The Wilkinson Family Blog: December 2014

About a week ago I said to myself that I really should do a blog post before Christmas, because otherwise this post would be crazy long. Well, I didn't and it's going to be. So be forewarned.

I'll get the medical stuff out of the way first. As you all know, Grady had surgery to attempt to fix his kidney reflux this month. The plan was for the urologist to go in, take the two ureters that Grady has on his right side, and squish them (medical term) further down into the bladder. However, when the doctor operated, this is what he found.

Normal on the bottom, Grady's on the top

He helpfully commented afterwards that even if we had asked him absolute worst case what he would find when he operated, he would not have come up with all that went wrong with Grady's bladder. One of the things - one of the double ureters splitting off again into two - he had only seen one other time in his entire career. Although he thinks he successfully repaired the bladder, it took about three hours and at that time decided that was enough for one day. So as things are, Grady's reflux is worse than when we started. We are looking at one more surgery at least, although not until summer at the earliest. Of course this was not the news we wanted. The recovery was pretty quick (about a week) but brutal nonetheless and we are not looking forward to having to go through it again. We were very fortunate to have my dad come out and stay with us for about a week during the surgery. This was especially fortunate for Matt, Clara, and Theo, who otherwise may have had to have cereal for dinner for a few nights.

On to more fun stuff.

December with kids is basically one big lead up to Christmas. Pre-Christmas activities included making cookies, gingerbread houses, and elf paintings.

Yeah it's an elf. What about it.

So. Delicious.

Gingerbread fun with Grady's first friend, Rose

Perfect!

And what Christmas would be complete without our annual wagon ride to the Christmas tree lot to pick out a tree and get our holiday photo taken?

Dinosaur parade

Clara: "Is Theo eating the branches? Oh. He is."

So joyful.

So, so joyful.

Well, one out of two missions accomplished.

The kids were really excited to get the tree decorated. And themselves as well.

Theo perhaps was not quite as excited

Safety first

Theo got to choose his first ornament, which was a mouse. He only needed a tiny bit of help getting it onto the tree.

Of course, for the kids, the real magic of Christmas is fostering the spirit of giving. And by giving I mean others giving. To them. So they were pretty excited about the massive pile of Christmas gifts.

Obligatory pre-Christmas present opening photo

Santa gifts: A snake for Grady and a robot for Clara. Santa, um, forgot Theo this year. Oops.

Santa got it right!

You mean there's something inside?

Yes, we got Theo a spatula, a honey stick, and a pacifier for Christmas. You a got a problem with that?

The kids were totally spoiled by their East Coast relatives (and us) with books, art supplies, French music, and other cool gifts. They were so, so excited. It was actually very sweet to see.

After Christmas at home, we all packed up for the three hour flight to Tucson to visit Nana, Grandpa without a mustache, Uncle Gavin, Uncle Cliff, Aunt Susie, and cousin Brandon. The kids were really well behaved on both flights, staying relatively well amused with movies, iPhone apps, and 35,000 calories worth of snack food. Hey, whatever it takes.

Tucson was wonderful, as always. Grandpa and Nana made some wonderful meals, we got to see lots of family, including Aunt Dawn and Uncle Peter, took some walks/jogs, enjoyed the sun, played a bit of golf and - of course - the hot tub. We knew Grady would like the hot tub, but the big surprise was how much Theo loved it!

The kids got treated to a second round of presents as well. (The grownups did a Secret Santa and Yankee Swap this year, which turned out great.) The kids were psyched to get so many new books, an electronic dinosaur, and some playdough supplies, among other treasures.

Grandpa was nice enough to take us all to the desert museum again this year. Grady was super excited about the snakes, given his recent acquisition from Santa. Clara seemed to like the frogs. Theo was especially excited about the mountain lion ("CAT?!?"). Grady was especially delighted to have scared someone who thought his snake was a real one.

Yeah yeah yeah, but look at my snake!

Bear spotting

It was also especially nice to have the kids get to know cousin Brandon a bit better. He and Theo are only a few months apart, but Brandon seems like such a big kid! He's cruising around like a pro and has quite a bit to say. Theo can keep up with him on the food front, though.

And what visit to Tucson would be complete without a little game of Off Like a Shot with Grandpa?

Details on the kids this month -

Grady's big news was the surgery of course. He has been off school for close to a month, and claims to have forgotten all his French. He has been in good spirits, loves to teach Clara about the world (e.g., all robots come in cans and live in outerspace), and is happy to be back to running around. His favorite activity right now is drawing. He's very careful about staying in the lines and is working on perfecting a few of his favorite drawings - dragon, sunset, and dinosaurs. He is sounding out some words now, and is pleased with himself when he can spell things out.

Clara is really into imaginative play. She and Grady have a good thing going right now, and can play together for hours. She is still tentatively moving away from diapers - veeeery tentatively. She sings songs constantly, wanders where she wills, and refuses to learn anything except by doing. She is awesome.

Theo is getting pretty fast at scooting, is sitting himself up on his own, can out-eat me, and is trying his hand at pulling up.

He is now making "jokes," claps, and is babbling up a storm. In addition to cat, he seems to be saying "done," and occasionally "dog," but it's hard to tell for sure. His sleeping is getting better - about half the time he's sleeping through the night, the other half we have a wakeup in the 3-5 am range.