January
updated December 29th, 2007 at 9:22pm
Goodbye 2007! Here's to good luck, happiness, health and wealth in 2008. I'm sure we could all use a little of it all.
2007 for us was a great year, albeit exhausting and completely unexpected. Like most years it went by as quickly as a blur
but was full of living and adventures.
Pictures of the kids
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| December share |
if you want to save any of them for yourself.
Kiddo news:
Nick is almost 10 months old. He's doing more cruising and climbing. He's also standing unassisted for a few seconds, when he's not paying attention he can stand for longer. He's steadier than he thinks. He's started taking a few steps holding on to one of our hands. It won't be long now. Above you'll see videos of him walking behind a clothes basket. With the new walkers he got for Christmas he'll be cruising all over the place.
Nick's newest favorite thing is to tear off into our bedroom after his bath and hijack one of the wooden cups from the set Gramma gave me from Czechoslovakia. These cups are by far his favorite item in the house, he clutches one while we get ready for bed and oftentimes takes one to bed with him.
Nick had a good Christmas despite being sick. He got lots of awesome toys! Thank you so much to Aunt Sue for taking care of him all night on Christmas Eve when he was refusing to sleep - we got our first real stretch of sleep in over 9 months!
It looks like we'll be going back to the pediatric GI in January. Nick had a regular check up with a new pediatrician before Christmas and we discovered that his weight had plateaued and started to drop off. The Ped thought Zantac might not be the right medication for him so she switched him to Prevacid. We also tried not giving him bottles of soy formula for a few days in case he developed an intolerance that made his reflux worse - there was no change.
The Prevacid is a huge PITA and is an extremely large dose for an infant. At first we really thought it was working. The first night we gave it to him, he slept much more peacefully and even though he woke every 1.5 hours, he was returning to his crib after being settled. Now, a few days later, he is more agitated than ever and is back to not sleeping AT ALL.
I've been talking online to a pediatrician who suggested we give the Prevacid in the morning on an empty stomach, and go back to giving the Zantac at night. She also suggested we get back in to see the GI and schedule an endoscopy. She also said we need to do another full elimination diet and consult with an allergist.
We're also giving chiropractic a shot and doing probiotics. I guess at this point we're going to exhaust all our options because we're just plain exhausted from trying to figure this all out on our own.
On a positive note, I've already started planning Nick's 1st birthday (are you kidding? I'm almost done!) and we're super excited. He'll be having a Baby Einstein 1st Birthday themed party on March 8th at 3pm. I'm working on the invites now.
Nicky fell while in the bathroom and got his first black eye. He hit the toilet with his face and cried pretty hard... the swelling and bruise looked bad at first but it's looking better now:
Ouch!
This is Nicky earlier:
Right now he is snoring while sleeping in a bouncy seat right next to me. It's the only places we could get him to sleep tonight:
Marlee is doing really well at daycare and has been earning treats
via sticker charts for things like listening and using her inside
voice. She's also been working really hard at home on her chores and earning stickers for her charts here too. She loves to wash the dishes, help mom cook and bake. She did most of the work on the Pretzel Rolos we gave away for Christmas.
Marlee is enjoying her Christmas presents. She plays with them all and loves all the clothes she got! (She's watched A Bug's Life 10 times already!! AH!)
She is still super interested in figure skating and keeps asking when I will get her into classes. Registration is at the end of this month but I haven't told her we're doing them yet!! She will be SO excited.
Not really too much to say about Marlee this month, she's been a really good little girl and very helpful. This morning she told Tim he smelled like "slop" and once when he was singing she said, "Dad, everyone's looking at you." Like stop dad, you're embarrassing yourself. Where does she come up with these??
Marlee is a size 5. She's 39" tall and 35 lbs.
US news:
We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve, my mom announced to me that she stopped smoking!!! I am SO proud of her and love her so much! Thanks Mom! Keep up the good work. Bruce quit too and they are both doing really well! YAY!!!! Christmas Eve night we also got a present from Aunt Sue... she took Nick for the night and let us sleep.
Thanks for all the gifts we received also, as always more stuff than we expected. The Meltaways are in my freezer awaiting the day I can eat chocolate again! Thanks also for the gifts of money. I have finally something to put into my savings fund for my new DSLR camera. I am hoping to save enough to buy a system by next Christmas. I am looking at the new Sony Alphas, the Nikon D40/D80 and the Canon Rebel Xti. The time it takes to save enough for these cameras is also giving me the time I need to research the best camera! I figure I am a far better photographer than my point-and-shoot cameras allow so it's about time I get a camera that I can do something with!
Tim got actual heat in his garage, so now he can stand to work out there when it's negative temperatures. We have some upcoming projects that we'd love to get finished by Nick's birthday. We're thinking of extending our lower bathroom/laundry closet into an actual laundry room. Then we can get the new carpet installed in the living room. And of course we still have the upper bath to remodel. New tub/cabinets and flooring. Someday our bathroom won't have peepholes!
I'm very excited about our new home phone. We have been without a phone since June and had been trying everything to fix it but nothing ever worked. We ended up in a huge dispute with Vonage but in the end we walked away and called it a loss. Now we have our phone service through Merrimac where we get our internet from.
If you ever happen to call and can't understand me (which happens more often than not) just hang on for a minute while I disable Tim's computer. He's usually doing something with it that jumbles the phone connection.
We celebrated my birthday on the 15th with our friends at Ginza for Japanese Hibachi. Thanks for Kim and Ken coming to our house to watch the kids! Nick was a little pistol that night too with the not sleeping. Gotta love him. Anyway we had a blast and definitely enough fun to keep us out of trouble for a long time.
It was Kerstin's birthday too!
Kerstin Amanda Chrissy Me and Tracy
We are planning to lay low for NYE. Steaks and shrimp for us and sparkling red grape juice for Marlee! Hope everyone has a happy and safe New Years and an exciting 2008!
(NICK IS STILL SLEEPING OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG)
Love you!
Sam, Tim Marlee and NicholasHere's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:
January 8th -
Nick's 2nd GI appt
These updates are cataloged
at this blog site, in case you
want to reference past updates:
Christmas 2007 Pictures
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| Christmas Share |
