Christmas in Florida

Christmas was a balmy 80 degrees this year! It was wonderful to hang out with my family especially since Mr. Boy let them all hold him and run away with him for endless amounts of time! We were so proud of him. Here are some highlights:

Granddad Don

Grandma Weize Anne

The fam (Us with Uncle Daric, Aunt Holly, Grandpa Don and Grandma Weize)

Second Cousins!

Great-Grandma Fran

LOTS of presents!

Mr. Boy was fascinated with the trees

We also spent several hours Christmas afternoon in the ER due to a clog in Mr. Boy's tube which we couldn't fix. They replaced his tube and we were back in time for some Christmas dinner! We just like to check out all the ER's around the US... just something we enjoy doing. :)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We are enjoying Christmas at my parents home in Florida this year, a much better landscape than the NICU last year!

We hope you all have a wonderful day celebrating the day our Lord and Savior Jesus was born! Lord, this day we give you thanks, for loving us so much that you came to earth and gave your life on the cross to pay our debt so that we could spend eternity with you. You are our Savior, our Shelter, our Peace, our Joy, our Rock. You are the reason we can get through each day and you are the reason we love, you are the reason we have joy and peace in our hearts and you are the reason we live. 
In lue of a Christmas card, we will post our christmasy photos here (which were taken months ago by David's father):

Update on stuff

We haven't mentioned Mr. Boy's vomiting lately because it seems to change every day. It was continuing strong before Thanksgiving and then he got sick and went to the hospital where they turned off his food pump and we didn't feed him anything for about 24 hours. After that for about 2 weeks he didn't vomit at all as we gradually worked him back up to the target caloric intake, making his formula more and more concentrated (which makes him vomit if we get it too concentrated). We want him to grow, so we have to increase the calories, but each day I would cringe as I made the formula a little thicker, thinking... could this be the amount that makes him vomit again? You see, the second we tilt the scales to far in one direction making Mr. Boy vomit, we can't just go back a little and fix it all. Once we go too far, it takes weeks for him to get better even if we go back a little. We went too far and he started up again, so we went back a little but it didn't help. We just switched formulas again but it made things worse, so now we're back to where we began. We need him to keep growing, so if he vomits but still grows, that is better than him not vomiting and not growing. I just wish we could have the best of both scenarios.

One week they say he grew so much and then the next few weeks they say he didn't grow enough and it can be maddening with all the highs and lows and all the "do this and do that, try this, or try that."Sometimes I just have to step back and realize Mr. Boy is a happy, healthy boy who can grow on his own schedule. I have to shut out all the other voices telling me he is not "up to par" with the rest of the world. I like him just the way he is.

We found out that it is ok for Mr. Boy to swim in a salt water pool so we took him to a fitness club that had a heated, indoor saltwater pool. He did not take to it like we had hoped he would, but we tried!

making a mess with green beans

Mr. Boy's lil backpack which carried his food pump. This is what he'll look like when he starts to move. 

He will take his first steps/crawls/rolls, I'll put the backpack on him and he will be too weighed down to move. lol.

Peek-a-boo! 

Mr. Boy is getting much, much better about being scared around people, especially in our home. He let Marie Aseltine hold him the whole time he played... although she did bribe him with a farm! :)

High 5 with Marie and Scott

Its so huge for him to finally let other people hold him.

Cousins!

We don't have any family in South Dakota except David's Brother Nathan, his wife Megan, and their kiddos, Mr. M (3 years old) and Mr. Z (One year old... 2 weeks younger than Mr. Boy even though Mr. Boy was supposed to be 2 months younger than Mr. Z. Mr. Boy will be able to rub this in until they are about 40, when the tides will turn and Mr. Z will have the advantage). :) We get together with them every week for dinner and the boys love being in each other's presence. At first Mr. Boy just liked to watch his cousins from a distance, enthralled with their activities, but now he likes to hang with the boys on the floor and exchange drolly toys. 

Mr. M and Mr. Boy

Mr. Z & Mr. Boy

Mr. Z and Mr. Boy

The sacred drum

Mr. Boy standing with the help of the couch and with his pants up too high thanks to his mother. :)

We were trying to keep them still while we videoed them, by dancing and cheering. 

We shocked them into stillness.

The boys

I'm glad the camera was pointed at the boys and not us. :)

Denver, CO Trip

This past weekend we went to David's parent's house in Denver since we were not able to go for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to officially introduce Mr. Boy some of the family who have never met him. He just grows up every time we spend time away from home and this trip was no exception. He finally started looking like he wanted to move! He usually sits and lets me bring him all his toys, not feeling any need to try and go anywhere.  But this weekend he became so wiggly and discontent with just sitting and that is very exciting. He can stand supported if we get him into the position of standing, and he can kinda lean over while sitting and rock like he is just about to crawl or at least scoot. Crawling is going to be hard for him considering his pelvic bones are not connected, forcing his legs to aim out, but we are hoping he will scoot soon!

Pictures from Grandpa and Grandma Phillip's house

At the Airport

Riding the rocking cow his grandma bought him.

wearing part of his Noah's arc toy

Grandpa! 

And still wearing the "hat" ... he thought he was so funny, he loved wearing it. 

enjoying the view from high up above the living room

a man-to-man chat with grandpa

peek-a-boo above the couch with grandma became his favorite game

peek-a-boo with cousin!