December 19, 2009

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a nice holiday season. We have enjoyed Hanukkah this year. Harry loved the presents he got and the triplets figured out what to do with those wrapped things - rip them open and eat the paper of course! Then play with the stuff inside the box (and the box too).

Great news about Harry - he just earned his yellow belt in karate today! He was very proud of himself and looked adorable showing off all he could do. It was quite an accomplishment for him considering half of what he had to learn was "eyes on Joshu" (his instructor) and "stand still"! Those were the hardest for him and he has come a long way - part of the test in fact was to stand at attention for the count of ten.

He is doing well academically in first grade but we have received a few notes from his teacher that could be summed up as "Harrison was being a pain in the butt today". I am amazed at the restraint she has shown by not actually writing that! The only other problem he has is writing, but we think that is a hold over from his earlier problems with fine motor skills. The teacher has referred him for OT so we hope they will approve it and it will help. Otherwise the lowest he has gotten on his spelling tests was an 85 (and that was because his handwriting was so sloppy she couldn't read what he wrote) and usually gets at least 100. His math tests are also usually around 90, with the errors just sloppy mistakes. I think that once he gets used to drill of test taking those mistakes will get less and less so we aren't too concerned since he does seem to grasp all of the material.

Leah is now a confirmed toddler! She walks everywhere she can and loves to show off - bending down to pick things up in both hands. It's cute though when she starts picking up speed and her upper body gets ahead of her feet and she topples over! Usually she can catch herself and stand back up, but sometimes it's a wipe out.

Micah is very jealous and has starting really working on cruising so he isn't too far behind her, but he is much more cautious so it's more slow going. And since he is a speed crawler he isn't as motivated as Leah was. Micah babbles like crazy and likes to make funny faces at everyone then smiles a huge grin :)

Golda is incredibly annoyed that she cannot move around like Leah and Micah and it's great because it's gotten her moving! First she was scootching like Micah on her tush, then her physical therapist showed her how to crawl and she's really caught on. Tonight I was laying on the love seat and she was across the living room on their little Wiggles couch. She wiggled herself off the couch and proceeded to crawl all the way over to me, grabbed on and pulled herself up!! The grin I got from her was enormous :) She is finally starting to let us feed her, although still not too much, but she will feed herself a decent amount when we give her something she can hold herself. We are waiting for the referral for a nutritionist to come through so we can figure out the best way to go about getting her to eat more by mouth. She has an appointment for the beginning of February for an upper GI series to see if there are any new constrictions forming. Happily, there aren't any signs of constrictions now, but we don't know how she will do so the surgeons want to follow her more closely for now.

Jon is settling down to his role as stay at home dad. He's got a routine established but is quite pooped most of the time. All three babies have been very snuggly and demanding lately and Harry has needed more attention for homework too so he is quite popular around here these days!

I am on vacation until January 4th! I can't say how much I needed this break. The last time I had a vacation that wasn't related to babies was when we took our cruise two years ago. In August I was hired as a Principal Scientist at Roche in the same department I had been working, RNA Therapeutics. The job is great but much more demanding than working as a temp had been so I the plant closing (the reason for my long vacation) couldn't come at a better time.

We are planning to try to really get things organized while I am home and spend some quality time as a family. Harry, and the triplets have been all over us so I guess they are appreciative of this time as well.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Diwali, Happy Kwanzaa and anything else I might be forgetting! And a happy New Year to everyone! I will try to post more frequently next year ;)