Part 2 - Amber's story

 

Part 2

 

Amber was in the NICU for a week. I was discharged on the 5th day (my OB let me have an extra day in the hospital to be closer to Amber) and that is when it started getting "fun". We live about 30 minutes away from the hospital and I was not allowed to drive for 2 weeks (well, I was planning on giving it 10 days before I started driving...that is about all I could take of being carted around and losing my independence!). However, I did not want to leave Amber for long periods of time.

I came home on the night I was d/c'd from the hospital and got some clean clothes and spent some time with Nathan. I had only seen him once in the past 5 days and I really missed him. He was not allowed in the NICU and he got really antsy being in my hospital room, so it was better for him to be out having fun and being spoiled by a family member. It just took a logistical planning to get everybody where they needed to go.

The next few days I spent up at he NICU. I was able to get a ride to the hospital early in the morning, Dan would spend the day with Nathan then drop him off at a grandparents house and then he would come up to the NICU with me. We were able to get a parent room in the NICU, so we could spend the night at the hospital, which was wonderful. It was basically an on-call sleep room with a shared bathroom, but it was surprisingly nice. This way we were able to walk down to her "pod" and feed her in the middle of the night. She seemed better each day however she still had tachypnea (fast breathing) which also seemed ot be improving each day.

 

 Each day the CXR looked about the same, but it meant there was no reaccumulation, however the Dr. wanted ot see some of the residual fluid disappear before he was comfortable discharging us. He also wanted to see her respiratory rate decrease before we went home. Lastly, he wanted her to be on full feeds (basically, she needed to take 2.5 ounces of food every 3 hours) to ensure that the fluid would not re accumulate. Since the Chyle is formed form the fat in a baby's diet, it should have reaccumulated if she was eating as much as they were force feeding her! We wanted what was best for her, but we were ready to go home and with our backgrounds could easily keep a close eye on her respiratory status at home.

After a week in the NICU we finally got transferred to the Special Care Nursery. This was one step closer to going home. The Special Care Nursery was really nice. Each baby had there own private e room with bed for the parent, a recliner, refrigerator and bathroom. It was a mini hotel room. She continued to be monitored while in SCN but I had more responsibility as far as taking care of her, which i was thankful.

 

 I was really having a tough time getting her to eat as much as they wanted her to take. I unfortunately, for some reason, don't make more than 1 ounce of breast milk every 3 hours (that is combined from both breasts). I had the same issue with Nathan and had the same issue this time. It didn't matter that i nursed her for 20 minutes on each side, then pumped, ate well, drank 100 plus ounces of water a day, took fenugreek, drank Mother's milk tea 4 times a day, applied warm packs ot my chest or took Reglan (supposed to help mothers with low milk supply). Therefore, we were having to supplement her with formula and she would just get so tired she would only eat about 1.5 ounces.

This was really hard for me, because I knew if we could get her to eat enough they would probably let us go home, however you can't force feed a baby if they are a sleeping limp rag doll in your arms!

Amber had pulled her NG tube (feeding tube) out a day earlier and they were trying to avoid putting it back in.

Luckily, after a few days in the SCN she was eating to enough and the chest xray had been unchanged for days, they told us we could go home!!!!

 

It was funny to us, but it was a Friday around 1pm when the Dr. told us we could go home. However, we had just sent Nathan to my mom's house so he could take a nap. We asked the nurse if we could stay until he woke up and my mom brought him over to the hospital. Here we had been begging ot leave and then we had to ask them if we could stay until evening time. Funny in retrospect!

 

 Here is our 1st family photo as 4!

Nathan was totally unimpressed with Amber. He payed no attention to here what so ever! However, it did upset him when she started crying on the way home.

 



This has been Amber and my spot everyday during Nathan's nap time. Dan calls from 1pm-3pm NAptime for the whole house! Dan has never been able to sleep during the day so he is able to get alot accomplished while the rest of us are sleeping!

 After we had been home a few days, Nathan starting paying more attention to the baby. He loves to give high-5's and Amber had her hand up in the air, so he thought she wanted a high-5! He was so cute going over and touching her hand.

Then he had to clap after he gave her a high-5! He was very proud of himself!

 

 

So far, we have been adjusting pretty well to our new family compilation. It is much tougher having 2 than when we just had Nathan as a baby. Nathan is a great sleeper at night and wakes up happy, early and ready to play. He sdoes not understand that we are exhausted because Amber has her days and nights mixed up. I have been learning to function in a constant state of exhaustion. We also are trying to figure out a feeding schedule that works best for us. I am still nursing her then supplementing with formula and then at night I pump and feed her a bottle. It is still much more time consuming than just straight nursing, but I will never make enough milk to just nurse her and i am learning to be thankful I get to nurse her at all an have that special bonding time.

 

Nathan has definitely noticed something is different since we have had Amber home. He has been more needy of us and has more meltdowns than he used to. Luckily, Dan has 1 month off from work and has been home to help me tremendously with Nathan. Basically he is caring for Nathan and I am caring for Amber. IT is a man-on-man defense! I am still not sure how I am going to handle it by myself when he goes back to work. At least he only works 3 days a week, however they are 14 hour days.

 

We are truly thankful and blessed to have had as many people praying for us that did. Prayer is so powerful and we serve such mighty and loving GOD. He blessed us greatly with the wonderful outcome for Amber. We were so scared we were going to be in a very different circumstance right now when we first heard of her issue, but with all of the prayer and God's mercy we are home and only able to complain about being tired and I will take that!

Amber's Birth Story
(lots of reading but there are pictures towards the bottom!!)

 

September 27th, 2012 will be a day forever ingrained in my memory.

It started as just a normal day. Dan had to go into work so Nathan and I had the day to ourselves. I had a sono scheduled at 10:30am that my OB had ordered the previous week because I was measuring 3 weeks ahead of schedule. It was just a sono to see how big the baby was going to be. After the sono I had my normal 37week OB appt at 11:30. I knew this would be a long morning for Nathan so i packed him lots of snacks, toys and books (oh, how the boy loves books!!)

When I scheduled the sono appt the previous week the sono tech strongly suggested that I not bring Nathan or that I have someone with me to watch him. Therefore, the plan was for Dan to meet us at the hospital for the sono then he would go back to work.

Before I left the house I packed an overnight bag out of the blue, i figured since I was 37week I should start carrying an overnight bag with me.
 

We arrived for my sono at the same time as Dan. He informed me work was crazy busy. We went into the sono and Nathan was perfect, he just sat in his daddy's lap the whole time. We were enjoying watching our baby on the screen when the tech said she noted some fluid around the lungs. Well, everything went really fast from there on out. We finished up the sono and she told me to go over to my OB office ( down the hall) and she was going to send a copy of the sono to her personally and promptly. Well, since Dan and i are both in health care we know things do not usually happen quickly unless it is important or urgent. However at this point we still thought there would be nothing to do except watch the fluid. Therefore, Dan went back to work since it was so nuts over there.

I saw my OB and she had already scheduled an appointment for me to see a Maternal Fetal Medicine Dr. at 1pm that day. I asked her if I could reschedule for the next day since 1pm is Nathan nap time and he was starting ot get a little fussy and she firmly said No.

Nathan and I had 45  minutes until my next sono appt so we went to the cafeteria for lunch. I called Dan to let him know I had the sono at 1pm. He said he would try to  make it back to the hospital I was at in time for the sono.
 

I had a hard time eating lunch b/c of nerves. Nathan must have sensed something was wrong b/c he would not eat lunch either.

We headed up to the sono appt and thank goodness Dan made it in time.

The tech came in first did a few measurements and then the Dr. came in to do his own sono on me.

He looked at the baby for what seemed like forever. We can read sono's enough to know he was studying the lung and brain very closely. That scared us both to death, thinking there was something wrong with the baby's brain as well.

Dr. Reinhardt then stopped and talked to us and this is when the tears started flowing for me. He said there was significant fluid around the baby's lungs. He went on to say that there were 2 possible scenario's for the fluid. The 1st scenario was the worst scenario.......Hydrops. Hydrops is a disease that is diagnosed by fluid accumulation in 2 or more organs. Pleural effusions are usually present. There is a link below if you are interested in a further explanation.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004561/
 Hydrops is almost always fatal and I have seen several of these babies at owork and none of them survived.

The 2nd scenario is that it was a chylothorax. Chylothorax is build up of Chyle that is drained from the lymphatic system and into the pleural (between the lung adn chest wall) space. This scared us to because it is almost always associated with other abnormalities. The treatment for chylothorax is long and tenuous. THe babies have to be on a special fat free formula and can not have breast milk. The fat from their diet is processed through the lymphatic system which in this case is not working properly and then drained into the pleural space.

The tears started flowing freely as he was explaining the 2 scenarios. He did reiterate that he did not see any other organs that were affected and nothing drew his attention to any other abnormality.
He then went on tot tell us that if the fluid was from developing hydrops we did not  need to take the chance and wait any longer to deliver the baby. He said even waiting a few days could be risky.
He was very nice and explained everything to us but we were still in shock. He then left the room to go talk to my OB, Dr. Speight. He came back a few minutes later and said she agreed the baby needed to be delivered today. They both wanted the baby delivered soon mainly because it was still day time and there were more neonatologists and adequate staff to be present in the delivery room. No one was sure how sick the baby would be at delivery so they wanted as many resources available as possible.

Thank goodness my brain was on overload and I was not processing everything very well, because with the jobs Dan and I have we know way too much about every bad possible scenario. I think the speed of how fast everything was happening saved me from a nervous breakdown!!

We were then sent back to Dr. Speight to talk to her about delivery options. We sat in her office and she said that my cervix was very unfavorable for a vaginal delivery and even if she did induce me I might end up needing c-section anyways.She also was not sure if the baby would tolerate labor, since we were unsure of the severity of the fluid around lungs. Her biggest concern was that she wanted the baby born when there was plenty of NICU dr's and staff available and that was guaranteed with a urgent c-section. Dan and I decided that we wanted what was best for the baby so we opted for the c-section. She then sent me downstairs to be admitted to labor and delivery.
I called my mom to come and pick of Nathan. Poor thing, he had been with me all day and really had done good. He even took a nap in Dan's arms during the 2nd sono.

 



 

Here we are in labor and delivery. I said bye ot Nathan for the next few days. Not sure how I was smiling.

Everything happened so quick. I had last eaten at 1pm so thought they would make us wait 6 hours before anesthesia would do my epidural and the surgery, but they said since it was urgent it did not matter how long it had been. This scared me to, since in medicine, you only start jumping through hoops (like skipping "rules") if it is serious. By 4pm they had my epidural in and were starting to take me to the OR.



 



 

Before I knew it they were rolling me into the OR and getting ready. I started to feel really gross and sick at this point. They had me laying flat and it was so hard to breath and I was so nauseated from the drugs. I just wanted to sit up so badly. They finally gave me so zofran and that helped my nausea.At this point the NICU neonatologist started talking to me telling me he was going to intubate the baby at birth and I started tearing up agian. I asked if she even was allowed a chance to breath on her own before he intubated her and he said yes.

A side note, we decided not to find out the gender of our baby so that is what I was trying to focus on as I was lying on the table was finding out if we were having a girl or boy!!!

The began the surgery and apparently I had a significant amount of polyhydraminos (extra amniotic fluid). My OB said it looked like a tidal wave coming out! She thinks this is what caused the baby's pleural effusions.

Dan watched the whole surgery and was telling me when they were getting close to pulling the baby out. I was really starting to hurt at this point. I think I had some hot spots in my epidural.

Finally they pulled baby out and Dan told me it was a girl!!

She started crying immediately and my OB passed her to the NICU team.

 

At this point I really started to feel some pain as they started to "put me back together". I felt like someone was squeezing my bladder as hard as the could and jamming down into my private area. After a few minutes of this and me squirming in pain all over the table, my Awesome OB stopped the surgery until anesthesia gave me more drugs. Ahhh...much better.

A few minutes late the NICU team was taking my baby girl up to the NICU. Thankfully she was not intubated but she was on CPAP. I saw her as they rolled her out the door for a whole 3 seconds. Dan stayed with me while they took her upstairs.



 

Dr. Speight and I after the C-section. She is awesome and Dan and I really respect her. She also is a runner and pretty laid back, so we have several things in common!

 

After surgery I was taken back to my observation room in Labor and delivery and actually ended up spending the night in there because they did not have enough nurses on post partum.

 

At this point Dan went upstairs to the NICU to check on Amber. He reported back that they had drained 90cc's (3 ounces) of fluid out of her chest. He said she was still on CPAP but they had started to wean it down.

 

The NICU Dr. came in an hour later and told us that right now she was doing OK but he expected that the fluid would quickly re accumulate and he would most likely need ot put in chest tubes to drain the fluid and he talked to us about putting in UAC/UVC lines (central IV's that go in her umbilical cord). Again, I felt so disconnected from her that I was not that upset.

 

A little while later they wheeled me up to the NICU so I could see her. 



 

Here is the first time I got to see my baby girl. I felt disconnected from her when I saw her. She did not seem like my baby, I felt like she was just another NICU kid. Therefore, I really did not get emotional over seeing her in the NICU. It took me several days to start feeling a connection with her.

 

Dan and I decided he should go home for the night and get some rest. Plus we needed stuff from home since we were a tad unprepared for all of this!

Early the next morning they moved me to post partum. I was exhausted, I literally had not slept more than 20 minutes at a time the previous night. IT was too quiet in the room (I have to have white noise in order to sleep) and i kept waking up to pump.

My epidural was being changed to a "walking epidural" that morning and I was glad to be able to get out of bed. We went to the NICU and discovered she had been weaned off of the CPAP and was on room air!! What a miracle. The chest x-ray that morning did not show any reaccumulation of fluid, however there was still some residual fluid left.

Unfortunately because of the rules I was not able to hold her until the next day.

 



I was able to do kangaroo care with her on the 2nd day and it was wonderful. I finally started to feel a connection with her.

She was in the NICU for the next week. The Dr's were afraid her fluid would re accumulate and she would get sick in a hurry, so they wanted to keep a close eye on her.

 



 

 

 



 

on the 3rd day they let me start nursing her. I Will do a separate blog on my breast feeding issues. 

Doing mommy duty by changing her diaper!

 

 



 

I will end here for now so you do not get bogged down with all the reading. I will post part 2 on her NICU stay and coming home soon!!

Long weekend with G-gram and Pop

                    

Dan recently took a week long trip to Wyoming to visit his best friend and to fly fish. It was his last "Hoo-rah" before we become a family of 4, so I was more than happy he was able to have this min vacation. While he was gone Nathan and I went to Houston to visit my grandparents.

We had a wonderful time and the 4 days were packed with fun filled activities.

It did however, start on a bad note. The morning we left, Nathan had horrible fall onto the bottom stair, which is all wood and has tile as the flooring. His nose bled profusely for awhile and his eye immediately started to swell. I felt horrible. He was just following me into our bedroom to "help" me get a bag to load into the car. He was running behind me and just slipped on the tile and went face first into the stairs. Poor thing cried and cried and just wanted ot be held.

We met up with my mom and the 3 of us rode together to Houston. On the way Nathan's nose became more swollen and I was afraid it might be broken. All of that to say, when you see the black eye in alot of the following pictures, that was the cause of it.

 

We arrived Thursday afternoon and had a good time catching up with my grandparents and just letting Nathan play. We went out to dinner that night and Nathan discovered that he really likes bar-b-que sauce! He was eating it by the finger full and needless to say, had in his hair, nose, ears...what a mess!

The next day we went ot the Houston Children's Museum. We had fun, but somebody (who shall remain anonymous) had a melt down after we had been there about an hour. We did not get to stay as long as we would have liked, but we made the best out of it.

 

Here is Nathan playing in the ball pit at the museum. He also loved the musical instruments. They had a great spot for toddlers under 3 with a room full of toys  and activities!

 

 

 



 

 

That

That evening we went to the small airport by their house so Nathan could watch the airplanes take off and land. He loves airplanes!! We got to see a few, but not to many. He was really good though and just kept watching the runway!

 

The next day we went ot Moody Gardens in Galveston. My cousin recently moved to Houston and was able to join us! Yay for Auntie Rachel!

We played in the white sand and buried Nathan's legs. He wasn't really sure what to think about that. We then buried my legs, and he was not interested at all!

 

 

It is hard to see but mom and Rachel are showing off their sand snow man!

 

Here was Nathan getting his legs buried by Gram-E and Rach.

 

Here are my legs being buried.

 

They had a kids splash zone which featured 2 slides. You were allowed to slide down with a child, which really surprised me. Nathan loved it and we probably slid down a dozen times or more!

 

 

His favorite part was walking in the water trough at the end of the slide.

 

While we were at Moody Gardens, I looked down at my feet and noticed my left ankle was 3 times the size of my right! This concerned me because I have had no swelling during pregnancy (i had none with Nathan too) and it was in the leg that is almost purple because of spider and varicose veins. Of course the nurse in me thought I might have a DVT (blood clot) or that my blood pressure was sky rocketing. Luckily Gram has a blood pressure machine at her house so I could check mine. It wa a little higher than what I normally run but not high enough to warrant concern. I was told to stay off of it as much as I could (yea right).

Oh the joys of being pregnant!

 

ON Sunday we went ot church and then to eat at Carl's. (A wonderful brunch buffet) Nathan ate like a champ and was really well behaved!

 

After his nap time we went to look at model homes (a tradition).

 

On Monday, before we headed back home, we all went ot the park (right by the airport) so Nathan could wathc more planes land and of course to walk the dogs. ( i Mean how could we go to the park without the dogs....yes that is laced with sarcasm).

Nathan really likes to play with Papa's cane!

 

 

Here is my sweet boy and my wonderful grandparents (G-gram and G-pop to Nathan)

 

 

My new favorite picture of him!

 

 

We had a very fun and relaxing vacation!

 

 

Stay tuned on a blog about how much I am over being pregnant!! 3ish weeks left!!



LA trip...LOTS of pictures

LA Trip

We took a family vacation to visit my brother, my sister in law and niece in LA. My mom, sister and grandparents went too. We had a wonderful time and the weather was beautiful! The highs in LA were our lows here at home. It was nice just to get away and enjoy time with the family.

 

The week we were supposed to leave for our trip Nathan got quite sick.. He had high fevers for 4 days with no other symptoms. We took him to the pediatrician and she said it was probably roseola or hand/foot/mouth disease and that we should expect a rash to follow the fever. His fever finally broke the day before we left for LA however, he never had a rash. We were more worried that he would get his cousin sick, but the Dr. assured us he was not contagious if he had been fever free for more than 24 hours. Needless to say, with Nathan not back to 100% he was a smidgen fussy the whole time we were visiting.

 

IN the bucket at the airport ready to go through the x-ray machine!! At least all the TSA workers had a good sense of humor that morning!

 His cousin was very excited to see him again.....Poor Maeva, Na

than was just not feeling the love!

 ON Saturday morning we took the kids to Griffith Park. they had Pony rides and a train ride. The park is beautiful and it was so nice to be outside past 9am without sweating to death!!

I know what to get Nathan for Christmas....a Pony! HE loved it! they had several different types of pony rides.. 1) for little toddlers - it had the pony's in a corral and they just went around in a circle.
2) slow walking pony's for age 3 and under that were not attached to anything, they just walked slowly around the designated trail. 3) fast pony's for the older kids.

  We started him out on the circle pony. He kept trying to make it go while they were waiting for the ride to start! He seemed so at ease and content!

 He looks like a true equestrian here as he is leaning forward!

 Next we put him on t he free walking pony. He loved it more than the first pony. He just seemed to be soaking everything in.

 He wasn't scared at all when the strange man picked him up from Dan and carried him to the pony and strapped him in. I was proud of him for being so brave!

                                               

We went on a little train ride 

           

                                          He sure does love his great Gram and Pop!
IF ever Nathan was fussing or we couldn't get him to smile, Pop always had the magic touch!!

 After the train ride we let him ride the pony again.

Funny story...... Dan wanted Nathan to be able to ride on the faster pony's but it was only for age 3 and up. So, my extreme sport husband went to the counter and tried to bribe the man with money to let Nathan ride the faster pony! Needless to say, the man did not go for it. Dan was convinced Nathan needed to ride the faster pony to get the full experience. Actually, as shown in the above picture, Nathan would look longingly at the kids on the faster pony's every time that went by him!

Maybe next year.

 Saturday night we went ot a fancy restaurant. Dan and i are not fancy restaurant people and the last restaurant we have been to with Nathan was Jason's Deli. All of that to say, I was a little nervous as to how Nathan would behave. It did not go well but it could have been worse. My sister and I spent a lot of time outside with him and his cousin during the meal.

The picture above shows a "good" moment were he was eating in his own big boy chair with a knife and fork for his prime rib!

 We all tried desperately to get a picture of the 2 cousins after dinner, since they looked so cute, but it did not work out. They would not hold still or stay close enough to each other and of course they wouldn't dare look at the camera at the same time!

 We spent alot of time each day and evening playing outside. I can not tell you how wonderful it was to have the temperature be in the 60's in the evening's instead of the 90's. It sure makes me ponder as to why I still live in Texas when I abhor the heat so much.

Sunday morning we went ot the beach. I wish we had allotted more time to stay and play. This was Nathan's first trip to the beach and he was a little unsure of the waves at first. Dan and I were playing "don't let the wave get you" and towards the end he started to warm up to the whole beach idea. In his defense the water was pretty chilly. However, he loved playing in the sand! He could have stayed all day digging and dumping the sand out of his bucket.



Sunday afternoon my brother and sister-in-law had a photographer come over to take come family photos. That was Nathan's low point. He was a awful child for those 2 hours. It was really stressful, because he would not cooperate at all and would started crying and throwing a fit when we wanted him to look at the camera or stay in a certain spot.  It was interesting, when we got home from the pictures, I just put Nathan in the pack-n-play and left him there for 45 minutes while my sister-n-;aw took Dan, Cheryl and I to look at the ever tourist spot of Hollywood Blvd.. My mom and brother stayed behind to cook dinner and my grandparents were in the same room as Nathan watching the Olympics. When we returned I had a different child. He was happy and had stopped fussing. My grandparents said he just played in the crib by himself the whole time, never squawked or fussed.
        Dan and i think he was just overstimulated, plus being out of his schedule and in an unfamiliar environment, that he just needed some alone time to reset his batteries!

Dan and Nathan on the bus ride from the car rental to the airport. Nathan loved riding in his daddy's lap and being able to look out the window like a big boy instead of stuck in his car seat. He was so good too, it was like he knew this was a special occasion.

              We knew we were back home when we walked out of the airport into 108F temperature. At least we got a weekend of respite from reality!

I am so thankful to my brother and his wife for being wonderful hosts and letting us all stay at their new home!

More than half way!

UPDATES

Pregnancy update:
             I have been horrible about documenting this pregnancy compared to Nathan's. I have not taken a single belly picture yet and I am over 26 weeks! i also have not spent as much time journaling about this pregnancy.  Time has just gone by fast this pregnancy with a toddler in tow!

                   This pregnancy has not been roses and pumpkin pie like it was with Nathan. I had nausea for the first 16 weeks and could only stomach carbs.....hence, earlier weight gain. I also was very tired all the time up until about 23 weeks. I have had more back pain and all over pain (round ligament pain, discomfort when I bend over ect).  However, I feel like I finally turned the corner a few weeks ago. I have had more energy and have just felt good. I think some of that good feeling is from my intent to get exercise most days. With Nathan I ran or swam almost everyday (well, until I had premature contractions at 26 weeks and couldn't run anymore) but then I walked and swam. This time, I did not exercise much in the first 14 weeks because of the fatigue and nausea. Then we hit our nice Texas summer heat making it difficult to walk or jog unless it is before 7 in the morning. Also, Nathan is not fan of the gym daycare and cries the whole time. They come and get you from working out if your child screams for More than 10 minutes. SO, I have had lots of excuses from being as active as I was with Nathan, not to mention just finding the time with  a toddler! But, 3 weeks ago I started having more energy so I vowed to get up early to jog or go to the gym on days Dan is home from work. I miss exercising as much as I used too and I know it will be a while before i can really get back into the training and racing of my days of the past! Exercising is just a part of who I am and I get very depressed and sullen if I go for long periods of time without being able to run,swim or bike. I am glad I have made the effort the past few weeks, I really feel happier and not as short tempered! I just wish it wasn't so blasted hot so I had more time options to go outside. Oh well, at least means I will have the cooler temperatures after the baby is born, and that is when I will really NEED to exercise!!

                  We have been enjoying putting our new house together and making it "ours". Nathan has adjusted quite well and really loves haing his own little playroom!

Nathan update:
      He is 16 months old now. He runs everywhere, I don't think he know how ot walk! HE falls all the time from tripping over things, including his won feet. He just doesn't look down to see where he is going. His face always has a bump or scrathc on it. Poor thing.

     He still does not talk, but I ma not worried. He babbles all the time and understands what we say. We tell him to go get his shoes, he does. You can ask him if he is hungry and he goes into the kitchen and hands you his bib (so cute), he understands when we tell him "step", which means to stop and wait for our hand to help him up or down a step. We let him watch Veggie tales a few times a week and you can be in another room and ask him if he wants to watch veggie tales and he will run  into the family room, point to the TV and go get one of his movies. He knows to
look up in the sky if I say airplane and much more. So, I feel he will talk when he is ready!

      He loves to swing and play on the playground. He and I go to our favorite park on days I'm off work and he loves it! He finally can "play" on the play ground instead of just swinging. He likes to climb up the slide over and over again!

        Surprisingly he seems ot have lost his interest in water, which makes me sad. They opened a splash pad at our favorite park and I was so excited about it. However, he did not want to have much to do with it. He played for about 5 minuted then wanted ot go to the regular playground instead.  We walk by the splash pad every time we go to the park and he watches all the kids splashing and then he goes to the "regular" playground. Maybe it is because it is not a pool of water b/c I just took him to the pool and he loved it, but he used to love playing in the sprinklers and that is what the splash pad resembles. Hopefully it is just a stage and he will find his love of water again!!






      He loves to play hide-and-seek. He will go into the closet in the study and close the door while we hide, then he comes out to look for us! HE also plays hide-and-seek around the couch with his daddy! He just laughs and laughs. I love seeing his face when he is "looking" for us and then the big smile when he "finds" us! We tried to teach him to be the hider but he only understands how to "seek" right now.

       
     He does very well with structure and schedules. He does not stray to far from us and likes to keep us in sight, which I am very thankful! He is not a risk taker either. He loves to play in the dirt, we have a big flower pot in the backyard full of dirt for him to play in and he will spend lots of time pouring the dirt on the ground, digging in it and eating it!
    
He really is a good boy (except for at the moment he is trying to help me type, despite a warning tha Mommy does not need help!)  We read somewhere that you can only expect a toddler to be "good" 60% oft he time and so we always joke around about what percentage of a day it has been! I enjoy spending time with him and watching him learn and comprehend new things each day!

  The only family picture I have taken in awhile.










And acute picture to end on. He found my QT water cup and was so proud of himself for drinking out of it!