Book Club Christmas

We had a great time at book club Christmas...Aunt Patty made "I Love Bookclub" shirts for the bookclub mascots...Ellie, Cole, and Mateo. And Marnie hosted the pre-dinner reception at her house. We were back the next night for an Italian feast that Marnie and I made. And most importantly, we set dates for our Italy 2008 trip. We will be at a villa in Tuscany for a week in June, and then people will add on side trips as they want to. The group voted that Jim & Marnie and Matt & me should be the planners as we have both spent time in Italy before. Matt & I honeymooned there...and Jim and Marnie visited for a pre-kid trip. We have talked about it for a long time, and now it is becoming a reality. How lucky are we to have such good friends to spend such a great time together. I am certainly blessed!

Let there be cake!!

Mateo had a great first birthday party...he got to hang out with the book club girls, who outfitted him with stylish clothes and with some good books. Aunt Rachel & Uncle John hooked him up with a Tupperware Shape Ball and a Fisher-Price Farm set-up. And his Silverton party had all our close friends who helped him open presents...and they even got treat bags to boot!

Mateo used his birthday as training grounds for learning how to open presents...a skill which he has mastered now after many weeks of present opening! Mom and Dad are a bit overwhelmed though...seems like there are WAY TOO MANY toys now. Perhaps we will have to celebrate half-birthdays instead.

Anyway, thought you would enjoy the cake eating pictures...he had it everywhere...we even found some in his ear the next morning!

Hugs from Oregon...Sarah

Mateo's birthday is coming...

HI friends,

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. I don't have a good excuse...it's just been a crazy three weeks! We're off to Boise tomorrow to have Book Club Christmas to begin planning our big excursion to Italy in June 2008.

Mateo finally recovered from his gastric issues, so we have begun the treatment for the TB exposure. Now of course, he has another cold in his chest, but he likes taking "Little Bits" (i.e. Triaminic or Baby Tylenol).

It seems so crazy that he turns one on Friday...in the past few weeks, he is totally walking all over the place...we used to have 1-3 minutes to react when we set him down...now if we aren't careful, in 10 seconds he is in the next room digging in the pots & pans drawer.

We finally got our tree up last weekend, just in time for our annual Christmas party! We had a great time surrounded by our friends and family kicking off our holiday season.

More pictures from the various birthday celebrations this week...hope all is well. Love you and miss you, Sarah & Matt & Mateo

Mateo Health Update

So, this is the final of three posts today, because it has been so long since we have written any updates. That's because we have been battling health issues at our house for the past couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago we found out that Mateo had a positive test for Tuberculosis...turns out that he doesn't have active TB, but he was exposed to TB while in Guatemala, and they want to start him on some prophylactic treatment to prevent him from getting it. The treatment protocol is elaborate, with daily pills crushed in food, frequent weight checks to adjust the medication dosage based on his weight, and monthly lab draws to make sure the medication isn't hurting his liver. Good news is he is not infectious and can't give it to anyone. Bad news is, we will be treating him for the next 9 months to make sure he doesn't get an infection outbreak.

But, in order to be able to give him his medication for TB, he has to be able to keep food down, and for the last 6 days, he has had vomiting & diarrhea in various intervals. Needless to say, we went to the ER on Thanksgiving day only to be sent home to keep him hydrated orally. Well yesterday, it was clear that he wasn't intaking enough liquid, so we went back to the ER last night for an IV. It took about 40 minutes of crying (shrieking really) for them to get the IV in him, but man, saline is the wonder drug. He slept for the next 3 hours while he was getting fluids, then came home and slept all night...a first in almost a week. He's still filling diapers today, but we think (have our fingers crossed) that it is thickening up. I have to admit, there was no training for having to hold your baby down while they work on him, and who would have ever imagined I would hope for just poop in his diaper!

Things seem to be on the healing direction...we'll let you know if anything else monumental occurs. Hope you are happy and healthy...we have newfound appreciation for that phrase this week.

Love from Oregon, Sarah & Matt & Mateo

Cousin Time

The boys sure love each other...we had a great time at Aunt Rachel & Uncle John's...Mateo practiced giving suave (Spanish for Gentle) loves to Baby Nathan. And he tried hard to hold still when Cousin Lukas wanted to give him loves. Rachel and I baked lots of cookies nad made chocolate covered pretzels...we always find time in the kitchen to be therapeutic.

The trip was also wild because while Mateo and I were waiting in line to pre-board the plane in the Portland Airport, we ran into my Uncle Fred (Cathy's brother-in-law) who was on his way home from a business trip. So Fred sait next to us and took pity on my arms by bouncing Mateo all the way to Boise. The trip home was less eventful, but my arms were sure more tired when we arrived! I still haven't gotten used to packing around 25+ pounds of baby!!