End of 2011

Wow! It's been a while and much has happened over the last 6 months, to the point where I'm not even sure where to begin! The beginning of summer was pretty great! We celebrated Noelle's third birthday in princess style and she was thrilled. We finally were able to get a second opinion at CHOP...however, it was on Andon's birthday. So, we packed up and headed to Philly as a family. He had ice cream for every meal and celebrated with a cookout once we got home!! CHOP was great! They have some great ideas about her lungs and if and when they can be fixed. The plan was to come home and run all the ideas by our home up pulmonologist and let him run with them. Unfortunately, Noelle got really sick in August. Her stomach completely shut down and she was admitted for 4 1/2 weeks at Fairfax. Finally, when they decided not to try anything new and really to have no solution...I made the tough decision to transfer her to CHOP. Within 24 hours, the docs had a solution and made the calls on how to fix it. We were home 6 days later. Just 4 days before Andon started kindergarten!! I was ecstatic!

Andon started kindergarten at our local public elementary school. Thank God I decided to register him with the public schools when I did. I lost the entire end of summer being at the hospital with Noelle. I didn't have time to shop around for a private school for him. I couldn't be more thankful. His teachers are wonderful and he is doing very well! He is a super smart kid and is exceeding the typical kindergarten goals. They have a behavior system that involves red, yellow and green lights to signify how the child's behavior was throughout the day. Andon always comes home with green lights, meaning great behavior. Andon also started Taekwondo in the fall as well. He is doing really well and enjoys everything about it, particularly screaming "hiyyyyaaaaa" while kicking or punching. He seems to be maturing way too quickly and continues to be obsessed with girls. He started writing notes and drawing pictures for the bus patrol within the first few weeks of school. He has now asked for a sleep over with her and I can't help but giggle at him. There is just something so cute about a 5 year olds pure innocence. He can now read and sound out just about anything and will correct me quickly if I try and sneak something by him. In fact, he frequently reads emails over my shoulder and reads the tv channels to know what's really on versus what I just say is or is not on. He is so bright, kind, friendly, sensitive and is just all around a terrific kid.

After Noelle got out of the hospital, she was able to start school on time as a much skinner Noey. The tummy issues resolved and life went on like normal. We now have a pretty good support system up at CHOP. We are in the process of transferring the majority of the care up there. Anything GI related will not be handled at Fairfax from now on. Noelle transferred schools and now goes to the same public school Andon does....which is super easy for me.

Both the kiddos are adjusting well to the new schedules and new germs. They have both been sick off and on since Halloween but we have been able to stay at home! This year seems to be flying by and is now just about over. We are really excited about Christmas this year and it will surely be the best year yet with the kids being a bit older. That's my update for now. It's late....I'll seriously try to be better about updating this thing!! Happy Holidays....to anyone that reads this..l

Xoxo,

Stacie :)