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Time is flying. Drew is 7 months old now.
17lbs 10.5 oz, and 25.5 inches short (hehe)…

His new tricks in his 6th month were standing by couches and holding on to toys while standing. He even pulled himself up to a stand a few times, had fun doing that on ME’s bed and jumping up and down on it. We’re trying to get rid of the "on tippy toe" thing he’s been doing.

He’s not full blown crawling yet, but he’s doing an inch worm type of crawl instead. He can get on all fours but ends up goin down and pushing off of his feet. He’s not on the floor a whole lot- he wants to sit or stand… ME was just like that.

He has become quite the piglet – eating everything like you were starving him for days on end. And so far there’s nothing he won’t eat- even the green veggies!

Drew is playing more with toys, very interactive, and yet pulling and grabbing everything in sight. Then of course chewing on everything… and drooling too… STILL NO TEETH though- just a bit of swollen gums.

He has been babbling a lot and saying "dadada" yea… I think dada will be his first word. Who cares- it’s cute! Along with the babbling is screaming. He loves to scream- like not just when he’s upset- but when he’s excited or happy too. Screaming so loud!!! It’s funny… but NOT at 7am!

He’s adorable, cuddly and loveable though. Really a good baby and sleeps very well. Pretty much from 7:30pm to 5:00am then nurses in his sleep and stays asleep til 6:30-7:30 depending on the day. He’s in his own routine and does well with it.

Drew has a little bit more hair… it’s growing ever so slowly. I didn’t have much hair as a baby either. Unlike ME and her daddy who had so much dark thick hair!! His hair is also getting blonder… hard to tell in pictures, but you can really see how light it is getting in person.

He still adores his sister even though she sits on him, takes all of his toys and hugs him just a bit too tight – hahaha. It’s OK – he gets her back when he pulls her hair!!!

He loves everyone- and so far does really well with other people… but our house is like a train station- so my kids get used to many different faces a lot. 😉

IN OTHER NEWS- we got a new family vehicle… definitely a FAMILY vehicle. Yep a mommy van… argh- I was fighting getting it… but with gas prices a big SUV was out of the question. Oh well… it’s very nice… Town & Country Mini Van- nearly new at 1 yrs old with 12,000+ miles.

We are soon going to work out the details of ME’s next procedure, will keep everyone posted… 🙂
 

Yesterday was quite the day… it started out with waking up very early because Mary Elizabeth had her MRI, then Andy had a rough day at the job and was tired from helping me out in the morning, due to getting up early and being in the city all morning-I was tired myself… then things were hectic when I got home and I wanted to get some work done I missed from earlier in the day… but then… at 6pm the power went out and it stayed out til 6:15am this morning. NO FUN. Andy and I were not pleased as this was the 3rd time in a week this happened and it hasn’t happened that many times in the 4 years we lived at the house… *sigh*

And of course yesterday was Andy’s birthday, and we didn’t do much celebrating of course. But HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!!! A wonderful man at 29 yrs old deserves the best so we’ll be taking him out later in the week

OK here’s the update from MARY ELIZABETH’S MRI YESTERDAY:

all went well- she was good and it went pretty smoothly. As soon as we neared the city (after the GW Bridge) was saying “NO DOCTOR, NO HOSPITAL” so it’s pretty much apparent she’s very aware of what is going on that she knows well before we even get there. I hate to have her associate NYC with the whole dr/hospital thing. We’ll eventually have to take her down for a play or something instead. She did fine with the anesthesia and all that though.

Anyway, instead of going back down to the city for a consultation, they had a phone conference with Andy this morning……

They said they saw a great deal of improvement with the spots they injected. So she’ll have some more injections/sclerotherapy to the bigger cyst pockets “macro-cystic”. Remember she does have a lot of smaller cysts which appear big because they are clumped together so to speak. They are “micro-cystic” Those cysts will have to be surgically removed when she’s done with sclerotherapy. They will also do some injections to the floor of the mouth” which is pushing her tongue up to help the size of that and give her room. As for her airway and the most commonly asked question “when will her trach come out”… they are looking to do a little more lasering in her airway and remove her tonsils to free up her airway and that will get her ready for trach removal (decannulation). Once all that is taken care of she will have to have the jaw surgery. All this will take time, but once it’s done she’ll be more settled and the LM will be controlled enough where she won’t be getting repetitive surgeries like this. Perhaps it may take another year, two or three. Not too sure and with this condition it is hard to say because there can be flare ups, or bumps in the road so to speak where complications arise to delay the next steps.
We are of course praying against that and asking God to work in her life for the best possible scenario. So please continue to pray for her and we’ll keep you posted.

I know my two little darlings have one of the best daddy’s ever and I
am thankful for that. He loves them so much, and is good to them. He
helps them have a happy home to grow up in – for a great future.

And Andy is blessed- he’s got two beautiful children who are smart and loveable- how can he not enjoy them??? Right!

IN OTHER NEWS- Here are some updates….

We are going for ME’s MRI in the city tomorrow, so an
early morning. She’ll go under anesthesia for it- so still keep her in
your thoughts & prayers as being under anesthesia should never be
taken lightly no matter how simple the test or procedure.
We’ll be discussing it with the drs later in the week though. So more to come.

My baby Andrew is now 6 months old. WOW a half of a year has gone by since I’ve had him? Why are my kids growing up so fast??? I just wrote Mary Elizabeth’s 3 year update and now his 6 month one. (Yep they are exactly 2 1/2 yrs apart + 2 days).

Drew is so cute lately, this truly is such a cute age. I remember it with ME and sometimes I’d like to freeze time for a bit. This picture of him is from 2 weeks ago but I loved it so I had to post it anyway 😉

And yes, that’s him sitting up. Right as he turned 5 months old he started sitting up a little bit and by the time he was 5 1/2 months old he didn’t have much trouble staying seated. Sometimes if he gets too excited he’s still bound to topple but sits rather well.
He didn’t grow too much this past month, only about 3 oz and they had a hard time measuring him but I think he’s about the same length or just a bit more. He needs his 6 month growth spurt so that I can make sure he fits into all those adorable outfits I got him for the summer in the next size!! (And if any of you know me – I sure did buy a lot- and very very cute ones!!).

He has started recently with cereal and fruit – won’t eat the cereal without the fruit though and he really likes the bananas. He loves loves loves his big sister, starts laughing just watching her. And he likes playing with his toys. He loves attention and being cuddled, held and sung to too. Still very inquisitve and will often focus on things and study them – do I sense a bit of nerdyness like his daddy??? LOL! Anyway he, like his sister is a true joy.

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They both had their check ups today at the dr and that went well. Dr told us it was OK for ME to stop taking naps if she didn’t need them, glad the Dr was ok with it, because she wasn’t taking them no matter what! She has too much energy and when she did nap (rarely) she would be up past 11 pm! So now she’s been sleeping basically 8pm til 8:30am. Give or take a 1/2 hr both ways. They were pleased with how she is doing and how smart she is.
They think her weight was "off" 2 weeks ago for pre-op because she was 27 lbs not 28 this time around and while it’s possible she lost weight – that much doesn’t sound right and she certainly doesn’t look like she lost it. They weighed her twice to make sure and she is 27 lbs so we’ll stick with that.
Also- I think we’ll be cutting back on her overnight feeds (via gtube) in hopes of her eating more during the day. Her weight is great, she’s still a shortie but doing well.
Drew is a shortie too (not as much as her but still) so I think it’s in the genes.
And Drew did well too – they were pleased with how he’s doing and all that he can do. He got his shots and cried so hard, the nurses made fun of him there because his big sister always was tough with that! haha. He got over it— eventually!!

🙂 stay tuned we have a busy weekend ahead- ME’s bday party, My cousin’s graduation party and Memorial day 🙂