Please pray for Rhyer

Grant is now officially enrolled in our local school's Early On program, so we have someone at the house working with Grant Sunday-Thursday. It is quite busy, but Grant enjoys the interaction and is improving quickly in all areas.

Our attention right now is focused on Rhyer, a sweet baby boy born to our friends, Bill and Courtney last week. Like Grant, Rhyer was born with a rare and serious heart defect. He will be having the first of his three open heart surgeries tomorrow at U of M. Please pray for Rhyer and his family during this time.

Getting older

Grant seems to be growing up overnight. He now says "mamamamamama" and he's figured out that if he says it when I walk away I won't leave. :) He is trying to walk and loves to push his little lawnmower around the room. We are having a lot of fun lately dancing , singing and rolling the ball back and forth. He heads for the stairs any chance he gets and so far we've only had one tumble. (Now we use the gates.) He loves balloons and toilet paper and spicy enchiladas. Yep, you heard me right- enchiladas. Yesterday for lunch he went bite for bite with me on my enchilada. The night before had ate veggie curry burgers. I guess he just had too mature of a palate for formula. :)

A Visit from Friends

This week we have our good friends, Justin and Lauren, visiting from Colorado with their baby, Pierce. He's just 4 weeks younger than Grant. Here are some photos of the dads enjoying time with their sons.

Good News

Two bits of good news to share-
1. Jim's mom's surgery was successful. She's in the hospital recovering overnight.
2. Grant went to U of M today for some routine tests and they went great. They took him off Viagra!

Get Well Soon!

Jim's mom is having surgery tomorrow. Please pray for a successful surgery and a quick recovery.

9 Months Old

Now that Grant is mobile, he really isn't into sitting still for his picture. So, Grandma helped us out in this one...

A new toy

We're still working on Grant's crawl. Because of the way Grant uses the right side of his body (and mostly his right leg), the experts think it is very possible that Grant had a stroke during his heart surgery. So, we're currently working with two different occupational therapists, two physical therapists and one speech therapist to try to retrain the brain.

Grant has a funny looking pair of biker shorts that are sewn together in the middle that he is supposed to wear for 15 minutes a day. They force him to crawl with his legs together and not "cheat" by only using his left leg. (His preferred method of transport is a bear crawl using only his left leg, while dragging the right.) In order to motivate Grant to crawl from one end of the room to the other, we got out a big box and found that if we throw the ball through the box, Grant will go retrieve it. Here's a picture of Grant and his box. He's not wearing his special shorts though, because we find that there are not many smiles while the shorts are on. :)

Transitions

Little Grant has had a tough time since my ankle surgery. He does not like transitions, whether it be from the highchair to the stroller or from inside to outside. Once he's there, he's happy; he just doesn't like the process. That has made the past six days and multiple care givers really hard for him. I'm so thankful for all the people that have volunteered to care for Grant. It is unfortunate that it is so confusing for him. I wish he could just enjoy all the love that is being poured out on to him.

Last night grandma and grandpa had Grant over for a sleepover. (Thank you, thank you!!) Unfortunately, he woke up quite a few times in the night and would only stop crying if they would hold his hand. So, around 4:30 they brought him in their bed and he finally fell asleep on his back with one grandparent's pinkie in each hand.

Keeping up with Grant

Life is never dull. This morning at 4am Jim dialed 911 and within 3 minutes we had a firetruck, ambulance and police cars at our house. Thankfully, it was for me and not Grant. It turns out that I am allergic to the pain medication they gave me after the surgery and when I took my 4am dose I had enough built up in my system that I started having horrible chest pain, stomach pain and many other weird symptoms.

They rushed me to the hospital where I had chest x-rays, CT scan, and ultrasound and blood work done. (They thought I might have had a blood clot.) But, thankfully it was nothing serious. As I lay there with an oxygen canula strapped to my nose I thought about how many times Grant has had to go through the same tests. Yuck.

I'm home now and trying to get some rest. Thanks for your prayers for a speedy recovery.

Charming Snapshots

Ankle surgery was successful. I'm in a lot of pain and missing my baby, but Grant's cute 9 month photos brought a smile to my face. Check out www.charmingsnapshots.com under the blog of today's date (scroll down past the pregnant women) to see his adorable photos. :)

Ankle surgery

Tomorrow is the big day for my ankle surgery. Please pray for a successful surgery and quick recovery. Thank you to all the friends and family who are providing meals and care for Grant while I'm out of commission.

Who did this to my hair?

"Da Da!"

Yesterday Grant said "Dada" for the first time! He had not been making any sounds (besides a high pitched squeal of delight) since he used to babble as a baby. We've heard mumblings of a speech delay from various people evaluating Grant and have been praying that he'd start trying to communicate with us. So, we were very delighted to hear Grant saying "words" yesterday.

My favorite daddy son moment came tonight during dinner. While Jim and I were eating dinner (Grant was already in bed), we heard a distinct "dada" cry through the baby monitor. Jim jumped out of his chair faster than I thought possible. He started running up the stairs (in the dark) and I all of a sudden heard a huge crash and then a scream (from Jim!). I could hear him quietly comforting his boy through the baby monitor and then he came limping downstairs with a bloody toe. But, he had a huge grin plastered on his face. It was worth it. :)

Happy Grant

A visit to the zoo

Mom and Grandpa took me to the zoo, but they didn't want to take me out of my stroller because I hate getting buckled back in. So, they tried to give me the best view possible...

Mr. Mischief

Evaluation by Early On

Today Grant had his evaluation with Early On, an early intervention program for kids with medical conditions and developmental delays. I think they did a great job and saw a pretty accurate picture of Grant. They said he's on track for most things (he can throw a ball better than most 18 month olds!), but he shows signs of a speech delay, crawling issue and stiff muscles. Hopefully these things can be corrected with different kinds of therapy. We've got more appointments set up to evaluate him further. She did think that Grant was a ton of fun, especially when he'd do something, smile and clap for himself. :)

Unfortunately, Grant has the flu. We're trying our best to keep him hydrated and will have to see the doctor tomorrow if he's not better. Please pray for a speedy recovery.

Grant and his buddy Jack

Congratulations Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Josh!

What's with this goofy crawl?

Grant started crawling yesterday on all fours. He loves being able to get across the room and into everything that he's not supposed to!

Unfortunately, when I say crawl, his crawl does not look like a normal baby crawl. He is crawling using three limbs and dragging his right foot behind. At first we thought this was kind of cute, but after further discussion with our OT, we realize that it could signify some sort of problem in the brain. Since he was born Grant's right side of the body has been behaving differently than the left. Nothing huge, just the way that he grasps things and moves them. I have mentioned it to our ped, but she didn't see anything that made her concerned.

We'll try to get Grant in to see someone next week. In the meantime, please pray for peace for me. I'm not sure I can handle one more doctor or one more serious problem with my little boy. And, as always, thanks for your prayers for total healing.