Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  December was a very busy month with hospital visits and lots of fun events.  Here is a run down and some cute pictures :)

End of November/ Beginning of December- Ailsa was hospitalised due to an increase in her kidney symptoms.  They decided that the kidney biopsy was definitely necessary.  She was able to come home before the biopsy since she started a medication that helped her blood pressure decrease.  Ailsa was discharged on a Thursday and that Saturday we went to...

Great Wolf Lodge- the Starlight foundation that Zoe is registered with had a party at the Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara, Ontario.  It included a sleepover as well.  The kids loved playing in the water park.  This was a great way for us to try out the Lodge for free.  I wasn't sure how the girls would cope with all the stimulation.  The 1P36 conference will be held at the Great Wolf Lodge in Ohio this year.  Now that we know the girls will be able to get a lot out of it, we are even more determined to make it to conference this year.  We have not gone since 2010 and we really miss connecting with the 1P36 group in person.

Kidney Biopsy- Ailsa had her kidney biopsy on Monday, December 9th.  She did amazing.  She had to lay flat on her back for seven hours after the procedure.  We were reassured that she would be sleepy for most of the time because of the anaesthesia she would get for the procedure and the morphine and anti-nausea medication she would be given.  HAHAHAHA.  Ailsa slept all of 15 mins after the procedure and then was wide awake the entire time!  We are so lucky that Ailsa is such a sweet tempered child and listened to us when we told her to stay on her back.  It also helped that we let her watch TV and play on the IPad as much as she wanted.  Ailsa stayed out of daycare a few days  and life began to settle down when...

Fun with Norwalk- Ailsa threw up twice on the Thursday.  Grandad was sick Friday and Saturday.  Zoe started to throw up on Sunday night and just kept on puking.  We brought her to the hospital and they ended up admitting her for four days.  The nurses joked that she was just coming in for her tune up before Christmas.  Zoe was bummed to miss the last week of school but we were able to do several fun outings after she got out of hospital that kept her distracted.

Leafs Game- Our social worker was able to get us seats in an executive box for a Leafs (hockey) game.  The kids had a great time watching the game while enjoying lots of free food!  Ailsa was not happy when Santa stopped by but Zoe thought he was funny.  The game was the day after Zoe was discharged from the hospital so although she was tired, she really enjoyed going and it was a great way to start off our holiday celebrations.

 This was pretty much the look on Zoe's face the entire game.  The donor and staff in the box loved how much Zoe danced around and laughed her head off the whole time.

 Not a bad view!

We took the Go train downtown instead of driving.  This added to the excitement of the outing.

Nutcracker- We also got free tickets to see the Nutcracker that Saturday.  Both girls enjoyed watching the first half but got a little bored with the second half.  Ailsa amused the people around us with such witty comments as "That is not my grandpa" (referring to the grandfather in the ballet.  Ailsa watched him dance a few times and she understood the story enough to remember he was the grandfather but was expecting him to be Alan!) and "Look at those Kangaroos" when the mice came on stage.  Thankfully it was a family friendly theatre and people laughed.

Ice Storm and Black Out- That night we (like a lot of people in Toronto) lost power.  And while running Zoe's NG feeds by candlelight did make for a romantic evening we knew we would have to leave if the power was not restored quickly.  We were happy to stay in the house without power, but our gas heater has an electric starter so we had to vacate.  Luckily, Grandad is only 5 mins from us and he had power.  The girls loved having a sleep over at his place.   We got our power back three days later on Christmas Eve.  It was a lovely way to start Christmas.  Not everyone was as lucky as we were.

Our Christmas Tree/ Plant.  We were not able to get our tree this year like we usually do, but Gavin came up with the great idea of decorating our tree- like plant.  The girls had fun decorating and we had somewhere to put all those gifts.

 Christmas Morning

 Ailsa showing off her new stroller and baby carrier.

 Ailsa and Zoe pretending to sleep (I don't think Zoe pulled it off as well).  Grand Auntie Patsy gave Zoe her sleeping bag with her name on it for a birthday one year.  Ailsa was so excited to get one of her own for Christmas.  She has slept with it every night since Christmas.

 The simple pleasures in life.  We got more balls for the ball pit we keep at Grandad's house for Zoe.  She loves the box of balls so much that we have kept them at our house and will have to add them to the pit later once the girls get bored of it.  Although, knowing Zoe that could be a while!

The other day I said, "You want to be just like Zoe" and Ailsa responded, "Not like Zoe, I want to BE Zoe."

Ok, ok no more pictures for now!

New Year's- I don't think Gavin and I made it to midnight, but we did celebrate New Years Day by taking the girls to the Science Centre.  Grandad came along too.  The girls were completely exhausted by the time we got home and had a nice home cooked meal (aka take out pizza).

Ailsa Update- We went to Ailsa's nephrology appointment yesterday to get the biopsy results.  We were hoping to get a definite diagnosis but they are still a bit stumped by Ailsa.  They did rule out the nasty autoimmune diseases and the kidney diseases so that was a great relief.  The biopsy showed that the tissue in the kidneys filters is not normal.  Apparently there is some extra material there and they are not sure what that means.  They have made slides and are sending them out to other hospitals all over to get other doctors' opinions.  The great news is all the things that this isn't.  The bad news is we still don't know why Ailsa is not able to absorb protein into her bloodstream.  This low blood protein level can cause problems in the long run so they are going to consult other specialists.  Who wants a diagnosis anyway?