I must admit that I have become extremely lax about posting on here. What you can read into that is that things are pretty quiet and somewhat routine around the Lepp house. For the most part that is true...and that is great news.
So here is a quick update on what's going on:
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Thanksgiving weekend - On our way home from
Pelican Lake....very very quiet! |
Thanksgiving - We had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend. We hosted the Thanksgiving dinner for the Kusela clan on Saturday. It was a low-key event (which is our style) that was relaxing and the weather was fairly nice too. The kids were able to play outside and enjoy a bit of fresh air. On Sunday...we packed up the kids and headed to Pelican Lake, to my brother's cabin where we had the Lepp Thanksgiving dinner. Yes turkey and pie...two days in a row. Was feeling a bit like a stuffed turkey after that. In spite of a lot of activity I think we were able to relax. The drive was very enjoyable. On the way home both kids were "zonked" out. We did not hear a peep from the back seat the whole trip. I think they had a good time.
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| Nicole on her first day of school |
School - Nicole is absolutely "psyched" about school. She really looks forward to going and is really enjoying herself. Nicole has always been a little "iffy" about new things. It has always taken her a bit of time to adjust. This has not been the case with school. She has adjusted amazingly well. My only issue is that she doesn't tell us a whole lot about what is going on at school. I think maybe its Dad being a little bit "nosey." Perhaps, it is a lot to expect a detailed synopsis of the day's activities from a 5 year old. I guess we'll see how it goes when we go to parent-teacher interviews.
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| The evil grin |
Russell - The boy has been doing really well. Very steady progress with him. He is still living on a diet of Rice Krispies and Peach Juice...but we're working on it. We are now having a child development person come to our house and work with him. They want to work on a lot of his "delayed" issues. Eating, speech, and any other issue that they think he may be lagging. We have had a few visits, and the consensus us that is doing very well on his own. Russell is probably one of the least complicated cases they have to deal with as I can imagine they deal with some very complex kids who may have autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, or other challenges. They just want to help Russell pick up the pace and getting him to where a 3 year old should be. Developmentally he is ideal fora 2 year old...unfortunately he is 3. Medically, Russell is putting up some stellar bloodwork numbers...very happy about that. We have been having to give Russell a shot every two weeks to help with anemia. Because of his improved bloodwork numbers we have been able to discontinue giving the shot. You don't know how happy we are about that...it totally sucks to have to give your kid a shot.
- Our neglected member of the family has developed her own issues. She developed a fairly nasty rash. We have been trying to treat this since spring without much luck. This week I took her into the vet again and we are now thinking it is a food allergy. So we have her on hypoallergenic food and she is back on anti-biotics and some prednisone. I guess you can't be a member of this family and not be on some meds. We give Nicole vitamins just so she doesn't feel left out at "Med time."
I guess the only people I haven't talked about are the Mom and Dad. The Mom and Dad celebrated our 19 years together on Oct 3. 19 years and we still bicker and argue like champs. You think one of us would have caved by now. I guess we are both stubborn. Oct 3 is also our 3 year anniversary of Russell arriving in Edmonton under very adverse conditions. That was a bit of a challenging week for me. It's a significant memory to me but it doesn't hold a lot of significance to Susan. She always says her big anniversary is the day of Russell's transplant. I guess we all process things differently.
I think we're all up to date now....
