Time Flies

Well, since I've been here last, we've had another baby and he's now a toddler! You know what they say; time flies when you're having fun!

Life has been good. It doesn't feel so new anymore. The new city isn't so daunting anymore. The new job always has its ups and downs, but going well, nonetheless. The new baby? Well, now there are two!

Josiah has been doing great. At his last check in February, his heart was looking fantastic. We are looking at his next heart surgery in about a year. He just finished his first year of preschool, which he loved. He made lots of friends and loved his teacher most of all. He started tearing up this week when I told him he had graduated her class and he'd get a new teacher in the fall. He said, "I don't want to be big and graduate her class. I want to stay with her." Heart melted. Sorry buddy. There are other great teachers out there, I promise. (Even though she was really great!)

Josiah still has a physical therapist and speech therapist who each visit twice weekly. Physical therapy is challenging for him, but to the average eye, he looks like every other 3 year old out there. He just finished swimming lessons and he is currently playing soccer. It's pretty adorable.

Speech therapy, however, is where our big challenges come into play. Our meal times have become something I dread. They are hard and I pray for patience before the start of every meal. Eating has become such a burden and it's something that he has grabbed hold of for control. He is still eating mostly purees and we have worked hard to get him capable of eating on his own, but the desire for eating is lacking. If we are not sitting by to tell him to eat a bite and another bite and another bite and another bite (etc.), he will be content to sit at the table and stare at that bowl of food for hours. To say it's been hard seems like the understatement of the year. Tears have been shed (by myself and him) and it feels like whichever way I choose to approach the mealtime for the day, someone will think I'm doing it wrong. So, with that, I ask for prayer. Prayer for our 3 meals a day to go smoothly. Prayer that Josiah would enjoy eating and be able to keep his meals in his tummy because we still see at least one meal come back up once a day. My daily prayer is that he will desire to eat and enjoy it!

Let's not end on that note though...Josiah is a wonderful big brother. He and Levi love each other just as brothers should. They play together, push each other down the slide, drive cars all over the house with each other and so much more. When I told Levi that it was time to get Josiah from preschool, he shouted, "YAAAAAAYYYY!" with his hands high and a smile on his face. They are buddies who make each other laugh constantly. More about our spunky Levi for another day. For today, we are thankful for our normal lives, even if they are a bit abnormal to most people. 

Heart-i-versary

Happy One Year Heartiversary to our little man! He is now one year past his Glenn operation, so we decided to celebrate with a heart cake! It is heart month, after all!

In Josiah's world, singing and cake does NOT warrant any smiles.  He's probably sitting there thinking...here we go again...they're going to try to make me eat this stuff!

He's holding the cake up for the camera so well! And, as you can see, that little finger with frosting on it is careful not to touch that sticky object again!

Well, as usual, cake ends with tears.  However, we are still so proud of how far he has come from a year ago!  He may not be eating cake just yet, but he is eating food by mouth. And for that...we are thankful. :)

Trains

We had a few free moments before speech therapy one day, so what better way to use our time than to take adorable pictures in front of trains?!  His balance came in handy as he was able to stand on his own while I backed away to snap a few photos!

I just can't get enough of this little boy in his overalls!

Been a While!

Wow! It's been a while since I've written a post!  A lot has changed since the little man's first birthday in regard to his eating.  He conquered a HUGE hurdle and has begun to eat by mouth. We are so proud of him for taking "bites" and not needing his feeding tube throughout the day. The majority of our attention has been toward this feeding journey that we're on.  Josiah has really come a long way, but it seems that we're at a standstill. His lack of weight gain, constant throwing up and aversion to textures have made it very difficult to make progress.

We have three main goals right now. One: Figure out what causes him to throw up. Two: Get him to eat/chew textured foods (and enjoy it). Three: Get him to drink from a straw. Now to the average joe, these really seem like pretty simple goals. A few nights ago, as we were trying to get our tired and sobbing baby to eat a sweet potato, I looked at my husband and said, "Man, this stinks! I've seen other babies just pick small bites of food up off their plate and eat with no problem. Why can't this just be easier??" 

When we are about to try a textured food, we have to prepare ourselves--build ourselves up for the challenge.  It's going to be a battle, but when we see him pick up one bite of food; the size of an ant, mind you, it's a giant victory! We feel like we've accomplished something huge! So that's one of our goals--to make it to a place where it's not a battle, but something to be enjoyed.

Our third goal also seems pretty easy, but for a little person who has NEVER used the suck reflex, it's a pretty big challenge.  He drank from a bottle for 2 days and we've sampled with sippy cups, but nothing has ever stuck. It's quite the process to teach him to drink from a straw.  Currently, in speech therapy, our therapist dips a straw in water and puts her finger over the end. Then, keeping the water in place, she puts the straw in Josiah's mouth and lets that tiny bit of water drip into his mouth. We do this again and again, but she eventually keeps her finger on the end of the straw to get him to try and suck the water out, rather than let it drop in his mouth. And eventually, she turns the straw into the cup in one fluid motion to keep his suction going in hopes of him drinking water through the straw. Sounds easy...right?

And that first goal...the one I skipped over because that's basically how we feel in general.  There seems to be no solution to his throwing up, so we feel lost.  We've tried medication, checked allergies, done GI studies, etc.  Doctors are stumped by him and have no insight for us. Meal times become frustrating because everything ends up coming back up anyway. So we pray. We pray every night as we put him to bed.  We pray that his tummy will get stronger and that God will heal whatever it is that's ailing him. Pray for God's hand on this tiny life.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday to our little man!  I've always thought that birthdays are a pretty big deal, but this one was a VERY big deal! ONE! Josiah had 2 parties.  We were able to go back to Nebraska to celebrate with family and then we had his big ole' Texas party with our "Texas Family". :)

The Nebraska party was a little spur of the moment, but it couldn't have been any better!  We were able to celebrate with Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Great Grandma, and  Grand Aunts and Uncles!  The party was post-bedtime, after a crazy week with little to no naps, but it went about as well as could be expected!  We left the next morning to return home for his Texas party the following day.

We had a Police-themed party with a gorgeous police cake and a little donut smash cake for the 1 year-old.  There were lots of friends and it was an all-around great day!

We had LOTS of food! Complete with [cop]corn, donuts, police cars, & "lunch break" (sandwiches) :)

We had a "craft station" complete with a spot to make your very own police badge!  The kiddos were able to take home a treat bag complete with a mini police car, a star sucker, and a police ducky.

A friend of ours made his awesome police cake topped with a police siren!

Both parties require a family picture!

Happy Birthday!

Two parties means two smash cakes, two renditions of "Happy Birthday" and two MAJOR cake-related melt-downs! Can't blame him. For a kiddo who doesn't eat anything by mouth, putting a sugary, gooey, sticky cake in front of him could be enough to make anyone melt down!  We didn't force the issue, as this was a celebration...not feeding therapy. ;)

Of course, Mommy and Daddy were quick to the rescue! :)

Once the party was over and the majority had left, we let him explore in a little more comfortable setting.  None of the cake made it to his mouth, nor did we expect it to, but I did get those "smash cake" pictures that are oh, so adorable!

Happy Birthday, Peanut! We love you more than you'll ever know!

Our Hero

Many who know me well know that I'm not one to vocalize my political views or get into a heated argument about something.  One, because I'm not one to research topics to get accurate information to argue my point. Two, because I don't like conflict.  Well, this stirred me up a little too much and I feel as though something needs to be said.

As I opened my email today, I noticed a popular tweet headline: "Local police involved in 400 killings per year".  Opening the article, I instantly became angry at the portrayal of our police officers.  Reading through, I read how one sided it was toward the evilness of police and the portrayal that they are out to get innocents.  Really?! It saddens me to be reading articles about these men and woman who, day after day, go out and put their lives on the line to keep us safe, yet they are targeted as malicious and nasty.

There is a lot of coverage, especially this week, about a particular shooting that happened.  Again, I don't know specifics (remember...research... :/ ), but I do know how our nation has jumped on this bandwagon that police are bad.  Let me tell you something...my husband is one of the most protective men whom I've ever met.  He wants the best for people, but he also knows that he can't "fix" the world. (If he could, he would!) He has wanted to be a police officer for a long time. And now, here we are. He did it! But now, on top of all of the rational fears I have of having a police husband who is on the streets many hours a week, I also have to worry about what would happen if he got into something and our nation turned against him because he was protecting the lives of everyone else in that situation.

I'm new to this whole "police wife" business.  Here's what I know about it: it's scary. Every night as I'm putting our son to bed, we pray for Daddy's safety. Every night as my hubby walks out the door, I say, "be safe". I've said it every shift he's worked since he started on the streets.  A part of me jumps when my phone rings or there's a knock on the door while he's at work for fear that I'm about to get bad news.  This isn't an 8-5 shift at the office.  It's long hours with a lot of missed family time because he's serving a community who could care less about him and the job he's doing. 

Here's the bottom line: I'm proud of my husband. I'm proud of the other police officers who serve communities around our nation.  It isn't an easy job.  They get a bad rap and they put up with a lot. A LOT! I'm tired of hearing our media making villains of these people for doing a job that not many would do. A job that not many could do. They are heroes. Let's treat them that way.

The Other Side

We're on the other side...we've made it through the really icky part.  As I write this, I'm sitting on my parents front porch, feeling the breeze and being thankful that we are able to be 650 miles from home and his doctors and therapists and nurses and...!

This past year has been all sorts of things. We moved from all who we love and all that was familiar. We had a super hero baby who has made it through all sorts of odds. (And continues to do so) :) We've started experiencing the "firsts" that new parents experience the day they come home from the hospital with a healthy baby that we just took a little longer to get to.  Babbling, clapping, sitting up, going out to eat, swimming, vacations, and so many more! We still don't have it "easy", but it's getting there.  When I look at the feeding tube on his face, it's still a source of frustration and continued hard work. However, when I think about the big picture, I can handle some feeding problems if it means we're at home dealing with these issues, rather than being in the hospital for bigger reasons.

We're so glad to be where we're at. It felt like we would never get here. Some days, it feels like we'll never have a baby who eats by mouth, but I know we'll get over this hurdle too. Eventually. For now, we're grateful for the steps we're making toward our normal "non-hospital" life.

Here's some photos of our life on the other side. :)

Sitting up like a big boy!

First airplane ride! Handled it like a champ!

First swim!

Helping Mom do some grocery shopping :)

Going out to eat!

Clapping! Yay!

Standing!!

These things may seem trivial, but we try not to take the little things for granted around here.  He's gone through a lot to get to these milestones! Hooray for normal life on the "other side"!