Our Newest Nephew!

My brother and sister in law had their second son this morning, Eric Anthony. Eric is Shea's middle name and Anthony was my dad's name. All three grandsons have it for a middle name now. We just got back from visiting him at the hospital. He weighed 8lb 15 oz and is adorable. He and Jennifer are doing well. Owen is taking some time to adjust to having a little brother :)

This makes 3 nephews for us now (and 2 nieces).

Basketball Pictures

No More Paci

Mia's pacifier is gone. I just had to post one more picture with her beloved paci.

Busy Times

Well, between dr visits and playdates we have been busy. On the positive side, Mia's symptoms have completely disappeared this week! So... all of our lab work was sent so the specialist can still look at it if we have any more issues. All of the labs from the pediatrician came back negative so they told me to wait a week to see and she seems fine now. We do go back to the hematologist in a few weeks and he will review everything, also. He tries to coordinate all of her health issues since so many things can either cause or be the result of blood issues. Hopefully, her iron stores will be up and all will be good.



Bryce had a basketball game last weekend and they did really well. He is really enjoying it. Mia loves her music class and sings and dances all the time. We hung out with my family and the kids got to play with their cousins all day this weekend. Now, we are back to normal, doing school in the mornings, playgroup activities a couple times during the week and enjoying the nice weather.



My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their second son anytime this week. We can't wait to see him! Of course, I am afraid Mia might attack him since we took away her pacifier last weekend and told her that a baby needed it. Hopefully. she doesn't hold him responsible. She was not happy. I really wanted to let her give it up on her own, but she was going from using it to sleep to wanting it all the time and I just couldn't take it. She gets very angry every night and screams, "It's NOT the baby's paci- it's MINE". I tell her it is gone and she says "FIND IT". I think we have traumatized her for good!



Bryce has his first loose tooth and is SO excited. He has been waiting a long time and it was driving him crazy that most of his friends had already lost one. He wanted to pull it until he learned it might bleed so he decided to wait until it falls out on its' own. That's my kid!

Mia Update

Thanks for everyone who has been asking about Mia. She is feeling fine, we just can't get this figured out. We got back the results to three of the four cultures today. All negative so that is good and bad news. Good that she doesn't have any of those things, but bad in that we still don't know what is wrong. We will get the results of the last one tomorrow or possibly Monday. It takes longer to culture for it. It is another bacterial infection they are testing for. Nothing contagious or really slowing her down. If this one is also negative, we will be referred to a specialist for further testing. I swear this child will have met a specialist of all kinds by her third birthday. And the funny thing is she is really my healthy child :) Bryce was sick way more often as a baby and toddler than Mia has ever been. She just has weird, unexplained things. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and I will update more when I know something!

My Sweet Kiddos!

We just had these pictures done last week and I love the one of them laughing. There was another one (too big to scan) where they are laughing and looking away from the camera. To me, those are the best pictures!

Mr. Bryce

Bryce is still playing basketball and

doing Adventure Guides. They have another camp out the end of this month. He is doing really well in school. He loves math and science and says he wants to be a scientist when he grows up. He amazes me with all he remembers from different science books he gets at the library. He will draw on his easel and "teach" me and he knows so much about the body and the different cells. He is still working on learning to read. He can read kindergarten level books using sight words and can put together the phonics to sound out words. He gets impatient and tries to guess what the words say by looking at the picture, but he can do it if he tries. Phonics and reading will be our focus for the rest of the year since he has completed the kindergarten math. We will keep doing math to keep it fresh, but focus on reading.

He continues to be a great big brother and is more patient with Mia than I have seen him be with anyone else!

Miss Mia

Mia got these cute pink converse shoes from my niece and insisted on putting them on right when I got them out of the bag. I thought the outfit looked cuter with the navy blue mary janes, but I guess not :) She did not want her picture taken, though and made that obvious!

Just a quick update on Mia's health. We have continued pushing iron rich foods on her in hopes her iron stores are up when we visit the hematologist in February. If not, she will have to start on some supplements. It is strange because her iron stores were fine back in May which was why the bone marrow issue was suspected. However, at the last visit her white cell count and everything were up, but the iron stores had dropped to below normal. So, we are back to trying the iron, which did not change her levels before so leave us hesitant to believe it will help. However, her anemia is not causing any major issues for her at this time. She definitely is full of energy! Unrelated, she was showing some signs that can point to being pre-diabetic so the dr did a fasting blood sugar test yesterday and thankfully, the numbers came back great.

However, we are now facing another issue with her health and are waiting for test results now. She has had chronic digestive problems for over a month. The dr thought it might be a mild case of rotovirus, but it never got worse or went away. They are now doing cultures to test for 4 different things it could be. Some very mild, some not so much. I will post an update as soon as I hear something.

In the meantime, she is still her sweet and sassy self! She likes to cuddle and still lets (or makes) me rock her to sleep at night, as she twirls my hair. I know she is 2, but I will do it as long as she lets me. She seems so much older than 2 at times, I swear girls grow up so much faster. So, any time she will let me baby her, I will!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a great new year so far. We celebrated by

"camping out" in our living room, watching movies and eating s'mores.

Best wishes to everyone in 2009!