Watching Elijah

It is an absolute joy to watch Elijah and I have been fascinated by him these last three months more than I am normally.  He is learning and doing so many new things each day.  He picks up a new skill one day, practices it and the next day has incorporated it smoothly into his repertoire of play.

12/25/09

When Shayna was Elijah's age (9m 4w), it was Christmas day and our 2nd full day home from the hospital post transplant.   I was finally feeling like we had a normal child but I was still terrified of medicine time.  When I recall that time, this is the picture I think of.  I had just collected the clean laundry from the basement with Shayna, carrying them both upstairs in the basket.  I never noticed before but that yellow piece of paper on the floor is her daily medicine schedule that'd I'd been discharged from the hospital with.  At the time, just that smile was an amazing miracle to see.

With Elijah, I've been able to watch a baby who can solely focus on discovering his world because his daily needs are always being met and there is little question of survival.  Learning to feed himself at 7-months to now refusing to let me feed him at all.  He figured out how to tip a sippy cup up to get more water in only 2-3 days.  Scooting to crawling to crawling away and getting stuck under things.  He crawled under a friend's coffee table to get a toy and got stuck.  He crawled under his crib to explore a box and got stuck.  Most recently, he crawled down the grassy hill in front of our house to our neighbors' yard and under their car just to see what was was there and got stuck.

10/22/11

12/4/11 (car noted above is not in this picture)

10/21/11

 I like it when he tries to take toys from his sister because he's so passive when she takes things from him.  I can only remember 2 times when he's yelled about toy taking.  Usually, he just finds something else with which to play.  He longs to be fast enough to play with her.  I can easily see them chasing each other around the house in a couple months as he already tries so hard to run after her.  They recently found a game they can play together: crawling between the couches chasing each other.  The carpet keeps thing from getting too slip and the crawling slows her down a bit.

10/9/11

We finally had to put the plants up high because he had taken to crawling over to them, looking one of us in the eye as we said, "no", then digging a fist full of dirt out of the pot and stuffing it into his mouth.  He likes to do this outside too except he's a little pickier as he'll dig out a pile of loose dirt before selecting the tastiest looking specimen.  My favorite is when he finds dirt clods to chew on.  I'll have turned my back for two seconds and the next thing I know he has a clay-coated mouth and smile.

His walking has progressed from wanting both hands held to only one.  Last Tuesday he took his first steps on his own but still prefers to hold our hands to walk.  What he really wants to do is run and as he just can't on his own he flatly refuses to walk without assistance by sitting and yelling in protest.

10/28/11

He loves the water and shows no fear.  A recent trip to the pool which has a wide ramp entrance had him crawling into the water up to his eyes when I would fish him out and put him back at the top only to watch him do it again.  If I run a bath in either house bathtub, he stops whatever he's doing, listens, scrambles to the side of the tub, and squawks in delight at the great treat we have obviously created for him.

Most of all I like his smile. It lights up his whole face and lights up the room. It's one more way I can see how he enjoys everything in his life and it's a joy to watch him live.

11/26/11

Happy 2nd Liver-versary

It's actually the 3rd Liver Day for Shayna since it seems like one should count transplant day as the first.  Last year it was easy to remember that night I spent holding my feverish (due to meds) baby girl before her father and her would be linked in the most unusual way: a shared liver.  This year so many good things have happened that the memory is starting to take on the fog of time.  She's also growing up as each day makes it harder the see the baby and more evident of the beautiful little girl coming into her own.

Here's this year's liver postcard.  I sent the first batch out Tuesday and will be sending more tomorrow.  If you don't get one in the next week and want one let me know.

The back says:

"December 1st marks 2 years since transplant and Shayna is doing wonderfully well.  This latest year of healthy living has brought many new things to Shayna's life.  In February, she got a baby brother whom she adores.  In the spring, she went to Israel to meet Saba, Savta, and the rest of her Israeli family for the first time.  She spent many happy hours at the park with Saba and the beach with Aba and still talks about playing with her cousin Ben.  This summer she learned how to peddle a bike and now enjoys riding in circles in our garage. She stated pre-school in the fall and is making many new friends.

Some things have stated the same.  Shayna still loves to swing, the higher the better. On warm fall afternoons we still like to feed the ducks at the duck pond.  Saturdays still bring our ritual farmers market visit with running, playing, climbing, and tasty treats.

Life continues to be good for Shayna and the rest of her family. We hope this celebratory note finds you near the end of another beautiful, healthy year as well.

Much love,
Shayna, Patricia, Elijah, and Nahum"

Facebook has some fun Thanksgiving pictures and here's a great video to show you just how much life explodes from Shayna.

First Parent-Teacher Conference

We had our first parent-teacher conference for Shayna today.  We heard about how Shayna developed from a shy kid with a constant deer-in-the-headlight look to someone who is helping bring out the goofy side of another shy kid who has been there a year longer.  The teachers are still working on getting her to stay with tasks to the end (eg. painting for 4-5 minutes instead of 2 brush strokes, putting the "work" back on the shelf exactly as she found it for the next "friend").  One of her favorite things to do is clean so she's  dusting the shelves frequently, scrubbing the walls, tables, and chairs, and was even caught polishing her friend's belly.  They said she's quite a little ball of energy. They try to get the little ones out early so they can run around the big grassy yard before the big kids are out for recess because, when they don't, Shayna will run laps around their little wood-chipped play yard.  We also were told they have never seen a child get dirtier than Shayna.  "You guys must think we lay her down in the dirt and roll her around."  And she does look like that most days but it's how I measure how much fun her day was.  The dirtier she is, the more fun she had.  It was nice to just sit with Ms. Elise and Ms. Nancy for half an hour talking about our great girl.

Elijah had his 9-month appointment yesterday.  He weighted in at 25.5lbs (98%-ile), is 29" tall (75th-ile), and has a 18.75" sized head (95%-ile).  His favorite thing to do it jump on the bed with Shayna (while I hold him around the middle) and walk around the house holding someone's fingers.  His crawling is getting much faster and he's even started letting go of things to stand on his own.  He only lasts 2 seconds before he falls on his bottom and he's only done it 3 times but I'm so proud of him.  My walking bet is for Thanksgiving as he's still quite wobbly.

Halloween was fun.  Shayna loved getting candy from everyone but promptly forgot about it once I put her bucket up.  Shayna used some of the sugar energy to push Elijah around the house in their little car.

Last week we had a great visit from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Joe (my dear friends from Pueblo).  We all loved having them.  They're the easiest people to get along with, helped a ton with the kitchen,  and played with the kids all day so the kids worshiped them and I got a mini vacation.  I took Elijah over to Kathy after feeding him and he about leaped out of my arms to get to her.  Shayna asked for 2 days after their visit, "when is Grandma Kathy coming back?"  Here's some pictures from our duck pond outing.

Triathlete

I finally did my first triathlon since getting married and having kids on October 9th.  It was a little sprint down in Richmond, VA that I went to sans family but with the triathlon group I'd been training with.  It was an exhausting trip but in a self sufficient way not a mom way and that made for a wonderful change.  The event itself was great.  400m outdoor pool, snake swim (my first), 11mi bike over rolling terrain, and a 5k run through neighborhood trails including a little pond and forested area.  The swim was wonderful as almost all swims are for me. One person passed me and I passed a few people but didn't knock into anyone and no one knocked into me.  The bike was cold in the shade of the tall trees and my hands went numb (need to work on my position) so I pretended I had tri-bars for a mile or so while they regained feeling. It was more painful than anticipated but that helped my run just by making me look forward to it.  I had been most intimidated by the 5k but it ended up being enjoyable and I jogged the whole thing.  It wound downhill to a trail going around a pond, though a forested area to neighborhood streets back up the hill to the grass field finish.  The little hills were painful at first but easy to handle by the end and I made 2 of my major goals for the event: jogging the whole run and doing it in under 1hr30min.

Event    Time   Rank of 351
Swim    7:58          65
T1         1:15          60
Bike     41:37        204
T2         1:15         178
Run      35:48        314
Total   1:27:50      238

I'd like to find 2 sprints and an olympic to do next summer but have a long way to go to be in that kind of shape to make them fun and to not make the training be a strain on the family.  Luckily, I've got all winter to work on it and have already started.  I've just been doing weights twice a week for 3 weeks but have already noticed a difference when I rough housed with Shayna this morning.  It used to be difficult to throw her around.  This morning I was finally able to have fun with it making both of us happy.

The other thing I like about triathlons: It brings out the deeply hidden extrovert in me.  I love talking to all the other people around me.  I wore my CU tri shorts so met another CU grad who studied Aerospace Engineering at the same time I was in the Civil Engineering program. We even graduated the same year and are both now stay-at-home moms.

I'm in the middle with the gold cap.  There were only 3 other adults in our group.  The kids were 10-15 years old.

Finishing strong.

Watching the kids come in off the bike with one of the coaches Kelly (the lady who reminds me of Tristen) and her 8yo daughter Molly.

Sept 12 - Oct 8

We had a little liver excitement last month with high numbers the Monday after my last post (9/12) that prompted a flurry of activity in preparation for a liver biopsy incase they didn’t come down by Thursday.  Luckily, they did begin to trend down.  However, I was also able to get a biopsy schedule in Roanoke the following week so we wouldn’t have had to drive to Pittsburgh.  While we didn’t have to use it, I now know that it can be done in Roanoke and how to make that happen.  Her numbers have continued to come down in the following weeks so I’m hopeful we won’t have to make use of that knowledge this year.  I also learned to trust my Ima-instincts a bit better again as Shayna had seemed sick to me without having runny nose, fever, etc and fighting a bug can easily make her liver numbers spike.  While my observations were written off, I believe I was right as she started acting normal again the Wednesday after the spike and the numbers started coming down on their own.

School continues to go well for Shayna.  She always talks about the kids there, can name them all, and point out their parents.   She’s taught the other girls how to run then fling themselves to the ground in a pretend fall ensuring that she always comes home covered in dirt from head to toe.  (We have to empty her shoes of sand everyday before getting in the car.)  I’m glad she plays hard and enjoys herself but I do worry a little that she’ll actually hurt herself one day.   Her favorite friends seem to be ZZ and Elijah.  It’s fun to hear from the teachers about her activities.  She seems to be as much a leader as she is a loner.  One minute she’ll be in the thick of things instigating the game they play then she’ll casually drift out by herself to watch some other group play or sit in the sand box for a bit.  I hope she can hold onto both talents as she gets older.

I found a 12” girls bike at a yard sale 2 weeks ago (along with a tag-along, baby bike seat attachment, mini-bouncy castle, a little tikes car, and a peddle-less push bike).  The closest thing to a bike/trike Shayna’s ever ridden in a little Radio Flier, steerable scooter so peddling was something she’d only seen others do.   I introduced the bike to her last week and on day two she’d gotten the hang of it already.  She now goes in circles in the garage without needing any help.  Here’s a video from day two.

Elijah’s been working on a few things too.  He tripled the number of teeth in his mouth in a week.  On Tuesday September 20 he got the front left two teeth and on Friday the top right two popped in.  We went through a week last week with the least amount of drooling and hand chewing I’ve seen in months; however, he’s started back at it this week and I think I can feel two more lumps on the bottom.  Poor baby.

On a happier note, Elijah can now crawl to any room in the house.  He’s even disappeared on me a few times.  I’ll put him down in the living room and the next thing I know there’s no baby to be seen as he’s gone around the corner into the guest bedroom or something.   He can even get across the slippery wood floor to look for food scraps under the table or high chair. (He’ll do this right after I feed him sometimes as if it just needed some “seasoning” to be acceptable.)  There’s a nice video of the crawling progression on my youtube site mrsarava (plus a few other newish ones of the kids).

Elijah also LOVES to walk while holding my hands.  Every time I go to set him down, he goes stiff as a board and grabs for my hands.  He can go from one end of the house to the other like that now; though it takes like 5 minutes.  He’s nowhere near being able to walk on his own but that doesn’t keep him from trying.  Last week he was pulling himself to standing at the couch, would turn around and let go with both hands only to collapse to the floor each time before he could even get his food raised.  It was pretty cute.

Sept 26: Elijah proving that nothing is safe anymore.

Pumpkin fairy Shayna with a swimsuit hat.

Sept 30: Scavenging for crumbs. (Does he look under nourished?)

Shayna loves to pretend to clean.

Oct 1: Playing together on a rainy day.

I’ve put more pictures on facebook under September 2011, Rosh Hashanah, and a couple new ones are under Mobile Uploads also.

Breakfast for Two

I now have to make breakfast for both my kids as Elijah is up to 2 solid meals a day and has been demanding breakfast be one of them.  He's always been a quiet fellow, but his new squawking scream that indicates a demand for something rivals Shayna's volume. He'll play for a few minutes in the morning then announce that breakfast should be served in that manner.  I set him in his chair (usually a high chair) and he stuffs his little face (usually cheese on toast and banana pieces for breakfast).  It was fun today to put both their cheese on toasts in the toaster together for the first time ever this morning.

Elijah turned 7-months 4 days ago.  He can push himself to standing on the edge of the pool, can go from sitting to his belly and back to sitting, and is getting much better at feeding himself (over half the food now makes it into is mouth).

He loves moving and splashing in our little 8" deep, blowup pool so pushing on the side to standing became a favorite game a week ago.  Unfortunately, we're still a few weeks away from learning how to go from standing to sitting so I have to rescue him before his feet slide out from under him.  

His main mode of transportation is rolling with a very little bit of rocking-crawlposition-slither.  3 days ago he popped back to sitting after getting the toy he was after.  I'm still amazed to look over at him and see him sitting 5 feet from where I left him sitting but he's still a little frustrated that he can't actually crawl.  He gets a little over ambitious/excited and tries to crawl only to have his hind quarters flip him onto his back which produces one of his lovely squawks in frustration.

A week and a half after Shayna started school, she stopped crying when I had to leave her each morning.  She had to give me three separate follow-me-to-the-door hugs the first 3 times, but then she'd turn around to go play in her classroom with the other kids.  She's bring home new songs and talking about the kids at school (only good things so far).  She and Elijah (2yro at school not brother) have endeared themselves with the office staff as they like to wonder together, checking out all corners of the school.  Her first school picture day was Wednesday and I'm a little over excited to see the result.  As a result, I'll probably order to many and mail one to everyone I know.

Shayna's liver numbers went down for a while but went back to fluctuating. However, the EBV load in her blood seems to have stabilized so we got to give up the Valcyte. Yay! Valcyte is not a good drug to be on for an extended period (years) and she's been on it for almost 1.5 years.  We'll do just liver labs again on Monday and hope for the best.

Elijah has had no more SVT episodes.  We continues to increase his Flecanaide dosage as he gets bigger (24lbs now) and we still see that extra delta wave on the EKG.  At around 2-2.5 years, as he can communicate verbally more, we'll start weening him from the Flecanaide (allowing him to out grow the dose) and see if anything happens as a lot of these tend to go away on their own.

I did my longest jog so far of 31 minutes and it was actually enjoyable too.  It's still hard and my birthing muscles can feel the effort but it's lovely to find pleasure in jogging again.  I hope to do my first 5K in November.  I'm still having Becca (our nanny that went back to Michigan) withdrawal but it's getting better.  Most of it is just having another adult around the house 1/2 the time and someone to share daily kid raising stories and questions with.  She'd be proud because I'm actually keeping the kitchen relatively tidy in her absence.  I'm taking Hebrew III at Tech Tue/Thur afternoons.  It's going to be our most challenging semester because 2 of the other students have 1 Israeli parent each and a 3rd has spent a lot of time in Israel.  I haven't lived up to the extra push so far but I am enjoying it anyway as I still study more than I did.

Nahum's astronomy class of 640 students is going well and he's still loving it.  He'll be in DC next week for a NASA proposal panel.  He's been doing great at going to the gym regularly.  He notices the regular exercise helps him focus better at work plus he feels better all the time in general.

Tomorrow, my dad Michael is doing 70.3 Championship Triathlon in Henderson, UT and they have athlete tracking!  I miss living in Boulder where he dose a few triathlons each year as I could come watch so I'm excited to have the athlete tracking tomorrow.  I can almost feel like I'm there with him that way.  (http://ironmanllv.com bib#1739)

Follow this link for more Facebook pictures of the kids: August 2011. And if you go to my youtube channel mrsarava you'll find a couple new videos as well.

First Day of School!

Elijah and I dropped Shayna off at her first official day of preschool at Tall Oaks Montessori.  It's only half days so I think it'll be perfect for all of us.  I thought I might cry a little but I was actually grinning all the way home.  I get so much joy out of every little step she takes in growing up.

Breakfast of Champions: Tomatoes (from Gray and Lynn's garden) and bacon.

Shayna playing with Ms. Elise on her first official day.  Elijah's in the background checking things out too.

She's so smart already matching the shape to its slot.

Elijah's news: Teeth!  The first one (bottom right) finally broke the surface Sunday and the second (bottom left) broke the surface yesterday.  Yesterday was his worst day by far and last night he woke 3 times (usually it's 6pm-5am then back to sleep until 7am).  Poor baby.  He's also on his way to crawling as he started pulling himself to hands and knees and rocking this weekend.  Saturday he could only hold the position for 1-2 seconds before his legs gave out, Sunday it was 2-3 seconds, and yesterday it was a whole 5 seconds.  Will I get an early walker too?  I hope so as he's not quite 7-months-old but he's closing in on 24lbs!

Elijah enjoys free reign over the toys while Shayna's at school.