11 Months

How has it possibly been a whole year since last February? I swear, last year was crazy and fast! The summer seems like a blur after all of this cold weather we've had and I've definitely had one to many nights in the hospital. I can't wait until it starts warming up again and I love that I can see my grass peaking through the melted snow. It's so beautiful I could almost start crying....but then it snows....and I really do start crying. Well, almost.

This time last year we were having our family pictures taken and I was one month away from meeting the little man that steals my heart every day. Little did I know that this little boy would have such a "melty" sort of influence over me. I really turn to butter when he smiles at me and I'm there at every cry (but for my justification, Claire sleeps in the same room and if I am to get any sleep at all, I have to get him or they'll both be awake). I'm so glad we have him in our family! We just wouldn't be the same with his happy personality around here.

At 11 months, Jared:

• is still getting those top teeth. He has cut 3 out of 4 in the last two weeks and that 4th isn't far behind. 
• loves his bottle. Nursing stopped when Claire came down with the flu. With another 104.5 fever for her and a hospital history, we went to formula just in case a 3rd UVRMC stay was going to happen. Luckily, he took to it well and started sleeping a little better too.
• sleep.....what? Still doesn't sleep all the way through the night, although he's getting better. I'd like to think that it's just because he misses me, not because he likes to be a pain.
• LOVES hair. If I'm holding him, his fingers are in my hair. If I'm wearing a ponytail, he flips it and pulls it out. When he's eating, he doesn't hold his bottle; rather, his hands go straight to his head and he brushes and pulls on his hair until he falls asleep or is done eating.
• loves forts. We've had a fort in our living room for a week now just because it keeps him so happy.
• is distructo-man. Claire and I built a really cool Lego castle/train today. It took us almost an hour. Jared tore it down in less than 10 seconds with a big smile on his face. 
• will not sit still for a diaper change. It's very frustrating for  me. He immediately flips over if you put him on his back and is so hard to change or get dressed. 
• loves his baths. If he hears water, he's there in a matter of seconds.
• he'll try to walk, but only gets about 3-4 steps in before he falls forward.
• LOVES FOOD!!!! We have one hungry boy over here! Baby food? Pssht. Whatever. Give him the real stuff and he'll eat all day long. 
• really likes his touchy-feely books. He'll pull them out and touch them for quite a while. 
• is a climber! Yesterday he climbed up onto our pack-n-play, opened the closet door (it's about 2 feet off the ground) and climbed inside. Don't worry in-laws, we were watching him the whole time. :) I took him to the mall play area and he was in heaven climbing up the stairs to the slide and I'd help him slide down. 
• is a Mozart in training. This kid loves to play the piano. During some of my lessons, if I don't watch him close enough, he'll squeeze in between the students legs, reach up and play whatever he can get his hands on. 
• has learned to breathe through his nose and is pretty happy about it. Sometimes we'll just breathe at each other and he thinks its pretty darn funny. 

Basically we love him more than we can say and we're excited to see him go to town on his birthday cake next month!

VCUG

Claire had her VCUG yesterday. She kissed Jared goodbye for the first time and he thought it was hilarious!

First, when we got to the pediatric unit of the hospital, she took my hand and started to try and run with me around the corner. "Come on, Mommy! Where's my bed?" So cute, but almost sad at the same time that she knows she had a bed there for so long. Poor little girl has had quite a year already. She didn't want to go into the toy room because there was another little girl playing with toys. She hasn't seen kids for a while, again poor thing, so she's always hesitant. 

The VCUG itself wasn't as terrible as I expected, but I think it's partly because I had to help hold her down through 4 IV's once before, so this was almost a cakewalk. They gave her sedation through her nose with Versed and it works in about 3 minutes. I was expecting her to get really really loopy, but instead she got really happy. The Child Life person was there blowing bubbles for her and Claire kept telling her, "Wow, that's a really good bubble!". She started to make funny and cute little comments to the nurses, "Oh my goodness", "WHOA!" (in reference to the bubbles), "Mommy is a boy." I'd ask her if I was really a boy and she would answer as if I said something really silly, "NO! Mommy is a girl!"

After her catheter was in (which she still really hated getting in) we were on our way down to radiology. The staff elevators come out right by the gift shop, so when she saw all of those balloons she really went crazy loud, "WWWOOOOOOWWWW" in almost a growly sort of way. Super cute and funny. When we got into the fluoroscopy room in radiology she got very excited that there was a bed in there. She wasn't crazy about laying on it the whole time though. I had to hold her down as they put some dye into her bladder so we could see everything on the X-ray. She did pretty well for the most part until her bladder got really, really full. She didn't want to go to the bathroom without a diaper, so she screamed and wiggled for about 15-20 minutes. Finally, she listened to me tell her we could go home and see Jared if she would just pee and she finally did it. YAY! 

She does have reflux on her left side. On a scale from 1-5 with 5 being the worst, she's a 4. We have an appointment tomorrow at Primary Children's to find out if she'll have surgery or not. 

When we got into the car, she got all sorts of upset. "MOMMY! JARED'S SEAT! Where is Jared?????" She calmed down when I told her that he was at home, but she still reassured me that "he's MISSING, Mommy!"  It's good to know that if anything big gets lost, she'll be sure to tell me.

The most traumatic part for Claire? Leaving the Cinderella doll at the hospital that she thought she could keep. You would have thought that the world ended. 

Buddies

Someday I'm going to have time to really really blog. For now, I think pictures will have to do for the grandparents. :) These two cuties are two peas in a pod. Claire gets mad when I take Jared away because he's her Jared. He always wakes up a couple of hours before she does and it makes for a really long morning. He'll pine at the door and get super excited when she finally opens it. He'll go in and climb all over in her bed and all over her. It's the highlight of his day.

They both love to play peek-a-boo, so a good portion of our day is spent under a blanket.

Reading a book in a bin. What could be better?

They are pretending to sleep. So cute. She'll then give him kisses to wake up up like Aurora.