Been awhile

Well, we have been busy and dealing with a plethora of adversity. The results of which are few to no posts for quite some time now. The biggest issue has been Blake and his Crohn's disease. He was not feeling well since the beginning of the year and was in and out of school. Finally, he seemed to be getting worse and rather than being an assortment of various nagging symptoms, this time it his problems were centralized around his stomach. The doctors ran tests and determined that his Crohn's was flaring. So now he is back on the steroids for the first time since he was 6. He doesn't like it, but he definitely feels much better now. Below you'll find a number of good pictures that have been taken recently, but none of them include Blake because he really doesn't like being photographed while he is on the steroids because he has gained weight and his face puffed out. Due to the steroid usage, Blake has been assigned to homebound education. This means as long as the doctor thinks it is appropriate (in this case until he is weaned off the steroids) he will stay home and a teacher that the school district hires will show up a few times a week and teach him whatever his school teachers think he needs to learn. He had his first session today and they focused mainly on math. It went quite well and Blake likes his homebound teacher.

Bryce has been sick off and on too, but nothing so bad as the Crohn's. Plus he is teething. From the few looks he allows us at his top gums, it appears as though he is pushing as many as 4 teeth through , so he is mega-cranky at times. We have transitioned him to his own room and his crib, but he still does not sleep through the night except for one time Sunday night. We are hoping that is a trend that will continue, but he didn't match it last night. Since our last post he has mastered the crawl. You have to watch him because he is quite fast and can close distance in a hurry if you give him an opening. He stands up all the time now but still has to hold on to something to maintain the upright position for very long. He does occasionally let go of whatever he is balancing off of, but won't stay standing for more than a few seconds. He is fearless, however, and doesn't seem to be bothered by trying new things, such as diving off beds or climbing over walls. We believe that he will be walking well before his first birthday.

As for Angel and I, she is still babysitting, as you can see from the photos. Bryce pretty much weaned himself off the breastmilk here this last week, so Angel had her first cup of coffee in a long time this morning, which she enjoyed more than I would have thought humanly possible. My new job is going well and I have been given a chance to shine with the project I have been assigned. Essentially it is me and one other control systems engineer on the job and he is not experienced with the field instrumentation, which is the majority of the work. For this reason he is leaning on me for guidance. I like it much better than begging for scraps of work every day, which is what I was doing my first two weeks.

Unfortunately, as little trouble as my 2001 Ford Escort has been for me for the last 4 years, my gear shift began malfunctioning several months ago and finally gave up the ghost Sunday evening. I had to have my car towed to a repair shop where I will pay ~$600 to get it fixed. Who knew that little stick with a button on it was so much trouble to replace?

We have some videos that have been taken that we want to post but they need to be edited and converted before I can put them in a blog. I'll tease one of them. It is an unbelievably cute video of Bryce being fed his dinner and sloooooowly falling asleep as he gets more and more full. It's great. You'll love it. Hopefully I can have these up tomorrow. If not, try not to let the suspense and anticipation eat you alive. Later on.

Matt