Happy New Year!

Welcome 2009!

Ava, Max, and their cousins getting ready to bring in the new year!

Christmas 2008

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!! Ours was filled with lots of fun hanging out with family.
The weekend before Christmas, we spent the weekend with John's dad (Dave), step-mom (Janice), his sister (Deanna) and her husband (Ryan).

Santa even made a surprise visit, which Ava was really excited about and hopped right up on his lap to have a little chat with him.

Max fell in love with a caroler and angel decoration. He loved to look at them, give them hugs, and play with their hair. It was so cute!!


Santa came! Ava and Max with their stockings.

Ava with her craft desk Santa and his elves built for her. Santa did a wonderul job and Ava loves having her own desk.

And thanks to Will's mom, Myssie, Santa found a great gift for Max. He has been enjoying his tunnel. Not as much as Ava has, but I am happy that he will go through it and has fun chasing Ava through it.


We spent Christmas morning at John's mom (Marsia) and step-dad's (Ted) Christmas celebration.

Ava and Max had fun spending time with their cousins Bridee and Lainee.

The girls all got new fishing poles. The Snoopy poles will be put into retirement.

In the afternoon on Christmas, we spent the rest of the day at my mom (Mary Lou) and step-dad's (Gary) place.

Max sharing Grandma's lap with Emerson. Max gets jealous when Grandma holds Emerson, but he doesn't get jealous when I hold Emerson. Go figure!

Ava opening her Barbie cash register.

This is the first present Max ripped in to with Dad's help.

And on the Saturday after Christmas, we celebrated with my Dad's (Gary) side of the family.

It has hit the Foley home!

That bug that has been going around! Ava came down with it Monday night, but seems to be doing better today. She is back to flipping around the house. Max came down with it last night. He threw up three times last night and once today. He has also had diarrhea(sorry) all day. So we have him mainly on pedialite until he can keep pediasure down again. We are skipping out on the Christmas Eve festivities we were planning on going to and hope he is better tomorrow. We have Christmas at John's mom's and my mom's tomorrow. Hope for a quick recovery!

Merry Christmas!

The cookies have been decorated. . .




The tree has been trimmed. . .



SNOW is here. . .





We are ready for Christmas!



Hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas!

Movin' on up. . . .

A couple weeks ago Max went from being a ducky to an otter. What does that mean?!? It means he moved to a new room at day-care! He is now with a group of kids that are 18 months to 2 years old. A month or so ago, the director of the center asked me what my thoughts were about moving him up. She felt that it would help him developmentally to move up. She said that he has outgrown the room he was in. John and I met with the director and his teacher and agreed to move him up. I was not nervous at all about the transition since the led teacher in his room was also his lead teacher in the baby room and knows Max very well. And has been waiting to get Max back in her room again. We were excited about the new step in Max's life. And he is doing great. He sits on a little chair for meals and naps on a mat. Which, to my surprise, he is doing very well with both. I can't believe he is napping on a mat! They said his favorite part of the day is circle time where they sing songs and read books. He gets one of his g-tube feeds during circle time and sits very well for it. I am so glad we have a great, safe place for Max and Ava to spend their days while John and I are at work. They have never made us feel like they cannot handle Max's needs.

Max with teachers in new room (The Otter Room).


Max with teachers from his old room (The Ducky Room).

Two Year Check-Up

Yesterday we had Max's two year check-up. Here's his stats:

Weight: 20.6 Pounds

Height: 30 Inches Long

At his one year check-up he weighted 18.3 pounds and was 27.5 inches long.

His lungs sounded good, which was my concern since he started taking liquids by mouth, and his ear tubes looked nice and open. Yeah!

Our main topic of discussion was Max's feeding and how I am a bit at a loss with it. I am not sure how to increase how much he gets by mouth and decrease his g-tube feeds (even though right now he is not getting enough by mouth to decrease his g-tube feeds), calculate the calories he needs, etc. Ahhh! I heard from Max's ST about a new feeding team at the hospital that has a dr, speech therapist, and nutritionist that work together. Max's pediatrician just talked to the dr that was in charge of the program and also thought it would be a good thing for Max. Max's pediatrician made a call to the team and is going to schedule Max's first appointment for us. So hopefully I will have news on that soon!

During the whole appointment, Max sat on the dr's lap, gave her hugs, and played with her hair. I think it is cute that Max likes his dr so much. He even gets excited when she comes in the room.

Back to the feeding. It seems like over the last few days Max is regressing in his feeding skills. It doesn't seem like his chew is as strong and he is not swallowing his food. He is letting it just hang out in his mouth. He has had a bit of an upset stomach this week along with diarrhea and I am not sure if he is just not in the mood to eat. He is still wanting to put the food in his mouth though. Any suggestions? Should I worry?

On Dasher, On Dancer, On Maxer. . .

What do you think of the newest member of Santa's reindeer team!?!