Pictures from Max's Christening 2.14.10

What a Blessed day!!

Today was Max's Christening. What a great day!! We had a private ceremony at St. Gabe's and Fr. Fred made it so very special! He baptised all the kids and he married us (10 years ago this year!!!). Max was ADORABLE and didn't fuss at all during the ceremony. He wore the same gown his big brother and big sister wore. I had Aiden and Emmi's names and the dates of their Christenings embroidered on the back of the gown and will do the same for Max, then we can pass it down for their kids to wear. It was so nice to be surrounded by our family and friends. Max's Christening was bigger than the other 2 because we wanted to include all the people who were there for us in the beginning while we waited for all the tests and went to all the doctors appointments. That was a very difficult time for us. We were so very worried but we were surrounded by such wonderful and supportive family and friends. When we found out Max had achondroplasia, these were our support system. We now embrace and celebrate Max and his uniqueness!!!

Aiden was very attentive during the ceremony. Fr. Fred asked him a bunch of questions and Aiden was so proud to be involved. He looked so handsome!! He did his own hair today and it reminded me of how he wore it when he was little. He's such a big boy now! Fr. Fred let him turn of off the baptimsal fountain and put the holy oil away. He was beaming!! He is excited to go into school tomorrow and tell his teacher all about it. He will take in pictures this week for them to talk about Baptism during religion class.

And Emmi was such a cutie today!! She was so poised during the whole ceremony. She was mesmerized by it and stood so quietly with her spotty dog and watched. She looked so beautiful and I was so proud of her!

My sister is Max's Godmother and Eric's brother in law is Max's Godfather. Max is in good hands with both of them! I know my sister is so proud of this title and is already a big advocate for Max!

We all came back to our house after the ceremony for some food and socializing. One of Eric's friends catered the whole thing and that was GREAT!! Not only was the food wonderful, but he took care of all the details and I didn't have to worry about a thing the whole time!! (If you need a great caterer in the Cleveland/Akron area, let me know. I highly recommend him!!)

Now the kids are all snoozing (Except for Max. He is watching Big Bird and chewing on every toy he can get in his mouth!! He is a night owl!) I need to get some sleep too!! Losing that hour today is no fun! But it will be worth it to get more hours of daylight in!

I ADORE my beautiful baby boy!!!

Still waiting!!

Max and daddy passing the time in the 2+ hour wait for the doctor!!

I can reach my toes!! (and even eat them too sometimes!)

I'm teething!!!! No teeth yet though!!

They said I look GREAT!!!

Well, we are on our way home from our trip to Johns Hopkins in
Baltimore for Max's check ups. It was a whirlwind visit, but we got
all our questions answered by the doctors and got to spend some time
with friends, new and old!
We left Sunday morning around 8am and drove to Bethesda to meet some
other Parents of Little People (POLPs) and their children. This was
the first time Max has gotten to interact with other babies and he
LOVED it!! He got to see his little girlfriend Tessa again (almost 11
mos) and met Colin, Ivy, Jack and Nathan. It was so nice to spend
time with the other parents and we look forward to meeting up with
some of them in Nashville at the national LPA (Little People of
America) conference this July. We have found that the LPA community
is so warm and welcoming and we so appreciate that!
Monday, we had our follow up with Dr. Hoover-Fong, the geneticist.
Our appointment was at 2:30 but we did not actually get seen until
around 4:45!!! It was a LONG wait!!! But Max was a champ and
remained very smiley and happy! She was very pleased with how Max has
been doing. He is hitting all his milestones very appropriately for
an achon. His head circumference is still around the -2 standard
deviation (small for achon, although his head looks large because his
body is so small). He weighs 14# 11oz and is around 24" long. She
has no concerns at this time and felt he had minimal to no kyphosis
(this is what I was most concerned about!!). So overall, very
reassuring visit:-). We will see her back in about 6 months. We
would like to move it up a bit and take Aiden and Emmi with us and
visit DC before Aiden goes back to school, but Dr. Hoover Fong is
pregnant and it depends when her maternity leave is.

We FINALLY got out of that appointment around 5:30pm and headed to
Annapolis to visit with The Frey's. We had a great time hanging out
eating pizza and catching up while Max and Tessa rolled around on the
floor and played. Max was a little shy but Tessa is an adorable
social butterfly! We took a bunch of pictures that I will post soon:-).

Today, we had our first appointment at 9:00 with Dr. Tunkel, the ENT.
He thought Max looked great, no ear infection or fluid and his tonsils
are not enlarged. He knows Dr. Arnold, our ENT in Cleveland, and
thinks he is great and will be able to take care of most, if not all
of Max's ENT issues in the future. Although he is more than willing
to see Max any time in the future if we need him. Everything we have
heard and read states that achons have smaller than average airways,
but Dr. Tunkel feels that, in his experience, this is not truly an
issue most of the time. He also is not a fan of the T-tubes when they
get tubes in their ears. Achons tend to get a lot of ear infections
and/or fluid in their ears because of the way their midface can be
shaped and the often need tubes many times. The T-tubes tend to stay
in longer but can leave holes in the eardrum that don't heal. This
happens 2-3% of the time with regular tubes but 18% of the time with T-
tubes and needs to be surgically repaired if it happens. He only uses
these if the tubes have fallen out and been replaced several times.
We really liked Dr. Tunkel, he was very informative and friendly.

We then saw Dr. Ahn, the neurosurgeon. He agreed that Max looked
great and had no signs or symptoms of spinal cord compression. He
felt his muscle tone was good (as did Dr Hoover Fong). I don't think
we need to see him again unless we have a problem. He is a very
friendly, personable guy, but I hope we never have to see him again!!

Finally, we saw the orthopaedist. We waited about an hour to see him
and Max was rolling around the exam table crinckling up the paper and
trying to eat it up!! Many of you know of Dr. Ain, but for those of
you who don't, Dr. Ain has achondroplasia. I think he will be a great
role model for Max as he grows up. He answered all of our questions
about what we can and cannot do with Max. He feels as though sitting
Max up in the stroller sometimes, no more than 45 degrees, is ok.
This was good news since we have a trip to Disney planned and it would
have been a lot more challenging if we had to keep Max lying flat in
the stroller the whole time! He felt as though Max's back looks great
with very little to no kyphosis. The xrays of his back showed very
minimal wedging of the vertebrae, which is to be expected and not a
concern at this point. His legs are not bowing clinically or on the
xrays. Yeah!!! He wants to see Max again in 6-9 months.

So, overall, great news about our little Max!!! He was such a great
little patient and we were sooo proud of him!!! He is an absolute joy
every day!

We will be home in about 5 hours and we are looking forward to giving
Aiden and Emmi BIG hugs and kisses!!! We have missed them sooo
much!!! Max will be excited to see his big brother and sister too!
He misses Emmi when she isn't sitting next to him in the car and Aiden
when he isn't around to sit with him and make funny faces at him:-).

Here's a picture of our great little patient looking uber adorable!!