Preparing for a Happy New Year

It's been quite a busy and wonderful year.

Welcoming Oliver into the family has been exciting beyond words. It's hard to imagine that this time last year he was just a tiny little bean waiting to be born. We had no idea what was to come. Getting his diagnosis was momentarily devastating; we had to mourn the baby we thought we'd have and then accept the baby that we were going to have. For me, that took the first weekend of getting the news -- after that, I didn't look back. Once we hooked up with CHOP, things went pretty quickly. All of the visits and uncertainty and waiting and praying that took us up to the birth of our little boy seems like a blur now. But when I sit back and reflect, the change in our lives is amazing. We are parents of a special needs child -- part of a new group, a new subset of society with a whole new vocabulary and priorities. But most importantly, we are the parents of a perfect, sweet, amazing little boy. In all of my prayers, I could not have asked for a more perfect son.

Watching Mac grow from a little toddler into a full-fledged little girl has been an amazing (and tiring!) process. It's hard to even remember, but I don't think that she was talking much this time last year. Now, she is the most articulate, most impressive little girl. She "reads" books, tells stories, reasons with me, argues with me, and absorbs everything. In my wildest dreams, I could not imagine a smarter, sweeter, more amazing daughter.

Tim and I have spent another year together -- we're going on seven! In some ways, that doesn't seem like nearly long enough for all that has gone on, but in other ways it has been a lifetime. Even though we don't see each other as often as we should (or maybe because of :) we continue to love each other and learn a lot about being married. Sometimes the learning isn't easy or fun, but I have to think that it counts for something.

I even got a job offer, which I have been stressing about basically since half-way through the PhD program. We turned the garage into an office and a playroom. Tim has remodeled the school. We have tunred a thousand tiny corners this year in order to bring us to 2008. God has been with us and kept us safe and close. We are both blessed and grateful.

Looking forward, I hope for health, happiness, and a little organization!

Happy Holidays!

I really love that Christmas extends all the way to New Year's. The tree is still up and there is still tissue paper strewn everywhere. Christmas is still here!

We have not even chipped away at getting all of Mac's gifts a) open and b) put away. But I like to leave things under the tree for a week -- it keeps that fresh Christmas feeling. The rest of our Christmas day was a lot of fun -- we had lunch at the Volk house and dinner with the Chewning parents. Even though it was busy it was a lot of fun. One of Mac's big gifts was an indoor bouncing thing. Watching her bounce on it is one of the funniest things that I have ever seen.

But even during Christmastime, the real world creeps in. Both of Oliver's casts fell off, so we had to go back down to CHOP the day after Christmas. And then they fell off the next day. So he is now castless again. This really aggravates me, because he just had the surgery. It is more important than ever that the feet get held in the right position, and now the most I can do is stretch them out a few times a day. After next Wednesday this won't be an issue because he gets his braces, but a week is really too long to go without any extra support on the feet.

And falling into the great news category -- I got a job offer from Penn State. I'm really excited. I'm trying to work out some insurance issues, but I will probably take the job. Of course, I also want to know if Montclair (where I had my other interview) is planning on calling me back. So I'm trying to stretch out my response to Penn State and get in touch with Montclair. Very stressful -- I'm not a negotiator. And I'm so not slick. I've been told that you are supposed to negotiate salary and I really have no idea how to do it. But these issues aside, I'm just really relieved to have gotten an offer. It will make this coming semester so much easier and less stressful.

Tim is remodelng the karate school from top to bottom. He is conducting an intense, one-week construction-a-thon in order to get it done before he reopens on January 2. It sucks, because I haven't seen him for more than an hour a day since last Friday (other than onChristmas Eve and Christmas). But it will be well worth it when he is done.

I know, I know...pictures would illustrate all of this much better. I still have no quick way to get the photos onto the computer. But they are coming, and they are cute!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We just finished opening our gifts. I think that everyone is happy :) It's been such a great holiday so far. On Christmas Eve, it is our tradition to get together with my grandma, aunt, uncle and cousins. We do this with my mom, since it is her side of the family. This year we went up there (we take turns). It was so much fun -- everything was perfect. Dinner was great, and we had fondue for dessert. That is a new tradition that I hope we keep up from now on. Anyway, we all got great gifts, but Mac really got a lot of cool stuff. She was so excited that when she woke up this morning, she asked for her new dolls first thing. She wanted her gifts, but I don't think she understood that she actually got new gifts today. So when she realized that she got new gifts here, too, she was really excited. Even Oliver seemed excited by the teething ring in his stocking.

Another Big Day

So Oliver had another big day yesterday --spina bifida clinic at CHOP. SB clinic is a day where we go down and he sees everybody -- neursurgery, clinic nurse, pediatrician, physical therapist, social worker, and orthopedics. Whew. Grandma made the trip down with us, so we had some good company to get us through the day. We saw neurosurgery first, becasue his home pediatrician thought that he saw sundowning of Oliver's eyes at his 4 month check-up on Monday. Sundowning is when the eyes slide down, leaving a lot of white showing at the top. This is one of the signs of hydrocephelus, which would indicate the need for a shunt. I didn't really see it, but was still pretty nervous. After he was evaluated by neuro, they said that they didn't see anything wrong, and that any sign, especially sundowning, would be much more pronounced. One of those things that you can't mistake for anything else. So we got a thumbs-up from neuro.

We bopped around to the rest of the doctors after that. The pediatrician was someone we hadn't seen before and was very nice. The clinic nurse and physical therapist hardly spent any time with us at all - I guess there wasn't much to say. In orthopedics, he got fitted for his braces. After January 2, Oliver will be out of casts and will wear his new braces indefinitely. At first, he got fitted for very cumbersome casts -- there were two sandals joined by a bar. So his legs would actually be attached to each other. I was soo upset. But when we saw the doctor, he said that he'd ordered the wrong kind, and that his braces would actually just be plastic sleeves that hold the feet in position, much like his casts do. I was much happier after that.

When all was said and done, we were there from 10 am to 6:30 pm. A long but fulfilling day. Oliver seemed no worse for the wear. I, on the other hand, was pretty tired.

Speaking of a big day, I'm going out to happy hour for the first time in, um, I actaully don't know how long. I used to be the happy hour queen! Ages 22-27 basically were happy hour. In all honesty, my friend Lynn and I shared the title. We could turn happy hour into happy 7 hours. Aah, the good old days; it's a shame I don't remember all of them that clearly. Lynn is coming home for a visit from her posh new LA digs and we're going to hit the bar with our other friends from the Jewish News. It will be like old times, except for the fact that I can't drink that much because I'm breastfeeding and I have to be home by 9. But other than that, really, just like old times.

My Policy on Monsters

I have to decide on my monster policy. Mac is newly obsessed and sees them everywhere. So I ask:

Is there no such thing as monsters or do monsters exist but are fundamentally nice and don't hurt children?

I can't decide which is the better route to take. Do I deny childhood imagination in an attempt to nip this in the bud, or indulge but create a whole system in which monsters are nice and won't hurt her? And of course if there are nice monsters, that leaves room for evil, child-eating ones, as well. Tim says we should go with the former, but Mac seems wholly unconvinced when I tell her that and continues to point them out to me ("Do you see it over there -- the blue monster?"). I've tried to dodge it altogether until I decide which is the better tact to take.

Not that Mac couldn't kick the ass of any monster that came after her. Seriously, if she only knew how formidable she really is, we'd all be in trouble.

Actually, I suspect she knows...