Brother and Sister

This is a slide show I created with pictures of Seth holding Hannah. It amazes me to see how different they are from one picture to the next. These are in order by date from the first time Seth held Hannah to the most recent time he asked to hold her. Following is an email I sent out yesterday. I am posting it here more for my sake than anything else. Hello All! I am writing to you from the comfort of my parent's home! I have had many calls and emails asking about the surgery/recovery/test results, etc. and thought it was about time to let you all know how I am doing. The surgery on Friday went very well. It was a bit shorter than expected and very successful. Recovery has been quite a process. Having never had surgery before I was not sure what to expect. I quickly learned that my recovery depended solely upon me! I was on morphine for about 36 hours. The doctors expected me to be on it for a bit longer but, after seeing my kids for the first time in 2 days on Saturday I felt a renewed strength. I took myself off of the morphine and took my first walk on Saturday evening. I continued to progress from there and had walked the halls 3 times before I saw my doctor on Monday morning and had already been on a diet of solid foods for 24 hours. When my doctor came in he gave us the good news that I would be going home after breakfast! So, I have been home since early Monday morning and I feel better and better each day. I won't lie and say I am feeling no pain...I certainly am, but the pain is manageable. If I didn't have two of the most wonderful kids in the entire world, I don't think I would have the motivation to heal so quickly. I did hear from the doctor on Tuesday. He called to give me the pathology report of the tumor. It was in fact cancerous but, the GREAT news is that is was a non-aggressive cancer and a low grade tumor. All the markers showed that the tumor was completely encapsulated and had not infiltrated any part of the kidney or surrounding areas. According to my doctor, I will not need any chemo or radiation therapy. I will have some follow-up but I am not sure what it will be yet. The doctor said he will explain it to me on Monday when I go in to have the staples removed. All in all I am feeling wonderful. The surgery went well and recovery is coming along fine! All I can say is thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. They were all answered and have been much appreciated! We did have Hannah's two month check up right before my surgery. She got 4 shots and did not like them one bit. Unlike Seth, she doesn't seem to handle her shots very well at all. She spent about an hour crying in pain after the first round of Tylenol wore off. It was so sad and made me so very upset for her that I almost cried right along with her. Her discomfort lasted for about 24 hours and then she was back to normal. She is growing like a weed, though! She weighed in at 12 pounds 2 ounces and was 23 inches long. She's quite the little girl now. She is awake more during the day and is very smiley most of the time. She is trying her best to talk to us. She coos and coos whenever anyone talks to her and has even sounded like she is on the verge of a giggle a few times. She is very interested in lights, the fan, the dogs and especially her big brother! He does get a little rough but, she doesn't care. Hannah is also very strong, just like Seth was and still is. She likes to sit up to look around and tries to stand whenever her feet hit a solid surface. She has been exploring her hands and we've even caught her with her thumb in her mouth a few times. We are quick to replace the thumb with her pacifier. As cute as a thumb sucker is, take from a 9 year veteran that it is EXTREMELY hard to get a thumb sucker to stop sucking their thumb. Since she likes the pacifier and it is easy to throw away when it is time, we'll just keep encouraging that! Seth is getting smarted with each and every day and his vocabulary increases two fold every day! He is now beginning to form sentences and is able to identify the dogs and cats by name rather than just puppy or kitty. He even came up with his own name for my sister's Toy Australian Shepherd, Logan. He calls him Puppy-Kitty! Logan is so small that Seth thought he was a cat and used to always call him kitty. Now he knows the difference but instead of calling him Logan, he is Puppy-Kitty! Seth has always had a mind of his own but you can see it developing more with every glance. He is quite sure of everything he wants or does not want and is very quick to tell you one way or the other. His new favorite is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He is constantly asking to watch "Nuh-Nouf". We try not to let him watch it more than twice a day but there are days that Mickey Mouse is the only thing that keeps him from being too cranky and we give in. Who wants to listen to a whiney 18 month old when you know the answer?!?!?!? He is becoming very independent and likes to feed himself now. It is quite messy, but if Seth is happy and eating well, we are quite happy. He's got to learn sometime anyway, so there's no time like the present! One final note, I am going to be making some changes to the websites - basically I'm trying to find a way to merge them so that I only have to update one family site. When I have it figured out and completed I'll let you all know. For now, I'll attach a couple of pictures to this email. I hope you all are doing well and I truly appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers! With love, Stephanie, Henry, Seth and Hannah