You know you've been inside too long when you start doing things like this...

No matter where I hide the baby food, Drew always finds it and starts stacking it. He hasn't broken a jar... yet.

The sun finally made an appearance in Ithaca earlier

this week. 

We ended up playing on the salt bleached streets most of the afternoon.

and then today it started snowing again. 

yesterday

We celebrated my 25th birthday on Sunday, and Monday morning I headed up to Syracuse to have my 25th surgery done.

Laparosocpic surgery to do a little "clean up" job from the hysterectomy I had in June. Since then I have been having a lot of pain in my abdomen region due to scar tissue. fast forward months of monitoring, ultrasounds, and blood tests to find out that I need to have scar tissue, multiple cysts, fallopian tubes removed, and some fluid drained. 

That was all just yesterday, through 3 incisions on my abdomen. The ovaries were again spared and we're hoping they will be viable to produce enough hormones for a few more years.

I threw up 9 times yesterday (talk about acid damage on my teeth!) but I am already feeling a lot better today, just sore and full of CO2 in my shoulders that will hopefully pass the next few days.

I had a roommate yesterday named Sarah, (the 'H' was how we determined who was who) we were separated by a thin curtain that didn't filter out any of the conversations. I found out later she had ear surgery to fix a hearing problem-- makes sense now why she was talking so loud. 

I'm so grateful for the friends that we have in Ithaca to take care of me and my children while we are far away from family. There is no way I could have done this surgery with out their help. I'm thinking 25 surgeries turns me into the artificial woman, hopefully there is little to no need for more surgeries on this 80 year old body.

Quarter of a Century

tonight we hit the maximum capacity of people crammed into our apartment 

I ate a lot of beignets

and it was awesome.

February

The shortest month of the year definitely flew by.

Claire got her helmet off

G-Lo (Grandma Loraine) came to visit

I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy (on Valentines day)-- I have a body of an 80 year old.

Spencer and I enjoyed a date and delicious pear and Gorgonzola pizza.

Claire learned to crawl, got two teeth, and is working on two more.

We met Taylor and Alisa in Scranton and had a wonderful time catching up with them since their wedding.
then we went to the "Big City"  for a fun weekend.

We went to New York City for a whirlwind weekend (it rained the entire time)
 - we walked through Central Park on a beautiful misty morning.
 - ate some NY pizza and hotdogs.
 - saw the WTC memorial, Times Square, Museum of Natural History, shopped on Canal st.
 - stayed at our friends really cute apartment

Spencer and Drew had the flu and I did a lot of laundry.

Drew is talking up a storm and learning to love Claire more and more.

And of course, it continued to snow in Ithaca.

Helmetless

we have just experienced the fastest 8 weeks ever. Claire was in her helmet for exactly 2 months.

and now she's done.

check out her brand spankin' new head. it's awesome.

leaving the orthotics office someone said she was "a cute little guy, a handsome little boy..." I think we will have to replace the pink helmet with a lot of pink bows.

A few more weeks of physical therapy to resolve the Torticollis and she will be good to go.

the rest of winter break...

It's February. I still haven't blogged about the rest of our 6 week Atlanta Christmas vacation, so here's the quick run down.

We went to Medieval Times- ate delicious food with our hands. cheered on the blue team, and lost our voices. 

Attempted family pictures- it was the first time everyone had been together in 4 years.

Explored the Georgia Aquarium- saw the dolphin show and peered around hoards of people at the fish tanks.

Claire got use to her helmet and didn't mind it at all.

Sang karaoke, ate tons of good food, went panning for gold, shopping, saw a lot of movies, Drew played with all of his cousins and started to acknowledge his sister. Both the babes enjoyed leisurely baths and all the attention.

It was a great vacation. The warm weather didn't make it easy to come back to the frigid temperatures of Ithaca... but we were excited to get back and to reunite with friends. Spencer also passed his half way point of law school, time sure flies when you're having fun.