Beginning of Dec

Click on the picture below to see more pics of us getting ready for Christmas!

Abby's MRI and Getting ready for Christmas

Abby had another MRI in the beginning of Dec. The news was promissing from the neurosurgeon. While there is still not a lot of room for spinal fluid to flow around her brain... the MRI showed no build-up of fluid... so that's good. He also saw that her brain stem (which had been sinking down past her 2nd vertabrate prior to surgery) has receeded and now is at the 1st vertabrate. That's good too. He doesn't think she'll need to have another sleep study or MRI until next Dec. That's good!! He is referring us to another doctor to address her hyperactive gag reflex... but he doesn't consider the gag to be so problematic that he would need to do more surgery... It's hard not to worry, but I am trying to relax and put it out of my mind.

One cute thing, is that Dr. Jane told Abby she could try to go on bigger amusement park rides and that it would be fine for her to play soccer. She was so excited at this news, that she kissed her own hand and touched it to the top of her head! She was congratulating herself! We celebrated our 13 anniversary, had a quick visit from Grandpa and Grandpa Mac last week and we've been busy getting ready for Christmas! We hope you have a great one!

Thanksgiving

Baltimore Harbor

National Aquarium

A Heelen hug

The next generation of Heelen boys...

Have "Bouncy Ball" will travel...

We spent Thanksgiving in MD w/ Patrick's family. We had Thanksgiving dinner w/ Pops, Nana and Sean and Carley at an Irish Restaurant in Davidsonville. We've been there for a few other Thanksgiving dinners so it's become a sort of tradition... The kids were well behaved, TG... and it was nice to see them interacting w/ their cousins.

Abby's been into dolphins lately, and we wanted to take the kids to the aquarium since we'd never been there w/ them. We got tickets for 5:00 pm for the Friday after Thanksgiving since the tickets only cost $5.00... It was awfully cold, and Abby was REALLY tired since she never naps for us... but she perked up enough so that the visit wasn't a total bust! I rented a back back even though she is getting so big... she was too tired to walk around that much, and it was packed w/ people, so I think it helped her feel safer. She enjoyed walking on the harbor and seemed to like the dolphin show even though the rest of us felt it was a bit of a let down... We plan on trying Port Discovery, the Baltimore children's museum soon.