Long Version: Christmas Card Update with the Gramkows

Beckett birth announcements/Christmas cards/Thank Yous are DONE! WAHOO! Better late, than never, right? I really hope I didn't miss anyone. 

So, it's finally time to sit down and write. As I try and think of a "wrap-up" for this year, all I can say is PHEW...we made it. What a whirlwind of a year it's been. We officially have had Beckett home for a year! Crazy to seem how fast that went even though through it, it seemed like it was going SO SLOW!

Still SO thankful for your prayers, support and encouragement to our family. We seriously are forever grateful.

So what is up with Team Gramkow now?

Ben has been working at Lockheed-Martin as an Electronics Engineer now for 3.5 years! Crazy how fast that has gone! He is such a great worker. We are so proud of him. Even though Ellie asks him every day if he has to go to work today, we are so thankful for his provision for our family. He has great co-workers so that is an added bonus. He has gotten to travel frequently to New York lately, and is looking forward to visiting his sister, Anna and her husband, Fred on the tail end of his February trip. Jealous I can't go too, but am thankful he is getting in some quality time with the fam. He continues to be a Deacon of Facilities for our church family. We've been rotating every who goes to our Young Marrieds Sunday School Class and Church since it's lovely Cold and Flu Season, but have enjoyed our fellowship there. It's been great to "get back into the swing" since we were gone so long while Beckett was in the NICU. He also just cracks me up in his love for learning. He has taken up a hobby of photography. He is making home-made contraptions,MacGyver style as camera accessories. Looks awfully silly to me, but he loves the logic behind it all. To him it's functional, so that's all that matters. Ben also is mastering making his own greek yogurt. I've started cooking with it as a healthy substitute, but he and Ellie just devour it as a snack. Not sweet enough for me yet, but he keeps running scientific experiments and will get the perfect combination yet for my palette. No seriously, he keeps notes on engineering paper. It is serious. I love it. Just makes me chuckle. He continues to be Mr. Fix it around the house with his little shadow, Ellie. She loves getting tools out with daddy and helping every chance she gets.

Mandy has been doing the Stay-At-Home-Mom thing. I feel like now, I can finally breathe a little easier. Even though we are still doing bi-weekly/monthly therapies for Beckett, it's just different. Different because he's older, different because we are "dare I say past" his feeding issues, different because we are just farther away from the so fragile, scary NICU time. And for that, I am thankful. I have been able to spend some awesome, quality time with the kids (even though I do sometimes complain that we are confined to our house because of Cold and Flu Season). It's been such a joy to see Beckett and Ellie both grow and develop. They truly are SO MUCH FUN. In October I started watching Davis (who is now 6 months old, CRAZY!) full-time. So he's been a fun addition to our "daytime family." He and Beckett are nearly the same size. Ellie and I love taking care of "the boys." And Ellie loves having Davis around too. We'll see if that changes when we have two boys crawling all around getting into her stuff. It's been great to have Davis, and honestly it's been good accountability for me as a mom to my own kids. We try and do fun things, crafts especially for Ellie who currently isn't going to preschool. I've tried to step up my Mom Game to fill in that void. It's been such a joy too to be able to give back to preemie families too this past year. We raised support for a table sponsorship at Burgers for Babies last May (and we will again this year!) for NICU Helping Hands. It's been awesome to start a Mom's Group for Preemie/NICU mom's to talk about life after the NICU. I'm so thankful that the support we raised is directly affecting efforts I'm directly a part of in our local community. Last month we had 10 preemie moms there! And they have all quickly become such close friends. Two of them I am really close with, and we talk a lot about preemie stuff. It's so great to have a continued support network, and to be in a position to mentor moms who follow in the NICU journey. It's also been a joy for Ben and I to share at the NICU Parent Dinners. We have one coming up this week, and again in March. I turned the big 3-0 this year, and have been a kick to get healthier! I've been running and training for a 2-mile and 5K race back in Kansas with my best friends from graduate school (aka the grad girls). We are all torturing ourselves through the training, but we are SO going to do this! So glad we are doing it together! I also just signed up to be an Independent Consultant for Rodan and Fields Dermatologists (they created Proactiv) so here's to a new healthy skin year too! It's true. No more Tupperware. But I am really excited about this product. I think a lot of people could benefit from it. Also, hoping that it will start my "I want to go back to school to be a NICU nurse" fund. Ben said that if want another degree, I have to pay for it. I know it will be down the road awhile. But it is something that I definitely want to pursue. Too bad you can't get college credit for just being a preemie mom! And times two! I'm so excited about what this year will hold for our family. I feel like it's off to a great start!

Ellie.  Our sweet 4 year old. You are such a free-spirit. I'm sure most of you noticed on facebook her new haircut that she gave herself. I was not happy about it, but she didn't seem to care one bit. She sure butched it, but is totally rocking a cute pixie cut now. The first thing she said after we got it "fixed" was "Oh, I look like Grandma. And I look like Tinkerbell!" Thank God for one princess who has short hair. Ellie did have to pay for her "fix" haircut from her piggy bank. As she emptied out each coin one-by-one, she asked, "Mom, do you really need my dollar too?" Silly Ellie. Ellie continues to do gymnastics and Awana as her "substitute" of preschool. She LOVES gymnastics, and is pretty good because she is so flexible. She loves to play gymnastics at home too, and leads stretches even when Ben and I work out. She corrects  us when we are doing it "wrong." She amazes me in her ability to learn and memorize her Bible verses for Awana. She likes Sundays because she gets to see her buddy Jon Jon twice usually that day. She loves anything crafts and coloring. She currently has "Kitty" (the build-a-bear animal) that she carries around all the time, treats her just like a baby. Kitty is now the bed-time necessity. Bedtime has been interesting. Ellie wakes up at least once in the night. She is now at the age where she just flat out tells us she doesn't want to go to bed. She has tested her boundaries with staying in her room at night, so we implemented the "you get two free passes" to come out of your room. If you save some for the end of the week, than you'll get a surprise. This has worked great until recently when she has more than one time expressed concern that she wanted to use a pass, but we weren't awake. Silly Ellie. I am also one proud mama as Ellie is officially reading. She LOVES to read. I seldom get to read a book to her myself these days. She's all about taking turns. I think she will be ready for Kindergarten when it's time! She is still my awesome sous-chef and loves to cook! I think she might know where stuff is the kitchen better than Ben.

Beckett. 15 months/12 months adjusted age. He is all boy! He is crawling and into everything! Electrical cords seem to be his favorite, and even thought I have baby proofed, he still manages to find something. He has mastered the tip toe reach, and that has helped him do things like unroll the toilet paper, play in the toilet water and flush. I swear he is a door whisperer. I think I have them closed, and then wonder where Beckett is. He is a fast little guy too. He's currently napping, or supposed to be napping, which is why I have time to sit and write. Actually yesterday, he used his go-go gadget arm to reach through his crib to the monitor that was obviously too close. Seriously kid. :) Keeps me on my toes, but I love it. He is currently getting Physical Therapy 3 times a month, which will switch to 2 times a month. We are working on walking. He has taken a good few steps by himself, and just last week I felt like he had breakthrough. He seems more controlled, and that he's actually trying to think about walking. He still leans forward quite a bit, so we are trying to use "The Juppy" which helps me hold him and give him support. (think marionette puppet like) The goal is to practice with him that he can keep going with walking. Not just crash after two steps.

We go to Occupational Therapy every other week. Ben has started taking him on his off Friday. He can now clap, wave, play peek-a-boo and kind of blow kisses. He now can officially put things "back in" the containers. WAHOO! We've been working on this for a long time! He helps take off his clothes when we change him (this is an OT thing). We currently are working on stacking things and dipping foods at the high chair. (Since they do help with feeding stuff too). We are practicing banging things (think like pounding a hammer). Speaking of feeding, he is eating pretty much any table food we are. Which is so exciting. He does still eat baby food. His favorite food hands down, is the banana, in raw form. He is getting Speech Therapy monthly, and we have been working on sign language, and still a lot of silly play talk. He has really starting babbling a lot lately. We cannot for the life of us get him to say animal sounds. But he does say a mama (a version) and dada. His latest is one that sounds like a turkey. I have to get it on video. It's so stinkin' cute. He has 8 teeth now. #8 finally poked through. He just smiles all the time. He and Ellie still like to scream converse with each other, which gets kind of loud. But hey, it's conversational play! And mimicking! So it totally counts! This Friday, we go to GI for his 3 month follow up. We shall see if they want to continue the Nexium, Miralax. I don't think he deals with reflux now, but also have been on the med so long, that maybe that is the key. We're also hoping to get the go ahead to switch to Whole Milk since he is now 1 year adjusted age. And the thought of not having to clean bottles anymore....wow...that's crazy! Per speech therapy recommendations, he drinks from a honey bear straw. It doesn't have a valve, and it works really well. So the transition away from bottles, we will go to the straw cup. In hopes that this will continue to help his speech by strengthening those cheek and lip muscles.

Please join us in praying for Beckett's upcoming eye surgery. It's scheduled for February 5. They will move millimeters of an eye muscle to align them back to the center. He currently has one eye that crosses in horizontally, and the other (left, the worse eye) crosses in horizontally, and down (think over and down toward his nose/then lips) Dr. Packwood said that Beckett's case appears to be a "textbook" case, which is great. That is not usually the case in the NICU. It should be an in out surgery, but we are having it done at Cook's specialty clinic based on his history. Also, it sounds like recovery is fairly quick. We'll play in dim light for a day, and then he should be back to normal playing self. His eyes will look bloodshot for maybe even up to a couple weeks. So with Ellie's butchered haircut, and Beckett's bloodshot eyes, we'll be kind of a hot mess. Good thing we had family pictures done back in November! :)

All in all, we are so thankful for how far our little miracle boy has come this year. We couldn't have gotten through it all with out each of you! Thanks for caring for our sweet family. Can't wait to see what God has in store for Team Gramkow this year. May it be a year of praise for the great things HE has done for us! May it be full of laughter and joy!