Presents, presents and more presents,

Hope you and yours had a Merry Christmas.  Have a Safe, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Cousins

Happiness is a new bike!

Pretty princess

oh so heavy!

“No, Moose - it’s mine!”

Cookie break - sugar plum fairies and sweet dreams to all!

Ross turns five Christmas Eve, but last weekend we had a birthday party for him.

They dug for dinosaur bones and did dinosaur crafts,

they made and expolded volcanos….

they went on a nature walk,

and visited the animal room.  A good time was had by all!

Waiting to see Santa

More flour on his shirt than on the board……

Francesca gets in on the action……

the fruits, er… cookies of their labor….

mmm, which one do you want?  I see mine right there! Save some for Santa!

It’s so cold outside - I can’t tink of anything better to do than some holiday baking.  Think they’ll last until Christmas?

Happy 2nd birthday Francesca!

My baby girl is 2!  I know that all children are miracles.  I feel we were extra blessed in the miracle department with Francesca.  I found myself reflecting a lot this week on how very fortunate I am to have my four children; my two grown girls of course, and the opportunity to have increased my family by 2 at this, “ahem”, older stage of my life. 

With Ross I was 40 when he was conceived and it took all of 6 months, not bad when you realize how quickly your fertility decreases after 35.  We knew we wanted more children so we started trying shortly after Ross was born.  We tried for 6 months, until he was one.  We then used Chlomid for 6 more months, under my OB-Gynies supervision -  a roller coaster ride of hormones - oh my what a nasty drug.  And then we were referred to a reproductive endochronologist. 

Another 6 months of chlomid along with artificial insemination and again no luck.  All during this tme we were researching insurance policies that would pay for in-vitro fertilization, and fortunately work offered one that did.  I learned a lot about state based policies and those that originated in other states and for us, BCBCS HMO was the answer.

Interestingly enough, the injections and plethera of drugs were less of a hormonal imbalance than the chlomid was.  The emotional piece was hard, but the drugs affected me less.  I had accupuncture and tried some herbal remedies but our first attempy failed (you needed at least 4 eggs for retrieval and I only had 2).  The second time around I had exactly 4 eggs of retrieval size , so retrieval came and out of that 3 eggs fertilized. 

The next few days were excrutiating as we decided, based on my age, to do the PGD testing.  We learned right away that one of the embryos had triple X, which was not condusive to life, the other two were still being tested.  On the day that we went for implantation we learned that there was a problem with testing and that they had to retest and we’d need to come back the next day.

The next day we learned that both of the embryos had tested fine, but only one survived to be implanted.  Now a day 5 blastocyst, they proceeded with the implantation and a kind and wonderful nurse with ah Irish brogue placed the blastocyst in my uterus and said “your home now” at which point I burst into tears.  So much for not being hormonal.

After the wait, which was in reality not that long but felt like eternity, I went for the blood test to see if my counts were doubling and if I was pregnant.  I was at work when they called to say I was pregnant, I burst into tears on the phone.  The very next day I called the geneticist to see if I was carrying a boy or girl.  They can tell the sex of the embryo when they do the genetic testing (for 13 of the most common chromosonal disorders) but do not share the info prior to implantation so there is not improper “gender choosing”.  I didn’t care if I was having a boy or girl but just knowing that the information was available was too much to handle.  I then had to keep the information from Sam, as he didn’t want to know until the 20 week ultrasound. 

Fast forward to now, and my baby girl is 2!  How quickly the time flies.  We are so blessed to have her.  As I was going through my Christmas card list, I came across Dr. Jacob’s card as well as the cards of our in-vitro nurses.  Going through the process the nurses asked us to send them holiday pictures, which I dutifully and gratefully will.  Thank you Dr. Jacobs and staff for allowing us to grow our family and have our little Francesca.  And again, I am crying.

What’s that you say?  They’re tree nuts.  Most of us remember laying under the Christmas Tree looking up at the magical world of lights and ornaments.  But, didn’t we lie the other way, you know…on our backs looking up?

Francesca does this.  A lot.  She just lies under the tree - head down, butt up.  Ross was just along for the ride.  She just likes it there.

And we have a winner!  Good thing too, because after the first few shots Francesca had had enough and wanted her pacifier in her mouth at all times.  She also preferred her backside to the camera so she could face the tree and pickat the ornaments.  I should have photographed the fight that ensued afterward as Ross knocked over her lego tower and Francesca chased him and smacked him.  Now that would have been a more accurate  Christmas Card picture.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Nicole and Brandon, Ashley and my brother Ray came over to our house for dinner.  Nicole announced her big news - IT’S A GIRL!!!!!  We are all so very happy for Nicole and Brandon.  Nicole looks so cute pregnant too.

Turkey with all the trimmings was enjoyed by all.  On Friday Sam and I  took the kids and did some Christmas shopping over at Toys R Us.  While looking at the V-Tech items, I noticed one of the games had a video playing as a demo.  Ross did a shoot for V-Tech Create a Story in April and the video was to be in Toys R Us stores this fall.  I walked over to the V-Tech Disney Create a Story and pushed Demo and TaDa! - Ross in all his glory!  What fun for his dad and I.  Ross was less than impressed and wanted to look at the TOYS.  Francesca spyed a Yo Gabba Gabba Guitar and held onto it the entire time in Toys R Us - we just had to buy it for her, she LOVED it!  Oh well, other things will be for Christmas and her birthday. 

Sam took one cart and I had the kids in the other.  I think Sam had more fun shopping for toys than Ross did looking around.  The cart was overflowing and hard to keep out of sight from the kids.  Sam is a funny shopper, he buys things and takes them home and ends up returning a portion of the items all the time.  I don’t shop that way.  When I choose something I choose it specifically for that person.  He just sort of loads up and then decides who would like it.  Either way, we made headway at Toys R Us and JC Penney. 

Now we are exploring  what type of game system to purchase.  Sam wants to buy one for “us” as a family and for Ross, “ahem” read - daddy! I am in the Wii camp and I think Sam is leaning toward X-Box.  Nicole’s thoughts are that X-Box is more shoot em up and Wii is more family orineted.  I like that Wii is more active and you can get the Wii FIT for it too.  We’re going to have to look into the game offerings and decide. 

Saturday was a little quieter.  Nice weather here so I headed outside to decorate the house with lights for Christmas.  Sam took Ross to Safari Land, Francesca napped and I ”decked the halls”.  I wanted to finish just before the boys came home so I can see the delight in Ross’ face when they came home to a house all lit up.  I was outside staking Rudolph into the ground when they pulled up and eagerly waited to see Ross’ expression.

He got out of the car, looked at the house, walked up to me and started crying and screaming “you were supposed to wait for me.  Take it down, I want you to take it down!”   Not exactly the response I anticipated.  Mind you, we had not had a conversation about decorating the house together or anything like that. The inside we always do together but I am on my own outside.  I unplugged the lights then and there.  He later calmed down and we were able to keep them up (like I was really going to take them down and then put them up AGAIN) with the promise that we will put more up outside later, together.

At least Francesca was excited.  After her nap, I bundled her up and took her out side to look.  She squeeled and yelled “Mom!” (the dominant word in her limited vocabulary) and kept pointing at the lights and decorations.  She was so excited.  The rest of the day was quiet, and then Francesca drank toilet water.  That’s right, Toilet water.  Yum.  Someone left the bathroom door open and she was playing with a bowl from her kitchen set.  She came walking out of the bathroom drinking water from the bowl.

A quick call to her pediatrician confirmed that there was not much to do but wait.  Fortunately there were no cleaning products in the water or anything else for that matter.  Doctor said to call if she gets loose stools in the next 3 or 4 days but likely nothing to worry about.  I don’t know what it is about the toilet that is so enthralling to this child.  That and the dog bowl for water.  She just loves water and the fact that those two places have it all the time is just too much for her!  The lady from the Doctors answering service found it quite amusing especially as she could hear Francesca walking around and babbling/singing, sounding quite happy with herself.

Sunday was quiter, I took the kids to church and we pretty much vegged the rest of the day.  Read the newspaper, did some laundry, played with the kids, a good quiet day.  It is supposed to snow - it started out flurrying but now it seems more rainy.  We’ll see in the morning if anything changes overnight.

 I am secretly hoping we wake up with snow on the ground.  I love the way it looks and at night it’s so pretty with all the lights.  I’m not fond of driving in the first snow, but tomorrow is only pre-K and T-ball, short trips for sure.

Hope you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!