Visitors & The Numbers are In

Yesterday we had a great time getting to visit with fellow back-pack boy, Quintin and his mom and sister. Quintin is 2 and John was amazed at how much stuff he could do. We're looking forward to seeing them again in a couple weeks in Omaha.

Well the lab numbers for the week are in, and it tells us just what we knew, John is fighting a virus, but he's fighting it at home so we just keep making sure that he's getting plenty of rest, fluids, etc. It's amazing to us that even his little body with all it's problems can fight off these little viruses with enough rest, fluids and time, no matter where we turn the marvel of God's creation is there.

Good Bye Christmas Tree - Just Like Us

Yesterday we said good-bye to the Christmas tree. A little late, I usually like to take it down on Epiphany but well a couple days after isn't too bad. John really liked helping take the ornaments off and since the tree wasn't down before he went to bed he got to wave good-bye to it. Just a few thank-you's to write and mail and the Christmas season will be done at our house.

Mark and I were chuckling at the boy last night, about just how much he is like us. As we were putting him in his bed he signed to have the curtain closed and told us he needed a book. So we opened his closet door and turned the light on for him, and he laid there in his bed and read for a while. Daddy sneaked in latter and shut his door and I pulled the book out from under him before I went to bed. Of course he's like us in so many other ways too, lol, Mark picked John's sock up this morning from under the edge of the kitchen cabinet, so that's what he was giggling about last night, he must have tossed it there while I wasn't looking, what a nut, just like us!

Signing and Playing

John is still doing well. Actually today he seems to be fighting a bit of a cold, but since we seem to be sharing one around it looks like it might be his and Mark's turn. This evening after supper we put in the first of the Signed Exact English lessons and he LOVED it, sat on dad's lap and made most of the 50 signs with the lady and with us and we're holding out great hope that this will help us help him become a better expressive communicator. He is thrilled to sign all the 'Amens' in devotions in the morning and and at church, so today we started helping him learn 'Thanks be to God' and in the morning we are going to add the First Commandment and continue to work on it with him until he has it. At this point he's a sponge, eager to learn anything and so we figured we might as well fill it up with useful stuff. I looked up his growth chart today and when we took him to Omaha he was 32 inches long, so he's grown a full 3 inches since the end of August - WOW! No wonder he's looking tall to us, even though we know he's still pretty Hobbit sized compared to the rest of the world. I also came across the picture of his surgery, it's obviously pretty graphic so I'm figuring out how I can post it so that those who want to see can and those that don't won't accidentally have to, I'll let you know when I figure that out.

We're still here...

...and John is doing great. I have no earthly idea what was going on with him yesterday, but this morning he woke up happy, playing and kicking (his new favorite thing to do) and is currently running around the house (thankfully not chasing the dog with a fork at the moment ;) We're trying to get settled back in, how come it takes one day for every day we are gone, hmmmmmm...

35" Home and Praying that we Stay

First the exciting stuff, John is 35" tall now, woo hoo, pretty soon I might have to change my little thing that I've said to him for 4 years - "you're my favorite boy under 3' tall" - that would be cool! John did great on Monday, Tuesday and this morning and so we are home. They checked a ton of labs, routine stuff is good, but the vitamins and such have to be sent out and so we won't know about them for a while. The praying that we stay, well aside from our normal every day praying, we have a little boy who started puking on the way home. At first it was just snot and formula, I've had a bad cold for the past couple days and we figured that I had inadvertently shared it with him, but as we were getting closer to home the puking got worse. Well he's in bed now, I think he might be going to see his pediatrician tomorrow though because his throat looks red to me, is that what's causing the puking, will that make a difference in whether we deal with this at home, in Columbia or in Omaha, I haven't got a clue. What I do know that is that we are praying that a little boy gets some rest tonight and feels like running around and being crazy tomorrow, but knowing that God's ways aren't ours, as always we pray 'God's will be done' and that He will give us the strength and peace to live each day in that will.