Man..where to start? Life has been busy! I wish I would have kept up with writing on here, but I’ve at least kept up with writing emails to my kiddo that (I hope) one day he will be able to enjoy.
I’ve not written much since we moved back from Italy, honestly. We had our son and his medical issues kept us busy, I took the time to enjoy every moment with him. Albuqueruque, believe it or not, will always hold a special place in my heart. We bought our first home there, had our son, met some amazing people that will forever be apart of our lives. Being away from family and not knowing what was going on with Ethan was incredibly hard, but my coworkers were absolutely amazing and I miss them every day.
We’ve been in northern Virginia now for almost 2 years, which sounds crazy, but we like it here as well. We are closer to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for Ethan’s surgeries, the services for autism are also good here as well. Ethan started a preschool autism class last February, which was a huge obstacle for him. After a little over a year, he is doing so, so well there. We love our BCBA that comes to the house for therapy daily and also his OT/speech therapist as well.
Dan deployed in October and things have been interesting around here. Ethan and I have settled into a routine, but nights and weekends are the hardest since it’s cold outside and it limits us to what we can do. We went to Florida for the holidays and spent 4 weeks there, which was amazing. It’s always nice to take a break from therapies and thaw out for a bit in the middle of winter. Ethan turned 4 in February, so we had some friends over for a little celebration.
We’ve been having issues with our heat and discovered we have an oil leak, so waiting for the landlords to get their ducks in a row with that and dog up the tank and contaminated soil. I got a 20 gallon fish tank set up for Ethan and he LOVES it! Right now I have to salt and pepper cories, glofish and a gourami.
I started a ketogenic diet mid November and have had great success with that. I feel great and have lost a lot of “stress weight” that i’ve carried since having Ethan. Even with a month stall, I’ve lost 34 pounds! Crazy! I love it :) I was looking thru some pics today and I can finally tell in my face that I’ve lost some weight, which is always a good thing! I also chopped my hair off! Got a long bob cut, the lack of carbs killed my long, healthy hair, but I do love the new cut. This is a pic from last week, me and my sister were posting pics on snapchat and thought this one turned out pretty good. Why can’t snapchat filters apply to real life, minus the flames coming out from my head? ;)
Life is pretty good, considering. Ethan’s having some adjustments, which are always hard, but we get through them. We had x rays last week, which is a chore because he is terrified of everything, to make sure his titanium ribs look okay and to determine if we can wait until the summer for his next surgery, just waiting to hear back from CHOP about that. We will get his service dog in about a year, which makes me SO happy! I truly think this will help him so, so much and many people in our lives are invested just as much as we are, so I know this will be an exciting time.
That’s all I have for now! Dan will be back in May, so we are very close to the end of his third deployment and excited to have him back in time for the nice/hot weather.
Until next time,
-Brittney
