Kelsey

A post for Kelsey.......

I love this picture. It was the first time Kelsey was able to touch her brother.
The first time she saw him diaper-less.
Just a sweet little moment between the two.
The first time she got to hold him when he came home.

So I have been feeling really sentimental this week as we come up to Colt's first birthday. I put together a slide show that I will post in a few days of his first year, and of course I already cried a few times watching it so beware if you're a sap like me. One thing I really enjoyed seeing, as always, is Kelsey and Colt together. They both just adore each other and I love every minute of it. I thought I would dedicate a post to her today and talk a little about her journey going through this whole thing (obviously from my perspective).

This whole ordeal could not have been easy for a kid to process, because from my point of view it was hard and I was at least able to understand (medically) what was going on. She was always very sure, from the very first day, that he was going to make it. She kept saying over and over, that he was going to be just fine. I just nodded and said, yeah I think so too- even when I didn't really know what to think. The first week of his life, which was by far the worst and scariest, she told me she had a dream about Colt and he was like 9 or 10 in the dream. He was running around (which in itself was at the time hard to imagine since they did at one time tell us he may not be able to walk) and that he was perfectly fine in the dream. She knew that meant it was to become a reality. She drew pictures for his incubator, always wanted to know what was going on....and has ever since been the best big sister ever. She is basically the best step-daughter that anyone can ask for, and even though she isn't really mine- I love her like she is.

For a school project this week she wrote about Colt and said: "My brother was 16 weeks early. He had to be flown down to children's hospital in a helicopter. We thought he was not going to make it. He had to go through many surgeries. People had to give him blood. Finally the nurse said we could take him home. I was at school when that happened. I walked in the door and was so happy that my brother stayed alive through all that hard work.

Seriously, isn't that just adorable. Just one more way that Colt is one lucky kid. Someone is definitely watching out for him!

Baby Jail

Ha ha ha.....locked in now that he's decided he wants to leave the living room. After chasing after him a few hundred times as he headed out of the living room this weekend, we decided to put him in baby jail. Now he's locked in the living room- which is baby proofed so he can cruise around as he wishes. The dogs are kind of confused by this lack of freedom on their part!
Is this the "are you kidding me" face or what?!?

Mr. Cranky Pants

More cute pictures from yesterday!

I see two top teeth about to break out! That explains the whiny 'tude we've seen today!

Hot, Hot, Hot

I'd like to slap the weather man right about now, where is this alleged cold front? We tried to escape the nasty heat wave (as our AC officially crapped out and we're waiting for the new one to be installed) and go to Temecula to Harveston Park with Erin and Jett. Unfortunately, it was no cooler there so we had a short visit to feed the ducks and off to McDonalds for ice cream. Fingers crossed the cold front shows up tomorrow!

The Jerry Maguire Kid

Here we are trying on glasses today at the eye glass store. We decided not to go with the traditional kind like these, as he's just not quite upright enough. One good fall on the face and he'd be bummed! We went with these goofy little guys below because they are completely flexible and have elastice around the head. He wasn't too sure what to think! They should come in for us to pick up in 10 days.

Wild Child

I don't think he likes that flavor???
Grammie bought Colt this shirt, I think it's pretty cute. Colt had a bit of a rough night last night. When I went in for the midnight treatment, I woke him up and started a few hour long crying session. So I think we'll be skipping that midnight run tonight ad see how he does. He still acts like he feels fine, just a nasty cough when he's laying flat!

Just one of the dogs....

Just one of the pups....my dogs drag this blanket around the house and then lay on it wherever they go. Colt decided to join them.
And of course, the two best buds had to share an intimate moment. I can't keep him away from them, he just wants to be where they are.
Sushi has, since the day we brought him home, sucked on blankets. He was taken from his mommy too early so Colt was really wondering what was so important that he wouldn't get up and play with him.
I don't know why this keeps happening....but here he is again falling asleep at breakfast. As soon as I called his name, he popped right up like nothing happened.
Here's Colt helping me out while giving a breathing treatment. The best way is to do it while he is strapped into the high chair, everything else has been a disaster! He just wants to eat the tube, which is okay I guess since that's where it needs to go! I am so glad I went to the doctor yesterday, because he was much worse today. The breathing treatments are loosening everything up and getting it moving. So I guess there was a problem brewing!

Awe, Shucks

I took Colt into the doc today....and a little bit of cruddy news for us. She thinks Colt has RSV (that creepy respiratory virus we were so scared about). It's kind of hard to tell for sure I guess (meaning having blood drawn and all of that). But his cough didn't respond to allergy medicine and it's getting a little worse every day. So she decided we'd be overly cautious with him and start him on breathing treatments. We did two so far and nothing seems any better but she said the worst of it should be gone within the week. We'll probably have to continue it for a month because it tends to linger and it isn't treatable by antibiotics. It isn't as big of a deal now that he's bigger and stronger, and he doesn't act sick at all. He's his normal spunky self, but has a hard time when he's laying down to sleep with coughing. I get to revisit my newborn days and do a middle of the night treatment for him. Back on the NICU schedule, we had the same treatments at 6, 12, 6, 12 there!

More Christmas in September

Here's Kreg getting powdered up for the camera :)

Here's Colt trying to participate in his solo shots...he wasn't too thrilled about it.
Boy was he glad when it was all over! We're off to the doctor...again.....I don't know what the deal is, I hope he just has allergies but he has started coughing a lot the last few days and today it got bad enough where I think I should get him checked out. My poor pediatrician....this neurotic mom has been in way too many times :)

Commercial

Getting ready to start shooting, which took quite awhile. They had to reset the lights a bunch of times to get the lighting right, with no shadows.
Kreg ended up stepping out of the shot since the lighting was getting so difficult to achieve with all four of us (I think he was stoked about that actually). So we tried to keep Colt occupied while they worked on that.
This photo says it all! All the waiting and sweating (lots of sweating) under those hot lights was starting to wear on us!
And last we tried to get solo shots of Colt playing for the commercial. They took mostly shots of him that they will piece together with some lines that I say about his journey. It will only air on Time Warner in San Diego county and some Time Warner channels here. I am getting a copy of it once it is done, and if I can figure out how to post it (and if I get permission to do so) I will!

Pals

These two are best pals....so darn cute together :)
Aweeeeee........................
Here's Colt happily muching on some cantaloupe in his teether. This is the coolest invention....it's a mesh bag that you can pretty much put any kind of food in it for them to chew on safely (thanks Erin!).

Blocks!

Colt loves his new blocks! OT told us to get him working on playing with smaller toys for dexterity and getting him to use the pincer grasp (sp?)

Little Acrobat

This is a fun new contraption they have at physical therapy to help teach balance and let him explore standing safely. He was really enjoying himself as you can see. We try to do patch time during PT so we can get it out of the way all at once.

We saw the eye doctor today again and he said......WE HAVE TO START BABY GLASSES. Yikes! I thought we had 4 more months but he said he looks ready now because he is so alert and mobile. I still have to make an appointment to get fitted and order them, but I'll get to that soon. He also said we should patch each eye now for an hour, alternating eyes each day. So I like that plan better because 2 hours was hard! He did get more near-sighted since last visit but we expected that as it will continue to get worse as he grows. He'll always need glasses and we'll just have to get stronger glasses as he grows. He can wear contacts after age 12 as long as he's responsible with his hygiene and has the dexterity for it. When he's past the eye changing age (around 25 or so) he can probably have lasic or some other kind of corrective surgery.

Messy Baby

I'm not even sure how this happened? How do you get squash in your eye?

Trying to climb over Daddy :)
Havin' a nice chat with Grandma!

Colt's Happy Place

Colt loves his pack n' play. Here he is playing away in his happy place with all his cool toys!!

Halloween Preview

Here's our little turtle trying on his Halloween costume that Grandma Margaret got him....pretty darn cute huh!

Chewin'

Here is Colt practicing chewing on some cooked carrots (which he didn't think were that great).

We got the "script" for the Blood Bank commercial today.....and I have to memorize lines, YIKES! The lines are obviously true to our story but still, I am nervous just thinking about it. The bummer is, I am the only one who has lines (5 lines I think).

Super Sleepy

Here is Colt from this morning while hanging with Dad (I was at church) and Colt was apparently falling asleep mid-breakfast! So funny!

And, He's Off........

Colt just started really going today....I was pretty darn excited to see him take off like this!!!

Oops...

Yeah that's real.....I was trying to take a nice picture of my friend Cassie and Colt and he decided to rip out her earring mid-photo.

Sittin' straight up in the high chair now, like a big boy.
Silly Auntie Jack......
Colt and Cass hanging out. This is my pal who lost her son last month, she came to meet Colt and hang out with us for the day!

Kisses

I like to think he's making a kissy face.......

On the Move

Here is Colt's version of the army crawl....he is getting pretty quick:)

Goofy

We had our 11 month check-up today and he's doing great on weight and height.......(average and skinny for real age, super tall for adjusted age). We get to start feeding him more things, and he can even have some birthday cake if I can find an egg-less recipe (which I am sure I can find on some vegan site). He's 18 lbs. 5 oz. and 29 1/4 inches long. He got his first flu shot today, and will get another on in a month or two. He won't get that RSV shot this year I guess (which I am bummed about and may try to work my way into it again if I can). Believe it or not, the shot costs around $2,500 per shot each month and he'd need 7 of them. So you can imagine why insurance makes it very hard for you to get it, and since he really doesn't have any significant medical issues anymore....I guess he doesn't qualify.

We took family photos yesterday and they came out so cute! Once I get some, I will post them. Mr. Smiles was holding out on us, so it was like a freak show trying to get him to smile (clapping, snapping, rattles, feathers, goofy sounds...you name it).

Spoiled

Does this kid love his sister or what?!?
This is Colt's "cheese" face......you say "cheese"....he does this!
Seriously, spoiled.
The girls showered Colt with love yesterday and he was loving every second of it!!