Christmas

We had a great Christmas on Dec. 27th! Presents, food, and fun! We are having fondue tonight for New Years Eve!

An special suprise and a long trip

John, Luca, and I had a long trip to NC. We flew to Porland at 8 am, then we waited in Portland for 7 hours because of the Chicago snow. Then we spend the night at Heather's house and got to meet baby Matthew and see Harmony' s new home! It was wonderful to see them but we were pretty tired by the time we arrived to NC the next day at 11 am. Luca did a fantastic job throughout the whole trip!

Merry Christmas

This is my Christmas card this year- Merry Christmas to all! I hope that your holiday rime brings warmth, joy, and special times with family and friends.
Our plans are celebrating Christmas with my (Katie's) family in NC on Dec. 27th. We fly out on the 26th and come back on Jan. 11th. John and I are giving each other a special gift of a trip this year and are going to Mexico from Jan. 1-Jan. 8th. My parents are also giving us a wonderful gift of watching Luca the week we are there! I'll post some holiday pictures as soon as we take them in our late Christmas celebration. John works on the 25th and I work at church on the 24th. Luca and I are going up to Mari Becker's house for the 25th.

The house

Needs a lot of work but it is going to be a great place to call home!

Luca

New House

Sorry for my lack of posts lately, amist the typical Christmas business, we bought house and moved yesterday. A huge thanks to Evan Smith, Josh Golden, Rebecca Koo, Kimi Tysuchi, and Janet Gregory! Also Mari cleaning the new place and her and Trisha packing us up, Alicia and Megan Dobraz helped us pack too. Anne Gregory watched Luca for the moving day which was super helpful too! Here are a few pictures of the new house. John made a fire last night and he, Luca and I had a cozy first night as a family.

Luca and his mama

Luca is looking like such a little boy and working on putting weight on his feet.

Mr. Blue Eyes

Jess took a great picture of Luca yesterday. He still has very beautiful blue eyes.

Other updates: his AFO's are fitting better and his feet look much better. We are thankful for that.
He will need to have his left foot (leg) casted again sometime as it is still not totally straight. Maybe in the new year.
Luca is learning to play with his feet and also had swimming lessons this week. He has 6 lessons in three weeks. They are group lessons for kids 0-4 years old to just get them use to the water. He loves kicking and being in the heated pool. It has been a lot of fun.
The weather has been cold and sunny around Seattle. We are enjoying the change from the typical rain. It really feels like winter and Christmas.

First Christmas Present

Luca got his first advent calendar all the way from Germany and it has yummy chocolates in it. He is a little too young for the chocolates but he sure loves eating the box. We are enjoying the advent season despite the business.

Luca

Bath time

Raclette dinner

Sat. night we had a relaxing evening eating raclette, (a swiss cheese melted on potatoes) and hanging out together. We are going to have to plan another time together soon. Thanks again for coming and we are glad you made it on the blog:)

I like to read

Luca got a train book from Great Grandma Bev and he sure loves to read. He was taking a little break from his AFO's and had foot-in pajamas on for the first time. I think they look pretty cute:)

Quality time with the Godfather

Nothing to add to that, the pictures speak for themselves.

Luca couldn't be happier!

I have never seen Luca smile so much in one weekend. He was so happy to have Jeremy and Kristin in town.

Thanksgiving Day

On Thanksgiving, we headed over to Andy and Jamie's house for some wonderful food and fellowship. The pictures from top to bottom- Luca getting his Thanksgiving meal with Aunt Kristin, the wonderful grams Nancy Witt with Luca- he sure loves her, the beautiful table arrangement, and John, Kristin and Jeremy having a great time!

Thanksgiving with the Jones

We have been having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with Jeremy and Kristin Jones. Don't worry the pictures are coming soon. Hope every one is having a wonderful weekend. Jeremy and Kristin have been giving John and I the royal treatment by letting us sleep in two mornings in a row and hanging out with Luca! We have also been around the city (thanks to the Lanes and Mari for babysitting Luca) If you know Seattle we made it to Queen Anne, West Seattle, Downtown- Pike Place, Eastlake boat houses, Wallingford, Greenlake, Ballard, Magnolia (fisherman's terminal and Chinook's), Fremont, and Capital Hill all in one day!!!

Another parent's persective

I read this and thought I just had to post it. It was written by a mom who has a three year old son, named Owen with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita.
She has also made a documentary coming out in Jan. of AMC. Can't wait to watch it.

As a parent of a child with arthrogryposis, I know how frightening those 3 words can be the first time you learn them.

I know how your emotions and self-doubt can get the best of you. How you can spend hours questioning what you did or what you could have done differently. The blur of the first year of back to back appointments with therapists, orthopedic doctors, geneticists, insurance claims departments and more.

Now three years later, I also know that it is okay to feel scared, too question if you are doing the right thing or the wrong thing or the not enough thing.

I know that for every ignorant comment someone will make, 10 other people will stop to tell me how beautiful my child is and how lucky I am.

I know that life will never be calm (let's be honest I have 3 boys, that is NEVER going to happen) but it slows down.

I know that you will find strength when you never thought you had it. You will find faith because you need to believe. You will love and cherish the smallest milestone because our kiddos have overcome amazing odds. (We were told to consider our options with Owen. That he wouldn't live a week after being born, that he would be a vegetable.)

I learned that doctors don't know everything. I learned to trust my instincts and find the best doctors for Owen, no matter what it takes.

I also have had the opportunity to interview more than 40 families to date. Some are adults with AMC, others are young adults or parents with small children. For all the information out there about AMC, there is plenty of insight only those in the community get to hear.
I am looking forward to the movie coming out in Jan. You'll have to watch it too:)

Ready for winter

Luca got this snow suit at the MOPS Swap last March and it is going to keep him warm this winter! The days are getting darker, wetter, and colder but we are staying dry and warm. I think he is going to like seeing snow whenever it falls.
He was out of his AFO's the last 24 hours to heal his purplebruised skin. The skin has healed and the AFO's are back on. We are going to take one last trip to Children's this week (today) to have his AFO's refitted to make sure his heal is down in them.

Bruised, regressed, disappointed

Well, another visit to Children's today. Luca's feet have bruising, and are already beginning to regress and curl in even with using the AFO's 23 1/2 hours a day. Luca and I will have to go again tomorrow because Dr. Mosca was not available today. We may go back into casts, or plan surgery? Not quite sure what the next step will be. Luca sure does look cute in shoes though. We tried some on just for fun for a few mins.

Luca in a basket

Jess found a little basket for Luca to get pushed around the living room in. He loved it. He is also reading a book in Dutch. Got to love it.

My new boots (AFO's)