March 2011

Hi, We're seven months old!

We've been doing a lot of growing and getting stronger this month! Christopher is now sixteen and a half pounds, and Katharine is thirteen pounds! We've had lots of fun playing in our gyms and exercising with Mommy and Daddy and spending time on our tummies.

We can push all the way up on our arms and look all around the room, which is a pretty neat perspective for us! We like to hold and touch things and move them around to see what they do. We can reach lots of things, and love to see how things feel by sticking them in our mouths. Christopher has even learned to do this with his feet!

We can roll from our backs to our tummies, and sometimes from our tummies to our backs. And we are starting to learn to roll over and over toward something we want to see closer.

And we love to play games with Mommy and Daddy! We like tickling games for our tummies, chins, and noses. And we like to practice sitting up and standing while Mommy and Daddy hold our hands. We're not quite ready to sit up yet, but love practicing it in our bumbo seats.

We've also been learning a lot about sleep! When we started turning over this month, we had to start to learn to sleep without our cozy sleepsacks. This has been challenging sometimes, but it is getting easier. Mommy and Daddy are great about helping us get back to sleep when we have trouble, and we're remembering to take naps during the day so we can be happy and have fun.

What a busy month we've had! And when we're not napping or exercising, we've been going on walks with Mommy and Daddy, on outings to the store or to playgroups, and just hanging out together. We're starting to really enjoy looking at each other and playing together. And sometimes it makes us sad when our brother or sister is sad!

You can see new photos of all our fun by copying and pasting this link into your browser

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=8433993930105%3A1772796618&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee


And if you didn't hear already, we are in training to walk in the March of Dimes March For Babies this May! Check out our information and video, and find a link to donate or walk with us in our "March For Babies" post.


Thanks for checking in!

Love,

Christopher and Katharine

March For Babies

Friends and Family,

We would like to share with you our plans to walk in the March of Dimes "March For Babies" this May.

If you are a regular visitor to our blog, then you are probably familiar with the story of how our family grew this year, with much time spent at Fairfax Hospital. If you are a new visitor, please feel free to read our early posts, beginning last summer, when Andrea was admitted to the hospital.

Our family is so grateful for the doctors and nurses at INOVA Fairfax and Fair Oaks, who cared for our family before and after our kids were born. We feel blessed to be able to say that our little ones are healthy and happy at home with us! We walk in gratitude for their work and for the emotional support we received from the March of Dimes, and we walk in honor of all families touched by a baby in need of miracles. Thank you for helping these miracles happen!

We are signed up with the Inova Fairfax Hospital Center NICU Team. You can visit our pages to get more information or make a donation if you would like to contribute. Here is their site...

http://www.marchforbabies.org/s_team_page.asp?seid=1480669

We are signed up as "David and Christopher Keller" and "Andrea and Katharine Keller", so we have two pages.


Also, the kids are included in a photo tribute created by a nurse to kickoff this event. Here's a link to paste in your browser:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=d6f464f3add9f6576587df&skin_id=1602&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=email



And finally, here is some additional information about the organization and the event:

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. I'm walking in March for Babies because I want to do something about this. And I need your help.

Please support my walk. Making a secure donation is easy: just click the 'donate now' button on this page. Thank you for helping me give all babies a healthy start!

The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Your gift will support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.


Thank you, with love,

Katharine, Christopher, David, and Andrea