The moment we've all been waiting for, or at least, that I've been waiting for. Dorian and Faith were looking over my shoulder as I was recording this. That's Faith's voice saying "It do's what he do's!" as she's watching the camera. Such fun observations. Anyway, it's a good Christmas present. He's enjoying being more mobile.

I wish this picture had turned out better, but it shows the day accurately enough. Yesterday was our first school cancellation of the season. We got about 9 inches of snow. The kids had a good time playing outside and attempting to build snowmen. I was putting off shoveling the driveway, which is a massive pain in more ways than one. But Dorian shamed me into it. At about 3, when the snow finally stopped, he announced he was going to clear off the driveway. He went and put on his snowsuit, boots, gloves, and hat, then he went to the garage and got the kid-sized snow shovel, went outside, and got to work. It didn't last very long, but it did help me get over the inertia to get out and work.

In other news, Quinn is finally walking more than he is crawling, only 3 short months after his first step! My other kids were about 2 weeks from first step to full walking, but Quinn is on his own timetable. He still had a two-word vocabulary, along with an assortment of articulate grunts. Our family seems to swing back and forth between speech delay and speech prodigy. Just keeping us on our toes I guess.

Faith continues to be Faith. She misses Dorian while he's at school, but I think we're having fun together at home. She walks around the house singing Christmas carols. I think she will be the soprano in our family, and a good thing too. I can't fake most soprano parts.

I'm 29 as of Monday. I'm not sure how to feel about it yet. But I have my streak intact. This is the seventh birthday in a row where I've been either pregnant or breastfeeding. No, I'm not pregnant. Quinn is still an avid nurser, and I plan to keep with it until he's at least two, and get him through is first two winters. Last year, I was reluctant to make predictions about my status a year in advance, and that holds for this year as well. Heaven knows what next year will bring.

Quinn is stubborn. Overall, I think that's a good thing. He wouldn't be here if he weren't, plain and simple. But to watch him get around so agilely but still refuse to walk is a little bit frustrating. His physical therapist came to see him on Friday and spent a lot of time scratching her head saying "He's perfectly capable. Why won't he do it?" Here's an example. He's a very good climber, and seems to me to have phenomenal strength to be able to haul himself up on this chair and dance around. So why does he choose not to walk? Maybe some day he'll tell us.

By the way, that's Penn State versus Michigan in the background. We love football season.

Dorian is still adjusting to school. After yet another meeting with his teacher and company, we've agreed to a new protocol that includes his getting occupational and physical therapy, in addition to speech therapy, and he will also have his own aide. I really hope this is what will make everyone happy. What he tells us about school when he comes home doesn't always match the picture that his teacher gives us. He doesn't tell us about how stressed he is, while she has told us about several instances when he has been sad or frustrated trying to figure out what is going on. All he tells us about is the fun he is having. On the one hand, that's a good thing, because he is focusing on what's going right. On the other hand, it would be nice to know if he really does feel the stress that he shows when he's there. Either way, I hope we're really finding an answer to all this.

And then there is Faith, the girl, sandwiched between her two special needs brothers. For her part, she is still enjoying life. She still like the "school" that she and I do together, and she looks forward to Dorian coming home everyday. They are still best friends. The last two Saturdays, they have spent all day playing with each other. They came up for food, but other than that, they were off together. It's great to see the love they have for each other.

Quinn went to nursery for the first time today. He's technically 18 months old, so he is old enough, but we had planned to wait until he was solidly walking at least before we took that step. That was the plan. Then today after sacrament meeting, I took Faith to the nursery, holding Quinn. She went in, and he caught a glimpse of it, and dove out of my arms. I held on and the door closed, so he started crying. I opened it again, and he scrambled to get down and go play. He never looked back. I was stunned. Kurt and I went and enjoyed Sunday School together, and I came for him after Relief Society, just like everything was normal. He was happy to see me, but he had enjoyed himself, from all accounts. He's definitely growing up. He's even getting involved in the bigger kids' play. Here's an example of first-class daddy torture. All three kids wanted in on the action.
We're looking forward to Halloween and enjoying the gorgeous fall. It's a great year for color.

Quinn still isn't walking...but we're making progress. It's completely in his head. He is physically capable, but I don't think he believes in himself. Each time he has successfully walked, it's because we tricked him into it. I keep thinking that one of these days he'll look down and see what he's doing, gain the confidence, and that will be the end of it. Maybe that will still happen, but I'm still waiting. He's officially 18 months old now. It seems unbelievable all that has happened in that amount of time.

We had a visit from my parents this week. We had fun doing a little local touring, especially to see the fall colors. They don't get much of that where they come from and it's quite a novelty.

I was so hoping for this picture to turn out well, so we could put it on our Christmas card. No such luck. A combination of just not being set up well, and having a cloudy day so you can't even tell how beautiful the hills are with the fall colors, and we have what could have been good and just isn't. But it's proof we were there.

We're looking forward to Columbus Day. I appreciate school holidays now.

We've finished our second full week of school. Dorian still seems to be enjoying things, and is telling me more details when he comes home. I take that as a good sign. One day this week, as soon as he came home, he had to re-enact what the class did for P.E that day, going on a bear hunt. We have our Meet the Teacher night this week, and we'll see if his teacher agrees that there is improvement. Faith is enjoying her school experience as well, and we're all settling into a routine.

Quinn needs to go to walking boot camp. I had made a goal to get him walking within the week, and didn't accomplish it. I'll reset it for this week. He can walk. He has walked. He won't walk. He doesn't even want to walk while holding my hand anymore. His physical therapist said we'd have to trick him into it, and she was right. I'm anxious for him to move onto the next phase. Part of my motivation is purely selfish, I admit. I'm tired of all of his pants having dirty knees. And once he does start walking, he'll look much closer to the 18 month old he actually is, than to the 12 month old he appears to be. Just standing upright seems to add several months to his age. I've tried to explain that to him, and guess how well that took. So here it is: this blog will be my accountability. Quinn will walk by next week. I will work with him everyday to help accomplish this goal. I so decree it.

Well, what a liar I turned out to be. Just when I'm saying I'm signing off until further notice, I'm finding that maybe journaling our life isn't such a bad idea after all.

Dorian finished his first full week of school. I couldn't get very many details out of him, but he seemed happy and was excited to go each morning, so I didn't worry too much. Until his teacher called me on day three and said "We need to talk." Uh oh. She detailed to me for 20 minutes how difficult he is in class, with his wandering and non participation. I went on overload within minutes, so those details are a little fuzzy. We ended up having a meeting with her, the speech therapist, the special ed teacher, and the school psychologist. We decided to have Dorian evaluated for occupational therapy as an additional help for him. Kurt and I tried to emphasize that this was still the second week of school and that we knew he would adjust eventually. We also reiterated that he is in no distress over this, and we would definitely know if he were. The supremely frustrating thing is that most of the issues going on would be eased or eliminated if the school district hadn't decided to go to full-day instead of their transitional program. We thought that transitional program was exactly what Dorian needed. Instead, he gets to be among the guinea pigs. And our options aren't great. There are no charter schools nearby, private schools aren't a good option for multiple reasons, and that leaves homeschooling and moving. I did want to homeschool at one point, but it never felt completely right. And moving presents its own problems, so we're working with what we have and praying for improvement.

Speaking of my sons' therapists, Quinn had a visit from his physical therapist this week. It went really well. She said there is no reason for him not to be walking now, that it's all in his head, and we have to build up his confidence. She then lured him away from the couch with toys, and he successfully took several steps before he realized what was going on and crawled the rest of the way. That was on Thursday and I have yet to duplicate that. But I agree with her, it's time for him to walk. He's an excellent climber.
He used to just sit at the piano and pound on the keys. But that's not good enough anymore. It's time to move on.

Faith continues to be herself. She enjoyed her first week of "preschool," although it seems like her favorite part is the special snack each day. We're looking forward to more time with just the two of us, since we've done it during Quinn's naps this week, except for our field trip to visit the cows in the neighborhood. That has worked well. I'm glad I can do something well enough.

I've taken quite a leave of absence. I doubt anyone is still reading, but on the off chance, I'll update.

Here's the deal. I'm really feeling like this blog has served its purpose. For the last year or so, since Quinn came home, I've felt somewhat obligated to keep up with it. I appreciate those who enjoy reading it. But in all honesty, keeping it up is a reminder of a very difficult time in my life, one I'm glad I'm moving away from. So I'm not even going to pretend that I'm going to update on any sort of regular basis. I tried once a week, and that lengthened into every two weeks, then every month, and now it's just become burdensome. In theory, I'm glad I have a record of our NICU experience, but I can't picture a time when I'll be willing to go back and read it. It's still too painful. So thank you to all those who read along last year, and who have checked up on us since then. I'll still be around, but not regularly. I've taken to Facebook, along with the rest of the world it seems. That's where most of my keeping up with people has been.

Quick updates: Quinn took his first step August 29. He's since taken another step and stood on his own, but has yet to officially begin walking. I've never seen a kid so thoroughly master the arts of crawling and cruising.


Dorian started school on Friday. So far, so good. I'd been dreading it for the last year, largely made more vivid by my experience with Quinn. The idea of handing my child over to an institution just did not feel good. Add to that our district's recent decision to begin full-day kindergarten, and I was a wreck over the whole situation. So I spent a lot of the summer with a feeling of impending doom. But Friday came, the bus came and picked up Dorian along with our two neighbors who are also starting kindergarten, and off they went. I waited anxiously for 3:30 when he would come home, hoping and praying for a good experience. When the bus finally came back, Dorian bounded off with a big smile on his face. I couldn't pull too many details out of him, but he says he wants to go back. That right there lifted an enormous burden from me. Let's hope we continue after that great start.


Faith and I will begin a preschool curriculum this week. I did this 2 years ago with Dorian, and we had a lot of fun with it. Faith is anxious to do something herself. She was disappointed to be left behind, wanting to go to school herself. All too soon, Faith. All too soon.

We just got back from a Celtic Faire. Aside from the Welsh cookies, the only souvenirs we brought home had very little to do with Celtic culture.
We're looking forward to summer, whenever that decides to get here. It's been cloudy and rainy, with the occasional thunderstorm and even a hail storm. Where is the sunshine?

Quinn continues to learn how to cruise.
He loves the piano. I can't blame him.
I took him to a cardiologist a couple of weeks ago. It was a follow up from the NICU. All babies in utero have an open shunt between their atria, and many babies are even born with it still open. Quinn was no exception. And since we know it's there, it must be followed. So we went downtown and Quinn got an EKG and an echocardiogram. The EKG took 30 seconds, but for the echo, he needed to lie still for 10 minutes. Ha. The tech said he could have his bottle or his pacifier. Ha again. He takes neither. So that was slow going, with a lot of changes of position to keep him happy, but we eventually got it done. Then we saw a doctor whose first name was Harm. I didn't discover that until we were leaving, thankfully. Anyway, he said the shunt is still open, but there's still a very good chance it will close on it's own, and we won't see a difference anyway. It won't affect his health or his activity level at all. You can't even hear it. You have to see it, hence the ultrasound. I asked what the risk was, since we wouldn't notice whether it was there or not. Apparently, it will pose no problem in childhood, but if it hasn't closed by adulthood, it can create problems. So we'll check it again when he's 3. I didn't think to ask until later what happens to kids who have this and don't spend months in the NICU. How would you know? It reminded me of when I asked an optometrist why he was checking me for cataracts and glaucoma and what happens to the majority of population who don't need glasses and don't get these checks. His response was that everyone should see an optometrist. Alrighty then. I'll tell that to my husband who has better than 20/20 vision and therefore would never see an optometrist.

For those who are bored by technicalities, you can stop reading now. I may have come to a conclusion about what went wrong with Quinn's pregnancy. About time, after a year and change. I have spent quite a bit of time over the last year researching various possibilities and narrowed down to two theories, one I had a lot more confidence in than the other. The less likely of the two was that I might have a blood clotting disorder. I finally went and got the blood work for that done about 6 weeks ago, and as I suspected, it was normal. I can rule out that option. My other theory was basically that Quinn never stuck well to begin with. I don't think my body was ready to conceive. Just because you ovulate, doesn't mean you are fertile. I was ovulating, but the luteal phase, between ovulation and your period, wasn't long enough to allow implantation. A normal luteal phase is 12-14 days long. I was nursing Faith, who was a year and a half old, and charting my cycles, so I knew what was going on. I had my first post partum cycle when Faith was 16 month, and had a 6 day luteal phase. Waaaaaaay too short. My next cycle, I had what I thought was an 8 day luteal phase, but it turns out I was pregnant. It tried to implant anyway but it didn't work and I miscarried. Incidentally, that's the miscarriage whose due date was two days after Quinn was born. So I tried a progesterone supplement with my next cycle, and Quinn stuck, but still not very well. Of the 26 weeks of that pregnancy, there were about 6 in the middle where I wasn't bleeding to some degree. And this theory was more or less confirmed by the pathology report on the placenta. I had to hound a bunch of people to get it, and it took nearly a month, but I finally got it earlier this month. Basically, the placenta never attached deeply enough, and so was malformed. Parts of it were dying, and it was more than 60% detached. So not only did I pretty much confirm that theory, I laid two other questions to rest: 1. How much better off things might have been if I'd held off labor a bit longer. They wouldn't have. The placenta was completely deteriorating, and wouldn't have lasted much longer. And 2. Whether the c-section was truly warranted. I think it was. With an abrupting placenta, and the cord inserted so that it could easily become detached, I think c-section was the best course of action. It's nice to not worry about those anymore.

Compare these two photos.

Need I say more? We love spring!
We had our first really hot day last week, so out came the pool. It was glorious.



Then Dorian got the brilliant idea to go "fishing."
We're looking forward to summer.

Meanwhile, Quinn continues to bowl his way toward independence.
He's so happy now that he can get around by himself. Not that he was ever very cranky, but he's even happier than he was before. I can't wait to see what he grows into.

In some ways, it's been nice not to keep this up too regularly. It means that there's no news, and in my book, no news is good news. But on the other hand, Quinn is at a really exciting time of development. Since my last post on his birthday more than a month ago, he has become a master crawler, and is beginning to pull himself up on the furniture. Here's his latest trick.
We've also enjoyed getting out and about, which we had avoided all winter. We're really enjoyed going to church as a family again. I had taken time away, because church is one of the two places people will still go to even if they are sick, the other being the grocery store. But we've been back in action for a month now, and so far so good. We've also had other outings, like play dates at the park. One turned into an impromptu activist moment. At the last minute, I decided to take the kids and go with some friends to one of the Tea Parties on April 15. It was held at a park right on the Hudson, and we had a gorgeous day to overlook the boats on the river while we showed our distaste for government spending.

But mostly, we've led a pretty tame existence of regular church on Sunday, play dates, trips to the library, and getting Dorian ready for kindergarten in the fall. All the while, we've enjoyed a gloriously gorgeous spring. Our trees blossomed, and now most are fully leaved, and the lilacs are in bloom. I'm anxious to see if the robins come back to their nest by our front door. It would be the third year in a row, and this year, I'm going to take pictures if they do. We just got ourselves a new digital camera, and Dorian and Faith have loved making videos of themselves.

Kurt and I celebrated our seventh anniversary on May 4, and this one got a lot more fanfare than last year's which was all but forgotten. We've come a long way, literally and figuratively, moving across the country together, and surviving a hellish year last year. I made a video montage to commemorate our relationship, and it was cathartic to go through the photos from last year, and realize just where we've been and where we are now. I'd rather not post it here, but if anyone is really interested, leave your email address, and I'll send you a link. I'm glad I did it. I'm grateful for all we've come through, and I look forward to years to come together.

Well, here it is, the day I've simultaneously looked forward to and dreaded. Happy Birthday Quinn.
Dorian and Faith were ecstatic to be celebrating a birthday. Thank heaven for their enthusiam.

I think Quinn was a bit overwhelmed. I would be too if my candle were that brilliant.
He didn't actually eat this, just smash it a bit.
I feel like I ought to have something profound to say at this point, about all the things I learned that I never wanted to know, how I feel like a stronger person, how far we've come, and what a miracle Quinn is. The truth is, I'm still sort of living day to day, trying not to make long-range plans. My goal for today was to survive it, and a supporting goal of not thinking about what was happening a year ago whenever I looked at the clock. I think I was pretty successful in that. I'll save the philosophizing for a less momentous day. Suffice it to say we've done it: survive a year, survive winter, and survive the birthday.

It's spring!

We still have a few things to iron out before we venture back into full swing life again, but we're definitely excited for the first day of spring. We've had relatively mild weather the last week or so, and almost all the snow is gone. We've taken advantage of the weather to play outside, but we had one big monkey wrench thrown into those plans. The Plague hit our house last weekend. Well, not really, but it seemed like it. Kurt came home from work sick: fever, cough, chills. We went to great lengths to limit his contact with the kids, especially Quinn. We thought we were successful until Sunday when Faith and Dorian woke up feverish with coughs. They spent most of Sunday in bed, and part of Monday, and then seemed to be completely back to normal. And we thought we'd dodged a bullet with Quinn...until Tuesday when he spiked a fever, and the cough he'd already had for a month ramped up a notch. The fever last exactly 2 days, but the cough is lingering. And once again, I seem to be immune. It's been more than 3 years since I've had any sort of respiratory illness. Kurt thinks it's a literal miracle that I've been spared this whole winter, while this is the third time he's gotten sick. That's quite possible. What would happen if I were to get sick? Mass pandemonium. So, I've been spared yet again. But needless to say, I'm done with illness. I'd count down to the days when we can be healthy again, except that I'm not sure when that will be. I've been in wait-and-see mode for more than a month, and it's wearing on me. We're almost there...we're almost there...We have two weeks until Quinn's first birthday. And then we will have survived quite a year.

On a slightly different note, I've been experimenting with our camera's video capacity. This is poor quality, and I'm not very experienced at keeping it steady and so on, but who can resist a laughing baby? The giggler in the background calling out "Lemme see!" is Dorian. He loves making his baby brother laugh.

Brittany, this one's for you!
My sister requested I post a picture of Quinn sitting up. He just mastered this skill. He would have been 8 months old, so that's just about right, based on my memories of my other kids. He also just got his first tooth, so we're moving right along, and he's fifteen and a half pounds. He's been sick for three weeks now, and I'm so ready for spring weather and sunshine and warmth and health. He has had the same annoying cough that Dorian, Faith and Kurt got. Everyone else is healthy again. This too shall pass.

With Quinn getting his first tooth, I've reflected again on something that has struck me in the past. Before I had kids, I heard all these stories of what it was like to have babies around the house, the things that just come with the territory. Here's a short list of some of those things that I haven't had to do in nearly five years and three kids.

• I've dealt with one ear infection.
• I haven't dealt with colic. If my kids are crying, I can almost always identify the cause.
  
• I can count the number of times each child has spit up.
• Putting things other than food in their mouths doesn't seem to be something that appeals to them.
• The only way I've noticed a new tooth is by seeing it. My kids don't show any symptoms of teething.

I'm not saying it to brag. I just find it interesting.

Happy birthday Miss Faith!
Faith had been talking about her birthday since last summer. But when I asked her first thing this morning how old she was, her immediate response was two. I told her she was now three. She protested, as most two- to three-year-olds do, until she realized the day had finally come. She'd been waiting for months and it was finally her birthday. She wanted to put on a fancy dress and a birthday hat. The closest thing we had was the cone-shaped hat from her dress-up set that you see in the picture. But that was good enough for her. And we made her cupcakes this morning, in super-duper strawberry pink. Waiting until Daddy came home from work to eat them was agonizing for both her and Dorian. But they held out, and I'm sure the reward for their patience was sweet.
Poor Quinn felt a bit left out.
I'm not sure what we're going to do for his birthday. Dorian and Faith each smushed around a cupcake for their first birthdays, but Quinn will be the equivalent of 9 months old, which just doesn't seem old enough to me to be eating cake. I still have about 5 weeks to figure this out. But on the other hand, we only have 5 weeks until Quinn's first birthday. That also means we only have about 5 more weeks of winter. Hallelujah! We definitely need some fresh air.

Illness has struck our family. Everyone but me has had the same respiratory complaints for going on two weeks. Dorian got it first. He woke up hoarse and coughing and spent the day curled up on the couch with a fever. The next day he was better. Then two days later, Faith and Quinn were both feverish, followed by coughing. Kurt too is stuffy. I'm ready for health to be restored.

Quinn being sick of course has me worried, especially with a respiratory illness. Our doctor isn't too concerned. I talked to her, and she confirmed what I thought, that there wasn't much that could be done for him with a viral infection. We're just watching and waiting. And really, other than the periodic coughing, he hasn't slowed down at all. He's just as energetic and alert as ever. I took this picture of him earlier this week.
That little booklet was sitting on the edge of the table. He pulled it off and began to "read" it, turning pages and everything. He can be an intense kid. But he's also a happy and social one.
And life is good.

Where oh where did the Fackrells go?

The short answer is nowhere. I've just felt like since my life is on eternal round right now (is that blasphemous?) that I didn't have much to report on anymore.

Let's see, uh, there's this:

He's not crawling yet, but he's up on hands and knees and rocking. And then, look out world!

There's this:
Kurt had a birthday February 4. And yes, that's a carton of ice cream with candles stuck in it. Kurt isn't a big cake fan, and decided he'd rather have just ice cream this year. Made my job easy. Faith's birthday is next, in 2 weeks.

And just for fun, there's this:
Among the things we've done to keep busy is to celebrate the season. These are heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, made by rolling in both edges, instead of just one. My sister Brittany passed that along to me, as well as a recipe for red play dough. For the last two days, Dorian and Faith have commandeered the kitchen table for use with this play dough and cookie cutters.

My mom came to visit about two weeks ago. It was fun to have Grandma time, and to go out and about a bit. Dorian and Faith and I got to almost resume our old ways, going to the library and out to lunch. And Kurt and I got to go on several dates. Real dates! It was amazing! And old man winter brought us a snowday for the occasion. My mom enjoyed that, since it's a novelty to her. The kids were sad to see her go. We're looking forward to summer and time with all grandparents and cousins.

In other news, I got Dorian registered for kindergarten last week. I'm still ambivalent about this. Our district just decided to go to full-day kindergarten, and I'm apparently in the minority of parents who are not happy about this. But more than anything, the process of getting him registered has emphasized the fact that I'm a little bit cracked after this past year of my life. After being expected to basically hand over a child to medical authority (which we didn't entirely do, but anyway) I actually have quite a bit of separation anxiety from any of my kids. And here again, I'm sort of expected to just let Dorian go for most of the day. And yes, I know I can be involved, volunteer in the classroom, do PTA, etc. But let's face it. This is a major change, and I don't think I'm handling it well. I've been a bit vocal in my disappointment at the change to full-day, and all that has really done is make me known to the school board. We haven't even started school there, and they know me. Of course, I have considered homeschooling. And to some degree, we've done that already. Dorian can read a little and count, though he's less keen on writing. And Faith knows a lot too, since she refuses to be left behind in anything. But for multiple reasons, I'm not convinced continuing with it is the right thing to do. Oh, the decisions to be made, and made soon.

Nothing much new going on. But no news is good news. We've had a couple of snow days this week, one where school was canceled, and one where church was canceled. We were climbing the walls by Sunday night, none of us having gone anywhere for a couple of days. The school closing affects us by canceling speech therapy for Dorian and physical therapy for Quinn. We're looking forward to better weather.

It's hard to believe this is the same baby we brought home from the hospital 6 months ago. He's come so far. Now, most people who don't know his history wouldn't guess it. He's a happy kid who loves his siblings, even when they can be overwhelming, and it's obvious he's anxious to be able to keep up with them. He can push up half of his body at a time, and it's only a matter of time before he'll get the coordination down to start crawling. Now that he's officially 6 months, we'll be starting solids soon. As it is, he's been reaching for my dinner for some time now. I think he's ready, though we'll definitely keep up the nursing for a good long time.

We're doing our best to enjoy the cold weather. Here's my intrepid winter explorer. That's the pond behind him. He had just come running from the neighbor's yard and ran across a corner of it, which just about made my heart stop. Maybe it's a lack of faith, or maybe it's having grown up in Los Angeles, but I can't quite grasp the concept of walking on water, frozen or otherwise.
Faith is much more cautious. There are good and bad points to that.
This next shot may not be for the squeamish. This is one reason I'm not so crazy about the cold. I've never been officially diagnosed, but I seem to fit the description of Raynaud's syndrome, where the cold triggers restriction or even cuts off circulation to my extremities. It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but I had a lovely episode this week, as you can see in my little finger. Pretty freakish, huh?
Have I mentioned I'm looking forward to spring?

Happy New Year! I don't think I'm alone in being glad that 2008 is at a close. I'm anxious to put it behind me and start over, in a couple of different ways.

We had a nice Christmas. My kids lacked for nothing. My siblings, led by my sister Kirstin, knew we wouldn't be going out too much to go shopping for gifts. So, the week before Christmas, two big boxes showed up at our house full of gifts and other Christmas items, such as this gingerbread house kit that we put together on Christmas Eve.

Now we're properly attired.
And of course, it must be sampled.
The masterpiece. It was tasty too.
Later that night, the kids opened their new pajamas.
Dorian and Faith loved their gifts on Christmas day. Faith's face here says it all.
We had a good Christmas, even when Quinn developed his first fever. It was nerve-wracking for me and miserable for him, but after 2 days, he was fine. We think it was something Kurt brought home from work, because the two of them had parallel symptoms.

Faith's quote of the week: This evening, after the sun went down, she and I were looking out the window at the moon and the evening star. She commented that the moon looked like a smile. Then I pointed out the star. She said "that's a planet." I told her she was right, that was Venus. Then she said "But where's Jupiter?" My budding astronomer remembers last month, when we were looking at this picture. Sometimes she frightens me with the things she comes up with to say.

Here's to a great and uneventful 2009.