Haley and Shelby continue to enjoy school and dance and are very excited to be off for Christmas break. They are looking forward to going back to Dubuque in a few days to see family and friends there. They were thrilled to find that for Christmas we had gotten all 3 girls (and us) and Nintendo Wii. We were excited to find that Ella could really bowl better the us adults most of the time. Haley and Shelby also got them and American Idol game for Wii. Now we hear all kinds of music coming from them. The adults who had tried out the Wii decided we were all in really bad shape because the next morning after bowling, tennis, boxing, and testing our Wii fitness age (which did not come out as nicely for some of us as we would have hoped!!) we could hardly move. It really is a great work out!!
Ella has been dealing with some ear issues. We found a lump in her right ear the week before Thanksgiving. She saw a doctor who recomended us to see a Ears, Nose and Throat doctor with she did the second week in December. We also then had her hearing tested and found the her right ear is not working properly. The ENT is not sure why, but did find she had a horrible ear infection in her ear and put her on antibiotcs and wants to see her Jan. 6th. Yesterday we found another lump, this time in her left ear. We called the ENT and he thinks that she is getting ear infections that are causing her ear to swell. So, yet another round of antibiotics and see him on Jan. 6th where we will discuss tubes. He really thinks this is the route we will have to take in order for the swelling to stop. We will see what happens next week.
Brennan is growing so fast!!! His language is amazing all of us. Every day he comes up with a new word that we had no idea he could say. His new favorite obsession is the movie Cars and Lightning McQueen and the Disney show Handy Manny. Santa, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and the rest of the family remembered all of that and brought him Handy Manny toys and filled his stocking with Cars!! He had the greatest Christmas!!
Chase is getting so big!!! The week of Christmas we found Chase has his very first tooth!! Now we have to watch when he wants to chew on our fingers. Also at the end of November we took Chase to Iowa City to see the orthopedic surgeon. We got a lot of the same news. They want to make his thumb smaller to make it more useable. They also will have to cut some of the skin between his two fingers so that he will have more of pinchers for fingers. The biggest difference was time table. We were originally told they would wait until he is closer to school age. The doctor in Iowa city will see him again on May 1st and will probably do surgery soon after that. We have to watch in the meantime that the pinky finger does not continue to grow curved like it is right now and to make sure it doesn't seem to be causing any pain. If that starts to happen they will see him sooner. He is trying to reach out with the left hand and tries to play with things. For Christmas we tried to find toys that he could hook around his left hand to play with.
Here are some pictures from Christmas!!
