The End of Maternity Leave

The end is here! 

This chapter of staying home with my sweet, new baby has come to a close as I return to work tomorrow. To jazz things up a bit this time around, we opted to keep Salem home as well and even Colin for a few weeks before he started Kindergarten. It was very FULL maternity leave but SO, SO good! We potty-trained, sleep-trained, went to the zoo about 4 times (maybe 5, I lost count), read 'Panda Bear, Panda Bear' about 100 times, and I drank more coffee in the last 10 weeks than any human probably should. 

Of course I enjoyed the time with my new little girl but I have to say what I enjoyed most about my time off was getting to know Salem a little bit more. He has been a challenging one from the start and this time with him was just what we needed. 

He can be needy but he is truly sweet and loves his little sister so fiercely! He's demanding but always the first to show concern when someone is upset. 

He takes awhile to wake up after naps and in the morning but the cuddling is so worth it. And once he puts his mind to something (like potty-training, luckily), there's no turning back! 

But, most importantly, he loves his Mama, his Dad, his Colin, and his Tessa more than anything in the world. He's a good one, that kid. And we are lucky enough to call him 'ours' :)

Grandpa Came to Visit

Grandpa came to visit us and meet sweet Tessa. We had a lot of fun spending time together as a family!

Looking back through some old pictures, I found some pictures of Chris and Salem in the exact same moment as Grandpa and Salem:

{August 24, 2013}

Look at how little he was! What a difference a year makes :)

{August 1, 2014}

And also, Salem is still a pain to feed.

Salem::2 Years

I'm on a roll! Watch out!

About Salem at TWO:

Height: 33'', 21st percentile
Weight: 25 lbs., 14 percentile

Graduated to a big boy bed in his brother's room
Loves Spider-Man, taking bubble baths, reading books, and playing outside
Can sing his ABC's and count to 12
Still loves to dance. And eat 'nom noms'.
Constantly asks 'what happened'. Even though he usually is the cause of 'what happened'.
Calls Momma and Dadda's bed 'Salem's bed' and sneaks into it every night :)

Salem::18 Months

Height: 31 1/2" (17%)
Weight: 23 lbs. (31&)
Head: 19 1/4"" (86%)

LOVES his big brother, Elmo's World, nom-noms, and blankets
eats his Oreo cookies frosting first
dances like no ones watching
likes to read "Bubbles, Bubbles" every night before bed
moved up to a big boy bed!

(Random fact - Salem called Colin 'Donna' for a few months. So weird, but sweet)

Family Photos::2013

Every Fall, just before Colin's birthday, we call on our favorite photographer to capture our family. We keep our photo sessions very casual - we wear clothes out of our closets and drawers, and keep the locations limited to an open field or pumpkin patches. Nothing crazy. Just our family. As we are.

This year, pictures were a little more difficult. Salem was ready to go about five minutes into it. Here he is giving his best 'all done' sign...

Colin has figured out the art of making funny faces...

 and Chris still cannot understand the concept of always being camera ready. Exhibit A...

or B...

or C (the Chris and Colin combo)...

But, as usual, Anna manages to capture such sweet moments out of all the craziness...

Those two make me smile. We are so thankful for these photos. Chris and I are TERRIBLE about getting in pictures with our kids. Terrible. These photos mean so much to us. And I am thankful that my boys will rally together for their momma at least one time a year :)

Now for fun, let's compare this year, to last year...

Salem has grown up SO much! Up next, a 18 month and 5 year update. About a month late.

Health Updates

Some REALLY fun news and some not so fun news.

First for the FUN news- Colin can now have egg, as long as it is in baked goods! I know, not completely life-changing. But, for the first time in his entire life, the kid has been able to have delivery pizza! Woohoo! Donatos, thankfully, has started to offer a gluten-free product, which, of course, is awesome. However, it has 'egg' listed in the ingredients. So, until Colin was recently tested, he couldn't enjoy this treat but now he can! And it is YUM. We are excited to try new foods with him now. 

Now for the not-so-fun-news. In April of this year, Salem was diagnosed with ITP - idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. He had been sick for a while and then started developing what we thought was a rash but we later found out it were small, broken blood vessels. His pediatrician immediately sent us to Children's Hospital Outpatient to have some blood drawn. We found out that Salem had an unusually low platelet count (28,000, at the time, normal range is 120,000 -150,000) and this is what had led to the broken blood vessels and bruising covering his body. A visit to a hematologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital confirmed that he did in fact have ITP.\

 

 

Now, what is ITP? It is a blood disorder that can cause unusually low platelet counts. Basically, Salem's immune system confuses his healthy cells for bad cells so when he gets sick, his system works in overdrive and depletes his platelet count.

 

How do you treat ITP? There isn't really a treatment. Crazy, huh? Try telling that to two pharmaceutical reps! Chris and I are so used to having a drug to treat or prevent almost every disease or condition out there. This one had us stumped. Other than wrapping our boy in bubble wrap, there is literally nothing we can do to prevent it. However, if his platelet counts do drop too low, there is a treatment available called IVIG that helps to pump up his system. This is an infusion of platelets that is given intravenously over a couple of hours. Not so fun. Salem has had two of these treatments since his diagnosis and although it can be a struggle with a toddler, they have worked well for him so we cannot complain!

 

 

Currently, we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will all go away within the next few weeks. If not, we are looking at possibly having to face this long-term (it goes from acute to chronic after 6 months). In the meantime, we are in good hands at Children's Hospital!

Summer 2013 {Part Three}

Salem's first baseball game {Florence Freedom}

Yard work 

Summer 2013 {Part Two}

Swimming at the pool {TCCC}

Colin's 1st Race - he came in 3rd place! {TCCC}

Swim Lessons {Silverlake}

Sweet moment with Dadda

Summer 2013 {4th of July}

All photos taken from the iPhone. I apologize in advance for the quality :)

4th of July Family Picnic {Grammy & Grampy's House}

Boating with Grammy, Grampy, and Gigi - Salem's First Boat Ride

 Sleepover at Gigi's Cabin

Fishing at Grammy & Grampy's