14 months

Things you love:
broccoli and cauliflower
pizza
grapes
your puppy
being outside
seeing dogs from a distance (you aren't too sure of them when they get close)
being put down to go to bed (you are not a cuddler!)

Things you don't love:
riding in the car
green beans
anything made with sour cream or mayonnaise
riding in the car
not getting your way (you are getting the hang of fit-throwing!)
riding in the car
sleeping all night
riding in the car (this makes everything from running errands to visiting family a difficult task)


Things you are starting to say:
mama
dada
ball
uh-oh
tickle
keys
bye bye
woof woof (all animals either say "woof" or "grrrr" with an occasional "baaaa")

You are still taking two naps a day, usually about 1 1/2-2 hours each and generally go down and wake up happy each time. You have 11 teeth through now, with the other bottom molar looking like it could pop through any day. You are not a great night time sleeper. You really would like to have a snack (milk) most nights. Your night time sleep is completely unpredictable, you might sleep all night for several nights and then wake up several nights in row with no seeming pattern. However, if you wake up you have NO desire to be held or cuddled, you simply want a drink and to go back to bed! Hours and hours and weeks and weeks of attempting to make you cry it out seem to have no impact on your desire to sleep all night, every night. I have a feeling you are going to be one strong-willed child. You are wearing 18-24 month pants and 24months-2T shirts. I think you weigh close to 30lbs now. You are signing "please", "all done", "more" and "thank you" now. We are trying really hard to get you to sign all done before you start throwing your food or cup down. You are understanding more and more everyday and are starting to get better about following simple commands like picking things up and throwing things away. You are having surgery in a couple of weeks to fix your hernia, on the same day as your big sister. You love playing with your siblings and try to keep up with them. You also love to try to do the actions to songs that your siblings sing. You have added a lot to our family over the last 14 months!

Fast Update on Drake

The long story short is that Drake went on anti-seizure meds on August 22, after meeting with a neurologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital. We really felt good about the doctor and the information she provided. To date, since being on meds he hasn't had any more seizures, yay!

Can I go to Drake's school now?

Hadley had her first day of preschool today, which she has been super excited about. Upon completing her first day she asked, "Can I go to Drake's school now?" Oh dear, preschool does last longer than one day, but once we talked about all the months she would go to preschool before she could start Kindergarten, she was good.

When we got to school, she just walked right in, hung up her bag, washed her hands, found a book and sat down like she had always been doing it. I had to get her attention to even tell me bye. I think preschool looks good on her.

Onederful

My big man turned one! He is walking all over the place! He is so busy and loves to be outside and watching animals. He is weighing in at around 28lbs now and almost 31 inches. He's starting to lose a little hair (which seems odd for 12 months!) and it's starting to look a lot thinner. He's not bald by any means but doesn't have nearly the mop of hair he used to. He's starting to talk more every day. He's babbling with such inflection it sounds like he is talking. He says mama, dada, ball, bye-bye (sometimes) and will answer the question "what does a dog say?" with "woof, woof". He's getting quite a little funny personality too. He giggles and giggles nearly every time I lay him in his bed. He's signing "please" all the time, mostly when he wants food or something anyone has that he wants. He's also starting to learn the art of fit-throwing already. He has been seen throwing himself to the ground a time or two (or three...) when he doesn't get what he wants. He's still taking two great naps a day, about 1 1/2-2 hours each. We've gone to all sippy cups during the day with only a nighttime bottle. (For some reason taking it away from him seems to be the hardest of any of the kids!) Happy Birthday little man!

Waiting

Drake had another seizure on June 23. This one was very similar to the last one, however it took him longer to come out of it. It was about 25-30 minutes before he could talk after this last one. I called the neurologist and he said he would like to start medication but we needed an appointment first. The next available appointment was not until July 25th. I was not ready to start medication because I wanted to make sure we had ruled out all possible causes before starting an anti-seizure medication with all of it's side effects. So, I called back to the neurologist and asked if he would order an MRI and a sleep study (since they have all happened in his sleep). He said these were not necessary at this point. He did order another EEG with total sleep deprivation, meaning keep him up all night and do the EEG and 8:30am. That is scheduled for Monday, July 11th.

In the meantime, we were just waiting...

Then, last week Drake was running a fever for a few days and had a sore throat, just some little virus. Well, while he was running the fever of about 102* he complained that everything out of his left eye looked like a DVD that was skipping. So, we went back to our pediatrician. I asked her to order the MRI and she agreed that it was not "unreasonable". So yesterday we went for the MRI. They tried to do it without sedating him first. We took the ipod for him to listen to but they must not have actually hit the play button because he said he couldn't hear it. Anyway, after a couple of tries they said there was too much movement. Even the slightest movement of his head causes distortion in the pictures, so they decided rather than keep trying it would be easier just to sedate him. He did great with them starting the IV and was "out" within minutes, maybe even seconds. He was to be in recovery for about 30 minutes but his heart rate was pretty low after wards so they kept him in recovery for about 2 hours. By the time he was home, he was his normal, full-of-energy self!

We got the call at 5pm from our doctor's office that they already had the results. They did find two small (3mm) lesions on the front of his brain. They are not sure if these are causing the seizures or not. Our doc just said to follow up with the neurologist at our appointment on the 25th. I was hoping the neurologist would want to cancel the EEG scheduled for Monday so that we can just explore these lesions but after a call to them this morning, he wants to still do it. So, my mom is going to help me split the night up on Sunday night and keep him up all night. Then, we go for the EEG at 8:30am. Gabe will be heading to camp for his week of Jr. Highers on Sunday so he gets to miss out on this experience.

So, for now, we wait...and I take sleeping pills. :)

Happy HOT 4th of July!

We spread out the festivities this year. We headed to a parade in Rochester on Saturday at 5:00. Saying it was hot was an understatement, I think the temp was about 95* with about 90% humidity. Poor Grady was soaked before we even got to the parade. He is one sweaty little dude. The kids loved hanging out with some friends during the parade and then we all had sandwiches together after the parade, thankfully where it was cool!




On the fourth, we headed out to meet some friends to catch the fireworks. Thankfully, my mom came to the house and stayed with sleeping Grady so we could just get the big kids out. It's always nice to be able to spend a little more one-on-one time with them once in awhile.

10 months

Grady is B U S Y! He loves playing peek-a-boo and loves his puppy that he sleeps with. He is still very fond of his paci as well. He's starting to eat a little more table food, but still mostly baby food. I'm still nursing 1-2 times a day and he's taking formula the other times. He's been loving going to the pool this summer and can be quite the daredevil in the water (and on land for that matter: he has the goose-eggs and bruises to prove it!). He's started taking 3-4 steps at a time but prefers his super speed crawling to get where he wants to go. He is just starting signing "all done" when prompted but won't do it on his own yet. He also says "more" which sounds like "ma" and says "ball" frequently. He is generally a fairly easy going kid and puts up with a lot of toting around thanks to his big brother.