Caleb cut his first tooth!!!!!!

Well, I wasn't sure it would ever happen, but today Caleb finally cut his first tooth! Tonight he was running around, I we thought he had something in his mouth....so I went to see what it was, and when I stuck my finger in his mouth I felt something sharp on the bottom left side. HE CUT A TOOTH!! Holy cow, we were so excited! Delayed erruption is a symptom of Ectodermal Dysplasia, as well as missing teeth they manage to come in late.

Now, we know from some of the x-rays that our son is missing some teeth that are gonna affect the way he looks. With only canine teeth on the front, and only canines and maybe one or two molars on the bottom, he's gonna look like a little vampire when they all finally come in. I've attached a picture so you can see what it will look like...THIS IS NOT A PICTURE OF CALEB. But it is probably what he will look like (or close to it) when all his teeth finally come in. You'll notice the bottom picture is also a changing picture, that shows before and after dental treatment. It's pretty cool. Anyway, so no making fun. We're happy his teeth are finally coming in, and even though he's gonna look pretty silly till he's old enough for us to convince him to wear a denture, we just want to take this moment to congratulate Caleb on his first tooth, errupted at two years and five months.

Christmas Morning (pictures only)...

Okay folks, an awesome Harris family Christmas tradition is the Christmas morning breakfast. That's right, we eat before we open the presents. And it's a WONDERFUL meal!! My mom makes this texas french toast, covered in corn-flakes. It gets grilled on the skillet with lots of butter, and then we smother boysenberry syrup on it, and then top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and some mixed berries on top. IT IS DELICIOUS!! I had two!! And texas french toast is like double the size of regular bread. And don't forget the bacon and sausage on the side. Oh boy, what an awesome way to start off Christmas!

Okay, these pictures are from Christmas morning with Caleb, me and Parker. It was kinda megar, but special. Sorry, the videos are on our video camera, and I'm not gonna figure out how to upload those tonight, so they'll come later.

Caleb's first present was a cowboy hat. He thought it was awesome! We had a hard time getting him to open the next present, cuz every one that he opened, he wanted to play with it and be done with it. And then we'd take the toy away so he could open a new present, and he'd freak out!! C'mon kid, it's Christmas! There's MORE! We got him a pack of plastic dinosaurs (and he likes to talk to them when he plays..."there you are dinsoooor!.....wess go dinsoor!" And so on. We also got him an ambulance (which makes all kinds of annoying noises, but he loves it), and he got some cars from the movie "Cars"....no bells and whistles, they're just like hot wheels, except they're CARS. Yeah. And we got him an aquadootle. He thinks that's pretty awesome too.

Parker got me a new pair of jeans, and a new shirt and neclace to match. Thanks honey, even though I picked it out and bought it myself...he DID wrap it. Don't worry, it was EXACTLY what I wanted!

I got Parker some much-needed basketball shorts (long enough for his long and skinny legs)...since he's a coach and all. And then I got him "Cranium" our new favorite board game. I think it's so fun, just to watch Parker laugh at the other people who are playing it. It's been a riot.

Christmas was awesome this year!

The rest of the family came over around eleven thirty and we opened all our presents from mom and dad. Even though we tell them not to get us anything every year, some how they manage to pull out all the stops. I GOT AN IPOD!!! When I opened it, I screamed! And everyone was so shocked they stopped what they were doing to see what I got. I was so shocked! I didn't ask for it, but of course I've always wanted one! Mom and dad you're so awesome, and extremely generous! We love you so much! Thank you very much!

Gingerbread Houses on Christmas Eve...

Over the years, the Christmas Eve traditions have changed just a little bit. However, this year was pretty fun. The whole Harris family went over to Mom and Dad's house and we had some dinner, and we made gingerbread houses. The kids thought it was great. Caleb did pretty well, considering I was pretty sure he'd lose interest in like five minutes. He stayed there for probably a half an hour, although it was only cuz he was eating candy and frosting.

Since he doesn't have teeth, I decided that we'd try to avoid the candy as much as possible. I tried to encourage him to eat the frosting instead so he wouldn't choke. And he did. You can see on most of these pictures, he's stuffing things in his mouth. But all the kids had fun.

"Twelff...firteen...fourteen!"

I just had to share some of these videos with you because it was just too cute. This is Caleb's first attempt at counting past ten.

Ecto-derma-what?

When Caleb was about a year old, I started to get a little worried, because none of his teeth had errupted yet. We asked the doctor about it, and he said that there are some one-year-olds that don't have teeth yet, and that we should wait till he was fifteen months old before we start to worry. So...fifteen months came, and still no teeth. At that point the doctor and his dentist started to wonder if he might have a rare condition called ectodermal dysplasia.

ED is supposed to be a genetic disorder. It's really rare, but it's even MORE RARE for it to just come up spontaneously, like in Caleb's case. In order to diagnose ED, there must be two or more symptoms shown. A common symptom is several missing teeth, but it can also affect the hair, skin, skin glands, and/or nails. Well, we finally made an appointment with the Genetics Clinic to see if we could figure out it it's really ED or not, and today we went. These are some pictures of Caleb in the doctor's office. He's not lying on that paper-covered table because we told him to....he did that himself. It was kinda cute. He was really good. The doctor did a thurough physical inspection, and looked at his skin, his hair, and in his mouth. Caleb was really good, and we even brought his toy doctor kit so that he could do an inspection on mom as well. :)

After evaluating all the assessments, the doc let us know that Caleb DOES have ectodermal dysplasia. We still don't konw what KIND, and that will require further testing. We will continue to find out what this will mean for Caleb's future as far as Caleb's health, as well as the chances that our other children (when they come) will have it....and if it will eventually pass on to Caleb's children. This will require blood testing, which we will be doing in 2009.
So the rest of this post is kinda a little science lesson on how ectodermal dysplasia happens. The funny picture here shows the neural plate. Back when the baby is a couple of microscopic cells, or an embryo, there are certain things that have to happen for the embryo to continue to grow. The neural plate folds in on itself, to create some essential parts called the ectoderm, the endoderm, and the neural tube. The neural tube is eventually what develops into the brain and spinal cord. And the ectoderm, is what develops into the hair, teeth, skin, and nails. The next picture is the neural tube, and the red is the ectoderm, the yellow is the endoderm, and the blue is the mesoderm. Each of these funny words develops into major organs in the human body. You can imagine, if something goes wrong with one of these tiny groups of cells...how that could cause some serious changes to the human body. Luckily for me, I took Embryology when Caleb was only four weeks old, and so I knew what ED was before I even knew that Caleb had it. Caleb is otherwise healthy. So there's no need to worry about anything. We're just trying to figure out the fine details of the matter. He's happy and healthy, and we'll keep everyone posted as we figure out more.

Forever a Fan....

For the past few weeks, Parker has been listening to some Harry Potter books on CD cuz he drives to and from Pocatello so much. He started on book 6 (our second favorite) and then last night we finished book 7 around 1:30 in the morning.

CAN I JUST SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS BOOK?!!! I'd forgotten HOW MANY THINGS happen in this book. And it has THE world's best ending! After all the books I have read this year, which is a lifetime record for me, (All 4 Twilight books, two of which I read twice....The Host, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Jayne Eyre) I still have to say that my all-time favorite book in the world Is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I love the symbolism, as well as the deep lessons learned about love and magic, and the always wonderful, good defeats evil. This book has it all. And I always finish the book feeling the world's greatest sigh of relief...."ahhh....now 'THAT was awesome" I love in the end, how Harry finally understands the strongest power behind magic, and how he throws it into Voldermort's face. Calling him "Tom." And I love the life-lessons that are in this book. How the dark lord's strongest weapon is fear. How he lies to people (telling all that Harry died trying to run away when he really died to save his friends). How he fears those whom he opresses, and how HIS fears of death, eventually became his downfall. I have never read a more perfectly planned series of books. They are flawless, and I love them all! This is my third time reading this book, and I loved every second of it! Those who have not read Harry Potter, I strongly encourage you to do so. It's much more than a story about a boy who does magic. It's an amazingly detailed story about how good defeats evil, and about how love conquers all. I will forever be a fan of the Harry Potter books.

Christmas Decorations.....

I've decided that it doesn't matter if a Christmas tree is stuffed full of homemade ornaments or if it has glass-blown hand-painted works of art. Every Christmas tree is beautiful. Today Caleb and I finished decorating the Christmas tree, and when we were done, he and I laid down under the tree and talked about the ornaments and lights. It was cute. The house looks so pretty at Christmas time. I took a picture of the nativity scene and the fireplace, cuz the decorations were so pretty. Okay, now I have a couple funny stories to tell about what Caleb did today. So when we were decorating the tree, I put up these gold bulbs, and when I put one up at his height he saw his reflection in it.....and he said, "Hi Caleb!! Mommy, wook at this!" And he just stared at his distorted reflection. It was really cute. Okay, the other funny story is this. Today I put Caleb in the bathtub today, and I left the room for a couple of minutes. As I stepped out I heard him toot in the tub, and he giggles to himself... "ha ha.....bubbles!" Oh my gosh I almost died! He literally laughed to himself. And I was crying cuz I was laughing so hard. Kids say the darndest things.