Cabin Fever!

This was a weekend of true cabin fever.

My parents came to visit from MN...and apparently just 5 hours west, the weather was much different than our forecast. You see, my mom didn't bring any of her winter stuff (boots, coat, mittens) and instead, had her little windbreaker! I'm quite sure they were surprised the night they arrived when it was blustery and cold....and then the next morning when they woke up to snow!

By the last day they were here, you can see that even Grampy had cabin fever...he had gone crazy!

This particular weekend, Ellie had a project at Spring Road....a group of 5th graders got together with the music teacher (have I ever mentioned how much I love the music teacher!??!?!) to make a music video! They are singing a song called 'It's About Respect' for their concert in March and for the first time, tried doing a video to the music. I can't wait to see it. When I went to pick Ellie up after lunch, I saw this sign posted on the music room door...and then I saw it posted AROUND the music room too:

Now, how does a Neenah, WI teacher quote a music teacher from Austin, MN? Well, my mom, "queen of newspaper clipping", cut out an article about MY band instructor from 5th grade and his famous quote that he is STILL saying today! I showed the article to Ellie, she took it into her music teacher and the teacher LOVED it and posted it around the room!

When Ellie returned home from the music video making, we cracked open a new game we had gotten for Christmas...Scrabble Flash. Thank you, Aunt Rebekah for this game...it is a family favorite!!!! We had a couple hours of just playing...and playing...and playing...and playing! We were all getting into it. Well, everyone except Colin and Ava...and they were entertaining those who were waiting their turn for Scrabble Flash!

On Sunday, Ava went to the Valley Academy for the Ballet Exam. She was #5 and by far the smallest little ballerina there!

She told us "It was just like a class but there were 2 extra people watching and writing about us!" The next week, we received her exam evaluation. Go Ava...way to use your talents!

And finally....to get an idea of the entertainment we have been blessed with by Colin, click HERE. Colin has been doing a long pull up study at Wild Air in Appleton. It is funny because when the Wiggles music comes on, he stops what he is doing and re-enacts the Wiggles dance moves. Here he is at dinner trying to show the girls and Andy what I meant!

Winter Concert & More

This year, the choir had a winter concert, the first Saturday in February.
I have to admit....I was not all that excited about this concert. I had been told by the girls that ALL of the songs were in Latin! Add to that the fact that I wasn't hearing much practicing at our home, I figured it would be a non-event, nothing to write home about.
Boy, was I ever wrong!!! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! The concert was wonderful to listen to and the orchestra and singers that accompanied the choir were outstanding!
(Isn't it funny...we live right smack in the middle of music-land with Lawrence University just 5ish miles northeast of our house and we easily forget about the quality of local talent...until we are faced with a concert like this one!)

This was an interesting concert though....

On the day of the concert, Ava and I woke up feeling flu-ish. We had no babysitter for the little Glynn kids, so I told Andy 'Sit us on an aisle in case I have to rush Ava out if she gets sick!'. Shortly after the doors opened, he called me and said "What do you think about sitting in the balcony?" BRILLIANT! It was sparsely populated, Ava could lay on a church pew and we had our mega zoom lens, so we could still capture photos and video!

So, Andy is at the church early to get us seats and I'm struggling to get Ava out the door--she had been napping, she woke up fine and then felt bad again. Poor little girl! We did make it to the church though, and as we walked up to the balcony, we were met with pale Ellie saying "I don't feel good!" Ugh. Our new phrase is "Give it your best shot." (Maybe someday I will blog about that phrase...), so we encouraged her and sent her on her way...worrying that she'd quickly become the "star" of the concert, in a way that no one wishes to be.
(By the way...all Glynns made it through the concert just fine.)

Now, about that mega zoom lens on our camera. It was great....but yikes, the video is REALLY shaky. In fact, so shaky that I won't subject you all to feeling sick with too many video postings. HERE is the opening song "Gloria" and HERE is Jayna's Prima Choir singing their song.

The concert really was fabulous...2 songs in, Andy turned to me and said "I feel like I'm at a concert at the Performing Arts Center!" So true, it was a wonderful afternoon of music.

The rest of our week was "weird winter wonder". Honestly. I received an email from a family member saying "I hope the kids are having fun enjoying the winter weather!" Uh..no. Our yard was full of puddles, it was too windy/cold to enjoy the driveway...and, all of the bikes were put up for the winter, and our trampoline lost it's walls and is covered by a tarp (because we KNEW that living in Wisconsin would provide ample snow, so we do those types of things in preparation for the winter!

We did however have some memories:
Upper left: Best buddies Colin and Ava playing while the big girls were at choir...They set up all the cars and then they had "Bible Study". Precious.

Upper right: Colin and his beloved tools...and check out his glasses! Andy went on a 1 day trip to a Kimberly Clark Distribution Center and came back with safety glasses. Colin is very good about wearing them whenever he is working.... ;)

Lower left: Is this drawing too much or what? This is from Ava, to Andy and I. What a treasure. It's going to be framed for our bedroom...she is such a romantic, and such a fantastic artist.

Lower right: Perhaps this is the only snowman we will get built this year. Red, sparkly, and completely clean-up-able!

So Sorry, Squirrel Family

One Saturday morning, we woke up to VIOLENT sounds--I thought our roof was being ripped off by storm troopers or something. We determined that animals were fighting...however, we couldn't figure out WHERE they were fighting. There was no evidence of anything out of the ordinary happening. The kids were scared! It was LOUD! And then it ended. Nothing more.

3 days later, similar sounds could be heard in the walls of the pink room.
THIS prompted the call to The Critter Catcher.
Let me just say that The Critter Catcher is the nicest "service man" to ever come to our home.
He was also fast--Andy called him and within 30 minutes, he was on a ladder checking things out. (Well...that was a little of a misunderstanding--he thought we had animals fighting RIGHT THEN!)

After he climbed into the attic through Ava and Jayna's bedroom closet, he discovered that we have (had) squirrels living in our attic! He sealed 2 holes and set a trap on the outside of our house (left photo below). He then left for the day...
5 hours later, I discovered something IN the trap (right photo below)!

When it was all said and done, we had 4 squirrels removed from the attic. Ick. Amazing. Really!??!?! What an experience!

But back to The Critter Catcher--Colin really took a liking to him and was VERY impressed with the man's uniform--flashlight, headlight and tools...Colin took it upon himself to recreate the outfit himself...

Colin!

Baby Colin is growing up!
Now that he is home with me all alone during the day, I'm seeing Colin in a whole new light!

He cracks me up...and often I've said "I know what it is like to be a grandparent now...I feel like one with Colin! I've never had 1 child age 3 home with me before...I've always had many kids around!"

Andy's cousin sent him the Wiggles slippers in the top right photo, above. He LOVES them...and often sleeps with them on! Most days, he wakes up Jayna and Ava with his renditions of the Wiggles' songs....still!

On the left photo above, he is standing on a stool inspecting Wiggles movies at the library. The day I "caught" him standing on the stool looking at the movies was the day I knew he had left babyhood behind. :(

And the bottom right photo above....this was the only good photo I could get the day he FINALLY went into the swimming pool for lessons without tears. We now have the BEST swimming instructor we've ever had. She was life changing for the fate of Colin and swimming lessons. He will often tell me "I love Miss Vicky...I love to swim!". Praise the Lord!

And finally...this is a common Colin activity...playing a guitar while listening to "Colin music" (aka: Wiggles) on my phone...

1st Day of School!

BaCk tO sChOoL 2011-2012!

Today was the 1st day of school for all the Glynn girls!
Ellie is in 5th grade, Jayna is in 3rd grade and Ava is in 1st grade!

We were ready for school with 20 minutes to spare today...now that we've set the standard, can we keep it up?! The girls were very excited and very ready to be back with their friends!

When we lived in the old house, we ALWAYS took 1st day of school pictures by our Black Eyed Susan flowers. ALWAYS. It was such a tradition that last year, 1st beginning of school year in the new house, Jayna was quite upset! Black Eyed Susans are one of my favorite flowers, so when our dear friend Angela put a post on Facebook saying "Anyone want some free Black Eyed Susans?", we jumped at the chance. We thought the bunnies would eat them...but they did not!

So, can you see the Black Eyed Susans in the above picture! What a bummer to wake up to drizzle...but Andy had the best idea--we'd just take the pictures by the Black Eyed Susans through the window! :)

We arrived at school and first took Ellie upstairs to 5th grade and her LOCKER!
We then went back down to leave Jayna in 3rd grade and finally went down the hall and around the corner to take Ava to 1st grade. Andy noticed that the size of locker/cubby gets smaller as the kids get smaller! :)
While the girls were at school, Colin was struggling a bit. When I asked him if he missed the girls, he got a sad look on his face and nodded his head yes and then said "I miss Ava....Can Ellie and Jayna stay at the school and Ava come home to be with me?" So sweet. This afternoon, when Ava got home, Colin was just floating on air around the house and beamed when Ava said she'd play in the sand with him! 2 peas in a pod!

Tonight, as we talked about the fun parts of the day, the girls struggled to pick 1 fun part. They all said "I loved it all!" I think it will be a good year!

Now, onto the NEWS from the homefront on the 1st day of school....(read at your own risk!)
Most of you readers know that we've been potty training BIG TIME since January. We took about a month break in that time frame, but we've been hitting it hard with very little success.

Today, after a rough grocery shopping experience and a very uncomfortable Colin, he managed to finally poopie on the potty! His reward was a red car (pictured above) and Mike and Ike's from the candy kiosk in the mall!
He was so proud of his accomplishment that he proudly showed his car to the neighbor tonight and told her EXACTLY what he did on the potty. We're hoping that this is a step in the right direction...

Happy Birthday Colin!

Happy Birthday to Colin!
Above, he is telling Andy how old he is...and also figuring out how many fingers to hold up!
In 1 day, he went from baby to big boy. Our baby Colin!

His "party" was a Wiggles Party...thank you so much, eBay, for existing...without you, Colin would have NOTHING Wiggles related!

Today was Ellie's end of the year field trip...all day...all afternoon...until dinnertime. Yikes. How does a family celebrate a birthday then? Well...you get up shortly after 6 and have cake with candles etc at 7am! While I went on the field trip, Andy stayed home with Ava and Colin and they had such fun--playing outside, going to a park, feasting at Noodles for lunch and playing some more this afternoon.

I love the age of 3. They really "get it" with birthdays. You will notice the infamous red "gee-tar" that he's holding. So much for it enticing him as a potty training reward. I ended up putting it on the dining room table this week and it was hard--he had to look at it everyday without touching it! I told him "ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, you can have it!" Everyday, he asked for it. The night before his birthday, we said "Tomorrow you get it, Colin!" and he said "One more test...one more test..." (whatever that means!) This morning, at 630am, I heard him yelling "Mommy? NOW? Can I have my Murray Gee-tar NOW?!"

Sisterly love....he really loves the girls...and they really love him. I have a feeling we'll be figuring out how NOT to smother him in the next year though. Just a hunch it's on the horizen...

And finally...after opening gifts, after a surprise early visit from Grammie and Grampy, after taking a new toy outside to play...it was SO late (for Colin)...and he had HAD ENOUGH!

Rock on, little dude....we love you!

Vroom....vroom....vroom!

Is the above collage cute or what?
When we just had girls, I always said "I'd love to have a boy...because I really want one of those cool race car toddler beds!"

This spring, my mom found one for us and just this past weekend, we brought it to our house to make the big switch from crib to big boy bed. Andy had all the car wash stuff out for a "car (bed) wash" and as he turned his back to grab the camera, suddenly all 4 kids were hard at work, getting Colin's new bed ready!

The switch went amazingly well...as long as we didn't call it a BED. If we talked about it as a CAR, Colin was happy....call it a BED, he was hysterical. (This was huge...this is the babe that used his crib bumpers until he was 22 months old!)

The switch went well, but none of us could handle the car. What a bummer. The car had been played with outside and had the worst smell we could ever imagine. Not so bad on first glance, but after being in Colin's room for 12 hours last night, the room just reeked. We tried a few things today and then decided that we'd start our search for another carbed. I listed the bed on Craigslist and within 1 hour, someone called to pick it up tonight, for the price that we had paid!

For now.....Colin is sleeping in Ava's "sleigh" bed. Too bad he doesn't know what a sleigh is.... :)
What a big boy! Now....we just have to get the crib out of his room!

Wiggles-obsession

Ellie watched the Wiggles as a toddler....none of the other children have really ever seen these crazy dancing creatures. In fact, it was just a couple of weeks ago that Ava looked at me and said "MOM! I think the Wiggles are REAL PEOPLE!"

A couple of months ago, I had seen every Sesame episode that is "on demand" and decided to shake things up a bit with the Wiggles. That little choice was like a volcano erupting....COLIN is obsessed and the 3 girls are enjoying this new love of Colin's as well. The above picture shows Colin intently watching the episode and Ellie copying the moves. Colin wakes up and is doing his "Wiggle dance"....he does the Wiggle dance throughout the day...and our beloved babysitter told me "He did the Wiggle dance nonstop for me!" when she watched the children all day last month!

Here is a little video of Colin's dance....he usually shuts down when he sees the camera, so it is just a small example of what we endure frequently throughout the day!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Colin!

Who can believe that the 'chunk o child' on the above left photo is COLIN?!?!?! He was 2 weeks old in the above picture, he was quite the brute. The right photo is Colin ON his birthday, happily enjoying the trampoline with Ava!

Of course, we had our traditional "waking up on your birthday" photos....only Colin's bedhead isn't as fun to look at--he's just 1 big fluff ball of hair! If you notice the bottom right photo, you'll see his special breakfast, a HUGE bowl of one of his favorites....blueberries!
The cake.....was a Cookie Monster Cookie Cake....and it was sure yummy. That Cake Fairy does some neat creations! ;) Colin was not so sure of the candles.....and remained very serious until he had a piece of sugary yum in his mouth!
The day before Colin's birthday, Andy's Mom and siblings came up just for the day--it was a very fun visit. It was nice to see Uncle Ben on the last day before he moved to Denver and we did celebrate Colin's birthday with the Glynn family. As you can see....there were lots of hugs...and Colin received many "non princess" toys....I like to think of the upper right photo here as if he's saying "FINALLY.....some boy toys!" (Elmo "legos"!) This time, Colin really bonded with everyone, he had a lot of fun...and stayed up REALLY late (830pm!).
Colin opening gifts: (as you can see, he has learned well from the girls--you sit on the "king" (or queen!) chair and enjoy your gifts....he was REALLY into the opening of presents this year.
And then on his actual birthday, he opened the rest of his gifts--Andy captured his emotion so well on the collage below....Colin really loved every minute of his day. In fact, after all the gifts were opened, Colin sat back down on his throne and started doing the baby sign for "more". Precious.
We love our little Colin Max....he is such a joy to us! Happy Birthday big boy! And stay tuned for more Colin updates: this afternoon, I caught Ava teaching him how to try to climb out of his crib! Looks like the crib will be down before we know it!

End of October!!!!

Where has October gone? We have had a busy end to our month....and the great news is that as soon as we are moved, we will have just 2 activities--swim team and piano lessons--we will have plenty of time to unpack and spend some quality family time together. Since August, our family has been moving at the speed of light, it seems!

The above pictures represent Colin this week--1) What can I throw down that hole? I see my sisters throwing clothes down it....perhaps I should add toys to the mix?! and 2) Who needs toys when you can climb on the boxes that mom is stacking in the living room! It's a home-made climbing wall!

1 1/2 more weeks....until we move! However, we've had lots of fun stuff happening in the Glynn family's life!

Today, we were able to watch the last practice session of "Celebration", a swing-choir type group that Ellie and Jayna have been participating in at school. In a nutshell, it was amazing.

Last September, the girls had to audition--it was scary! They had to sing a solo in front of 3 judges and all of the children auditioning and then be observed learning simple dance steps. Today was the 7th week they've been meeting after school for 1 hour each week and what they've learned was just beautiful. They are really coming along as a group and you can tell they are growing in their confidence. The instructor "Miss Sheila" is also amazing--she has such a passion for this type of 'worship performing' and we could see that she makes these practices really fun. Ellie has loved each week of it; Jayna....not so much. However, if you view the videos, you will see nothing but JOY coming out of Jayna--she just LOVES it now. We are thankful that she stuck it out and ended up loving it!

Today, they did their practice and then they showed us the 2 songs they have been working on "Open the Eyes of my Heart" and "I am a Friend of God".
To view "Open the Eyes of my Heart" click HERE and HERE.
To view "I am a Friend of God" click HERE and HERE.



This week was also a special week at church--the 1st graders were presented with a "real" Bible (as opposed to a Bible storybook for a child!). It was a special service in which the parents were able to observe the children's worship as well as join the 1st graders for the presentation. The director of children's ministry told a great story that is worth paraphrasing:

There once was a man who lived on an island where it rained everyday. One day, he walked to the boat dock, he waited for a boat and then sailed to the mainland to go shopping. He picked up an umbrella; did not know what it was for and upon finding out it was to keep him dry from the rain, he bought it. He then walked back to the boat dock, waited for the boat, and sailed back to his island. It started to rain and everyone laughed at him, holding the umbrella that was doing NOTHING to keep him dry. He became upset; went back to the store where he was told "You have to hold it over your head to keep you dry"....so back he went, to his island. Of course, it started to rain AGAIN and this time, he held it straight over his head....and he got wet from the rain. He took another trip back to the store, wanting his money back as the umbrella was not keeping him dry. The store keeper realized that the man didn't know to OPEN the umbrella; he showed him how to open it and the man went back to his island. By this time, all of his island friends were laughing at him and making fun of him....and it started to rain again. The man finally opened his umbrella and stayed dry. A Bible is like that umbrella....many people have a Bible on a shelf, or they carry it around with them....but it doesn't do a lot of good if you don't OPEN it up and use it. (This story was so cute--the children had learned little actions--it was totally interactive and they really were focusing on the message!)

After the story, the Sunday School teachers presented the children with their own Bibles and it was darling--all the kids were sitting on the risers in the music room and they all had their heads down, inspecting and reading different parts of their new book. Even cuter has been the activities in our home this week: the requests to read to the family from Jayna's new Bible, the excitement to take it to school to "share" with the classmates and the request of "Mom....will you make sure you leave my Bible on my booster while I'm at school? I want to read it RIGHT after school..." Awwww....

Sunday starts November.....Not only is it Ellie's birthday month, but it will be "moving month" as well--stay tuned for documentation of all of that fun!

Happy Fall Take 2....

Notice anything different about Colin? He now has a RED (manly!) chair to sit in, thanks to my parents. My Dad agreed with Andy "He can't make that PINK chair his home!" The day after the red CARS chair arrived, I was getting the girls into the van before school and I turned around, only to see Colin at his new chair....but with pink princess purse by his feet and holding an American GIRL book! I guess we will take small steps with Colin! :)

We have a TON of leaves...despite not having many trees that drop leaves in our yard. Apparently all the trees of the street get together and say "OK...when you drop your leaves, wait until the wind is blowing toward the Glynn's house and drop all of your leaves right then!" The girls have enjoyed having huge leaf piles to jump in, and Colin has discovered how fun it is too....I'm just not sure of letting Colin play in the leaves with his PJs on....ick! Last Friday evening, we just had Ava and Colin at home and they enjoyed making a huge pile and then wrestling with Andy in the leaves!

Happy Fall!!!

Is this the cutest picture collage or what? Cute BOYISH Colin in the pretty pink throne...poor boy! (Colin can now crawl up onto chairs and he LOVES the pink chair!)

Andy mentioned that the blog had not been updated in awhile--he was right on! We have been busy! Aside from letting Colin nurture his feminine side by playing on the pink chair and with the millions of purses around this house, we have:

started teaching Ava how to ride a 2 wheeler! Who would have thought?! It seemed to last just 1 day, but she did a pretty good job before realizing that it was a tad bit easier to just ride with her training wheels...and back they went, onto her bike!

School and activities are keeping us REALLY busy. The big girls are both taking piano lessons and one afternoon, I peeked around the corner into the living room and saw Colin up on the piano bench with Ellie while she practiced!

Jayna and Ava are in swimming lessons; Ellie is taking diving lessons and just joined the swim team at the YMCA.

Ellie and Jayna auditioned for a singing group at school called "Celebration"; it is a ministry of singing and dancing. We were so proud of them, for singing a solo to audition--that took a lot of determination! They both have said they are loving it (Yes, for those of you who know the whole story...Jayna is back to loving it!) and want to auditon again when this session is over!

Ava is enjoying preschool; Colin is enjoying Elmo and becoming very 'toddler-ish' in all that he does.

Andy is busy at work and enjoying the Hawkeye football season; I am busy trying to remember what activity is happening each day and making sure nothing is forgotten :)

However.....

the biggest news of this season is that our house is officially sold! Jayna made this picture for Andy the day after everything was official--it was so sweet of her! The short story is that offer # 1 lost out to offer #2 who had no contingencies on the purchase of our home. We continued to have interest in the house and now, the sign is gone from our yard; the internet states "Accepted Offer"...and today, offer #1 called to tell us that if anything falls through with offer #2, to call them--they finally cleared their contingency! Needless to say, in 6 weeks, we will all be learning a new address and phone number!

But back to Jayna's picture....what a fun experience it was, selling our house with Valley By Owner...and Andy was quick to acknowledge that it took ALL of us working together to sell it--to keep it clean, to get out of the house during open houses, to show the house etc--what a crazy summer it was for us! From start to finish, it only took 5 weeks! Amazing!!! We are so thankful that things are starting to fall into place--what an amazing blessing to have everything happen at just the perfect time!

The Child Needs To Walk...

The other day, we caught Colin on video--unfortunately, his best moves were prior to me snagging the camera, and he does his best to avoid looking at the "scary" camera...but he sure got into the song playing on our computer.

However, he looks HUGE to be crawling.....he *needs* to walk.....
Enjoy the video!

Happy Birthday Andy & The Glynn Group...

What a crazy week this has been! Andy is on vacation this week and we're getting ready for our annual trip to IL for the 4th of July....Andy has made many trips to the local fireworks tents...

The week started with Ellie needing something to do while she waited to have her hair fixed for church....she put Colin on his helicopter and away they went! Colin just LOVES riding this toy! A big THANK YOU to Great Grandma--this is one cool birthday gift!

With 6 people, your van fills up FAST when you travel. For Christmas, all we wanted was money toward a new "cartop carrier" to hold all the stuff we take when we travel. This week, the Yakima will take it's maiden voyage...but first, we had to figure out HOW to get it on. Once Andy got it secure, he wanted me to see how easy it was to open it. I stepped up on the ladder, opened it up and BAM, there was Ellie yelling "Surprise!" She was IN the Yakima! Well, then of course, all 3 girls wanted to be IN the Yakima....

TODAY is Andy's birthday! Happy Birthday Andy! It was especially fun to have him home for his special day! We have free bowling cards for the girls and decided to use them this morning. We had a blast bowling....Colin even enjoyed it (well, he enjoyed his treats and falling alseep on the way home!)! Our family has a great time when we go bowling....and it's starting to be a birthday tradition around here. Ellie's theory is that IF it is your birthday, you will bowl strikes!

Here are some photos of the 'cake'. The girls decorated cookies last week with their friends Silas and Shae. It's an annual tradition to get all 5 kids together and they 'paint' the sugar cookies with this cool frosting. This time, we decorated tiger hawks (Iowa Hawkeye mascot) and I gave the girls instructions to decorate them nice for Daddy! (After all, the cake fairy IS on vacation!)

Andy enjoyed getting yummy Jelly Bellys, some shirts, a CD and a gazebo for our shade-less backyard. His most exciting gift though? To plan his fireworks show with his brothers....stay tuned for the blog entry on that fun!

Happy Birthday to Colin!!!!!

Today Colin is 1!

I put together a 'little' collage of his 1st year--you should be able to simply click on the collage to make it bigger if you want to inspect all of the photos. There are some from each month of his life. It is amazing to look back, to remember all the things we maybe had forgotten. A rough 1st month to his little life, and now, he is the sweetest little baby, I mean big baby!

In honor of Colin's special day, here are the
"Top 10 Reasons We Love Colin"
1. For being the only boy Glynn child!
2. For allowing baby clothing that is FULL of blue, and NO pink!
3. For the sweet smiles you give when we arrive home from being away from you.
4. For the hard beginning, which grew us in so many ways.
5. For needing formula, to stop the nonstop crying....little did we know how much we'd cherish giving you bottles!
6. For loving all 3 girl sisters....make sure you keep it that way forever, Colin!
7. For just knowing how to push a toy car--something the girls never did at age 1!
8. For looking like an "Andy-clone"!
9. For "letting" Andy receive the football he has been eyeing for years...and now he has the boy who will play with it! (Thanks, Landsverks...Andy will always remember you being the 1st to visit us in the hospital with that gift!)
10. For the joy that you have provided all 5 of us...from the girls being little mamas to you, for the cuddles you've given me nearly every night in the middle of the night, and for the excitement you have for Andy when he comes home from work--you have filled our family with such happiness in the last year, little guy!