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.]

Today in school, Gareth said that Collin needed help.  We don’t often get to witness Gare’s empathy.

Collin was running a fever two evenings ago, so Brandy dialed up the on-call nursing who told us to take him to the emergency room.  He was admitted that night with a urinary tract infection and is still in the hospital.

Brandy has been staying with him while I hold the down the fort at home and take care of Gareth.  

We’re awaiting the results on a number of tests to see exactly what caused Collin’s UTI, which needs to be known before the docs settle on a final treatment.  We’ve also been told that Collin has to be fever free for 24 hours before they’ll let him go.  As of yesterday evening, he was still running 99 degrees minimum, so I would guess he’ll be staying another night.

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.

Once a year, right around this time actually, I get an itch to purchase a video camera. This is a largely irrational itch as we don’t record anything with the VHS-C camcorder we have now. But this year, we’re actually going to upgrade.

Which means watch out, because we’re bound to have a lot more video to post in 2009 than we did in 2008. Some of you will be happy to hear that, but the smart ones out there will recognize that there is no such thing as an entertaining home movie.

Brandy and I proved this to ourselves by watching our old tapes of Gareth. Brandy will never be able to tolerate her own voice again.

And Gareth is rapidly approaching seven years old.

Collin is gaining weight at a good rate.  But, on the flip side, he has also been experiencing some reflux.  For now, he’s on a thrice daily dose of Zantac, and Brandy has to swear off all dairy products.

During her pregnancy with Gareth, she became an avid milk drinker.  Now with her second child, she has to give it up.

“Ask mom why baby cries.”

Today, Gareth used an Intellikeys keyboard to write out, letter by letter, the sentence above.  This is a pretty momentous occasion as this marks the first time that Gareth has ever independently conveyed exactly what he wanted to say.

Until now, he has been limited to “speaking” via the choices we’ve given him or to the icons available on his Mercury system.  But today, he shared his thoughts.

The only assistance he received was help stabilizing his hand.

We can’t wait to see what he says next!

I meant to do this some time ago and never got around to it.  The proper address for this blog is now http://www.prebblefamily.com and reflects the fact that we’re now not just all about Gareth.

The old www.sirgareth.com address will continue to bring you here, so there’s no immediate need to update your bookmarks.

Collin’s blackened umbilical remnant came out yesterday.  Now, instead of a rigid decomposing extension, we have a pit of brackish goo.  Not in terms of salinity, mind you.

He was weighed as part of his two week check-up yesterday and is now at 6lbs 10oz.