Derek's 1st birthday is quickly approaching this Thursday and he continues being a cute big bundle of joy. He is incredibly social and smiley. He also has a big appetite - often eating more than Karina and Lydia combined.
He has made progress standing and walking since these pictures were taken. Yesterday he actually took his first two steps! He was upstairs with me and took 2 successful steps before falling forward flat on his face. He has not attempted walking again since then, but we are very proud of him! He also said his first word a few days ago. When we were saying bye-bye to Mimi on Skype, Derek happily waved as usual and said 'bye-bye'! We have not been able to get a repeat performance on that either though.
The kids have been playing in boxes the entire month and still don't seem bored with it. In these pictures there is bubble wrap, but mostly they just sit in large empty boxes and play together.
One day Nate took out a tennis ball and he and Derek had a blast. Derek would drop the ball and after it bounced on the floor, Nate would catch it. Derek was immensely pleased with himself and his skill. He loved seeing the ball bounce and have Nate catch it. Derek and Karina often play catch with a big ball too.
Karina and Lydia had fun one morning building some cardboard/paper princess castles.
Karina often begs me to let her babysit Derek while I make her school lunch or do some other chore. When she 'babysits' him there is usually a lot of giggling and plenty of baby games.
Not that the pictures below display much difference, but here is a picture of Snoopy a week before his surgery, and then again today, a day and a half after surgery.
Poor Snoopy had 4 procedures done on Friday under anesthesia. We took him to the vet recently to look at a growth under his right upper eyelid that was causing him trouble. The growth under the lid was making his eye pus and was infected. While I was at the vet I also showed the doctor a new lump behind Snoopy's ear and the vet immediately aspirated it and looked at it under a microscope. Snoopy had a mast cell tumor (cancer). Nate and I thought it was just a fatty lump and were grateful we happened to have the vet look at it. We scheduled to have the lump removed, and since Snoopy would already be under anesthesia, the vet took the growing lump under his right upper eyelid too. There was also a small growth on the bottom of his left eyelid, and another mole/growth in his left ear that might start getting into his ear canal. The vet took those too, since Snoopy was already having surgery anyway. We are still waiting to receive the results of the biopsy of Snoopy's tumor from behind his ear. If it is grade 1 or the margins are clear with a grade 2 tumor, Snoopy is in the clear.
He has not been recovering very well after surgery. This morning he refused to eat. He developed a limp on his left front leg 2 days before the surgery, which seems to have gotten worse since then. Snoopy is nearly 12 years old by our reckoning and his body didn't like surgery. Hopefully the cancer has all been cut away. The vet did a great job with his eyelid surgery. In the picture above, you can hardly tell he had a lump under his eyelid cut away and stitched up. The tumor removal behind his ear was also stitched up nicely, though Snoopy does seem to be in lots of pain. We are hoping he will get better the next few days and for good biopsy results.
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