We're Back!!!

I know it has been forever since I have posted on the blog but these last five months have been very crazy! We have had to make several major changes in our lifestyle in order to incorporate such a blessing into our lives. I think the hardest part of all of this has been just getting organized and making sure we stay on schedule! Anyways a quick update on the girls!

Addison Grace

Can you believe she is almost three? Where has time gone? She is so full of life these days! She now has a very full vocabulary, which I must admit on some days I wish it was not so "full". We are still working on potty training. She just does not care to use the potty. I feel like I have tried everything except being extremely stern about it. Any advice? Trust me we have tried to bribe, to be relaxed, taking her every 30 minutes, putting her in big girl panties, pretty much the whole nine yards.

She is now fully in a "big" girl gymnastics. She seems to like it for the most part. She likes the trampoline the best and then I would say the bars. She hates the floor exercises though! She is also becoming very comfortable with her teachers and therefore has sort of become the ring leader of her little group in class. While it is entertaining to watch at times, I do have to admit that I feel bad for her teachers when she gets to going!

She is fully in love with her sister and is not afraid to let you know about it. She does not like it when Karter gets shots, blood taken, or anything that might cause pain to her sister. In fact she has been known to give the Doctors and Nurses a piece of her mind. As well as they know Karter from our visits they are also becoming very acquainted with "Miss Addison". I love the fact that she is her sisters protector. I will also have to say that Addison has probably spent less time away from Karter, since we have been home , then either Jeremy or I. Where Addison goes, Karter goes and vise versa.

Baby Karter Bear

(As Addison pronounces her name)

Karter is now 9 months old and is fully acting like a baby should be! She can roll over from side to side, almost sit up by herself, push up fully extended on her arms, and is now working on getting her legs under her enough so that she can begin to crawl! She is in therapy three days a week with the most wonderful group of people one might ever know. They have given her so much of their time and have pushed her to get her to where she is now. They are simply amazing! She now, however, has developed a slight attitude with them whenever she does not feel like doing something that day. It is quite funny to watch! I believe the funniest thing she has started to do lately, is laugh when someone is in trouble or is crying. She especially finds it extra funny when her sister is in trouble and is crying!! She is one of the happiest babies I have ever known. She does not cry unless something is really wrong. It is very rare for her to cry even once a day. She is now eating baby food at a constant rate. Although, she does not care for your typical baby food so most of the time she eats yogurt or something that I have mashed up from our food. And the occasional ice cream her daddy sneaks her out of the kitchen.

She recently had her cardiologist visit and did extremely well at her check-up. He did determine though that she was getting chunky enough so he dropped the calories on her formula from 30 kl/cal to 24 kl/cal. This is still above normal but is just enough to allow her to grow without becoming obese. Obese seems like such an awkward word to use for a baby. I think the more fat on a baby the better, but due to her heart this will not be the case. The only new development we received from her heart doctor is that they are probably going to push her second surgery up. In September they had estimated that she would not require any more surgery until she was 3 possibly 4....at this appointment they said to prepare ourselves for surgery in 9-18 months. Okay so now you may be wondering why? Well Miss Karter's leak on her left side of her repair is starting to become a little bit stronger than they anticipated. Therefore while they are trying to get her as big as possible (to replace the conduit they attached in the first surgery) they are now more concerned about her leak. Jeremy and I just want whatever is best for her! She has also been placed on thyroid medicine to help her grow at a better rate. Her thyroid was slowly and steady becoming hyper active in which it was over producing. Thankfully her new medicine has now steadied that out.

Over the next few days I will be making a few other post on what we have been doing these last few months. From Halloween to Christmas I would love to share with you their most treasured events.

Thank you for allowing us to take time off from the blog to get our life back in order! It was greatly needed!

Love,

The McHams!