Monte's Birthday

7 years old on October 11th! We are so thrilled to be Monte's parents, and so proud of all he's done in that 7 years. We had a monkey party...his favorite song since he was 2 has been the Monkey and the Alligator song-so this party was a long time coming! Too bad we didn't have Croc, Emilie and Cam's 7 foot gator that we babysat while they were in Australia, he would've been a perfect prop! As always, Doug had fun with this cake. Although we had a pretty tough day, and lots of things went wrong, including the ear of the monkey falling off and sliding down the wall before collapsing on the floor in a mess of frosting.
Our top 7 things of this year were:
7 Spending time with G&G Higley, Wellington, and Grandma Fogelquist (but it's been over a year and it's time to visit again!)
6 Getting a new "fort bed"
5 Staying (mostly) healthy and only having minor procedures. (Although he's having a small eye surgery on Nov 11, so please keep him in your prayers)
4 Teasing his sister, and laughing as she "helps" him with everything. She likes to put food in his mouth, share her drinks, bring him toys (and drop them on his head), and try to drag him across the room to play with her. I just noticed that she's feeding him Nerds as he lays on the floor, excuse me!!
3 Being properly diagnosed by an Epiliptologist and treated by wonderful physicians at St. Louis Children's Hospital. She re-did his EEG's and completely changed his seizure medications. He's been completely removed off of two of them, and we weaned onto a small dose of a new, better medication. Now we've been slowly weaning him off of the final (old) medication. He will be completely off in January, but with every incremental dose change, we see so much more of our "Monte" back! He's come out of the fog he's been in, he's signing sentences again, trying more vocalizations, walking and standing more, and he's just so much more alert and aware. Hooray!! It's hard to summarize our feelings on this subject properly, so moving on...
2 Continuing to make great friends at school and spending his time in a regular 1st grade class. (Hence the reason we moved out here in the first place!) He's the king of the school, everyone knows his name, and they make him feel so special.
1 Monte is now nearly running in his walker! He is purposefully lifting both feet, one after another, and carefully placing them up and down...and he's doing it so fast! We took him to the school playground Saturday and were in awe at his speed and endurance. This is a first for him and we are so, so, so, so, so thrilled.



The hair is my favorite part.!

Piper can't take her eyes off the cake, but Monte is just thrilled to be with Daddy!