A Thankful Mother

Happy (late) Mother’s Day everyone! I was organizing some papers in my office today and came across an email from a friend of mine sent on the day that our last IVF cycle didn’t work expressing her disappointment. I remember being so upset at that time in my life but today I was kind of surprised when I remembered it because I see it in such a different light now. Instead, I see the end of IVF as a beginning to my life as a mother for Rinat. If it had worked, I never would have known this amazing little bundle that I am so lucky to call my son. And so, on this Mother’s Day I give thanks. I am thankful for each and every step that brought me to him- the good and the bad. I never thought I’d be glad for it, but here I am finally glad that it happened. If not for all of the horrible times, I might not have come to know this amazing lovable little person who has come into my life. So, in honor of Mother’s Day, I give you a list of things that I love about being his mom:
I love when he puts his head on my shoulder and I can feel his soft hair on my cheek, when he helps me empty the dishwasher and is so proud of himself, that he does things just to make me laugh like giving me ‘big eyes’ and pretending to eat my toes, that he STILL loves to play peek-a-boo, that he is getting so independent but still wants my help, that he imitates me stretching in the morning and brushing my teeth at night, that he leads me around by a finger laughing that he has such control, I love our time in the morning and at night when he snuggles his nekkid little body into my lap, I love his excitement over a stick, caterpillar, or acorn, that he is genuinely interested in watching the lady bag groceries at the store, that he tells me when it’s time for bed by putting his hand next to his head and pretending to snore, that he consoles me when I cry, that he would rather play with me than any other toy in the house, that he is cautious with his older friends and comes to me when he’s unsure of what to do, and that he happily leaves me behind once he gains his confidence, I love his warm weight on my back when he’s in the carrier, when he will stop what he’s doing to turn around to give me a quick hug without being asked and then immediately turn back to what he was doing like he just couldn’t help himself, that he finds beauty in every single day and makes me do it too. And most of all I love that there is something new to love about him each and every day that I know him. On this mother’s day, I feel so honored and so incredibly lucky to be a mother to this amazing little person.
And, as a Mother’s Day gift to myself, I have started the application process to become a mother twice over. I can only imagine that the amount of love I feel will just grow with another baby joining our family. We never know where life will lead us, and I know the process will take a bit longer this time, but I am hoping to bring home a sister for Rinat sometime in the next two years. Round 2 has begun! Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there. Much love -Rinat’s Mom

Our Son is Amazing

Hi all! I figure you might be wondering how our little guy is faring after our hospital stay and I have to say that he is just absolutely amazing. It's like nothing ever even happened. I was definitely more traumatized by the experience than he was. His Grandmother and Great Grandmother (she's 87!) came in town for a week the day after he got out of the hospital (the visit was already planned). We played tourist for a couple of days and Rinat really enjoyed looking at the paintings at the National Gallery which I was happy to see. And then his Uncle Walt and Cousins Sam and Sara came and it was just a whirlwind of activity and fun. He, of course, loved all of the attention from Gma and GGma (and the gifts they brought too!). And I think Sam, who's 5, is like a hero to him. I could almost hear him think to himself 'Wow, I want to be big and strong like him one day!' as Sam picked him up and bounced him around. And then Sara, who is 18 months to Rin's 15, is just enough ahead of him in abilities and just ahead of him in size that he just kind of followed her around to see what she did and where she went and he could almost do the same. And he, of course, wanted to play with the same toys, eat the same food, and do everything else the same too. It was cute. And, of course, Rinat just loved having Walt here too who is great with all of the kids and is the same kind of parent that we are. He is laid back and just wants the kids to have fun and enjoy being with their cousins. The only unlucky thing was the weather. Gma&GGma came in town to see the cherry blossoms and it was just freezing cold and raining here for some reason. And 3 stir crazy kids made it seem like there's more like 10. Of course having 5 stir crazy adults in our house didn't help either. But we got to play lots of Sam's' new game of Uno and it was fun for everyone anyway. We made it to the zoo the day after Gma&GGma left and proceeded to get really sunburned on the first warm sunny day of the season and we had a lot of fun seeing the big orangutan on the O Line. Then the next day, Gpa Byron made it up to visit for 10 days and we spent time hanging out enjoying the kids. Then Walt and the cousins left and Gpa B stayed and we did some sightseeing (the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception a couple of days before the Pope came, the Air & Space Museum, another trip to the Zoo) and some just hanging out. To be honest, I was kind of exhausted and after dad hopped back on the plane to head home, I looked at my calendar and realized that there have only been 5 days of just the 3 of us in the last 5 weeks. No wonder I'm beat! It was a tiring but great month (aside from the hospital drama) and it was fun to have everyone in town. And let me tell you a little bit about our sweet pea who is just getting bigger and bigger every day. Well, he's still just a little small fry (10% in weight and 50% in height- it's like we created him ourselves!) but he is acting a whole lot more like a big kid. He is just motoring around like a maniac. I swear, he'll be running any day now. Peter took him on a walk around the block after dinner tonight and he was screaming for more as we dragged him inside to take a bath. And he is talking and trying to imitate what we say all the time now. The other day, I pointed to a watermelon and he tried so hard to say it too. It came out closer to "dadabedah" but it had the right number of syllables anyway. He definitely has 'cracker' down pat and now that I finally turned his car seat around and he can see me as we drive along, I can no longer sneak in a quick snack for myself on the way to somewhere because I hear 'CAH-KOO, CAH-KOO, CAH-KOO' from the backseat until I share my cracker with him. His new obsession is the ceiling fan on the neighbor's porch. I actually had to move his high chair so that he could see it as he eats because he kept trying to climb across the table to look out the window and check and see if it was on. His hand sign for it is that he points up, waves his little hand back and forth, and says "woooowooowowoowooo". It's kind of adorable. And he is such a big boy now that I gave him his first shower and he did great. We had been practicing for the last week or so by me pouring water on his head in the bath so that when I actually put him in there with the shower on, he just climbed right under the stream and laughed his little head off. Gosh I love that laugh of his. It's kind of like a deep down to the core chuckle that is so infectious. It makes you want to do whatever it was you did to make it happen again and again just so you can hear it. What can I say but that every single day is a joy- even today when he spent half of his music class screaming and trying to leave and the other half of it trying to steal the other kids' toys and then screamed because it was time to go. Ahhhhh, toddlers. I hope all's well in your life. -m

Still Here

Hi all you concerned friends and family-
9:00am We had another exciting night last night. I actually don't even know how I am functioning at the moment. All was well until about 2am when I woke up to the alarms going off and saw him once again awake and flailing. As I was trying to get my wits about me and stand up to go try and hold him down yet again, a nurse came in and saw what was going on. Then things got much more exciting when he started to move around like he was convulsing or something and I heard some liquid noises and the nurse yelled out the door into quiet unit "I need help!" Then entire staff came running. She explained that he was not convulsing but vomiting into his breathing tube which he had apparently yanked loose and it was not likely lodged in his esophagus. They tried to suction it out as quickly as possibly before he breathed in too much of the fluid and then they bagged him to get his oxygen. As they were trying to pump some oxygen in, they noticed that the pumping didn't correspond with his breathing rate and suspected that he had pulled out the tube and it was no longer working. So then the question was 'do we take the tube out and try and let him breathe on his own even though we just shot him up with a truckload more of sedative? Or do we try and re-intebate him and hope the sedative kicks in?' So they decided to take it out but have everything ready to put a new one right back in. So they got me near him (I couldn't even see him at this point beyond all of the people surrounding his bed), yanked it out, and waited to see what would happen. Our strong little guy had no problem letting out a very muted cry (due to the tube) and then very distinctly saying "MaaaaMaaaa" and reaching out. I think my heart stopped functioning for a second. Then, to make a long story short (or shorter than it could be anyway), he has spent the last 7 hours pulling out all of his other tubes. He now has only the saline and then all of the monitors that are hooked up to make sure his vitals are doing alright. Now, all we are waiting for is the doctor to give the OK to give him some food and send him on his way either home or to another unit since he no longer qalifies for the ICU. And I guess they need to check the Xrays too and make sure his doesn't have too much fluid in his lungs. Anyway, I will update this post as things happen. But, I am extremely happy to say, that at this point Rinat is screaming his head off and doing the 'eat' sign over and over and over again. I think it's a good sign. He's definitely insistent. Love to all. -m
11:00- We just got the news that we will be discharged from the hospital just as soon as the doc writes the orders. WooHoo! And sweet Ann has the magic touch and Rinat has been snoozing in her lap for almost 2 hours. I guess he just finally wore himself out and gave up the fight. All is good in the world. -m
1:15 Home safe and sound but more than a bit exhausted. Sweet baby is chowing down on some lunch and then I am thinking he'll grab a snooze (and hopefully I can too). I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone's support and wishes for Rinat's good health. And I am so thankful that the doctors and nurses at Georgetown are so on the ball. For our sweet baby have been in such danger twice in less than 24 hours and then home again as happy as ever is amazing to me. I can't even think of what would have happened had they not been able to figure out the reason for the co2 levels or not known how to treat it. I finally broke down and actually cried on the way home from the hospital- I guess I just had to wait until I knew that he was totally out of danger before I could melt down. And now I am off to enjoy my son. Thank you so much for everyone's support. -m

Rinat's Hospital Visit

*10:15- So here are the scariest words that a parent can hear from the doctor operating on her son as he walks into the room after several hours in the OR- “I need to talk to you”. Yup, his easy little no-big-deal surgery has turned out to be a much scarier experience than we had anticipated. I got all dressed up in scrubs and was in the room when they put him to sleep. I kissed him and told him I’d see him soon and I was confident that it would be quick and easy. Then the doctor walked me back to his little room in the ped surgery area and told me he’d come get me again in about an hour or hour and a half. I, of course, started checking my watch every 5 minutes starting at the hour mark. Then every 30 seconds after the 90 minute mark. And after then I was too freaked out to even read my book or do anything but stare at the wall and worry about all of the things that could be going wrong. And after almost 2 hours the anesthesiologist walked in and said those dreaded words. He told me that our sweet little baby had a reaction to the anesthesia called Malignant Hyperthermia (well, he said it was probably this). This typically presents itself as a high level of CO2, rapid heartbeat, tachycardia (is that the same thing?), high blood pressure, and finally muscle rigidity and it can ultimately result in death. Yes, DEATH. My heart stopped for a second until he assured me that the latter had not happened. Just thinking about the possibility makes me want to throw something at the wall as I sit here waiting. I just focused on this fact as he began to tell me what happened. Rin had actually only one of the symptoms of this reaction- according to the doctor, he had a very very very high level of carbon dioxide that he could not bring down via hand-pumping oxygen into him. So they had to remove the small tube that they had inserted for the surgery and intebate him with a large tube. And I think maybe they gave him some drug too but my memory is kind of hazy since my mind was going a mile a minute. It is really rare to have this reaction so the anesthesiologist is calling NIH to seek their advice on how best to treat him- I think they have some kind of national database or something.

**11:00- So the operating doctor just came in and said that he doing well and is sedated and will remain that way for 24 hours and they will send blood to the lab every six hours so that they can make sure that the toxins are getting flushed out and his body is getting back to normal and they will keep the tube in for this time too. Poor sweet baby. And now we are waiting for the anesthesia to wear off before they come and get us to be with him and they are checking him into the Pediatric ICU in the meantime. We will stay with him all day and I guess I’ll send Peter home at some point to get me some clothes and toothbrush so I can spend the night. And maybe some food if ever feel like eating again- right now it is most definitely NOT an option. I feel like something bad might happen if I tried to eat. Sooo… that’s where we are as of now. I will update at the bottom of this post as we find out more and finally get to see our little pumpkin. Love to you all. –m ps the cherry blossoms are amazing right now. Check ‘em out online or call in sick to work- they won’t last long!

11:45- Still waiting. Our nurse just went and checked on him and he seems to be doing fine. There are still 2 anesthesiologists in there to monitor him and a respiratory doctor too. At least he's been well looked after. As are we.

2:45- So we just spent a couple of hours down in the recovery room with Rin waiting for a room to open up in the ICU. Now one is open so I am waiting for them to transfer him and get him all set up so I can sit with him again. Sweet sweet Ann has driven up from Richmond to be with us and help if she can. It is so nice to have a calming presence in addition to Peter who is not exactly, um, what I would call calm in general. He woke up once and it totally scared the shit out of me. He started flailing around and swallowing (because of the tube) and trying to figure out what was going on. The anesthesiologist was actually sitting right there actually so he yelled to the nurse for a somethingorother bolise, loaded up a syringe, and he quickly passed back out. It’s the first time I cried.

3:30- And now we are safely ensconced in the ICU and everyone is really nice and Rinat seems to be doing really well. They are just going to keep an eye on him and make sure it stays that way. They are moving him into a bigger bed while we wait here. I guess I’ll send Peter out in a while for supplies. I am not anticipating any news anytime soon, but I’ll update here when there is anything new to report. We’ll let you know.

7:00pm- Not really anything new to tell you. Ann is helping us keep our sanity and it's nice to have another person here who has no qulams about charging up to the nurse's station and telling them to come attend to him. Peter, as you might guess, is just a little freaked out about the whole thing. Rin keeps coming out of his sedation and flailing around which is scary but otherwise he just lies there looking like he's sleeping peacefully. His vitals are fine and they are thinking they will try and extebate him in the morning (take out the breathing tube). They will have to wake him up for a while before they do it though to make sure he's ready to breathe on his own. Talk about flailing- they're going to need an entire team to hold him still and keep him from pulling out all the things he's hooked up to. I don't anticipate that it will be a whole lot of fun but I'm telling you that the sound of him screaming will be the sweetest sound I've ever heard. You may be able to hear it all the way from where you are. Oh, Peter just poked his head in here (the parents lounge) to tell me that he's flailing so much that the may take it out tonight. Listen for that Kazakh war cry! And thank you all for the sweet comments so far. Rinat and we are so lucky. Love to all. -m
10:15pm- So Ann, Matt, and Peter are still here hanging out with me but I think they are going to pack it up for the night while I stay here and hold down the fort. Rin is still doing well. They finally got him to stay asleep but then his blood pressure dropped so they are going to drop down the meds to try and bring his pressure back up so I hope they will soon find a happy medium and I can catch at least a few minutes of sleep tonight. We shall see. In any case, they are thinking they will try and take him off the tube in the morning (they decided not to tonight) so Peter's headed back here first thing so he won't miss the excitement. We'll let you know how it goes! -m

Easter, Vistors & an Adoption Freak-out

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a happy Easter! We actually had a snowy one down in the burg. The three of us went to Lynchburg for the weekend and had not one but TWO days of festivities. Rinat got 2 Easter baskets, 2 lunches, 2 egg hunts, about a million pieces of chocolate, and tons of toys. We actually came in town for our friends’ daughters’ baptism that Peter is the godfather of. The 1st egg hunt was after the breakfast at their place but he didn’t really understand how it all worked. He found one plastic egg and sat there taking it apart and putting back together. By the 2nd egg hunt at home, however, he was a maniac because knew exactly what to do and just went around finding eggs and putting them in his little basket as quickly as he could. And since we got back to DC, he will pull an egg out of his little basket that is still sitting in the living room, open it up, and hand me the mini chocolate bar inside to open for him. He definitely has the idea now. Aside from the holiday, we have been busy busy busy as always. In the last month, we’ve had several visitors. We had Aunt Kate come visit during her spring break and she was such a good playmate that he cried when she left room. He saw GMa G the bathgiver and GPa Mar the clapping man. Peter and I really loved having Aunt Ann come in town for the day because she took over parenting duties when he got restless at dinner- she walked him around so we could finish eating which is always a treat. And of course we’ve seen crazy Uncle Matt who stops by to hang out and put a big giant bus on his head which makes Rinat just fall over laughing. Too funny. Our little sweetie has definitely developed quite a sense of humor. The things that crack him up these days are me blowing my nose, when I brush the dirt off my hands, and when I dance to music on the radio. OK so really most people laugh when I dance but, it’s cute when he does it. He also finds it highly entertaining to be ornery and refuse to take a bite of food just for kicks. I will hold a bite of something up to his mouth and he will very dramatically throw his head to the side and kind of backwards like of like “how dare you offer me that horrible pile of poo- I would not dare eat it!” like he’s actually a picky eater or something. I have to laugh because it is really funny. Well, except of course when he knocks a spoonful of yogurt or something similarly messy out of my hand and it goes flying onto the wall or carpet in the process. But now that he can feed himself, he refuses to use his hands to eat with and tries to scoop anything and everything up with his little toddler spoon. I figure the faster that he can do it himself the better so I just let him go to town. He really does crack me up daily with his little budding personality. My current favorite is when he puts his little fists up near his head, points his chubby little fingers up in the air, and kind of bops up and down to any music that he happens to hear. It’s kind of like a disco-groove thing and I have no idea whatsoever where he came up with it, but it gets me every time. I also think it’s pretty funny that he will point to any food that he sees in a magazine, on the TV, or in person and say, very enthusiastically “Mmmmmmmm!” like it’s the most appetizing thing he’s ever seen. I guess we like food in our house. I know I do anyway. He especially loves fruit and it’s really funny to go to the grocery store with him because I will point to all the fruits in the produce department and tell him the names and he just says “Mmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmm!” Over and over again and makes the ‘please’, ‘milk’, and ‘more’ hand sign over and over again until one of them works and I put it in the cart. I have no idea why he’s not 400 pounds by now. I guess he got some good genes from his Kaz parents? And I think I might be turning him into a future alcoholic. I have been trying to find a way to get him to drop the bottle and drink milk out of a cup but he was a little reluctant so I taught him to ‘cheers’ me and then chug it down like a frat boy. I’m bad, but it works like a charm. And he is finally walking like he’s been doing it forever. He’ll just pop up from wherever he’s sitting and start cruising around with no hesitation at all. It just somehow happened overnight. But of course it always ends up in Mom or Dad’s arms- home base. And he still can’t get enough of things in the sky- planes, helicopters, birds- and now he is obsessed with the moon. He saw it one night when we took him over to Mer’s house after it had gotten dark and now he looks for it all the time. He always points to it and then looks at me like “Oh my gosh! Do you see that shiney thing in the sky?! Do you, do you?! It’s amazing!” Maybe he’ll be an astronomer. It’s so much fun to wonder how he’ll end up. It’s kind of like wondering what Santa is going to bring you for Christmas- no matter what it is, you’ll be happy to have it. Oh, and he has a new word that kind of sums him up I think. It’s ‘go’. He will point to the door, the stairs, his bed, the swings, the stroller, and say “go” (although it sounds a bit more like “gah”- but I know what he means)! He just wants to go, go, go 24/7. Our little maniac. He’s so fun. I think it is funny that he decided to learn to walk and talk all in the same week. He is a crazy determined little guy. My favorite of Rinat’s new talents, however, is that he can now give me big open-mouthed slobbery kisses. So now Rinat won’t be the only one with drool on his cute little face. When Kate was in town, she, Uncle Matt, and I went to see the movie Juno (about a teenager who gives up her child for adoption) which I highly recommend if you like indie films at all. It was really funny and ultimately uplifting but it also brought back some of those old feelings that I had before we brought Rinat home. Especially that feeling that something would happen to ruin all the work we have done and the confusion of not knowing who will be my child. Other parents don’t know what it feels like thank goodness because I would not wish it on my worst enemy- it is restricted to those of us who don’t give birth to our own children but are instead at the mercy of a stranger to decide when we get to be parents. I had a little flashback of this out-of-my-control kind of feeling a few weeks ago when I was just getting ready to start the process for our next adoption and found out that adoptions from Kazakhstan were suspended. I might have mentioned it to some of you which is why I am addressing it now. I, honestly, was kind of devastated by it. Not because I wanted to adopt from there again since we already know the drill, but really I wanted it for Rinat. I had always hoped to go to the same country to find him a sister or brother- someone to share some genetics with since Peter and I never will be able to give that to him. So I spent several insomniac nights cruising the internet trying to figure out what to do- should we wait and see what happens? Go to a different country and, if so, which one? Most of the other countries have several years of waiting before being matched with a child and if we wait for Kaz and it doesn’t reopen will it be forever until Rinat has a little sister? But the crisis was happily averted (for now anyway) when I checked the website tonight ( http://www.jcics.org/Kazakhstan.htm ) and adoptions have resumed as of today. WHEW!!! I can sleep again. And now I am off to do exactly that. Hope everyone is having a good month! -m

ER- and no I'm not talking about the TV show

This post is actually from last week but I never got the chance to put it on the blog:
Hi all- As I lay awake at 3am this morning, I decided to just give it up and head downstairs hoping that would help me shake my insomnia and I got a very timely email from one of our Kaz friends. It was called “25 reasons I owe my mother.” It was a humorous email but it just got me thinking about how Rinat owes me big time already. Here’s the story: He was not himself on Tues and I thought maybe he hadn’t slept well because of diaper rash (what’s new?) and let it go. I was not feeling well myself (I now have the full blown flu) and thought he’d be just fine with a little time and some extra rest. But then he fell asleep, naked, in my lap after I gave him a morning bath and slept for 2 whole hours which is totally unlike him. Then he refused to eat dinner which is even more unlike him. This boy never ever misses a meal! Well, it turns out that he had a bit of a temperature so I gave him some Motrin and decided to put him in bed with me so I could keep an eye on him. It didn’t seem any higher than when he got 4 shots at the doctor the previous week, but it just made me a little nervous since I did not know the cause. Sure enough, at about 1am, he rolled over and put his head on my belly and he was BURNING UP. I mean, so hot that I expected to see wavy air above his body like you see above the asphalt on a July day in Texas. I gave him more Motrin, hoping it would bring down his temp, but almost an hour later it had actually gotten worse and was now over 104. So we packed a bag full of everything we might need for a couple days at the hospital and headed to Georgetown to see if they could figure out what was wrong with him. There was, thankfully, no wait and they got to us right away. The nurses, other patients, and especially the security guard were really nice and helped out as much as they could. Long story short- after more than 6 hours of poking and prodding and tests that included IV’s into his tiny little arm and pee-collector bags over his privates, lots of screaming, and no sleep for any of us, it turns out that our little sweet pea has an ear infection. I am very glad that we packed it up and went to the ER even though it turns out that it was not anything major, but boy are we exhausted! I think I got about 5 hours of sleep in the last two and a half days. I check on Rinat about every hour and of course any little noise that he makes in his sleep brings me to my feet in a millisecond. Ahh, what we do for the ones we love… I hope you are all happy and healthy! -m

Another month with our guy

Hi everyone- I know, I know, this post is long overdue. I'm a blogging slacker. Sorry. Things have been pretty good around here. Now that he is down to one nap a day and his rash is totally under control, it has opened up a whole new world for us. I have been getting out and doing some classes with Rinat which has been really fun for him. We were taking a class where the kids learn about and pet different animals and it led to lots of shrieking when he wasn't allowed to actually squeeze the bunny to death. He was also really interested in the fish tank and trying to climb into the tank with the turtles. That boy is very insistent and very LOUD. The good thing is that no one seems to mind except for me. We were also able to get out and get his first little haircut which was lots of fun for Peter and me. And I have to say that he did really well. We took him to my hair girl, Kylie, and she did a quick little cleanup and he started to cry only for a second and then stopped when, the brilliant mother that I am, I gave him his Mishka (teddy bear) to hold and then he was happy once again. Wouldn't the world be so much easier if we could hand everyone a Mishka and it would make their world good again? Oh, to be 1. Our little sweetie is still not walking much despite the fact that I know he is capable. I think he is just stubborn. But he has been talking a lot which makes my life easier. He tells me "mama, up" and "d-d-d" for down. And he makes all kinds of animal noises including the cow which sounds kind of like "bbbbb", "bok, bok, bok" for the chicken, "ahh, ahh, ahh" for the monkey, and "aaaaaaah" for the sheep. It never gets old for me and is a wonderful way to entertain us both during the marathon diaper changing sessions. And he understands so much more now too. One day I had it with the screaming as soon as he woke up and so as I was putting him down for his nap, I told him "These books at the end of the bed are for you to read when you wake up. You just say 'mama' and I will hear you and you can read your books and play with Mishka and Blue Bunny until I come up here, OK?" And every since that day, it is exactly what he does when he wakes up. If only I had figured it out sooner! And he has definite opinions on what he wears now too. It's so cute. I show him two options (Do you want to wear the red fire truck pajamas or the green dinosaur ones?) and he is very definite about which he prefers. And he will spend the day checking out what is on his shirt or pants. He especially loves when I show it to him in the mirror. So cute. His obsession with the bus has now changed to an obsession with airplanes and helicopters. I know that there is most definitely nothing wrong with his hearing because he will start pointing at the sky and talking way before I know what he's pointing to. And he has started to figure out that he has a say in what goes on in his world as well. When we bring him to our bed in the morning, he immediately points to the TV to tell us to turn on the Sprout Channel for him to watch while we slowly wake up. And he is starting slow down in the eating department and to actually refuse to let us feed him. I guess he's officially a toddler now and is starting to test what he can do and what he can't. But overall, he is happy, healthy and brings joy to our lives every single day. Sometimes it just washes over me how much I adore him and how lucky we are that he is a part of our lives. Oh, and for anyone who's interested, his eye surgery is rescheduled for April 1- nope, it's not a practical joke. Love to all! -m