Maeve 6 months and bouncing

This toy is the best invention ever. Both of our children loved it!!!!

2009

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Our Wild and Crazy Christmas 09!!!!!!!

Last night Noah and Nana headed out for Christmas Eve worship. This was my first Christmas without going to church that I ever remember! It was a tad odd.

We got some visitors on Christmas Eve as well. The Campagna Family came to Christmas Carol to the "shut ins" !!! lol! They brought Noah this cool ukelele.


This morning Noah woke at his usual 7AM and came down the steps with Paul. He was mesmerized by all of the presents and just sort of went into overdrive automatically. He was incredibly patient and waited until we all had coffee and were seated.

We had cutesy matching pajamas for the little ones. We tried to get some combined photos, but none of them really turned out.


Maeve was in a rare mood today. Super happy when she woke up but screaming when tired. We are sure she is working on a tooth, but it just won't come through.

Noah first opened his stocking and had a blast with all of the little items inside.


While we waited for everyone to show up, he got to open his sea life package from Discovery Toys. We spent a good hour looking up all of the different sharks and whales online and identifying them.

Once Nana, MomMom and PopPop and Uncle Eric showed up the tree was CROWDED!!!

Noah got his very own digital camera. He took so many pictures today and LOVED it!!!

My dad made me the best nativity ever. I saw it on a website titled "a minimalist nativity" and I fell in love with it. Does it get more simple than this? I asked my dad to replicate it and he did!!


Eric was on Maeve duty a lot of the day.


And of course, he wanted to build Noah's first legos with him. Noah wouldn't let anyone help him but Uncle Eric.


This was Noah's big gift. An awesome wooden treehouse, complete with a trap door, porch swing, rope ladder, drawbridge and more! We thought it would be perfect to put all of his animals on. He LOVED it!!!


Mama wearing Noah's new Icelandic hat.

One of the gifts Noah wanted to give was a "vulture" to pop pop. Who knows why! This hat is what we found. Noah is showing us how it looks! We all got a good laugh out of this one.


Maeve got this tummy time mat and Noah couldn't stop photographing her.



Maeve was getting acquainted with Sophie the Giraffe, whom she almost parted ways with. Noah heard Sophie and Giraffe and thought it was for the dog. When she went missing Noah told us he gave it to the dog. Luckily she hadn't been mauled yet!
After all of the chaos was over, Meave was just chillin' with me in her new cheetah ears. She loved it.


It was a wonderful Christmas. There were way tooooo many gifts, but it was a pretty tame day. Noah was very polite and respectful and wasn't greedy at all. He loved all of his gifts and treated stickers the same way he treated big gifts. We had a wonderful brunch of french toast, egg casesrole, bacon, mimosas, bloody mary's, shrimp, turkey, ham, and more. We all had a wonderful wonderful Christmas and now we are all playing with our new toys!!!!!

Merry Christmas to you!!!!!

Christmas Past

I don't know why, but I just love to compare pictures from year to year!!!! This is Noah's 4th Christmas and here are his Christmas pics each year:

2006 -- 8 months

2007 1 1/2

2008 2 1/2

2009 3 /12

FYI -- I love that red snowflake sweater. It's from LL Bean and I have it in like 5 different sizes, one for every year! Just so you know...

Noah's Zoo

There's been a lot of Noah playing by himself lately because I am immobile. Often I will say, go into your room and play, please. He will disappear into his playroom and just entertain himself for quite some time. I walked in the other morning to find this:



Noah's animals were placed carefully throughout the room in little tribes. All of the same genus of animals were together. It was really amusing!

So, this is a dinosaur, a tiger and a fox, but i guess he thought they were all in the cat family.


Bears were on one side of the couch and ducks on the other.


Dogs on top of the table

Lions on top of the exersaucer


Naturally, a cow in the sink


Frogs on the sit and spin


Hippos under the table


All the monkeys in the stroller with a bat above them hanging!

And my sweet little animal lover proud of his very own zoo!!!

Home again, home again

Ok, if you didn't notice, I don't post on our blog very often. But, today is an exception.

Stephanie is home from her surgery. We got there at 8 this morning. Checked in, then she went back for prep around 8:30, then I was allowed to go back and be with her around 9. We decided that since we were near the mall, instead of me just sitting in the lobby all morning, I should do some shopping. So, I headed out for some groceries, last minute Xmas gifts, and a small tv for our bedroom so Steph has something to do over the next month of imobility.

I returned by 11, but Steph didn't even get to the OR until 10:30. I was expecting her to be done by 11:30 at the latest, and then we were gonna get burgers take out from bugaboo creekhouse, a local steak house we like. But, her surgery did not end till close to 1. The doc came out,with a bunch of pics of the inside of steph's knee. He was able to repair the one tear in the meniscus, buy not the other. He removed the old bolt, and reattached the acl. He also did some tiding up of some loose ends hear and there while he was in there poking around.

She finally woke up around 3. After talking, getting something to munch and drink (neither of us had anything all day) and getting dressed, I threw her into the back of the car, hit up bugaboo for burgers ( bacon blue cheese, yum) and took them all home to relieve Amanda and Jane, whom graciously watched our kids all day. And thanks to MaryAnn as well, Franco's mom, who watched Noah part of the day. Thank you all for your help!!!!!!!!

So, I go steph's six prescriptions filled, drugged her up, fed the kids, boiled maeve's bottles, put her to bed and am now watching Diego with Noah.

Long day!!!

Steph is doing well and nurse Paul is on the case!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has helped and who has made or will be making food!!! You have no idea how much we truly appreciate all of the support, love and prayers!

God bless,
Paul


-- Post From Paul's iPhone

Christmas Preparation at 45 Western Terrace and other random thoughts

I do have to agree this is one of the most wonderful times of the year. As I sit down to write, we have almost 2 feet of snow outside. The most we've seen since I was a teenager. It started last night and it still going strong. It's not supposed to stop until tomorrow morning. There is nothing like some good fresh, clean snow to slow you down and put things in perspective.

Christmas preparation has been much different this year for various reasons. One, I am fairly immobile and that changes my ability to do things I want to do. Two, Noah is much more aware than ever before of the things that are going on around him.

As you well know, we are not a Santa household. I am not a Santa hater anymore, but I simply choose not to perpetuate that story as a central piece of our Christmas celebration. This has been especially tough this year with Noah seeing and hearing all that is going on around him. Every single Christmas cartoon on TV is about Santa and poor little children being placed on the naughty list. Each time we talk about how God doesn't put us on a naughty list and how Christmas is for everyone. At Noah's school, it seems to be Santa central and the teachers cornered me to ask what they should do because Noah doesn't "believe." They asked if I could just go along with it for the sake of the other kids. I was pretty floored, but stuck my ground. I said that they could do whatever they wanted in the class, but I would not tell my child that Santa brings our presents and that "getting stuff" is the purpose of the holiday. One mother (in jest) said that she wasn't going to let Noah hang out with her kids until they were 10 so he didn't ruin it for them!!! So, I have chosen very carefully to be positive about the entire experience and never put off Santa or be mean or rude about it. Instead, I simply say that Santa is a nice story about a good man, similar to other stories we see and hear -- like Winnie the Pooh and Blue's Clues, very nice stories about nice people.

We started out last weekend by packing up the kids and heading to a live nativity. It was sooo awesome!!! It was at a small church nearby and Noah got to pet the animals and talk to Mary and Joseph. He was so excited about it and talked on and on... Can we see another nativity Mommy?




We have a bazillion nativities around the house, including a stick on window one and a Veggie Tales one that Noah can play with to his heart's content.

One of the interesting things about Noah is that he never really asks for anything. If we are at a store he doesn't really ask to buy or get anything. I'm quite surprised by this. The only thing he ever wants is more tv shows! One of the things I dislike about Santa is the concept of telling him what you want, thus perpetuating this idea that Christmas is about getting junk. And that our happiness depends on getting the items that we want to receive. We have not asked Noah at all what he wants for Christmas and have not encouraged a list or any sort of "gimme" mentality.

Here is a picture of him before his PreSchool Holiday party (which I could not attend). I heard later that Santa and Mrs. Claus were there and Noah went up to him and said "I would really like a toy car" which I found incredibly amusing because he has 50 toy cars and NEVER plays with them ever.




I asked him after the party if he thought Christmas was about getting things and he said "No, It's about baby Jesus' birthday." I told him he was right, but it was also about love and giving to others. So we sat down and let him think of things he would like to give others. Some of the things he picked for some of you are HILARIOUS!!!! I can't reveal them until Christmas, but unfortunately he did want to give Ms. Leslie and Ms. Jen makeup and a mirror and all of the boys Candy Canes. !!!!!!

Today we were blessed with 2 ft. of snow which has added to the magic of this wonderful season. We pulled out this snowsuit -- an Ashford family tradition. It was worn by Nina, Paul, Nina's 3 sons and now Noah. Pretty cool, huh? Noah and Paul went out and built snowmen and went sledding with some of our neighbors. Then we all came in and hot chocolate, grilled cheese and tomato soup.

We finally got Noah hunkered down for his nap this afternoon and we are checking things off our list (since I only have one more day until surgery) and Paul suggested I take a bubble bath and read a book to relax since I won't be able to do much of anything for a little while. So I did. It was pretty magical to sit there and read while I watched the huge flakes of snow fall outside the window beside me. All of this while Paul cleaned. Yes, I know how wonderful he is.

We finally woke Noah up at almost 6pm because he was zonked from sledding. We had some food that wonderful people have made for us and then we decided to string popcorn for the tree while the blizzard blazes on.


Noah was very interested in the popcorn, but only while pretending he was a dog. He was eating the broken pieces and panting in a dog manner all the while. We hung it on the tree and settled in for Charlie Brown's Christmas Special. While Lucy read from the Bible, Paul and I smiled at each other happy to be watching this movie and looked down to see our very wild little boy eating his movie popcorn on his hands and knees and barking like a dog.

If you're wondering where Maevey Gravy was, she has been hibernating all week... yesterday I think she was only awake for 3 hours, today maybe 4. Someone told me 6 months is a big growth spurt, but Maeve has made sleeping her favorite hobby. Hopefully she will be awake enough tomorrow for a photo op in the snow!

Sorry for the novel length, but sometimes I like the memories to look back on later.

Maeve 6 months

Well, 6 months isn't officially until Sunday, but somehow I think I'll be pretty busy as the weekend draws to an end.

My sweet little girl gets sweeter every day. She seems to be in less pain and just much more adjusted than she ever has. She is sooooo happy and just the smiley-est thing ever. Maeve wakes in the morning and from almost every nap with sweet noises and happy smiles. Even if she's sad, when you pick her up she tries to smile at you.

She is sitting up now, a little floppy, but up nonetheless. She is very interested in her toys now and draws everything to her mouth, especially people's hands and fingers. She's rolling, mostly in her crib. She babbles often and has a hearty chuckle that is wonderful. We all swear that sometimes she says hi unintentionally.

Her favorite thing to do (which was also Noah's favorite) is the door swing. She will bounce in there for an hour and just smile and giggle away.

She has always been a homebody, much more comfortable in her own space, but she hasn't left the house much at all in the past month because of my injury and she is pretty happy to just be home all the time.

She continues to be enamored by Noah and watches his every move. She snuggles with him more each day and just beams at him. We think that one of two things could happen... she could continue in this set up and follow him around like a little pup, happy as can be to be the little sister, or she could develop a defiance that wants to go her own way which Noah would not like at all. We don't see traces of the latter yet, but who knows, she's just a baby!

She sometimes struggles with eating and refuses to eat more than a bit at a time and other times she is voracious and guzzles, but she is getting better each day with that. She hasn't yet refused a food or really shown a preference. She is a spitter however and so whatever she eats usually ends up all over all of us.

It is an awesome feeling to have these two little people in our life. I sit in bed in the morning and marvel at my family...I have a family of my own! I am so happy with our little clan and the love that we all share for each other. Even though Maeve is just little, she is absolutely a huge part of this beautiful family and we are all so blessed to know this awesome little girl! Happy 6 months sweetie!!!!

Knee Update

So........

If you want to know the real skinny on my knee, here is the lowdown.

In 9th and 10th grade respectively I tore my R and L ACL which is the ligament that holds your leg together at the knee. I had both replaced in high school. This was done by taking a piece of the tendon out of my patella and screwing it into the bones to grow a new ACL. I was told then that my knees would be 100 times stronger than most ordinary knees. I spent my freshman and sophmore years in high school on crutches, even my 16th birthday party. I went through the god awful surgeries and rehabs and for the past 15 years i have been fine... running, basketball, no worries at all.

Over the past few years I have noticed that my left knee would give out from time to time. Within a few minutes I would be back on my feet with no problems. I assumed it was a repercussion of the old surgeries. On December 2nd I was walking with some kids at church and my knee gave out and this time I couldn't stand back up.

I thought if I gave it some time I would be fine. I got into a wheel chair and just wheeled around for the night. At the end of the night I tried to stand on it and it was awful. I managed to get into my car and go home and two people followed me and carried me in to my house.

I went to the doctor the next morning who thought it might be just a meniscus (tissue) tear which is a quick fix. I got some crutches, some pain meds, an mri and an xray. I saw the first surgeon who told me it was indeed a re-tear of my ACL and a bad meniscus tear. The screws used from my first surgery were also in the way of any future surgeries. He wanted to remove the meniscus, remove the screws and reattach the acl with a cadaver. After asking around a million people told me to get a second opinion and go to a better hospital.

Today I went to a different surgeon who has done many many re-tear surgeries. He was wonderful and I felt much more comfortable with him. Basically, if you remove this much meniscus you will have virtually instant arthritis and leg pain and struggle forever. Sometimes there is no other choice but to remove it. This doc wants to try to repair the meniscus because he said that when you do the ACL surgery at the same time, bone marrow is released that causes the meniscus to regenerate. It is not foolproof but it would increase my chances of not having pain forever and ever.

The down side of this procedure is that for 6 weeks after surgery I would not be able to move my leg more than a few degrees to allow the meniscus to regenerate without the friction of a functioning knee. Once that is finished then I can start rehab on the ACL which would take another 2 or 3 months to be walking completely unassisted. I do think however, that once the 6 weeks is over, I would likely be in a leg brace and not completely off of my feet, so I might be able to walk, even without crutches, just with a big metal contraption on my leg.

This doc also said that he would rearrange his schedule so that I might be able to get operated on very quickly... maybe even this week. The other doctor gave an initial date of Jan 17 and a sooner date of Dec. 29th.

So, this pretty much stinks all around. There is no pretending I am not devastated on so many fronts. My friends and I were talking about training for a marathon. I was just starting to get in a groove at work. I am struggling so much to watch my house be a mess and not be able to do anything about it.

But, I can see the good things. I have so many friends that are helping in so many ways. I have a meal calendar set up from now until February!!! My mom is helping so much and Paul's mom will be able to take time off of work when we have a surgery date. Noah is pretty easy and can do most tasks without help. The toughest thing is Maeve. I can't carry anything and I can't put her down for naps or go get her when she cries. This is the one piece that breaks my heart more than the others. Luckily she is a sweetheart and is always so happy to see me and be with me.

Paul is of course amazing and is doing so much. He never stops so that everything can get done and I appreciate it so much but it is also hard to always be a spectator.

This makes juggling family and work a trillion times harder because it takes me soooo long to do anything. Every activity, even simple ones, are 10- 20 min longer than normal. Showering takes an hour, getting to the car takes at least 10. Unfortunately work is the one thing that is getting the shaft right now and I simply don't have a lot of options. I can do a lot from my laptop but I can't build relationships that way and that makes me sad. I know there is time to do these things, but I have so many ideas and hopes and dreams!

I'm trying not to let myself ask why this happened and just plow through the days to recovery.

Thanks so much for your love and support.

Christmas Experimentation

I got a new lens for my camera for my birthday and i LOVE it!!!! So, I set up the house for Christmas pics last night and here are some teasers... the good ones will show up on the card.

How did I end up here again?

Well, in case you haven't heard, I'm on the fritz.

Last Wednesday I was just walking down the hallway with some kids at church and my leg gave out. Now, mind you, my knee has given out on various occasions and within 15 minutes I am up and running again. After I fell, I waited and waited and I still couldn't stand. I had to be carried home and carried into my house.

When I was 15 and 16 I tore both my right and left ACL's in my knees. This is the ligament that holds the top of your leg to the bottom of your leg. I went through two awful surgeries and rehabs and I was told that my knees would be 100 times stronger than a normal knee.

WRONG.

So, I had an MRI, Xrays and exams done. Turns out my ACL has been torn in my L leg for quite some time, which is why my knee has been giving out. This time when it gave out it also caused a shoe horn tear in my meniscus which folded over into the general knee area, thus rendering me unable to walk. Further study found that the old hardware (aka screws) from previous surgeries were dislodged in the bone and would need to be removed. YIPPPEEEEEE!!!!!

So, I am on crutches and in a wheel chair. I cannot stand, straighten my leg, put pressure on it, or basically do anything. Going to the bathroom takes forever.

I'm trying my best to be positive and to thank God that it is something completely mendable, but it is so hard to not be able to take care of my kids. I cannot carry anything at all, so I cannot carry Maeve or pick her up unless I am sitting down. I can't pick Noah up and take him to bed. I basically cannot be home with my kids alone. I can't clean my house which drives me absolutely nuts. Everything is just so hard.

To top it all off, Maeve has thrush again. Her mouth is covered in sores completely, even on to her lips. She struggles through every feeding. She is relatively happy when she isn't eating, but she still eats every 3-4 hours during the day.

So, there is no set date for surgery. The surgeon I saw on Tuesday can't operate until mid January. I'm looking for more options. I'll keep you posted.

Random Iphone Pics

I finally synced my iphone after forever and there were some random pics i thought i'd share.

Here is Noah's pre-school and their visit from a Native American Storyteller, it was really awesome!



Here is a day when Noah felt like he was chanelling Buzz Lightyear. His cousin gave him this costume, and he asked to put it on and watch Toy Story.


Jen, Paul, Ben and I at Vietnam Restaurant in China Town before the Ani Concert. We are sharing a "dragon for two"

At the Please Touch Museum in Philly. Paging Doctor Noah:




Noah and Clare pretending to be fairies


Today Maeve put on her kitty hat to brave her first snow: