Go Tigers!!

Andrew's new favorite snack is popcorn...just like Daddy. This afternoon the boys enjoyed a bowl of popcorn together while watching the Mizzou Tigers. Like father, like son :)

Both digging in.

Tasty!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Nathan!!

We just can't get over how quickly time is flying by...our baby boy is two years old today!! It's difficult to put into words just how much Nathan means to us. We are so very proud of him and everything he has accomplished in such a short amount of time with so much to overcome.

Nathan is such a sweet, happy and lovable little boy. I have never seen someone have to work so hard at such a young age and Nathan fights every single day to get stronger and handle more and more in his daily routine. This past year he has made some significant progress. We have overcome several challenges and were faced with a couple more, but Nathan never gives up and always gives us 110%!!

We wish you a very happy birthday, Nathan and look forward to another successful year!!


The Birthday Boy!!


Our happy little guys.


Andrew showing Baby Nate his new book - The SENSEsational Alphabet Book!!


Nathan all smiles under his lion :)

Ring Around the Rosy

Andrew and Mommy playing "Ring Around the Rosy." This is a must lately. Please ignore my horrible singing!!

Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I am supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland had tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's where I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever go away because the loss of that dream was a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning that fact that your didn't get to go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special and lovely things about Holland.

Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments

Earlier this year, Nathan was referred to Delta Gamma from his pediatric ophthalmologist for Cortical Vision Impairment. This afternoon, Nathan had an assessment completed from Delta Gamma which confirmed this diagnosis. A simple way to describe this, is that Nathan has a hard time understanding or processing what it is that he is actually looking at. This is just another result from Nathan's brain damage at just a week old. How we deal with this is not as easy to explain. Delta Gamma will be added to the services that Nathan currently receives to make sure ALL of his therapy is done in the best visual environment possible. We are hoping that we can make a difference with Nathan's vision knowing that he already has a serious hearing impairment. We just take one day at a time and continue to have faith that Nathan will overcome all of these hurdles.

Back to Reality!!

WOW - nothing like jumping back into the full swing of things!! We got back in town late last night and boy, do we have a full week ahead of us. We are back to our regular schedule of school and therapies, but also have additional appointments every single afternoon trying to catch and keep up with our busy boys!! All is going well, but we are just keeping our heads up juggling everything that's going on!!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!!

Steve and I spent this week with his immediate family in Cabo. It was an absolutely AMAZING getaway for ALL of us and we had such a fabulous time. The weather was just gorgeous - 75+ degrees everyday and not a single cloud in the sky the entire time we were there. It was so out of our "normal" routine to wake up to the sunshine, take our time getting to breakfast and then lounging poolside or at the beach before heading out for the evening. It was a much-needed vacation and we can't THANK our parents enough for making it happen!! Thanks Mom & Dad Vehige for an incredible holiday and thanks Mom & Dad Bruemer and Aunt Laura for taking the best care of our boys allowing us to relax and kick-back without any worries for a bit!!


The 8 Vehige women.


Steve and I on our dinner sunset cruise by the famous Arch at Land's End.


Same cruise at sunset.

The majority of the Vehige clan partying at Cabo Wabo.

The Vehige family portrait on the beach :)

NICU Follow-Up

Today we spent the afternoon at St. John's Child Development Center for Nathan's 18 month evaluation (this is based on his adjusted age). We met with a Nurse Practitioner, Developmental Therapist, Physical Therapist and wrapped up the session with Nathan's Neurologist.

Nathan continues to make progress, but it is still very, very slow. At this point, the evaluation scores him at a 10 month level. As hard as it is to hear this, we know Nathan is still doing some amazing things that we didn't think we would see. Time is on our side and with LOTS of continued help we know Nathan will reach his potential. The doctor is pleased with Nathan's progress and we are to continue with his current therapies we have scheduled - OT, PT and St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf.

We are looking forward to an eventful year ahead of us with Nathan meeting some more milestones!!

Heitman Family Party

This afternoon we got together with all of Steve's cousins on his Mom's side of the family. All together there are 40 grandchildren whom most now all have families of their own - LOTS of people!! We had fun catching up with everyone and have some births and weddings to look forward to this year. Andrew had a blast running around with all of the kids :)

Trying to get a group shot of the great grandchildren...Andrew is the smallest one in the picture (on the right).

Happy New Year!!

We wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2011!! May you all be surrounded by loved ones and friends full of love, laughter and happiness!!