What is that?

Since late October, we have been trying to figure out why Hudson's right hand and forearm repeatedly and spontaneously swell.  We went through several tests at the East Tennessee Children's Hospital trying to get answers.  He had a chest x-ray, ultrasound on his arm, echo of his heart, and an MRI of his chest and arm.  All of the results were normal, which was a little reassuring since it meant that he didn't have any tumors or problems with his heart that were causing the swelling.  However, his hand/arm continued to swell and we still didn't have any answers.  Just before Christmas, we were referred to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It was early February before we were able to get an appointment with their pediatric vascular surgeon.  We went to Cincinnati fully expecting to be told that Hudson needed surgery, but we were relieved to have them officially diagnose his problem as congenital lymphedema, a problem that will be ongoing but only requires him to wear a compression glove/sleeve.  This is something he will have to wear for the foreseeable future, but he doesn't seem to mind it at all.  He still uses his right hand like there is nothing on it...and that means the glove is nasty by the end of the day since it has been on the floor when he's crawling, in his mouth (oftentimes right after a spoonful of baby food has gone into his mouth), and everywhere else.

Baylor and Hudson both had their first real illness last week.  Hudson ran a fever all weekend and spent 2 days lying on top of me.  He was better by the end of the second day, so when Baylor started a fever on Monday we didn't take him to the doctor right away.  Since we had just been through it with Hudson, we just expected it to last a couple of days and then he'd be better.  But when I stripped Baylor down for his bath Tuesday night (the end of the second day and fever-free as expected), I noticed he had a lot of little red bumps on his arms and legs.  I put some ointment on them after his bath, but when he woke up the next morning they were worse and more prolific.  I took him to the doctor the next afternoon and Dr. Swabe said he had quite the case of Hand, Foot, Mouth disease.  Since it's a virus, there was nothing we could do for him--we just had to wait it out.  The poor little guy looked like a leper for a few days, but he stayed in good spirits.  I'm sure that is what Hudson had, too, but for whatever reason he didn't really get the rash.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Griffin and I both had school since Valentine's Day was on a Tuesday.  He knew he didn't get to open his present or get his special Valentine's treat until after school, but he requested a "special breakfast" that morning.  His breakfast is always a peanut butter sandwich so I cut it out in the shape of a heart to make it special.

Not only was it Valentine's Day, but it was also the babies' 10-month birthday.  When I got home from work, I changed the babies into their little sweater outfits because I wanted to try to get a cute picture of all of my boys together.  Of course, getting two newly-mobile babies to sit still and smile is hard enough, but add a 4-year old to the mix and it's near impossible! 

While I couldn't get a cute posed picture of all of them, I did manage to get a few pictures of the babies showing off some of their new skills.  Since my last post when the babies turned 9-months old, Baylor has gotten very good (and fast!) at crawling. He has also been pulling up and is starting to cruise a little.  Hudson has also gotten the hang of crawling on all fours, and apparently started doing some yoga on Valentine's Day with this version of a down dog (the only day I've seen this trick from him).

After visits from Weezy and Mimi, we had dinner all together (the babies had already had their dinner, but they enjoyed some Cheerios and puffs while we ate) and then the boys opened their gifts.  Griffin got Siddley the Spy Plane from Cars 2, and Baylor and Hudson got an Elmo peek-a-boo book.