Thankful...

Brent came up with a terrific idea for us to do. We each made a list of things that we are thankful for. When we completed them, we read them to each other. We all three sat at the table. Brent and I began reading and discussing our lists. Cullen said, "I want to talk." We asked him what he was thankful for, and this is the list he came up with:

God
mama
daddy
cars
rocks
candy
cheerios
church
cereal
fruit bars
friends
cookies
Greeny (a lizard that lives outside)
George (his stuffed lizard)
Wally (his Betta)

Don't be alarmed if you didn't make the list. I believe that he was hungry while he was discussing his.

Even though we are very thankful for our blessings and family year round,we have a family tradition now at Thanksgiving.

It's December

Hello, we are doing much better. Our last few weeks have been very eventful and hectic.

This is a run down of what has been happening:
*Beginning of November, Cullen had bronchitis. We were home for a few days.
I caught it, and did not go to the doctor. It turned into walking pneumonia. Off to the doctor I go.
*Meme came to visit. This was avery good thing. We were all happy to see her. Cullen loved every minute of her visit.

*While all this is going on, Brent is still trying get an appointment with the correct doctor concerning his broken eye socket.

*Got a call from Alabama on the 13th. My dad had a mild heart attack over the weekend and is having a heart cath on the 15th. On the 15th he went in for the heart cath. They decided to put stints in. One broke off in his heart, and he had another heart attack. They took him to surgery. He coded twice. By the end of this day, he had two open heart surgeries and coded 3 times. We were still in Texas at this time. He continued to go downhill so we loaded up and went to Mobile on the 17th. They were finally able to take him off the vent on th 19th, and he got out of ICU on the 20th. Things were beginning to look better. I relapsed with the pneumonia and was unable to visit him anymore. Brent took Cullen to see him on Monday afternoon and Tuesday. We traveled home on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving due to me being sick.

Thanksgiving Day: Brent cooked us Crawfish Fettucine. I'm sure that is traditional Thanksgiving Dinner somewhere. It is very good. We made lists of the things we are thankful for. I will post cullen's soon. My dad went back to surgery for a blood clot. It was successful.

The rest of our holiday was very quite including my B-day. We had lunch at Pappaduex's and watched the Texas A & M game.

We went back to work on the 27th, and my dad was able to go home. Cullen got sick again on the 28th with throat problems and a 104.4 fever. Home again for a few days.

Brent has completed the decorations on the outside of the house. It looks really good. Cullen picked out a candy cane tree, candy canes, and deer. Pictures to come...

I believe this brings us to the present. We had a very restful weekend. I went grocery shopping alone something that is happening more often. Cullen likes staying at home instead of going to the grocery store. Like father like son.

I would like to thank everyone for their prayers during my dad's surgery and continued recovery.

Cat in the Hat

Trying to grab the tail!
Not very excited...
What a face?

It's Official

Cullen and Daddy have a new club. They are "Bandaid Bubbies." I am not a member. They remind me everyday.

Cullen says,"Mama you are not a girl."
I ask,"What am I?"
Cullen answers, "A Mama!"

That explains that...

FREAK ACCIDENT

Let me set the stage for you...

It was a normal evening at the Estes household. We had just finished dinner and watched a little bit of "Finding Nemo". Now it was bathtime. I gathered all of Cullen's necessary items, and we headed for the "big" bathroom (code for mommy and daddy's). Well, Brent and Aggie come in to see how things were going. Bath water is not even on yet. Aggie tries to get in the bed, and Brent wants her off. He tries to get her out of the room. Cullen and I are in the bathroom, but listening to the commotion. I guess Nomar was in the front of house listening, also. Nomar is a special dog, and his interpretation was "Oh boy, play time!" All 100 pounds of him comes running full force into the bedroom where Brent is half sitting/half lieing and trying to remove Aggie from the bed. He then jumps for the bed as Brent turns around to catch Nomar's head directly in the face. Then there was a scream. Cullen did not leave the bathroom. I went flying in the bedroom to find Brent on the floor and blood pouring from his face. All I got was Nomar.

He got it cleaned up but couldn't move his right eye. His nose kept bleeding on and off. The pain was making him sick. He laid down and took ibu's to try to help the pain. We decided that since he felt like his eye was going to fall out and that his face, nose and teeth were in pain, that we should go to the emergency room.

Emergency room visit:

Always enjoyable especially with a two year old. You know that they didn't believe the old story of the dog head butting Brent. You get those looks. Anyway, hours later he is off for a CAT Scan. He returns and hours later the results are back. It is broken. The force was so hard that it went the through the large front bone in his face and broke one of the eye socket bones. Yes, painful. He will have to visit a face doctor in a few weeks to make sure it is healing correctly. Right now pain killers. Lots and lots of pain killers...

Brent needs lots and lots of love.

Nomar needs lots and lots of prayers of protection...

BITING

I picked Cullen up from daycare yesterday only to find four incident reports. Yes, they right wrongs done during the day. Two were for crimes committed against Cullen, and the other two were crimes Cullen committed.

1st incident: 8:20 a.m. Cullen is playing with Morgan, and Morgan bites him on the arm.

2nd incident: 10:45 a.m. Cullen is playing with Morgan in the gym, and Morgan bites his arm.

3rd incident: 10:46 a.m. Cullen wants to stand on a box Tyler is standing on. Tyler will not get off, so Cullen bites his arm.

4th incident: 4:45 p.m. Cullen is playing basketball with Tyler. Tyler takes it away from Cullen. As Cullen was trying to retreive the taken item, he scratches Tyler on the cheek.

Cullen has been bit 6 times by the same child. Maybe, he should play with someone else. Now Cullen is biting, again. We went through this at the last daycare. He was bit a number times then started biting. Now, we are going through the same thing, again. What to do?

Halloween Hoopla...

Cullen woke up Halloween morning at 4:15 a.m. So, this might tell you what type of morning we were going to have. I finished his costume and got it ready for him to put on. He refused. I mean he would not have any part of it no matter what I said. He wanted to wear his blue pants in the parade. I put it in his backpack just in case he changed his mind while he was at school. Of course, he did. He wore it to the Storybook Parade. Remember, I wrote earlier that no superheros or devilish creatures were allowed. Well, some showed up to crash the Storybook Parade. Maybe, I shouldn't be such a rule follower because Cullen's partner in crime showed up as Superman. I hope he will not be scarred for life because at age two he was forced to wear a homemade Cat in the Hat costume on Halloween. Anyway, his school day activities turned out very nice. He was excited about all of the candy.

That evening I wanted Cullen to dress up so I could take pictures and then go to a few houses. Again, he was refusing. He did not want the tail or the bow. His Daddy talked him in to putting the costume on by telling him he could chase the cats in the neighborhood. If anyone could pull off a homemade Cat in the Hat costume it would be Cullen. He looked most adorable. Once he got outside ringing doorbells and saying,"Trick or Treek", it was all over. After each house, he would say,"Just one more house, please!" It ended up being fun. Cullen is all about the candy part of Halloween. (pictures to come)