Fun at the GAME

we enjoyed tailgaiting, great food, drinks and fun with friends we havn't hung out with in ages. then we got to our seats to find out there were 6 ND fans sitting in our seats. well ours and the four next to ours. I am telling you these people cheat on and off the field. everyone in our section was sitting in the wrong seats. So we sat in some empty ones behind ours. However, you know that those people are going to arrive and then it will cause a scene. I was mad simply on principle...come on people follow the rules. Adrian of course kept telling me to shuesh...so I did. this was our view. I really don't think there is a bad place to sit in the stadium..we saw everything. however...you would think with the money that goes into that program that they could afford a jumbo tron. the replays happened like every other play, cuz Weis didn't think that purdue could do anything right. But we just had to sit there twiddling our thumbs because we could watch the replay.
tailgaiting. before the game with Jay and JWthe weekend went well we got home around 8 and of course the little one did not want to sleep at all, so mom was totally tired at church on Sunday. well yesterday we came to find out that although he was not running a fever on sunday, he definitely was yesterday. 101.3 degrees with a doosie of a left ear infection. So far all he has wanted to do is sleep and cuddle...I finally got him to go to sleep in his crib this morning instead of being held. We will see...we would like to be uncrabby today and the rest of the week. we will see.

then last night we found out our couch had broke, the leg was nearly completely off..so adrian started to fix it and all of a sudden the lights went out in the dining room, entry and the garage, but no ciruit blew. This is not good from what I have heard. so we are garage door less, dining room light less and no entry lights. So I guess we only take visitors in the day light hours. hopefully we figure it out and it is not a big problem, like a melted wire in our walls, ready to start a fire. We are praying that is not what it is.

well have a great week and we will see you all Friday at Jackson's benefit...with a healthy baby boy on hand to greet you all with a smile.

I am loosing my mind:

today I woke up and got ready then got Jackson up and ready and we headed off to the pediatrician. we arrived for our follow-up appointment and found out that we had no such thing. I have had it in my planner since last wednesday. any way we loaded the car back up and came back home. Good think our pediatrician is like 4 minutes away from our house.

then we had first steps therapy. we played in our swing downstairs and we did our regular play therapy in food and toys. then we tried a new task. Jackson needed a little help..come on it was his 4th time up the stairs.

I couldnt' believe my eyes he caught on to it so fast it was a little scary. (please disregard the dirty carpet we know we need new) We showed him how to shift his weight once and then after that he was like I got it. talk about a tire me out and make me sleepy activity. I like it for that...safety is another story. He has just taken off. I can't imagine what he would do if his little hips were in the sockets.

have a great weekend. We are having our first date day tomorrow since february. can't wait to watch those Boilers kick the irish men's butts. we will see...it is suppose to be a beautiful day to hang out outside. Can't wait.

New member of the fam:

I have never been miss suzie homemaker...partly because I just am not. I would much rather be working on some big thing at work that cleaning toilets, vaccuming, cleaning floors, or doing laundry...ok so I enjoy the cooking part and now have the time to do it. But the other things I would rather not do. But lately they have really bothered me, maybe because they are right in front of me due to my occupation now being out of my home. who knows....

my biggest annoyance lately has been cleaning and then it not looking as though I have cleaned...and my baby crawling on the floor and having him covered in dog hair when he gets up. So to make a long story short...like a year long story....i have been complaining for months *a year* about how our vaccum doesn't clean the way it should. it is three years old and I don't think we registered for a very expensive one, we have changed the filters and still no luck. So i did my research and found that the best vaccum for us was a "DYSON ANIMAL D17. it sounds like a new invention for the military, it might very well be. or at least the price would make you think so....$549.00. SO it was definitely out of the questions. I am already schemeing to find a way to get enough gift cards to target for christmas to be able to afford it. (i haven't had much luck)

the other day Adrian I were browsing through his mariott points/or airline points catologue we have been saving them for a vacation but obviously that is not going to happen this year with Jackson's health, so we started talking about how to spend them.. we came along the dyson allergy vaccum...and Adrian said maybe we should get a new vaccum. I sarcasticly said yeah right...with flat screen tv's, golf accesories, and various other manly items...you are going to get a vaccum. however, i did not give up on the idea...for the last week I have randomly asked if my vaccum was on its way...I was willing to make the sacrafice of the animal vaccum just to have a high quality vaccum that actually sucked the dirt out of the carpet, rather than just moving it around. I had borrowed Erin's Dyson a while back, to check it out and just the basic one did more than my bissel. SO I was willing to sacrifice.

We would like you to meet the new addition to our family....I think Jackson was just as excited to meet the new vaccum as mommy was.

I had no idea it was coming. The fed ex man arrived with it around 11:30 am and I was vaccuming by 1pm. I have two more rooms upstairs and then I will move down stairs. I am on a cleaning frenzy...it is so much fun to see what the vaccum pics up right after I vaccumed with my vaccum this morning. isn't this gross...look at all that dog hair that my vaccum didn't pick up...oh and that brings me to the next surprise
I didn't have to sacrifice a thing. Somehow my fabulous hubby got the D17 instead of the allergy one. I have the vaccum of my dreams...all it took was approximately 13 weeks away from my husband over the last two years. I am not sure it was worth that, but I will take it for a consolation gift...since I have already indured the two years. can't wait to invite you all to my dirt free home. OK maybe we can't go that far. But I could definitely do a fabulous Dyson commercial.

Peekaboo or squats you tell us...

we couldn't pass up sharing this even though we can turn it right side up. it was just too cute. he is playing peek a boo with no one. Adrian is saying boo in the house...
I can't believe how often he does this. he does squats constantly throughout the day...playing peekaboo or just standing and sitting while playing with toys. Enjoy the sights and sounds.

here are a few pictures of him reading to himself too. this was just too cute to pass up:

check me out...I'm a cruisin'

ok so we finally got thison tape...

it took us long enough i know....but it is stinkin' cute isn't it. *and mom...thanks to a double ear infection you get to see him doing all his cool new moves. I can't wait you are going to be in awe

. I tried to get him doing peek abo and it was working...which is rare..cuz he usually stops when the camera comes out. then when I went to play it there was a big white streak from the sun right in the middle and you couldn't even see him. We will work on the peek a boo video. Enjoy this one for now. I will leave you with Jackson hammin it up and the BEST BUDS FOR LIFE... I

Houston we have a PROBLEM....

today we went to the pediatrician after having a hearing screen done yesterday. We were a little baffeled as to why he wasn't hearing well out of his left ear until we checked in his ear. Jackson has a double ear infection. pink and a little swollen..with fluid. NO fever, no runny nose, no other signs. You would think no big deal. However when it comes to big invasive surgeries...infections no matter what the magnitude...make it a no go. WE are in the process of rescheduling and they have promised he will be out of that cast by Christmas.

Good things that came out of today:

FREE ANTIBIOTICS FOR KIDS: can you believe it, after at least 8 months of being on at least one antibiotic we find this out. Meijer and any pharmacy that matches competitior promotions...gives free antibiotics to kids. FREE, can I say it again. FREE!!! this is going to save us 30 dollars a month. where was this information months agao...i would be well on my way to owning a new vaccum cleaner by know. That fancy Dyson pet vac...to suck up all the dog hair that is causing my allergies to be out of wack...(sorry bunny trail)

MOM to talk to...don't worry this is not just any mom. this is a mom of a kid that has recently gone through bilateral hip surgery and has been in a cast more than once. this is a mom with some very useful information. not that the rest of you don't have great advice...you all ROCK...but this mom will have a special place in my brain with her wealths of information. Can't wait to chat with her.

Good thing number three...I get to enjoy this for four more weeks. The activity and help of a one year old. Love it.

All of these things came out of a trip to the doc for a sickness I prayed my son wouldn't have and seeing a new doctor that we haven't seen before. All things usually bad that turned out to be the bomb today because GOd is good like that.

lessoned learned: God makes everything good in His time. oh wait that sounds familiar. I think I might have read that some where. ok enough of the sarcasm. just another lesson that God has written down for us in His little instruction book. it is full of them.
oh and by the way my child has eaten his first finger food...a Puffy Cheeto...check it out.
Enjoy the rest of your week.

A huge scrappin Sunday

It was great to take a day and just scrap. Adrian watched Jackson and I was lulled by the rain outside. Being trapped inside is like the best thing ever for a scrapper. I have to say that Jackson's 12x12 book is getting a little large so I started doing the rest in 8 1/2x 11. that way he can have two first year books. I have had so much fun this past week walking down memory lane with these pages and also spending some time coming up with Unique facts just for Jackson. I also got to do his NICU page about our very expensive babysitters.
it is was interesting to find these pics of us all waiting in the waiting room, I think Adrian's mom took these. i don't remember taking much in these first few days. We spent hours waiting in these rooms. One is the lounge and the other is the surgery waiting area. I know we will happily spend many more days, hours whatever it takes for our little guy to get better. I also got to do this one out him being outnumbered with his three girl cousins. there will come a day when it won't be that way I am sure, but for now they still love him event though he is a boy. that was apparent this past august when all of them fought to hold him.


In the process he has become quite the cheese monster...you bring out the camera and he stops everything to pose and smile.

for the first Jackson only fact...he has spent 81 days in the hospital this year. I knew it was close to three months i just didn't realize how close. I wanted a non hospital pic...and one that showed how happy he was despite the numerous days in the hospital. It is amazing too that he has spent 153 hours and 30 minutes on the road and in a car. we spent months having Jackson scream anytime he had a bath in water, until this past July when we were at Conrad and Jenna's and I need to clean the iodine off him from surgery and I wanted to check out his incisions. So we decided on a bath in the sink, and he loved it. So since that is what we have done. Can't wait for our bathrooms so we can splash in a tub and not get the water all over the floor. I will leave you with these last two. doesn't this first one just bring you back. his hand could barely rap around our one finger. he was so tiny. the whole little hand was the size of our two fingers. it was crazy. we feel lucky he was born as big as he was. then we wanted to take this opportunity, for those that are still with us, to announce to the world that we broke a tooth today. it has been working its way through his gums the last few days and today he broke through. bottom left. keep chewing little man, more are right there ready and waiting.

it is amazing how thearapuetic this is for me. I am so happy that I have this hobby and can't wait for him to get to look back at them and see the stories with the pictures. for anyone who doesn't do this scrapbooking thing, you really should. it is so cool to have the stories behind the pictures to share with people. Have a great monday everyone. if you want to get your scrap on click on the social butterfly pic on the left side bar and you can purchase an amazing kit collection incredibly cheap too. especially for all the extras you get and it is a flat shipping rate. Check it out.

Happy 13 months

this week has been a memorable one...one year ago on the 8th we arrived home from a month in the NICU with our little guy. I have spent alot of time remembering and scrapping...I will share soon, I am not done quite yet. Check out what I am doing now at 13 months as a mom I am just in awe:

*you are pulling up on furniture
*walking like a speed demon around furniture (depending on the surface)
*banging on everything form your drums to the windows
*likes to empty the cabinets of all the Dvd's mom had so nicely alphabetized (oh well it can be done again when this little phase is over)
*loves your play table
*loves to play open, shut or at least you did before your finger got smashed...oooppps...mom pays better attention now, that was a big, painful event. sorry buddy.
*hates to be limited or restrained *carseats, exersaucer, highchair.....at least not for long periods of time.
*loves Macy and tries to pull her hair and tail all the time. not so sure Macy loves Jackson. I think it is a true picture of a love hate relationship
*loves to be sung to, to listen to music
* loves swinging and bouncing, his eyes light up
*we started climbing a week ago likes to use anything in sight for leverage, even if it means mom's pants. Gotta say I pulled out the belt the other day and the drawstring on the sweats now gets tied...we don't need to see mama depants. :)
*he is a cheese monster. the minute the camera comes out he stops what he is doing, looks at the camera and before I say one he has a huge smile on his face. it is so cute, but make it hard to capture a moment. oh well, at least I don't have a child that hates his picture being taken. Example below:
* he is still not eating baby food at all or solids. this has truely been a struggle. the great thing is he is still gaining. he is at 15 lbs 5.5 ounces and he grew an inch this past month to 25 3/4 inches tall. so he is inching his way there, to the goal of 20 lbs
*he is a little explorer, he studies everything and then it goes straight to his mouth.
* he has been knawing on his finger all month...and I think today, both dad and I felt a rough spot on is lower gums. I think we cut the first one. it is hard to get you finger in there to check on a kid that despises having things put in his mouth...so we will see in the next few days, but I think we got one.
* we are still in 3-6 month pants and some 3-6 and 6-9 month tops depend on the brand of course. But we did go up a size in shoes....horray for grow
* we are pooping regularly, which is an answer to our prayers and we have much less discomfort since this began *thank you to everyone who was praying for poop. we have regulated some of the bladder spasming too which i think that helped in decreasing the discomfort as well.

it has been so nice going forfour months with out any major hospital stays or big surgeries. We has a two our day surgery in july but it was pretty easy recovery. So thank you for all your prayers for a break and we have truely enjoyed it. We are preparing for his double hip surgery in a week and I have to say lately the anticipation of how he will be able to take off after recovery with walking and crawling and development in general has taken over. I am not as focused on the negative of the 6 weeks in the cast. We have tackled the no sleep thing and seem to have it under control for now..

I had a reminder tonight from our wedding present from my brother and sister in law. I was standing downstairs waiting for the dog to do her bussiness and it struck my what the bible verse on the picture said. "With the strength of God anything is possible" how fitting for us right now and for our life to come. God knew when they picked that out, that it was going to be perfect for our family. it is being moved to center stage in our livingroom. I have decided it would be a good daily reminder. we have come 13 months and we got many more months to tell you about.

We have a sleeper at least a 5 hour one....

Yesterday afternoon for his nap it only took 10 minutes for him to calm down and sleep. I think i have a quick learner on my hands. It was so nice to have my afternoon to clean. It was great having time to myself again.
then came last night: we were gone, I had a prayer meeting and Adrian had to do the finances at church so we dropped Jackson off at his aunt and uncles to play while we were at our meetings. He fell asleep on our way home and this usually is a bad things. He thinks he has slept and can get up a play. Due to it being 11pm already, mom did not want to "get up and play". Bed sounded great. We got home, he went right to my shoulder out of the car, (always a good sign) and then I laid him in bed, he rolled to his side and tada sleeping in his crib. He woke up a couple of times in the night, but I just stayed in bed and he went back to sleep, until 5 am of course, when he was hungry and sitting in a disgusting diaper. So I got up and changed him, fed him in his room and rocked him and we went right back to sleep, UNTIL I laid him in his bed. Never fear, I left him and went back to my bed, grabbed Adrian's hand and said a prayer that he would go to sleep. The sweet thing is: by the time I finished my prayer he was asleep. He slept til 8:30 this morning. Enough time for me to have one hour by myself with my tea outside, before he woke up. Now who could ask for more. We will continue and I am sure it will continue getting better.

Sleep makes for a happier baby and mommy all day..... even when I am a crazy mom, dressing him up in costumes in the middle of the day in September. Our friends loaned us this "lil stinker" costume and so I was seeing if it fit...it is snug right now, so probably not going to work for halloween with a body cast on too. oh well, makes for an adorable picture right now. it even has a bowtie...hehe:)

Relief may be in site....Thanks to my mom.

I have one strong mom....when I think about it today. She told me last night on the phone that she put me in my crib and waited for me to fall asleep. Listening to me scream. So as a last resort...I decided this for nap time today. Cuz I am not joking when I say he won't sleep unless being held, naps, bedtime everything. Let's just say I haven't had time to clean my house in over three weeks. The dust is building to a noticeable thickness.

So I decided to be a strong mom today. I put him down at 10:20am and walked away. It is harder than you think. I sat down and all i heard was this desperate and sad cry. So I decided to go take a shower. 15 minutes later 10:35am still crying. I have decided that in the past when I thought I was waiting like 15 minutes or 30 minutes it was really only like 5 or 10. Oh well this time I am in it for the long haul. I had to find something to do, because it was killing me to hear him scream, and it would be pulsed. it would get quieter and then louder. and it was an all out scream by now. you would have thought someone was cutting off his arm back there. But I held strong and didn't even go and peek. I instead decided to scrapbook. I am working on a baby boy year of photos book and a similar one for a baby girl for our benefit next month, so I thought i would finish one of them. So I sat down and worked...trying to block out the unbearable screaming in the backround. I can happily say that my child konked out at 11:15am. almost one hour later. Thank goodness he doesn't have the stamina that I did with my mom, cuz I never would have made it that long as a mom. Mom you are a strong lady.
We will see if this continues. My mom said it took like three times before I was through my little stage, so we will see tonight if it works for bedtime too. If it is only an hour we can do it.

Thanks mom for the advice and the story. Sorry for what i put you through. I am sure as this little guy grows up I will be saying that alot. (cuz I put you guys through a lot, Sorry).

here are the latest scrappin pages for Jackson's book. Enjoy
Have a great week...

I NEED SLEEP!!!

it is not nearly as bad as some of my friends (aka Natalie) however for the last three weeks Jackson has only slept through the night in his bed twice. In my book that is not good stats. Some have told me I have a teether. I don't know about your but I am am sick of saying "I think he is teething" Seriously people how long does it take for teeth to come in. We are going on like three and a half months right now. it can't take that long...my luck (well it would be good for me) he is going to get them all at the same time, molars and all.

the only way he sleeps and stops screaming is for me to hold him. with in minutes of holding him he is asleep, however I am a worry wort and so I can't sleep while holding him. I think he is going to roll over me when we are on the couch and fall off or get smashed in bed with us. Don't laugh these things have almost happened. My child is a crawler, a climber and he can pull himself over anything. He is a strong little sucker. Right now he is climbing off the couch. pulling himself over my leg.
i Remember these days of sleeping...taking naps and sleeping through the night. I WANT THEM BACK!!! so if I could command teeth to come in....I am doing it right now...TEETH COME IN!!! this mommy needs some sleep. ok I am done...I am going to go find my crawling baby. have a good one.

I have something to tell you:

Hi, this is Jackson. I have been the subject of these posts most of the time, so I thought it was time to turn the page and tell you about a special person in my life. See I have this dude...that likes to play with me and read me books and tonight he even helped me put a gate above these really bump things that I like to crawl to and look down. I think I scared my mommy the other day when I rolled down them. it was a crazy ride..and I gotta say a little scary by the time I reached the bottom, but my mommy picked me up and then it was all better.
So anyway about this gate. He is going to a lot of work building an extender to our banister so it will fit. So compliment my momma and dada on it when you come over...don't make any strange comments...they had to do it cuz I am just to adventuresome.
By the way this awesome dud is my dada: "I've Got An AWESOME DAD"
Have a safe week everyone... remember...compliments...no criticism...about how it looks.

We interrupt this Program

We interrupt this program for a special report.

Jackson has begun dangerous activities. he has learned the open shut game. Dump the DVD's all over the floor of course one by one, working on our fine motor skills.
you are thinking, oh how cute (it was the first time my neatly alphabatized videos were thrown all over the living room)then we had our big event...we kept telling him...it is all fun and games until someone gets there finger smashed. that is what happened today...the door started to close and I could see it happening and just couldn't get there fast enough. you can see on his ring finger the purpleish area... it is getting redder as we try and ice it...but he wants nothing to do with the ice. As a mom, you just wish you had a hyper speed button that you could push when you saw these things happening. We will keep you updated as to what happens next.

Jackson is a celebrity.

Well this morning I was all excited for people to read about little Jackson in the Elkhart Truth. After a miserable night of sleeping with my little one, between my husband and I in bed *queen sized* I headed to the local Martin's for a dozen eggs *i won't tell you how much they were :( * and a few copies of the article. So I walked in to the store and to my Shock the front page said :
"Help save his life" with a little pic of Jackson next to it. I am telling you, there was a reason for my skepticism about a newspaper article. Seriously, we want people to come to the benefit, but it isn't going to save his life. I am so sorry to all of you that are mislead by this article. We are hoping for a correction because on a smaller note they misspelled his name too. but we will see. Our neighbor already congratulated Jackson on his celebrity status. So he didn't take it the wrong way. I know that God can use anything for the good and I hope he does in this situation. It is a wonderful story, she did a great job with the few words she was given. if you want to check it out it is here.

More scrapping. I am telling you when I put my mind to it and set a deadline...i am a well oiled machine. Enjoy the latest work.... The first is from July when we were in Indy over the fourth. Jackson found his feet and wouldn't leave them alone. this is one I have been trying to work on since like last september. I like how it turned out. Different. Sometimes I get into a rut when i do all these at the same time. Food play is part of our therapy with Cathy...we make a mess or should I say Jackson and Cathy make a mess, while mom gets the sink ready for a bath at the end.
I was thinking the other day and then a friend brought it to my attention just how much of an impact Jackson has had on our community. God has done so much through him in just one short year. It gives me chills to see what He has in his future. He is our Little Prince....
As I was talking to a group of friends last sunday at church I was reminded about how blessed we have been that Jackson is so content. It makes it alot easier to know when something is really wrong to not have him fussy at the tiniest little thing. THis boy crys only when something is seriously wrong.
Before we knew, actually we barely had time to get use to Jackson Crawling...and he was on his feet standing at everything...and with that came falls, falls and more falls. On every surface and hitting his head numerous times. He must have a really hard head or a really high pain tolerance (ok, so we all know he has a high pain tolerance...come on the kid gets tylenol as a pain killer after surgery.) because he never cries.

this is a horrible photo of the page...sorry. I am sad that our long weekend is almost over...but we have a busy week ahead...visits from lots of people. Cannan, Clark and Melodi are coming tomorrow, then Brice and Sarah on Wednesday and thursday and then Sunday we have Alex and Anne. to think we also have our normal first steps therapy too...we are going to be wiped out come next weekend. I am sure we will have update...enjoy your week. :)