Maddie's First Birthday... And More

Where's Waldo... I mean Nathan. Hint: He's wearing a hat.
The older that I get, the quicker the time seems to fly by. I don’t know where the last three months have gone.

Nathan ran his first marathon this month. He did really well despite his legs cramping up. We are so proud of him for sticking with it. He still has blood blisters on his feet and was a great sport about us not being able to cheer him on. Ammon was back at the hotel throwing up and had awful diarrhea. Maddie also fell off the bed and has a huge goose egg on her forehead. I was relived that it popped out, because she had a huge indentation in her forehead when I initially picked her up. She had fallen asleep in the morning and I laid her down to tend to Ammon. Next thing I know she is screaming and evidently hit her head on the corner of the bedstand. What a day in Hartford... We hope Nathan's next marathon goes much smoother.

The downside of living so far from family is that our families generally miss out on seeing our children during most holidays and special occasions. The upside to this is that when we are together, these times are very special. Maddie Sue absolutely loves her Grandpa King and Uncle Matt and clung to them pretty quickly. It took her awhile longer to get used to Grandma though. For some reason Maddie is more partial to men, but she loved Grandma as long as mom was totally out of sight. Ammon kind of preferred this though, because he and Grandma were able to have lots of one on one time without having to share her as much. Anyone that knows Kathy knows that she is the Craft Queen. She and Ammon made foam Christmas crafts; and somehow missed capturing pictures of them doing these.

Maddie Sue turned one year old on October 21st. Since Grandpa & Grandma King and Uncle Matt visited us for a few days in October, we thought this would be the perfect time to celebrate her birthday. Here are some pictures from Maddie Sue’s party:

Thank you to everyone who made this event so special!

We met with the doctor from Brown University and the Hasbro Children's Hospital. The first appointment seemed to go very well. Grandma King helped with Maddie Sue and Ammon while we met with the doctor. Thank you so much Kathy! The second appointment was a bit of a frustration. After a phone conversation with the doctor, I felt a little better about the direction that he wants to take with Ammon though. He feels that Ammon suffers from asperger's syndrome. I think time with truly tell whether or not this is just his disposition or if there are other underlying issues. We're not focused on a diagnosis as much as we just want to find ways to help him with some of the challenges he's experiencing.