10 Months and Counting *Update*

Look who was 10 months old on Monday! What a big boy! He weighed in (unofficially of course) at 17 lbs 2 oz. According to my "growth chart" that is in the back of "What to Expect The First Year" he is in the 5th percentile. YEAH! He goes in next Thursday for his official weight check. We are hoping for a green light on soldi foods. We of course have not given him any teething biscuits as he has gotten his four top teeth in at the same exact time. I had to dig out my "What to Expect" book as I had abandoned it a long time ago...at about 6 months...because it was just about depressing to read. I am still not going to read it though because he is on his own individualized plan and doing great. We're sticking to the positives. His EIS is coming today, and I will update this post after we meet with her.

This is what Baby J gets to eat right now in a day. (All bottles are BPA free) He has also been getting some rice cereal as he is still hungry after getting everything but his bedtime bottle. This is great news as it used to be he would drop 1-2 bottles when he had any solids. He takes that bedtime one kinda slow and doesn't finish all of it every time, but close. To put his calories in perspective, if I drank twice what is pictured above I would be over my daily calorie needs...and I don't weigh 17 lbs :o)

PEEK

-A-

BOO!

*Update* I forgot to mention before that Baby J pretty much skipped right through 6-9 month clothes and right into 9-12! He wore some 6-9 month outfits, but they ran small and he had been wearing them since before Christmas. He just zipped right up into big boy clothes. I loved opening up the new storage tub and remembering what Snug used to be like.

Today Baby J's EIS (early intervention specialist) and OT (occupational therapist) came to the house. They were so excited with me about his development. He is now at 7 months instead of 5 moving to 6 in large motor and 8 months instead of 6 moving to 7 in fine motor. His fine motor has always been his best area, which is good. Kids with low tone tend to not like things like handwriting and cutting when they get to school. His having decent fine motor skills says maybe that won't be the case for him. Speech is almost to 5 months, but that wasn't formally evaluated today. It still is his weakest area.
While they were here they wanted to know what the doctor is currently saying and I told them about her still being a bit baffled that he doesn't have Celiac after what she saw during his surgical procedure at the hospital. I shared with them that we believe that God has healed him. They smiled politely but they had not physically seen him yet because he was not awake from his nap. After we had a chance to talk he did wake up and spent time with them being evaluated (which looks like lots of fun play, but he slept almost 3.5 hours after taking a 2 hour morning nap...so you KNOW it tired him out). They were also shocked. He is "a different baby". They couldn't believe he was the same little guy they saw a month ago. They had lots of praise for us "doing such a great job with his therapy and very diligent". Nice to hear, because we are trying to be working through his exercizes each day...but we also know that his HUGE jump in development is God. I think they got a glimpse of how big our God is today too. :o)

Coming Soon...

We are in the process of getting to know our new computer and get it all set up. We did get it up and running (obviously) and the internet connected. Yeah! We have some errands to run and I have a fundraiser to attend...but then I will post Baby J's 10 month picture, update you on his progress, and let you know how much he weighs and what size clothing I got to get out yesterday...coming soon...

At Any Time

http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/2009/04/42509-gods-hand.html

I've written a few things in the past about Kayleigh and the other day I wrote that the doctors are sure she has very limited brain activity at this point. They still don't know exactly what happened and when, but something happened around the time of her latest surgery. The link above isn't easy to read, but it is an answer to prayer. They have wanted to take Kayleigh home since the day she was born. They are making the decision now to take her home to live out the rest of her life. She is four days older than Baby J.

It is hard to read about her just moments after my last post. We had such a nice day while the Freemans were mourning the certain passing of their little one. We are just praising the Lord for what he has done in Baby J's life and enjoying every moment we have with our children because you never know how much time you have. God can call any one of us home at any time. Are you ready?

Touch-A-Truck

Bobcat Skid

Our parks and recreation department hosts great community events, and this is a new favorite. I mean, beyond the Doggie Dash N' Splash of course :o) I think it was definitely Snug's favorite.

Bookmobile

Our friend Rachel used to work on this Bookmobile, but recently moved. We will miss her and her husband. Snug really enjoyed the Bookmobile which takes books to our local elementary schools.

Baby J spent the time sucking away at a four ounce bottle...it took him about 45 minutes because he was sitting straight up in the stroller and had to hold it way up to get anything out as it was a 9oz bottle. Lots of work, but it kept him quite entertained.

School Bus
I'd love to say which truck was Snug's favorite, but he loved them all. He was thrilled to sit in a school bus and honk the horn. The driver of this particular one I knew as she had driven for one of my special needs students when Snug was a baby.

School Bus

I took this picture so that when Snug starts kindergarten I can take another one and compare, but I realize he probably won't ride a bus until high school because we live too close to our elementary and middle school. Unless of course the city gets the money it needs (badly) to renovate.

What exactly is Scoop? A digger truck? Doesn't sound official...

LOOK! Scoop! Snug was thrilled to see his favorite Bob The Builder truck at the event.

I kept trying to include Baby J in some photos, but he wasn't very impressed with the trip. He just sipped away at his bottle and got annoyed with me for applying another layer of sunscreen. It was 90 today and SUNNY.

Ohio State Trooper Car

This picture makes me laugh. There were three different police vehicles at the event, and they were not his favorite. I guess when your daddy drives one home every night for supper and "woos" for you, these ones are not as cool. One guy cracked me up. He wasn't from our city, but they all kinda know each other around here. When I told him who #1 was he looked at Snug and said "um, I should have guessed that, look at him!" Anyway, this trooper was trying to get a picture with Snug and he wasn't super happy about it. He wanted to go see the garbage truck of course.

Ambulance

This is an ambulance that takes people from one hospital to the the airport to be transported by airplane to another hospital. This would be similar to the one Stellan took from his hospital to the airport and then airport to the hospital in Boston. It can also transport from one hospitals to another if they cannot be transported by helicopter.

Firetruck

If I had to make a guess, I'd say the firetruck was in a tie for favorite with "Scoop". He waves like crazy at them as they fly by our house to the hospital near us. He was really excited to sit in the cab but a little apprehensive when they turned on the siren with him in it...really loud.

Still sippin' away...

Firetruck

I tried to get W A Y back and take a picture of the entire ladder truck, but I couldn't. This ladder is huge! I asked #1 why on earth we have a truck that tall and he said because we have one apartment building that would need it. Honestly I don't think even that building is that big, but I guess we are covered. Talk about getting a kitten out of a tree...we could rescue one out of a redwood!

Trench Digger

Tow Truck

Snug loved looking everywhere. I had a cute picture of him checking out the controls on one, but it didn't upload I guess. Here is is thrilled to see under the seat...and noticed the flashlight they kept there.

Garbage Truck

Garbage trucks were exciting because there were 2 steering wheels, one for sitting at one for standing at, and a place to stand on the back. Garbage trucks were also fun...but everything was. There were many many more trucks, but really unless you are Snug, no one wants to see all of these pictures. I will probably print them and label them for him in a small book.

Desperate Bored Housewives

Do you know what I am? I am a bored housewife! I know, I was shocked to hear it myself but alas it was said of me today. I know I am bored...I have been doing less physical therapy with Baby J now that he prefers his tummy to his back and spends way more than 81 minutes* a day on his stomach. I still do many of the exercises that were recommended of course to move him more and more towards crawling/creeping whatever it is called now and to help with his extension problems,...but seriously that boy is MOVING and ROLLING and almost ready to crawl...I mean creep...um, whatever. SO, with all of this extra time, approximately 34.6 minutes a day I have a new hobby. Ticking off dog walkers.

But I only fit it in between 10-15 diaper changes, 2+ baths, serving 15-20 individual meals, giving 6 bottles (along with the 5-10 minutes of left side time afterwards), 4-7 loads of laundry, watching 3-5 children under the age of 4 a day, keeping the house in some sort of decent shape, running children to preschool and kindergarten, joining the church softball team, volunteering at church, working on the Parks and Rec dog committee, kissing scrapes and bruises, breaking up disagreements, doing CILT, and reading everyone's blogs daily. But with those 34.6 minutes, I have my new hobby. (Did I forget anything? I think that is it...)

Are you a bored housewife? Want to know how it works? Need a new hobby?

Episode One:
As you have 8 children in your front yard enjoying a sunny afternoon and two parents picking up children you (and the parents) notice a lady walking her dog and letting it do its business ALL OVER the yard across the street. The dog is on a flexi lead and is half way up in their yard where she lets it continue for quite some time. Then, you ask the lady to please not do that in their yard because the homeowners wouldn't appreciate it. When she rolls her eyes and turns her back to you, you make a decision.

Keep in mind I have to pick up after other people's dogs in my front yard all the time. It is gross. It isn't nice. I'm tired of it. But this is of course for all you bored housewives, so you make your own decision.

SO, as she rolls her eyes and continues to watch her dog mess in your neighbor's yard, you try again. You politely but firmly this time tell her to move along because no one wants to clean up after her dog and that children do indeed play in these yards. She then turns around and informs you she is on private property (your neighbors...who do not know her and also are tired of the messes) and you can't do anything about it. When one of the mothers speaks up and says that is not even making sense she will then start using curse words in the presence of the children...very classy.

She then informs you that you can do NOTHING about her behavior and screams that you are a bored housewife. She also lets you know that she can let her dog _ _ _ _ wherever she wants. When you mention you can and will call the local officials (read:police) if she doesn't stop yelling and cussing and letting her dog doodle all over the yards (she is now another house down where that dog has not hit empty in his bladder nor bowel yet) she tells you they don't care and won't come. Wrong answer. Because the rest of the story is um... not for public blogging you will have to contact me personally if you'd like to know what would then happen if you decided to pick up my hobby.

There are rules though. You may not yell back at the person. You must remain polite. You must remember that you have 8 children in your presence...and that you don't want your house egged. Trust me, I was the picture of pose..and a little confused at how angry she was but I think the message came across clear enough. Don't let your dog doodle in my/my neighbors yard...don't tell me I won't call the authorities.

I didn't mean to start a huge incident. I probably should look the other way, but really no one wants to clean up after everyone else's dog. You must know that this was an EXCESSIVE amount of time she was spending in the neighbors yard, that the dog was WAY up on the property, and that she was clearly aware that the dog was doing what it was doing.

Bored Bored Bored.

Ok in the next episode of Bored Housewives we will discuss how to do a happy dance when your 10 month old has his first official babble session "wa wa wa AND ba ba ba" where he also was looking at you to confirm that you indeed noticing his new accomplishment. This babbling will continue all evening so you can continue dancing in your heart.
The episode will conclude with a story about how you are to react when someone gives your baby a paci that is not his but that they found under your stroller at the ballpark thinking it might be his. You have to be ok with it because this person was really REALLY nice to spur of the moment help with multiple children and it was a huge blessing to know your children were safe. But it wasn't his paci...or anyone else's...at a ballpark. *sigh* I am so bored.


*The "magic" number in tummy time these days...and amount of time he has to spend in physical therapy a day...does not include speech therapy.