Chunks!!!

Oh my! This week has been an incredible week of firsts for Grant!  I cannot tell you the transformation my little man has gone through!  Grant has always been my quiet, laid-back baby. Now he's my extremely happy and quiet, laid-back baby!  His smile could light up a room.  Yesterday afternoon when I put him in the pack'n'play in the living room to nap, he just laid on his back playing with his bottle and laughed and laughed.  I'm not sure what he was finding so funny but my heart just melted at the sound.  Prior to Sunday, when I would go to pick him up, he was indifferent.  When he'd catch sight of me, he'd watch me but his expression would show no feeling.  Now when I go to take him out of his car seat or pick him up off the floor, he smiles as big as can be, revealing those two tiny teeth, and wiggles around as if he is genuinely excited to see his mama.  That in and of itself is HUGE for me.  Grant has always shown such disinterest in mama.

Last Saturday Grant was finally able to figure out how to use those little legs and arms and started belly crawling. Paul and I were absolutely fascinated with how quickly he mastered the skill.  Just a week later, he began crawling.  It took Bryce nearly a month to master crawling but Grant was able to master it in just one week!!  God is so good!!  Paul and I have sat back and watched in wonder as the baby that for so long laid on the floor completely frustrated because he couldn't figure it out was now crawling all over the place and getting into things.  This in itself is enough to make my heart full to overflowing but God has poured out even more blessings on us!

Grant has struggled with feeding for the past 4 months. He did well at purees in the fall of 2011 but when we tried to challenge him with texture at the beginning of December he decided he wasn't going to eat anything for me.  We have spent the last three months trying to get him to trust us with feeding again.  In February we were able to get him to willingly take pureed jar food.  After a week we were able to add rice cereal to it and he took that well. However, he has been unwilling to progress beyond puree.  Though you can thicken his food up considerably with rice cereal, he does not like two different textures in his food.  Today God led me to a section of jar food that was labeled "textures".  The problem with most baby foods is that there is no transition from 2s (pureed) to 3s (pureed with large chunks of food).  Its too big of a difference in texture - even Bryce gags when we try 3s.  These "Textures" jars were labeled 2 1/2s. I decided to grab a few and try them with Grant. If he didn't like them, at least Bryce would eat them.  After I got Raegan settled down with breakfast (Bryce and Brooklyn were still asleep), I sat down with a jar of apples and mango that I'd mixed with rice cereal.  The chunks of mango were between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch so he'd definitely notice them but  still smaller than the 3s so we gave it a try.  As always, Grant was very guarded but did very well and finished the entire jar!  What an incredible accomplishment for him.         ...... I don't mean to end this here but the girls are starting to get into things and we just got word that a friend's little one just passed away this morning so my mind is not really focusing on updating the blog anymore....   Hope that everyone is having a blessed week!

On the Move (Mama is in Trouble)

I am so excited that I could jump up and down and dance in the street!  (seriously)  We have been working on Grant to get mobile since November.  Bless his heart, he wanted to move so badly but could just not figure it out. He wouldn't bring his knees underneath him. He couldn't even army crawl.  He just couldn't quite figure out how to get those legs working. I will admit that I struggled with worry that he had something that was keeping him from advancing.  Praise God that He guarded me from entertaining those thoughts as well as protected Grant!  Almost 3 weeks ago, God revealed to his therapists that he was not at all recognizing where his little legs were.  He had no idea they were there so there was no way he could voluntarily move them.  They started him on different exercises and added special weights to his legs to help him recognize that they were there and Oh My how he has taken off since then!  First it was pulling his legs underneath him and keeping them tucked under him.  Then practically overnight (again, seriously) he started army crawling this past Saturday.  We could see that he was quickly learning how to use those little legs to get him places and that it wouldn't be long before he was crawling.  What an understatement. It took Bryce nearly a month to transition from army crawling to full-fledged crawling.  It took Grant just over a week!  How great is our God!  I am so proud of my little man. He tried and tried and tried so hard and when he got it, boy how he got it!!! :)    Now, what do I do that I have TWO mobile boys?!  LOL

ps  Bryce in the past 24 hours has discovered that he can climb.  Mama is indeed in trouble! ;)

Moving Along

Boy! What a week last week was!  Brooklyn had an asthma attack on the way to the pediatrician's (for the boy's 15 month check up).  They had to give her a breathing treatment at the office and also gave us an inhaler so I'm not having to fly home to the nebulizer whenever this happens. Praise God for that inhaler.  Spring has sprung and so most likely allergies are what triggered the asthma issues.  We sent out an urgent prayer request and by the next morning, she was breathing so much better. :)  She's back to her old bubbly self - she's been feeling like crud the past couple of weeks.

Bryce and Grant are getting so  big!  At their checkup this past week they weighed 17 lbs 4 oz and 17 lbs 5 oz.  Grant is just one ounce bigger!  Love it!  Grant is 27 1/2 inches long and Bryce is 27 inches long so they're still little bitty.  Grant has been doing really good with therapy and has made some small (but big for us!) attempts at crawling! We're so excited for the progress that he's made in the past week alone!!  

The girls are doing really well.  Haidyn had her kindergarten program called "Squirm" last night. It was so cute. She even had a speaking part (referring to spiders) "Some are big and some are small. As for me, I'm afraid of them all." It was adorable.  No, I didn't manage to get a single picture but I'm praying that I can get someone else who was there to share a pic or two with me!  I promise I will send them your way if I can get some! :)

This week has been equally busy.  My schedule looks like this:  Monday was First Steps and Women of Charity (local missions at Stonebridge) meeting. Tuesday was MORE Bible Study and Haidyn's Kindergarten Program, tonight is First Wednesday at church (potluck and then prayer meeting) and then I have a meeting for the Body Shop (a clothing/household goods ministry) after church.  Tomorrow I have NICU Family Group. Friday is our "Let Your Light Shine" Women's Conference at church.  Saturday is Joshua's birthday party.  *sigh*  LOL  I will not be home one night this week!  Craziness, huh?  Next week is calmer and I'm looking forward to it!