Hello

It's been a busy week, which is typical, but I guess I just haven't felt like writing on the blog. How's that for honesty? :)

But I have some pictures I wanted to share. Last Saturday, my cousin Nicole and I went out to shop for a little while, and this is what I found when we got home--all the kids looking at toysrus.com with Granna. Georgia cracked me up sitting there like a big kid!


Kim came over that day and brought Nate a present--a Thomas t-shirt that you can color with special markers, then you can wash it and color it all over again. Nate thought this was so cool, and everyone had a chance to sign his shirt and color on it. After awhile, we saw him walking around the house just mindlessly marking up his shirt, not even looking what he was doing. (I also found blue marker all over the white carpet.) So he had on this shirt that looked graffiti'd. Then he asked Cade to put his train hat on him, and Cade put it on sideways. We decided he looked like Flavor Flav (rapper), and I rigged up an old alarm clock around his neck to make him Flavor Nate! Haha! This was so silly and just cracked us up.

And here's Flavor Cade flashing his $15. (I'm still laughing about this!)

I finally got my hands on the digital images of the Christmas pictures we had taken at Sears. These are uncropped, so for example, you can't see Nate holding someone's hand in this one.

On Wednesday, I took both kids to the pediatrician. It was time for Georgia's 4 month appointment. She is 14.5 pounds and 24.5 inches long. She's in the 50th-60th percentile for everything, so just perfectly average. The doctor commented on how strong she is and had no concerns. She's doing great!

I also took Nate because he has had a skin rash for a long time. She says he has "keratosis pilaris" and eczema. From wikipedia: Keratosis pilaris (KP, also follicular keratosis) is a very common genetic follicular condition that is manifested by the appearance of rough bumps on the skin, hence referred to as chicken skin. It most often appears on the back and outer sides of the upper arms (though the lower arms can also be affected), and can also occur on the thighs, hands, and tops of legs, flanks, buttocks, or any body part except glabrous skin (like the palms or soles of feet).[1] Less commonly, lesions appear on the face, which may be mistaken for acne.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratosis_pilaris. Nate does have it on his face, by the way. She said he'd probably always have it. It's not terrble or anything and you can barely see it, but it does itch sometimes. She told me to use 1% hydrocortisone and aquafor or eucarin, but that will only help the eczema. Anyway, it's good to know what it is.

Yesterday, I got a letter from Green Hill, the place where Nate gets his therapy. It was a fundraising letter, which I was interested in reading since I used to write those letters at Berea and I've talked with the director a couple times about their fundraising efforts. I'd like to share part of the letter here:

"... We've seen autistic children begin to commuicate, children with spina bifida begin to walk and many others develop skills, self-confidence and smiles that once seemed unattainable. To help you understand how Green Hill helps special needs kids in our community, I'd like to tell you Nate's story. When Nate's parents went in for a routine ultrasound at 20 weeks, not only did they find out they were having a boy, but they were also given the shocking news that they were having a boy with spina bifida. Knowing the liklihood that he would face a life of surgeries, wheelchairs and catheters, they decided to participate in an experimental in-utero surgery at 23 weeks to close his spine. Amazingly, when Nate was born 9 weeks later, he did not require a shunt and there was no evidence of paralysis. Although Nate defied all odds, his physical development was still slow and by the age of two, he still had not taken his first steps. Nate's parents learned about Green Hill and he started hippotherapy and aquatherapy. Within just a few months, Nate was walking! Now the child who most thought would never walk, walks proudly into preschool each day and thinks it's pretty cool that he gets to swim and ride a horse."

How cool is that?! They actually had asked me a few weeks ago if it was okay to use his story, and a few months ago I had written out his story for them to use however they wished, but I had completely forgotten about this when I opened the letter. So it was a nice surprise. One thing I forgot to put in the story I wrote that would have been awesome for the letter is that Nate actually took his first steps AT Green Hill!

Yesterday we all went out to buy a Christmas tree. This is the first year our little family has bought a live tree, so it was a fun experience especially for Nate. We found the perfect tree and put it up last night. Nate and Georgia wore Christmas pajamas to get in the holiday spirit. :)

Nate kept saying, "Look, Georgia! You see the tree?"

Then this morning Blake brought in all my decorations and Nate had the greatest time watching me pull out each decoration and playing with it (as much as I'd let him). Here's my decorated fireplace!

The last decorating we did this morning was to put a little tree in Nate's room! When I was growing up, we had a little tree that my brother and I shared. One year it would be in my room, and the next year it was in his room. A couple years ago I bought this little tree because we were selling our house at Christmas time and I didn't want to put up our 9 foot tree, then last year we used it because the 9 foot tree didn't fit in our 8 foot ceilings and Nate wasn't at a good age to have breakable ornaments everywhere. So this year, we start the tradition of having a little tree in his room. It may travel to Georgia's room every other year.

I want to brag on Blake a little. This month, he was presented with TWO awards at their regional meeting. He got plaques and everything. :) He was top producer in his entire office (maybe a couple hundred people?) in the month of September, and he was also in the top 10% of the whole company.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend! It's my bed time.