Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Hello World!

Hello world. Yes, we are still alive and I do promise to quit starting off every blog post by apologizing and offering lame excuses for my absence…but not today. I’ve been busy! My work has been crazy busy but seems to have settled down some now. A whole week in the office feels like such a luxury. Anyway, I’ve been working away at work and then coming home and working away there (two small children, a husband, dog and house to keep semi-sanitary is not easy) and then running 3 out of 5 nights a week so, by the time all of that is done…I crash. It was so bad that I’d stop in the middle of the day and figure out how many hours until I could get in the bed again.

Anyway, I have lots to report. Item one…Gaines can WALK. Yes, as in the baby that might not walk or might walk funny, can walk across the room. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord! Now, he is by no means a walker and still much prefers to crawl to get around but knowing that he CAN do it, makes my heart so happy. I feel like at this point (and the therapist agrees) that he just needs to keep it up and get stronger and stronger. I hope to report by his birthday in 2 months that he is a walker. Prayers appreciated.

Item two…Gaines can say mama. Yep. He’s 22 months old and FINALLY says mama. I was starting to worry that he physically couldn’t make the M sound, but he can. I came home from being out of town for a couple of days and Beau told me about it. He “forgot” to call me the second that he said it but I won’t hold it against him. Now, another disclaimer, right now he just repeats the word as in, he doesn’t use the word “mama” in reference to the person who spent 6 weeks laying in a hospital bed, 4 months in a city 1200 miles away from everything she knew, countless hours at his bedside praying and watching and hoping; thousands of dollars living in a foreign city, paying for a nanny, medicines and doctors appointments; hundreds of days cleaning up the effects of his reflux, countless wet cat wrestling matches while trying to feed his tiny self, doing leg stretches after leg stretches after leg stretches and about 22 months worrying about how he’s going to turn out…but that’s ok…we’ll get there.

Gaines gained a pound in a month. That is AWESOME. Let’s hope he hold onto it.

I guess those are Gaines’ three biggies.

Reed is into Toy Story big time these days. He got Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 for Christmas and I don’t know that a day goes by that he doesn’t watch one of them. That’s not exactly true but he does love them. I broke down and got him his very own Buzz Lightyear “Actubater” (or and you and I know it, Action Figure). I’ve never seen such joy on the child’s face.  Such a sweet boy. 

Other items of interest:

-I currently rank 3 in Reed’s list of favorite girls. I’m behind two little girls in his class. Not too bad.

-I still have to remind both of my children on a nightly basis (multiple times a night) that we do not drink the bath water.

-Jack is getting very close to being free to a good home. It seems he has forgotten that is his house broken.

-If you put a little lotion in the palm of Gaines’ hand, he’ll freak out.

-I put lotion on Reed yesterday for the first time in a while and he told him he “felt fresh”.

-I have to put the toilet seat down if it’s up for Reed because it’s too loud if he slams it down (makes his ears bleed) and he’s afraid it will pinch him if he lowers it.

-Reed asked me to put the toilet seat down the other day so that he could “poop and frelax”. (That’s relax to you and me).

-When Gaines hides from you (a la peek a boo), he covers his ears.

-Gaines started Gymboree last week. He’s not really into the structured activities but loves to play there.

-Reed asked me the other day why his “sheeps” weren’t on the bed.

That’s going to have to be it for now but I promise to try and do better about updating.

Love to all,

Brittany