Preparing for the Holidays

We're getting ready for the holidays!

This past week-end, we got our Christmas tree. This year, both Simi and Asher helped decorate the Christmas tree. In previous years, we waited until they were asleep to decorate, but now they're old enough to be involved. They absolutely loved it and they did a great job of putting the ornaments on the tree!

Sunday, we went to see the Nutcracker. Last year, only Simi was old enough to go but this year, both boys went. They absolutely loved it. We got to visit with the folks in the orchestra pit before and after the show and they even got to talk with a chap in the orchestra. It was too cool.

Simi had remembered from last year that someone dressed as the Nutcracker met us outside the auditorium and gave him a small candy cane. He was hoping that would happen again. Sure enough, when we arrived, someone dressed as the Nutcracker was handing out candy-canes to the children. Asher, who is terrified of people dressed up as things, was so excited and later said that he wasn't scared at all! He was even more thrilled that he got to EAT the candy cane!

All in all, a good holiday week-end. We're looking forward to more to come!

Cars vs. Dolls

It was inevitable; Leila likes vrooming cars as much as the boys do.

Now, perhaps Leila's taste for dolls and cars may change as she gets older, but right now she prefers to ditch the dolls and vroom the cars. OK, in all truthfulness, she prefers to EAT the cars.

A Visit To Santa

For the past several weeks, toy catalogs have been coming in the mail to the house. The boys get so excited about them and read them from cover to cover. At nearly every toy, either Simi or Asher exclaims, "Can we buy this toy?" The canned response is, "You can ask Santa for it."

So now, with Santa's visit nearly here, I asked Simi and Asher to make a list of the things they want, so that they can visit Santa and tell him personally. They both sat down with pencil and paper and make a list: trains, race track, race cars, Ramone (from the Cars movie), and many other types of race cars. Cars, cars, and more cars. (Those folks at Pixar know what boys like.) Simi wrote down all the words and letters. Asher did too, in three-year-old style. Then, we took those lists and headed down to the mall to visit Santa and deliver the lists.

Asher has always been afraid of Santa Claus. In fact, he's afraid of sports mascots and other huge fake animals. I was hoping with the hype of toys and stuff that he'd overcome his fear enough to be able to sit on Santa's lap for a photograph. He did, but it was a really hard for him. I am really proud of him that he managed to overcome his fear enough to sit near Santa. He BARELY sat near him, though, and leaned SOOO far away from Santa - with a great big frown on his face.

Leila, who has the normal 10-month-old stranger anxiety, did GREAT! She let Santa hold her and smiled and laughed. She's the one who looks the happiest in the photo. Simi was the first to go up to Santa, list in hand, and spoke to Santa about what he wants for Christmas. It was adorably cute.

Now we need to find the stuff on their lists.

Thanksgiving

It was an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving.

Simi counted down the days until his cousin Nicole arrived. Simi absolutely adores his cousing Nicole and was incredibly thrilled to hear that she was coming to visit over Thanksgiving. Nicole's mum and dad and big sister, Jessica, also came to visit. Simi's grandfather and grandmother visited too. In fact, Grandma Laurie came bearing gifts and even cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Now THAT's what I call a welcome guest!

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Ms. Personality

Leila is growing up. As she matures, she reveals more and more personality to us. And the more she grows, the goofier she gets.

Leila will look at us and cover her eyes with her hands: to play peek-a-boo with us. She'll cover her eyes, take her hands away, then smile and laugh. It's too funny.

She will also hide behind the curtain (yes, I do know it's a choke hazard. We only let her do it while she's supervised.) and play peek-a-boo. She pulls the curtain around her, then comes out from behind it with a great big smile on her face.

Leila hasn't yet met a stranger she doesn't like. Folks are always coming up to us at a store check-out line because Leila has been looking at them and smiling and they just NEED to come up and say hello to her. She's such a happy baby.

Going Mobile

Leila has been slowly moving around for a few weeks now. Yesterday, her movement has turned into the full-fledged crawl. She can quickly and easily get from one end of the room to the next. Our baby is mobile!

Most parents look forward to this milestone with their baby. It's exciting and new and they love to see their child developing. But since this is our third baby, we dread this day. It means that it's no longer sufficient to put the teeny tiny toys that they boys love in the toy bins on the other side of the room. Now, they have to go up high. And when the boys play with them, we'll have to carefully supervise to make sure no small pieces get into Leila's eager paws. Oh, what fun!

On the other hand, we invented a really fun game with the goofy giggle remote control toy. We make the little toy go and watch Leila chase after it. Hee hee!

Asher Update

We haven't had an Asher update in a while...here it is:

The news is - no news! We still have not started the elemental formula. Insurance denied our request and we can't afford the $35/day ($1000/month) that the formula costs. Right now we're looking into options to see what we can manage.

A couple of weeks ago, we removed corn syrup from Asher's diet. We know that Asher reacts to corn, but corn syrup is supposed to be safe, due to something about the food processing stripping 99.5% of the proteins away. Corn syrup, by the way, is in EVERYTHING. But after reading in three different places that food reactions do occur to corn syrup, we removed it from Asher's diet.

Interestingly enough, Asher is eating A LOT better now. He no longer struggles with eating and eats so much that I think one of his legs is hollow. It's a pleasure to watch him eat now. Is that IT? Have we gotten the last remaining allergen from Asher's diet? I'm tempted to have him scoped now, just to see if he scopes clear now. If these scopes weren't so invasive - and far away - I'd be tempted.

We're pretty sure that Simi does NOT have ee. Simi struggles with eating too, although clearly not to the extent that Asher does. Rather than submit Simi to an endoscopy, we sent his two sets of endoscopy slides (from when he was a baby and struggling with reflux) to Cincinnati to be read by their pathologist. No eosinophils in either of the two sets. Phew!

So, in a nutshell, Asher's fine right now although we haven't made any progress at all on his ee. I'll post another update when there is news to tell.

Halloween 2006

And now he's five. Today is Simi's birthday. The four days of birthday celebration ended today.

The boys got to wear their Halloween costumes to school today. Asher was so excited, he tried to wear his costume to bed. He was Spiderman today. Simi was also excited and couldn't wait to be Batman. Their school hosted a Halloween parade, which was more for the parents than anything else, I think. The children paraded around the circle in front of the building in their adorable costumes while the parents watched, cheered, and took video clips and photos. After the parade, we went inside and did some trick-or-treating and had a party.

Asher's room was particularly sensitive to Asher's allergies. For the trick-or-treating, each parent brought in one small treat for each child in the room. I brought in "Asher-safe" candy and each parent who gave candy (some gave non-edible treats, such as glow-lights or pencils), was given an "Asher-safe" candy to give to Asher. Asher had absolutely no idea that he was getting something different than the rest of his class. It was his first real trick-or-treat experience and he was thrilled.

Raj and I showed up at the end of the boys' lunch to celebrate Simi's birthday with song and cookies. Asher joined Simi's table and shared in the festivities. Then, at the end of the day, we went trick-or-treating. The boys looked absolutely adorable dressed in their superheroes outfits and went up and down the block in search of candy. Asher, especially, thought this trick-or-treating thing was a great idea. Simi tried telling the folks giving candy that Asher couldn't have those treats; he was allergic to them. Once home, we exchanged all the toxic candy that Asher collected for some "Asher-safe" stuff. Thankfully, Asher's a good sport about this stuff; Phew!

Then, came the difficult part; getting Asher to remove his Spiderman costume. He wanted to sleep in it.

And now my Simi-boy is officially five years old. Where DOES the time go?

Simi, Asher, and Leila

When Asher was born, Simi was 23 months old. While Simi was thrilled to hear that he had a baby brother, he didn't interact much with Asher until Asher was about 2 - old enough to be a playmate. Of course, now, the two are inseparable.

Asher was the same with Leila. He was 28 months old when Leila was born. The way that Leila's birth really affected Asher is that there was less parental supervision, which means that he could get away with more stuff. He hasn't really interacted with her or even noticed that she was around.

Simi, on the other hand, absolutely LOVES Leila. In fact, the challenge is to keep Leila safe from Simi, since he doesn't exactly understand the meaning of "Please be gentle, Simi". He hugs her and plays with her and makes silly faces at her to get her to laugh and brings her toys. They have a special bond and it's entirely because of Simi's efforts.

But now, it's almost like a lightbulb went on in Asher's head. It's like his eyes opened and he noticed that Leila is in the room. Now, the past week or so, Asher has noticed Leila and gone to hug her and touch her and bring her toys. Now that he's three, perhaps, developmentally he's ready to interact with her.

Online photo album

Liz has been putting together some picture books, I've taken one of them and uploaded the pictures. I've put in a few captions, and may put in some more.



Asher Age 2 to 3

Simi's Scar, One Year Later

Here are a couple of pictures of Simi now, one year post surgery. You can't really see it in the first one, the second one is bit closer. 

Ugh!

This is Liz speaking. I need to tell you: Seeing those pictures brings me right back to surgery time again. I feel all those emotions just like I felt them a year ago. Ugh! I am SOOOO very glad that we are on THIS side of the surgery and now Simi's fine and we never have to think about it again. Simi DOES have his one year check-up, which is scheduled for some time in December. But that's no big deal. Phew!

Raj and I mentioned the anniversary to Simi. He mentioned that he has memories of Boston. He remembers parts of the hospital visit: making a building with me with the cardboard "bricks" in the play room (which happened before the surgery), playing with cars with me in the play room (which happened the night before he was released), watching "A Bug's Life", and Raj sleeping with him (although it was actually me who slept with him). When asked if his memories were happy or sad, he responded, "happy". I'm 95% sure that he doesn't remember the surgery. I remember Dr. Breitbart saying something about the pain medication they give the children helps them "not remember" that day. That's nice. I remember bawling my eyes out that entire day and just thinking about it brings back the anxiety I felt - in full force. I've somehow managed to keep that anxiety away from Simi, and we managed to fill his "adventure" with fun and love and that's what he remembers. Phew!

Raj took a photo of Simi and his scar and will post it as soon as he can. In the meantime, I think I'm going to write and write and write and push those pictures WAAAAY down to the bottom of the page.

Simi's Scar, one year ago

Here area a couple of pictures of Simi after the surgery last year. The first is still in the hospital, the second back at the apartment and in much better spirits!

-raj 

Simi and Dr. Pigula, one year ago

Here's a picture of Dr. Pigula talking to Simi the day before his open heart surgery. We didn't post any pictures of the trip last year, so I (Raj) am going to post a few of them now, one year later, and here's the first. Dr. Pigula was the surgeon and was wonderful. 

This Time Last Year...

This time last year, we were traveling to Boston to get Simi's heart fixed. I remember the caldron of emotions that engulfed me during that time. All those emotions come bubbling right back up to the surface like it was happening all over again.

I'm so glad we're on this side of the surgery.

Simi's doing great. He's still nursing his broken arm. He's still thin, although not as "concentration camp victim" thin as he was last year. He's much bigger now.

More later; I'm beat.

Celebrating an Anniversary

On October 6, 2005, almost exactly a year ago, Simi had his atrial septal defect repair. We call it "Our Boston Adventure" since the repair was done at Children's Hospital Boston and since we worked on putting fun into the experience. Mission accomplished. The stuff Simi remembers are the fun parts - like going to the aquarium and seeing the Wallace and Grommit movie. The only residual from the repair is a thin, silvery scar down his chest and a HUGE fear of medical procedures.

One of the highlights of our Boston Adventure was picking up acorns in the park across the street from our temporary Boston apartment. We also picked up acorns at the follow-up cardiology appointment here in Raleigh. Kelly Kunkel, a good friend of ours, suggested we plant the acorns. Surprise surprise - they grew! Now, to celebrate the anniversary, we planted the little oak trees outside.

Now let's hope they grow into big, tall oak trees that are as strong as Simi's heart.

The Arrival of the Monsters

Asher is now three. As if on cue, he has begun to fear the monsters. At least we know that developmentally speaking, he is right on schedule.

When Simi began to fear the monsters, we hung a small dreamcatcher on the wall and we told Simi that it keeps the monsters away. When this "key", as Simi calls it, is on the wall, no monsters can enter the room. Armed with that knowledge, Simi breathed a huge sigh of relief and has never worried about monsters again. Simi does remind us to bring the "key" on vacation with us, to make sure that no monsters enter our vacation home.

So when Asher began to fear the monsters, I brought him into the bedroom that he and Simi share and I pointed to the "key" on the wall, explained its purpose, and hoped that the dreamcatcher would work for Asher too. So far it seems to have done the job. Asher and Simi's bedroom is still a monster-free zone. Phew!

And Now He's Three

Today is Asher's birthday. We've been celebrating for a week.

Our birthday celebrations began last Thursday evening when I took him to Toys R Us and told him he could pick out one thing for his birthday. You should have seen his eyes and face as he went from item to item, checking each thing out. In the end, he chose Superman walkie-talkies with night vision. They fit on top of the head (hands free) and he and Simi talk back and forth in them. I'm not surprised that he picked out a gift that both he and Simi can play with together; it's quintessential Asher.

On Saturday, I brought out a Spin Art, which the boys absolutely loved. It made for a very special day. Then in the evening, Asher went to his grandparents house and got spoiled by them and his aunties.

Sunday he got spoiled some more. His big party was at The Little Gym where he got to play with all his friends. And, of course, we have been making a very big deal about him every single day.

Today is his actual birthday. We had yet another birthday party for him - this time in his classroom. We wore party hats and blew noise-makers and sang party songs. I think he had a great time.

It felt great to spoil Asher like we did. Asher is such a quiet, easy-going child that he often gets overshadowed by the outspoken Simi and Leila. Plus, he's gone through some very difficult moments with all the medical testing. He, more than anyone, deserved some special attention.

And now he's three.

Our First Broken Bone...

...belongs to Simi. Simi broke his arm. He was playing at a birthday party on Saturday and he fell down on it wrong. He fell on a well-padded mat and it seemed so slight an accident that we thought it may just be bruised. So we waited to see if it improved or got worse. Sure 'nough, it got worse. Simi got an x-ray, which was a lot of fun, then a cast. Then reality set in when he realized what a pain in the butt it is to have your arm in a cast. Hopefully, the cast will come off in time so that he can celebrate his own birthday without limitations.

Introducing Simon

At Simi's pre-school, the children in their last year of pre-school get to take French lessons. The day Simi started his French lessons, he excitedly told us about it in the car on the way home. He takes French every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and each day he tells us about French. But when we ask him what he's learned, he tells us about the sticker he got, or about playing "eeny-meeny-miny-moe". The only thing he ever says in French is that his name is Simon (pronounced something like, "See-mo", with a long o).

Today, the French teacher, Ana, returned my telephone call. We had a great chat about what he's learning in French and how he's doing. Armed with a few vocabulary words and a song, I started saying these French words to Simi (aka: Simon) in the car on the way home today. Suddenly, Simi starts saying these words too! And then he breaks out in French song! And he even sings "eeny-meeny-miny-moe" in French. The kid has been holding out on us!

So, Monseiur Simon will be learning a bit of French at home too now.