November 2012

The holiday season has arrived!

November was a mix of family drama and wonderful family time!   Much of the month was marked by trips to the doctor and the hospital.  Katharine had a rare infection that took a week to identify, and then another week to treat in the hospital.  While she had a lot of not-so-fun tests and procedures, she is thankfully walking and playing normally again.  And by the first week of November, she’ll be finished with her daily antibiotics.

Many medical visits this month at gave us more opportunities to have some more one-on-one time than usual (i.e. Mommy-Son; Daddy-Daughter, Daddy-Son, Mommy-Daughter time).  Daddy and Christopher got to do a night hike to check out the lights at Meadowlark, while Mommy and Katharine had lots of time to make turkeys with all the craft supplies and time on hand in the hospital “child-life” playroom; and ride the escalators (“alligators”) with glee.  Daddy and Katharine got lots of cuddling in during some of her more procedure filled days, as well as some playing in the child life room and outdoor play area.  And Mommy and Christopher got to go on some fun trips to the grocery store, and to get some fun new toys to take to Katharine; his first rides in a grocery cart!

This extra one-on-one time gave us an opportunity to tell Mom and Dad exactly what we think about things. Katharine showed off her expanding vocabulary and sentence-building skills “No, I want that door open, Mommy”.  And Christopher began to share his ideas more, “I see sun”, “I see kids”, “I want this one”, or "No, THIS milk".

We also discovered how much we rely on one another. While Katharine was focused on getting better and had lots of time to spend with Mommy or Daddy at the hospital, Christopher had to deal with everyday life without her.  Going to school, eating dinner, even going to bed at night was much harder without Katharine to share in it.  And we were very thankful to be back together when we woke up together again one morning.  What fun we had that day, playing, chasing, and giggling!  It was a few days before we again realized the frustration of sharing toys and games.  :)

For Thanksgiving, we had several wonderfully quiet days at home together.  We played with our new toys (mostly new blocks and stuffed friends that Katharine brought home from the hospital), and lots of fun new books from our Grandmas and Grandpas.  We colored and played with stickers, went to the Meadowlark Walk Of Lights, and went out to dinner at Clyde’s and saw the Reston Chorale at the Christmas tree lighting.  We also had lots of fun together on a family outing to Target to pick out lights for the house and soft ornaments for the tree. We pulled up our chairs to watch Daddy decorate the deck and porch - SO neat! And we had lots of fun helping Mommy hang our cute new ornaments on the tree.

 We hope you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving, and can't wait to see our loved ones in Ohio at Christmas time!

Enjoy our November photo gallery from Flickr!

Love, 

Katharine and Christopher