Birthday and Haircut Pictures

I'm shy

Long hair before getting his 1st haircut

This is a big book

Ready to party

I like chocolate cake

Wow time has flown

Hi everyone. We are so sorry we have not posted in a long time, but we have been so busy. Vince turned one, Chris (Nick's brother) graduated from college, and our house is almost done! First it was so nice to see everyone at Chris's graduation, almost all of Nick's moms side was there. Vince did pretty good, he is still very shy around people but we know he will outgrow that someday. We also celebrated Vince's first birthday while we were there. It was very cute, because Vince is scared of loud noises, everyone whispered happy birthday. My parents came down for his birthday as well. A couple of days later we celebrated on his actual birthday and he really went to town on chocolate cake. It was an amazing milestone for us, making it one year and feeling that we have been successful doing it. I don't think I will ever be able to express what it feels like to be Vince's mom, just so much love and joy. I am sure all of the other moms out there know what I mean. Oh Vince also got his first hair cut. He did so well, and looks so cute.

We are now about two weeks from moving into our house. It really looks like a house now and not a construction site. Everything is done, they just have to do the final touch ups, clean, and get the final inspection.

On another note Vince is doing well health wise, but we have decided to take a break from therapy. I know not everyone would agree with the decision we made but it was actually his therapist that suggested it. Vince has major anxiety about therapy, which he has been doing since he was five weeks old, and it has not been getting better. When we would get to therapy, as soon as he was set down he would start crying, ok not just crying but screaming. Sometimes he would make it for about 10 minutes but that was it. It was not that he was in pain or anything because most times they would not have even touched him yet. They gave us stuff to work on with him while we are on a break and he seems to be improving. In fact, he has just started to scoot backwards and is able to stay on his hands and knees for a longer period of time. We are also working on transitioning. At his one year check up the doctor thought he looked great and was impressed with how well he is doing. He said that if you read his chart and then saw him you would not think it was the same kid. That made us very happy.

I think that is about it for now, we will try to be better about posting but I can not promise anything because the next couple of weeks are going to be even more busy than normal. We hope all of you are having a great Spring and we hope all of the moms have a wonderful Mothers day.

Vince's Stats: 17lbs, 12oz, 28 inches long, 4 teeth, and very cute.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

Easter

Happy Easter

This turned out to be a cute picture but I was initially taking it to show the drool. He was getting his 4th tooth.

Watching TV with Dad

The brick is now up on the outside of the house

Going to the basement

Upstairs hall

Looking out of our bedroom

Front door area

Kitchen

I know Easter was a week ago, but we hope everyone had a great one. I bought an Easter hat for Vince so I thought I would share as well as a couple of other pictures. We did not have a traditional Easter this year but it will be memorable, Vince was sick so that changed all of our plans. We also had a Neurosurgeon appointment this week and that went well, Vince does not have to go back for 6 months.

The house is still coming along at a fast rate. On Thursday we stopped by the house expecting a little bit of the dry wall to be up and to our surprise it was all up. It won't be long before we are packing up and moving in.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

Update

Vince's first time sitting like a big boy at the store. He loved it!

Four Generations

10 months old

Helping with laundry

I am not sure if you can tell but the insulation is all in.

Back of the house

Front of the house

We thought we would give an update and finally put Vince's 10 month pictures on here, even though we are two days away from him being 11 months old. Everything is going well, Vince continues to get stronger and is talking a lot more (still baby talk). The house is coming along as well. I had my first day of spring vacation today and the weather was great. While we were driving around the temperature said 82. Vince had a urodynamics test last Friday and we are still awaiting the results but he did pee on the doctor so I thought that was good. Next week we will be going to Ann Arbor to participate in a bone density study. He has to be still for 1-3 minutes so I hope it goes well. He does not like to stay still for that long but the hope is I will be able to get him to fall asleep and do it that way. The reason for the study is to see if the density in a child with Spina Bifida is different than a child with out it. It will be interesting to see what they find. Vince also has a neurology appointment next week, just a check up, but everything seems to be going well. I think that is all for now, but we hope everyone is enjoying spring and has a great Easter.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

Our House

It is really starting to look like a house.

Vince is really excited about it!

First floor is done.

Foundation is setting

At this point we were worried because it looked a little small, but that changed once we started to see it go up.

Getting ready to pour foundation

Vince is a good helper.

A big hole

We thought we would give an update on our house. They have been working very hard on it and they have made a lot of progress on it. They broke ground on Feb. 16th and at this point have almost the whole house framed. By the end of this week it should be all framed provided the weather is good. Other than that things are going well, Nick and I have been passing our sickness back and forth to each other. This is the 3rd weekend that one of us has been sick, but we know we will get better eventually. Vince has been doing well. It is amazing that he is just a month and a half away from being 1.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

9 Month Pictures and Updates

Ready to go outside

Not having fun anymore

Vince and cousin Emme playing

9 Months Old

I know these pics are a little late since Vince will be 10 months in a couple days but here they are. We also took Vince out in the snow for the first time last weekend and he wasn't too sure about it.

It has been a busy month for us. Vince has been recovering well from his shunt surgery. He had an MRI on Thursday and an appointment with the neurosurgeon on Friday and the doctor said that the shunt looks like it is working properly so that was good to hear. We will have another follow up in about 6 weeks.

Vince is getting stronger in his arms and legs. He loves to jump up and down with his legs while we hold him up. And he is getting better at holding himself up on his hands and knees for longer periods of time and will even rock back and forth now. Hopefully that means that he will be crawling soon.

All three of us have been sick the past couple of weeks. Vince had ear infections in both ears and both of us had bad sinus infections. I think that we are all finally feeling better now, though.

More big news from this month - we bought a house. We are having a house built here in Charlotte. They broke ground two weeks ago and have the basement walls up and are moving right along. So we have another thing to keep us busy for the next couple of months with picking out what we want to have in it. It should be done by the end of June, so it will be nice to finally move out of the apartment and have some more space for all of Vince's things.

Love,

Nick, Andrea and Vince

Back Home

Ready for surgery in my pink gown. Everyone thought I was a girl.

After surgery. So tired.

Ready to go home.

My scar.

Good news. Vince was released from the hospital today so we are now back home. He did not sleep well last night, but woke up this morning and has been smiling and alert and pretty much acting like he normally does. I think he was ready to come home because as soon as we got in the car, he was smiling and laughing. He has cried a lot during car trips lately, which has made some interesting trips for Andrea to and from daycare and physical therapy. So he must have known we were on our way home today. We will go back next Friday to get his stitches out and will probably have another follow up in a few weeks for scans to make sure the shunt is working properly. Hopefully this one will work for many years and we won't have to go through this again for a while. Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Now maybe Vince will let us sleep tonight.

Love,

Nick, Andrea and Vince