Day +238: Merry Christmas!

Mina doesn't really remember last Christmas, so this will really be like her first Christmas. Isaac will still be oblivious, of course. We'll attend a kids' pageant at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in San Francisco at 5 PM, and may go back for the 8 PM service, depending on how everyone is feeling. On Christmas Day we'll get up, open stockings, then have breakfast, then open presents. Then our friends Rich and Olgica are coming over with their son Nikola, who is a few months older than Isaac, and our friends Blair and Walt with their daughter Devon, who is 10 months old. We'll have to scramble tomorrow and on Sunday to get everything ready, but we're really looking forward to it.

Mina has started skipping naps on occasion, which we're taking to be a good sign that her energy is still returning. It's been raining a lot the last two weeks, so Keri and the kids have been staying home a lot. And with Amber and Megan out of town, the whole family has been going a little stir crazy. Yesterday was one of those days where they stayed home and Mina wouldn't go down for her nap. Keri was tearing her hair out, so I left work a little early to come home and help out with the kids. The first thing that happened after I got home was that I provoked Mina into a screaming fit, because I tried to put her bowl of untouched yogurt into the fridge. She cried and screamed for about ten minutes. She didn't actually want to eat the yogurt, mind you, she just wanted me to leave it on the table. It was almost comical to hear her screaming "I want some yo-yo!" "Do you want to eat the yo-yo?" "No no no! Yeave it right der!" When she finally calmed down, she asked to lay on the bed with a pacifier for a few minutes. I changed Isaac's diaper and put his pajamas on, then came to do the same for Mina, and she was fast asleep! She slept right on through until 6:00 AM, even when I changed her diaper, flushed her tubes, and put her pajamas on. And this morning she was really in a great mood.

Isaac is actually sleeping pretty well these days, now that he's not sniffling any more (Mina's nose is dry too, and the dry cough she's had for weeks seems to be pretty much be gone). He is a funny kid. He just walks around the house with a silly grin on his face, getting into everything. He loves to read books now, and when you sit down he just kind of shows up with one of his favorites, like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". He likes to put his hands in front of his face and say "Boo!" And he's really becoming a good imitator. The other day I was singing "Allelujah!" while I was changing his diaper, and he was saying back "Aaaah lay lee lee!" He and Mina really love each other and get along well for the most part, but she can be kind of a tyrant, grabbing toys and pushing him out of the way. Yesterday she and Keri taped a sign on Isaac that said something like "Please don't push me down! Please go around! I love you Sissy! Isaac" Keri said Mina was nicer after they did that, so maybe it actually helped.

Mina is still having watery poops 4-5 times a day, even after a week on the antibiotics. But she's energetic and still eating well, so we still don't think it's anything major. They may have to go to Plan B to get rid of the c. diff., though. Also the dry rash around her ears is not totally gone, and she has some small bumps on her face. Again, probably not enough to worry about. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but we've been noticing how much better her skin tone looks over the last week or so since they discontinued the cyclosporin. It might just be that she's building her red blood cells up again after the virus.

Merry Christmas everyone! And if you've made it this far, thanks for indulging me in my boring ramblings about our home life. Don't get me wrong, boring is definitely good...