2003 Vaules Family Christmas Letter

Where do I start? All is well with the Minnesota Vaules, not that it took a bit of work to get to this point. I guess this letter will slip into the parental bragging mode fairly quickly, so load up on the No-Doze and make yourself comfortable. You see, we have this kid named Andy. Have we told you about him? No? Then you really haven’t been paying attention, have you? Shame on you! This is the point in the letter where I remind you (okay, warn you) of my sarcastic wit. If you are native of Minnesota, sarcasm might be foreign to you. If you are a native of Iowa, I’ll try to use smaller words.

All About Andy (Sort of…)

Notice how this letter is a little later than normal? I have been dealing with a few issues with dear Andy. First, he has currently fallen into “Daddy’s Boy” mode, where he does anything he can to crawl over to me, stand-up against my chair, and then demands to be picked up. I am a human jungle gym, which has made writing this letter a little difficult, especially when my chin is being used as a toe-hold. Andy has been every bit a little boy, and his laugh is quite infectious. His favorite toy is any computer keyboard, which is generally the one I am using. He crawls, and crawls, and crawls, and as with all little boys, he can quickly find something to get into he shouldn’t. The VCR is his new target, and there is not a moment of the day we aren’t chasing after him.

Please realize that Andy is still a preemie, and we deal with issues surrounding his early birth every day, but that being said he is really doing well. If there is anything you should take away from this letter is, Andy is a very, very happy kid. His smile makes us forget what hell he has been through. He will be 18 months old (15 months adjusted), 29” tall, and around 17.5 pounds in mid-December. It has been a long year of watching Andy progress through babyhood, and he has taken great strides. We don’t have anything to compare his progress to, so for all we know this is the way babies progress. In reality, we know he is behind even his adjusted age (in some areas). We have a physical therapist and an early childhood education teacher come to the house weekly to work with Andy. At the beginning of the summer, the PT stated that she did not expect Andy would start crawling before January. He started in August. He wasn’t sitting in August, and the PT hoped he would be sitting on the floor for 1 minute at a time in September. His first time out unassisted he sat for 20+ minutes shortly afterward. He has continued to send the PT and Teacher back to rewrite their goals a few times. This is pretty indicative of Andy this year, and Renae and I watch in wonderment of his progress. At this point Andy is crawling fast, standing and walking using furniture, and crawling up stairs. I think you know what is next and what better present for Renae and I, considering he could walk his first steps as early as Christmas day.

As for Andy’s overall health, he is good. He has had the sniffles, but overall has not dealt with anything big. We are hiding again this winter, with RSV and now the Flu, who can blame us, the last thing we need is to have him catch something. We will be social again in March or April. His eyes are still a big concern. He was diagnosed with glaucoma in his left eye in October, and had to have surgery on Halloween morning. The surgery went well, and the pressure went down, but as with everything else, we will have to wait to see the long-term prognosis. He will need to have a follow up exam under anesthesia on December 30. At this point, his vision in his left eye is significantly worse than that of his right eye, and the doctors are talking about using contact lenses to correct what they can. There is no doubt that Andy has vision, the question is what (if any) are his prevailing blind-spots. As always, we wait and see – in the mean time Andy shows us he thinks things are okay.

Family, Family and More Family

Well, you have a kid, and people want to visit you. Go figure. Obviously the grandparents, both sides, crossed our doorway many times during the year. We have a small house, and so the guest room is Andy’s room as well, so they have to get used to navigating around baby furniture and toys. My brother Rich and his wife Sarah came to visit in the summer, and we recently found out that they are expecting their first child next year, so my Mother will be spread a little thinner. Currently, only my Sister Ginger, (and family) is the only immediate family not to meet Andy (yes, I am using guilt, it’s my brotherly prerogative).

Andy has made a few appearances at Renae’s family functions, including a wedding last summer. A major change has happened in our lives; Renae’s parents moved closer to us. It was not without using Andy as the final straw, though. Grandma wanted to move a long time ago, but it took a grandson to get grandpa to move. While they aren’t that close (3 hours) it is half the time it used to take. They are living in the same town as a lot of other family members, so we sleep better a night.

Renae and I were asked to be the Godparents of Charlie Vaules, the son of my cousin Will and his wife Megan. We all made a trip to Rochester (Minnesota) for Charlie’s baptism the weekend of Andy’s first birthday. We had a great time with all of the family, with Andy meeting cousins, friends and my Aunt Martha and Uncle David (I have one set, Renae has dozens). On our way home, we swung by and picked up 4 dozen Krispy Kremes, and headed over to the NICU to say hi to Andy’s nurses on his birthday. Then, we headed home to what Andy would do when presented with a cupcake. It really didn’t pan out the way we figured.

Andy’s Big Adventure(s)

Things are somewhat better here, which allowed us to take a couple of trips. We went “up north” in the beginning of the summer. It was an okay trip to a resort that caters to fishing and golf. Of course, we did neither. We did try and take Andy swimming, which did not go over well. This did teach us how to travel with children – always have access to a washing machine…

Andy’s first airplane trip was a successful one. We visited my brother Todd, his wife Maggie, and nephew Connor in Columbia, South Carolina in October. Once there, we all went to Hilton Head Island, and spent a few days with them, and then a few days just the three of us before returning to Columbia. We had a lot of fun, and found Andy’s inner “water-baby.” He loved the pool, but loved the beach even more. We had fun, too, and got to be Aunt and Uncle to nephew Connor.

March of Dimes & Walk America

Finally, I mentioned last year that we were asked to be the Twin Cities “Ambassador Family” for the March of Dimes, and we will be again for 2004. Renae volunteered on the organizing committee for their “Star Chefs” event, I was named to the State Executive Board, and I speak publicly for the organizatio

n a few times this year. We had planned to get a group up (“Team Andy”) to walk last year. Well, Andy (and I) was not ready, but we are this year.

If you are interested in joining Team Andy for WalkAmerica, you can sign up online and walk as a part of our team anywhere in the United States. If you are interested, just visit http://www.walkamerica.org, and register for “Team Andy”, you can pick any walk site near you. We are walking at the Minneapolis site. If you can’t walk, but want to sponsor Andy

(not that he will be walking, but in a stroller), you can pledge at http://www.walkamerica.org/andyvaules — but we hope you can join us to walk. Last year, after the mention in our Christmas letter another team formed 40+ people to walk for a preemie buddy of Andy, named Joe. We don’t have to be in one place to be a team, and Renae and I are working on at least 40 people nationwide. We will keep updates on Andy’s website for the event, http://www.teamandy.org – I hope you can walk or help.

To All a Good Night

So ends a less than stellar version of the Christmas letter. I’ll try harder next year, but face it – if there is nothing big to write about it’s been a good year. This is the year Andy will find the boxes and wrapping paper more interesting that the gifts themselves. This is just another teaching job for Daddy. Come on Andy, toys are fun…

Tagged as: Christmas, Minnesota, Sarcasm