Thanksgiving week

Well, I have been trying to upload a couple of videos and is not working :( So you'll have to just look at pictures :)

Tom is "on call" for Thanksgiving and the following weekend, so we are staying at home and having an abbreviated version of Thanksgiving....not quite as elaborate as a typical Lupoli Thanksgiving (no 25 pound turkey for us...a 12 pounder will do). But then Tom gets Christmas off and we are heading down to Florida for 10 days!!! We are going to try to back it to Disney since we never made it before we moved.

This past weekend we went to a local sports bar where the Kansas City Gator Club watches Gator football games...it was nice to meet some fellow Gators!!! The kids only made it to half time, but it was a fun outing....we may consider it for the game this weekend...I guess they get a pretty packed house of Gator fans for the big games. So we all dressed in our Gator outfits...Sofia looked so cute as a cheerleader!! Michael wouldn't sit or stand still long enough for a photo.

Then we went ahead and put on our Christmas tree (we figured why not enjoy it since we will be leaving on the 18th) Michael loved it!!! He was very helpful in hanging decorations. Sofia loves to roll over to the tree and pull off the lower ornaments and kick the branches with her feet. I'll post pictures of them with the tree in a later posting.

Sofia had a 15 month well check this week....she weighed 19 lbs 6 oz (she is up to the 8th percentile from the 5th) and she was 31 1/2 inches long (down from the 95th to the 80th percentile). Her pediatrician seems pleased with how she is doing for now and knows that we are being followed by the specialists. And she got shots....MMR, chickenpox, hep A, and flu. The big event of the doctor's visit was how just before we pulled into the parking lot Michael starting coughing and gagging and threw up his cheerios and juice he had been drinking in the car....what a mess!!! Poor kid had to wear wet pants into the office since I was not prepared with clean pants. And it made for a busy morning of car clean up.....ughh!!

Please feel free to add to the comments section...we love hearing from you!!!

Natalie

Weekly updates

I am really going to try to update every week, and now that I caught up with pictures from my original posting I can start with my updates!!!

Tom is busy right now trying to get all his paperwork in order so he can start working a few shifts a month at a VA hospital in the Kansas City area. It is all about the extra money $ His fellowship is going really well....and it nice having him home every night :)

I am trying to study for board exams...as a PA I need to take them every 6 years to remain certified. The problem is I haven't seen a lot of what is on them in 6 years....Botox injections and spider veins won't be on them. All I want to do is pass....so say a prayer for me on Dec 10th!!

Michael is a very busy 3 year old!! I have gotten involved with a Mom's Club and with teaching a class for 3-5 year olds at our church on Sundays to keep us busy. So we go to lots of playgroups, have our new friends over, and join our new friends for activities around Kansas City. Michael will be starting in a 2-day a week preschool in January.

Sofia is really doing well also. We have therapists come to the house 3 days a week to work with her gross motor skills, feeding, cognition, speech....and she has become so much stronger in just the past couple of months. She is more vocal (no words, but more sounds) and likes to be on the move (by rolling everywhere). She can now sit unassisted, but she still can just come crashing down if she gets off balance....so the boppy or mommy is always close by. We are working on playing more on her tummy and learning to creep so it will hopefully move into crawling. She has discovered now that she can do more with her hands, so I am hoping will move into self-feeding soon.

No news to give on why Sofia has issues with her muscle tone, and I have learned from others with similar children that it can difficult to find an answer.

And can I say that Michael just loves his sister!!! However, sometimes a little too much :)

Natalie

Halloween

Michael wanted to be Peter Pan, so naturally Sofia was Tinkerbell. We had multiply halloween parties to go to and Michael loved trick-or-treating and getting candy!!

Train Ride

In October we went on a train ride in an old passenger train out of Belton, Missouri.....Michael loves trains so he was very excited!!

Pumpkin Patch

We went and picked our own pumpkin this year....there are pumpkin patches all over the place around Kansas City. It was a beautiful day!!! Michael did not want to look at the camera today :(

Trip to Michigan

We traveled to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan at the end of September to visit my Grandfather and the rest of my family. It had been a little over two years since I had been to Michigan, so it was great to see everyone. My Grandmother had passed away earlier in the spring, and I was unable to travel to upper Michigan at that time, so it was very important to me to get to visit this year.

Children's Hospital Picnic Day - Sept 2008

Deanna Rose Farmstead - August/September 2008

Michael loved going to the "farm" to see the animals and just run and play. The farmstead was a great place just down the street from us that was FREE for the most part....just quarters to feed the animals!!

Michael loves his spider man umbrella

Michael likes to pretend it is raining inside - August 2008

I am going to do this blogging thing!!!!

I really want to make this blogging work so here I go again....let me start with more pictures first...