Russell

It seems that I have been a little unclear about our little guy so here it goes and if you already know then you can just skip on through. When Russell was 10 days old our pediatrician told us he thought Russell had a form of dwarfism called Achondroplasia. We immediately left there and got a full skeletal scan to confirm this diagnosis. To say that we were shocked does not even begin to describe the emotions of that hard day. I did not even know that I could have a baby with this condition. But since then I have learned more than I thought I would ever learn about dwarfism. Apparently everyone has a 1 in 25,000 chance of having a baby with this condition.

Due to this condition we have had to see a lot of specialists to eliminate some of the common problems that Achondroplasia children have. After we get past some of these hurdles, we hope that life will slow down and not include so many doctors. But unfortunately we have some big hurdles to jump first. Tomorrow we are off to meet with a pediatric neurosurgeon to discuss the narrowing at the top of his spinal column. We don't know much at this time so we are pretty nervous about tomorrow. We have been told that he will most likely have surgery in the next 6 months.

We are all adjusting to our new life and this new journey that has been given to us. I know there are sicker babies and Brian and I are so thankful that he can smile and will hopefully live a fairly normal life but it is still hard. This is something I can't fix or change even though I pray all the time that this could all go away and his limbs would just start growing correctly. And when it is your kid you want the world for them and for everything to be perfect. On my good days I can be rational and think this is OK we can handle this and other days it is all consuming and hard. With that being said and even through the lack of sleep he is still such a laid back, happy guy and we are so thankfully for that. So please keep Russell in your prayers and that all is well.

These pictures were taken of Russell in my grandfather's cradle. Those of you that know me well, know that my extended family has always been very important and dear to me. One of the things that I feel that my grandparents instilled in me is the importance of family and tradition. My grandfather and his brother both slept in this cradle, so did my mom and her siblings and my cousins. Now we are on to the fourth generation to use the cradle. All three of our children slept in this cradle the first 6, 7, 0r 8 weeks. Another reason I love this cradle is the bumper pads. My mom made them for me when we were pregnant with Katherine (we did not find out with any of our children so the pumper pads were neutral colors and were used for all three). She made it in a sort of patchwork style. At one of my showers they had the gifts in the cradle and when it was emptied I could finally see the finished product. I started to cry the ugly cry b/c she had used some of the material from my grandfather's favorite shirt in the design. He died a year before Katherine was born. I love that not only did my babies use my grandfather's cradle but a little bit of him is still with the cradle. *This was just a fun shot, he does not really sleep with a pillow nor does he sleep in the cradle anymore. :)

First Day of School

Well, summer is officially over at the Peterson's household and school has started. I cannot even begin to describe how excited these two were Monday night- I thought they would never go to sleep. The first picture is of their "homework". John Will's was a poster of pictures to help the teachers get to know him. It mainly had family pictures or of John Will playing. Katherine's homework was to recreate herself on the doll cut out they gave us at open house. So we put her person in a dress( she was all about dresses this summer) and dress up high heels. She loves to pick flowers and she will be taking soccer for the first time this fall-so we decided to add those too. They look really worried about their first day don't they!!

Our Labor Day

Brian decided to order pine straw for his Labor Day activity. I ran out with Russell to run a few errands and this is what I found when I returned. Two sweaty kids very proud of their "house of hay". This really made me smile b/c as a little girl I use to love to make houses out of anything and everything. Hey Mal can you tell he loves the excavator shirt?!?!

These two get into so much trouble together- it reminds me of me and my brother and it reminds Brian of himself and his sister Jill. Partners in crime. I am sure Russell will be right there with them in a year or two!

Russell's Special Day

Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa Pete came up for Russell's christening. The first picture is John Will helping Grandpa do a balancing game on the wii.

Grandma and her two little chefs made sugar cookies in the shapes of crosses for the big lunch after the christening. The only shot we have from Sunday is the family one below. We did not even get one with Rev. Rose. We went down to my parents church for the service. We chose their because it is the same church and preacher that married us and christened K and JW. After the service we then went to my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tony's for lunch. We had about 50 family and friends over to celebrate the big day. Rev. Rose did a wonderful job and it meant so much to us to have him do the christening. The picture below cracks me up b/c this is our life trying to get everyone together for a picture. Katherine looks thrilled!

Russell Update

I am trying to get better about updating this on a more regular bases, so if anyone is reading bear with me. The day of the MRI Russell was not allowed to eat after 4:oo Thursday morning since he would have to be put under full sedation. We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 and were scheduled for a 10:00 MRI. At 10:30 Russell was still hanging in there(in our room that is) but by 11:00 he had enough and was letting the world know it! Finally they came and took him at 11:30 and everything went well. We got him back at 2:00 and we got to leave about 4:00. He had a slight fever and they wanted to make sure it was going down before we were released. First thing Friday morning our pediatrician called to let me know he had the results and that Russell did not have hydrocephalus. However, he did have a narrowing at the top of the spine and had put in a call to a pediatric neurosurgeon. Later that day the dr. reviewed Russell's MRI and said he needed surgery. We will go on Friday to for our first visit and hopefully will have a better understanding about what the next step is for Russell. We really don't know more than that or any specifics so I am a little nervous about what is ahead for our little guy. Again, please keep him in your prayers.

Flowers and Tigers and Bears O My

One of my best buds from college and her little guy came over a few weeks back for a playdate. It all started when Jen brought back the tiger costume that Johnny borrowed for Halloween. I took the outfit upstairs and laid it down. Hours later all was quiet and when we went to investigate this is what we saw- K in her costume from 3 years ago(check out the arms) and JW and J in theirs from last year. By the time we got them out of the costumes they looked like they had had a shower from sweating so much!