Merry Christmas - 2012

A WHITE Christmas!!! We had no idea!

Snowing on Christmas Eve! What could be better?

Dad and his girls.

Snow!!

Amelia and I... a photo by Jenna.

Grannie and Jenna.

Amelia & Ava the first ones up at 7:15am!

Jenna and Mary watching her new video with matching nightgowns!

A happy Drew. He opened his presents last, sleeping through most of the craziness.

Grandpa & Grandma came over today with many, many presents...including the best gift ever!!! - the Wii! Our Christmas Eve involved a lot of cooking and listening to my records!! Yes, my records. (I think I was the only happy one.) Ava & Dave went to 4:00 mass. Ava was singing. They left right as the snow was starting to fall. As you can see by the pictures of the kids above, snow wasn't sticking to the roads, but by the time an hour or so had passed snow was sticking and falling like crazy. My side of the family came over, minus Chris. (The snow was too heavy in PA). We spent Christmas Eve playing and eating and worrying about the snowfall. The kids fell asleep fast. Amelia gave a one last ditch effort to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas by throwing a note from her to him down the steps. Ava and Amelia were the first ones up at 7:15am. They were very excited to see Santa had knocked down the fireplace screen, some decorative houses, and ate his cookies. There were even footsteps in the snow! Santa had come of course! Jenna was excited to see all the gifts. We woke up Drew, only to have him conk out and sleep through all the gift giving. Amelia loved her ds games, dolphin stuffed animal, pillow nightlight pet, Ava's gifts included a doll bed, clothes, New Direction cd, sticker book, Jenna loved her American girl doll, videos, matching nightgown for her and Mary and her fancy heels. Drew loved his music clip, chocolate, Oklahoma jersey and alphabet toy. We spent the day playing with our new toys and even some sledding time was had! Grandma and Grandpa came over this afternoon with more gifts and a Wii console with Mario and Skylanders games. We had a healthy, wonderful, relaxing WHITE Christmas at home. Merry Christmas.

The week before Christmas

Andrew visted with Santa on Wednesday at school this past week.

Jenna ALSO visited with Santa at Andrew's school.

Jenna ALSO visited with Santa at HER school this past Thursday. In case your were counting...that would be 4 visits with Santa for Jenna this season.

This is Ava's letter to Santa. She's asking him for a doll bed, a guitar and reese cups.

Passed OUT!

PASSED OUT!!

Our first gingerbread house ever. Well.. after Amelia's party, the entire house minus me came down with a stomach bug. Jenna started it here at home and for everyone else, well it hit them at school....allowing for an entire free day at home the next day! We've been working through that one all week and I think I can say we are finished (until it's Christmas day and I've got it). We are healthy and rested for Christmas!

NINE IS FINE!

Happy 9th Birthday Amelia! This is Amelia before she went to church today.

Amelia invited 5 of her friends to paint pottery and have cake yesterday. This is the silliness after painting pottery.

Amelia blowing out her candles with her friends.

Sister love. Amelia was very appreciative tonight for her happy birthday weekend. Yesterday she celebrated with friends, and today with family. Amelia is now enjoying her many books, new ds game, orbeez, monster high dolls, clothes, "A" fluffy pillow and craft project kits. Happy Birthday Millie!!

Santa

I picked Jenna up from preschool today and asked her if she wanted to go to the mall. We had lunch, went shopping and SAW SANTA!! THIS IS MY 100th POST FOR THE YEAR!

Green Valley Chorus

Amelia before she took the stage tonight for her first performance as part of the Green Valley Elementary chorus.

The entire chorus.

Amelia singing and dancing!

Jenna's Tea

Found this scene today in Jenna's playroom. A tea party for Mary & pink rabbit!!

Hips & Spine Update

It's been awhile since I've made an update regarding Andrew's hips and spine. Andrew went to a regular dental check up on 10/17/12. All went as usual. Andrew doesn't like it, but he gets through it. His teeth are fine. Hey that's a positive!! I brought him to school afterwards. He was fine. When he got home that evening. I noticed his body was "different". Also...of note was the chest strap that keeps Andrew sitting upright was too tight at his neck leaving a very noticable red ring around his neck. I have a photo. Back to the body though... Andrew couldn't "stretch" his legs as he usually did. His legs do not stretch flat as his hamstrings are extremely tight, but his most comfortable position to that point was lying on the mat on the floor on his back or rolling to his belly with ease. Even with a dislocated hip, Andrew was able to move around on the floor by rolling. This was a positive. Andrew could move without pain. It was enjoyable to him. Andrew would also grimmace and become very vocal when his legs were made to stretch out, especially at the right hip. I kept Andrew home the next several days trying to determine was it hips, ears, legs, spine, anything??? What??? It is very hard to tell what is bothering someone when they can't tell you. I even called school to see if they saw something unusual. They said they didn't. We started 1 250mg pill of ibuprofen 2 times a day from that date, and still giving it to him. The new Andrew was becoming the norm, but we were worried enough to make a new appointment with a new bone doctor at John's Hopkins - Dr. Sponsellar. Several of my friends have taken their kids to him. Dave, Andrew & I saw Dr. Sponsellar on November 12th. Andrew had new xrays done of his hips and spine. According to this doctor Andrew's bones looked the same on these xrays as they did back in June. No evidence of anything new obviously showing on these xrays that would be bringing Andrew pain. So, that was good news. Andrew was especially "easy" at that appointment that day. Not showing any signs of distress when moved as he had been at home. The doctor advised that there would be no use for surgery at this point - once again unless this would obviously help any areas of pain. He also recommended that Andrew being placed into the stander at school would not be offering him anymore orthopedic help, but it was helpful for other body functions and change of position. He also recommended that due to the bone sticking out on Andrew's ankle - that Andrew should wear the softest shoes possible to lessen any pain to this sight. We don't want that area to become an open wound, which would bring other problems we haven't yet faced... Once again, the doctor said he would not recommend surgery at this time on any of Andrew's problem spots (hip, spine, hamstrings & feet). Surgery would not offer Andrew anything unless he could walk,stand or help with transfers. Which he does not. We were also given a prescription for the drug baclofin. Andrew would take this med by pill form 3 times per day. We've learned that this isn't an answer, but could offer some relief to his tight leg muscles. We have yet to start this med, worried about the side effects. We were told to return in 6 months unless a problem arose before then. As of now, the new Andrew is the norm. He shows irritation (worse on some days than others - no rhyme or reason) when stretching out his legs and he seems most comfortable laying in the fetal position, or sitting in his chair. School has indicated they will try to offer Andrew swimming instead of standing. That is the latest - a record for my sake...

Jenna's Dance Recital

This afternoon was the culmination of ten weeks of Jenna's first experience with dance class. These are pictures from her recital. The picture of Andrew is just because!

Tea

Amelia, Ava & I went to a Girl Scout sponsored mother/daughter tea today at the Urbana Firehouse.

Santa!

My last two believers went to Breakfast with Santa this morning.

There he is!

"I'll take stickers please."

"I would like a guitar."

This afternoon we all put up the Christmas tree - nice having helpers.

Tonight we went to Old Town Mt. Airy for the annual "Twinkling Lights" parade. Santa of course was the star (not this Santa though.) The real Santa came at the end of the parade with Mrs. Claus and traveled by firetruck of course. Jenna had to let the nice man next to us know several times that "Santa was coming!".