Merry Christmas!!

Kale's first Christmas!!

Quality time with Nana Albrecht

Nana and Papa Albrecht

My...what big EYES you have!

Uncle Cory and Aunt Laura

Hanging with cousin Jordan on Christmas eve!

Just the girls (and Kale!)

Grandma Rainbow with her grandsons!

Love it

Dressed and ready to go to Christmas Eve service!

Family time!!

Naked time! This one's going on a graduation poster

Laughing at Dad

Well folks...Merry Christmas!!!! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, we certainly had a nice one and Kale seemed to enjoy his first Christmas. We traveled back to Cedar Rapids on Christmas eve then went to church with my parents and Sarah, Justin and Jordan. Kale wasn't a huge fan of church and spent most of the time out in the atrium with Derc since he was crying. We did get to go to the front of the church and accept a rose that the church gives out to new parents. Kale was introduced to the congregation and the pastor said a prayer for him. After church we drove through the cemetery to stop by Dad's site. It was dark and there was about a foot of snow, so we didn't get to get out of the car, but Kale wished Grandpa Tim a Merry Christmas. We spent the evening opening presents and eating dinner at my mom's house. The next morning we drove back to DM and had Christmas with the Albrecht side of the family. We had a wonderful dinner and gift exchange.

We're happy to report that Kale is doing wonderfully. He didn't get weighed last week as the nurse had an emergency, but we think he's probably close to 13 lbs. now. He had his pediatrician appointment earlier in the month and he was 12.4 lbs. and 23.5 inches. He had a rough day that day as he had 4 shots and then another shot for RSV the next day. Needless to say, we had a very grumpy baby on our hands for a few days. His cardiology appointment went ok. He wore a monitor for 24 hours and his average heart rate was 69 with a low point of 52. This is lower than they would like to see and about 10 beats per minute slower thanthe last time he wore it, but the cardiologist is still thinking we can hold off on a pacemaker until we see that average HR be between 50-55. You wouldn't know that his HR is slow, his energy level is certainly not low. He is so interactive now, it's great. He is smiling and laughing. He's almost sitting up on his own, we work with him daily on that. He's grasping onto things and is close to reaching for things. He holds on to our fingers and stands up on his own as well. He can stand for a few minutes on his own, just needs help balancing. It's so great to see him develop! We have a NICU follow up visit next week, so hopefully they will tell us he is right on track. His pediatrician told us she was happy with his progress, so that was good to hear. We are going to try rice cereal in the next few weeks, which I'm sure will come with some stories. He is drooling a TON, so we're waiting for those first teeth to come soon. I'm on vacation for 10 days in the next few weeks, so the big project then is going to be to try and get him in his own crib. Yes....he still sleeps in our room.

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update, will hopefully write more later in the week!