A Fabulous Evening & a Trip to the ER

I thought I'd start off this post with a couple of pics of the little angels. In case you were wondering... Ellie is feeding kitty - she was cracking us up! And Ephraim has no idea if his crib rocks or not because he's only ever been in it for about 5 minutes. We love the co-sleeper. He still wakes up about every 3 hours to eat - it's how football players are made!

I had to share about our perfect evening. Saturday at lunch I told Scott I wanted a big juicy steak for dinner. (Remember I'm off all milk and soy products due to Ephraim's allergies). We decided there could be no milk or soy in steak. So we took both kids and went to The Chop House in Chattanooga. I had a steak & plain sweet potato. It was sooo good! Both of our children were perfect. And I'm pretty sure we've started a trend - the people next to us were looking for a baby name & loved "Ephraim". They were still talking about it when we left the restaurant. Remember folks, you heard it here first! Then we went shopping, again the kids were perfect. We topped the night off with Starbucks. I couldn't get anything, but I enjoyed the smell of Scott's coffee all the way home!

Now I can't post without mentioning tonight's little adventure...on the way to gymnastics Ellie starts screaming and crying about a booger she can't get out of her nose. Well, that booger turned out to be the little cap from Scott's insulin pen needle. My nephew just had an ER visit for a lego up his nose, so I called my sister. They finally got it out by stopping up the other nostril and blowing in his mouth. We went on to gymnastics so I could lay her out on the floor and give it a try. I got it down where I could see it, but couldn't get it out. I took her behind the desk so I wouldn't have an audience - I did anyway - about 10 onlookers had gathered by the time we were leaving... and they all had advise. And yes, I tried every one's advise. We still ended up at the ER.

Our wonderful pediatrician just happened to be working there tonight. Ellie got to see Dr. Jung, got a coloring book and crayons, a popsicle, and they blew bubbles for her the entire time they were trying to retrieve said item. I'm thinking... why wouldn't she want to do this again! The little girl beside us was there for a second time having something removed from her nose. And Ellie has already asked a few times what happened to "daddy's needle". What do you have to do to teach a kid a lesson?

5 Months Old

January 22, Ephraim is 5 months old! I can't believe it!

He had a doctors visit this past Thursday and weighed in at 17 lbs 3 oz and was 26 inches long. He is 75th percentile on weight, height, and head circumference - perfectly proportioned! What a difference from Ellie. She barely weighed 15 pounds when we brought her home at 9 & 1/2 months. I wanted to post comparison pics, but our computer has crashed a few times since then and so pics that old are no longer on my hard drive. I'll have to ask Scott how to do it.

Anyway, happy 5 months, baby boy!

We're Still Here...

It has been a while since we've posted. The McGhee's have been very busy!

Let me first summarize the "behind the scenes" of December. In early December, Ephraim was diagnosed with some food allergies. I had to stop eating milk, soy, and any derivative of them. It was difficult at first. It seems like everything has soy in it - who would have thought! Scott, however, has been very diligent to find me things to eat. He has been frequenting the new GreenLife grocery in downtown Chattanooga. We've discovered some really good (though not cheap) foods that I can eat. We've even been getting fresh bread from the Great Harvest Bakery - delicious - it will be hard to go back to regular bread! Ephraim is doing much better now. As long as I am breast feeding him I'll be on this diet. Per our pediatrician, most kids grow out of these allergies by the time they are one. She said at out last visit that we could start trying some milk at around nine months.

Then, two days before Christmas, Scott broke his foot. Was he biking or running, you might ask. Neither. He says he wish it were that glorious. He was chasing a cat down the hall in his Burkenstocks. It was a Sunday and I was at work. He was home with our two kids and his parents were already in Ohio for Christmas. My mom, with my sister's 18 month in tow, and my Aunt Di kept the kids while my step-dad took Scott to the ER. It has been a difficult injury for him. All his "sports", which he cannot do now, really help with keeping his blood sugar down. So now he is "dieting" as well. Please pray for him to heal quickly and without complications.

We are having to update some of our paperwork for the adoption. As part of that I went for a physical the last part of December. When my labwork came back I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. This explained alot - my EXTREME tiredness, extremely dry skin, and possibily my inability to loose my last bit of "baby weight". I started on a drug called Synthroid, and let me tell you, it is like a miracle drug. I am feeling like myself again, instead of the near narcoleptic that I had become! And it was immediate - I felt better after the first dose of my medicine. My skin is better and I am almost back to my normal weight with no changes in what I've been eating. Thank God for having to redo paperwork because I would have never gone to the doctor.

So that was December. Do you see why our posts have been lacking?

This January we celebrated some anniversaries. January 8th was the day I found out I was pregnant with Ephraim last year. January 15th marked one year from the day our paperwork was logged in to China for baby Eva (we submitted it November 28th - well before we knew about Ephraim, but would have submitted it anyway even if we'd known about him). And we celebrated Scott's birthday on January 18th.

We are looking forward to what 2008 will bring. Ephraim is growing so fast and Ellie gets more grown up every day. We will try and do better with our posts and I'll do pictures next time - I promise!