A Walk Today

Jay and I took a walk with my girlfriends today. The cap my Grandma (Jay's Great-Grandma) knit for him fit his head finally. I loved that I didn't have to worry about his head or ears getting too cold. Since I don't have mittens/gloves for Jay, I used a pair of his socks. Had he not gotten them all wet with slobber they would have kept his hands warmer. When I went to take them off in the car his hands were quite cold. Yikes! Lesson learned.

I can just see what Jay is thinking, "Mom, do you have to take so many pictures?? Come on, let's get going!"

Family, Standing, and Backwards Crawling

Matt's sisters and their families (minus Traci's husband Keith) hung out here this past Sunday afternoon.

We're preparing for Traci's family to leave the area since Keith took a terrific job in Texas. It is quite bittersweet for us...we're so happy for them and this new opportunity/journey God has them on, but we sure are going to miss having them so close by! What a blessing their family has been to us! We know families will be blessed by them in Texas, too. Keith is already on the job in Texas having left more than a week ago. The girls are wrapping things up here and will be leaving soon. As you can imagine, we're soaking up every last possible minute with them!

The Cousins

(taken on Sunday, January 18)

Samantha, Joshua, Jay, Sydney, and Alex

Matt's sisters - Shawn and Traci

A Family Photo!

Cousin Samantha and Jay

(taken Tuesday, January 27)

Having a blast on the dining room chair

Look at me - standing on my own!

This standing thing is GREAT!

Today I was able to capture Jay doing his newest latest and greatest trick - backwards crawling! I've been doing tummy time with him and it has been amazing watching this process of him learning to crawl. In days prior he has only done just a little bit of scootching back. But today he really took off! I'm sure it is just a matter of time before he learns to crawl forward.

Feeling Better!

Jay had another follow-up appointment with his pediatrician today to do a check-up on his ears. He had a double ear infection at his six-month check-up on December 2nd, followed by a left ear infection two weeks later, followed by a right ear infection 3 weeks later.

Before we left for Eastern Washington he had a follow-up and neither ear was inflamed, but there was still fluid.

Today the doctor checked and reported to us that the fluid was gone from both ears. Praise the Lord! Having Jay feeling good made his parents EXTREMELY thrilled.

He received his shots today that he was supposed to have received on December 2nd (we waited till he was done fighting off the ear infections). He weighs 18 pounds now!

Family Get-together

On Sunday, January 11, we enjoyed lunch with Uncle Keith, Aunt Traci (Matt's sister), and Cousins Samantha and Sydney after church. Here are a few photos of Jay and me that Traci took. Jay is holding on to Sydney's shirt string loving the tug-of-war and her twirling in and out while he was holding the string.

One of Jay's new favorite activities around the house is to "play" with/on the dining room chairs. As you'll see from these photos he LOVES this activity. He bobs back and forth, kicks his legs and squeals with delight. He'll do this for as long as I let him.

This past weekend we traveled to my home town in Eastern Washington to celebrate my Aunt Donna's life. The burial and memorial services were very nice and the meals and time spent with family and friends was terrific.

A picture of the family gathered for the private burial service.

Pastor John doing the burial service.

Donna's Mom's gravestone is immediately in front of the cremation stand.

My Mom played the piano and Mom's best friend Anita played the organ.

My brother and twin sister and I played a medley of songs to close out the service.

I'm not sure you can see it well, but the bench with the flowers in the middle is especially nice. When cousin Amy was helping her Mom pick up branches from her yard, Amy was going to toss them. Aunt Donna wouldn't let her saying, "I want to keep them and do something special with them." Without Donna knowing, her kids arranged to remove the branches from her collection place and hired a guy to bend and make a bench out of them to place in her yard. It is a neat looking branch bench and my cousin's wife, Connie, did a beautiful job with the floral arrangement for it. In fact, Connie arranged all the bouquets for the service.

The buffet potluck luncheon following the service.

Hank and Bryce (both are 4 years old)

(My cousins' kids - 1st cousins to each other)

They were terrific playmates - what a hoot!

Below is my Grandma (my Dad's Mom - Jay's Great Grandma) surrounded by some of her other great-grandchildren.
Here are a few photos of Jay enjoying a bath at Grandma's (my Mom's home).

And here is a video of Jay talking. As you'll hear he has added "da da da da" to his repertoire this past week.

I thought this photo was appropriate to end this blog entry. It is of Jay tuckered out after a big weekend seeing lots of family. I think the sweetest pictures are ones of kids sleeping peacefully - especially so if it is YOUR kiddo.

Friday Fun

Jay and I had an impromptu photo and video session Friday night prior to his bedtime. Here are the results!

I love this photo above - it shows some of his top teeth!

And I'll end this blog entry with a video of him talking. He talks like this quite often now.

Update on Jay's Heart

Today we met with Dr. Seslar, Jay's cardiologist.

(On a side note, Jay weighed about 17-1/2 pounds today. He's a healthy growing boy!)

We're so thankful for the good news that we'll be weaning Jay off the beta-blocker heart medicine called Propranolol this week! Since we can't be sure if the beta-blocker is helping Jay not have SVT episodes or not, we'll monitor his heart rate with our stethoscope a little more closely the next couple of weeks.

The other good news is that we don't need to see Dr. Seslar again unless Jay has an SVT episode, so no follow-up visit is needed unless something happens.

Dr. Seslar reminded me of what to do if we catch Jay's heartrate going super fast. Pull his knees up to his chest, put a bag of frozen peas on his face to "shock" him, or do what Jay recently LOVES doing - hold him upside down. Jay thinks it is the best when I grab him by his shins and gently lift him up out of my lap so his face is hanging upside down in front of mine. Or sometimes he'll enjoy facing me sitting in my lap and he'll fling his upper body upside down off the end of my knees. These days we have to be more careful since he doesn't give us much warning when he wants to "play" that way.

If Jay is still in a fast heart-beat episode (SVT) for longer than 20 or 30 minutes here at home we'll be packing up our things to head to Seattle Children's ER so they can help us get his heartrate back to normal. We're praying that day will NEVER come - but at least we'll know what to do if it does happen.

Updates

My Aunt Donna passed away yesterday in a peaceful way. Praise the Lord she is in the presence of Our Heavenly Father no longer suffering in her physical body here on earth. The burial and memorial service is set for next Friday, January 16. What joy she brought to so many lives. I have so many good memories I'm cherishing -- her yummy rosettes she used to make, her biscuit and gravy dinner, (actually anything she cookied/fixed was really good), her tea shop that she ran for a time with her good friend where they served fancy teas and desserts, the fun crafts she planned for us to do when we were little, the dessert buffet she helped arrange for my wedding shower, and the wonderful, thoughtful gift-giver that she was. Every time I look at my Christmas china set I'll think of her since she started that collection for me - among many other cherished items (nativity set, charm bracelets, etc.).

On another note, Jay is beginning to feel better after starting his third round of antibiotics as we try to kill the ear infections he has been fighting since the beginning of December. I took him to the chiropractor yesterday for an adjustment and he giggled and laughed the entire way through the adjustment. What a character! When the doctor felt his spine with her thumbs he giggled and laughed like she was tickling him. And when she adjusted his neck/head he was relaxed and giggled through that, too. The last two nights we've had good sleep so we're ALL feeling better.

Tomorrow he sees the cardiologist. Hopefully we'll come off the Propanolol medication he's been given three times a day since he was 10 days old. Again, praise the Lord we haven't caught him in an SVT (super fast heartbeat) episode to give me hope that he might be taken off the medication. Kids typically "grow out" of the condition within their first year, so that is what we've been praying for.

We're enjoying some family time tonight watching the championship college football game (Florida vs. Oklahoma).

Until next time...

PopPop & Nana Visit

PopPop and Nana (Matt's parents) came to visit this weekend. We had a great time with them, like usual. Together with Traci's family we all went out to eat Saturday night. It was Jay's first time using a restaurant's highchair system (we don't eat out very often obviously) and Jay did terrific! I fed him his dinner of sweet potatoes and applesauce prior to our food arriving so it worked out great.

Here is Nana and Jay enjoying the train that circles our Christmas tree here at home. He loves watching it go around and around. Notice how he is making sure Nana is watching him?

Please keep my Aunt Donna (pictured below) in your prayers. She has been fighting bone cancer for almost a year now. She has been living at my Mom's home since this summer because she needed someone to be with her around the clock because she gets weak from the chemo and radiation treatments. (Side note: We had a wonderful Christmas with her and her family a few weeks ago.) Anyway, to make a long story short, she seemed fine to my Mom Sunday morning, but when Mom returned home from church, something wasn't right with Donna. She called the cancer care doctors in Spokane and then called Donna's kids to let them know Donna needed to go to the hospital. The doctors immediately admitted her to ICU. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and for peace, wisdom, and comfort for my cousins as they make decisions regarding what is best for Aunt Donna.

Taken Labor Day Weekend 2008

Happy New Year!

With the girls on Christmas Break from school we've been getting together with Matt's sister Traci's family a little more often. Here are some recent photos from this past week from our times together.

Here I am enjoying my first Wii game against Samantha

Aunt Traci and Jay

Jay was a good sport when we put Sydney's beret hat on him

Jay sure enjoys playing with Cousin Samantha

Cousin Sydney and Jay enjoying a horseback ride on Dad Matt