Friday, July 22, 2011

New place to call home...

Hi there...well, it's been a while. I feel like I start every post off like that. I have an excuse though! My last post explained that we were putting our house on the market and hoping to move to Littleton. Well, in the last 5 months we listed our house, bought a new one, and moved....all with a baby and a toddler in tow. It's been a fun ride! We are thrilled with our new digs....a great house on the golf course in Littleton, golf cart driving distance from the country club we joined. It was bank-owned and an unbelievable deal, so we just couldn't resist. Plus we just loved it - it *feels* like the type of home you see your kids growing up in. We are trying to get settled and still figure out the sleeping arrangements (Kenzie & Brandt are sharing rooms until we get the basement finished), but it still is just wonderful. One of the highlights is a great firepit out back where we can roast hot dogs and s'mores and just hang out. We also have a great family next door (the Kneppers) with kids similar ages, and that is wonderful to have friends for the kids to play with. Now we just need to sell our old house!

Kenzie is enjoying having the summer off from school and doing a lot of camps. She has done 2 church camps and is going to do a theater camp and zoo camp in the next couple weeks. She also has been doing swim team and taken a couple vacations. What a lucky girl! She heads back to school on August 15 - it is amazing how it flies by.

Brandt has been still struggling with weight gain, so we went to an endocrinologist to see if it is growth hormone related. That was negative, so next was a GI specialist. She did find signs of a possible problem called EoE, which is basically an allergic reaction of the esophagus to some sort of food which causes irritation and difficulty swallowing. He has to go under anesthesia on August 11th to do an endoscopy of his esophagus and stomach to fully diagnose the condition, and if it is diagnosed, he will have to have full allergy tests to determine what is causing it. Poor little guy! Like he hasn't been through enough already. The good news is that he has not had any trouble with breathing and he is fully off of the steroids for the summer. Now that we have found a home for Saxon and moved into a completely dog-free house (he's allergic), we will decide if he needs to do steroids again in the fall or not. We might just try it without and see how he does.

Colton is growing like a little weed and is 16lbs now at 8 months. That's only 7lbs less than his older brother! Colton's in the 5th percentile though so he's not huge, but he's growing and doing more and more every day. His favorite things are rolling around on the floor and "walking" in his excer-saucer that lets him go around the center table in a circle. He seems to be trying to crawl - getting on his stomach and trying to "ooch" where he wants to go. It won't be long! He's an extremely chill little baby....we are always getting comments from people who say, "Wow, I didn't hear a peep out of your baby the entire time!" He's eating solid foods and loving all of it - there really hasn't been much but turkey in a jar that he didn't like. We'll start him on soft finger foods soon - I think he's ready.

Next week we are headed to California for Jason's 40th. We are going to Pebble Beach for him to play on his actual birthday, and then to Napa for the weekend to explore as many wineries as we can possibly fit in. We are looking forward to a little rest and relaxation....not to mention a little (or a lot of) wine! Happy birthday, baby!!!