3 Months old!

Posted by Andrew & Jessica on Friday Feb 22, 2008 Under Andrew


Andrew is now 3 months old! Momma’s little boy is getting so big! He gained about 2 lbs and grew an inch and a half-
he’s 13 lbs 12 oz and 23 inches long.
Getting to be a big boy but still my little peanut. Fortunately for me he’s stayed in 0-3 months clothing for now- but I have a feeling he’ll be moving up before we know it.

So he experienced his first snow as you can see by the photo (and no, I didn’t cut my hair- half of it is in my jacket). He didn’t seem to bothered by being out there in the snow. He just didn’t really want to be in the sled I put him and his sister in for long. But I think he enjoyed snuggling with me out there watching the snow come down.
Nonethless we enjoyed ourselves on his 3 month old birthday.
Looking at this picture it still seems surreal that now I have two little kids. They are so cute in their pink and blue snowsuits!

 

So baby Andrew is becoming increasingly alert and interactive. He loves to "talk" and can get quite loud with his coo’s sometimes- even a little yell like "hey I’m here" but then sometimes it’s soft subtle coo’s like he’s mr. cool. It’s so cute when he crinkles up his nose while cooing and gives you a big smile!
He’s been reaching at/batting his toys and grabbing things a lot lately. I always find him chewing on his blanket that he pulls up to his mouth. He likes to suck on his hand too. As for the pacifier, he can take it or leave it at this point. Sometimes when mommy isn’t around and he is done eating- he’ll need the pacifier to soothe him to sleep but he can normally go without it.

We certainly have to watch him now because we find him up on his side a little – getting closer to rolling over. So before ya know it he’ll be doing that too.

He forgets he’s still a newborn and like his sister was- does not at all like being in the laying position when he’s awake and being held. He wants to sit up like everyone else and check everything out. 🙂

He absolutely loves his baths, and Mary Elizabeth loves to help with them. He likes to be free of clothing and diapers too!

All in all it’s going well, he’s eating good, sleeping rather well too. He has his fussy times and well he will scream his head off if he’s hungry and you make him wait. But he’s a good, happy, growing baby boy!

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Letters, Drawings & other stuff…

Posted by Andrew & Jessica on Thursday Feb 21, 2008 Under Andrew, Mary Elizabeth

Things are going well here at the Raia household despite the nasty colds we caught that everyone in NY seems to have had (well almost). Baby Andrew seemed to escape it though so that’s good, since he’s young and all.

Mary Elizabeth has become quite the artist. Sure she’s been drawing with a pen/pencil/crayon since she was 1 years old, but she really has been very involved in her coloring skills in the past 6 months. And loves to try to copy what you are drawing. She went from doing big round circles, to little circles, attempts and successfully can draw triangles at times, can draw crosses too (and has drawn a nice cross with a black sharpie on mommy & daddy’s bed sheets- whoops!)… but now she even draws little faces.

You may have to tilt your head slightly to get the idea… otherwise you might see 8’s and 7’s- but its really two round circles for the eyes, a circle nose and a squiggle for the mouth! We are very proud of our smart little girl!

 Recently, we have done a bit of shopping. So their spring & summer wardrobe is turning up quite beautiful thanks to some good Gymboree sales! Grandmas have helped a bit there too- with no complaints either! haha. They will be needed anyway as we realize we have a lot of Events coming in the Spring. Anyway, in addition to the clothes we had Mary Elizabeth’s wooden letters repainted to match her room since we didn’t think Drew would want the name MARY hanging over his crib!

It looks adorable with her Hello Kitty Themed room. In addition we thought we’d get smaller, boyish letter’s for Drew, so that means no ribbon. We haven’t hung them yet but I layed them against the wall – resting on the changing table to share for now, a bit tilted but you get the idea…

We also have some new VIDEOS we put up- well they aren’t really new to us, we took those video clips in December & January but hey better late then never. Drew has already changed and learned so much more since then so we’ll have to take some more and put them up quicker!

Well that’s about all for now, we’re gearing up and hoping to stay healthy for the upcoming surgery on March 11th. We have decided to go with the original drug used in the last sclerotherapy/injection round. Reason being, the other drug has been used before and a lot- but overall not as much as we’d like to feel safe about what risks are involved. There was success with the last round, we are praying for even more success and also less swelling this time.

Don’t forget to leave a comment (if you have time) to let us know you were here and reading 😉

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted by Andrew & Jessica on Thursday Feb 14, 2008 Under Andrew, Mary Elizabeth

 (Click here to open & see larger)


Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you, from our two little love bugs!

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Rearrangement!

Posted by Andrew & Jessica on Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 Under Andrew, Mary Elizabeth

Whoops- I forgot that we purchased tickets for Mary Elizabeth to see Sesame Street live on March 1st. Certainly couldn’t have gone 3 days after surgery. Since we already spent the money on tickets, and this was something for her to ENJOY, I didn’t want to take that away from her.

I called the Dr’s office and they were very good about it and changed the date to Tuesday, March 11th 

This works out for us well but we had the idea of doing Andrew’s Christening on March 30th, that of course would be too close to her big surgery so we will be doing it in April instead. Details to come on that later once we work it out with our Pastor.  

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Sclerotherapy Surgery Date

Posted by Andrew & Jessica on Monday Jan 28, 2008 Under Mary Elizabeth

Our appointment down in NYC this evening went well. They did an ultrasound on her face (which she sat very nicely for) and went over things with us. The last time they did the sclerotherapy (injections) surgery they used a different agent to inject into the cysts. They were planning on doing that when we were trying to arrange this surgery not too long ago. 

This time around the Dr feels she’d like to use a different sclerosing agent. The reasons for this is because she has seen that many have had good results from this one as well, and also that she had hoped for a better response with the other one she used last time. Though ME did seem to have decent results last time, she is looking for something that will work better.

We will be researching this as well, but we have heard of the substance through other parents with children that have this condition as well. Prayers are that this change in the surgery is maybe what it was postponed for all along. We shall see.

Nonetheless no matter which we decide to go with (the original agent that she was injected with or this other one) she will have surgery on Wednesday, February 27th. Please keep her in your prayers. 🙂

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