18 and 19 Months

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! I have so much to write about I don’t know where to begin. Well I will start where I left off. Sophia’s surgery went well but she did have some complications afterwards. Not with her ears but of course with her bowel movements and eating. She recovered like a champ and is now doing wonderful. She has not had an ear infection or been sick since having the tubes in. Having said that, we had her 18 month appointment with the GI doctor and we have begun to slowly introduce processed foods into her diet along with rice milk and rice yogurt. We are still staying away from the “no-no” foods so Whole Foods has become my new best friend. They have so many products that Sophia can eat. We are also taking her off her formula and putting her on a prescription juice drink that will take place of her formula. This move is so that we can take her off bottles. We are almost there. She only gets one in the morning and one at night in order to get the formula into her. She also had her physical and, again, a perfect visit. The doctor did not fight me on not giving the MMR since the immunologist said we should wait.

After the tubes came the birth of Dave and Rachel’s baby, Eli W. Scott, and then Thanksgiving.

We had a great day. My sister Teri-Ann and her husband hosted it at their house. Sophia loved all the attention! She ate at the table with everyone. She ate the same thing everyone else ate only prepared her way. We went home that night and put up the Christmas tree. She loved the decorations and lights…especially the lights on the house. Each night on the way home we had to drive around the neighborhood and look at the lights. If we tried to skip the trip and just pull into the driveway then she would cry and yell, “lights, lights.”

This Christmas was full of special moments. During December we spent a lot of time with family and friends we hadn’t seen in awhile. It was nice to see their interactions with Sophia. Early in December Mike’s Aunt Gerry and Uncle Joe came up for lunch. Sophia loved her great uncle Joe. During lunch she kept wiping her face on her napkin and handing it to him. She even showed him the squirrels in that backyard. That is Sophia’s way of saying she likes you. Our Annual Christmas party with my mom’s side of the family was the Saturday after the ice storm. This was a pretty funny event looking back. My mom didn’t lose electricity but many of my family members did, so they arrived early to the party to shower. After the party got started and food was almost done heating up…we lost electricity! This would have been “OK” except that it was around 3:30-4:00 and light was fading fast. Luckily one of the grabs was a 4 pack of flashlight and batteries, so we opened presents by flashlight. Sophia had a great time running around with the flashlights. She LOVES flashlight! Mike and Sophia play flashlight tag all the time.

That Sunday we attended a very special Christmas party. My father’s brother, Uncle Brian, was having a family reunion/Christmas party and invited ALL the Keefe’s. This was so special because this was the first time that my father’s family met Mike and Sophia. During the party Santa came to bring gifts to all the kids. Sophia wanted nothing to do with Santa but I had her get a picture anyway. I knew she would love the picture one day. The Santa suit was my grandfathers. Later it was my fathers. After my father died the suit went to his brother Shawn. I hope someday she will know the stories behind this suit and thank me for the torture I put her through at that moment. There were so many other special times at that party. I walked in at one point to my Uncle Brian holding Sophia like my father used to hold us as babies. One day I will give her that picture along with the picture of me at her age sitting on my father’s hand.

On Christmas Eve Mike and I went to dinner in Boston which we haven’t done since the Christmas Sophia was in my belly. Sophia got dressed up in the dress her Nana Ferrara got her for Christmas and spent Christmas Eve with her Nana Deb and her Don. She had a great time. She didn’t want to leave when it was time, but after much coaxing she came with us and was asleep in the car before we hit the bottom of the street. I see a tradition starting!
Christmas morning was so much fun! Santa brought Sophia a kitchen set. We were up at 5:45 am and she played with it until about 6:30 when we made her check her stocking. Each present she opened she helped mike put together and she had to play with before we moved on. Then she had to play with her kitchen a little more. We finally finished opening presents around 10:45. She got the kitchen set, Elmo slippers, Little People, and a few little things from Santa. Daddy and I got her a sit and spin, a ride on inch worm, books, clothes for her dolls, and a cradle for her babies. Later that day we hosted Christmas dinner. Sophia loved having her Great nana, aunties, her Nana Deb and her Don at her house. She wore the dress her Great Aunt and Uncle Mary Jane and Frank got her for Christmas. She looked adorable (notice in the pictures that she has a bow in her hair…finally). She finally got her Elmo Alive from her Nana Deb and her Don. This toy is a little scary. I swear it is a red furry Chucky doll!

Sophia’s Don also gave her a very special present. He made her a potty. The story behind her potty is that Don’s dad was amazing woodworker. His father used to make these potty’s for his grandchildren. When Don’s dad past away Don got all his father’s woodworking tools.

So this potty is special because it is a tradition but also because it was the first one Don ever made. It is so beautiful. Sophia loves sitting on it…even with all her clothes on.

The best news we got this holiday season was that Sophia is going to be a big cousin. My sister Adrienne and her husband Kier are expecting their first child in July. So this was Sophia’s last Christmas as the only child. Knowing how much she loves babies this change won’t bother her at all.

So as you can see we had a meaningful and happy holiday season. Our vacation was also relaxing. Daddy was home so Sophia spent a lot of time following him around. That allowed me to catch up on my scrapping and actually read a book cover to cover. Sophia spent some time with her friends in celebration of Christmas and her friend Cameron's birthday. It was a great start to the New Year.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year. I look forward to sharing the stories of 2009 with everyone.