March 18, 2008

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"Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna:Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord."~John 12:13~

Poor Kyle has had a rough week. He had his one year check-up last week, where he received 4 shots. His body did not react too well to the vaccinations and as a result he had a fever for a couple days. Once he recovered from that, he developed a cold which progressed to an ear infection. Fortunately, this weekend he was finally back to his smiley self. As far as his one year check up went, overall the doctor was very pleased with how well Kyle is doing and said we are very blessed. The good news is that Kyle is finally on the growth chart – at 27 ½ inches long he is actually in the 50th percentile for height for his adjusted age of nine months and in the 20th percentile for his “birth” age of 1 year. The not so good news is that his weight gain has slowed down considerably…Kyle weighed in at 16 pounds 1 ounce, which wasn’t even on the chart. Actually, he was 16 pounds 1 ounce naked during his one year appt., when we took him back a few days later for his ear infection he had lost a little weight and was 16 pounds even with all of his clothes and a diaper on. To give him a boost, his pediatrician has switched his formula and changed the type of thickener we use in Kyle’s bottles. If you remember, Kyle’s bottles are thickened to the consistency of honey – the thickener we had been using did not have any caloric benefit, but his doctor just switched Kyle to a thickener that will add 5 calories per ounce. I am hoping this is the boost he needs.

We had a great time in Florida. In addition to our reunion at the hospital, we made dinner for the guests at the Ronald Mc Donald House, went to the beach, Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Rylee’s 1st birthday party. Kyle had so much fun playing with Rylee – as you can see from the pictures! As far as the parks go, Kyle actually enjoyed Disney World more than I expected. He loved the parade, especially the Spectro Magic Light parade at night – but his favorite part of Disney was Tigger. There was a “Meet & Greet” spot at the park where Tigger was for most of the day. Kyle would have been content to spend the whole day there just watching Tigger - he cracked up watching Tigger interact with the kids. Although I hate to admit this, but as much fun as he had at Disney World, Kyle became the most excited whenever we entered our hotel lobby. It was a beautiful lobby with high ceilings, a huge chandelier and 6 or 8 ceiling fans. For some reason Kyle was mesmerized by this chandelier and especially the ceiling fans, whenever he saw them he’d get so excited. Go figure – we take him all the way to Florida for the beach and Disney, but Kyle’s favorite part of vacation is the ceiling fans! Kids are easy to please at this age. I think for his next trip, we’re going to take him to Home Depot and let him go crazy in the lighting section!

Any day I hope to be posting that Kyle is crawling. He is soooooo close, but just can’t seem to put it all together. He gets up on his knees and with the most serious look on his face – he rocks and rocks. After thinking it all over, he takes off….but it is always backwards or in a circle. This leads to cries of frustration, then he gives up. One of these days he’ll get it.

As always, thanks for checking in on us!

God Bless,

Jennifer, Joe, Madison and Kyle