A Glimpse of Warmth

Just a couple weeks after our snowy experience the weather got nice a warm (for one day). I think everyone in Georgia was clamoring for just a glimpse of the warmth to come in spring. After church and naps we decided to head up to a park a few miles away. Let me just tell you, I have been to this particular park dozens of times and never have I seen it as busy as it was this day. It was CRAZY how many people were there. Like I said, I think everyone is GA was dying for a day with sun and warmth. We had a good time despite the number of people. I much prefer when the playground is almost empty, Josh on the other hand loves it when the place is a mad house. His preference is "the more people, the better." Of course he hasn't really ever tried to go to the playground with both Lily and Davis by himself on days when the place is crazy. And when Davis starts running around, keeping up with both of them when it is crowded is near impossible.

March Snow

Back in March we were surprised by quite the snow "storm." Here in Georgia we really don't get too much snow. If we get an inch or two the whole season that's about normal. We actually got snow a few times this winter season. The biggest snowfall we got was about 4-5 inches of snow. We had a great time playing in the snow the next day after all the snow was on the ground. It was such a powdery snow and not really wet enough to make into anything so we just played in it for a little while. Davis napped through most of the snow time..

Imaginations at Play

My church's mommy group had a playdate at Imaginations at Play. Imaginations at Play is a place that has different themed areas where kids can play and pretend. There is a shopping market, a Cookout area, a painting area, a music area, a pretend vet area, a water table, a train table area and even an area where the kids can see them self on video dancing to music. It's a cute place and Lily has a great time when we go, but it is not really my favorite place. It is a little over priced for my taste but it is fun to go to every once in a while. Here are a few pictures from our day. Davis is getting to where he can enjoy "playing" too.

Where Have I Been?

This year I have really gone MIA with the blog posting. I don't know if I just needed the break or what, but here it is May 17th and I haven't posted a single thing in 3 months. Whew. That is one heck of a break. Here is to catching up!! I am going to try to post a few of the major things that have happened since February. I have to remind myself that when I don't post I am only disappointing myself since I decided that this was the method for doing a baby book/scrapbook. Hope you enjoy some of the updates because there have definitely been some significant milestones since the last post.

Lily's First Verse

At church Lily's Sunday school class learns Bible verses every week. We have been working on helping Lily memorize the verses she learns. At first all Lily could do was repeat what we were saying but one day we were in the living room and Lily was playing with one of her dolls and she was pretending to put the doll to sleep. As she was putting the doll in the pack-n-play she started praying for the doll and in the midst of the prayer we heard the memorized verse we had been working on! Josh and I were thrilled and started cheering for her and she was oh so proud! And what a good first verse to learn as a child. Just thought I would share.

A series of events.....

1. Haiti earthquakes - tons of help, prayers, money needed

2. My lack of money but STRONG desire to help somehow and a subsequent prayer that God would allow me to help.

3. A Facebook status from AccessAtlanta asking for nominations for Nurse of The Year.

4. Nominating a very special nurse in my life for the award

5. Wondering if said nurse had a Facebook page so I could connect with her.

6. Finding said Facebook page of nominated nurse and "friend requesting" her.

7. Simultaneously seeing a friends Facebook status that posted a name and number to contact if you were a Dr. or nurse that wanted a free plane trip to Haiti to help with relief.

8. Deciding to repost my friends status as my status.

9. Getting no response that anyone saw it or cared, feeling a little silly that I posted it.

10. Nurse friend accepted friend request about the time I posted the free plane ride status.

OUTCOME: My nurse friend informs me that her church had organized a team of Dr.'s and R.N.'s to go to Haiti to help but had no way of getting there as there were limited flights entering and leaving the area. Upon seeing the number and name I posted she passed it along to the leader of the group and they were able to call and get on a flight the very next day to Haiti (not even 5 days after the earthquake first occurred).

I am so grateful that God allowed me to play a very small part in assisting a country that is in so much need. Sometimes it is more than money that is needed. It is prayer and willingness to help in anyway that presents itself. I am just feeling blessed to know that there are Dr.'s and nurses there in Haiti and that I had a role in helping them get there (no matter how small a role that is).

What series of events has God allowed you to be a part of??

Davis' 9 month stats

So, I am late on this post. I started a post right after the new year with the details of our Montana ski trip and still haven't finished it. Call me lazy, unmotivated, I am not sure all I know is that I am one of those people who doesn't force an issue. I knew if I tried to force myself to write a blog post it would be uninspired and just plain blah. It may still be those things to others, but I know as I write this that I feel motivated to catch up on a few things. That's a good start for me. So, with baby steps I will start with Davis' 9 month Dr.'s appointment stats. I was sure that Davis would have jumped way up on the percentage scale, that is of course not the case at all. He is growing just fine but he is still my skinny guy.

Weight -------> 18lbs 2oz = 13%tile

Height -------> 28 1/3'' = 54%tile

The Dr. thought he was doing perfect and was pleased with Davis' progress as far as his eating goes. I am also quite happy with how Davis is eating. After months and months of trying to get Davis to eat baby food and taking him to a speech pathologist to get some clarity and help we finally have success. Davis is eating 3 large meals a day. When I was trying to get Davis to participate I was feeding him the sweetest best stuff I could find that would make him want to eat, who cares about veggies as long as he is actually trying to eat right?! Well, once he got the hang of the whole food in the mouth, swallow process I decided it was time that we advance Davis to eating a more balanced diet. I tried just giving Davis pureed veggies but as expected he wasn't too interested. I needed a better plan. A friend of mine introduced me to Dr. Denmark and her "ways" back before Davis was born and I knew that I would follow most of her methods with Davis. Dr. Denmark recommends feeding babies what she calls mush which is a conglomerate of a protein, banana, oatmeal, veggie and fruit, a very well balanced diet if I say so myself. I thought I would give it a try fully expecting Davis to reject the mixture. Well, to my surprise he actually likes it and eats A LOT of it. I was barely able to get Davis to take a small 4 oz jar of baby food before I started the mush, now he will take 8+ oz of mush in a sitting and it is all really good for him.

Here are some of the concoctions I have mixed up for Davis:

Proteins: Black eyed peas, Black beans, Butter beans

Fruits : Pears, Applesauce

Veggies: Peas, Green beans, corn

Cereal: Oatmeal or Rice cereal

Banana (yes it is a fruit but it is separate from the fruit category here)

I make all the mush myself just with a hand grinder. It's pretty easy and like I said before, he loves it! So I am confident he is getting the food he needs. My next step (which is not part of the Denmark plan) is to get Davis to start progressing with his finger food abilities. He is taking his time on this. I gave him a halved blueberry the other morning. He put it in his mouth and started chewing it. I thought, this is great he will be eating table food in no time. HA, 10 minutes later he still had that darn blueberry in his mouth just flipping it around, he did manage to smush the fruit part of it out and all that was really left was the blueberry skin. I am sure he will figure it out soon. It's just hard not to compare Lily with Davis. Lily was on all table food by about 10 months of age (despite the fact that she didn't get any teeth until 10 1/2 months, figure that one out folks)!

Anyway, Davis is doing great. And just so you can see how great he is doing, here is a little picture of my happy growing guy!!

Davis vs. Solids Part II

Davis had his feeding evaluation appointment yesterday morning. I had no idea what to expect at the appointment. It was a very long day but in the end I feel encouraged and more confident that this stage for Davis is temporary. His appointment was at 8am at Scottish Rite (a hours drive from home). We got up really early and headed out. My mom met me there to pick up Lily so that I could focus on Davis' evaluation. The therapist (specifically a speech therapist) watched Davis for a few minutes and interacted with him a little so he would get used to her. Then we started his breakfast solid feeding. The therapist actually did the feeding. The evaluation lasted about an hour and a half with her feeding him normally and then trying different techniques to see if they helped Davis swallow more. Davis' main problems are that he seems to have a hard time realizing that he needs to swallow, almost as if he doesn't really recognize that there is food in his mouth. He also doesn't use his tongue very well to push the food back in the mouth to swallow it. He also doesn't really seem hungry enough to put the energy in to eat. Something I didn't even realize is that Davis takes the bottle extremely slow. The therapist pointed out that he is having to work really hard to get his milk and that may be causing some frustration as well. She also noticed that Davis doesn't seem to register hunger pains very much and is able to ignore them more than other babies. She thinks that he has some nerve/sensory issues in his mouth where basically his nerves aren't telling his brain that there is food in his mouth which he needs to swallow so he just holds it there. So those are a lot of the problems, what are the solutions?

Well, the therapist said that Davis is basically borderline as to whether he needs therapy or not. So we are going to do a month of strategies at home to see if he improves and progresses and if he doesn't we will then get him started in therapy. Some of the strategies that she has me doing are the following:

1) Pigeon bottle (this is a bottle made in Japan that is often used for babies with a cleft palate.

Since Davis has a hard time making a seal to suck as well as possible low muscle tone to suck efficiently this bottle will help him get milk easier)

2) z-vibe spoon (help develop his nerves and senses in his mouth to recognize food and then to practice swallowing better) This spoon is basically a spoon tip attached to a wand that vibrates that tells the nerves in Davis' mouth to respond and "wake up."

3) Texture and Flavor (offering more texture and flavored foods to do the same thing mentioned above). The therapist said that a lot of times baby food is super bland and some babies that need more oral stimulation need stronger flavors and varying textures to help the nerves recognize the food.

4) Offering more finger foods that are don't come apart easily to promote chewing and oral stimulation but without the risk of gagging or choking.

So, we will be trying these things for the next month in hopes that Davis improves with his eating. He is way too active to not be getting more and more calories during a feed so I want to do anything and everything to help him be as successful as possible and for it not to be traumatizing. Thank you everyone for your prayers for his appointment yesterday. Please continue to pray for Davis that he would progress in his eating between now and next month so as to avoid having to start Davis in therapy.

Davis vs. Solids

I started offering Davis solids (rice cereal initially) when he was about 4 months old. When we first started he didn't seem interested and he basically sat there and let the food drain out of his mouth, down his chin and onto his bib. I chalked it up to him just not being ready to eat solids. I didn't push it too much, I would offer cereal once a day for several weeks. He never really seemed to progress but I wasn't worried. I mean he was still young, a lot of babies don't even start solids until 6 months so I knew we had time. When he turned 6 months old and we went to his check up I told his pediatrician (whom I absolutely LOVE, she is wonderful) how he had been doing with solids. She didn't seem too concerned either but she thought it was possible that he was still having reflux issues making him associate eating with pain which would lead to him not swallowing. She prescribed him his reflux medication combo that he was on previously in hopes that that would help encourage him to eat. About $100 later (with insurance) I started giving his medication again. Honestly, I didn't notice a bit of difference but I kept trying. After a month of what seemed like no progress I decided not to refill his prescriptions (I am not really all that fond of medicine if it does not have an obvious effectiveness). Now we are almost 2 months out from his 6 month check up and there has been minimal progress. Davis probably takes about 5 bites of whatever I try to feed him. I have offered all the different types of fruits, veggies, grains, oats, etc. I really don't think he minds the flavors and tastes of things it honestly just appears that he doesn't get the concept of swallowing. So, what does all this mean? Well, I called back his pediatrician a couple weeks ago and updated her on Davis' progress and she was disappointed. She felt that at this point it was necessary to go ahead and have Davis evaluated for his feeding issues, specifically swallowing. We have an appointment with a specialist on Tues, December 15th at Scottish Rite. I am very anxious to help Davis be a more successful eater for several reasons: 1) So that when Josh and I leave for our ski trip in 2 weeks that my mom will not have to endure the frustration of feeding him 2) So that the poor little guy will get some more calories and vitamins into his super active body and 3) So that we can graduate to some finger foods before or around his first birthday like I did with Lily. I will definitely post an update about how his appointment goes on Tuesday. Prayers for his appointment are appreciated greatly as well as general prayers for Davis' eating ability!

Family Trip to Mayfield Dairy

One of the Mayfield Dairy plants is very close to our house. They bottle milk at this location and they have a cute gift shop and they sell some of their fantastic ice cream. What's even better about the ice cream is how cheap it is. We ordered 3 single scoop cups of ice cream and it only cost $4.50. That's a great deal. So, a few weeks ago we took a little afternoon outing to get some ice cream. They have a big cow (and when I say big, I mean MASSIVE) that Lily isn't all that fond of but she has gotten better about getting near it. We took some pictures, ate some ice cream and just enjoyed one of the last few warm afternoons of the season! Here are some pictures of our family outing!

Pics of the Family

Where are all the ducks?

We have tried nearly 10 times to find ducks at a pond or lake nearby to go feed. Every time we think we found some ducks we show up and they aren't there. Some friends of ours live in a neighborhood that backs up to a park that has a pond. So, the other day we got together and walked to the pond only to once again not find a single duck, I mean shoot, we would be happy with some geese, but there was not a water floating bird to be found. Oh well! Here are a couple of pictures of Lily while we were on our walk.

Belated Halloween post

So, I am a little behind in posting some of these Halloween pictures. I think I had a momentary apathy for posting blogs but that feeling has since subsided so I am going to try to play catch up here.

The week before Halloween we had several events that involved getting dressed up! First, we went to a playdate with some of the other moms from our new church. We had a great time and Lily had fun playing with all the other kids. They did a tree craft, ate lunch, and then ate cookies with icing. It was optional to dress up in costume but Lily had such a good time wearing her SuperGirl costume that I found every opportunity to get her in it (besides at home).

A friend of ours through a family Halloween party on Friday night where the whole family dressed up. The kids played some cute games and of course there was eating involved (when is an event not centered around food?!). Since the entire families were there moms and dads dressed up too. Josh went as a referee unfortunately, I don't have a picture of him. He looked authentic though. Black pants, black and white striped refs shirt, yellow foul flag, and completely shaved head (and I mean Mr. Clean shiny shaved)! I went as a snow skier. Free costumes are my favorite, mine was a tossup between a snow skier and an equestrian (I didn't want to wear the spandex pants and reveal all my flaws so I stuck with the bulky ski suit). Lily was SuperGirl and Davis was a lobster. Since he is crawling his costume was not really practical. I bought it at a consignment sale long before I knew that Davis would be an early crawler. Needless to say, he didn't wear it for very long.

Lily got to dress up for preschool one day too. I guess since it is a church preschool and they don't celebrate halloween but still want to let the kids dress up they called this particular day, "Favorite Book Character" day. I guess I could have let Lily wear her Super Girl costume again but I took the book character thing literally. So, Lily dressed as a mouse. She basically was Angelina Ballerina (a ballet mouse). People thought she was a cat though which is probably my fault, either way though she was cute!

We had planned on actually going trick or treating this year but other plans came up the week before. Elon University's (our alma mater) football team was playing Wofford's team. Wofford is in Spartanburg, SC. Several of Josh's buddies were planning on meeting up and going to the game. Some of the guys had their families come too, so we packed up our whole family on Sat morning and drove up to Spartanburg. The weather that day was not so great so the guys went to the game while the wives and kids stayed at home and let the kids play and nap. That evening the group of us got our kids dressed up (we borrowed a Tinkerbell costume for Lily since we weren't planning on being there in the evening) and we went to a church festival where the kids dressed up and got candy and food and played on big jumpy slides. It was a lot of fun but probably one of the most exhausting days I have had in a very long time. Thank goodness kids are resilient because Lily and Davis bounced back the next day like always. It took me a little longer to recover though!

Lily as Angelina Ballerina on her way back from preschool's Favorite Book Character day.

cat/mouse, whatever.

Lily and her good friend McKenzie at Jenny's family Halloween party. Kenzie had purple color in her hair.

Halloween playdate at Jessica's!
Too bad I didn't know that her costume says to spot clean ONLY. I mean come on, a toddler costume that can't be washed? Mac n Cheese is not friendly to the clothes of toddlers.

You can't really tell, but Davis is wearing a skeleton shirt. He was just content to crawl around the whole time.

We sprayed Lily's hair with blue sparkle spray for the family Halloween party at Jenny's. It looked so cute and washed out super easy.

My snow skier outfit and Davis as a lobster.

Marco with his daughter Madison (middle), McKae (right) and Lily dressed up and ready go get candy.
Lily, Brady, Madison and McKae (Lily, Brady and Madison are the same age all born Aug/Sep 07).

The only picture of Trevan that he would allow. Trevan, McKae and Brady are Brannon and Kelli Rice's kids. Madison belongs to Marco and Shannon.