Month Nine

Nicknames: J, munchkin, little bit, sweetness

Temperament: This month he's continued to be so happy and inquisitive. He smiles and laughs all the time and will dissolve into fits of giggles while watching the cats run from the dogs, waves from the ladies at church or a little tickling. They warned us that after his echo sedation wore off that he would be very fussy as a side effect but he woke up smiling and we've had another baby sitter confirm that he's one of the happiest, easy going babies she's ever seen. He continues to want to explore and discover everything and we're having to be a lot more careful about what we leave on the floor. He's still very easily distracted from the task at hand which can be both a good and a bad thing. Sometimes he just can't seem to process everything that's going on around him and to get him to eat is tough if their are toys, dogs/cats or other people around. On the plus side he's easy to redirect to another activity if he's doing something that's not desirable. He's very rarely cranky and usually it's only when he's over tired or hungry but in those times he's very impatient and wants you to fix his problem immediately. Now that he is mobile he definitely does not like being contained and he wants to move.

Stats: about 18 lbs (10%), 28.7 inches (50%), head circumference still 98%

Looks: His two bottom teeth are making constant appearances with all of his baby smiles and giggles. There might be another tooth coming up to the side but it's hard to tell quite yet. Unfortunately his fair skin is still in full effect so I forsee lots of sunscreen in the next few months. He's also now always got some new red mark or bruise from where he's bumped himself on something. If we even hug him too hard he gets a red welt that lasts for awhile. His faux hawk is still growing strong and might be ready for styling soon with just a little product

Accomplishments: He's getting much better with his mobility and this has translated to a very squirmy baby. Now he wants to move all the time. He can get from point A to point B with his special combination of rolling, army crawling and his special inch worm scooch. Of course when he gets close to what he wants he does try to use his "baby force" to magnetically draw it towards himself. This rarely works and when his object of desire is one of the animals the opposite result usually occurs. He's doing so well with his supported walking that half the time he forgets that he can't even stand yet. He'll be going great with his feet and then he'll try to let go so he can reach what he wants. Since his balance still has a ways to go we usually have to lunge after him to keep him from falling. He can pull himself up from sitting if there's something low to grab onto and I found him leaning over the side of his crib the other day after sitting him inside. Time to drop the mattress. He's not saying dedicated words yet but he'll deliberately look at you and then string multiple syllables together like he's talking to you. He can understand several of the baby signs we use and he seems just on the verge of using some himself.

Things he loved the most: With his new vocabulary of syllables he has discovered how to smack his lips, flick his bottom lip and make sucking fish faces all the time. The animals are still highly entertaining and set off fits of giggles just by being themselves. Since his new thing is to grab and twist their fur when he can actually catch them though they are less than fans.

Things we loved the most: his constant delight in the world around him has been so fun to see. Especially now that he can move and twist and touch things for himself.

Things he could do without: sedation - the starvation before, the forced juice intake, the horrible tasting medicine all added up to a very stressful experience for him.

Things we could do without: the high pitched dolphin squeal that he does now whenever he gets really excited. It is ear piercing to us and may be contributing to the animals discomfort.

Item/toy he loved the most: he has a soft book that crinkles and has teething corners and what we call his "tail book" (it's a book about woodland animals and their tails hang off the pages) that are always a sure fire hit for when he needs distraction. Things that crinkle in general like paper, catalogs etc. are also always fun. He's also been loving his ride on dinosaur that he got for Christmas. He can't quite push himself around on it yet but he loves it when we push him around or when we roll him between the two of us.

Items/toy we loved the most: The sun hat and rash guard were great while we were in Florida to keep him safe from sunburn and we'll definitely get our money's worth in the next few months.

Item we all hated: trying to dissociate his evening bottles from sleepytime. I don't know if it's a carryover from even before his surgery but pretty much anytime he gets focused enough to drink a bottle he falls asleep. The rest of the time there is too much going on to stop and drink a bottle so when he gets still he's usually out soon thereafter. We haven't wanted to withhold those bottles especially since his weight has always been low but now that he's getting old enough to get on a regular meal schedule we'd like to get those bottles to match up with his meals or at least not have them so closely associated with sleeping. He self soothes just fine for naps and middle of the night waking but that bedtime transition is tough.

Surprises: Can I say the fact that we have a nine month old is a shock? It still seems sometime like we just brought him home and here he is, almost a toddler with a personality all his own. In terms of general surprises, him almost falling out of his crib certainly caught me off guard.

Look how much I've grown:

Look I have a Bruce on my shirt

Momentous events of this month: We had a great trip to Florida and it was so fun to share Epcot together as a family. The great news about his heart was also a excellent memory from this month.

Things we're looking forward to: We are definitely all looking forward to springtime and more outdoor time. Hopefully this will include a vacation to the mountains this next month. We also think we found a house so we'd love to get that settled this next month so we can plan for what will hopefully be our last move for quite awhile.

More favorite pictures from this month

Family time

Pool time

Helping dad adjust the crib

Sadie trying to understand why Josh likes baths so much

Showing off my new teeth

Hello Springtime

We've already seen more sunshine this month than we would have from January to May in Ann Arbor so we have high hopes that the next few months will bring some great outdoor time. In honor of the first day of spring we set out on what we hope will be a regular weekend family outing now that the weather is warming up (although it's still not what you could call warm - notice our sweaters).

First we started out with a good hour hike in Sugar creek metropark. They have a great park system here in Dayton and many of them have some great hikes through the woods and hills (yes, Ohio has hills). Josh loves hiking in his baby carrier.

After we hiked up the hill we stopped to catch some sunshine.

On the way home we stopped for our first visit to the park. The swings were a big hit

Walking across the drawbridge was very interesting

The texture of the metal under his feet was fascinating and he had to sit down and check it out. Guess it's time to start wearing shoes.

Sliding with dad was fun

There were a few things he wasn't too sure about. This look says "Dad, rock climbing? I can't even walk yet"

And this one says "please don't let go".

Overall we had a great time with our afternoon hike/park so hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate. Hard to believe that by the end of the summer he'll be walking and playing by himself.

New heart day #216

Josh had his six month postoperative appointment today at the University of Cincinnati with our cardiologist. Since he needed to have an echocardiogram done and would have to lie still for almost an hour it was pretty likely they would have to sedate him so we had a bit of a rough morning since he couldn't eat or drink anything at all for the two hours before the procedure and could only do apple juice for the six hours before that. I think we may have the only baby on earth who hates juice but he did finally drink it this morning when he was hungry enough. Unfortunately two hours later he threw it up all over himself in the car on the way to our appointment. This did work a bit in our favor as we weren't supposed to let him sleep then either so they would need as little medicine as possible. Apple juice through the nose = very upset baby so there was definitely no sleeping in the car.

Overall our appointment was relatively efficient. We force fed Josh the phenobarbital (which evidently tastes horrible) by blowing in his face which forced him to swallow. As you can imagine this did very little to improve his mood, but luckily it worked quickly and in fifteen minutes he was fast asleep. The techs then took care of his ultrasound and EKG and once they were sure he was able to protect his airway we were off to wait on the cardiologist.

Luckily all of our test brought great news. His vein repair has healed well and the blood flows without any turbulence. There is no sign of strain on the heart or lungs or any stenosis of the vein sites and the atrial repair is holding great. The small defect in between the ventricles of his heart has closed itself as our surgeon believed it would and overall his heart on ultrasound looks completely normal. What a relief to finally get the word that the liklihood of any future surgery or problems with his heart are very, very low. In fact we don't have to see his cardiologist for an entire year now and even then they won't need to redo the ultrasound. Plan for now is they'll repeat it probably around age 3 as his heart grows and if things look as good then as they do now we'll be able to space our appointments to every other year. Trying to picture J as a three year old seems a long way away but I'm sure I'll be hear before we know it. Thankfully in the meantime, we just have to treat him like a "normal kid" although I'm not sure we need to tell him they OK'd football if he wants. We may go on pretending that's not an option for my sake.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We didn't think Josh (or Scott and I) would really appreciate Disney World at his age, but we did decide to brave Epcot for the day. We all had a great time and Josh proved again how much of a "go with the flow" baby he is. We got there just as they opened and found we were able to ride many of the rides with Josh on our laps. He wasn't scared by any of the loud noises, darkness or singing characters and he took two great naps in his stroller while we wandered through the park.

All set in the stroller and ready to go. I should have taken a picture of the areas for "stroller parking" outside each of the rides. If you ever want to pick out a new stroller model this is the place to go check them out.

He enjoyed the Finding Nemo ride but the aquarium at the end was a bigger hit. We stayed for quite a while just to let him watch the fish.

He started to get a little cranky then since he was ready for his morning bottle so we joked that we were going to feed him to the sharks.

Luckily dad changed his mind and came in to rescue him

The model train exhibit in Germany was another big hit

We had a great lunch in Italy and enjoyed meeting Rosemarie in the Italian shop who christened Josh with his first Disney trip button.

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The HGTV festival of flowers being held while we were there so the topiaries and flower beds were all decked out.

He loved meeting all of the characters but Winnie the Pooh and Tigger were favorites

For Josh though the most fascinating thing at Epcot was the grass. We were just trying to take his picture in front of the flowers but we couldn't get him to stop rubbing the grass and look at us. We finally realized he'd never seen or felt grass before.

With a change to a little concrete we were able to capture a Mouse ear smile and a good family photo to cap off our day.

Surf, Sun and Fun

While southern Ohio has certainly been better than Michigan in terms of winter snow and grayness, we were all still ready for some warmth and sunshine. Last week I had a medical conference in Florida so we all flew down ready to enjoy some springtime.

Here's Josh showing his excitement (and his new teeth) on the plane

Our hotel had a great pool with a lazy river and a kids pool. Luckily the weather was warm enough by the afternoons that we could enjoy them. Since Josh seems to have inherited my fairness, the long sleeve rashgaurd and hat were essential.

The beach entry was also a big hit since he could practice his walking into the pool and it gave him a shallow place to do his favorite thing - splashing. We took this short video to showcase all of his new swimming skills from his lessons.


The lazy river also offered some great floating time


I don't know exactly how "lazy" all of this was since with a fresh change of clothes this is usually how he ended up