Devoted to Dominic: Oh, Baby

We've got some pretty big updates in this post! We have been enjoying our fall and have been busy with soccer and school. The boys both love school and Dominic is doing really well in preschool. He takes the bus and absolutely LOVES it. It's been really good for him socially, we've noticed he picks up on a lot of things from school - the best is that he puts his cup in the sink when he's done. He's even thrown his paper plate away after lunch. Not something I taught him! He also has great manners (please, thank you, you're welcome) and can count to 15. He's making some good progress in gross motor too - he walks up stairs by himself and loves to march, hop, jump and skip. His fine motor is still a work in progress. He does not like to use his "helper hand" but he's not quite as stubborn as he used to be.

Last week we took a trip to Detroit to see Dr. Chugani, Dr. Sood and Dr. Arndt. It was such a positive experience and so encouraging to hear such great feedback from them. They all think he looks amazing and they are thrilled with his progress. They told me some kids, even who have the surgery, do not make gains afterwards. Had we waited even another 6 months he may not have progressed the way he has. So, just another confirmation that we made the right decision and God has always had a plan along the way. Dr. Chugani mentioned sometime in the future meeting with their pediatric orthopedic hand surgeon (the only one in the state) to talk about doing a new procedure that is being done on hemispherectomy patients. It's called a tendon transfer and it would be an incision in his forearm that would give him more feeling and use of some of his fingers in his right hand. This is something that is probably a couple years off, but something to think about nonetheless. Right now, our focus is intense OT with that hand. He is still seeing Sarah at DeVos once a week and gets OT at school. But we also need to spend time every day at home getting him to hold things in that hand and to be more comfortable using it as a helper. So far, so good.

So... the biggest and most recent news is that we're expanding our family! By TWO! We found out earlier this week that we are pregnant with TWINS! I literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I have never been so surprised in my life. I had my first doctor appointment last week and she said I was measuring a little big and ordered an ultrasound. Thinking it was just routine, I never expected to see two little babies swimming around in there - but there they were! We have gone from shocked to thrilled to scared to excited and back. With no family history of twins, I have NO idea where this came from. I thought I was done with crazy after everything with Dominic. I guess God thinks we can handle a little more crazy! We signed up for one and are getting two - not a bad deal. So, these two will be joining our family this spring. My due date is May 16 but twins are actually full term at 37 weeks so I will most likely have them sometime in April. Crazy!!!!