texarkana, Ark.)

There has been some fun stuff, too this last week. Jordan spent Sunday night and all day Monday with Aunt Cristina. They took the Trinity Railway Express from Centreport to downtown Fort Worth and had lunch with Emo. Jordan enjoyed that immensely. He also wasn't ready to leave Aunt Cris' house.

Matthew is still growing. All that stuff about him being easy-going; yeah, forget that. He's not so easy-going anymore. :)

And yes, some pictures:

Dad and the boys

2-week doctor's appointment

Matthew had his two-week doctor's appointment this afternoon, and all went well. He has grown an inch - now 21 1/2 inches long - and is now 9 pounds 2 ounces. That's up a pound from his first doctor's appointment at 4 days old, and is up a bit from his birth weight of 8 pounds 12 ounces (it's normal for baby's to lose weight right after birth).

Matthew also had his PKU test on Monday at the hospital's lab. The doctor said today the test results have to go to Austin for review, but our doctor explained that if all is normal, we won't hear anything.

Not much else is going on with us: this is my last day off before returning to work on Monday. It's been a fun two weeks off with Matthew, Jordan and Dondi, but it's time to face the e-mails and voice mails bright and early Monday.

Matthew's first doctor's appointment

We took Matthew to the doctor today for his first appointment: They wanted to check him out to see how he was faring at four days old. He was doing pretty well. Still a little jaundiced, but better than in the hospital. Overall, a clean bill of health.

We will take him this Friday or Monday back to the hospital for the second part of his PKU test, and then he has a two-week doctor's appointment a week from this Friday.

Matthew is home

What a whirlwind 72 hours. Matthew is home and we're beat!

Friday at the hospital was more or less uneventful: visiting with nurses, family and others. Pa-pa and I built a captain's bed that is currently mom's bed in Matthew's room, but will be Jordan's bed in a couple of months. (And by "Pa-pa and I built" the bed, I mean "Pa-pa did all the work, and I handed him the appropriate tool or piece of hardware as he requested it"). Jordan went to day care in the morning, but did get to go see Mom and Matthew in the hospital Friday evening. He loved that, discovering the foot pedals that operate the sink in the hospital room, and finding out that Mom's room had echoing ability.

This morning started off fairly uneventfully: we went to the discharge class with all the other new moms and dads (at 32 (me) and 30-something-or-another (Dondi), we were the oldest parents in there by 5 years; had we gone to yesterday's class, we would have been the oldest by at least a dozen years). Anyway, we learned such important things as to clean with soap AND water and that we did in fact, have to put Matthew in a car seat. So much for my idea of hanging him from the visor next to my garage door opener.

We did have one surprise: our "chosen hospital," Medical Center of Arlington (we're not planning on more kids, so I can say the name now) is the official hospital of both the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars. I'm not sure what that means exactly to be the official hospital of sports teams, but what it meant for us is Matthew got a Texas Rangers hat, a mini-Rangers baseball bat and four free tickets to a game during the 2008 season. So, that should be fun.

OK, "free" tickets. Yeah, that's funny to me, too. I'll let you know how much the "free" tickets cost when I receive the final bill.

Anyway, we're home now and I thought rather than a long, boring narrative (what precedes this doesn't count), we'll include pictures from the last three days. Enjoy. :)















Matthew's very first picture. He's slimy.















Mom and Matthew meet face-to-face for the first time.















Grandmas with new grandson. (Jo-jo, standing, Emo, sitting holding Matthew).
















Matthew, being burped. He is not happy.















Aunt Cristina corrals Jordan and holds Matthew on the first day the two boys meet. Jordan's T-shirt says, "I'm the big brother."















Dad, Mom and Matthew in the hospital.















The hospital's photographer posed this shot of Matthew. You can buy the professional picture, or, here's mine.















Here's the three of us as we get ready to leave the hospital.

Welcome to the world, Matthew!

Matthew Ryan made quite an entrance into the world today. Eight pounds and 12 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long, and like his brother, the most beautiful baby in the world.

Dondi went to the doctor yesterday for her blood work and final check before being induced this morning. She was dilated to somewhere between a 3 and a 4. When we arrived at the hospital at 5:30 a.m., she was already dilated to a 5. Two hours later she was at a 9 (that's when the nurses stopped giving her any more of the inducing medicine!)

She started pushing at 10 a.m., and Matthew was here at 10:15. Dondi did a great job and was amazing.

Matthew is absolutely perfect. We spent the afternoon getting to know him. About 5 p.m., Jordan met his little brother. Jordan was very impressed, letting us all know, "Baby Matthew isn't in momma's tummy!"

Lots to tell, lots of pictures to show. More to come tomorrow!

Ten days to go!

Dondi had a doctor's appointment this afternoon: sonogram, no-stress test and doctor's visit. The doctor said all told, she'll be inducing on Thursday, May 29.

The appointment went well: her blood pressure was a tad high, but dropped during the appointment. The sonogram showed that Matthew is about 7 pounds, 6 ounces and is healthy. Dondi is also already dilated to a three. She'll do another no-stress test on Thursday at the doctor's office, a no-stress test at the hospital Memorial Day, and then check into the hospital for delivery on Thursday.

We took the countdown ticker off the Web site since it's no longer accurate, but we'll keep you posted around here, including pictures of the nursery later.

The countdown to Matthew continues

Matthew's room is ready for the Great Move-In of 2008. We removed everything from the room (it's no longer an office, or a kitty cat retreat) and the carpets were shampooed today (thanks, Gee and Jo-jo).

Since the room is empty, Jordan decided to use it as a place to run laps. As soon as I showed up with a camera, he stopped running laps and decided it was time to be silly. Here's the clip.





The week has just been crazy around here. Monday night, we went to the hospital because Dondi was complaining about a headache and nausea. Those can be serious concerns, so the kind nurses in Triage got her checked out. Fortunately, it was *just* a migraine. We visited the doctor both Monday during the day (before the trip to the hospital) and again on Tuesday, and everything seems to be checking out just fine. We've had the house cleaned and have been trying to get everything ready. It's been interesting, but we're making good progress.

We see the doctor again on Monday at 2 p.m., where we'll do a sonogram and another no-stress test. Matthew will be considered "full term" sometime around Wednesday, so we suspect we'll be discussing inducing delivery.

We haven't done a good job of posting every picture of Dondi throughout the pregnancy, but here she is at 36 weeks this evening, looking beautiful as always.















We'll post pictures of Matthew's room some time this weekend, and of course, we'll let you know the details of Monday's doctor visit.

For now, here is a random picture of Jordan as he tries on Daddy's shoes.















To update my post from Saturday about my asthma and allergies: I visited an allergist today to see if we can determine why I've been having so many sinus/ear/upper respiratory infections recently. I was very impressed with his thoroughness. He spent about 30 minutes interviewing me and learning about my medical history. We ran a couple of tests that determined (a) my lung capacity is somewhat compromised right now but (b) it's very much in a range that many others would be thrilled to have. He prescribed a plan to deal with the current allergy and sinus problems I'm having, plus get my asthma under control. We'll do an allergy skin test two weeks from today. He seemed very confident my problems were preventable, and maybe we can get the 4-6 (and sometimes 8) annual ear/sinus/upper respiratory infections down to one or two without putting me on a million different medicines. I'm all for that!

Bed rest, renovations and asthma

Not much has changed since our last update:

• Dondi went to the doctor on Tuesday. Her blood pressure was excellent and she took another no-stress test. Basically in the no-stress test, they hook her up to a monitor and she has to press a button every time she feels Matthew move. Results were normal, or good, or whatever they're looking for. She goes back to the doctor on Monday morning, but for now, continues on bed rest at home.
• I've been sick for about six weeks. Allergy-induced asthma has been the main culprit, followed by being sick to my stomach for over a week thanks to the medicine to deal with the allergy-induced asthma. I've been to the doctor now three times in two weeks, trying to get over this gunk. I see an allergist on Friday, May 16.
• Jordan has also been sick -- also allergies. He refuses to do the breathing treatments that help keep his lungs clear, so there's quite the battle of wills at our house right now.
• Don and Debbie have been over on Thursday and Friday this week to help get the office cleared out for Matthew's nursery. We're way behind schedule on that, mostly because we have no place to move stuff (and because one or both of us has been sick the better part of the last nine months). It'll be ready in plenty of time for Matthew, but we all would have rather had this done by now. My parents are coming over today to pick up a desk and hutch that we have no room for and I'll be moving our computer and computer desk to the dining room today. Once we move the cat's stuff out of the office, we can get the floor clean and move in the changing table, a dresser and the pack-and-play bassinet.

So that's what we're doing when not coughing, fighting a 2 1/2 year old or any of that stuff. :-)

Bed rest update

Dondi went back to the doctor today to complete her 24-hour test and to get the second of the two steroid shots that should help Matthew's development speed along. Her blood pressure was still high, but not as bad as Thursday, or even Monday.

The doctor wasn't there for the appointment, but her main nurse was. While the nurse couldn't say for sure, she said generally she would expect the doctor is trying to get her to 37 weeks of pregnancy before inducing labor. For the next three weeks, it's a lot of hurry up and wait. :)

Pregnancy Update

Well, we're back on the fun road of bed rest, doctor's visits and a lot of uncertainty.

• Last Thursday, Dondi went to the doctor for her regular bi-weekly checkup. Her blood pressure spiked, but wasn't too high, so she was told to rest for the weekend and come back on Monday.
• This morning, we went back for the check. Her blood pressure was still high, but she wasn't showing any other symptoms of toxemia, so the doctor elected to let her do a 24-hour series of tests as an outpatient. She also did a blood test, and received the first of several steroid shots that should help Matthew's development speed up, should we need to induce labor early. We start week 34 (of 40) of the pregnancy tomorrow, and Jordan was born just short of 36 weeks, so we'll see how all this works out.

We'll post more as we learn more. As always, your prayers are appreciated.

Driving for bluebonnets

Yesterday, we drove a total of 129 miles between our house, Glen Rose and back. This morning, 15 miles or so from our house, I spotted 3 miles of almost a solid carpet of bluebonnets.

Oh well. Doing my part to use as much oil as we can before it goes up in price some more. :)

Bluebonnets?

It's apparently still too early to have any real full bluebonnet pictures. We drove west to Fort Worth, south on U.S. 377 to Granbury, south on Texas 144 to Glen Rose, southwest to Dinosaur Valley State Park, then north on U.S. 67 to Cleburne, and north on Texas 174 to Burleson without seeing a really good patch of bluebonnets where we could take a picture. (We did see a patch east of Glen Rose near Rainbow that would have worked, but there was no safe place to pull over and snap pictures).

So, please settle for Jordan sitting in a fossilized footprint of a dinosaur.

Birthdays

This is our Spring run of birthdays: Emo's (Grandma's) March 31, Aunt Cris April 4 and Dad April 6. So it's been a fun week.

Friday night, the Hayhursts all went to Pappasito's in North Arlington for dinner for the birthdays. Dad got a J.C. Penney gift card and cash for his birthday. Saturday was Olive Garden with the Jordans where I got an iTunes gift card (it's mine, all mine!) and clothes galore. Dondi and Jordan also gave me my presents yesterday: the Leopard operating system for our Mac (love it) and a balloon bouquet (love it, too)

And today, Dad's actual birthday, we're thinking about heading out to find some bluebonnets south of the metromess. Hopefully it will go better than last year's bluebonnet picture.

I gave Jordan a buzz cut this week. You can see the results below. He handled it pretty well, considering Dad had no idea what he was doing. :)

Thomas the Tank Engine

We trekked to Grapevine today to the Day Out With Thomas at the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. We went with Pa-pa, Emo (Grandma) and Aunt Cris out to the railway. It was a ton of fun.

When we arrived in Grapevine, we parked at the library, which was a designated remote parking lot. The shuttle took us straight up Main Street to the train terminal. As we crossed the railroad track, we saw Thomas ready to go. All the little kids on the bus were delighted. Jordan shrieked as loud as he could, "Thomas the Train!"

















There was plenty for a two-year-old to enjoy: Legos, ball throwing, crayons, model trains and lots of wide open spaces to run. Jordan and I had our picture taken with Sir Topham Hat. Jordan wasn't sure what to make of Sir Topham, but he did give him a high five.

At 10:25 a.m., we lined up to board the train, pulled by Thomas for a 25-minute train ride. Jordan was pumped. We all had a great time on the short train ride (Jordan's first on any kind of train).

Thomas pulls into the Grapevine station.













Emo, Pa-pa and Jordan on the train.













Aunt Cris and Jordan on the train.













Jordan with his junior engineer certificate.

Dondi at 29 weeks

(Twenty-nine weeks is a little over seven months along). We haven't been as diligent posting about the pregnancy this time as last, so let's bring you up to date:

First, Dondi's picture at 28 weeks:















She's been pretty sore, but the doctor said her blood pressure looks good and the baby is developing right on schedule. Today she had her blood glucose mini screening. We'll get the results probably on Monday.

Dondi also starts visiting the doctor every two weeks now, rather than every three weeks. As we enter the 8th month, we'll probably have those visits every week. As the countdown calendar above shows, Matthew's arrival is quickly approaching!

Hoppy Easter

Saturday morning we all loaded up and went down to church for an Easter egg hunt. The church had set up three fields of eggs (0-18 months old; 19 months-3 years, 4 years+) and had three separate egg hunts. They also had a petting zoo with goats, geese, ducks and rabbits, plus two bounce houses. The Mansfield Police Department showed off one of its Dodge Charger police cars and the Mansfield Fire Department had one of its older fire engines out there for kids to climb on and have a look around. Jordan was pretty impressed with the siren.

Jordan had fun, though we think he enjoyed walking along the gravel driveway (and picking up the rocks) behind the church best.