most thankful for

i dont have time to properly document all my feelings about the past 366 days, but i think i can pretty much sum up by saying what i am most thankful for this year is that my baby girl survived and is turning out to be the funniest, most determined, uplifting, social, and gorgeous girl i could have ever asked for.

54 weeks ago, when we found out about amelies diagnosis i was so devastated; i could only think about what a horrible life she, and we, would have because of her T21. i was also paralyzed with fear over her medical prognosis and was convinced she wouldnt survive the heart surgery.
not only did she survive, she came through surgery beautifully and since then has just become the most extraordinary/ joyful/ lovely little girl. we have met more strangers this past year because everywhere we go, her smile and infectious giggle draw people in.
i not only love this little girl, i am completely in love with her and am so excited about all her birthdays to come.

we'll have to figure out the timing for future birthday parties.
this year, we kept it small, and gluten/ dairy free ;)

fall of formaldehyde

the kids and i picked up D last night and were immediately repulsed by the smell of sweet burning nastiness -- there really is no better way to describe it. apparently using a bone saw for 5 hours straight produces this odor of ungodliness and it permeates anything and everything.
i wont go into details about what the man was doing, but i will say, that last night, for the first time in 14 years, i was truly grossed out by my husbands activities.

fortunately i am not allowed to take pics of the mans activities, or you know i would be sharing with you all. instead i have some delayed photos of the kids gorgeousness

um, should we have a talk about two big contributors of dental caries in kids

 

 

a shout out to lucky number 13

I was going to title this one, this is the face of 13 and post a pic of D and I together, but sadly, I cant find a pic of the 2 of us together that was taken in the past 2 years!
not one i like anyway ;)

today i have had the privilege of being married to the best person i know and my best friend for 13 years.
in 7 more we'll have been married for 20 years and/or half our lives -- for some reason that makes me feel like, wow, we're old, and wow, we really have been married a loooonnnggg time.
i have a terrible memory which i think precipitates my lack of awareness of time, so in general, i feel very much like that 20 year old girl who one day realized
a.  wow, D is really into me so he must not be gay
b.  he's kinda awesome, and arrogant, and hot (this was after he cut off the legolas locks and dyed them black)

im so glad through the stupidity of my early 20's, i had the good sense to realize just how amazing this man, my husband is, and that he was, and is, a keeper

since i cant find any recent photos, thought i would upload one from when the magic all began ;)

this is the face of two

i cant believe its been 5 weeks since i last posted -- i meant to be so very good about it really.
and,  i cant believe my boy is two.
if its not already being done, someone really needs to do a study about how time literally, not theoretically, goes soooo much faster once you have kids.
i can no longer keep track of what month it is let alone what date or day of the week.
im serious, not exaggerating for effect -- does this happen to everyone when you have kids or is it just me?

well in superquick wrap up style of the events i can remember:

we all got sick with the plague/ super high fevers/ 5 trips to the drs... yet again!!!
ugh...
daniel actually graduated with his bs, so now he's ddbs soon to be ddbsdds, and then ddbsddsomfs :D
this cracks me up, but no one else apparently
daniel started dental school. in fact he's probably cutting into his first cadaver as i write
my mom came to visit/ took care of us/ helped immensely with max's mistake of a second birthday party
max kind of missed out on his actual birthday as he had a temp hovering around 103 and was completely lethargic, which if you know my boy, means it was really bad...
went a little crazy with max's robot/dinosaur/animal dance party themed 2nd birthday party which ended up just being robot themed
the official birthday party season continued and hopefully, now has ended ;)
we found out my neice who is 5 months younger than me and has 4 young kids had a brain tumor and lesions, (which they successfully removed) and also has lung cancer
went to the drs another 87 times -- good report from cardioloigst, passed 2nd hearing screen, (didnt do so well on the first) found out am has an astigmatism and will eventually need glasses, 3 miserable blood draws and monitoring for hypothyroidism, 2 trips to ped to make sure the plague wasnt turning into some sort of rsv for am, 2 year well check for max, annual check up for me, root canal for me, 2 more root canals for me, cleaning for d, bi-weekly slp/ ot/ pt
-- lots of excitement in that area of our world, need a dr people, ask me!
dinner with family whom we havent seen in forever :)
starting applications for school
taking first steps, (assisted, but bearing weight on those tiny legs is still a big deal ;)
ate solid pieces of fruitaliciousness
met some horses, and cool people too
learned the hard way that it's absolutely imperative that i check max's pockets before washing any of his clothes

thats all the power of recall i have for the moment
lots and lots of pics to choose from since its been so long but we'll go with bday

just say no

our life seems to be very full lately
the good news is that we have a lot of wonderful wonderful friends
the bad news is that we dont have enough time to see them all, but still want/ try to
and i dont seem to have enough energy to stack dates, of one kind or another, back to back
i started getting sick, not to mention super cranky, again and was feeling badly that i was the only one in the fam who couldnt seem to keep up...

and then we figured out that the reason the boy has been waking up at night was from night terrors

and then we figured that at least part of these night terrors are due to his being overtired
i think the other part is his very vivid and technicolor imagination which is currently filled with robots and a renewed interest in foofa from yo gabba gabba (hmmmm)
so..... even tho the boy seems like a carbon copy of his energizer daddy, i guess it eventually hits him like it does me

in other more exciting news:
the boy continues to potty train himself despite our best efforts to the contrary
am passed her hearing screen so no brain stem scan, yippidee :)
now we just have the endocrinologist and ophthalmologist to contend with
d is officially 4 weeks away from d school which begins with a and p
-- im SO jealous!
and......we have a mountain of to dos to get dones before then

i cant seem to upload my camera pics at the moment -- need d to finish up his dang homework and get back to more important tasks like helping technology inept me -- so photos to come

times they are a changin

weekend in review

drs
first visit to the dentist -- smashing success, of course
loss of blanket
relapse of sickness
completion of antibiotics
twirl cafe fun
sleep in and latte, (better than chicken soup)
operation blanket recovery
ummmm, lovely frozen yogurt treatiness
park
purposeful saying of dada added to repetoire
full on army crawling and standing with assistance -- this girl is truly awe inspiring
churchin and dancin with dudah
napping
le reve(ing) yum
celebrating life
wading pool and park
showing of houses
unparent initiated POOP in the potty people!!!!!
our little boy is becoming a little man

seriously, our life totally revolves around our kids now and it/ they rock(s)

 

because i like you

  

back to life. back to reality

my german, strong like bull immunity husband, who never gets sick, and refuses to take any medication when he does, brought home this vile plague of a cold thing that our whole family has been passing around for months now. at least that's what it feels like...

AND, it included pink eye for the maximus which i am way grossed out by.
i have been kept up at night with webmd searches about all the other vile things both my boys could contract and bring home.
there was a note on one of the other preschool classes at m's school saying, 'your child may have been exposed to scabies'.
SCABIES, really people??????
so disgusting and nightmare inducing...

anyhow, i finally feel like i may have turned the corner with this thing and am looking forward to getting back into the land of the living. i know my immune system is still compromised and i catch and keep (release, release body!) everything under the sun, but im surprised at how long D has had this thing.

am wondering if this is to do with:
a.) getting older
b.) having kids
c.) being in an incubator with 40,000 other people who are essentially, kids, and im sure not terribly hygienic

in clinic they told him to act like everyone has hep or hiv, (cause of the needle pricks ya know) which i think is really good practice, but D told me the surprising thing was really how many people actually did/do.

that little bit of wisdom will need to be d's attitude for the rest of his life now, but im afraid if this superbug/ plague thing is any indication, the rest of the fam will need to act as if too :(


i dont have any correlating pics for you, (trust me you dont want to see) so instead ill give you these....

new and improved and now tube free!

i know, i know, i havent updated in so long, but we have been busy folks over here in the Q to the A.
the dupuis household has been up to a lot, see if you can guess who did what :)

taking all waking feeds by bottle
pulling out am's ng tube
taking ALL feeds by nursing or bottle -- oh hell to the yeah!
undertaking massive house projects that we didnt have the extra time or boundless youthful energy to do, but that look great now if we do say so ourselves :)
killing massive amounts brain cells from excessive paint fume inhalation
making new friends
repeating mama and baba
guest lecturing at the University of Washington about non-disjuncture to genetics classes......and, killing it!
losing all superglue scabs
calling the police on some guy trying to break into the house while we were home
being told you're supposed to call 911 for that
jumping jumping jumping
getting an a+ in recovering from OHS from the cardiologist
tasting tasty things like pears and pizza
planning massive remodels that cant be done for a while
contemplating going back to work
hosting animal dance parties
farmers marketing with friends in juneuary (hate that term, but it's just too apt right now)
contemplating going back to school
realizing how much better life is post OHS and how happy and blessed we are :)

not many pics for you cause my camera battery ran down and i just found the charger, so we'll go with cuteness over quantity

this my boo

this how she roll.
in case ya'll didnt know, am speaks with a bit of an ebonic bent and frequently quotes rap lyrics
she crazy. she throws in words like axed into everyday general conversation
must be all the movin 92.5 she demanded to listen to in utero

her momma speaks with a bit of a twang and frequently says ya'll.
must be from being raised in southern california and our time in new york....that makes perfect sense.


anyways, in am's words gotta say it was a good day, err, weekend rather

we:
learned our son might be a little racist...... but then again sikhs do carry knives
were brought the most delectable chicken curry ever
were brought the most delicious pastries and lattes in seattle
had a playdate with max's sister girlfriend
went to the park 482 times
started a wee bit o potty training
fed our girl 250 cc's by bottle, hey shorty its ur birthday
got to celebrate the best dad in the hood
didn't even have to use our ak
gotta say it was a good day, err, weekend

scrumdidilyumptiousness

went to the cardiologists yesterday and she said am looked good :)

she heard a small murmur from the vsd backleaking a bit, but said there was a possibility that could resolve on its own. we get to cut her lasix back by half and, if all goes well, cut it out next week, which means we can potentially start starving her to make her take the bottle and get that tube out of her nose -- yey!

today is d's last day of vacation and we havent really had a chance to take a break so today we walked all around the hood and went to the yummy french bakery, le reve, for coffee and pastries on the patio.
am is getting a taste for the finer things early :)

caffeinated deliciousness

anyone else think my husband's smile is just scrumptiousness