I'm Dave.....you know, Jaime's Husband

Well......After eight years of marriage, Jaime finally trust me enough to post to her Blog. For those who know me well, you will understand that this privilege does not come without certain stipulations. Aka Rules! Having the combination of being a higher type A personality than Jaime along with a career in Sales, I have been encouraged to tone it down.

As an introduction for those of you who do not know me well, I am the guy that always answers the phone and says.......sure let me go get her. Or, can I have her call you back.....Reece just spit up on her and Olivia is climbing on the fridg. Either way, you get the privilege of talking to me.

So as I sit in the Chicago airport awaiting my flight to the frozen tundra of northern Iowa, the only thing I have to say in my first post is....................man I miss Jaime and the kids.

First Hospital Trip

Well, yesterday morning was our first trip to the hospital with Reece. On Friday night he was waking up EVERY hour. At first I tried feeding him (which he doesn't do at night anymore), but that didn't help. I also tried rocking him, but I noticed that when I picked him up he cried even more. At about 3am I noticed that he was only reaching up for me with one arm. The doctors told us that when he has a bleed in a joint, you will notice that they won't want to use that arm/leg. I also noticed that he wasn't changing position between wakings which is odd. He is usually all over the place. Finally at about 4:30 I told David that I thought he had a bleed so we called the doc. She said she was on her way to the hospital anyway and that if we would meet her there at 7am, we wouldn't have to go to the ER. So we changed him out of his jammies (screaming each time we touched his arm), and put him in the car. After we got to the hospital though, he seemed to be much better. It took us almost an hour to get through check-in (VERY FRUSTRATING), but finally got to our room. While I was checking him in, we noticed that he was using his arm again, and seemed very happy. After the doctor looked at him, she felt we should go ahead and infuse just to be safe. This was a lot harder than I was thinking. I so wanted to be strong for him, but when I saw the nurses digging around looking for a vein over and over, I nearly lost it. I had to go sit down, and let David take over. After about 10 min. they did finally get a vein and the infusing went fine. I was a little embarrassed since he seemed fine once we got there, but am SO very thankful that he didn't have a major bleed. At 9mo old, that would be pretty early for him to have a joint bleed. All in all, we felt like it was a good trial run, if anything. We now know how early to come (for registration), where to go if not the ER, and what to expect. I also typed up a check list of things to take so if I'm alone, I wont forget something. I'm so thankful that David was here, and that Olivia happened to be at my parents that night. I'm hoping that when this happens again, that I can be stronger. I want to be there for him when he goes through this and not wimp out. It's so incredibly hard to watch this happen to your baby. I give so much credit to the families that have to go through these kinds of ordeals all the time.

After we got home Reece took a couple of really good naps, and was as happy as ever the rest of the day. It's amazing how babies only comprehend things in the moment. Small blessing! I'm hoping that we don't have to do this again for awhile, but we're ready if we do.

Jaime, Where Have You Been???

Hi Everyone

I'm very sorry it's been so long since my last post. I think I had gotten a little burned out on the blog for awhile. We've also been running like crazy people this month and every free moment I have (which means no kids around) is spent sleeping or trying to pick up the house before the next wave of storms blows through.

Here is a recap from the last post....

School was out for a couple of days for a "winter break" sure never had that when I was in school. However, we had fun (for awhile) with Miss Priss and enjoying some time together during the week.

Next we went to a B'day party for Olivia's friend Clayton at the gymnastics we use to go to. It was a blast! Olivia wore out the guys who were leading the festivities for the Gym. What a great day though!

Next, which was a bid deal around here, Olivia participated in the first Show-N-Tell in her class last week. For those who know how shy she has always been, this was a big step for her. She took a stuffed puppy (which she calls Mitch) and told her class all about him. Needless to say, she got a Sonic ice cream after school for that. We were so proud of her.

Also, for those who I haven't already spoken to about this, there is a group in Georgetown trying to open a Charter school for Williamson County which I am SOOOO excited about. Here is the website if anyone is curious Imagine International Williamson County . It sounds really exciting and am working on the "Circle of Founding Families" to help get it up and running. We've been collecting signatures from our friends to help show community support (so for those who still owe me.....

Valentines Day was next. What a great day...Olivia gave David, Reece and I some of her stuffed animals "just for the day" as her gift to us. It was so sweet. We also went to Mom and Dad's for a birthday dinner for my Dad.

Then, this past Monday, we had our monthly Girls Night Out at Z Tejas. It was a blast and the food was great. Oh, and the Mojito was EXCELLENT too!!!

Yesterday was our 8th Wedding Anniversary and we celebrated by going to Gumbo's here in Round Rock. Wonderful as always, might I add! I can hardly believe it's been 8 years too....wow how time flies!

Today Reece has decided to take a 3 hr nap YEAH for me so I'm catching up on lots! I'll be posting more as we have some exciting stuff happening in the next few days! Stay tuned.....

Be Quiet Sister!

Olivia has really gotten into Reece now that he is old enough to interact with her. Here is a quick clip of her playing in the play pin with him. I think he was tired of her continuously saying his name so he decided to stop the noise. David and I are so amazed at how much they interact even with him being so little.

Cowan's Funniest Videos

We have had some pretty funny videos lately that we wanted to share.

The Basting Brush Treatment (Soon to be in ALL the Spa's)
We knew that Reece liked chewing on my new rubber basting brush that David gave me for X-mas, but we had no idea how much he would LOVE a neck rub by it. Take a look at this...it's hysterical. Notice his right foot at the very beginning....it's curling :o)

Olivia's Dance Studio

Lately, Olivia has been asking Reece and I to come watch her perform in her room. This particular video is of her dancing to the Hamster Dance song on her CD. Notice what Reece is wearing....Olivia said he needed a hat so he would be "dressed up" enough. He thinks it's the best show ever...free entertainment and all the Playschool Little People he can chew on during the performance. (Disclamer, I do usually keep her room cleaner than this)

Goodbye Reagan

Well, my sweet Reagan left us yesterday. After his surgery last month, he really never fully recovered. He developed paralyses in his back end which finally prevented him from standing at all. Because of his lack of control over bodily functions, we were forced to leave him outside, which he's never had to do. He was just so unhappy. It took me awhile to realize it was the right thing to do, but he is now in a better place. He has been such a huge part of my life for the last 11 years and he will be missed so much. There will never be a another dog like him, but I'm so glad for the time we had together. I finally dug out some really old pictures of him to share. I believe that even animals go to Heaven so I'm comforted by knowing that others are enjoying him until our times comes to be reunited again.

Girls Only Weekend

Well, Mom and I took Olivia up to Mt. Pleasant this weekend to visit my Aunt Annaleisa, Uncle Don, and Pops (my grandfather). It was so much fun. Olivia's last official trip was May of last year so she was REALLY excited to go. We drove the 5 hrs (one way) in mom's car with the DVD player, which is a must when travelling with little ones. She did such a great job too. The hotel was a huge hit. They had two queen beds and a sofa that pulled out into a bed, so Olivia claimed the sofa bed (thank goodness). She thought it was a big sleep over I think :o)

My aunt and uncle have 4 Black and Tan coon dogs which Olivia thought were sooo fun. I think her favorite was Priscilla, because she likes to give LOTS of kisses. Loretta was mom's fave, though, because she is the most laid back. They were all adorable though!

We also got to go to my aunt's flower shop, there in town, where she has two cats, Sigfried and Roy, that live in the shop. Olivia LOVES cats and they didn't mind her smothering them for awhile. What a great trip! It was so wonderful to visit with all of them that we don't get to see nearly enough. Too bad Sarah, Brian and Joe couldn't have been there. Those are my cousins, which I also never get to see. We miss you all very much! Hopefully we will take another girls only trip back this summer when they have some puppies, though, I may never get Olivia to leave.