Dear Doster- 12 Months

Dear Doster,

Everyone warned me how quickly time would fly once you arrived.  I hate to say it, but they were right.  Each day I find myself holding our moments together very tightly!   I’m making a real effort to stay in the moment with you, and it is very rewarding.

You are such a cool customer.  You laugh, you point, you crawl, you wobble, you amaze me!

We had an amazing birthday party for you, but I think I will do a separate post on that one later.

Here’s just a little sneak preview.

I have never seen such an amazing, decisive, smash cake performance!

We also had some professional pictures of you taken too; I will download them soon and put them in a separate post as well. But I’ll go ahead and say—you are just too cute for words sometimes.  I can't resist, here is a sneak peak of that too:

Size:

 21 Pounds (24^th Percentile)

28.75 Inches (19^th Percentile)

Head Circumference – 46.5 cm (55^th Percentile)

Feeding:

No real changes until we hit your actual birthday.  I’m writing this a few weeks later, and there have been many changes since you turned one, including more finger foods and whole milk—which is all a new adventure for us. 

I’m not very confident or experimental in the kitchen, but luckily, you are pretty easy on me. 

Sleeping:

Guess what? We finally found our rhythm with naps.  You take TWO 2-hour naps at home (still a work in progress at school) and sleep about 11-12 hours each night.

Development:

 You are a pull-up machine.  You are a very fast crawler, and you love being chased. You are getting very good at your sign language.  Can I take a little brag moment?  At your 12-month doctor’s visit, I was giving you yogurt melts to keep you entertained while we talked to Dr. Painter.  You kept signing “more” and it was cracking him up.  We showed him some of your others, and he said he rarely sees a 12-month-old sign as well as you.  He even called in his staff to watch you. We were very proud! 

Things you can sign:

More (your favorite)

All Done

Milk

Please (sometimes)

You babble a lot, and sometimes it really sounds like you are saying things!   A few days ago, I swear I thought I heard you say “good job.”

Words you say well:

Dada

Mama

Ba (means book, ball, or Brighton)

Papa/Papa Pat (my dad)

RAR (your growl)

Personality:

You are so curious!  You love looking around and making choices.  You are also so sweet—you've mastered giving kisses.  You are so darn lovable; I can’t even get over it.

You like: tags, phones, Brighton, dancing, baths, puffs, pancakes, balls, books (turning pages is your favorite), Bear Bear, “getting people” (growling), peek-a-boo, seeing your family

You dislike: diaper changes, having your face wiped, having your paci taken away

You are such a wonderful blessing.  Every night before bed, your dad and I actually talk about how awesome you are, and how much we love being your parents. 

Ears, Tears, And Throats

 It’s been a crazy few weeks and I thought I would take a quick second to update all of our friends and family about what’s been going on with us lately.

Health-wise, we are a fortunate family.  Despite a few virus bouts and the occasional cold, I’d say we are lucky!  The past few months, I have started to appreciate our fortune in this area more and more… especially when I see friends and family going through more serious health issues.  I say all that, to imply that I realize our “health issues” are very minor in the grand scheme of things.  Still though, when you are going through them, it feels heavy somehow.

I’ll start with James.

For years, James would occasionally feel some swelling in his throat.  We figured it was triggered by something he was eating, and would just take it easy for a few days.  The last few months, things have taken a more drastic turn.  He feels like he’s choking anytime he eats solid food and I finally forced him to go to the doctor a few months ago. 

Well, one doctor’s visit led to a gastro-specialist, which lead to a biopsy a month or so ago.  The doctor could barely get the scope down his esophagus, it was so narrow, which made getting a good biopsy sample very difficult.  The doctor was able to manually stretch his esophagus a little, and asked him to come back for a second biopsy and more stretching, which happened last week.  Now we are anxiously awaiting results.

A quick shot of James, all drugged up!

Hopefully, it’s all caused by a food allergy which we can plan around.  For months, James has lived on smoothies, yogurt and grits.  Poor guy.  It’s basically Doster’s diet (in fact, James and given in and tried baby food).  That may not seem like that bad, but really think about it.  He's hungry, low-energy and frustrated.  We are hoping for some good news soon.

So, that’s James.

Doster, like MANY kiddos, is constantly afflicted with ear infections.  After is double-ear infection in May, we decided to move forward with tubes.  By the time I scheduled his appointment, he’d already gotten another infection!  It made me feel better about our decision.

For scheduling reasons, we had the procedure done at Kershaw Health in Camden.  It was actually very quick and easy.  When the nurses took him away for anesthesia, I lost it, but other than that, it was pretty simple.

He's the brave one.

They let him play with the gas mask beforehand so he wouldn't be afraid of it.  Good move.

The actual procedure only lasted about 10 minutes.  By the time I made his bottle (he wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything before) the doctor was telling us that it was a success. They let one parent go to the recovery room immediately, and I was ready to see my baby!  He was pretty inconsolable, as they warned me he would be.  They assured me that he wasn’t in pain, just disoriented.  After about 15 minutes, we were able to reunite with James in the second recovery room.

My loves.

He fell asleep on the way home, had a bottle and some banana when we got home, then took a two hour nap.  He woke up in the BEST mood!  He was laughing and babbling as if to say: let me tell you about this crazy dream I just had, Mom!

So those are a few little issues that have been happening in our world.  Again, I realize that our little health blips are tiny, so I hope this does not come across as a rant or complaint post.  We are a very blessed family and appreciate all that we have!