Last year at this time we had one pitiful little boy on our hands. You see, he had just had his first shunt revision and was in a tremendous amount of pain. He had just learned to sit up and there were still many unknowns of what the next year would hold in terms of surgeries as well as milestones.
2011 has proven to be an amazing year for all of our children, but especially so with Anderson. After 2 surgeries in February, he has overall been pretty healthy in regards to the shunt. And milestones? This little fighter has worked very hard with his physical frustrations. Everything gross motor is much more difficult for him than typical children, but he refuses to give up. He not only mastered crawling but just in the past month has really mastered walking as well. It has been a slow process and we got discouraged a few times along the way, but we kept working and he kept trying. He can now walk all over the house, he doesn't need his hands in the air for balance anymore and he has started kicking a ball while walking just this week! It does my heart good to just sit and watch him walking around the bonus room. And did I mention that for now we are finished with PT? We thank God everyday for his continued health and development.
The girls are excited about Christmas as usual.They have helped me shop, wrap, and decorate. We put up 2 trees this year, and by "we" I mean Jamie's sister. She put up a beautiful tree downstairs in the living room. We put up our "less pretty family tree" upstairs in the bonus room. We discussed asking Santa to leave his gifts upstairs so we would have more space Christmas morning, but kinsley quickly objected. She said he can drop them by the fireplace and leave quickly. She doesn't want him anywhere near her bedroom. Some things will never change. (you know the only way she will let the Easter bunny visit is if we leave a note telling him to leave it by the door and move on to the next house.)
Karlie decided Santa isn't so bad after all and actually sat on his lap when he visited her school. This completely blew me away since the past 2 years she has screamed and cried and made her tea hers hold her. I'm not really sure what changed her mind, but it's okay with me. She started by saying she didn't really care what she got for Christmas...that she would be happy with whatever. However as Christmas gets closer she is starting to add things to her list. I tried to explain to her that everyone is finished with their Christmas shopping and it's a little late to add new wishes. She says she'll just tell Santa. :)
Kinsley has known what she wanted for a long time so she's pretty easy. Ever since her nintendo DS broke, she's been asking for an upgraded version. She also loves clothes so she has asked for clothes from her new favorite store, justice. Shopping for her is pretty easy, but she can't think of any toys or things to play with but keeps explaining to me that getting new clothes is not boring to her. I guess we will see.
This year we are thankful for good health, milestones, and and family. We are looking forward to spending time together as a family over the Christmas holiday. Looking forward to posting more for the new year. (I got a new camera so hopefully each post will have pictures as well..) of course right now my laptop is dead so we will figure that out.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
