Prebble Family Tales

Well, it would be a happy new year if each and every one of us weren’t sick.

After a whirlwind couple of weeks, what with Collin in the hospital (he’s fine now), Christmas, Brandy having to deal with 15 consecutive days with both kids home, and the usual hectic nature of life, we’ve left 2008 behind and started 2009 tired.

But it’s not all doom and gloom.  Gareth and Collin both had a great Christmas and got lots (and lots) of gifts.  Gareth benefits from having a two-fer month in December with his birthday on the 3rd and Christmas the 25th.  After this month is over, we usually have to spend time getting rid of all the old toys with which Gare no longer plays.

Collin is not yet to that point.  The point to which he is, however, is the very vocal, chatty point.  He’s making a lot of noise these days to let us know he’s happy, excited, hungry, tired, and soiled.  He loves taking baths and enjoys a good round of beatboxing.  [For the sake of clarity, Travis beatboxes, Collin listens.]

We’ll start with the kids.

Gareth had his holiday concert last night.  We normally worry about whether or not he’ll stay awake for it, but he has recently been staying up until 10PM, so no fears there.  I’ll post video as soon as I get it off the camcorder.  Gare is also having a birthday party with a few kids at the house tomorrow.  Two of the girls who adore him will be there.  Can’t wait to see how that plays out.

Collin is continuing to have problems with spitting up his food.  We’ve started using a heavy formula to help him keep stuff down and are seeing some success with that.  That kid has some range!  I’m surprised how far he can shoot his lunch.  Also, he farts like a mad man when he’s doing his morning wake-up stretches.  I sat in bed with him this morning just marveling at the volume of gas being passed by such a small boy.

Brandy has been having some pain since the delivery and was today told she is suffering from sciatica.  She’ll need to engage in a few physical therapy sessions to get that worked out.  Otherwise, she is recovering well and has been told she looks “fantastic”.

I’m not really up to much.  Still updating the RBR website, trying to rally a bunch of folks to archive old newsletters, and deciding what to do about a guy who contacted me this week to tell me Bikeable is his dream and that he’s had it since 2002.  I’ve been nervous about it all week.

Today marks Brandy’s 35th birthday, celebrated by two morning serenades from Gareth and me.  While I’m sure Brandy will enjoy the Zune I got her, she says her favorite present is Collin.

Which sort of sucks, because there’s no way I can top a baby next year.

That’s our delivery time.  Brandy and I will arrive at the hospital at 6:10AM for admission and prep.  We are then scheduled to produce Collin at 8:40.  If you are one of the elite few, you’ll likely receive a phone call tomorrow once everything settles down, at which point I will have to convey the obligatory height/weight statistics and say “Baby and Mother Are Doing Well”, because I didn’t get to say that to anyone last time.

I wouldn’t expect photos until late Friday night since I don’t think Brandy wants me running off to upload the snaps so soon after delivery.  I get the impression that she would like me to hang around a bit.

Okay, time to catch up!

The Miracle League baseball season has concluded.  We went to the closing picnic last weekend where Gareth was given his first ever trophy.  He didn’t want to let it go the rest of the day and was extremely proud to have it.  If you haven’t seen it yet, feel free to ask him to show it to you.

We’ve traded in Brandy’s “I don’t want to be a soccer mom” Mazda 5 for the purchase of a 2004 Toyota Sienna with an automated wheelchair ramp and kneeling system.  I think the kneeling system is incredibly cool (it lowers the right side of the van before deploying the ramp), but it doesn’t buy us much of an advantage and it increases the time waiting for the ramp to deploy, so we don’t use that feature.  And no, it can’t be wired to bounce the van up and down as though we were starring in a Dr. Dre video.

In less than two weeks, Collin will be born and will get to move into his patiently waiting nursery.  Things continue to go well, and we’re still on track to deliver in State College.  Brandy and I will be traveling to Danville on Friday to meet with yet another doctor there, just in case.  We’re struggling with the idea of experiencing a relatively normal birth and the challenges of a child without challenges.  You’d think we’d be pretty well battle worn, but we’ve spent the last nearly seven years tuned to what Gareth requires in care and are wholly unprepared for normalcy.

Anne (my mother) has moved in with us since the last blog entry.  She’s helping us with Gareth while we help her with support.  By October 26th, we’ll have six people and a cat in our house every night.  It’s starting to feel like Charlie Bucket’s house.

Those are the big items from the past month.  It has been far busier than we would have liked, but we’re just about out of it in time to have our second child.  Can we take 2009 off?

Miracle League is officially off its July hiatus, which means we were back in Altoona on Saturday for a ball game.  Gare was thrilled to be back on the field.  I was thrilled to have an excuse to get a strawberry Julius at the mall.  Gare and I also got some video game time in on Sunday, playing a few songs in Rock Band and a few rounds as Darth Vader in Soul Calibur IV.

Things are back in action in other facets, as well.  Brandy has a hectic school schedule this week with various meetings going on.

I’m getting back on track with finishing the work in the basement that will allow my mom to move in with us for the remainder of the pregnancy.  I’m also meeting with somebody this week on BikeAble business, dropping off books for the AAUW, and trying to sell more crap (know somebody who wants to buy 300+ CDs in one shot?).

Speaking of rampant consumerism, I’m sure some of you are wondering how many of the new Clone Wars toys I’ve been buying.  The answer is: zero.  After having just packed up all my Star Wars toys, there’s no way I’m going to add to the collection now.  Forget it.  Not worth the hassle.  I’m a practical junkie.

Brandy and I took a trip to Danville yesterday to see their prenatal team.  The trip was for two reasons: to get a second opinion on our situation and to build a rapport with the Geisinger team in anticipation of delivering there.

We sort of got the first and didn’t get the second at all.

Second opinion is that everything is going well.  Size and weight of Collin are perfectly normal.  Things seem to be developing appropriately.  He still has a penis.

The rapport thing?  Not so hot.  The doc didn’t seem at all familiar with our history with both Gareth and Danville.  He was unaware of the big ticket items that are causing both us and our local doctor concern.  He also seemed of the opinion that there was really no reason to deliver at Danville.

Oh, and he forgot we were there for about an hour and a half.  Literally forgot.  Being the quiet, non-confrontational people that we are, we sat in a freezing cold darkened room until somebody finally remembered we were in there.  In the meantime, I played with the chair and looked through all the cabinets.  Had to do something.

But at least the ice cream we had at Friendly’s afterwards was good.  And so was the news that all was well.

For those of you who didn’t already notice, the photos from the Spikes game are now available. I’ve included a small taste here so you can decide whether or not you really need to see more.

What’s really funny is that every time I take Brandy’s picture, she says, “That better not end up on the Internet.”  Well geez, that’s just about the best way to make sure that it absolutely will end up on the Internet.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.