I meant to include a couple of these pictures with your seven month update post, but there were WAY too many of them that I absolutely adore!!! Daddy didn't get to be there for your "newborn/5month" shots so we wanted to get some pictures of you with Mama and Daddy. Later this fall we hope to get some full family shots to add to our living room wall!
Here are my Top 10 Favorite shots (thanks Lisa - check out her work here!)
You were determined not to smile!
You would smile at us and then back at Lisa to make sure she didn't get it :)
"Hello Camera Lady"
Yep - still not smiling...
Ok maybe a little...
You love seeing your Daddy so much!
Little grins for Daddy
This one is my favorite!
We love you!
And of course, when we put you back in your chair...
Bonus shot #11 - because who could pass up a chance to share that face :D
How can it possibly have already been seven months?? You continue to be such a bright spot in our lives; laughing and smiling and having a great time no matter what!
This month you've learned a few new tricks - you can roll from your back to your left side (still working on the right side...); you can sit up by yourself - your record is 30 seconds; you have discovered your feet and love to bend over to look at them when you are sitting (usually why you fall over) AND have started bringing them up to reach for them whenever you are laying on your back!
You got to go "swimming" for the first time at the family reunion...you weren't all that impressed by the cold water. You also go to meet a lot of family members: Uncle J and Aunt C; Nanny's parents, sisters and brother; some of my cousins and their kids; and some friends from the church!
You got some new toys that have really been helping you with your balance, and are definitely helping keep you entertained! You are a little more high maintenance with your toys now because you've figured out that when you drop them someone will pick them up for you and talk to you...that's a fun game that I was hoping we could put off for a little longer. Fortunately, all of your new toys have playthings firmly attached. Your reaching has greatly improved and the PT wants us to have you reach up or to the side for items you really want now instead of just out front so that you can continue getting more range in your arms.
You've started showing your excitement with more forceful kicking and have twice now managed to kick your piano off of the stand! When you get going, you really get going!
You were kicking pretty hard one day when I laid you down for a nap. Daddy went to check on you at one point and came down and asked why I had put you in the crib like that...you had kicked so much when I went back downstairs that you managed to move yourself down off your head support and turned sideways! We're definitely going to have to be more watchful until you actually fall asleep from now on!
One of the biggest accomplishments this month is that you've pushed out two teeth! The second one finally came in enough that it doesn't seem to be bothering you as much as it did for a few days last week - you weren't too fussy or whiny, you just didn't want to engage in anything, especially with the speech therapist!
Keep growing and smiling and being your happy self! We love you very much and can't wait to see what this month brings us!
This is quite possibly my new favorite shot of you...you tried so hard to get some good naps but it was HOT and LOUD!
In other news, YOU CAN ROLL OVER! Well, part of the way. You've been working with OT and PT on laying on your side and it didn't take you long to figure out how to get back onto your back. Then yesterday, you started going from back to side! Fortunately, Nanny was tying to video you talking to her when you rolled over onto your side so she got the first time on video...then you just started showing off going back and forth. We'll have to start working on the other side now :)
Lastly, your second tooth finally came through. I think this one is bothering you a little bit more because you've been more fussy than usual this week. You can kind of see it in this picture, but have to look closely. The first one is coming out really well! (I had to take the picture of you from this angle so you would actually move your tongue out of the way!
Today, we had to go get your 6 month shots...and I keep forgetting that you'll be 7 months old in two days! CRAZY! The Pedi said everything looked great and she was super impressed with how well you were doing!!! We have to go to the ENT this afternoon because the granuloma in your stoma is getting really irritated and keeps bleeding. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be bothering you any.
So this is only a semi-post on the Cox Family reunion this last weekend. Uncle B & Aunt K got a new camera they've been playing with and took most of the pictures for us, but here are a few that I snapped and wanted to share!
You had a great time and were so happy, despite the heat and long day and lots of car time. Your naps were pretty much nonexistent but you did get a few quick snoozes in before someone would come by or the kids would get loud or you would get disturbed by people coming in and out of the area where we had you plugged in. You got to meet a LOT of people who have been following along and keeping up with and I am SO glad we were able to make the trip. So many people care about you that haven't even met you yet!
You and Little Big were pretty sleepy on the way there so you got a quick nap to make up for the early morning that I snapped a cute shot of - she wants your car seat to be softer so it's more comfortable for her to sleep on :)
Most important part of the day: you got to meet Papa and Granny, Nanny's parents. We pulled up about 10 minutes before they did; I don't think I've seen either of them move as fast as they did trying to get out of the car in years!
Lexi JoAnn, meet Linda JoAnn
"You're the only reason I'm here today"
They were absolutely thrilled to meet you, and by the end of the day you were grinning and smiling right back at them! I am so glad that they've gotten a chance to meet all of my girls and have wholeheartedly welcomed everyone into the family! They have been married for 54 years now and are such amazing grandparents (and great-grandparents!)
You also got to meet some of Nanny's cousins, both of her sisters and one brother, and a lot of Mama's cousins and their kids. You were so patient with everyone coming in and out and loved all of the attention you got from everyone! I'll post more pictures with family and your first time swimming when I get them from Uncle B (hint, hint :D)
We had a pretty long day on Saturday, got back late and barely made it up and out the door in time for services on Sunday morning (we weren't thinking about alarm clocks when we got home!) but I'm so glad we made it because you FINALLY got to meet Jackson!
It's been a quiet week - no appointments to go to, just therapists coming to see us; I thought I should post quick update for everyone before tomorrow, which will get it's own post sometime next week!
This week we only had OT and ST because the physical therapist is out of town. You are continuing to do SO well with all of your therapies and the therapists are impressed each time they visit. OT and PT have both been working on sitting up, and you're making it about 10-15 seconds now before you lose your balance. You do better in the bathtub because it's got a little bump that helps support your knees so you have more balance, but even on the ground by yourself you are doing really well using your trunk muscles to keep yourself up!
You were sitting up really well in the bathtub the other night and then you found your feet! It was so cute watching you try to reach down there and get them. Every night since then, whenever we're in the bath and I sit you up to rinse off your back you go straight for your toes.
We've also gotten a couple of new (to us) toys / chairs to help you learn how to sit up. One is an exersaucer that has a lot of things to play with on it and you were SO overwhelmed when we first put you in it. You kept looking at the toys, then back at us like "What am I supposed to do with all this???" The exersaucer is great though because it will encourage you to put more weight on your feet, which will hopefully start extending and stretching your knee joint more.
The other chair we got is to help you sit up better when we're working on eating. The speech therapist says you're doing a great job already with lip closure and is going to start working on straw training you pretty soon! The newest thing in the world of ST is to skip sippy cups (which don't progress baby's oral motor development since it's the same motion as for a bottle) and to move toward straws instead because it's a different set of muscles that need to be developed and strengthened. We'll see how that goes! You continue to enjoy food time - especially if you get to help - and the other day started moving side to side in what we've started to call your happy dance. You've done it a few more times since then when you're sitting up and get really excited about something!
The only other news from this week is that I finally got a picture of your tooth! The one next to it is teasing us; somedays it looks like it's fixing to pop through and then nothing. You haven't fussed or complained about any of it thought!
Look closely - It's there :)
Oh yeah - and we started cloth diapering this week! I had wanted to do that from the beginning but it obviously wasn't an option in the hospital, but after buying diapers twice (we finally ran out of what we had from showers!) I decided we could use that money elsewhere and it was time to bite the bullet and jump in to cloth diapering. So far, we haven't had any major issues! A few minor leaks, but we're getting that figured out :)
That's really it this time. Tomorrow is the Cox Family Reunion (Nanny's family) so you get to meet more family and spend some time with Sisters for the weekend down at the lake!
We've had quite a busy week! Monday was the swallow study (still yay!!!), Tuesday sisters had dentist appointments that you got to tag along for and then we all loaded up and went to your pulminologist appointment.
Dr. M said everything looked good, to continue taking you off of the support breaths when you are awake and that we could increase the high pressure alarm so that it doesn't go off every five minutes (when you smile, laugh, nod, breathe too hard...)
We spent the afternoon hanging out as a family before sisters are gone for a couple weeks - lots of smiling and laughing!
Wednesday was a little more calm, but Thursday was even more insane! We went to see the orthopedic specialist first thing that morning. He was so much more attentive than the first Ortho we saw - he took X-rays of your spine and hips and said everything looked good. He's not concerned about your hands, but wants to see us back in 6 months to keep an eye on your feet.
We went straight from there to the geneticist's office. They mostly just wanted updates on how you're progressing but they also found a couple of new journal articles for us. Unless we have any other questions, we won't be there again.
We got home and you refused to take a nap for the longest time - which was fine because Nanny and Grandpa and cousins J and J got to see you! J has been waiting to see you for quite a while now!
Today was another busy day - breakfast at home, headed to Cedar Park for lunch and to meet Uncle J...you thoroughly enjoyed tasting the blueberry milkshake at Mighty Fine!
After that we went to plug in at Nanny and Grandpa's hotel, then met up with Uncle J and Aunt C, Uncle B and Aunt K for dinner and fireworks in Round Rock. You're a fan of Rudy's cream corn. After I pulled the spoon away you kept reaching toward me for it, so I put a little more of the sauce on the spoon and you went to town on that spoon!
You were thoroughly unimpressed by the fireworks...but that may be more because you were soooooo sleepy by that point. You took some pretty good naps today, but it was still about two and a half hours past your bedtime so not long after the show started you fell asleep in my arms, stayed asleep as we walked back to the car, barely woke up as I strapped you in and then slept all the way home.
