Our new friends!

Noah & I met Megan and sweet Abby this week. Abby was absolutely adorable. She gave Noah hugs & kisses and didn't even cry when I approached her. She also showed Noah how to become an escape artist for when he starts walking . She also showed us how talented a dancer she is by dancing to "Ring around the Rosy" with her Mommy.

Of course Noah was being his usual sneaky self by being real sweet just long enough to get in position to grab attack hair. (Sorry Megan). Just look at him....checking out Abby's cute little bows......

This is my favorite picture of Abby, ain't she a cutie pie?

Thank you Megan for setting up our play date. It was great to finally meet you & Abby. Noah & I look forward to more play dates as the weather gets warmer.

Thanks for peeking in. Cheers, Terry

We have a TOOFER!

Noah continues to surprise us. On his 17th month birthday ( St. Pat's Day) he cut his very first tooth, despite being sick and in the hospital. I can't tell you how happy I was ! This is how he felt before cutting his tooth.

We are getting adjusted to Noah's new feed routine. He is starting to handle his thickened bottles better (he is only throwing his bottle a few times instead every second). As for foods, well we are working on increasing his caloric intake by feeding 3 bottles of soy pediasure/day and adding duocal to each feed. His appetite is still fair but improving. He still will only eat oatmeal, Stage 2 fruits and of course ice cream.

We hope and pray the thicken liquids and medicine will help eliminate his aspiration/reflux and any discomforts. I do still worry as he continues to throw up long after his feed. I continue to keep my fingers crossed that in time these changes will work.

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers while Noah was in the hospital. The entire staff on 7 W provided such great care and support during his stay. I'm grateful to have met Dr. Z and can not thank her enough for the genuine concern, kindness, care and time she spent with Noah and me. What an amazing physician and such a caring person. She is certainly a blessing in our family's lives. She is also someone I consider my friend.

Speaking of friends, Noah certainly had no problems making lots of friends despite being quarantined. He would just stand in his cage ( oh I meant crib) and wave to everyone that passed by or stop in. When we did escape from his room, he was required to wear a mask. We had lots of fun keeping it on him and he made lots of people laugh trying to take it off.

Also if you could spare a few extra minutes and stop by a few of Noah's friends blogs as they could use a few extra prayers right now. Rhett who is recovering from surgery, Parker who has an upcoming surgery and Chelsea who is finishing up her 5th round of Chemo. Thank you, Cheers Terry

Back from the Beach!

Well OK, we have been back for about 5 days so I apologize for the late update. Mr. Virus invaded our computer and we have been cautious.

Our trip to Florida was real nice. Noah did great on the plane. He was honored with a 1st class seat w/me on the return. I was lucky enough to be bumped with my status. Yep, even after 19 months of not traveling every week I still have preferred status. Unfortunately my DH and MIL were still confined to the back of the "bus". I guess the only glitch was when Noah decided to throw his bottle and bonked the lady sleeping behind us in the head. Thankfully, she and everyone else thought it was funny. How can you possible be mad a such a cute kid?

The weather was nice and warm for the most part. Most days were windy and we had two days in the low 50's which made for brisk walks. It was just nice to be able to get outside everyday and walk along the beach. The sunsets on the west coast of Florida (edited for geographical accuracy) are just magnificent.

We took Noah to a really cool jungle garden in Sarasota. It was filled with tropical plants, trees and had lots of different animals . I'm not sure which were Noah's favorites (he sorta zonked out when we got there), but mine were the Flamingos and 100+ yr old turtles. Of course when we were ready to leave, Noah was all set to rock n roll.

He did enjoy having breakfast at JD's were Mr. Pirate watched over the place.

For some reason he just didn't want to be in his car seat at all! My DH says it's because he didn't like to ride in a minivan. Great, I've been trying to convince him that a minivan is what I would like (thus the reason I rented one in FL) and now Noah is siding with him. Boys!

Now home and back to reality with appointments, therapists , work and piles of laundry. I did finally get an appointment with Noah's allergist and his test came back negative for a milk allergy. Good news on that front but we still are trying to get answers for all his congesting & gagging stuff. Plan is to keep him off dairy until he has his swallow study. His GI specialist is trying to get the study moved up, as Noah continues to lose weight. He lost over a pound in just a month. My DH & I thought we were giving him a complex by calling him our peanut so we decided to try a few new names like "big boy" , "stretch", "too tall" to try to turn things around.

I need to share a funny, as I try to keep my blog on the lighter side. The other night I was putting Noah's PJ's on after his bath. He was being extra squirmy and pointy. He was saying ah ah ah , which he does a lot and I continued to converse with him. Then he started to crunch his cute little fingers together and point again. I asked him what? He continued to crunch his fingers together and then screamed out ba! ba! I had forgotten I put an extra bottle on the nightstand. I was so proud of him, for signing milk and saying ba ba! And I thought he was just being cute and waving to me!

Cheers, Terry