Bella, Gabe and Josiah

Why do I even bother with socks anymore???        

We decorated for Christmas this weekend! I like Christmas decorating anyway, but it's even more fun after last year when I laid on the couch and had to watch everyone else decorate around me... Plus, my view is better than last year. :) Pat and Bella we even able to finish the lego set that we got last year (and didn't finish since last year did not go as planned...). Gabe also got to have some of Gram's tea. Overall, it was a lovely day!        

This morning Gabe and I were snuggling in bed and he pulled the sheet over his head, then pulled it down and grinned at me. Apparently they've been practicing peek-a-boo at daycare and he was very proud to show off his new skills! In other developmental news, he's sitting really well, but he's now figured out how to get back down nicely, rather than falling over or squawking because he got stuck. He's babbling all the time and Pat is convinced that he's saying "Dad." I'm pretty sure he's just dropping a few letters in "dadadadada"... Last night we had dinner at my cousin's house. They have a hard wood floor, which is really good for scooting. He's getting faster too. At one point I turned my head for a moment and when I looked back, I'd lost him. He'd scooted entirely under my chair at the dinner table. He was also very confused by their dogs. I realized that he hasn't spent any time with dogs, just our cat, and they h

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We were missing Laurie, which was very sad as she and I have done Thanksgiving together for the last 6 years, but she had to spend Thanksgiving with her new husband, which I am just going to have to accept... :)  I wasn't on bedrest this year, which was so much better. Laying on the couch in your own house while everyone around you makes Thanksgiving dinner is really awkward. It does get you out of the dishes, but it's really not worth it. My parents and Adam and Sheena all came over and we had a lovely day with good food and good friends. We also decided that it was a good time for Gabe to play in the snow for the first time. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it. He even thought it was a bit distressing. But we ended up with cute pictures and isn't that what it's all about anyway??? :)            

Yesterday I dropped Gabe off at daycare. One of the other girls decided that Gabe needed some baby dolls to play with, so she brought him every single doll in the room. And a ball. He wasn't sure what to do with them all...  

This afternoon we left the boys at home and went out for some girl time to watch White Christmas.  The kids did a good job, but it's a bit strange to watch a stage production of a movie that you have memorized. The play didn't entirely follow the movie (and they missed my favorite line! "In some ways, you're far superior to my cocker spaniel.") and they sang a bunch of different songs. So while they did a great job, it wasn't Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Still, it was a fun afternoon. In Gabe news, today he started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. Crawling is not too far away, which is entirely scary.  

Today, Gabe and I were folding Bella's laundry. He was in charge of socks. He was not particularly helpful... This bib was one of his NICU presents. "Don't take my oxygen mask! Can't you see that I'm saving lives here???" "Help! I'm falling!!!" Wearing purple for World Preemie Day. Pat would've worn purple too, but apparently he doesn't own a purple shirt. I may get him one for next year...          

One year ago today, the world fell apart. I woke up having a happy healthy pregnancy, ready to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. Instead, we found out that our baby was literally falling out of my body. The doctors in Seattle told us that the situation was too dire for a medivac and that we should go home and wait for him to die. Two days later we got the results of the amniocentesis and the doctor actually said "your odds were pretty bad before. Now they're even worse." Two days after that, we went to the hospital for the surgery that was our baby's only chance. The doctor had stitched people shut a few years ago, but had never actually pushed a baby back in. We went to the hospital that day knowing that we were probably saying goodbye to our son. It was the darkest week of our lives. But God is bigger than all of that and He chose to save the life of our son. The surgery bought us 4 more weeks, enough time that Gabriel could be safely delive

Today we took Gabe to the hospital to get tubes. He wasn't supposed to eat after midnight, so I woke him up at 11:45 to feed him. He wasn't particularly happy about that... He made it until 6 and then fussed for an hour, very confused as to why I wouldn't just feed him. We got to the hospital at 7:15 and got checked in. By that time, there were so many things to look at that Gabe forgot that he was hungry. My Mom met us at the hospital, which helped. If I was holding Gabe he wanted to eat, but if she was holding him he wanted to look around. It worked out pretty well! The surgery went well. The doctor said that there was evidence that his good ear had exploded at one point too, so it definitely needed to happen. The recovery room nurses wheeled Gabe back to me and he was perfectly happy. They said that he came out of anesthesia so well and was such a good little baby that they didn't want to bring him back to me. :) He also got a new toy. He really liked his oxygen mask

Poor Gabe is still having ear issues. After his last eardrum explosion, he got the antibiotic shots, which were amazing. They kicked the infection instantly and I thought the whole thing was over. Two weeks later we had a followup appointment to make sure that all was well. Unfortunately, he had a bunch of fluid behind his ears yet again. It wasn't a full infection, but she was concerned.  That night Gabe was awake every hour and had a fever. I called the pediatrition and she met me at the office on a Saturday to look at his ears, where she declared that he definitely had an ear infection now. That's his third ear infection in six weeks. Today we had an appointment with the ear doctor and Gabe needs tubes. He'll be having the surgery tomorrow morning. We have to be at the hospital at 7:15 and he can't have anything to eat after midnight. This could be an interesting morning. I think I'll wake him up at 11:30 and feed him...

My little Gabe is 11 months old today! His moose photo shoot is getting so much more complicated...                

Someone was too hungry to wait for lunch, apparently...

I got my cast off! I'm still in a walking cast for three more weeks, but at least I can take a shower and wiggle my ankle, so life is good. In other news, how am I supposed to put this little guy to bed when he snuggles up in my shoulder like this???  

I think I can officially say that Gabe is now sitting up. He sat here for at least 20 minutes reading books and eating his lamb. Eventually he started squawking because he couldn't figure out how to get down! :) In other news, now that my toes are broken, I can't nicely go over and feed Gabe. So, my coworkers go get him or one of the daycare ladies brings him over to me. The problem is that Gabe thinks that my office is so interesting so he doesn't always want to eat. Today, he was fascinated by my screen savers. I have a double screen with two different screen savers. The poor kid couldn't decide which screen to watch!      

Some random odds and ends for today: Last night there was a women's event at church, so Bella and I went. Afterwards, the girls 10 and up could spend the night, so Bella stayed at the church last night. It was her first youth overnighter and she had a wonderful time. But seriously. How am I old enough to have a kid that can go to youth overnighters??? The pediatrition texted me this morning to say that she was at a conference and one of Gabe's nicu doctors was there. She asked for some pictures so that she could show the doctor. I think we picked the right pediatrition... Pat has been working on taking down all of the trees in our yard. It's been so nice! It's so much lighter and we even have a view of the mountains now. We've got a lot of work to do to clean up the yard, but it'll be really nice when it's done. Anyway, Pat took down the last two trees, so we can move on to the next phase. Today Gabe was laying on the floor playing with his lion and he scoot

This week I switched out all of Gabe's clothes for 6 month clothes. A week ago, all of his 3 month clothes fit just fine. Then in one day all of the onsies started falling off the shoulders. This week I put him in 6 month clothes and they're not as big as I thought they'd be... Perhaps I should have pulled them out sooner! Look at how cute they are!

Yesterday was Halloween. Bella has been talking about being Rey for months. I think she decided to be Rey before she'd even seen any of the Star Wars movies, which I thought was a little odd, but whatever. She was pretty sure that Gabe needed to be BB8, but I wasn't so sure. I only have a couple of years that I can pick his costume for him and I love little seeing little babies dressed up like animals! Also, I fell asleep during the new Star Wars movie. I should try and watch it again when we're not two weeks out of the hospital... Anyway, that's how we ended up with Rey and a Giraffe! Both kids got to wear their costume to school and then we went trick-or-treating. Gabe only lasted for a few houses since he refused to keep his shoe on and it was cold. Bella and a couple of friends kept at it for a while longer. When Gabe and I got home, I took off the puffy part of his costume. He decided to take the rest of it off so that he could eat his pants. Unfortunately, he got