I have not done well at all with the pictures this week! Ooops!

He LOVES to swing!!

LOVE this sight!

A pre-bath, bath in the veggie sink...courtesy of Grandpa.

Loves playing with the dogs through the glass.

This one is frame-able because it's so bad! Three very different, but equally terrible expressions. :)

As always, thank you for your prayers!! He isn't feeling well tonight. Lots of trying to throw up, and NO eating OR drinking since lunch. *sigh* Please continue to pray for his head and his eating/drinking! We go back to the GI (stomach) doctor Friday. I'll let you know how that goes.

We've had a good week! Please continue praying for his drinking and his head!!

First St. Patrick's Day. Look at those teeth! All 1 1/2 of them. :)

I don't know if you can see those eyelashes or not. He did not get those from me. I LOVE them!

One night, I went in to check on him and found this. Haha.

The same night as the previous picture, I went in later and also found this. He always has that blanket thing (the one behind him) in his hands to sleep. Always. This bear is the one my sister made. It just sits in the corner of the bed until he wakes up in the morning, then he plays with it for a minute. I've never found him sleeping with it, and havn't since that night. :)

Taking his medicine. *sigh* He's very good at it.

He's really getting good at "climbing" and crawling into, up, and over things.

And out!

It was almost bedtime tonight. He was definitely relaxed.

I couldn't come up with a title for this post. It is just too random. Ugh. I HATE having a "blank line." Feel free to title the post for me. I'll be back next week!

11 Months!

Davis is 11 months old today! It feels like he's been here forever, but at the same time, the last 11 months have FLOWN! I know...everyone says that. As long as we aren't talking about his eating/drinking, he's doing great! Physically he's blowing everyone away, he consistently says 6 words that everyone can understand, he imitates many more, and "talks" all the time, and FINALLY has 1 1/2 teeth (bottom left, and a piece of bottom right). I'm working on a BIG 12 month post...so for now, that's all you get for "11 months."

We had his 3 month MRI and visit with the neurosurgeon this past Friday. This was the first full MRI he's had...meaning he had to be sedated. We had to be at the hospital at 6am! Davis and I are NOT morning people...it was hard! :) But, we made it, and he did great. He handled the anesthesia well, and other than being extra sleepy the rest of the day, he was himself. As soon as he woke up, we headed across the street to see Dr. Roberts. He said overall, he's very pleased! I loved hearing that! He said clinically, he looks great. He developing great, and doing lots of things kids with spina bifida are not supposed to do. I also loved hearing that! He said the MRI looks good too! Everything appears to be stable. Again, loved that. Then there was the part I did NOT love. He said he was a little concerned because of the size of his head. It's one thing to consistently have a huge head. Davis' head is jumping percentiles. For the first 6 months, his head was consistently around the 75th percentile, but since then, it's slowly jumping percentiles each time he's seen. It's now the 90th percentile. He said it could be nothing, but it could be that his body isn't handling the extra fluid as well as it appears. He said his head could  be growing to accomodate, rather than draining properly. I did not love hearing that. He said it could very likely be either scenario. Because everything...the actual brain, the ventricles, etc. look so good, and because his language development is ahead of the game, and physically, he's not that far behind (yay!), he's not worried...yet. He still wants to see him again in 3 months (fine with me!), and said we'd go from there. If his head stays in the same percentile, or goes down, then he'll do nothing, and see us again in 3 more months. BUT...if it "jumps" again, he'll order another MRI, and might begin to consider putting in a shunt. Yuck. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIS LITTLE HEAD/BODY TO WORK ITSELF OUT!!

And the feeding...sigh. Please continue to pray for that as well. All meals end with at least one of us in tears...sometimes all three of us.

He has actually SAID "baseball" twice! It doesn't count as a word though...someone had to say it first. :)

He sure did throw that ball! Look how far it went...and was still in the air.

Yuck. He will eat (or try to eat) EVERYTHING with no nutritional value. And a side note...I LOVE those fat little hands! If only they were indicative of his eating/drinking habits.

Waiting for the anesthesiologist to come knock him out. For someone who had not eaten in 12 hours he sure was happy. Ugh.

Then he realized he may be hungry afterall, so we distracted him with the toys in the room. Yes...I let him play with nasty hospital toys. I figured they couldn't be that bad back in the "special procedures holding" rooms.

This is how most of my pictures look these days. Trying to get away.

But, I did get this gem. :) Look at all that drool. I think he just may have more teeth trying to make their debut. Good thing. The 1 1/2 teeth on the bottom are getting lonely, and it's hard to chew food with only gums.

As always, THANK YOU all for your continued prayers! Especially for his head and feeding! We so need them! I'll be back next week!

Perfect Eyes

In the last week, he's been practicing pulling up and standing, though he's decided he doesn't really NEED to get all the way up. He's content "standing" on his knees. We stood him up once and let go, and HE STAYED UP for a second...literally...only a second, but he did it. There's a picture below. :) He has a piece of a second tooth, and now says 6 words consistently on his own, that everyone can understand (mama, dada, yay, bye, ball, bath). That makes this speech therapist/mama SO VERY happy! He says lots of sounds and syllables all day as well. He will sometimes imitate other words, once or twice. Some of those include: night night, uh oh, more, eat, Papa, Nana, Grandpa (anpa), hi, and up. We're working to get him to use those consistently on his own so they can count. :)

Last Friday D had another appointment with the eye specialist. He said everything looked great. He said his vision is good, he's using both eyes equally, and there is no increased pressure...good to know for the "special" eye AND it also tells us his brain is still fine! Yay! He said D had beautiful, perfect eyes, and he'd see us again in 4 months.

Look at his shirt. It's a grammatical nightmare! But it's cute.

This one is for Aunt Vasha and Uncle Matt. :) "Go Mean Green" I think they say. (We'll stick to our Red Raiders around here.)

He was waving at me, and saying "byebye."

Another one for Aunt Vasha. She wanted a full one in these jammies, so we stood him up...

Let go, and HE STAYED UP!! Such a beautiful sight!!!

Helping daddy change the batteries.

I took this one this morning. We are forever losing paci's, putting him to bed with one, only to go get him in the morning to find he has a different one. This is where he stashes them!! The first few times we found them, we took them out, and put them in his bed. He likes to have options. Plus, in the middle of the night, he'll wake up, sit up, find one, and go back to sleep. Another beautiful thing. The other day, I layed him down (then went to watch him on the video monitor), he had one in his mouth, his cattleraffe (lovey, of sorts) in his hand, and was almost asleep. He noticed I got all his paci's out, so he sat up, stashed them behind the aquarium, THEN laid back down, and went to sleep! He will also take one out of his mouth, stash it, and put a different one in. In this particular picture, he has the yellow one in. I put him to bed last night with that white one in. Too funny.

PLEASE Pray this week! He has physical therapy Tuesday and Wednesday, then he has a full, put-you-to-sleep, MRI and appointment with the neurosurgeon Friday. We will have the results of the MRI that day, so I will do my best to come home and post an update. Please pray for our sweet baby's brain!! And for his drinking. We started something new with his feeding/drinking today. The dietitian and I both thought it could work, and day one was a success!! If it keeps working, I'll go into detail next time!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PRAYERS!!