On another occasion my sister ended up splitting her head open (I think she fell while skating in the church basement). Anyways instead of shaving a spot on her head, the Dr. decided that using hair on each side of the wound tied together would work. And what do you know, it got the job done. Not sure if is scarred up real nasty or anything but maybe if she loses all her hair or shaves her head, we will know some day. But again, that makes for a somewhat fun story to tell.

I don’t really have any crazy stories of my own, I have several scars but nothing fun, at least nothing that I can remember (go figure I have a hard time remembering the details surrounding my head cracking open). However, I can say that you should alway keep your mouth closed when rebounding a basketball, or at least wear a mouthpiece. In highschool I did just that (well no I did the opposite actually) and ended up with one of my front teeth sunk into some kids head (don’t worry the tooth was still attached to me, I didn’t lose, I just had to jerk it out of his head). Anyways he got stitches and I got a root canal, so that should count as a funny stitches story.

So I guess it is now time for my daughter to start in on her stitches stories. Hopefully there won’t be many but we do have our first. On February 9, 2010, Ali fell, hit her head on a step and cracked it open pretty good. She was playing at the sitter’s house when she fell over and hit her head on the step to and from the sunken living room. On a side note, I have never understood the purpose of a sunken living room. I mean, can you name one positive about it? They require a step that ends up tripping anyone headed to or from the room. If you are lucky you just walk away with a bruised ego; otherwise, you may end up with stitches or a broken ankle. Just make the damn room level with the rest of the house. Just another stupid 80s fad, unfortunately this one isn’t as easy to fix as putting down the Aqua Net and restyling your hair, pulling the shoulder pads out of your shirt, putting down the boom box, taking off the glitter glove and stop trying to moon walk, taking off the leg warmers, and putting away the slap bracelets. Anyways, back to Ali hitting her head on the sunken living room step. I quickly went over and picked her up at the sitter’s house. She was quietly sitting on the sitter’s lap with a little blood trickling down from above her right eye. We gathered her stuff and I took her over to the urgent care center about a half-mile up the road. I decided that was the better route than trying to head over to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Close to Home Center which is only about 3.5 miles from our house, but because this happened during another snow storm and the streets sucked, the distance was too much. The drive would have been a good 20 minutes, the urgent care only took about 3. Anyways, Ali traveled like nothing was wrong as long as I kept feeding her some Nature’s Choice graham cracker sticks. We eventually got into a waiting room where the doctor saw Ali. At first she wanted to glue the wound but decided it was just a little too big for the glue. At this point Ali still hasn’t cried or fussed really, even while we were holding gauss on the wound with some pressure. But, when the doctor and nurse started to do their thing she decided she didn’t like that. But who can blame her, she has a piece of paper over her face with a hole cut in the middle (like something you would find in a public restroom to put on the toilet seat), wrapped up like a mummy in a blanket, the nurse holding her head like a pumpkin in a vice and the doctor has a needle with thread attached practicing cross-stitch on her face. I think she was a trooper and handled it great. It was kind of hard to sit there and watch as a parent, I felt pretty bad for her lying there screaming with tears running down her face. But it had to be done and I am happy she came through it without too much trouble. By the time the doctor was leaving the room Ali was back to her normal smiling self. It is pretty amazing how quickly she can get over something like that. This evening you wouldn’t have had any idea how bad of a day she had if you couldn’t see her stitched right above her big round blue eyes.  See a couple of the pictures I took after we got home, does she look upset? The entire album can be viewed here.

I am not entirely sure why or if I should be, but I am proud of her.

Also if you have any fun stories feel free to share them below in the comments.

We had our Osborne/Benroth Christmas this year the weekend before Christmas. We all traveled to the Menenite home in Bluffton, Ohio so we could spend Christmas with Grandma Phyllis. We had lots of food, a fun gift exchange, and some heated Bingo. It was good to see everyone and catch up. Afterwards my parents, brother, and sister drove back with Colleen, Ali, and myself to our house. My Dad, brother, and I had plans to watch Avatar in 3D the next day at the Dublin theaters just off of Sawmill. On a side-note, Avatar in 3D is probably the best movie experience of all time. You must see the move in 3D if you still can.

The following Thursday (December 24th) the three of us traveled to my parent’s house in Oak Harbor, Ohio for Christmas where we met up with my brother and Sister. I don’t think there was anyway that we could have stuffed one more item in the Highlander, it was packed full of clothes, baby gear, and gifts. There was no seeing out the back windows, that was for sure. (On a side-note I just ordered a new hitch and a 2′x5′ cargo tray that slides into the hitch for the highlander to give us some extra storage when traveling.) On Christmas morning the seven of us each opened one gift before heading over to Big G’s house in Curtice, Ohio for the Hays/Osborne family Christmas.

Christmas at Big G’s house started off with a good breakfast. We had a lot of people in attendance. I will see if I can name them all

Big G, Bumpa, and Sandy with dog Pogo
Mom, Dad, Jason, Milena, Jeanne, Colleen, Ali, and myself
Mike and Joyce
Matt, Mellisa, and Caleb
Mark, Debbie, Devon, and Brad
Melissa and Victor and dogs Misty and Kojack

Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone, if so it wasn’t on purpose, but that is a pretty decent attendance list. After breakfast Big G and Bumpa opened some B-day gifts and Christmas gifts, which was followed by our own version of a Christmas Gift exchange. In this version if you want to participate you bring in a gift (I think it is a 25 or 35 dollar limit, I forget, ask Colleen she knows) with no To/From name and put it in the gift exchange pile. Then everyone that is participating takes a card from a deck of playing cards. The person with the lowest number goes first (Aces are high) and if there is a tie you pick another card. When it is your turn you have the option to take a gift from the pile or steal someone else’s gift. If you are first you don’t get much of an option, you have to open a gift. If you steal a gift the person whose gift was stolen then gets to open a new gift or steal someone else’s gift. You cannot steal your gift back right away and the third owner of a gift gets to keep it, it is no longer in play. This style of exchange has always been pretty fun and always leaves us something to talk about for the next couple years. Like the year Melissa and Victor decided they really wanted one of the gifts. Somehow they had numbers that were next to each other so when it was Melissa’s turn she stole the gift, leaving the person to take a new gift or steal someone else’s gift. The person opened a new gift and then it was Victor’s turn. According to their strategy he “stole” the gift from Melissa which put the gift out of play, locking it in with them. Then essentially Melissa took Victor’s turn and opened a new gift or stole one. Doesn’t really matter, the point is that they came up with a simple strategy to ensure they took home a gift they wanted. And since it was a little sketchy but not illegal it has come up every Christmas since. What is funny about this year’s exchange is that Colleen came home with a gift she took (an OSU Snuggie, or whatever it is called.) This isn’t a first since people do make an effort to buy a gift they think is really good, which means they like it. So it only makes sense that they might choose it over other gifts out there. Either way it always seems to work out well and it seems like everyone has a good time. Later in the evening we traveled back to my parent’s house to open more gifts for our Osborne family Christmas.

I don’t think I actually took a picture of the gifts under and around the tree this year but lets just say it was pretty ridiculous. Needless to say Melina and Ali were making out pretty well, I would say they had close to 50% of the gifts. The girls did have a fun time, that was clear. They had no problems tearing open the presents and moving on to the next. Melina enjoyed looking at what she tore open but Ali was more interested in the actual act of destruction. It was definitely fun to watch and it seems to get better each year. It gets you a little excited to think of what it will be like the next year. Earlier in the week, we sent a 10 inch digital photo-frame to colleens parents with instructions to open it Christmas day. We also picked one up for my dad to give to my mom. What he didn’t know is that I preloaded it with some special pictures. Both frames had ultrasound pictures of our new baby and we thought it would be a fun way for the parents to find out. We actually have a couple of pictures of my mom seeing the pictures on the frame and realizing what they were (I am sure you can figure out which ones they are.) I will have an update with more information about the new baby in the coming weeks. We all had a good time and enjoyed being able to spend the time together. The following day while mom was walking out to get the mail she spotted a Bald Eagle in a nearby tree. I was able to head out and get a few snaps off before he flew out of site. I put these pictures on my Flickr stream of the Bald Eagle. After he flew by I decided it was lucky for me he only decided to scream at me and fly away as I am pretty sure he could have whooped my ass. That is one large bird, it is pretty obvious why it was chosen to represent our country. Anyways back to our 2009 Christmas story. On Tuesday December 29th Colleen came back up from Columbus after working Sunday and Monday to take us to St. Joseph, Michigan where we could celebrate Christmas with Mike, Donna, Ryan, Margie, and Colleen’s parents.

It was a little snowy when we arrived in St. Joe but not too bad. Tuesday night (the 29th) we opened gifts and Ali had her fourth Christmas of the year. She loves each one, it is easy to see. You can see some of the pictures in the photo album, she is wearing a very festive horizontal striped sweater and red pant, but at some point those both come off. Ali tore through her gifts, her mom’s gifts and my gifts. She is pretty much a destruction machine as I eluded to before, there is no stopping her. It was another fun Christmas and it was good to be with everyone. We stayed in St. Joe through New Years and planned on leaving Jan 2. Since St. Joe is located on the east side of Lake Michigan, they are subject to lake-effect snow. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it means that you can get 18 plus inches of snow right before you want to leave the area. Kind of sucks, at least for the guy who has to get it out of the drive so you can leave (thanks again Mike.) If you want to see what that looks like just look at some of the pictures at the end of the Christmas 2009 album.  The pictures don’t really do it justice but it at least tries to give you and idea. Anyways after a lot of snow-blowing we were able to leave and once we made it out of Michigan the road weren’t bad at all. But just a pointer for all you that may be thinking about driving through Michigan in the winter. DON”T DO IT, they have the worst car accident policy, it is call no-fault. That means you can smash into as many cars as you want and it isn’t your fault, your insurance pays for your car and their insurance pays for their car. They can take you to civil court and try to get some more but that is besides the point. So needless to say there are a lot of bad drivers that just don’t care if they hit you or whatever. Second, they do practically nothing to clear the roads. Literally on our drive home it was hard to tell where the road was in certain spots, except on bridges, they actually put salt down when you were on a bridge. But the awesome part was that the second we crossed into Indiana, the road were clear of any snow. Not exaggerating at all, the same road in Michigan was barely drivable over 35MPH (or at all) and when you crossed into Indiana you could drive 70 and not worry at all. That is just messed up, but maybe the state is trying to thin the herd or something. I recommend avoiding the area if you can. Anyways, we had four great Christmases and we really enjoyed spending time with everyone. Thanks to everyone for all the gifts and we can’t wait to do it all again next year. Check out our Christmas 2009 photo album.

Have a great 2010!

A couple weeks later on the Thursday before Halloween we went to Chad and Erin’s house in Hilliard to trick or treat in their neighborhood. Even though her parents forgot to bring her Halloween bucket, Ali quickly remembered what to do and was walking up driveways in no time asking for candy to put into her grocery bag. She walked quite a bit (more than a block) and again seemed to really enjoy the whole experience. She is happy to hold your hand and walk down the side walk between houses but when it comes time to walk up the drive she wanted to do that herself. Ali also enjoyed studying the other kids costumes as well as the costumes of the people handing out the candy. None of the costumes seemed to scare her, she just acted interested in looking at them and then moving on to the next house.

Lastly on Halloween night Ali was able to trick or treat with Grandma and Grandpa Osborne in Oak Harbor. It was only a few days after her Hilliard experience so she didn’t miss a step. She walked quite a bit and was able to hit up quite a few houses again. I think one of her favorite parts was when she was actually able to pick out a piece of candy from the people handing out the candy. Lookout if you had two buckets that you were using to hand out candy and allowed the kids to pick out what they wanted. Ali took that to mean she could pick out a piece from each bucket. Anyways, Ali had a great Halloween and enjoyed it all. I am sure she will have even more fun next year. Below are a few pictures from her different Halloween experiences, but you may want to view the entire Halloween 2009 album of one hundred plus pictures too.

 

Wow, it has been a little while since the last post (over 4 months to be exact.) But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been updating the site. I have loaded many videos and picturessince then. Much has happened since Ali went swimming her first time. For example she has gone swimming many many times since. She likes to swim at the sitter’s, across the street at LifeTime, and she loves to go to Great Grandma’s house to go swimming as well. Ali has also made it through two stages of mobility. At the end of April, Ali was able to crawl around the house and get into new trouble. By the end of June Ali was able to get into even more trouble by walking around the house. Now that we are heading into the middle of July, Ali walks everywhere and only crawls to a few places once in a while. She is still big into screaming and spitting/drooling. Her new favorite is has to be food though. She started to beg for and eat our food back in early June. She started with ice cream and then moved on to mashed potatoes, steak, french fries, chips, rice, chicken, crackers, humus and goldfish, just to name a few.

Anyway, back to our 4th of July weekend. We traveled to Great Grandma’s house thursday night (after we had to turnaround in the highlander because the calipers locked up and the breaks were getting super hot – which was a 555 dollar job) and got there pretty late so we went straight to bed. In the morning we had pancakes (add that to her list of foods she will eat) and then the ladies went out to scout some of the local garage sales. Eventually we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa Osborne’s house where Colleen went with Grandma and Grandpa to the Oak Harbor fireworks. Since it was going to be well past Ali’s bedtime I stayed home with Ali so I could get her to bed. On Saturday Jason and Nikki arrived and Ali got to play with her cousin Milena. Later that day we went to Quizno’s house on Lake Erie for a 4th of July party. Ali got to play with Milena more and she was also able to play with several other children at the party. We had good food and a good time. Ali also got to meet Sophie, a chocolate one year old Newfie. She loved her and imeadiately was hugging and crawling all of her. Sophie just like giving Ali big wet kisses and Ali would just laugh.  On Sunday, we went to church with Milena and Grandma and Grandpa Osborne. We then went back to Great Grandma’s house for our family 4th of July celebration. Ali got to go swimming in the pool and play with little Caleb before heading back home to Dublin. We managed to sqeaze a lot of stuff into our weekend and visit with a lot of people. Maybe next year will be able to stay up long enough to actually see some fireworks.

Below are a couple pics from the weekend, there are plenty more in the 4th of July 2009 picture album.

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Ali’s first swim part 1

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Ali’s first swim part 2

This year we were able to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with our entire family. In early December Colleen and I decided that we needed to take some christmas pictures with Ali. We took a few family pictures with the three of us and then finished up with a few pictures of just Ali. In all we took about 450 pictures. I have posted about 100 of them in this years Christmas gallery. We used a couple of the pictures to create a family Christmas card, we used a couple more as backgrounds for our computers and we also used one or two in a calendar we made for 2009.

We celebrated Christmas this year both in Ohio and in Michigan. In Ohio we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa Osborne and we also celebrated with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Hays and the rest of the Hays family.  In Michigan (at Uncle Mike and Aunt Donna’s house) we celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan, Uncle Mike and Aunt Donna, Ryan and Margie. We had a great time with everyone and Ali had a very nice first Christmas. We have a lot of great pictures and some videos.

While in Michigan we were also able to celebrate the New Year with the Osborne and the Sullivan families which was fun to have everyone together at one time.

Ali has now started to eat rice cereal; however, I would use the term ‘eat’ loosely as she spits out a large portion of each spoonful, leaving us catching the rice in the spoon and attempting to get it back into her mouth. But eventually we manage to get a decent amount in her and down the front of her. If you are interested at all in this process we have a small video of us feeding Ali posted on the Ali Videos page.

We hope your 2008 was great and we wish you a fine 2009.

Halloween 2008 part 2

Colleen, Ali and myself traveled to Grandma and Grandpa Osborne’s house on Halloween so we could pass out candy at the Croy Family’s house. Since my parents pretty much live in farm country, my mom has been passing out candy at the Croy’s house while they take their girls out trick or treating. However, this year Lori Croy had just arrived home from the hospital with a baby girl, so she stayed home with Jillyan (baby-Croy) and passed out candy with us. We started out with an entire laundry basket full of candy. After several hundred kids passed by we ended up with only a couple pixie stix and sugar babies in the end. And in between we had a few laughs at some of the inventive costumes. This time Ali dressed up as a little blue butterfly but didn’t really do any trick or treating, she didn’t even help pass out candy for that matter. She mostly just sat on someone’s lap, blew spit bubles, sucked on her hands, and caught up on some sleep.  Even without much help from Ali I would say that we had a good Halloween and even though Ali will only know it from the pictures, I am sure she had a good one as well. We hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as much as we did and we look forward to seeing all of you soon.

You can see our pictures in the Halloween 2008 Photo Gallery and let us know which is your favorite.

We held a Baptism/Labor Day cookout on Saturday. Lucky for us it was a beautiful day and we were able to eat outside since our house is not really large enough to accommodate for all the people that were here. We are very thankful that we were able to have guests from all over and a large part of Ali’s family was able to celebrate with her. Feel free to leave some comments after viewing the photos and video.

And a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone for making this day happen.