Merry Christmas!

Our little boy is doing much better, and is still home! He was feeling too sick to go to Christ Mass and cried, he kept signing 'church, church' and was so sad when he couldn't go. We did make it to Christmas morning Divine Service and he was great, I could tell he still wasn't feeling the very best but he was so happy to be there and see everybody and even signed 'amen' for the majority of the 'amens' that were said. After worship he learned that he could hold onto mommy's sleeve and the stair rail and bump his little bottom down the steps onto the floor. At the bottom of the 3 steps he would sign 'more please' to be lifted back up so that he could bump down again. Since he was up early enough to open packages before church he was pretty pooped afterwards and took a nice long afternoon nap.

He was so excited to unwrap the presents under the tree, that when he woke up early Christmas morning he kept telling me 'open, open'. At first I thought he wanted me to open the door that goes from his bedroom into the hall, and then well duh, I figured out that he meant the presents. I had told him the night before when he was getting ready for bed that the next morning was Christmas and he got to open all the presents under the tree, and when he woke up he was ready NOW! I figure he's pretty full-fledged 4, as he ripped the paper off of each present, hugged it, then tossed it on the floor and started signing 'more, more' as fast as his little fingers could sign. I was happy that at the end of the presents he was ready to play with things and not sad that there weren't more.

John's Christmas evening went well, and today we took him into Columbia for a follow-up x-ray and weight check. His weight is now 13 kilos, down a bit from Monday and his bowel is less dilated. He's back on full g-tube feeds and down to just his regular IV fluids. He is dealing with yeast again, but as soon as the big antibiotics were prescribed we all knew that it was coming. Tonight he is resting peacefully in his bed, his belly doesn't hurt and it's not huge and swollen and as ever he's still our best Christmas present.