Our little Peanut turned the big "1" year old on October 23rd!! It's hard for me to grasp the fact that a year has passed since we had our triplets. Some days it feels like time is flying and others I feel like I've aged 20 years. This is kind of a bittersweet time of year for us. We were able to celebrate how far Charlotte has come over the past year and how much joy she's brought to us and to so many other people, but at the same time we were missing our boys. Brian and I recently decided to name a star after our boys. So the next time you're looking at the Big Dipper, know that one of the stars up there is called "JakeGus2006". I believe that that light shining down on us is them letting us know that they're happy and that they're watching over all of us. I think eventually that will be a good way for us to introduce Charlotte to her brothers.
For Charlotte's birthday party we had a gorgeous, hot, sunny day filled with family, friends, and lots of food. Thanks to everyone who brought or sent us a donation for the NICU!! We were able to bring them so much stuff - preemie clothes, crib toys, lotions and soaps for the staff, a soothing motions glider, books, CDs and portable CD players with speakers. They were very excited to receive everything and I'm glad that we could give something back to the people that did so much for our family.
For Charlotte's birthday weekend we were very lucky to have Aunt Kari come to town for a visit! We started our weekend off with a pumpkin carving contest, seeing as it was right before Halloween. Brian, Kari and I each carved our own pumpkin and at Charlotte's party we let the guests decide who's was the best. It would appear that our guests didn't know good pumpkin carving when they saw it, cuz Brian's "Witch Holding the Pumpkin" won. He used a stencil, People! How about some points for originality?? Anyways, let just put it this way .... mine was the cool one.Not only was it Charlotte's birthday in October, but there were many 1st birthdays to celebrate ..... my best friend Patty's daughter, Olive, my college buddy Julie's son, Spencer, and my friend Jen's daughter, Abigail. AND there's been quite a few births lately .... my friend Kathy from high school gave birth to little Terry Jr. a few days ago, and my friend Stefanie in Connecticut had little Mia in mid-October. And remember me mentioning the other triplet mom from the NICU before? We've become good friends over the past year, and while her three angels will never be forgotten, I'm very happy to report that a few weeks ago she gave birth to a healthy, 9 lb 2 oz baby boy. Little Tommy has brought a lot of much deserved joy into his parent's lives!
In late October we went to a Halloween-themed NICU reunion at Loyola Hospital. Charlotte went as a doctor, decked out in her scrubs and stethescope. Here is a pic of Charlotte and Dr. Muraskas, the co-director of the NICU at Loyola. We were very lucky to have Dr. Muraskas taking care of Charlotte while she was in the NICU, and it was great to see him again. Btw, in this pic you can also see what Charlotte's helmet looks like. She's definitely grown to accept it and to be honest, I think she feels weird when she doesn't have it on. As soon as we take it off she's looking for it, as if to say, "Hey! I'm naked!". We still don't know how much longer she'll have to wear it, but I'm hoping that it will be off by the end of the year. We've already noticed a huge difference in the shape of her head. It's amazing how quickly they work. It's also amazing how smelly her head gets! Whew!!! It's like someone opened up a gym locker when she takes it off. I'll be very glad when she's done wearing it. 
Not only did October bring a plethora of birthdays, but it also brought Charlotte's first real Halloween (I'm not counting the one in the NICU). On the actual day of Halloween Charlotte was a pumpkin. I didn't take her trick-or-treating because 1. She had no idea what was going on, and 2. we didn't need that extra candy sitting around the house. So, instead of going out, we let all the kids come to us! Brian and I set up some lawn chairs in the front driveway and had a great time seeing all the kids come by in their costumes. We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood, so we had a really good turn-out this year.Lots of people ask me, "What's Charlotte doing these days?" She's still working on being able to sit up on her own. She's getting stronger everyday, but she still has a ways to go. She now has the strength to sit up, but she hasn't quite caught on to the concept of catching herself when she starts to fall over, so she still needs some assistance. She's also starting to be able to hold herself up on all fours, so maybe by the time she has her "adjusted age first birthday" she'll be crawling. She's still getting therapy in the house three times a week and twice a month we go out to Child's Voice. Charlotte manages to keep a pretty full social calendar. At her last doctor visit she was just shy of 16 pounds and at this point we can consider her lung disease to have healed. Yay!! Although, I'm still going to be careful with her in the winter months when it comes to being around people with colds, etc. Sixteen pounds doesn't offer you alot of reserves if you get sick.
Brian and Charlotte are still going to swimming on Tuesdays while I'm in class. According to Brian all he has to do is hold her head with one hand and she'll float along all calm and just look around. I gotta see this!
TOOT! TOOT! Did ya hear that? That's the sound of me tooting my own horn. My Chemistry class is going MUCH better than I thought it would. I'm probably jinxing myself here, but I got 105% on my first test and 99% on my second one. I don't know if I'll be able to keep that up, but at least I know that at one point in my life, I understood something about Chemistry. I have another month left until class is over and then I can take advantage of the winter break and catch up on my Harry Potter reading.
I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all my family and friends for helping me though a long year. Thanks for hanging with me through the rough times, and for cheering along side us during the good times!
