just because

Yea for church!!

Grandma E. sent his dalmation coat and hat - we call him the 102nd dalmation.

I miss you Grandma and Grandpa!

Mommy's socks

Matthew knows where socks go; he loves to take them off and wildly fling them in his hands. Well, last night he found my "house" socks and brought them to me - and laid them on my feet. Grandam decided to put them on MTE. He wasn't bothered by them in the least once they were on --------- how he will hate us someday ;o)

I am thankful

...that my son isn't so dehydrated from his illness that he needs to go the ER to get IV fluids
...that my blood pressure is so high that I can't catch my breath
...that my 3 1/2 week old son doesn't have seizures from a congenital disease
...that I didn't break my leg while trying to roller blade
...that I'm not in acute congestive heart failure while visiting family in another state
...that I'm not in acute kidney failure from powerful antibiotics that I needed for my infection
...that my husband is not so delirious from his pneumonia that he requires 4 point leather restraints to protect him from hurting himself and others

...that I'm not working in the ER today like I was yesterday

1 year checkup

Matthew's one year checkup turned out to be his 1 year plus a sick checkup. He's had fevers off and on since Saturday and nothing to tie it to. With that, his doctor is assuming that it's a simple viral infection that we'll just have to wait out - blood work was fine except for his hemoglobin being a tad low - so we'll start him on some multi-vitamin with iron in it.

With no other symptoms to explain - my natural tendency is to assume the worst - leukemia, I know this is crazy - but HIV - somehow from me since I'm a nurse, been in Haiti, etc.......... let's see - anything that's horrible, I can imagine it - if I allow myself to go there. I suppose that's a "normal" new mom thing - at least that's what I'm assuming ;o) It's another opportunity to trust God for Matthew's protection and safety - and that' not a bad thing to work on - I seem to need that more than I think ;o)

Apart from that, Matthew is in the 90% for his height - 31+" and 75% for his weight - 24+#. We do love our little monkey(as Mark calls him).

Other new accomplishments are waving bye-bye and hello consistently, showing us where our noses are and stacking a block. :o)

our Christmas

We were in Dallas the first part of the week and had lots of fun - though, as everyone knows - expectations are different with children. Mark was gracious enough to stay at the hotel with Matthew in the mornings so Dad, Mom and I could run around - IKEA, Dealey Plaza, Whole Foods, etc... We did make it to The Cheesecake Factory(we went at an off time) and Red Hot & Blue for barbque and had some Chinese.

Matthew was a little off - as anticipated - our hotel room wasn't as spacious as we had expected it to be - so, Matthew was a bit limited in getting around for play. I think that's when he started getting sick, maybe?

It was great having my parents along with - it made the drive soooooo much easier with Mom in the back to "entertain" him when needed - and watching her knit mesmerized him to sleep when it was nap time :o)