The 11th was our big day when Anna had her heart defect repaired at UNC/North Carolina Children's Hospital. The whole saga is detailed HERE in case you are interested in the details. In short, it went great and she is all patched up! We have a few more follow-up checkups, but so far, all is well. Grandma A. and Erin held the fort down while we stayed that night in the hospital. Big thanks to Grandma for all of her help!
We came home on the 12th and, since we are not the type of people to let a minor heart surgery slow us down, packed up that afternoon and went to Daddy's work holiday open house and then on to Concord for Ben and Cole's birthday party on the 13th! Can't believe our little guys are 3 now!
Erin had her classmate Ashton come play on the 14th; evidently these kids like to play with boys. Bob is concerned. Anna's class had their Christmas show/party on the 15th (we think she worked the pity vote from her surgery and got the part of Mary), and we dog-sat our friend Ruby the 16th and 17th.
We had a fun playdate at Jimmy and Danny's house on the 16th too. Daddy got to see his friend Chris and go to a Wolfpack basketball game on the 17th. Erin's class had Polar Express day on the 19th, their last day before a 5-week holiday break/track-out. Oh boy! Anna had her 1-week check at the cardiologist on the 19th as well, where she got a clean bill of health and clearance to bathe, run, and jump again. It was a long week without any of those things!
Erin returned to Sonshine Gymnastics on Saturday the 20th after a 5-month break. She seemed to enjoy the "big kid" class and picked right up where she left off in July. We are hoping that the Saturday morning class will be easier for us schedule-wise than weeknights, and since we are all up and ready to go anyway, 9:15 isn't much of a problem. If the stars align, Anna will also take a 12-week dance class starting on January 17th at the same time, so we can divide and conquer and get all activities knocked out on Saturday mornings. This way, no sibling will have to suffer through watching her sister's activity, which is really a tragedy when you think about it. We also had a really fun Christmas party at neighbor friend Caitlin's house that night!
We also went to a fun Christmas party at Ms. Liz and Mr. David's house on the 21st! We finished up last-minute preparations on the 22nd, and headed to Concord on the 23rd for lots of Christmas fun! We came back here on the 24th, then Santa came during the night! Anna wasn't feeling well on Christmas, but managed to get her presents opened. We had lots of fun celebrating Christmas with the Callaway side on the 26th, and a fairly quiet weekend at home decompressing from the excitement.
Monday the 29th, Bella got her teeth cleaned for the third time in 10 years. Her health is good overall, and I feel bad when the vet tells me how bad her teeth are and that they put her at risk for infection, etc. So we caved in and shelled out an awful lot of money for that. Mommy and Daddy also both visited the urgent care that day for an ear infection and sinus infection, respectively. The grand finale of sickness started on the 31st, when Erin started with a still-present-4-days-later stomach bug. We hope it was the same thing that Anna had, though it's lasted a lot longer and has gotten her down a lot more than it did for Anna. We thought she was on the mend yesterday, but now the lower end is having trouble today. Alas, at least we are all at home with no plans or school to miss, so it could be much worse. We have enjoyed just hanging out and taking it easy, which is unusual for us. We did have to miss our neighbor New Year's Eve party and subsequent New Year's Day Leftover Food Party because of the plague. All the sickness has put a damper on our holiday season, but we've made the most of it! Bob has managed to get some projects done, and we ladies have done our best to keep spirits up despite all of the bodily fluids that keep making themselves present.
All the best to everyone in 2015! We look forward to another fun-filled year with these sweet girls!
