Annabella Is a Regular Ole Healthy Little Girl.

Ben might act like his sisters are a nuisance, but when Anna asked if she could take his stuffed doggie with her to her MRI he said, "You can have whatever you want."

Who-da thunk it?!  We just past the 4yr anniversary of her surgery for her Annular Pancreas.  And two years since we removed her Gtube.  She has been doing great and just recently hit 30lbs....we thought she'd never get there!

She had one last medical hurdle to get over before she was without a doubt 100% healthy and all of this stuff could be put behind her.

She was born with a deep sacral dimple and because she was born with another birth defect, had chronic constipation, and birth marks along her spinal column and other places on her body her doctor felt it was best that we make sure there was nothing going on.  This was years ago....but he said since she had no neurological symptoms we could wait until all of her other medical things had calmed down a bit.

Finally, last summer we made the appointment with neurosurgery.  The doctor recommended that we have an MRI done to be sure there was no spinal tethering or anything like that, but because she had no neurological symptoms that we should wait a year so that the MRI could be done without sedation.

So at the beginning of October I took her for the MRI.  She did incredibly well.  She was as still as could be the whole time.  The MRI results showed no tethering but showed what looked like a fatty mass a few centimeters in diameter at the bottom of her spine.  So, we had to have a repeat MRI with contrast done....and this time sedation so there was no chance any movement was causing anomolies on the film that didn't really exist.

Last Wednesday she had this done.  She was nervous about the IV, but she did wonderfully and was so brave!!  WE got a call from the neurosurgeon the next day saying that the MRI was completely clear.  No tethering, no mass, no nothing.  Just a perfectly healthy spine and a benign sacral dimple.

So that is that.  Likely the last medical update on my daughter that I will ever post.  Deo Gratias!

Field Trip Back in Time

This week a group of kids from our parish had a one room schoolhouse experience at the Quiet Valley Living History Farm. They spent a full 4hrs in the schoolhouse learning lessons, putting on a little play, reciting some poems, and learning some old games.

All the children dressed in period costumes (to the best of their ability...you will notice Ben is just wearing pants and a flannel shirt. It was the best we could do) and brought their lunch in pails and baskets.

The moms found it funny, apparently when reserving the field trip the people at the farm didn't realize that a homeschool group meant that the kids would be all different ages and grade levels. When we got there and they realized the "schoolmarm" was a bit concerned over what she should do about all the different levels. We chuckled a little since this is what life in a homeschool is like, but more importantly....wasn't that the life of a teacher in a one room school house afterall???

It turned out her nerves were for nothing because by the end of the day she complimented the children on their lovely attitudes and good behavior. Ohhh and apparently she was quite smitten with Annabella and so Anna was a bit of a teacher's pet. I hope we get to do this every year.

 

And just a few pics of Lucy because we would hate to leave her out..

My Lucy Love

 

My little Lucy (aka Lucy Love/Lou Love/Luly Love/Lumpsy Lou/Luly Patchully) she is my mystery baby.  She is newly 9M and I still don't really get her.  My worst sleeper by far.  My most difficult teether (she has been in the throws of teething since around 4M..after several months of intense drool, drippy nose, and poor sleep she finally got her first two teeth.  Then we had some relief.  A few weeks ago the drool and drips and sleeplessness started again.  This time with some GI issues and some intense diaper rash.  Each tooth seems painstaking...painstakingly slow!).  She is slow and steady with new skills.  She has been able to pull up to standing for quite some time, but chooses to do it sparingly and only slowly increasing the use of new skills.  She is intense and will stare you down on first meeting.  She has a slow but easy smile...and an infectious laugh.  And she is enormous by our standards.  At her recent well check she was 17lbs7oz (25th%).  That is bigger than both Anna and Beatrice at a YEAR old.  But what is truly tremendous is her height!  She is 29 inches and between 75th and 90th% for height!  My other kids are all rather midgie little things!  If she didn't LOOK like a Salvucci baby we might wonder where she came from!  She is soft and warm and snugly and much beloved.

All Saint's Day

Today we celebrated All Saint's Day at our parish. It was an awesome day! We had a beautiful Mass followed by a potluck and then the kids each got a turn to present their saint while the other children guessed who they were.

My kids dressed as the three Fatima children and Our Lady of Fatima. And they were one of the winners for their age group.  Over 100 kids participated all together.

I have no idea why the sound did not come out on this video, but you get the idea.  Ben did a great job reading the clues for the family.

 

waiting for the festivities to start!

By this time of the day Buggy was well overdue for a nap.  So she was just "Buggin around" as we call it...She pulls off Portuguese peasant like no other!

we tried to get a quick snap of everyone together but this was right after they finished their turn and it was so busy and loud that they were already half undressed from costumes and totally not in the mood LOL

Here is most of the kids who participated!

All the wealth in the world cannot be compared with the happiness of living together happily united. 

-Blessed Margaret d’Youville 

We had two cords of wood delivered today to supplement the wood we have already from various sources.  Everyone here jumped in to help with the stacking (except me actually....I had to go feed Lucy and clean up dinner).  It does a momma's heart good when her children, as young as they are, still pitch in to help on these big jobs.  Ben is a master wood stacker!

A Visitor To Our Corn

A Typical Evening At The Salvucci House..

gotta get that girl a hairnet!

Doesn't every family gather round the table to make homemade sausage???

Pork shoulders have been on sale....so we now have quite a few pounds of homemade sausage in our freezer. 

And yes that is pureed something smeared across the babies head.  I promise you she was properly bathed before getting her jammies on and going to bed.

Lederhosen

Claudio came home from his parent's house several weeks ago with some of his old stuff that was still in their closets. One of the things in his bag were these two lederhosen! I knew I had seen a picture of Claudio and his brother wearing them.

My kids loved these outfits so much that they have actually put the on for fun a few times since I took these pictures. They are pretty cute!

she of course had to make a silly pose

yes, that is Ben's underweear poking out from the bottom of the shorts.  70s shorts are shorter than today's underwear.

Here is the only picture I could find of little Claudio wearing the same outfit!

Poetry Extravaganza!

Catching up a bit....One poem from a few weeks ago for Anna and the other two were recorded today.  Enjoy!


Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson



The Cow by Robert Louis Stevenson


Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost


And of course Buggy must have her turn!