Tree, Tree, Tree

Sing along with me if you know this one: "Tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree.  I love you.  Yes, I do.  Tree, tree, tree. Tree, tree, tree."

No, it isn't a hippie song.  It is Mr. Rogers.  Do you believe that?!  I didn't know anyone outside our family who knew that song until I met my husband.  I guess it was meant to be!

Anyway, today I share a video of James' first real experience with a tree.  Now that we have a backyard we can actually do these things with our son!  He was actually pretty interested and, I think, enjoying country living.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

A quick post tonight as I am way behind on my James video editing.  James is finally settling into our new place, his teeth aren't hurting quite so much (he is getting his top three all at once as well as the continued arrival of his molars, thank you, Tylenol!), and we are getting into a much better routine.  James is not great at self-soothing, a "normal" delay, but we are trying our best to work him into it.  Now that he is (much!) bigger it is difficult to rock him to sleep.  So, we read him two books, sing him one song, and lay him down in his crib with a blankie.  I am still paranoid about blankets in the crib, but at this point he is strong enough to deal with it, just a mother's worry.  We have tried to find fuzzy sleeper outfits, but few places carry them in his size and fewer carry ones that work with his tube (zippers aren't so great, what happened to buttons?).  He is doing much better with this routine and, depending on the day, goes to sleep with little fuss.  He is liking the comfort of his blankie and I think he is starting to understand that crying is futile (so hard to just let your baby cry himself to sleep, but I know it is in everyone's best interests).  It did take awhile, though.

Things can be a little difficult because he really likes this routine.  His new expression of excitement is to kick his left leg, which he tends to do during the whole process.  But, we still seem to be able to get him to sleep.  Sometimes it is hard for us to push aside his cuteness and be firm in our routine.  :D

Last week was Mark's 26th birthday.  We had a fun time with a delicious salmon and crab dinner (the crabs were an issue as we didn't have mallets, oops!) and apple pie with our new landlords who are supper fun.  My family was able to come visit that weekend as well and we had a great time at dinner and squeezed into our little, box-filled, messy house for a yummy dessert.  James it totally in love with his dad.  I love seeing the way James looks at Mark.  And James is transitioning from "da-da" to the occasional "daddy" which is adorable!

Here are a couple pics from the birthday weekend:

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Playing with the Rody they gave James for his b-day.

With love.

Goodbye Kangaroo Joey!

We returned our feeding pump today as James is now 100% blended!!!  Yay!!!  It was nice to get the machine and IV pole out of our house and get the go-ahead for more syringes to be shipped to us each month (we had been oiling ours until we were blue in the face).

Here is my post on syringes vs. pumps on my new blog, Ballon Bellies, a practical resource for parents of children with tubes.  There is only so much that doctors can tell us about life with our wonderful children that eat through a tube.  I hope Balloon Bellies can be a resource to help parents with the ins and outs of g-tube home life and living as normally as possible.  Please check it out!

Also, continuing off of my last post on Baby Noah's awesome dance moves I have included a new version of "Call Me Maybe."  I often feel guilty that I don't play more classical music for James.  He enjoys that particular genre and I know the scientific evidence that it is proven to help brain development, I just have a hard time giving up my driving music.  So, I thought this might be a great compromise.  Enjoy!

With love.

Baby Noah's Awesome Moves (And Good Music Taste)

Hello everyone!  I hope you will bear with me as the blog goes through some template changes and I am out of commission with unpacking boxes (we have a little house to live in, yay!).

A quick post tonight.  I love following Noah's Dad, a blog about the life of baby Noah, a 20-month-old with Down's Syndrome, through the eyes of his loving father.  Who doesn't enjoy seeing a father's love for his son and who doesn't love watching adorable videos of such a cute kid?  It's a win-win.  Mark and I woke up this morning, exhausted from our move, to find a video of Noah dancing and it made our day!  I am sure it will make yours as well!  By the way, Noah has great taste in music.  "Call Me Maybe" is my favorite song of the summer.  It never fails to make me happy and, in turn, puts a smile on James' face!

Check out his awesome moves!

With love.

Comment Away!

So, I couldn't figure out the comment system until I started to create a new blog today (more info on that soon, don't worry, I'm not getting rid of this one).  Now, anyone should be able to comment.  I figured out that there is a section on my settings that opens commenting to everyone.  So, feel free to comment away!

It seems Mark and I are trying to fit all the dairy foods I didn't get to eat this summer into September.  We had soft serve ice cream last night (my first real ice cream in almost a year!) and crepes with whipped cream today.  :D  And, bonus, we found the cutest little coffee shop near us with the most amazing pumpkin lattes (which I got to sample, not quite ready for milk full force yet).  My tummy has been tolerating everything extremely well considering!

More soon!

With love.

Nomads

We had to evacuate our apartment as it is contaminated with cigarette smoke.  So, we have been living out of a suitcase, taken in by various kind family members.  James is struggling with the adjustment, but as we settle into what we hope will be our new home things should calm down for all of us.  We know God has a great plan for us it is just a little exhausting right now.

We had to spend one night in a hotel and James loved the bed:

With love.

Ignite Your Natitude!

James loves watching the Nationals' baseball games on TV.  So, naturally, we though we should take him to a game.  We didn't, however, account for the large volume of noise and the terrible fog horn (which some family members love, don't ask me why! :D) that goes off every time the Nats hit a home run (which happens a lot lately - go Nats!).

James enjoyed sitting outside the stadium with Dad while Aunt Trena and I parked the car.  Mark said that every woman who walked by stopped to talk with our son - what can I say, he is a stud.  James loves being the center of attention so, naturally, that worked out well.  Once we were seated in the stadium, however, he got upset.  He started pouting, whimpering, and clinging to our shoulders because the noise scared him.  We felt really bad.  Luckily, he fell asleep on Aunt Trena and felt much better after his nap.  He was finally able to sit up and cheer for the Nats (who won, by the way).  Next time, at Aunt Trena's suggestion, we will have to bring ear muffs.

Here are a few pics.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any with his Nats jersey because he got a little too hot wearing that heavy thing, cute though it was.

 Our scared little man:

 Happy after his nap:

It was a beautiful night!

With love.

Blended Driving is Dangerous

I walked in to a family gathering last Sunday looking like a blended mess.  I sat in the back seat with James on the way to my grandmother's house, giving him his blended feed every few minutes.  Somehow, the tube kinked, the side medicine port popped open, and a huge burst of carrot, avocado, and quinoa exploded on the ceiling and rained on my head.

We pulled off and wiped the goop off my skin, but my skirt was ruined and my hair was gross.  We found a Target and, I found out later, Mark laughed as I traipsed in, covered in slime, to find the cheapest outfit possible.  I came out a little later with cleaning wipes to tackle the car and a decently cheap, cute outfit (my relatives claim that it was an excuse to buy something new, which is kind of true :D).  The car cleaned up surprisingly well, but the ceiling will never quite be the same.  I have to say, it is a self-confidence boost to walk into Target looking like I had spilled baby food all over myself yet not have a care in the world.

I didn't get a picture of me, although I wish I had.  I knew that, even though it didn't seem so funny at the time, it would be funny later, but I didn't take advantage of the situation.  So, to give you an example of a small-scale blended diet disaster here is a picture of my adorable son smearing his food all over himself while in the car:

Not sure if you can see the goo he smeared in his hair.  He looks pretty happy about it.  :D

With love.

Yelling at Dad

James loves his daddy.  He seems to know that "Dada" refers to Mark and has come to yelling it at him.  Mark has taken to yelling James' name back at him.  Sometimes it dissolves into the following exchange:

By the way, "Do you see how annoying that is" is a joke from Get Smart where a mom repeats everything her child says, not an insult to James.

With love.