All Crouped Up

Gavin came down with croup on Friday and is still battling a horrible cold. His nose is running constantly and he is coughing so badly. It is so pathetic sounding. On Friday night he woke up in the night and was coughing so hard he was throwing up. He couldn't breathe and was so scared. He was freaking out a bit, and so were we! I was able to call our 24 hr. nurse help line and she gave me several suggestions for croup. It really was an aweful experience. I couldn't imagine a little baby getting it. I am glad that Gavin is at least able to tell me what is bothering him. He is a little dramatic with the whole thing. I was trying to call his Doctor on Saturday morning and Gavin was laying on the floor in the living room crying and saying, "I'm sick, mamma and you're not helping me!"

He is still having a rough time at night time. He has been waking up a lot in his sleep and coughing and crying. It's all a little sad, but I am just dying for a good nights sleep. I have not slept through the night since Friday. It's bringing me back to those newborn days. I don't know how I ever got through it.

Gavin was feeling quite a bit better yesterday so we decided to treat him to a movie. It was his first movie experience. It was so fun. I felt so excited, just like I was through all of his other milestones (not that this is considered a milestone). I kept asking him what he thought and if he liked it. He did pretty well. I thoguht he would want to get up a lot more than he did. It probably helped that he wasn't feeling all that well. Here are some pictures from our outing. I looked like a lunatic taking pictures of my kid at the movies, but I didnt care. I even saved our ticket stubs for his scrapbook!

We bought this kite the other day and Ryan couldn't wait to try it out. It was pretty cold outside, but the wind was FANTASTIC! We do live in the windy city! Gavin had fun, but I think that Ryan had the most fun of all!

Apartment Tour

For those of you who did not get to see this - Here is a video tour of our Apartment.

Trip to Michigan

Our trip to Michigan was fast but fun! We got to spend a day at my parents house and celebrated my nephew's first Birthday. My family is so fun and we had a great time. Gavin got to play with his cousin Jonas. He misses him so much! Leaving family was the hardest part about moving to Chicago. After we left my parents house we headed out to Ryan's family's neighborhood. We got to hand out with his brothers and their wives. They are our best friends and we really miss them dearly! We love getting together with them. Ryan's mom organized an Easter egg hunt for all of the grandkids. They had a super fun time with that and got an overload of candy, of course! On Sunday we went to our old Church - Harvest Bible Chapel - and got to see so many of our friends. We went out to lunch with a few of them. We really miss all of the friendships we had at our church. After that we went back to Ryan's parents house and had a scrapbooking evening with the girls. Every Dobbertin girl LOVES to scrapbook. I think that it may have been a prerequisite to joining the family! We started at about 3:00 and Laura and I went the longest and packed up our stuff at about 1 a.m. Then we stayed up and talked for two more hours! I didnt get to bed until 3:00! It was crazy, but I had a great time with Laura. I was really glad we got to spend that time together. And I was really glad that I have an AWESOME husband who let me sleep in on Monday morning, sleep most of the way home, take a nap when we got home and did all the laundry! Seriously, he deserves a medal for all of that! Well, here are some pictures from our trip! I hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Three of my favorite boys

Gavin and Jonas being silly

Herb putting up the balloons

Jonas being the cutest boy ever!

As we were pulling out

This is Gavin giving his version of a thumbs up

The traffic as we are leaving the city

The boys

Herb being emotional while watching Mason's video!

My brothers family

Addy Bauma and Gavin

Me and Mason - the birthday boy

Getting ready for the egg hunt

Aunt Kimmie -Hero of the day (she brought all the boys presents)

Sisters

This is what Pappa does most of the time

All the grandkids

Different, but good

Check out this video. It was shown at a church service that I attended recently. It is a little unusual, but very moving. It takes you a few minutes to get into it, but by the end I was in tears. It is a beautiful picture.

A little of this, a little of that

On our way home from church on Sunday I saw a bumber sticker that said

Warning: In case of rapture this car will be unmanned

I thought that was so funny, but practical too!



We have just been hanging out around here. Our friend James came to visit for a few days. It was nice to see someone from Michigan.













I have been crocheting like crazy as well. I made a bear for Gavin. It was fun to make. It's a little lopsided and very imperfect, but Gavin doesn't mind. I am currently working on making a pig.





We are also in the process of hatching a baby dinasour. We bought an egg from the Field Museum and have been videoing our progress. I will post the videos soon! Here is what the egg looked like when we brought it home and submerged it in water.










I got to hang my curtains up last week too! I was excited about that. The excitment didn't last too long becasue once they were hung, they were much too short to fit our windows. No worries, I just dug out some old material and sewed in an extra stripe. They used to be just solid brown. It took me forever b/c I don't have a sewing maching yet. There are four pannels altogether, but I just took a picture of one.






I have to throw in a picture of Gavin! What would a post about our family be without a picture of him!?!?!










Well, thats what we've been up to lately!

Valentines Day

Our family celebrated V - Day a day early because Ryan had to work. He took us to the Cheesecake Factory (my new favorite place to eat!) and then to Ghirardelli for ice cream. I am a chocolate fanatic - seriously, I dont think that there is anyone out there who likes chocolate more than I do. So, I got a heaping scoup of Chocolate ice cream and it was DELISH!

Fun with a Rubber Band

The other day Gavin asked me to put this rubber band around my face. I don't know where he came up with the idea, but it sure was funny. We were both laughing so hard. I seriously almost wet my pants! It reminded me of Peewee Herman, he used to do something like that with scotch tape!

Hope you had a good laugh! We sure did!

Family Day

It was a fairly warm day on Friday, so we took advantage of it. We found a great place to shop on Friday morning with the greatest store ever invented. It's called the Conatiner Store. It is organizational heaven. I loved it. A bit pricey, but it was still cool. I can't believe that I walked out of there empty handed! We found a Children's Place and got some really great deals. They had 50% off of their already clearnace items so we were able to pick up a lot of 4T stuff for next year!


After the morning of shopping, we came back home and grabbed some lunch Gavin took a nap and then we headed out to the zoo! The Lincoln Park Zoo is a really cool, free zoo in the city. I was suprised at how much we were able to see with it being so cold. A lot of it is inside, but some of the animals were outside. We saw some camels and Gavin said, "Can they talk?" It was so funny. I guess in any cartoons that he watches the animals do talk. His favorite thing was the barn that they have with a very big, very real John Deere tractor. Ryan tried to get a picture of the barn with the skyline in the background.

Super Gavin

I was vacuuming the house today and Gavin got a hold of the attachments. He wanted me to tape them on his back. I attached it with a belt instead and he loved it. It was so funny. He said,
"I will show daddy when he gets home!" I dont know where he has seen something like that before or if it just comes naturally to boys. I was so suprised.

(This shot was Gavin's idea - he really wanted a picture from the back!)

In action