Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We've been so busy and also very sick with the whole family coming down with a wicked stomach virus. With so much going on these last couple of weeks I haven't been taking many pictures or videos but I will try to post a few. But for now I have to tell you my favorite Christmas present from Cameron and Evan.

Beginning Thanksgiving weekend Cameron started sleeping through the night. And just a few days later on December 1st all of the sudden Evan started sleeping through the night. I don't know what happened or why, but it seems that at 20 months actual and 17mos adjusted we got our Christmas miracle. They now sleep from about 7pm to 5am. We can not get them to sleep past 5am, or very rarely, but this is okay because Drew is a good morning person and he gets them started so I can sneak in a shower before he has to go to work.

Cameron's new words are:
Hammer
Soda
Ice Cream - Eye skee
Banana - Nana
Up
Down - Dow
Green - Geeeen!
Scary - Scawee
Elmo - Emo or Melmo
Ernie
Oscar - Os Cah
Cookie Monster - Coo Kee Mah-stah
Truck - Tuck
Car - Cah
Off
On
Hello - puts hand to ear
Hi

Evan's new words are:
Bye Bye - Bah Bah complete with hand wave, often saying he wants the toy turned off
Elmo - Eh-mo
Ball -this is a reemergence since he said this months ago but stopped to learn to walk
Hello - Heh-oh with hand to ear
Evan also knows what Up and Down mean but doesn't say them yet, though he's trying.

And in news for the upcoming New Year, the boys are going to Feeding Clinic boot camp earlier than expected. We have been on the waiting list for a very looooong time and slated to start June 1st. Originally the director of the clinic said he wanted the boys to be at least two and a little older if possible so they would be mature enough developmentally to understand personal consequences from a positive reinforcement perspective. Also, they book the spaces in this program so far in advance that there were not two open spots at the same time. This week we got the call and the therapists and the director have decided that based on the minimal improvement, and in most cases decline in willingness to eat, as well as the developing behavioral resistance they would like to get the boys in earlier. So now they will be starting Feeding Clinic on April 27th. They would go earlier but we have decided to wait until the end of RSV season which also ends in March, as well as their 2nd birthday.

I think that they will be ready, they are just growing with personality by leaps and bounds. And now that they are on a better sleep schedule and the reflux seems to be getting better (that is outside of this wicked virus we've got going on this week) they will be catching up on all things developmentally much faster because they are finally starting to feel better.

So I'm anxious and nervous and excited and eager to get the ball rolling. And since we have our first family vacation planned for this summer right after the feeding clinic we have extra reason to celebrate. The year 2010 is going to be better than 2009. And 2009 was certainly way better than 2008, with the exception of my beautiful boys being born.

So here are some pictures, a year in review.

New Years Eve 2009

January - 4 days after New Years Eve

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December





Happy holidays to you and your families, and may your New Year be bright and shiny and beautiful.

With love,
Laura, Drew, Evan and Cameron