Emma singing at church for the 1st time!

Andrew having fun outside with his push toy

Early CHRISTmas and Early Birthday Celebration in Suffolk

The first weekend of December we traveled to Suffolk, VA to have an early CHRISTmas and an early 1 year birthday celebration for Andrew with Opa, Oma, and Great-Grandma Wright! Andrew LOVED his cupcake, as you can see :-)

Andrew (and Emma both) love Andrew's new plane from Opa & Oma. It plays music and the propeller spins and lights up. Below is a video of Emma pushing Andrew around our house. Really funny!

Andrew has been walking for almost a month now. He's really starting to pick up speed. In the past couple weeks, he's learned how to walk backwards and is in the process of learning how to throw a ball. So far Andrew has done very well starting to transition to whole milk. We haven't taken him off his Prevacid yet though. Taking him off his medicine will be the true test to see if the whole milk bothers his reflux.

Andrew has two new teeth. The teeth on either side of his front teeth have broken through. He is a drooly mess :-)

We also think he's in the beginnings of going to one afternoon nap and unfortunately for us, we think Emma in the beginning stages of dropping her afternoon nap all together. She has gotten quite good at opening the door to her room. Now we're trying to teach her to at least stay in her room for "quiet time" if she's not going to nap. Haven't had much success on this yet :-)

Emma LOVED this snowman at Opa & Oma's. Of course, it plays music!

New outfit from Opa & Oma. It is so soft and comfortable. What a good helper she is.

CHRISTmas Pix with the Kreuters

Andrew kisses for Daddy

Thanksgiving 2007

This year we spent Thanksgiving at home in NC. Barbie's parents and brother traveled to spend it with us this year. We had our fill of fried turkey and fixin's. We watched the Macy's day parade and watched Emma dance to the people she saw in the parade, watched some football, and took naps :-) The day after Thanksgiving a group of guys from our church (and Barbie) played some football, which we are hoping will start to become a tradition as an alternative for those not wanting to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

New Pix

I've been caught!

Mommy's Helper making dinner!

Andrew Is Walking!

Well, we knew it was coming, and now is the time for Andrew to join his big sister in racing around the house! He is so exhausted for his naps and for night time because of his various travels during the day now. Emma has tried to "help" him several times, which doesn't usually turn out so well. Andrew's hand continues to heal as well as can be expected.

Emma had her follow-up ENT appointment this morning for the tubes in her ears, and Dr. Kirsch thinks everything looks great right now. She doesn't have to see him for another year! Now we just need to put those ears and tubes to good use by LISTENING to Mommy and Daddy!!

Emma's ready for church

Thank you for your prayers

Andrew is doing so much better. It’s amazing how much healing can occur in a weeks time. He is finally starting to use his right hand more and starting to enjoy his bath once again. He had been crying through his baths I guess because it bothered his hand. His hand is healing soooo well. Also, thankfully after just a couple days of antibiotics his double ear infections don’t seem to be bothering him anymore either. His fever is gone and he is acting himself again.

We had a F/U appt. with the plastic surgeon today. He felt that his hand was healing well. He still couldn’t say 100% for sure he wouldn’t have any scarring or contractures. Only time will tell. We go back to see him again in 4 weeks. Please continue to pray that as his hand continues to heal that Andrew will have full mobility of his hand and not need any intervention.

Andrew has also been taking soooo many steps on his own. It would be safe to say that he could very well be walking by Thanksgiving.

Brad got back safely from his mission trip to Moldova. He had a great time, but as always, it’s great to be home and sleep in your own bed. I think he’s back to normal as far as the time change goes.

New Pix

Brad is doing great in Moldova

Brad is doing great in Moldova. It has been a nice trip this year because we pretty much get to e-mail with him every day and I’ve already talked with him twice. Unlike last year when we had no e-mail and talking to him once was a surprise. He went with 7 others from our church to do mission work. He gets home on Nov 10^th.

Rocky

Brad leaves to go on an international mission trip to Moldova and the excitement begins back home. We had an unfortunate event Monday morning with Andrew. He touched the glass to our gas logs and incurred 2^nd degree burns to his right hand. We turned it on briefly to get the chill out of the air downstairs. I kept telling him don’t touch it, it’s hot and moving him away from it. I was sitting about a foot away from him by the gas logs. I didn’t realize how hot the glass gets. I should have touched it myself first to know how hot it got, but I figured it would get warm, but never hot enough to burn him. I thought well, if he touches it, he’ll feel that it’s warm and know not to touch it again, never, ever, ever, did I think it would burn him.

The top half of his palm and each fingertip have blisters on them. His palm looks the worst. Thankfully so far they don’t think he’s going to need surgery. They believe it only burnt half way through the 2^nd layer. If it had gotten to the 3^rd layer he would definitely had needed surgery. Boy, I hate burns. He touched the glass for only about 5 sec if not less. He started crying, looked at me, and I had to remove his hand from the glass. He didn’t move it himself. In talking with the representative from the gas logs store, they informed us that the glass on our gas logs is intended to radiate the heat from the logs into the room, which would make sense why the glass gets so hot. He said it is almost like glue if something touches it, which would explain why Andrew didn’t move his hand, because he couldn’t. I know, awful to think about. I don’t even like explaining it, but many people have asked me why he didn’t move his hand and why I had to move it for him. I didn’t understand it myself until today when he talked to the representative. My poor boy.

Andrew did very well in the ER. He was a tough boy. The doctor was awfully impressed that he was doing as well as he was on just Motrin to deal with the pain.

We ordered a protective screen for our gas logs yesterday. It’s going to be installed free of charge on Nov 14^th due to Andrew’s injury. Something the builder of our home should have installed to begin with. Hopefully this screen will help prevent any other injuries to anyone else in the future. If anyone has gas logs without a protective screen, PLEASE find out the purpose of the glass. We didn’t realize the glass got as hot as it did and wasn’t tempered. The purpose of the glass on our gas logs is to radiate the heat from the flame into the room, which would explain why it gets so hot. Our gas logs had no protective screen or warning on the glass. We purchased a protective screen that will be installed next Wed for only $34. We plan to contact the builder of our home and the gas logs company to hopefully prevent something like this from happening to anyone else in the future.

Thankfully he’s still crawling on it, playing, smiling, laughing, and snuggling. Although, when he crawls, he's been using the outside of his right hand. He still uses his right hand to pull up to stand on things and drink out of his cup. He still uses it some, but not as much as usual. You can tell it causes his discomfort. Please pray that God would decrease or even remove the pain from his hand. Also, please pray that times of cleaning and redressing his hand would go well. Changing his dressing makes me so nervous. I don’t think I’ll ever get comfortable doing it. He is able. Nothing is impossible with Him.

Please pray for God’s healing of Andrew’s hand. Pray that he wouldn't get contractures and that it would heal in a way that he doesn't need surgery. Pray that God would decrease or remove any pain/discomfort it causes him. Pray that he would sleep well. Pray that God would also heal Andrew’s cold. On top of all this, Andrew has had a low grade fever, yellow nasal drainage, and a cough that is causing him to not sleep well. We just came back from the ped office and he's now on antibiotics for the beginnings of double ear infections.

We saw the plastic surgeon who specializes in burns on hands Wed. morning. Andrew's appt. with him I guess you could say went well. We have to go back for a F/U appt in one week. Since this was the first time Dr. Molnar saw him he has nothing to compare it to, so he can't really say if it looks better or how well it will heal. Although, the doctor said he would expect it to heal in about 3 weeks. He said he can't guarantee it won't scar. I'm more concerned that he won't have contractures (it's a way burns heal that would restrict his mobility). If contractures develop that would be something he would more than likely need surgery for. Please pray that he heals well without any infection and that he won’t need surgery. The doctor said it's definitely a 2nd degree burn. He said normally for you or I it wouldn't have gone that deep, but he doesn't have the calluses we have yet. One good thing out of the appt was that instead of wrapping his hand with gauze each dressing the nurses recommended putting the ointment on and then putting a sock on leaving room for his thumb. Works much better.

I am thankful that Emma is feeling better from her cold and I am thankful that my Mom is here in town with me while Brad is gone. God provides.

Thank you soooooo much for your prayers.

Fall Festival 2007

B-B-B-B-Batman!

Little Ladybug and Daddy

Video of Andrew crawling up the stairs

Starting to get cooler outside

Getting ready for a ride in our red wagon

Just playing around

Emma makes us laugh so hard when she does this

10 month Portrait Innovation Pix of Andrew & Emma sitting on her throne!

I'm surprised we got as many good pictures as we did. Andrew is still going through his separation anxiety stage and apparently Mommy couldn't be 2 ft away. He had to holding onto me to be happy. Too bad they can't just photoshop me out of the pictures. We would have had many more with him smiling. His blue blanket was a good replacement for a time. Andrew's second top front tooth came in a couple days ago!

We were taking some pix of items to sell on Ebay using this vellux blanket. Emma thought it had a better use.

Ladybug Rain Dance

We are in a serious drought here this season.
Emma thought she would do the ladybug rain dance.
It must have worked, because the next day we had an all day rain shower. Thank you God for the rain!

Mommy & Daddy are working hard on teaching Emma how to use the potty. No consistent success yet, but yesterday she went once on the potty. Yeah Emma!!!

Andrew is trying very hard to keep up with his big sister.
He has started to let go and take a couple steps towards something he wants. A couple days ago I taught him once how to crawl up the stairs, and yeah, he knows how to do that now. Showing him once is all it took. He's also discovered it is fun to take all the shoes off the shoe organizer shelves by the front door. Hmmmm. I wonder who taught him how to do that?

Still waiting on that second top front tooth to come in. It's right there. You can see the white under the gums. It just hasn't broken through yet. Also, Andrew is getting over a little fall cold (if we can really call it fall). Still has a snotty nose, but doing better.