We wished you a Merry Christmas!

Although we didn't get our Christmas wishes out to everyone again this year, our family and friends, as always, were on our minds. It's hard to believe that yet another year has passed by. It's hard to know where to start. Perhaps the most obvious change is the best place... we have (as many of you know) added a little Swann to our family! Preston James is our busy, happy boy. If we had known how easily he'd fit in and how much joy he'd bring, we'd have had him a long time ago! :-) Gracie might not so readily agree to that one! She absolutely adored him when he was born... he was small and still! While she likes him now, she's not fond at all of his fast hands that constantly attack her hair and her feeding tube! We cannot turn our backs for a second when he's awake. He has (they both do) all of these great toys and he's most interested in the tubing on Gracie's suction machine, her feeding tube and the wheels on her IV pole that holds her feeding pump. Go figure. He's already pulling up to a stand and trying to cruise furniture... and he just turned 8 months on Jan 9th. He's really an easy baby to take care of... as long as he's free to roam and play. He loves his Daddy (who doesn't love his Daddy? He's so much fun!) and especially enjoys his "boy" time with him. Rough-housing is the name of this baby's game! It doesn't take much to make him laugh right out loud! You can see a little bit of mischief in this picture... and his red cheeks from drooling so much! He just cut two teeth a few weeks ago.
Gracie is appropriately jealous of him which is so great to see... and it's funny... toys that she hasn't cared about in years, if ever, are now being played with because she saw Preston with them! If his hands aren't free to ambush her, she does seem to like him still... but long gone are the early days when they'd lie next to each other cuddling and she could stare at him for an hour!
The last 18 months have been pretty tough for Miss Gracie... there's been a lot going on with her health. From July of 2006 thru December, she was hospitalized five times. Not a good year. Since we were in the hospital during Christmas in 2006, we didn't get our "annual" update and Christmas card out then, either... Have I mentioned that time flies?
Gracie had her second (third counting her pacemaker placement) open-heart surgery in December of 2006. That was actually a breeze for her... especially compared to the first two. She handled it very well and healed quickly - - and having the trach made her airway access so easy. What's troubled her for the better part of 18 months or so is a series of GI issues that have made her quite ill - - that coupled with constant ear infections and a low grade fever for months and months. We are finally now starting to get a true handle on them (knock on wood) and are on the way to transitioning her to a classroom environment. (Cross your fingers! We have to work w/ the school district to come up with an agreeable transition process...) That's going to take time and a lot of patience, as new environments can cause her so much stress. She's so loving and social... it's just a tragedy that she's going to be five in April and hasn't really ever had the chance to interact with other kids other than in the waiting room at the doctors' offices. Hopefully, this is the last year that I have to say that we think the difficult health years are behind us... hopefully, they really are and she can start living a more normal childhood. She is, despite all she goes through, a miraculously happy little girl. She's so incredibly affectionate, she has a great sense of humor, she's strong-willed and SO stubborn! I have NO idea where she could have gotten that! :-)