Christmas 2019 Recap

Christmas 2019 was a good one! Our Disney trip was a big part of Christmas this year (hence the Disney pajama pants), and Santa brought tickets to see Sponge Bob the Musical a few weeks early in Philadelphia. But the kids still had plenty to open! A favorite gift was a Star Wars Droid from Santa that the kids could build and program together. We worked on it today and it is pretty cool!

Highlights for Caleb included: several experience gifts like the DC Auto Show, a tour of DC monuments, The Museum of the Bible, an archery lesson, and a Caps game. He also got a weighted blanket from Nina and Paw Paw that he loves to sleep under and a comfy Harry Potter robe from Grammy and Pop.

Highlights for Abby included: lots of great new books, a big slime kit with all kinds of mix-ins, and several LOL dolls. She also got new Playmobil sets from Nina and Paw Paw and Grammy and Pop, so she pretty much has a whole town that she can make stories up about!

The kids have enjoyed lots of family time at home as we try to avoid catching the flu that has taken over our area. They don't seem to mind at all though, because they have had lots of fun playing with new toys and getting in that precious video game time that they don't usually have when school is in session.

As always, we were thankful to be home for Christmas instead of in the hospital. Having spent 3 Christmases inpatient, we know all too well how hard it is on a family to be in that situation and we don't take for granted that we are home together.

The week between Christmas and New Year's has included visiting with both sets of grandparents and both great-grandmothers, hosting an activity hour at The Ronald McDonald House, attending a 50th anniversary party for my aunt and uncle (just Caleb and me so that Abby could avoid germs), Matt and I volunteering (separately) at Safe Nights at our church, and Abby performing in her first piano recital.

We are extending our break just a little bit longer, as Abby has appointments in New York City on the 3rd with a new specialist who we are hoping will have some good insights on Abby's spine. He is THE surgeon to go to and only takes the most complex cases. I'm not thrilled that Abby falls into this category, but we are grateful that he has taken her on as a patient. We will go up as a family on the 2nd and stay until the 4th. We wanted to make sure that we were able to do something fun while we were up there so that it wasn't just all medical, so we will be visiting the Museum of Natural History and enjoying The Radio Center Music Hall Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular! The kids are excited, which makes the tough stuff a little more bearable. Of course, we will continue to be vigilant about germs with masks and hand sanitizer.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our savior!

Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome

If you happen to pick up the latest Reader's Digest, there is an article in there about Piper Breinholt , a four year old with CCMS. If you've been around here a while, you'll remember wayyyyyy back when we first received Abby's diagnosis that I was able to speak to Piper's mom, Reagan. The article is more about their story and not as much about the ins and outs of CCMS, but I think it's probably enough to get some people googling it and I'm hoping a few will end up here. Every once in a while, I give a blog post the title of Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome so that it would show up in Google. My ever-present hope is that people will stumble across my blog and 1) be encouraged by the hope we have in Christ, 2) feel a connection with someone in a similar situation as them, or 3) get excited over the miracles that have been performed in Abby's life!! (a combination of all 3 is great too!) :) Notice that it's not to get famous and it never wi

The Potty Man

Caleb LOVES to go potty! I have never heard a potty training story like this one....Caleb tells us when he needs to go, we take his diaper off, and he goes! Now, is it perfect? No, not at all! We aren't trying to potty train at at all, but we figure every time he goes is one less diaper we have to change! The only time we consistantly put him on the potty is when we give him a bath (he always pees in the tub, so we know he needs to go!) He almost always goes on the potty now instead of the tub though. When he's not "really" going potty, he's pretending to go potty! He's such a funny kid!

Lego Party: Favors

I'm a little slow in posting the Lego Party pictures, but I think I have a few excuses I could use. At any rate, I wanted to share what I did for the party! It will take a few posts, so stay with me. I'll start with how I did the favors. These are the goody bags I made. I just bought solid colored gift bags and matched scrapbook paper to each bag. Then I punched circles and attached them with the 3D foam tape so that the circles were raised. I used the keychain (explained below) as a name tag on the outside. These are Duplo blocks. I put a round magnet on the back and...voila! A magnet! (note: hot glue doesn't work so well...I ended up reglueing them with my apoxy because the magnets fell off.) I made crayons using Lego man crayons. Yes, I know this guy has lost half of his leg. The others were already packaged and I didn't want to open one up just to get a picture. I used a Lego mold to make the crayons. Caleb put small pieces of crayon in each m

Life as a Leach

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