Our First Christmas......at Home!!!

We have been very blessed with the continued health and improvement of Elijah over the last year. The trips that we have made down to Children's Hospital have been for minor issues and should be the case from here on out.

We made a calender for our family as our Christmas present to them....I do have to say it, it turned out really, really good!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN2bZu3cuGLjw

This year is the first Christmas at home for Elijah. He loves the sound paper makes when you rip it, and he was giggling away as we opened up his presents for him. Of course both sets of Grandparents spoiled with the amount of Christmas presents he recieved...but that is to be expected. We are now looking forward to bringing in the New Year at home....all happy and healthy!

I got inked!

My older brother came home last month to visit and we went and got tatted....crazy, huh!

I got the symbol for STRENGTH ( I chose red because it also represents strength) with Elijah's name over it. It is over my heart....to always remind me of the strength he has and will continue to show us!

Say What!?!

On December 9th we headed down to Children's Hospital bright and early for Elijah's hearing test/stint removal, as you can see he is looking stylish in his Spongebob pj's (courtesy of Grandma). His stint removal was very routine...in with the scope and out with the plastic stint in less than an hour. The hearing test took a little longer to conduct. The outcome of the hearing test stated that he had minor hearing loss in both ears and will need to get hearing aids for both ears. We are hoping that once he gets the hearing aids and gets accustomed to wearing them (the doctors said it usually takes about 2 months for kids to get used to them) that it will help with his attention span and speech development.

Elijah also has been working with a Physical Therapist for the last couple of months on a weekly basis. He is making great improvements and we definitely can tell how much stronger he has become. The PT has decided that he will need to get some ankle braces to help support his ankles and make him keep his feet flat on the ground. This also should help with his standing exercises and getting him to learn how to stand up and eventually walk.

Zipper Club

On this day last year, Elijah had open heart surgery and became a member of the zipper club(named for the scar on the chest that resembles a zipper).

It is hard to believe how much he has been through, and what strength he has. This time last year we spent our holidays at Childrens Hospital and now we are very thankful that we get to be in the comforts of our own home, with our little boy! His strength has taught us a lot and we are so proud of all that he has and will accomplish.