New year's resolution

This year (well, the rest of it) I resolve to be better about posting here.

January has been very good to us. Connor has now spent more than one year without being admitted to the hospital! This is a big hurdle for us. The 4 hospitalizations in 2004-early 2005 had quite an emotional/mental toll on Lee and I, and we were so pleased to pass by the date that Connor was last a patient at Fairfax Inova Hospital. Only 10 more months, and I'll have my own one year anniversary of that :)

Lee has a birthday, which I'm pretty sure he would not want me to mention, but since he rarely, if ever, checks this blog, I feel safe in reporting. Many members of my family came down to visit and fill in as his parents and sister's family were dealing with our nephew Mac's illness, which unfortunately required a hospital stay as well. We're glad, though, that Mac navigated his time in Richmond at the hospital well and is back home, thriving again. We did get to visit Nana and Poppy prior to that, and have a little birthday for Lee and late Christmas then.

Connor's been having some unexplained behavior in his left arm lately, although it's been many days now since any occurrences, which is a good sign. It's a mirror image of some activity in his right arm last September, and there are a few theories of the reasons behind it. One theory (and Lee's and my favorite one) is that his arms nerve systems are starting to fire up properly, and the neuromuscular electricity is causing, in essence, muscle spasms. His therapists think it may have nothing at all to do with his brain and only a revisiting of the reflux which he suffered from right after birth. We're okay with that theory, too. The doctors seem reluctant to state any theories, although they are trying to warn us that it's more seizure behavior. We're waiting for some responses from them - they have videos of a few episodes to review.

Connor has also been doing excellent work with his therapists - they just completed a six month review of his goals and he is accomplishing, in part or totality, several of the goals we set for this year. He will be 2 in less than two weeks (OH MY GOD!!) and once he passes that, his name is up for pre-school. The pre-school early Head Start programming in Arlington County is well-regarded, and he will receive daily PT and OT from qualified teachers each week day while in school. This will certainly be an uptick in his therapy now, where he gets the qualilty stuff from his therapists once a week, and the jerry-rigged version at daycare and at home when we can.

Okay, I hope this long posting makes up for my terrible showing so far this year. I promise weekly, if not more frequent, postings. Take care out there.

Merry Christmas, Belatedly, From Connor

Oops, part deux

So on my sister's blog (http://lagniappeca.blogspot.com/) I commented on her posting about our annual family Amaryllis bulb that our mother sends each year. Including giving her tips on how to keep it alive from year to year. You can link to the post here (I hope):
http://lagniappeca.blogspot.com/2005/11/annual-amaryllis.html. Here's the quick & dirty - I have a history in my family that I am a plant-killer. Sometimes out of sheer meanness (telling a clematis that I hoped it would die...and it did) and sometimes from overwatering (poor, poor little cactus). This year, we have hit a new high, or low, depending on your perspective.

Every year, my parents send each of us an amaryllis bulb, and so far, I have managed to not only not kill them, but to have them bloom successfully 2 years for each of them. Then this year rolled around, and I had to open my mouth. I mentioned to my sister on her blog that I found that the best care to get the amarylli bulbs to bloom for a second season was essentially to ignore the "damn thing" until December. This was a mistake. First, my 2004 bulb decided that it didn't like being spoken of that way, and flatly refused to grow any new leaves or bloom. Then, last week, my 2005 bulb decided that it had enough of my verbal abuse and THREW ITSELF OFF THE COUNTERTOP, breaking off 3 of it's 4 blossoms, and ending it's life too soon. Lee was in the basement and Connor and I were in the family room. I heard a big splat, and when I made it into the kitchen I found it, broken and sad with dirt pooled all around it, on the floor.

I'll never give gardening advice again. I am the Grim Reaper of the Garden.

Oops...

Those cute pictures we promised? Well, they are in Uncle Todd's camera, which was left at our house after New Years. Looks like a week will pass between when the pictures were taken on NYE, and when they will be available for posting. Sorry, Mom!! We'll take some sitting photos of him this week and get them up, but the cute outfit from his great-grandparents will have to be put on the backburner...