Time marches on

It is so strange to me that I just addressed envelopes for Henry's fourth birthday party.  Am I really going to be a mom to a four year old so soon?

Nebi

EW is back to daily breathing treatments to treat another case of bronchiolitis. Poor boy doesn't seem to like his cute little fish shaped mask as much as he did the plain one that I recently threw away. As a result, we do breathing treatments mostly when he's asleep.

Sure hope he feels better soon.

Jumperoo!

Thanks, Santa, for getting the Jumperoo down from the attic. We have another fan.

Football

In honor of the end of college football season, I present two day old Elgin with his lovey football.  

Football never looked so peaceful.

Stats and More at 4 Months

Henry and I escorted EW to his four month well visit yesterday morning, and we received nothing but good news.  Elgin is a long, lean, toy grasping machine.  He weighed in at 14 pounds and 12 ounces, falling in the 28th percentile.  In contrast to his weight, he's now 26.5 inches and is in the 92nd percentile for length. His head size is right around average at 16.5 inch circumference.  

He grasps for toys, laughs, tracks me across the room, babbles his head off though he has excellent head control, and is back on a weight gain track after hopefully healing from all that GI irritation.  Despite the copious amounts of drool, constant fist chewing, and threatened thumb sucking, he is not teething--just a wet mess.  His history of cuteness was also assessed, and he continues to present with the same symptoms.

We are received an all clear for both his lungs and ears.  I updated Dr. Song on our TED progress and told her that I'm now including salmon, sunflower seeds and oil, grapes, raisins, and avocado.  I tried to add oatmeal and green beans but took them both back out when EW seemed to experience trouble eating again, and we weren't sure if it was food or antibiotic based.  She suggested I try to add them again later, especially since they are both common to baby foods.  While I do plan on making EW's food just like we did with Henry, I don't want to have my back against the wall when I need to grab a jar of pre-made stuff on a road trip.

I asked Dr. Song about EW's propensity towards bearing weight on his legs as opposed to trying to sit, and she asked more about his motor skills.  Does he roll from his back to his front?  Yes.  Does he roll from his front to his back?  Yes.  The diagnosis:  You're going to have to watch him.  He's just a very active boy.


 He's just trying to keep up with his big brother.

A Black Tie Affair

We ditched our traditional NYE lobster fete, but we replaced with a classy evening, black tie required, unless you slobber too much on it.

Penny was just resolved to wear hers.

Upon nightfall, sparklers and pop-its were enjoyed.

 Here's Henry "going crazy."

And on New Year's Day, Cory was forced to eat enough collards and black eyed peas for both of us.  Here's to hoping it worked for us!

Credit where credit's due

2011 was a very harsh year for our family.  We thought we lost our baby, but, thankfully, we did not.  Cory was put in the position of being the primary caregiver to Henry, the house, and me while trying to tackle his fledgling business.  We were both in a constant state of worry and would swing from joy to anxiety with every appointment and every doctor's bill.  Henry wanted me to stop being sick all the time so that I could play, and I sometimes wanted to just be left alone with my reality television--better to think about somebody else's drama than our own.  Our new normal wasn't.    

We are surrounded with support and lots of love, though.  Henry had play dates galore.  Cory was given some housekeeping and yard work breaks.  We rarely wanted for dinner.  Friends and family came to sit with me--at the foot of our bed and, later, around our couches.  Cards, packages, magazines, emails, and texts were bountiful, and Cory could at least worry less about my sanity.  2011 was rough, but we found out how very important, talented, and generous our family and friends are.  We made it through, and so did our Elgin.

Later in the year, we found out that EW needed some extra attention to avoid food allergies, and I embarked on the TED.  Friends surrounded me with encouragement, support, and information. Family set aside special foods.  We lost Granddaddy just 14 months after saying goodbye to my sweet Mema.  Again, cards and emails reminded us of how lucky we are.  I returned to both of my jobs but did it with confidence since our experience with a forced school change landed our boys in a better option than we ever thought it would be.  Friends and family, you told us it would be OK.  

So, when we look at ahead towards what the new year has in store, we're looking back at you who helped pull us through its predecessor.  There is no doubt that 2012 will throw its obstacles our way,  and we will struggle as a family at times, but we'll do it a little bit stronger, a lot more cuter (thanks to Elgin), and with the full knowledge that we'll do it with the family and friends beside us.

Thank you for your support, and thank you to my awesome husband for being, well, awesome.