6th Month of Claire

January 1-31

Claire was sick over new years so we got to ring in the new years together.  Made for a tired new years day!  She has been getting stomach aches from food and also has a cold. Not a good combo.

Claire has been talking or blabbering more and I love to hear her talk!

This is the last picture we have of Grant and Grandpa.  The boys loved sitting on Grandpa's lap in that chair.

Claire has been doing such a good job sitting up!  Now she just needs to roll over!

Claire has been bouncing like crazy in her jumperoo! 

We have been feeding Claire baby food and she loves it! Her stomach does not love it though.  She has been waking up in the night with what we think are stomach aches.  We are going to go slower with food and give her stomach more time to adapt to real food.

We got a dinosaur fossil box from Aunt Toni and the boys and I broke it out one cold weekend day.  They boys had fun digging for fossils but it was actually pretty hard and I had to do most of the work!

Claire has been taking a lot of naps on me since she isn't sleeping the best at night.  I will take all the snuggles I get!

We FINALLY finished our basement.  It has been quite a process but we are so happy to have it done so we can use it.

Grant played basketball at the RecPlex and he loved it! Greg was supposed to be the coach but he was at hospice with his Dad most of the time so luckily another Dad stepped up and took over.

Claire is still trying hard to roll over.  Hopefully soon she figures it out!

Claire loves us smelly her "stinky feet" and just giggles and giggles!

We had a huge snow storm one of the days Greg was in hospice.  Greg showed me how to use the snow blower and I did it!  It wasn't pretty and I am sure the neighbors got quite a laugh watching me, but I got it done, all while being home with the kids alone.

Cal went into hospice on January 11 and passed on January 22.  It was a very long 11 days in hospice and so hard to watch but Greg's mom was there the whole time and Kellie and Greg switched off to be there and give Barb a break to rest.  It was such a hard and sad time but I am glad Greg and Kellie were able to be there.  Greg gave the speech at the funeral and he did an amazing job!  It was so hard for Greg to get up there and talk about his Dad but he did it! We all miss Cal so very much.  Grant has been having a really hard time with Grandpa being gone and so we talk about him often and read the book that Cal read to the boys and are keeping his memory alive.

Claire has now graduated to the grocer cart and doesn't she just look so cute sitting up in the cart like a big girl!

Blake's seizures came back January 7th.  We tried increasing Keppra and that didn't work so we decided to add valproic acid and then slowly wean off Keppra.  We want to wean Blake off Keppra now but we understand we have to wait until we have valproic acid at the right dose before we are able to do that.

The boys still love dancing to "sky full on stars" from Sing 2. So fun to watch their dance moves!

I love catching moments like these were the boys are playing together so nicely!  Right now it is pretty rare to have this happen so it is so nice to see.  There is hope they will be best friends some day!

I was going to an appointment so Greg was giving her a bottle and she was holding it herself like a big girl!

Claire FINALLY rolled over.  Just a day before her 6 month birthday! 

Claire is 6 months!  I can believe she is already half a year old.  Time is flying by.  She has been sick this month with a cold and stomach aches from food so we have been getting up in the night and we are tired!  She is happy during the day though.  She is about 16lbs almost sitting up on her own and rolling over!

This was the hardest month we've had to date.  I can't even write this without crying.  Claire has been sick and not sleeping from stomach aches, Blake's seizures coming back and Greg's dad in hospice and passing away.  Greg's Grandpa also passed the same day Cal went into hospice.  Looking over this month I have no idea how we made it through, it was very tough.  Lot and lots of tears.  We had a lot of happy moments mixed in there and we are going to focus on those.  Let's hope the months ahead lead to seizure freedom, health and keeping the memory of Cal alive for us and our kids.