I Love My Boys!

Backyard Fun

Michael is having difficulty with me being laid up, so on Sunday I tried to get out a bit and have a little fun with him.

Grandma's Girl

Nana is seriously a grandma's girl. I'll be holding her and my mom will pass and Nana will practically jump out of my arms to be with her grandma. My mom also can make her crack up which Tony and I have seen once, but my mom makes her laugh everyday.

Piano Time

Soccer Boy

Knee Surgery

For the last couple of days I have been recovering from knee surgery. The initial injury happened when I was 16. I was testing for my 2nd degree black belt when I hyper-extended my knee and landed on it, and continued on to complete my test (bad idea). As a result, I was in a knee brace for several weeks. In high school and college I ran track and cross country where my knee started locking. Finally one track practice in college, my knee locked and I couldn't pop it back in and that's when I had my first knee surgery.

Since then I've been running, swimming, or biking most of my adult life either for fun or competitively. This last pregnancy I fell on my knee and it's been locking again. I think all the physical exercise was too much for my knee and it finally had it.

I also had joint damage and that's when the orthopedic surgeon said I should start looking for a low impact sport such as biking or swimming.

Thank goodness for my mom and all her help. I couldn't have had this surgery without her and my dad too for letting my mom come.

I'll be on crutches for 2-3 weeks until my brace comes in and I'm still not quite sure when I have to wear it. For now, I'm couch surfing while my knee heals.

First day after surgery with a nifty ice machine.

Day 2 without the padding, gauze, and ice machine.

I'm also have a headache and itchy from the anesthesia.

Baby Face

Do you recognize that cute little baby face?

Dadda Serenades Nana

More Photos

Ice Cream for Michael

Make a Joyful Noise

Good Morning Nana!

I am so relieved that about a week ago Nana finally started laughing and is even smiling at strangers. Now if you talk to her, she'll give you the cutest toothless grins. It's so cute as you'll see in this video.

Sprinkler Fun

Pretty N Pink

Mama Mary Video

More Pilgrimage Photos

Finally!

Finally we were able to catch Nana's big ole cute smile. These were the smiles I was talking about. And what a great day to capture these smiles, on Nana's feast day. Since Nana has Mary as her patron, we chose the Assumption to celebrate Nana's feast day.

We celebrated her feast day by making a pilgrimage to a local shrine. Tomorrow I'll post those pictures.

Happy Feast Day!

At thirty something hours into labor, I had this overwhelming sense our baby would be a boy. It was the feast of the Immaculate Conception and I wanted to somehow honor Our Lady, so I asked Tony if we could add another middle name to our already seemingly long boy's name: Kolbe for Maximilian Kolbe, but how could he say no after thirty something hours of labor and soon to be c-sectioned.

Maximilian Kolbe loved Mary and wanted to make Christ's mother better known and loved. He is also known as the man for others because he laid down his life for another.

Today we celebrated Michael's feast day with a gift and were going to have ice cream which he usually doesn't get, but it was too late by the time we came home.

Michael with his friends