Highs

The past few weeks have been so outstanding for our family. It is the longest stretch since Justin was born without going to a doctor's appointment! By next week it will have been five whole weeks without a trip to any doctors. I have enjoyed it!

But now we are back in surgery mode. In my mind it has been a long ways off, but now that we are a little over a week and it is getting more real it is a bit scary. I went back to the Down Syndrome Association Mom's coffee today and talked with more moms. Most of them have gone through surgery or may have surgery in the coming months or years. It is much easier talking to them about surgery than doctors. They know the pain of giving their child away and trusting the doctor. It was fun having them fawn over Justin and be impressed with the things he can do because they appreciate it and recognize how amazing it is for him to do the little things. It makes me feel good too because they know how hard it is to work with him and that it takes effort on my part. It was a good morning. A little encouragement goes a LONG way!

I am again reminded of how truly blessed we are that Justin was born at the birth center without any real complications. I haven't spoken to a mother yet of a Down's child who has been able to take their baby home right away. All of them have spent some time in the NICU and some even were transferred to other hospitals for further evaluation and treatment. God is SO good!

Justin has still not taken a bottle. Lucy, his therapist, has been working with him and he just gets mad at her. As soon as she gets him in position to eat he starts crying. We have gotten some new bottles and nipples so we are going to try again. I am really not stressed about this even though I am going back to work (in September) and I won't be here to feed him for long stretches of time. I feel like God is telling me that he doesn't need to eat from a bottle yet. I am still here. When it's time, God will take care of it. That's one less thing for me to worry about now.

Child Reminders

Travis and I were watching PBS as usual in the morning and I was tickling him and he said, "No mama, just love me!" That's all he wanted...love him. How perfect.

And then we were out driving and another car cut me off and I was a bit upset and Travis said "Sing Hosanna!" (His way of asking for the song "Give me Oil in my Lamp".) I had to smile. That's right, sing hosanna all the time, no matter what.

Children are so smart, especially when they aren't trying.

Deck Demo- Day 5

Well, now it's really more of putting back together than demo, but you know what I mean.

Here's the backyard after the last two pallates of sod:

It's done!

Now it's just water, water, water! And then I have to decide what to plant in my new flower bed. Any ideas?

And Justin has rolled over twice more! So maybe it's for real! I have been working on reading too:

He's my boy, so reading is in his blood!

Justin Rolled Over!

Ok, so it's not that big of a deal for most children, but it's HUGE for us! Justin was napping today on his stomach, which we have him do to strengthen his neck and back muscles, and when Randy went in to pick him up he was smiling up at him, ON HIS BACK! WOW! I have been working with him to get him accustomed to the rolling over motion, and he has gone from being shocked, to being more comfortable with the movement, to doing it himself apparently!

Please add this to your prayers: Our insurance is in negotiations with our pediatricians group (Texas Children's Pediatric Associates) and as of now they haven't reached an agreement so on March 1, 2009 they will no longer accept our insurance. That would be a huge blow to us for a couple of reasons. First, we really like our pediatrician and we don't want to switch. Second, the pediatrics group gives us a bit of an "in" at Texas Children's Hospital (which would still be in network). Our pediatrician has helped us make the appointments we have needed at Genetics and the Down Syndrome Clinic. Because they are part of the same group, we can get referrals to the specialists we need with relative ease. That is so important to us. We don't know yet if things can be worked out, but please pray that they do.

Justin

One year ago yesterday (sorry, this is a day late!) I found out I was pregnant with Justin. We had Travis' 18 month pictures taken that day so I have the picture with the pregnancy test, like everyone has, plus a family portrait too. I have a friend who suffered a miscarriage and then had a family picture taken shortly after that and whenever she looks at the pictures, she remembers those feelings. I look at that picture and I think about how innocent we were. I was so excited to be pregnant! It was like my little secret: Justin was there, even though he wasn't really in the picture. Now I am overwhelmed by so many different feelings when I look at that picture. The feelings that I have in that picture are the ones that seem so elusive and that I hope to recapture one day soon.

Justin is doing well overall. He is up to 10 pounds 11 ounces, which I consider an accomplishment. He is holding his head up most of the time. He doesn't hold himself on his feet, as a typical child should do at his age, but he is starting to push off if we hold him upright. We put him in the door jumper and he did well with that, although he also held his feet in the air and spun himself in circles. We have propped him in the corner of the couch with the boppy pillow and put toys on it for him to play. I think he is reaching for things, but maybe it's just me thinking that. We put him on the floor under the play gym and he seems to reach for the toys that are hanging off of it. I gave the boys a bath together this week too. I was trying to save time, but they really seemed to enjoy it! Travis poured water on Justin's stomach (where the Indian shot him- his belly button!) and Justin watched him very intently. I don't have any concerns about Justin's vision right now. I think he sees everything!

We are having problems giving him a bottle. We have tried several things and each one works for a little while, but then Justin gives up and just screams. He didn't eat very well even from me this weekend, and we are concerned that he may be experiencing some of the heart-related problems they warned us about. We don't want Justin to turn into one of the sick babies who had to have surgery before Justin! Please pray that we can work through these problems and that we can make it these last 2 1/2 weeks without incident. Today did go much better, so we hope that this continues.

Irreparable

That's the word: Irreparable. So we are door shopping today. Wish us luck...

Deck Demo- Days 2, 3 and 4

So I am a bit behind with the posts. There have been some "incidents" on the job site. Here is the rest of the Deck Demo project:

On Day 2 Randy joined the festivities, it being his every other Friday off. Travis used his little potty for the first time! That was exciting, but it was only once so we still have a long way to go.

Highlights of Day 2:

Loading all the wood from the deck into the dumpster. We also fit all the hot tub parts inside too.

Our dirt arrived!

Travis peed all over the bed when he was napping so I had to run out to the laundromat and wash the comforter. (You don't need to see a picture of that!) You recall he used the potty in the morning...



Here is the view at the end of the day:






It looked so great! All that was left was the stump and then dirt and sod. Easy, right?

Deck Demo- Day 3

Day 3 brought excitement and promise: New energy! My sister joined in, plus a few friends from church. The sod arrived and the guys did a fantastic job of clearing out the last of the greenery and they started working on the stump. Randy admitted that he needed the stump grinder so I made a trip to the rental place and picked one up. Randy and a friend worked most of the rest of the day on the stump. That left the rest of us to haul dirt and lay sod. My sister is not used to working outside very much and it didn't take long for her to start melting. I have to sing the praises of the friend who started this whole project because he is a trooper! He worked 3 days straight, from about 9-5 every day, in the HOT sun and didn't complain once. He's the one we are trying to convince to move here, and he still didn't knock our weather even once. I was VERY impressed! He only brought one set of work clothes for the entire time he was here, so I did laundry every night. He was pretty stinky, so it was good for everyone.

So stump grinding. Have you ever tried it? Not very fun. The tree has been dead for about 5 years, but apparently no one told the tree. It was still very green and did not grind easily. So Randy took a swing at it with the ax (no, he didn't hurt himself...) but he did manage to knock off a chunk and it flew into one of the french doors on the back of the house. Oh yeah, and it broke, into a million pieces. It actually took about 30 minutes for the entire window to fall out, but fall out it did. It gave us time to cover the window and put plywood up to contain the glass. And that leaves me with another project for Monday. We aren't certain that the glass can be replaced, so we might have to get a whole new set of doors. Did I mention there's a hurricane coming this week? Here's the picture:

And here's the progress at the end of Day 3:

Deck Demo- Day 4

We sent Travis to church and called my mom to watch Justin and we both attacked the project with vengeance. We had to move the dirt so the dumpster can be removed and we had to lay the sod so it doesn't die.

I mowed the lawn:

Randy ground the stump:

I made a flower bed:

Randy ground the stump:

I fed Justin (You don't have to see pictures of that!)

Randy ground the stump:

All in all, we moved 20 wheelbarrows of saw dust out from the tree stump!

We got a call from someone at church who said he would help us for a bit in the afternoon. He was truly sent by God, because there was NO WAY we could have finished ourselves. I returned the stump grinder and they were hard at work by the time I got back. The guys finished laying the sod and moving the dirt right before the sky opened up and the rain came. We didn't quite finish everything because we ran out of time, energy, and sod! But, we are well on our way! All in all I would call the weekend project a success. Randy stepped on a nail, and we are still waiting for the doctor to call to see if he has gotten a tetanus shot recently. But really, other than that, we are well and healthy, if not a bit sore. (Some more than others!) We are so incredibly thankful for all the help we received. We thoroughly admit we could not have done it without you!

And here's the final product:

(And here's the window after being secured for the night!)