Funny Onesie

Here's Elijah wearing the best baby gift ever, according to Mike!

Very funny!

What big eyes you have!

6 Months Old!

Elijah is 6 months old today! He had his 6 month well visit at the pediatrician yesterday. Here are his stats:
Weight: 15 lbs, 11 oz (21st percentile)
Length: 26 3/8" (52nd percentile)
Head Circumference: 46 1/2 cm (98th percentile)
His head will continue to be proportionally bigger for a while until his body catches up a bit.

Elijah grew almost two inches and gained almost two pounds since his last check-up at 4 1/2 months! His head grew a little bit in that time frame, but not nearly as drastically as it did prior to his surgery. He also got the oral rotovirus vaccine as well as three shots, poor baby. At this point, Elijah is smiling and laughing a lot and he's eating baby cereal. We can start pureed fruits and vegetables now, too!

Just to compare, here are the girls' stats at 6 (or 7) months.
Sienna (6 months)
Weight: 13 lbs, 11 oz (3rd percentile)
Length: 27 " (83rd percentile)
Head Circumference: 42 cm
Tall and slim!

Sienna-December 2005

Isabella (7 months)
Weight: 14 lbs, 11 oz (<3rd percentile)
Length: 24" (10th percentile)
Head Circumference: 44 cm
A little peanut with a big noggin.

Isabella-January 2004

Update on the Kiddos

Elijah will be 6 months old tomorrow!! We can hardly believe everything he has been through in his short life so far, but we're thankful that things look great right now. Last week I took Elijah back to Children's for ultrasounds of his leg and head. As the interventional radiologist predicted, the small clot in Elijah's femoral artery has reabsorbed and the artery is wide open again. Yeah!!! We don't have to worry about that anymore. His head ultrasound looked good, too. Apparently, it looks similar to the last ultrasound they did about a month ago which is a good thing. We want to make sure that the fluid doesn't build up too much and that the hydrocephalus doesn't return. So far, so good!!! I guess it could reappear up to 6 months after the surgery, but everything looks good so far. We had a brief visit with Dr. Smith, the neurosurgeon, and he thought that Elijah looked great! His incisions have healed really well and he's making progress all around.

Elijah had an appointment with a visual field specialist at the New England Eye Institute several weeks ago. Although he is younger than most of her patients, she was able to determine that he has a right visual field cut (as we suspected). The tumor squished out Elijah's left occipital lobe and there was very little healthy occiptal lobe left after the surgery. Before the surgery, Elijah typically gazed to the left. We think it was partly because of the pressure as a result of the hydrocephalus, but it also had to do with the fact that his right visual field is impaired. This means that he has limited peripheral vision on the right side of both of his eyes. He can see out of both eyes and he can track (follow a moving object) well with both of his eyes, but he can't see something to his right unless he turns his eyes or head. It's possible that this will get better with time if there was enough healthy occipital lobe left, but it may not improve. In that case, he'll just have to learn to accommodate. He hasn't known any different, so I think that he'll cope very well with this challenge.

Elijah was evaluated by Early Intervention at the end of July and now he's receiving physical therapy once a week. The PT comes to our house and is working on his general physical development. Elijah will have his first follow-up MRI in mid-September and then a visit to the Brain Tumor Clinic where he'll see the neurologist. He'll have MRI's every three months for a while and then they will be spread out if he continues to do well.

Both of the girls are doing great and they're getting ready to start school within the next couple of weeks. Isabella had a playdate at her elementary school last week where she met her kindergarten teacher and many of her classmates. Next week she will have kindergarten orientation where I'll ride the bus with her one morning and she'll spend an hour in her classroom while all of the parents have a meeting. The following day, she'll ride the bus alone
with her friends! Yikes! Thankfully, there are four kids from our neighborhood who are doing half day kindergarten so she'll have friends on the bus. Mike still claims that he'll drive behind the bus the first day to make sure that she gets to school safely! Isabella will also start soccer and gymnastics in the coming weeks.

Last week Sienna received a postcard from her teacher welcoming her to preschool. She has Miss Monica, the same teacher that Isabella had the last two years. In fact, Miss Monica will have 6 younger siblings of Isabella's friends/classmates. This class will be a whole different ball game since all of the siblings have much different personalities than the older kids. I know that Sienna will love school even though I can't believe that she's old enough to go!! I will have three mornings a week when I'm alone with Elijah. What ever will I do?!?!?

Elijah's First Boat Ride!

Elijah enjoyed his first boat ride this weekend. Not just any boat ride-it was a ride out on the Atlantic Ocean! This was a first for all three of our kids! We spent an afternoon in Marshfield with our friend, Tom, and his parents. Mr. and Mrs. M were nice enough to take us out on their boat. It was a beautiful day! Elijah didn't especially like the bulky life jacket, but he was quickly lulled to sleep by the waves.

Elijah and Isabella helped Mr. M, the Captain

Mr. M & Sienna

Isabella and Mrs. M enjoyed the sunshine

The boys kept cool in the shadeSienna rested below deck

Mama and the girls

Sorry I didn't get any pictures of you, Tom! Next time!!! Thanks Mr. and Mrs. M for another fun day in Marshfield!

Story Land

A couple weeks ago we went up to Story Land in New Hampshire for the weekend. We rented a condo (or a "condor"-as Sienna kept saying) with a friend of Mike's from his MBA program and his family. As I was showing the girls around the condo, Sienna kept asking where the condor was! (She watches a bit too much Diego.) Although we only see Tim, Colleen and their kids a couple of times a year for cookouts, the kids all got along great, and the four "big" kids had a blast sleeping up in a loft all together.

Sienna, Isabella, Ainsley and Danny

Twins!

Silly girls in nightgowns

This is the closest Isabella would get to actually going on the Bamboo Chutes ride.

Sienna went on all the rides without a second thought.

I should have bought the picture that they took during this ride because Sienna's surprised/horrified look was hilarious. This just doesn't do it justice! She loved the ride, though. She's a bit more adventurous than Isabella.

Ainsley, Brody, Sienna, Danny & Isabella

Train ride

Isabella asked for a horse. After she thanked the girl who painted her face, she turned to Mike and quietly said, "This looks like a moose-not a horse!" I thought so, too! I didn't take a picture of the "donkey" that Sienna had on her face.

Elijah enjoyed the ride around Story Land, too!

The girls in Cinderella's castle

Who knew that Cinderella was a 15 year old brunette with braces?!?!

Sticking together

We all had a great time!

Fun With Aunt Katy

We were lucky to have another visit from Aunt Katy this summer (under much better circumstances)! She was in town for the American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting, and she extended her trip so she could spend several days with us. In addition to lots of fun with the kids, I was able to spend some quality time alone with my sister. We saw "Mamma Mia" and enjoyed some fondue during "Girls' Night Out" at The Melting Pot-complete with a complimentary chair massage! What a treat!

We spent one day at the Museum of Science.

Katy, Sienna and Isabella posed with the black bear

Elijah checked out the exhibits, too!

Sienna blew bubbles in a cup

This was Sienna's idea to wear the skunk skin and pretend to spray me.

What kind of animal is that?!?

Experimenting with magnets

Katy finally got to hold Elijah
(since she wasn't able to during her last visit)

We spent another day at the beach.

Although the water was chilly,
Isabella made good use of her water wings.

We all enjoyed some ice cream!

Mmmm, chocolate face and hands!!

I've decided that it's impossible to take a picture
where all three of my kids look nice! At least Katy was cooperative!

Elijah was laughing at Isabella who was being silly
and flipping her hair around. Elijah has a great belly laugh!

In fact, here's Elijah laughing at the beach.

We really don't know what he found so funny about Sienna that day!
(Click the arrow to view the short clip)

We had a great visit with Aunt Katy, and we wish that we could see her more than a couple times a year!

8 Years!

Today is our 8th anniversary!

August 12, 2000

I can honestly say that I have never had more fun at a party than at our own wedding reception. Just about all of our friends and family were there, and we all had a great time (as proven by my parents' bar bill!). Here's the disheveled and rowdy crowd that was left at the end of the night.

We've come a long way since our days at Boston College where we started dating 12 1/2 years ago during our Sophomore year!

Spring 1996

Senior Week-May 1998

Great Gatsby Ball

I keep telling Mike that there's no way that he can get rid of me now since we've been through so much together. As if having a baby 8 weeks prematurely wasn't challenging enough, we were really thrown for a loop when we found out that Elijah had a brain tumor. Thankfully, we've had lots of great times in between, and we look forward to many more years of happiness, love and good health!!!

July 2003
Isabella comes home after 6 weeks in the hospital

June 2005
Now we're a family of four!

July 2007
4th of July in Granville, OH

July 2008
Ready to take Elijah home after brain surgery and two weeks in the hospital

We've been through a lot, and I couldn't have done it without you. I love you, Petro!