Walking!

Our big boy is walking! He has been taking steps for a few weeks, but only a few at a time and always just from person to person. Within the last week he has been taking many more steps and often unprompted. He still doesn't have it perfected and prefers to crawl quite often, but he does have the ability to get anywhere he wants to go via his feet!

Milestones

I've said in the past that I am using this blog to keep track of things Jacob does, so this post is purely for that purpose. I will be listing his accomplishments up to this point and using the label feature I will label it "Milestones". Some things I post might be of no interest to anyone but me, but I will be including it in case I want it for later. Going forward, each time I write a post about something new Jacob is doing I will label it in the same way so that I can click "Milestones" and everything will be neatly organized and accessible! Now, I just have to keep my posts current.........wish me luck!

• 2 months - Smiles
• 4 months - Moved from bassinet in our room to crib in his own room
• 6 months - Started baby foods
• 6 months - Rolled over
• 6 1/2 months - Slept 12 hours through the night for the first time
• 7 months - Able to sit up without support
• 8 months - No more night waking...YAY!
• 8 months - Started supplementing with formula
  
• 9 months - Pulling up to standing
• 9 months - Started crawling
• 9 months - Says "Mama" and "DaDa"
• 10 months - Weaned from breastfeeding
  
• 10 months - 2 bottom front teeth
• 12 1/2 months - Completely weaned from the bottle
  
• 14 months - 2 top front teeth and then several others including bottom molars

This post will be edited with anything I think of later that I forgot!

Jacob's Birthday Party

We finally celebrated Jacob's 1st Birthday! We had the party on the 4th of July and due to it being a holiday, only family members were able to come. At first I was a little disappointed that many of the original guest list weren't able to make it, but then I realized that the smaller crowd was better anyway. It gave us a chance to visit with everyone and made it less chaotic for Jacob. He loves attention, but he can be shy in big crowds.

The weather was fantastic and we had a really great time celebrating!

This was about a week before his party, but Jacob opening presents from Mommy and Daddy:

 Cake:

Tired and not wanting anything to do with the cake:

 

Presents!....after his nap:

Jacob's 1st Birthday!

Today is my baby boy's first birthday! Unfortunately, due to Daddy's surgery, we didn't get to celebrate, but the good news is Daddy came home today!

Jacob's party was originally scheduled for next Saturday, June 13th, but we have decided to postpone it. Cody needs some time to recover and just isn't moving well enough. We could still do the party, but I would rather wait until he is able to fully enjoy it and participate. Stay tuned for new date.

Now for pictures....

THEN

NOW

Cody's Hospital Stay

As many of you have heard by now, we had quite a scare over the last couple of days. It all started about a week ago when Cody started to notice an extreme fatigue in his legs. He was thinking he was just over tired and dehydrated, but after a few days the fatigue continued, while he felt great otherwise.

He was unable to walk more than 100 yards with sitting and resting his legs. He described the weakness as the same kind of fatigue you get after going on a really long run. 100 yard walk should not have that effect, so after a week he put a call into his doctor. That was on Monday.

Tuesday, 8am: Appointment with his primary care provider, Dr. Jacobson. He ran several tests and found that Cody had virtually no pulse anywhere in his left leg. He called to make an appointment with a Heart and Vascular Dr. The earliest appointment was July 2, so Dr. Jacobson accepted it, but told Cody that he would work on getting something sooner, hopefully within the week. Within a short time the nurse called and told him to come in the next day at 4:30p.

Wednesday, 4:30pm: Appointment with Dr. Dash. He performed an ultrasound on Cody's left leg and confirmed that there was definitely a blockage of the main artery. He gave Cody all the necessary paperwork to be admitted and sent him to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and within a short time were taken to the triage unit in the ER. The time line at this point is a little blurry but he was seen by a few different doctors who all came up with basically the same conclusion as Dr. Dash....Cody had a major problem in that leg. Unfortunately, they didn't have a regular room for him so he spent the night in the ER and I couldn't really stay with him. They put him on an IV and a blood thinner and I went home.

At this point the doctors thought they were dealing with a blood clot of some sort, but they weren't sure and they certainly didn't know why an otherwise healthy 31 year old would have this sort of problem.

Thursday, approximately 8am: Dr McIntyre performed an arteriogram, which is when dye is put into the vascular system and x-rays are taken to exam the blood flow. It was then that the problem was identified.

An artery has layers to it, consisting of 3 walls. The two inner walls of the major artery in his left leg had split, or dissected. There was also a large blood clot causing an 80% blockage of the blood flow. Only way to fix it was surgery.

At about 11:30am, he was taken into Pre-Op and I was escorted to the waiting room. He was taken into the OR at about 1pm and it was after 3 when I got the call from the surgeon. He had to perform a bypass of the main artery that was damaged.

Cody is doing amazingly well. We both feel so blessed that he is still here. We got a scary reminder of just how fragile life is. The doctors were amazed that he walked around with this condition for a week and can't imagine he would still be here if he would've waited much longer to be seen.

He is expected to make a full recovery, with little to no effects on his daily life from here on out.

Jacob's First Vacation

In early 2007, Cody and I purchased a timeshare package through Shell Vacations Club. We didn't get the chance to use it at all throughout 2007 and 2008, so we decided to make sure we went somewhere in 2009! Traveling with an infant is tough so I wanted to make sure and pick a place that was well suited to an 11 month old. After spending quite a bit of time looking over the Shell properties, we decided our trip would be to Phoenix and we would drive.

We left on May 8th and returned in the early hours of the 22nd. It was a long trip, but we couldn't have asked for it to go better! The first day was long, but surprisingly, Jacob was such a trooper. We left our house at 5am and drove throughout the day until we reached Reno, NV at 10pm. Our first stop that day was for breakfast and we decided that it was the perfect time for Jacob's first McDonald's experience.

So once we got to Reno we stayed the night there and then left early the next morning to continue our journey. Next destination: Las Vegas. Once again, Jacob tolerated the trip very well as long as we stopped every 2 hours or so for a snack and some playtime. We stayed in Vegas for the night then continued onto Phoenix the next day.

We arrived at the Legacy Golf Resort and wow, we were impressed. Each room on the property is a condo, varying from a studio to a 2 bedroom. We had picked a 1 bedroom condo and it was perfect! It was very spacious and allowed Jacob plenty of room to play after such a long trip. The kitchen was fully stocked with everything we could have possibly needed. A full size refridgerator/freezer, dishwasher, coffee pot, hand mixer, plates, bowls, cups, silverware, cooking utensils, pots, pans, can opener....everything we have in our kitchen at home! It also had a washer and dryer, full sized dining room table, patio,  and jacuzzi tub in master bedroom.

We stayed in Phoenix for 8 nights and we were busy everyday! On Monday, we took Jacob to his first baseball game to see the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was so neat to be able to go to a different ballpark. Cody and I both really enjoy baseball, but have never had the opportunity to visit another team's stadium. Jacob even got some autographs and to meet Baxter, the mascot.

Tuesday, we hung around the resort, went to a presentation for our timeshare and spent some time at the pool. Nothing too exciting, but it turned out to be a fun and relaxing day.

Wednesday, Jacob had his first visit to the zoo. For attending the presentation on Tuesday, we were given free passes to the Phoenix Zoo. It was incredibly hot that day and poor Jacob was miserable within minutes of walking through the gate. Daddy ended up wetting a burp cloth we brought and draping it over Jacob's head to keep him cool. After that, he was much happier. Unfortunately, due to the heat many of the animals were in hiding, but they did have a petting zoo, which was definitely Jacob's favorite part.

Thursday, we drove to Oro Valley, about 100 miles south of Phoenix, to visit friends we met while working in Lynden. We spent most of the day there and it was really nice getting to visit with them.

Friday, we went to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. Again it was really hot, but this place was so neat, we had fun anyway! It is similar to Northwest Trek that we have here in Wa, but instead of Northwest animals, they have African animals. We started the day on the safari, which took us into an area where the animals were free to roam. We saw several animals up close and even got to feed a giraffe! After the Safari, we walked through the rest of the park. The setup was so much better than a zoo. At most zoos, the animals covered shelter is quite a ways from the viewing point. Here it was just the opposite. They had the shelters set up directly in front of the viewing points. We were so close that we could have touched many of the animals, but of course didn't!

Saturday we drove into Glendale and saw some of my family. Family I hadn't seen in years! Uncle Steve and Aunt Jessica moved to Arizona shortly after we moved to WA (1994) and I had only seen Uncle Steve since that time, none of the rest of the family. Aunt Debbie also drove over from California to spend the weekend so I got to see her for the first time since 2000. We spent a few hours hanging out at their house visiting, went to lunch and then visited at the house some more until Uncle Steve had to go to work. That night when Aunt Jessica got off work, we went to the casino while Kourtney babysat Jacob. We originally only planned on visiting them 1 day, but we had such a good time that we ended up going back on Sunday for a while. I didn't know when we would get the opportunity to see them again so I wanted to spend as much time there as possible.

We left Phoenix on Monday morning and once again made stops for the night in Las Vegas and Reno. On the way back we also were able to stop in Eugene and spend a few hours with Amy and Kayla. Then we headed home.

It was a long trip, but went very well!

Entering the Blog World........Again!

So my first attempt at this was a major failure, so I hope to do better this time! Even though I'm starting this new blog, today, August 29th, I'll be adding posts and making the date reflect when the events I'm talking about actually happened, so there will be entries for days before this blog even existed.

This blog is mainly for my own records, but I will try to make it entertaining for you all to read. I think many parents will tell you that they don't remember when their child did certain things and all of them regret not keeping better notes. I don't want to have that regret and this is my way of preventing it.