January and February turned out to be overwhelmingly emotional months. On all levels. We anticipated hearing the news of the arrival of cousin Jenny and Dan's little girl, Ana. She arrived (on her due date) January 22nd (I believe). After a mostly textbook pregnancy, Ana's delivery caused significant health issues when she inhaled meconium. She was a very very sick little girl for many weeks. She spent 5 weeks in the NICU. We prayed hard for her health, strength and for parents patience and love. After many weeks of email updates, gorgeous pictures and video of little Ana, the last word we recieved was that she had made significant improvements and recently went home. I hope that as I write this she is snuggled up with her parents making up for all that time that she spent at the hospital. Love you guys!
Another setback has been the failing health of cousin Jennifer (my cousin Arik's wife). She recieved a donor liver from her sister a handful of years ago. And after years of rejection meds and fight, her body has decided that it no longer wants it and has started to reject it. Jennifer has spent many (too many) days and nights in the hospital since the beginning of the year treating the complications caused by her failing liver. I know this has been trying on their whole family since Kellen is so young and Jennifer hates being away from him and Arik. We continue to keep her, Arik and Kellen in our thoughts and prayers as we all wait for a new liver to become available.
Then...at the end of January I offered CT a piece of peanut butter toast. Knowing full well that it was his first real exposure to the nutty goodness. In a nutshell (ha! I'm funny), he broke out in hives, we went in for bloodwork the following morning and learned a few days later that he has a nut allergy. A trip to the allergist and two expensive EpiPen's later, we have found a new normal for our family and are moving on with life after this diagnosis. So life at our household has been one big distraction.
CT's energy and personality continue to test our limits as parents and surprises us on so many levels. This is such a fun (albiet hard) age!! He understands most everything we tell him and although he isn't speaking much he gets what we are saying and is usually a few steps ahead of us.
He started swimming lessons in late January. Which we both take him too, but Christos gets in the water with him. HE LOVES IT!!! He's not the littlest kid in his class anymore. He was very comforatable in the water. When he isn't smiling cheek-to-cheek his tongue is hanging out. On more than one occasion he'll bring me his swimsuit at home and ask to put it on. And then he'll parade around the house in it. We're celebrating the completion of this swimming session by taking him to the waterpark in Duluth for a few days in March.CT LOVES Shrek2. It is currently the only kids movie that we own, so we've watched it at least 30 times. I swear it hypnotizes him. The kid is entranced when we turn it on. His latest antic is grabbing our hand and leading us to something he wants to share or play with. It is so cute and persistent. He's become very good at holding our hand when we're out in public too. He's also mastered using a spoon. His hand to mouth coordination is impressive.
Christos started playing soccer again with his co-ed team. CT and I have been going to his games with him. It's a great opportunity for CT to run around and kick the ball. We purposely brought a deflated ball so it wouldn't roll all over the field house, but he's much more interested in using strangers shiney new hard soccer balls. He's usually exhausted when we leave. He continues to impress all the players with his soccer skillz. In addition to swimming, it is the highlight of his weekend.
Have I mentioned that he knows how to blow his nose already? As the resident nose wiper and booger picker, this new talent is nothing short of awesome for me. I don't have many pictures to share from the past few months. Honestly, I haven't taken many. But also because CT is really not interested in having his picture taken right now. He is constantly on the move and once he sees the camera he insists on seeing the picture behind it.
Last and certainly not least, the big news to hit our household this year is that we are expecting another baby at the end of the summer. We are thrilled!! (A little nervous.) Mostly thrilled. I have been feeling pretty good. No nausea again like last time. Plenty of fatigue and poor sleep, but for the most part I really can't complain. Crazy hormornes and vivid dreams are a few other fun things I'm dealing with. We are very blessed to have gotten pregnant fairly quickly and so far it has been uneventful. Due to the status my heart, I will be delivering at Abbott again this time. To Be Continued...
