All's well that ends well

All's well that ends well...My nephew, Andrew, is back home after a little side trip to the operating room this week. He had intussusception which is when the bowel begins to "telescope in on itself". Ultimately, it had to be corrected by surgery so he was in the hospital from Monday through Thursday. I talked to my sister last night and she sounded very relieved to be home. She said Andrew looked like a normal, happy baby, just minus a few parts (4 inches of intestine and his appendix). My parents drove down from Illinois to help out for a few days and to visit with them. My dad brought a cooler of snow with him so the boys could have a snowball fight. Amazingly, it lasted through the trip so the boys got to play with it. Zack immediately complained that it was cold and George thought the snow balls looked like bubbles. Anyway...thank you to everyone who sent prayers and warm wishes to the Swayne family. Andrew will be crawling laps around the house again today, I'm sure!

What have we been up to? Well, Emma started piano lessons 2 weeks ago. She seems to enjoy it, although she gets a little frustrated with the songs at the beginning of the week. Amazingly, the songs are easier by the end of the week after she has practiced for several days. I don't think she will move as quickly as Alex, but it will be fun to have another piano player in the house.

Alex attended his school science fair last night. His project was about whether fingerprint types are inherited. According to his results, it appears likely that they are inherited. I thought it was an interesting project, especially since none of us knew the answer when he started. His project was chosen along with several others to attend the regional science fair in downtown Austin in February. He went last year as well and it was amazing to see all the projects. There were A LOT!

Benjamin is busy building these days. He got Kid K'nex for Christmas and loves them. Last night, he made lips. It's always something new. He also is busy with his Legos building towers, a diving board and a building. Over the weekend, Alex asked if we could get some marshmellows and toothpicks so he could build a pyramid. Benjamin thought it was fascinating, so he asked for some "sticks". The first time he tried, he made flat objects, i.e. a long curvy snake. On his second attempt, he made "standing up things". He was very focused while he was building and then couldn't wait to show off the results.Last weekend, we went and helped plant trees out by a new manmade lake in the area. Emma dug most of the first hole by herself. We all had to pitch in on the second hole because the ground was pretty hard. Alex decided planting trees wasn't as fun as he thought it would be because the ground was so hard. I think it was a good experience for them though. Notice the rabbit ears that Alex is giving to the tree in the second picture. What a 9 year old boy!
One last little story...Grandma Mindy had her birthday last week, so we celebrated with dinner and cake on Sunday. The kids even had their very own special gift to give Grandma. Before we went to the store that morning, they came racing downstairs with 50 cents each in their hot little hands. I asked what it was for and they declared that it was so they could win the Betty Boop stuffed doll (Grandma Mindy loves Betty Boop) out of the claw machine at the grocery store. I laughed because I thought it was pretty unlikely they would get anything out of the machine, but I told them it would be fine to give it a try. When we got there, they were disappointed to discover that Betty Boop was gone. They rallied around and decided they would try anyways for a different doll/animal. Emma went first and, wouldn't you know it, she pulled out a stuffed Bart Simpson doll, just what Grandma has always wanted. When Grandma opened the package, we told her she would never guess what was in it and she didn't. Bart is now sitting in all his glory on Grandma Mindy's computer speakers. She said it makes her smile whenever she sees it.