Throwback Post #2 (Christmas 2022)

Christmas wasn't quite what we expected in 2022.  Roman had just gotten off his wound vac and we were doing dressing changes twice a day.  They gave us permission to go to my hometown which was just a 4.5 hour drive away.  Since living back in Texas, we go every year for my absolute favorite childhood tradition of the big Cousin Christmas Eve Extravaganza.  We had a wonderful time with my extended family, but Brian and I were both getting increasingly concerned about how his wound looked by Christmas Eve.  

My beautiful girls

By looking at him, you'd never know what was under that cute button down.  He is such a tough guy!

Of course, Judah would be sitting at the dessert table ;)

The matriarchs :)

Uncle D, Cousin Mark, my daddy, and my Cousin L
A side note from present day: My second cousin, Mark, was just diagnosed a few days after Christmas in 2023 angiosarcoma.  He went into the hospital on Christmas Eve and missed our annual extravaganza.  Prayers are appreciated!

Two generations of women

The whole party!

 Unfortunately, by the day after Christmas when we called his surgeon, they said based on the pictures we sent that we did need to come in as soon as we got home.  We were packing the van already, so by that afternoon we were up at the hospital.  He had an infection and was admitted on the spot for another surgery the following day.  And so continued our saga...

Throwback Post #1 (late November of 2022)

Judah is a cuddler and he loves that Roman is too!  Roman has taken to diving at him when he walks by to get some hugs and pats.

This was from before his chest wound issues.  He had only done it a couple of times and only on this low "block."

Roman absolutely loves music and when the boys play piano.  Before he was walking he would frequently crawl under the bench or hold onto the lag of the piano while they practiced.  This is during an actual lesson.  Our kind piano teacher doesn't mind a bit.

This is one of his long time favorite toys, his very own piano.

This is Isaac's traditional dish that he makes every Thanksgiving, Key Lime Pie.  I think he has perfected it.

 

A New Year's Resolution

I have decided with some prodding from my husband to give blogging another try.  Since it has been a year since I last posted there is no sense in trying to catch up like I could if I was only a couple of months behind.  I had a few posts started, so I will go ahead and finish those up and then move right into the present.  I am still not actually sure how I will fit this into my schedule since Roman is still managing to keep me busy despite not having to drive across town two or three times a week or be in the hospital.  We are in major catch up mode with feeding therapy that isn't close by.  Not to mention that he is running now, trying to climb, frequently a danger to himself, and living the terrible twos despite the fact that he's the physical and mental equivalent of a one year old.  Why, oh, why couldn't he have been delayed in the terrible two's also?!  His cuteness more than makes up for it though!

He loves his siblings so much!

Over Christmas he had strep throat.  Poor guy!  He's determined to get all the diseases.  He has Covid and RSV again this past fall.

Daddy had to miss the Christmas Eve festivities with all my cousins, aunts, and uncles to stay home with this sick boy.  He started antibiotics that morning and was already starting to turn a corner.

An 18 Year Old in the House! What!

Hannah turned 18 two days after Thanksgiving.  How can this be?!  She gave me a list of requests and we tried to accommodate as many as possible.  Top on her list was hibachi grill and sushi.  So we went to a hibachi grill on Friday with my parents since they were in town for Thanksgiving.  

Roman sits in the regular wooden high chairs so much better now!

On Saturday, her actual birthday we started the day off piling in the van to go get our Christmas tree.  Normally, we don't get our tree this early, BUT we have been searching for a decent place to cut down a tree or even buy a decent precut tree here in Texas.  And we heard of this place an our away that was only open for three weekends, and one of them had already passed us by.  So we decided to do it anyway, although I had had my reservations about the tree living until the 12 days after Christmas if we bought it that early.  Turned out I was right.  It was crispy as toast by Christmas day.  Nonetheless, we went to this farm the morning of her birthday and we stopped to get her coffee on the way.

Riding to get the tree!

Brian said that it was the easiest tree to cut down, and we fondly remembered cutting down our Griswald Family Tree years ago in Germany when we had super high ceilings and let Hannah choose the tree.

Hannah opened her presents from the family and cards from her siblings.  Then she went to dinner with her dad for all you can eat sushi.

Here's her creepy creative cake that I made her.

Shortly after her birthday weekend was her drama production of the Greek play, Antigone.  She is super shy in front of people so she volunteered to be the assistant stage production manager.  She's in the black sweatshirt on the far right of the back row.  The play was really enjoyable.  I had read this play for my book club a year or two ago and it was really nice to see it performed.  Her class did an excellent job!

The whole cast

She's finished with theater and can move on to Art class where she feels much more at home.
 

Roman's First Haircut!

We finally stayed healthy long enough for Nanna to come rescue our long haired scraggly boys and give them a haircut.  Roman got his first hair cut too, but he was very wiggly.

This was after the first attempt, still too long on the sides a bit.

Finished product after round two, longish on top and short on the sides

 

Sitting Pretty and My Flower Bed

He's finally sitting well enough to get a picture of it.

I'm glad I got pictures of this back in November because as I write this all my flowers had to be cut down to the ground after the freeze over Christmas.  My fall front garden was so pretty!

 He was in bad need of a haircut at this point, but such a cutie, nonetheless!