My baby's getting big!!!

An evening out at the Hershey Bears game....oh what a way to spend Valentine's Day:)

OK, he is the cutest Valentine ever, SO excited opening his bag of goodies from his friends!

What is better than a Valentine present from Mom-Mom???

Matthew worked SO hard on his very first Valentine's....

Making pizza after a snowy day....

This is how he really feels about snow!!!

Matthew LOVES watching his Daddy in the snow!!!!

He was full of squeals for his Daddy!

The second 2 feet of snow in one week.....enough already!!!!

Matthew's favorite sign....car, Mommy!!!!














It is hard for me to realize that I have not posted anything since Feb.2nd....so much has happened since then, and time has just flown by. I was looking through pictures of Matthew that I took since then, and I cannot believe how big my baby is getting.....he is certainly not a baby anymore. He is growing up so quickly, and we are trying to capture every moment and hold them close......

He is finding more and more ways each and every day to communicate with us, which is so amazing. Whether it be with signs or physical signs, he's doing a great job! (I think it helps too that he just goes and gets what he wants now....and just maybe pulls Chris and I along to help reach stuff that's high or out of reach :) He is also going through a growth spurt right now we think, as he is eating us out of house and home!!! He eats anything and everything that we have....fruits, veggies, meat.....any and all of it! We are so lucky in that area, but this is definitely the first big spurt he's had in a year.

He is also into picking out his own clothes, which I think is so funny. In fact, do you see that spaceship tee shirt?? It was worn for 2 days because he refused to let it go, even after bath time!!! He kept pointing to the shirt and signing airplane....thanks Gail for the shirt, it's a huge hit!!! Finally, I had to "dump" water on it so he'd refuse to wear it :)

We can see his imagination coming out in so many things...he is SO smart, and we can't believe how he figures things out when he cannot hear. It just goes to show you that your other senses take over so much! As far as hearing goes, he's doing well with wearing his processor, and we do think he's responding to sounds more. He makes all kind of noises now which is so exciting to us! We didn't make our appt. at CH*P last week because I wasn't feeling up to the drive unfortunately, but we are now scheduled for the 24th where we will do another audiogram. He also has his testing for the deaf and hard of hearing preschool this Friday, and then he will start there soon. We are looking forward to that very much.

Matthew doesn't like snow, at least touching it:) He'd much rather watch from the window!!! He loved doing his Valentine's for his friends, and worked hard on them for sure. That was a special evening for Chris and I to do that with him. Valentine's Day is the anniversary of my Dad's death, and I had a really hard time this past week-end missing him. 8 years have gone by so quickly, but I can't believe all that we have been through as a family. I know my Dad had something to do with Matthew....I do wish that Matthew knew his "pop-pop" though.....some day, I just need to do an entire post on my Dad and what an amazing man he was. My dear son, though - even though he is 2 is wiser than we know. I shed some tears yesterday and Matthew picked up the picture of my Dad, and wiped my one tear with his pointer finger........he knows...oh, he knows.

We took Matthew to his first Hershey Bears' hockey game yesterday and he loved it. A great evening with special friends...Matthew even got to go in the penalty box with the mascot Coco, AND the officials in the box gave him Hershey kisses....so yes, Matthew steals hearts everywhere!!!

Tomorrow, I have to undergo my third of 6 dilations for my colon under general anesthesia. My last one was extremely scary as the doctor thought he perforated my bowel because I woke up in severe pain. Thankfully, everything was OK after xrays were done, but I have to follow pretty strict orders for a regimen to keep from getting the colostomy. It's been tough because it makes me feel kind of rotten, like having a GI bug all the time :( BUT, I will do whatever I have to to avoid surgery at this point!! And, Chris has been wonderful about supporting me - and helping on the days when I feel the worst. I keep telling myself it could ALWAYS be worse - and that there IS light at the end of the tunnel. I pray each procedure will open things up a little more. It's just scary because each dilation, there is an increasing risk of bowel perforation and I wish they didn't scare the daylights out of me with signing the consent form every other week. The other thing I am bummed about is that I have to have the procedure done tomorrow in a new area of the hospital because my doctor isn't really supposed to be doing outpatient procedures this week, but there was no way he was letting someone else touch me. I had gotten used to the nurses and staff that took care of me since December, and they knew me. Please pray that the new people in my journey tomorrow will be just as kind, compassionate, and understanding.

Enjoy the new pics of the smallest love of my life :)