A case of the giggles!

Ansley will get the giggles over the littlest things, and usually it’s when her Daddy is holding her! I don’t know what it is about those giggles, whether its because Caleb didn’t giggle, or because she is serious most of the time or maybe its just a baby giggling-but we love it. She usually gets us laughing too!

Toothless Grin

Here it is, our first toothless grin. He was helping Daddy today, so he is a little dirty too!

Here is his old smile(and crazy X-ray). His tooth on his left(our right) is one tooth split, the other front tooth is the same except it has another tooth fused to it too. If you look closely above the top middle teeth, you can see his NORMAL adult teeth. Praise God his adult teeth don’t have the same fusion/split problems! We thought his teeth were going to be just a cosmetic problem, but when he started complaining of pain, we knew we had to head to the dentist earlier than planned. The dentist was surprised the split teeth hadn’t abscessed yet. She was not surprised that they were hurting him so bad though. She did say she has never seen anything as severe(nice,huh!)

The problem was handled at the surgery center with general anesthesia. The removed the 2(or is it 5) teeth, cleaned and the sealed the others for extra protection. He wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight and we had to be there at 8:15am. He asked for juice many times that morning but we used every diversion we could think of: books, Barney, Daddy playing the guitar, t-ball outside, and a DVD in the car to name a few! Our friend, Bethany, watched Ansley for the day(Thanks a ton,B!) By 9:15 we were sitting in the waiting room, with out our boy. Thanks to the many prayers we remained full of peace and distracted by blogging and having a McDonald’s breakfast! By 10:30 we had talked to Dr. C and were headed back to the PACU to see our boy. We didn’t really know our way around back to the PACU but we followed the sounds of his screams! I couldn’t get there fast enough. Badnews was he was freaking out, goodnews was, we get the same reaction to cutting his fingernails! haha. That was strangely enough pretty comforting. He was really groggy but everything went well. We immediately set up Barney on our computer and offered him some juice. His little IV was still in, so it was a little drama getting that out, because he didn’t want to be held down to hold pressure to stop the bleeding. All three of us got splatted by his blood because of his spazzing! We headed home and spent a couple hours snuggling on the couch, watching what else but Barney and keeping his thumb out of his mouth. We had to give him a dose of benedryl (after we called the doctor back) because he was having an allergic reaction to something. His face down to his nipple line was all red and blotchy. The benedryl worked quite nicely!

I finally got him to fall asleep by rocking and reading a book to him(while holding down his thumb sucking arm!). He slept for about 45mins and woke up hysterical and bloody.

He really needed to sleep off some more of the medicine but he couldn’t!

He was too unsteady on his feet and a little restless. So we strapped both of them in and walked for hours! Our neighbors Dana and Lucas walked with us! He ate 5 popsicles too. We never have to strap him in anything, but this was exactly what he needed!

He was very content. Several times I checked to see if he was asleep because he was so relaxed.

He started acting a lot more like himself about dinner time. He was very happy to gobble up some of Ansley’s babyfood! My biblestudy core group was so sweet and brought us dinner! It was such a blessing because, I was watching him like a hawk all day(plus Ansley was home in the afternoon) and I couldn’t have imagined what we would have had if they didn’t bring us that yummy meal!

At this point he was starving, he didn’t care what it was! He had a great first night. He woke up even more normal. We are slowly getting used to his new toothless grin. Now we just need it to heal a little more so he can go back to his normal diet and a sippy cup(it’s a little ‘more’ messy around here!) We go to a follow up appointment on Tuesday morning and hopefully everything will be healing perfectly!

Got it!

Did a little photo shoot with the girl(again!) and I got “it”; the great, frame worthy shot!

The difference a couple of years will make

 

From slow and steady TO fast with “twisters”.

From bare-toes TO crocs.

From chewing on the straps TO holding on to the ropes.

From barely fitting in TO barely fitting in!

A nice Summer evening in March

becomes a photo shoot for a Momma with a new camera!

The weather was amazing and the company even better. We are really enjoying our neighborhood these days, we have some great neighbor that the kids love to play with, and we get to enjoy some adult time too! We had a little impromptu pool party complete with a slip-n-slide. (In MARCH in NORTH CAROLINA…CRAZY!)

I have been playing with the settings and trying different things just for the sake of a cute picture. Don’t really know what I am doing but I love a close up with a blurry background. Of course some blue eyes and spit bubbles are pretty cute too!

Serious girl.

She can’t hardly do anything else for sucking and chewing on her thumb. A girl’s got priorities!

Smiley! Caleb would stay outside ALL the time if we would let him.

I love those two.

Swim time.

Daddy, get your gun, the boys are eyeing our girl already.

I could just eat him up! Notice the blurry background, I LOVE IT! I wonder if there is a photog term for blurry background on purpose?!!

Lately he has been obsessed with bikes. He was quick to notice one of the bikes his friends rode over. Caleb do you need your own bike?  “Maybe for your birthday!”

I think the swing time (her first ever) was a little too close to bedtime. She wasn’t full of giggles like I thought she would be, she just sunk right in and was getting a little too comfy(for Mommy’s liking- don’t want to mess up bedtime)

Wordless Wednesday

18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR AF-S DX Zoom…huh?

After saving for almost two years, Leigh Anne was able to purchase a DSLR camera.  We ended up getting a reconditioned Nikon D3100 and it’s worked beautifully since we’ve purchased it.  However, for anyone who’s made the jump from a point and shoot to a SLR, there is quite a change in camera nomenclature.  So far, here are some pics that Leigh Anne has taken since she’s received the camera (with just the stock lens).  We still have no clue exactly what settings were used, but so far, the pics have turned out great.

Aww, he loves his mommy!

Did I catch Bigfoot on camera?

For those of you who know me, you know that I enjoy a good Bigfoot story.  Of course, I don’t really think Bigfoot exists, but, maybe he does!  Now, I have proof.  Just recently, a trail camera caught a picture of a Bigfoot running away from the camera.  I too managed to catch what I think is a Bigfoot running from the camera.

The first picture below is from a trail camera.  The second picture below is a picture I was able to snap before the Bigfoot got away.  Check it out for yourself and see let me know if you think I got the real mccoy.

Now, of course, I know the picture I snapped is out of focus, but aren’t most of the bigfoot pictures!

Ok, in full disclosure, the picture I snapped is not Bigfoot, it’s just Caleb wearing his hoodie (his favorite thing to do now when he wears his fleece, even if it’s semi-warm).

Sitting on a little time

6 months is about the time that you are “supposed” to be able to sit up and roll over both ways. But, of course, AE was not doing these things. She could roll over from belly to back but not the opposite and she couldn’t sit up unassisted. Her pediatrician, Dr. O, wanted her to go see Dr. H, Caleb’s neurologist.  My heart just sank when I thought about going down that road with her.  We decided that we would become crazy PT parents (parents who would make our girl do physical therapy exercises all the time, the exercises we learned with C.) That way we would give her a little more time to prove herself. She is so much stronger already! She is rarely in a toy(excersaucer,  bouncy chair, johnny jumper etc) and multiple times a day has mini sessions where we focus on her strength. Since we have started this, she has rolled over from her back to her belly twice and is WAY closer to sitting up!

Yes, it might look like a 3 ring circus. It is sometimes. Whatever it takes!

Please pray for our little girl that she will continue to develop appropriately! Thankfully she is generally happy no matter where we have her or what we have her do! You can teach someone how to grow in strength and to do physical activities but a person’s character is from the Lord! Thank the LORD-He gave her a sweet and content heart. We can do a lot of things with a character like that.

Gone fishin’

For over a year, we’ve been pushing Caleb to work and play with puzzles.  It has been challenging to say the least, but lately, he’s really picked up the idea of playing with a puzzle.  The particular puzzle he loves to play with is a “fishing” puzzle.  Each puzzle piece has a piece of metal and you “catch” each fish with a pole with a magnet attached at the end at the end.  He really loves playing with it and every time we’re upstairs, we have to stop and play with the puzzle. 

Here’s a video of Caleb playing with the puzzle:

Of course, Caleb loves to wear hats and he just happened to find his snow hat and wore it while he was fishing.

Tractor time!

Caught Caleb enjoying the drive on his new tractor that Gmom and Gdad gave him on Christmas.