The Merry Month of March

It's all about Sleeping Beauty and being a princess and a ballerina. It's about exploring (i.e., trashing) the house and the outside world. It's about singing songs, first words, constant birthday parties, playdates, wanting to send our brother back to China, sneaking into our brother's crib at night, endless diaper changes, headaches, kisses, hugs, drool, squeezable yogurt, milk milk and more milk, endless visits to the grocery store, and prescriptions.

David says and signs over 2 dozen words ("nite nite", "girl", "clean up", "car", "oink"). He started speech therapy with the same wonderful therapist who brought Emily out of her shell, and he just loves her.

Special Thanks

The gifts keep coming! Thanks to friend Mary Ellen Van Buskirk for her generous Amazon.com gift that allowed us to buy more musical instruments for the house! It's just what we needed! Mary Ellen, this one's for you! :)



Thanks to Jack and Susan Ruland for their generous gift that allowed us to buy a cool slide for the kids! Poor Emily, she loves to overpower her baby brother with choke holds. But how do you explain to a 3 1/2-year old that her days are numbered?

Thanks to cousins Bob and Laura Magyar, and Aunt Mary for great outfits for David. Thanks to Nicol and Rachael for passing on their little boy clothes. Thanks to Miss Anne at the library for the stuffed puppy and princess jewelry. Everyone is so generous!

A Forgotten Chinese New Year

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Year of the Rat! In all the craziness of the past few weeks, I totally forgot to post photos of Chinese New Year. Totally forgot to decorate the house, too.

Miss Diane and Miss Anne at our local library hosted a great CNY celebration for the kids. A local Kung Fu school always puts on a great Dragon dance for the kids. Emily watched from the safety of Grandma Lee's lap while David hung onto Daddy during the loud dance, but clapped when everyone else did.

Update on David

Alas, surgery is cancelled. David has had 3 ear infections (2 of them double) since we've returned home, plus congestion. He's not a candidate for surgery until he's been free of ear infections for 30 days. It's too dangerous for a small child to go under anesthesia with any sign of infection or congestion.

On Monday an Ear Nose & Throat doctor will determine if ear tubes can be inserted to stop these infections. It's been a hard few weeks for this little guy, and for us. While Kevin was travelling Emily was diagnosed with Pneumonia. A few days later David came down with his worst ear infection yet, ending up in the Emergency Room at midnight with a 104.7 fever. Thank gosh for Estelle who took Emily for the entire night so I could focus on poor, miserable David (he hates doctors).

We were all so happy to see Kevin when he finally made it home! Then I might have eaten a bad piece of fish, because I ended up in the ER with a swollen tongue and throat. But we're all better now, knock wood!

Take care everyone,

Caroline