Birthday Celebration and giving Thanks!

November is a crazy month for anyone as the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday approaches and then we have to throw in a birthday celebration as well.

Hard to believe, but on November 20th, Aiden turned 3. It still shocks me how quickly he's growing and each year I find it going by faster and I wish I had a magic stop watch. As always, Aiden's birthday celebration is a few days long due to family/thanksgiving/Keith typically working a college musical the weekend of his birthday. This year his birthday celebration started on the 19th, when my Mom invited us over to celebrate with my Aunt and cousins and their families. She threw a McQueen theme celebration and got him a cake. He loved his presents from his great Aunt & Uncle and cousins.

Then on his actual birthday, the 20th, we had a small kiddie party for him at Oasis Family Fun Center in Glen Mills. We invited his cousins (Natalie, Marc Jr., Rob, & Will) and then our close friends kids that are around his age. There was 12 kids all together. Oasis is an indoor jungle gym- it has soft blocks to build, ball pit, rock climbing wall, and games. I think everyone had a great time and the kids sure did get their exercise that day and a good night sleep that night.

Aiden's last celebration was on Thanksgiving, when we always celebrate his birthday with his grandparents, Aunts & Uncles and cousins. We host thanksgiving every year for both our parents & siblings. Our tradition is a pot luck dinner, we do the Turkey, the veggies, and then a dessert or side dish and then everyone else brings a side dish, rolls or dessert. We love the time together and always have fun. This year the Giosa/Donnelly Family is very thankful this year for support family, not one, but two babies coming in 2012 (for those that don't know Keith's brother & wife are expecting #3 in April) and the fact that medicine is so advance and can "help" our little Jonathan.

After dinner, we change from Thanksgiving to Aiden's birthday, have whatever he wants for dessert, this year it was his Aunt June's "cookie cake" aka cookie pie. He also gets to open his presents from his family.

Below are a few pics of Aiden's celebrations. We hope everyone had a wonderful and safe thanksgiving.

No Fibula, No Problem....

It's been a while since I "checked in", but things have been going well and been busy. I had a check up at 24 weeks and had gain 12lbs. Jonathan's heartbeat was 153 beats per minute and measuring well. I go for my 28 week check up this week...and then hard to believe I start going every 2 weeks. This pregnancy has been flying by and I'm still shocked that I will most likely be meeting my little one in 12 weeks. Tomorrow I'm going to go for my glucose test...always a fun time.

We also had our consultation with the doctor at DuPont and it was just a wonderful meeting and uplifting. Her name is Dr. L. Reid Nichols and she was trained by the best. She did her residency and fellowship at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, which is top notch (at least on the east coast) for limb length and Fibula Hemimelia, which is Jonathan's condition. She really put us at easy and talked us through the steps he'd undergo. She was all about one step at a time, focusing on what will be first in caring for him at the early part of life and not worrying about the surgeries and procedures in years to come. Dr. Nichols encouraged me to stay in touch through the rest of my pregnancy with her and provided me her email. She also said she would visit me after I deliver, just to meet Jonathan.

He will start his treatment about a week after birth, the first part would be a cast for 5-8 weeks depending on how bad is club foot is and then he'll be in a brace. He'll need to wear the brace for 3 months straight for 23 hours and then just need to wear it at nap and bedtime. The brace trains the foot (molds the foot since it's so malleable at birth) to be position right.

Again, we thank everyone for their continued thoughts and prayers.

Trick or Treat and Halloween Fun.

Aiden really took to trick or treating this year, especially when he caught on to the whole getting candy. He dressed up as Wall-e (a beloved Robot from a Disney/Pixar movie from a few years ago that Aiden is obsessed with).

On Sunday, we took him to the Exton Mall and met up with his cousins Natalie and Marc (as well as Aunt June) for the Halloween Festivities. Unfortunately it wasn't that great- within the 20 mins the stores were out of candy and the whole things was a bust, but Aiden very much enjoyed the freedom of walking around the mall and hanging out with his cousins.

Monday night, Keith and I decided we were going to take Aiden to a few houses in our neighborhood and see how it goes, especially since it was cold. By the 4th house, Aiden was super excited looking for people who had their lights on (we told them that's the people given out candy), couldn't wait to see all the kids that were dressed up, and of course get candy. He didn't even think about the concept of eating candy, he just liked putting his hand in the bowl and putting a bunch of goodies in his pumpkin. He managed to fill the pumpkin and we were out for a little over an hour.

Keith and I couldn't believe how much fun it was this year and how much he loved it. Sadly, most of the candy he got, he isn't going to be able to enjoy as they contain nuts or are made on a nut plant, but luckily we got some back ups. We hope everyone enjoyed their kids as much as we did!