"Are you ready for some Football...it's a Monday night party!!!"

Just finished my Fantasy football draft that my soon to be 3 yr old helped me pick players and chanted the above title many times to my hearts delight before heading off to bed. Brady is one month away from his 12th birthday it seems (he will be 3 on October 9th). He has mastered the art of pooping in the potty -- and yes, we are getting a raise - diapers are expensive!!! It has been the result of the wonderful parenting skills of my WIFE! I contributed the art of "slinging" - yes slinging your shorts and boxers across the room into the dirty clothes pile. (Directions: Take said dirty boxers on one foot and kick at an arc that will keep it from hitting the ceiling landing in said pile.) I also contributed to the potty training by giving positive re-enforcement for grunting and wanting to read magazines and turning on the fan! All these things were not in the How to Potty train your Kid in a Weekend which my wife did with great success.

Cullen is really enjoying giving mom an ulcer and stress levels are at defcon five! Cullen went to pre-op on 8/31 for his upcoming surgery on 9/10. Now if your taking notes pre-ops have been usually the day before surgery and they do things like tell us what the surgery will encompass, discuss length of stay, how to do things for him at home, check his temperature, check his breathing, and generally make sure he is ready for surgery. All of these things we anxiously wait for during the day at the hospital and questions get answered and then we go back the next day with a grip on what to expect. I am also sure many of you keeping notes realize that Rebecca has become such a regular at the pediatrician that this past time they were like "Norm"..."what's up? NO, Woody let's talk about what is going down!" Cullen went Monday with what we knew to be a low-grade fever and was on antibiotics - the pre-op had him registered with 96.7 temp and we met with a new resident who had never seen Cullen...so we are officially in the "system" With two surgeries under our belts and my wife that will soon have a Ph.D. in Online surfing about clefts and medical facts, we were OK with the events of the pre-op. Rebecca has become very good at keeping the ENT; Surgeon; Pediatrician; and Speech Therapist all on the same page -- which is not easy...

So we cancelled our trip to San Antonio to make sure Cullen got Antibiotics for his two ear infections and fever and glad we did. He has blown through most of the known drugs and the pediatricians decided on some heavy doses to get him ready for surgery. So after 3 days of shots Thurs-Sat of Labor Day weekend, he was feeling better and we made a small concessions and met the Yates at the zoo to get him out of the house on Sunday. He seems to be doing quite well today and we just need to get to Thursday. Now the surgery is supposed to be the lip repair, but he is also having his tongue clipped and ear tubes inserted. While the lip repair will be wonderful and Rebecca is definitely going to great lengths to keep him 100% healthy for that part of the surgery, the tubes are now becoming the more important item as the fever and ear infections are more troubling to Cullen. He really kinda likes being able to insert the entire Ritz cracker in his mouth at one-time!!! Besides Mom and Dad are going to be very sad when his beautiful smile is "fixed". It has become a fixture in all of our pictures..

Brady has become a real fan of Darth Vader - he has a great impression of the breathing. He also now is singing along with the Beach Boy songs in the car -- 3 yrs of Barbara Ann has paid off!!!! He has also become quite the "best bud" and "helper". He constantly is saying " No, I do it", he loves to put the keys in the ignition and no project is without his tool set and lots of assistance. He and I had a week of "pal"ing around - we rode the tractors at Sears, we watched Lightning McQueen at Costco, we played in the jungle gym at Chick-a-fila and gave the cow "hooves", he loves driving the shopping cart around Kroger and we only knocked down 3 displays. I tried to teach him the art of "impulse" buying and it worked -- we came home with frosted cookies, ice cream; strawberry and watermelon popping candy! I had forgotten how everything good is at the eye-level of 3 yr old!! Also walking around on a Saturday at a busy grocery store with a toddler driving a basket and wearing sunglasses and his ball cap...great way to meet people! Seriously, I think about 20 people were like - "oh he is so cute" " oh he isn't stopping" "oh %$%$ he is going to run into my shins!!!" We had a good time and now he enjoys going to the store...

While all this has been going on with Cullen the last 2 weeks, in and out of fevers, on/off antibiotics, in/out of Drs offices, a very sad day in the McGarr household occurred on Wednesday, Sept 2, 2009. Gracie McGarr left us. She was a wonderful kitty and was part of the family for 6 yrs, we had adopted her in July 2003 at 3-4 yrs of age. She had chronic kidney failure and we will miss her very much. Gracie was our "momma" kitty and she was very good with Cullen & Brady. She played with Cullen as he learned to crawl this past month and Brady would give her hugs and lots of treats. God speed.

-Shay