Another 1-year-ago Memory

Remember one year ago today? I sure do. In fact I have such a vivid memory of it that my stomach gets tight when I remember sitting in that waiting room outside the cardiac cath lab.

There are a few silly things that stand out in my memory, like playing with the music on my new I-Pod Touch that Patrick had just given me for my birthday. We had been anticipating a one-night stay in recovery, and he wanted me to have something to do. We were there for 8 days...

Perhaps the most profound memory of that morning was during the 20-minute wait of eternity, when we knew they were performing CPR, that our precious baby boy's heart had stopped and they were shocking it to start again. No one else was in the waiting room with us for a few minutes (we had an almost steady stream of Joey fans to come offer comfort and support) and Patrick and I were holding hands and trying to pray. Patrick said to me "you know he's alright." Actually I'm not confident right now. I don't know if I'll bring our baby home. "He's been baptized and confirmed. He's fine. It's us we're worried about. Not matter what happens, Joey is fine." Whoa. Now that's what it means to keep our eyes fixed on a God who loves us, in total surrender. Not that it was easy, not that I suddenly felt fine after that, but in one short moment my strong husband, just as scared as I was, kept our heads pointed in the right direction.

Well, here we are a year later. Out and about with the kiddos, playing and wrestling an ever-increasingly active and determined little boy. He looks perfect, with his bright smile, and charming demeanor. And yet as we reminisced about last year I began to wonder if I will ever really look at Joey the same. I say probably not, but that's okay with me. None of us are the same after last year, and we can thank our ROCKY for making us better!

14 Months

The Stats:
Weight - 24 lbs 10 ozs. This actually "drops" him into the 60% for weight, a good sign since his mobility has taken off.
Height - 30.5 inches. Short. Welcome to the my world, kiddo. But not as short as his sisters (percentile-wise) so maybe there's hope for him yet.

Food:
LOVES! Despite the fact that he still has the strongest most sensitive gag reflex in the world he loves to eat and is happily exploring new textures quite well. Of course his favorites remain easy finger foods, probably just for the necessary caveman killing instinct. His seat is always a mess.

Communication:
What a noisy boy! He talks constantly - surely just trying to be heard over his sisters! His verbal words are Mama, Daddy, ball, bottle, up, cup, pop, Papa, open, outside, all-done, again, and I'm pretty sure "mine." He also signs a little bit, mostly "more," "again," and "eat." Aside from that he makes noise and mimics sounds all the time! He also loves to get LOUD!

Play:
Cars and Balls, of course! He's such a boy, climbing over anyone and everything to get to a ball or truck. He vrooms and throws with the best of the boys! He loves his music table and building/knocking down block towers. I love that he initiates games a lot, too. He will get my attention to play patty-cake or peek-a-boo, and loves us singing "Wheels on the Bus" which he signals with "open!" while opening his arms wide. He's quite happy to play independently, too; he'll pull his basket off the shelf and dig through looking for toys and books and play quite contentedly.

Sleep:
ugh. My worst sleeper. To be honest, we've spoiled him rotten with sleeping with us and never on a schedule, plus we've never really let him learn to settle himself. He now screams until he throws-up every time we put him in a crib and he fusses for milk in the middle of the night. We keep saying we have to fix this, but nobody is really eager to make this boy cry in the middle of the night. Just the touch of a hand settles him right down next to us and melts our hearts. Yikes. After reading several sleep books by "experts" and polling everyone I can think of, my conclusion is that we're doomed. And he knows it, too!

Temperament:
Happy Happy Boy! Playful, happy, silly! (well, as long as we're not talking about sleeping arrangements that is...) He is easy to please, loves to be around people, loves to be entertained or to chill by himself.

Mobility:
A fast crawler either on hands and knees or hands and feet. He doesn't seem to mind hard or scratchy surfaces which is reflected in his perpetually scraped-up knees and tops of feet. He has not been super eager to walk. Just in the past few weeks he is starting to use walking toys across the room, but mostly still with our prompting. He pulls himself to stand on everything, though, and cruises along anything. The pediatrician judged Joey's overall development to be in the 12-month range, which is pretty darn impressive given how much catch up he has had to do!

A Birthday Boy's Party

Wow did we celebrate! Wonderful family, friends and prayer buddies delighted us by their presence at Joey's first birthday party.

It was a beautiful day at a perfect location. Perhaps the best part was the open area and playground for all the KIDS!!! Actually, we had about 60 kids there. No wonder I didn't get any cake.

Speaking of cake, JOEY loved his piece! Maybe a little sticky at first, but once that taste of chocolate passed his lips, there was no turning back. Actually, I'm not sure in the end just how much of the cake did, indeed, pass his lips. I do believe the majority stuck to his cheeks; they are quite sizable obstacles, you see.

Joey is quite the spotlight-hog; he just adored all the attention from everyone! Watching the kids run around, flirting with anyone who picked him up, and eating everything offered made him a happy little birthday boy.

It was such a joy for us to be able to celebrate with so many wonderful people who have showered bushels of love and prayers on us in the past year, especially in that first 6 months.

As for Joey, with all that happy socializing, I do believe we wore him out!

Turning a Corner?

Well it seems that Joey has not given up all of his antics - he still likes to keep up guessing, even when it comes to silly little matters!


I wrote about his stubborn refusal to eat, and lo-and-behold he decides to learn to chew! Thanks to those little "puff" snacks for babies, Joey learned how to have something in his mouth without gagging. Thanks to getting the chewing motion down, he is now enjoying eating foods with a little more proficiency. He is still mastering the baby-mush, but I'm thrilled that he's made some progress at all. Oh, and he loves our homemade applesauce, of course. :) We say "bite" and his little baby-bird mouth opens right up!

This, of course, is not applesauce.

His gross motor skills are lagging a little bit, and for a while I was really enjoying the Baby who was content to sit still and play! After a while, though, we started talking about whether or not we should have him reevaluated for therapy. (He qualifies for PT and OT based on his complex diagnosis alone, and we are free to pursue it any time until he turns 3.) All of a sudden a little switch turned and he is slowly opening his eyes to the possibility of motion. He turns himself on his belly all around, especially in the pursuit of someone or something. He is trying really hard to pull himself up, and gets really quite excited when we offer him a little help to do so. Just today he stood holding on to my knees without any other support!

His best source of motion is on his bottom - his wiggle/scooting abilities are growing rapidly. I will find him several feet away and facing a different direction than when I walked away just a few minutes before. The interest is there, the motivation is growing, now we're just waiting for the coordination to come through.
He loves clapping his hands, and plays patty-cake when Bella starts singing it to him. He laughs and smiles and blows raspberries, and you have never heard or seen anything more beautiful.

So Fast

Time going by, that is. I would not be exaggerating to say that every day I look at my Big Baby Boy in utter amazement. Amazement at the wonders of modern medicine, amazement at the progress he's making, but mostly amazement at God's Grace and the power of prayer.

I realized the other day how far we've come; it feels like we've (happily!) entered another world. Joey was in the hospital on 4th of July, Bella's birthday, Memorial Day, Mama's birthday - we joked we weren't making plans for Thanksgiving. We didn't even want to think about Christmas. We have celebrated every day since then as if a holiday with Joey, because it is SUCH a truly awesome gift to have him home and doing so well!

At his most recent cardiac follow-up our favorite cardiologist uttered some amazing words - "Despite all Joey's been through and how sick he was, the only real remaining ongoing issue is his aortic valve." His Only issue??? My little complicated boy only has 1 more problem??? Of course, it is a BIG problem. But then came the next amazing statement - "I would guess that we won't have to do anything else for that valve for a good 4 years or so." FOUR YEARS???? My little baby can grow and be normal and (hopefully!) no more hospital stays for several years??? God only knows what medical advancements there will be before Joey needs anything major again??? And then of course, came the final statement - "I'll see you in about 4 months!" Four. Months. MONTHS. This amazing doctor who we had been seeing every 2 weeks will next see *her special Baby* when he is almost 1 year.

The only kind of stickers Joey will have on his chest for a while!

God is amazing.

I Am

I Am :

Happy

Snuggled

Playful

Teething

Expressive

Relaxed

20 pounds, 8 ounces!

I am Joseph Thomas, "Rocky," and I am 8 months old!

and GROWING

This is what 15 lbs, 14 ozs looks like:


Chubby, Pink, and Happy


Check out all those chins!