Lia participated in the March of Dimes, Walk America for Prematurity recently (see pictures below). Matt's work had a large sponsorship for it and Calle and Christian were the Worker's Compensation Fund, March of Dimes Ambassadors. It was wonderful to see so many people giving support and so much media attention given to Prematurity. Lia thoroughly enjoyed her involvement and was happy to leave the inspiring pictures of the kids in the March of Dimes "Field of Hope". On the lighter side of the day, Lia didn't anticipate any soreness from the 3.5 miles, but had some doubts after climbing the available rock wall.

We have been jumping for joy over Christian's recent progress at "mach 3". It seems like overnight he's turned into a 'regular' baby, from having so many 'special needs'. Lia was never so happy to carry Christian anywhere around the house just because she can.

We are anxiously awaiting the day we say goodbye to Calle's oxygen as well. The RSV scare is reported to be over, and with the above development coming soon, we can start enjoying some sunshine and somewhere else besides home and the doctor's office.

Calle seems to be picking up on the amount of attention Christian gets because of the "I'm awake and alert...entertain me" attitude he has 75% of the time. Our easy-going gal is changing with plenty of "I think I should be held now" and "don't you want to play with me because I'm so precious and cute" statements. She is having more and more conversations and even bigger smiles, it is so fun!

Calle is slowly but surely progressing with eating from the bottle and is weaning herself down to the last setting of her oxygen. Mom is projecting the O2 will be gone in a couple of weeks. After seeing a G.I. Specialist and having a stomach xray, they've determined Calle has the obnoxious type of reflux (as opposed to the kind that needs surgical attention). Doctors are very pleased with her weight gain curve and the excellent progression with her vision.

WE ARE ALL DOING A HAPPY DANCE-

First, Christian's feeding tube was pulled on the 13th after the thoughts of several were blaming his tube for his reflux...they were right it began to be too irritating. We replace it in the middle of the night for remaining calories and shortly after pull it again for bottling during the day. Christian started off taking around 100cc during the day, currently he is breaking records, and pushing the envelope at 250cc during the day. What a good boy and a great eater!

Second, and his oxygen tubes were discarded on the 21st! We had been doing "room air" tests with him periodically at night, which he always passed above and beyond. So, Mom took off his nasal canula and after checking his saturation several different times throughout the day and night, we never replaced it. What a wonderful thing! We know he loves not have anything on his face and Mom and Dad love not dragging around any tubes or tanks.

He is such our "fun boy", always taking you up on playtime and conversation. He is rolling everywhere except all the way over yet and loves to grab anything you put near him (yes, really- anything).