Getting big!

It hit me today how big Zach and Emily have gotten. They aren't little babies anymore. Emily just looked so grown up today - maybe it was the pigtails... who knows. We really have 3 toddlers now, and no more babies!

A little girl now, not a baby!

Our little man!

Whenever they go to sleep, for naps or bedtime, they give each other kisses goodnight. It's pretty cute. Zach will hate this picture when he's older - but we'll use it to prove he DID actually love his sister at one point. =)


The sisters! More and more alike each day! Emily's growing so fast, she'll be sharing Izzy's clothes in about 6 months.

Steve Update

Steve saw the surgeon today for his next check-up, and things are looking good! So good, he's out of a cast completely now - after only 4 weeks. YEAH! He's back in the boot, with the angle of his foot set to neutral, and he can even start to put some weight on it WITH the crutches.

The plan is to start slowly putting weight on it for 2 weeks with the crutches. Then he'll start physical therapy - probably 2x/week, and at that point, start walking on the boot without the crutches. After 2 weeks of physical therapy (at the end of March) he'll see the surgeon again, and they'll probably increase the angle of the boot even more. The surgeon thought it would probably be another 2-4 weeks or so in the boot after that, but around 2 months from now (end of April), he'll hopefully be able to walk with his regular shoe that has a heel lift in it.

So slowly things are moving forward! The nice part is, he can take the boot off to shower, and since it's constantly stretching his tendon while it's on, take it off to give his foot a break every now and then as well.

Obviously, we're very happy and pleased with how things are progressing. Full recovery is still a long ways off, but we're making strides. Ha, ha. =)

I love spaghetti! ...and 18-month stats

Here's Emily all neat and clean before dinner....

...and after we finished eating!

Notice the spaghetti noodles IN her hair.


Zach and Emily had their 18-month check-ups today.
Zach: 32" tall (40%), 22 lbs 4 oz (10%) - he's grown 1.5" in the last 3 months and put on 1 lb.
Emily: 32.5" tall (75%), 22 lbs 2 oz (20%) - she's also grown 1.5" and put on 1.5 lbs

It looks like Emily's fairly tall and Zach's average height, but they're both lower end for weight. I don't know how - since they eat more then I do!

On the move....

Here's Speedy Gonzalez making good time through the parking lot in his powerchair. =)

Snow Day

We got another 4 inches of snow on Friday, but today it was gorgeous, sunny and in the 40's so we went outside to play in it for a little while.



Zach liked riding in the sled, so Izzy took him around the yard.

Riding together...




Daddy couldn't come outside with his cast, so he watched from the window.

The Kids

Here's some shots of the kids playing the other night. Remember about a year ago, Izzy went through this phase of always wanting to wear her socks on her hands. Well, Zach started it now too. I don't know why... maybe every kid does this, but at least 2 of mine do. =)

Izzy helping him get the socks on his hands.

Emily is the only "normal" child so far.



Look at that fly-away hair!

Mommy without make-up after a long day working on the patio room.

Z&E do really well playing together these days. It's actually fun to watch them interact. In fact, we have noticed them having their own dialog. They'll "talk" to each other, and even have conversations from opposite sides of the room - they can't see each other, but they verbalize things back and forth, like they're talking, just not anything we can understand.

It's now a ritual to watch Daddy leave in the morning, and when he gets home, it's the same thing - everyone crowding around the door to see.

Steve's casts

Steve had the staples removed from his incision today and a new cast put on. He opted for the stylish, but classicly simple, color of black this time - although Izzy and I tried really hard to get him to choose PINK! The incision looked good, there was hardly any bruising, and it didn't look like much atrophy in his his calf muscles had happened yet. So all good signs. They increased the angle of his foot about 10 degrees, and you can tell with the new cast, made it much snugger since a lot of the swelling has gone away. He'll go back in another 2 weeks, and at that time they'll do some initial tests to see how the tendon is handling pressure and get an idea of how much longer till he can start putting some weight on it.

The beautiful incision - I thought it looked cool, Steve got queasy. ;)

The new cast.

Before we left for the doctor, Steve let us decorate his old cast.


Just a cute picture of Izzy. Her hair is finally long enough I can put some small braids in. And yes, I did take it while she was sitting on the potty - so it's been cropped to be decent. =) She is fully potty trained now, which is great!

Izzy Playing Baseball

Izzy's last sports class was yesterday. She learned soccer, hockey, basketball and yesterday was baseball. Again, it was a little difficult since the bat was bigger then she was, but she still really liked it - especially the hitting the ball part. =) Her next class is going to be gymnastics - just to try something different. That will start in 2 weeks.

Preparing to swing...

Hitting the ball....

Running the bases...

Steve's surgery update

Surgery went fine. Lasted about an hour and a half. We were home around 1:30. Dr. said the tendon was shredded - not a clean break, so it took a little extra work to piece it back together. But that isn't anything that should prevent a full recovery on the same schedule. Steve did well with the anesthesia and whole process. He's home and won't leave his Lazyboy for the next 3 days so he can keep his foot elevated and the swelling down. Overall, a successful surgery. Now on to recovery!