You might remember me as Squeaker… or Squirrel… or Mouse… or any number of other names my parents have called me. I have been nominated my family’s “Girl Friday” for now, so I get to update you on all the happenings since… gosh, a while.  Most importantly, I turned 6, but we’ll get to that later. 😉

Okay, other than a few photos my dad shared a few months ago, and then the photos from last Summer, it’s been almost 2 years since we last updated you.  Sorry about that.  Let me see if I can remember what’s happened in that time. I’m afraid I’m going to have to skip a lot of the birthday stuff and just stick to the main events, or this blogpost would go on for a loooong time.

Some people have said they’ve forgotten who’s who, so here’s a little “key” if you will.

In order from left to right: Junior (aka Dolphin), Turtlebee, Squeaker (aka Squirrel), Raccoon, Rooster and Badger (we finally settled on a screenname for him – he’s fun and feisty, so badger seemed to fit).  And now for the newest addition…. Monkey! We wanted to call him Chunky, for obvious reasons, but since we are sort of on an animal theme and he is often called “Chunky Monkey” anyway, we figured that would suit him.  Here he is while he was still somewhat slim, around 3 weeks old. Isn’t he cute!?

We will get back to Monkey in a bit, but let’s just go through some of the  group photos over the last couple years.

Christmas 2014, when Badger was just a few months old.

 

Dad with the kiddos (2015). He must really like us. hehe

We visited the local Fire Station and they let us climb on the truck.  It was a blast!

We got to see Sir Topham Hatt and Thomas the Tank at “A Day Out With Thomas” in Baldwin, KS, May of 2015.  It was SOOOO much fun, we want to go again. 🙂

 

 

 

This was at the Wyandotte County Fair in one of the art competitions, Summer 2015. We couldn’t resist!  Most of us just popped our heads into view, but Rooster thought he might climb all the way through – silly boy!

Here we are pretending to be pious… but we don’t fool Mom and Dad.  This was for All Saints Day, 2015. From oldest to youngest we were dressed as: St. Martin of Tours, St. Philomena, St. Cecilia, King St. Edward the Confessor and St. Anthony of Padua.

Finally we have come to updating you on Monkey, who, as you know, joined us in January with a bit of a rough start.  The following photos will show a progression of his week in the hospital, where he improved each day. The doctors and nurses said he would have been able to go home sooner had it not been for the IV of antibiotics he was on, as those took a week to administer.  For those of you who don’t know, he aspirated meconium either in the womb or shortly after birth. The staff at Children’s Mercy in KCMO was very kind and encouraging during the stressful and initially scary hospitalization. We found out this “aspiration pneumonia” as they called it is somewhat common. Monkey’s healthy size (9 lbs. 10 oz.) and the fact that he was able to nurse and receive some highly nutritious colostrum before being hospitalized helped him get well quickly.  Other than a couple colds he has caught since then he’s been great.

 

 

Monkey also has something called “Fabry disease,” a genetic enzyme disorder, but thankfully it is a variety that is referred to as “late onset” – basically a milder version.  Someday, perhaps in his 30’s, he may face the option/necessity of having enzyme replacement therapy, but in the meantime we will just have annual exams starting when he’s about 3 years. The disorder showed up on the MO newborn screening that they did while he was at Children’s Mercy, and the main reason we bring it up here is to spread the news about it.  There are actually a LOT of people walking around who have Fabry and don’t know it, mostly because it is a “silent” disease, where lipids in the cells build up over time and eventually can cause permanent damage to major organs – often outward signs of the disease do not become obvious until damage is done.  Knowledge is power – we encourage you to look up Fabry disease to learn more about it.

Just for fun, we are doing a side-by-side comparison of Badger at 3 months and Monkey at 3 months.  What a difference!

 

Mom is super excited to finally have a boy with some noticeable curls.  Dad’s not so crazy about them.  Monkey also has somewhat darker hair than the other boys. More like Turtlebee’s when she was a baby, except she had a lot more of it!

Well, thanks for sticking around with us.  We will leave you with this video, just because it’s fun. Badger sure is proud of himself. Ciao for now!