Bringing Home Bryant: Happy New Year or April Fools ?

It may seem like an April Fools joke - Heather blogging again. No it's no joke. It is really me and yes I am so behind that I am pretending it is January when I left my blogging behind. So Happy New Year's to all.

A quick summary of the past few months. Here goes. We had an awesome Christmas and New Year. The kids were spoiled rotten of course. Lots of electronics and riding toys. Bryant was so fired up about his Spider man bike. He learned to ride it on Christmas Day. He may lose the training wheels way before Amelia. Right after Christmas on January 5th we had a big surprise. Caroline Elizabeth, my new niece was born. She surprised us all by coming four weeks early. She is so cute and sweet. We are all so in love with her. She has been prayed for for so long. Now that she is here I see how good God really is. After Caroline's birth, we took a trip to the mountains with friends. The kids went hiking for the first time. They all made it to the top of the mountain. They went snow tubing and had a blast. When we returned we had lots of snow and the kids (including the biggest one Jeff) loved it. We had so much snow we were actually snowed in our house. We went sledding, rode the four wheeler, roasted marshmallows, and watched old movies. We have had tons of family fun this winter.

Sara Kathryn started gymnastics season and is competing at a much higher level. She has had a pretty good season. Even better we have had some great girl time traveling to meets together. Macie made a travel soccer team and has been competing this spring season. Each of the girls are practicing 3 to 4 times a week with games or meets on the weekends. Now you can see why my blogging has ceased. Amelia is playing soccer again too and Jeff is coaching her team. They won their first game and she scored the first goal of the season.

Bryant has been busy growing this winter. Yes you heard me right. He is growing. In January we visited a new Pediatric Gastro doctor and he diagnosed Bryant with a milk allergy. We took him off all dairy including milk protein, whey etc. We also changed the formula he is getting to an amino acid based allergy free formula. Since January he has put on over 2 pounds and grown an inch. This is all while consuming fewer calories than he had been on the old formula. I seem to think he was not absorbing the calories due to the milk allergy. He also has not been telling us he feels like he is going to choke. The doctor thinks his esophagus was inflamed due to the milk as well. We return next month to see what our next step will be. So far the doctor is very happy with his growth. He has also suggested we do a scope and biopsy of his stomach and intestines. Right now he weighs 26.5 lbs and around 35 1/2 inches tall. I believe he is around the 1st or 2nd percentile. I am ecstatic he is back on the growth charts. More importantly he has felt much better. I really think we are heading in the right direction.

Hope to be a better blogger in the future. Thanks for being patient with me.

Happy New Year to all of you! Ha Ha