Now I know where the script from National Lampoons vacation came from…ahh, Christmas has come and gone and it was beautiful and wonderful and it’s hard to find the kids in the midst of all the new toys that they have gotten. Things have slowed down to a tiresome pace since we moved to the third of January. We are back in lock down mode so we have had a pretty low key Christmas. All Winslows 24-7 has led to some interesting altercations between Lulu and Gavs.

Our last outing was Lauren’s Christmas concert to see her on stage with her little classmates. I think she may have only learned three words to each song, but she loved being up there. And really, is there anything cuter than three rows of Rudolph hats looking back at you?! Santa came after their show, and her eyes got as big as Reese’s peanut butter cups with delight. On our way home, I told her that I couldn’t believe Santa had made such a trip so close to Christmas, and that they must have a great class. She then assured me not to worry, Santa is not so busy, it’s the elves that are working like crazy. Apparently, she has decided that Santa is more in the PR, delivery management sector, which allows his appropriate face time with children immediately prior to his visit. He is in essence “the man” in a big red suit. Her favorite gift was her number one request, her harp (like every other four yr old out there, she too had a harp on her list—-who asks for that, only Lulu!)

We have put Gav on a rigorous exercise program prior to transplant. He is into sit ups (rotate arms on back of head back and forth and move Buddha belly side to side) and Hi-ya kicks…it’s all so very official. We are thinking of putting a sweat band on him and making a toddler exercise video…look out Baby Einstein. His hair is actually beginning to become too long for his mohawk which has put me at a crossroads. I do enjoy his mohawk (probably more than I should) but I would hate to cut his hair…which puts him at where he is now, a bad baby comb over…but I think that we are going to bear through it and let it grow out (Jay does not agree with this) and see if he gets his curls like his sister…I figure if I let him have a mohawk now, and then long hair, he can do little to shock me in the future (I’m going to regret that)…

Jay and I are recovering from the 46 sugar cookies that we ate over Christmas (and when I say 46 I really mean 117.75) and are just trying to make it through each day…we did take Gavin in today and his labs have been the worst that his have ever been. We have made the appropriate changes, and hopefully we will see the results that we need on Jan 2nd to proceed with his transplant. They do believe that it is possible to get everything in place, just more dialysis and shots and food changes…but on the upside, his liver enzymes were good, so we just need to boost his hemoglobin quick, especially to avoid a transfusion which will complicate things. Well, I better get to my gift from Santa this year, five empty photo albums for about three years of photos backed up onto Shutterfly, that I still have yet to order… the curse of the digital camera…

Jill

So we have been playing roulette with Gav’s transplant dates… We went from Dec 28th, to Jan 17th, to Jan 31st to Feb 21 and now, we are finally set on January 3, 2008. We had to make some more adjustments, apparently there was a misunderstanding, and we will still be doing an open nephrectomy so we were juggling surgeons schedules (imagine trying to coordinate two operating rooms, three surgeons and two specialists).

I have been having some anxiety with transplant since now I have seen my organs in 3D (which all the medical people think is so cool, but is freaky when you see your organs rotating on screen, “as if they cut me and I was looking up through my feet”) and they told me that I most likely will be losing a rib on my right side (very Hollywood). More anxiety piled on top of that when they showed me that Gav will have an incision all the way vertically down his chest – so there’s been some sleepless nights.

I can’t believe that we have to do all of this to make him healthy. It just seems so bizarre because when I see him, I don’t think of how sick he really is. I see this little bubbly, cuddly, happy baby. I feel like everyone must be crazy (but as usual, everyone is sane, I’m just crazy). It was the first time that I ever started crying in a doctor’s office since he was in the NICU, when all the transplant information came at me like someone was throwing tomatoes at me. It just has to happen this time, I just can’t take another bump, I just want him to feel good, if we have to do this, then let’s do it!

Gav has been trying so hard to stand. He has gotten himself into a pike position but can’t quite balance that belly to stand up independently (he can stand by pushing off of objects or people). I love that he is in the stage where any kind of “Boo Boo” can be fixed with Mama’s kiss. He would crawl through the whole room for a kiss on his “Boo Boo” and then instantly, he is okay. That and Beyonce’ he loves that perfume commercial (but who doesn’t love a little Beyonce’ in their lives?) He is obsessed with helping me with the laundry and is fascinated when he sees the water pour in, one of these days he might tip himself right in there. He currently has a sinus infection and may have renal rickets (a bone disease that should remedy itself post transplant) and has been complaining about wrist pain. Every time that he sees Santa he says “Ho, Ho”. (I’ve tried to get him to the ho, ho, ho – but he won’t do the third, perfectionism I know on my part, but it’s just not the same without the third). Christmas has brought back the word “mine” to his vocab and he has to make sure that Lauren knows what is his…it’s great because he has an awesome new pouty face that I like to watch when he has to share.

Lauren on the other hand is having some restless nights “because I can’t get Christmas out of my head” (insert two hands on head and her trying to shake it out). We went to get her hair cut before transplant because Jay can manage a pony tail, but that’s where it ends so we wanted to make it simple for everyone. It was her first haircut ever and the hairdresser treated her like a princess (now we have many requests for a little pamperin’ at the salon). Most mom’s have first hair cut bags with little wisps, I have a baggie with like a five inch strand of curly hair.

She has been wonderful through Gav’s vomiting (it’s been heavy and frequent again unfortunately), one night when he started at 2:30 a.m. she stood straight up in bed (of course she had snuck in by us), threw her hands out and told Jay and I not to worry, “I’m a professional” and went to go get us towels and help out. I can tell that she is getting hip to all this medical stuff now. She needs things “stat” and any question that Jay and I can’t answer she tells us “to call the Dr. on call”.

Thank you all for all of your prayers, we will need them once again on the 3rd. We feel so blessed to have yet another Christmas all together and know how lucky we are. Thank you for your support, 2008 is going to be yet another miracle for our family, may you find yours as well!

Happy Holiday hugs from the Winslows