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My Montage 10/10/09

Back to "NORMAL"???

When I was pregnant with Dane our lives were a constant buzz of coming and going, I was serving God at our church and through YoungLives, our life was so full of family and friends, and life was, well...full. But for the past two years, we had to take so many precautions with Dane (which paid off!) that I almost forgot what our life was like before Dane! Well, I can officially say that we are back to normal, or a new normal, because we do have a two year old running around! Last Sunday we all got up and went to church, I had a full house all day (our own 5 plus 2 more kids), we played Wii, played pool and as I was in the kitchen cooking up a scrumptiously unhealthy (yet inexpensive) dinner of biscuits, sausage, gravy and scrambled eggs. I so enjoyed the old sounds of a full house of people enjoying our humble home...I felt so thankful to have finally reached this place one again! We are once again able to open our home up freely to friends and family, with out making them scrub down prior touching anything or having to leave their own kids at home. Chad and I are actively serving God at church and in our home where we are leading Jr. High youth group...which is going fantastic, because I know you were wondering! Yes, life is back to normal and the conclusion to this discovery: IT MAKES ME HAPPY!!! :)

As for the star of this blog, our little Dane is doing fantastic! He is officially released from physical therapy, and we are getting ready to have him tested for developmental preschool. IF he tests into the school it will most likely be for speech. Though he talking a ton, using full sentences and all that jazz, his articulation is could use a little work. As far as his health, he still needs a puff on his inhaler when he runs around, but we continue to see his stamina get better and better. He is so much fun these days, the other day he had been bugging us to put his TV show on, and when I finally turned it on...he jumped up and down and shouted "I LOVE YOU MOM!" like I had just given him the biggest and best surprise ever! Today we were at Target and sang Jesus Loves Me over and over through out the entire store, which made everyone smile when they heard him...of course I wanted to be like..."Do you know how amazing it is that he can sing this song??? It's not just cute, it's a miracle!!!", but I didn't of course say that, but I wanted to! Dane has shown an interest in drumming since I can remember him being old enough to bang on stuff, and now he has a drum set...not just a little kid, Fisher Price style drum set, but an official drum set (child sized of course!) This adds to the loudness of our home, but we have gotten used to...I LOVE to hear him playing! He also loves to play his harmonica and pretend to play the piano, he loves all things music...but he is still 100% boy and loves to dig in the dirt, jump in the mud, pick up ants even though he gets bit every time, and torment Molly (my Mom and Dad's golden retriever).

That's about it for now...I will try to do a better job of posting, but I can't promise anything! I am working more hours, and quiet time at the computer continues to be more of a challenge. I am on facebook, which I find easier to keep updated...because you can be in and out within a couple of minutes!

Busy, busy, busy!

Wow, what a busy April and May we are having! We survived another RSV season and we are so happy to have made it another winter without any major health/lung issues! This meant that we got to bring Dane for the first time to the church nursery, do you know that I have dreamed of this for the past two years??? Getting to go to church as a family and drop him off in the day care like a normal family was a day that we knew would come, and we had to celebrate with this photo of Dane in his new shirt and his hair combed for his first day! Getting a decent picture of this child has proven to be more than a difficult task lately, but we did get one decent one with his eyes open...and here it is! Unfortunately I do have to report that he cried the majority of the time and we had to go get him half way through service! He isn't used to being around little kids his age, and I think that if we would have put him in the 5th grade Sunday school class he would have done better! But we are going to try again to ease him in, it will just take some time!

Of course we had the March of Dimes walk which was so amazing, but that day also brought Gage's senior prom! Gage and Jordyn looked gorgeous, and had a great time at prom...thanks to my Mom and Dad, Dan and Kelly, Jordyn's parents, and a little something from Chad and I, they were able to go with out breaking the bank! We all pitched in to help with the cost of prom...I can't believe how expensive it is for these kids to go, it's actually quite ridiculous! But we all made it happen and we were happy to get to see them all dressed up, they are good kids that both work hard and deserved to go and have fun!

Dane had great time at Easter, we had an egg hunt and he was very excited to see that these colored eggs had candy in them! Jake had to make sure to hold him back...Dane was going in for a closer look at Jake's Easter basket!

The rest of this month bring lots of new things for us...starting with Gage's graduation this month! I can't believe that he is graduating and having to decide what to do in life, we have heard rumblings of joining the reserves or maybe even enlisting...time will tell, but we are very proud of the man that he is becoming!

Chad and I have been given the opportunity to lead our church's Jr. High youth group! This means that we will have a house full of Jr. Highers at our home every Wed. night, we will be planning lessons, games, and activities for this high energy group! If I think about it too much I get a bit of anxiety, because it really is a lot of work...but we feel that God has given us this opportunity to love on some kids and share with them what God has done in our life. Now, we have hosted a weekly Bible study in our home, but this is totally different! We will be doing monthly activities as well as planning "Jr. High ditch day" at church the first Sunday of every month, so please say a little prayer for our family...this has the potential to be a huge blessing for so many and we don't want to mess it up! If you ever went to youth group as a child and you have a great memory that you can share with us, we would love to hear from you! (We need to as many ideas as possible...and we ain't to proud to beg!)

2009 Team Great Dane!!!

WOW!!! What a turn out we had! Our team had over 50 walkers including all the kids! We have so far raised a total of $2800...and we are still collecting money, so if you haven't had a chance to donate our team is still web page will be open until the end of May. We had a lot of fun, and we were once again humbled by all the family teams walking in memory of their babies that didn't make it. My favorite part of the day was when our entire team crossed the finish line together...with our team captain, the great Dane, walking across the finish line first. The little boy born 14 weeks early who suffered so much brain damage that he wasn't supposed to walk...led his March of Dimes team across the finish line at the age of two!!! God is good, and we have much to be thankful for!

I know that Dane looks exceptionally happy in this picture...okay he looks like he is shooting poison darts from his eyes...but I wanted to let you know that he was soooo happy to get out of the stroller and run around, and I cut his fun short by making him sit down for some pictures. I know, I am a big old meany.

Thank you so much to ALL of you who made this possible, I had so much support this year! My entire Starbucks team walked! My Mom, Kelly, Karin, and Tracy all stepped up to make this walk a success! To everyone who donated money: THANK YOU!!! Together we are fighting against premature births, and helping all babies have a healthy start!

I'll post again soon, we have lots going on to tell you about...Easter, Gage's prom, Dane's first day in Sunday school, and Chad and I's new ministry adventure! Stayed tuned...

March of Dimes t shirts!

My friend Karin, who I have known since the 7th grade, has really gotten behind the March of Dimes this year...she was the first one to sign up and walk and was the first one to raise money for team "great Dane"! She asked her friend, Kathi Buss, to help us with the art work this year for our team t-shirts. She generously donated her time and talents to our team! (Dane got the nick name great Dane while in the NICU, and that is what we named our team after...in case you were wondering!) I was sooo excited when I received this in my email today!
This is original picture that I took of Dane:





And this is what she was able to do with it! This is the front of our shirts:




And this is the back...notice the little dog prints and baby prints?!?:



Aren't they so cute!?!

Thank you Karin and Kathi!!! This is the link to Kathi's website in case you want to check out what else she does! http://www.kathibussphotography.com

It's that time again...and yes, I know that we are all feeling the effects of the current conditions of the economy. Chad's business is officially no more, so we are feeling the crunch in a huge way too...but God is bigger than all this and I have faith that we will still have a great turn out for our walk this year! You all know why we support March of Dimes, but I would like to tell you why this year is different. As we are all too aware, the State of Arizona is experiencing its largest budget shortfall in its history. A few of the programs important to the March of Dimes are faring well in these turbulent times. Kids Care, a program that provides health insurance to approximately 65,000 kids was facing cuts from the budget, but thanks to the March of Dimes and many other organizations, this program has been reinstated. The March of Dimes is still waiting to hear the latest on the New Born Screening programs. We’re hopeful for good news about this program. We thank you March of Dimes for all of your efforts for babies and children! The state has most recently cut therapies for many, many children in the state...Dane is one of those children. It is big advocates like the March of Dimes that will be there campaigning against these cuts.

We ask you to prayerfully consider donating to our team, and even better to sign up to be a walker! We had a blast last year at the walk, it's only a 4 mile walk, and it starts early so it won't take up your entire day...I think that we were home last year by 11:30am!

If you would like to donate please click on my March of Dimes badge on the right!

Please enjoy this video!!!

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Dane's 2nd Birthday...and more!

My big two year old!!! CUPCAKES!!! Yum!

Opening gifts

Our budding young carpenter!

His new Radio Flyer trike!!!

What a month we have had! Lets' start with my Bday weekend (Jan.31st), Dane spent three days with Grandma PapPap while the rest of us took a mini vacation to the happiest place earth. It's the first time we have left him for more than an over nighter, and he did great. Three days of undivided attention at Grandman and PapPap's...which to Dane is the happiest place on earth! So we all had a great time that weekend, though we all missed Dane a ton, it was so nice to spend some uninterrupted time with Gage and Katie! (and the fact that were riding Space Mountain didn't hurt!)

On February 9th Chad and I celebrated our 18th anniversary, and then came the big day...February 10, 2009...Dane's second birthday!!! Chad was out of town and I had to work, so we celebrated on the 11th, but I am sure that he didn't mind! We are smack in the middle of a very nasty RSV season, so we opted to not have a party for him. I have several friends that are pediatric nurses and they have told me that the hospital is full of VERY sick RSV babies...so we have been very strict with him going out anywhere or having people over. We did have Grandma and PapPap over for dinner and cupcakes, he opened his gifts, and considering he didn't get to celebrate with all of his cousins and friends I think that he had a great 2nd birthday. I did promise him a big party when he turns three, so we will look forward to a house full of friends and family for next years bday party. Someone did give him a special present for his birthday, I don't know who gave it to him or when on his birthday he actually opened this gift, but we know that he received it...AN ATTITUDE!!! This gift has enabled him to test us repeatedly on his limits and show us that he would rather go into time out then do what is sometimes asked of him. So, if anyone out there would like to send me the receipt for this gift we would like to exchange for something else!!! :)

Dane had an evaluation with an occupational therapist, actually someone from our old church who knows Dane and has been praying for him (which is too cool), and he said that he was border line for needing services...which I think is a great thing! He said the same thing that we really already knew, he is weak on his left side and if we continue to work hard with him we should continue to see improvement. We opted to do some home therapy with Chad and I, then have him re-evaluated in about three months. He is getting physical therapy twice a month, where we are working on balance and strengthening his left side, and stretching out his left side too. He is still doing great with speech, and I think he has mostly caught up to his peers in this area! He still has choking episodes, mostly with saliva which his speech therapist thinks mostly has to do with his left sided weakness that affects his tongue and mouth. But the choking continues to happen less and less, so we are thankful for that.

Dane is soooo smart! He knows his colors and most shapes, he knows to say "sorry" if he bumps into you, he loves to watch NOGGIN and when it is not on he will say, "Noggin, pul-ease!" followed by, "remote go???" so we can change the channel. He is a Daddy's boy for sure, he loves his Daddy and is easily heart broken when his Daddy has to scold him. Me, on the other hand, could scold him all day with out much notice. He also loves coloring and playing with play-doh, and playing with his trucks too. He loves to dance, though when he dances it looks like he has a 30lb weight on his head...it's actually very funny, I need to catch him on video!

We are enjoying some beautiful weather and playing a lot outside, Dane loves going to the park. He is totally fearless which can be challenging as I run around the jungle gym from side to side in case he falls! His favorite way to go down the slide is head first, which I know is a no-no, but before I have a change to yell...there he goes again...head first. Look out Evil Knievel...here comes the 'Great Dane'!

We are getting ready to return to the March for Babies event on April 18th, we are excited to possibly have more walkers join team Great Dane this year! I will be posting more details very soon, as well as sending out emails to kick off my official fund raising!

Blessings

WOW. I have the best parents. As I look back now through the eyes of a mother to three children, I can say that and mean it whole heatedly. As I mentored teen Moms a couple of years ago, I started to really realized how lucky I was. My Mom and Dad always provided a loving and safe place for me to lay my head...even through the dreaded teen years and even through my own teen pregnancy, no matter what the circumstance I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my parents would always be there for me. I didn't know that everyone did not have that same blessing, I didn't know that there was sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and physical abuse. I didn't know that some parents cared more about there own needs and not the needs of their children, I didn't know that some kids came home to empty dirty homes with no food...I just didn't know. I hope that some day my kids will be able to look back and say that they too always had a safe and loving home to lay their head each night, and that no matter what we would always be there for them too. So, yes, I have been richly blessed to be born into my family! Over the past two years my parents continue to provide for me...when I was too sick to be by Dane's side in the NICU, they were there. When Dane came home, they (mostly Mom) bravely learned how to operate his monitors and deal with his oxygen requirements and home health care nurses. They learned all of Dane's exercises and helped with his physical therapy. They provide us a safe place to go during flu season and they have always made sure that during the last two years that Gage and Katie never felt less important. They have baby sat on a regular basis so I could continue to work since Dane could not be in day care. Recently they have given us yet another HUGE blessing...they gave us their van. Now they could have and probably should have used it as a down payment for their new van, but instead offered it to us. This enabled us to give my car to Gage and for me to have my a vehicle to drive...not only did they joyfully give it to us, but gave it to us with a full tank!!!! It's just too much, Chad and I don't have words to say how thankful we are so we will once again say "Thank you for everything!"



Thank you Lord for all of our many blessings, we have had some doozies this year!

The Holidays

We had a very nice Christmas, unfortunately I was very sick and to prove how sick I was I didn't even take any pictures! Dane was more interested in boxes and wrapping paper but he did have a great time. New Years Eve was spent with my friend Jill and her family, we played games and hung out...we were home by midnight because we are big nerds! Dane rang in the New Year sleeping at Pap Pap and Grandma's then Mom and Dad came over for dinner on New Years Day, it was nice and quiet and I loved it! Before I start telling you about Dane's milestones, our family celebrated another milestone with Gage's 18th birthday! This is a picture of him, and yes, that is his cutey girlfriend sitting next to him!
It was surprise party and I think that he had a great time! Happy Birthday Gage!

Dane's language continues to take off! He is doing a great job with speech...as a matter of fact his speech therapist has discharged him from speech! Wow! Way to go Dane! We had another evaluation with Phx Childrens and she scored him age appropriate for ALL areas! She was very impressed with how well he continues to do and now he can be followed by the developmental pediatrician if my insurance will pay for it. We have bumped up his physical therapy to twice a month, when Miss M was here last week she noticed some left side weakness and she feels that with his age and ability to follow simple directions he will allow her to get some good exercises in to help strengthen his left side. I am waiting to get a referral to go back to the Neurologist to discuss getting Dane's MRI done, now that he is bigger I feel more comfortable with the thoughts of him going under anesthesia. Though he is doing really good, if the scan shows something then we can have a diagnosis of mild cerebral palsy which would qualify him for more services. Not that that is what we want, but the reality is that once he is out of the states birth to three program we won't qualify for the states help...unless we have some sort of diagnosis. We don't want him to start to struggle with his fine motor skills when he is like 4 or 5 and not have the help available to him. What we are hoping for is that the scan shows nothing (which would be yet another miracle...but hey, my God is in that business) then we just go about raising our little blessing like any other little one...except no matter what happens I'll know the truth of how blessed he has been!
We are going to continue feeding therapy, he eats like a champ but still has choking episodes. He an episode this morning and ended up vomiting...no fun for anyone involved. He seems to choke mostly on saliva, but hopefully she can give us insight. She comes this Thursday so we will see how it goes.

I love this picture, I know for those of you that aren't in family you can not fully appreciate this raised eyebrow look...but it cracks me up! He looks like my brother David in this picture!

There is my happy boy!

This was Dane running laps around our kitchen island! Before he could maybe run two laps before the coughing and wheezing, but now he can run for about five minutes before we have to have him take a rest. He is only doing one breathing treatment a day, and we haven't had to give him the albuterol treatment in months...those little lungs are starting to toughen up! We are entering into the bad part of RSV season, so please pray that he stays healthy!

We are gearing up for the big March of Dimes walk coming up in April, we are hoping to have an even bigger team than last year! Details to come...

Spreading some cheer!

We are one of the mission families for the March of Dimes, we attended a "jail and bail" event last week at one of the local restaurants. Danes personal info was on all of the mailings that went out, so it was great for Dane and I to meet the people that showed up to raise money. My Mom came and helped too, it was an awesome experience and volunteering really keeps me passionate about prematurity. I met a couple that had just recently lost triplets, they were born at 24 weeks and they all passed at different times. It was heartbreaking as she looked at Dane coloring at the table and started to cry, I am sure that she was thinking of what may have been for her babies. It was a swift kick to me, Dane is doing so well I almost forgot of what could have been for him too. Okay...on to the cheer I promised in my title!!! This is a picture of Dane posing with the restaurant managers. Yes, the look on his face was like, "Mom, who the heck are these people?"

Okay, so yes, we do have the ultimate couch potato coffee table...it pops up so that you can eat while sitting at the couch and you guessed it... while watching TV too. Anyway, Dane thought that he would test the limits the other day by trying to crawl in.

And being the great Mom I am, I thought I'll take pictures and blog about it! I know that he is thinking, "I can't believe that Mom is letting me sit here...I better at least be cute"
Don't you know that if you are one year old no one can see you if you can't see them...This is what he did when I sternly asked him what he was doing in there. Clearly he can not be seen in this picture, where did he go?

"Here I am!" Yes, even after that big old grin, I still made him get out. I am so mean.

Here is little sample of what a little yapper he has become!

Exceeding my standards..already?!?

Lot's to be thankful for again this Thanksgiving, family, friends, a roof over our head, and a gracious God of course! We are thankful to share whatever we have with others including Dane's journey...which we have an entire new list of things to be thankful for this year when it comes to him! We have an amazing little boy who is walking, talking, smiling, laughing, (ummm...sometimes hitting and pinching too!) and darn determined to figure out the world around him! He just had a check up and he is in the 95 percentile for his height and in the 75th percentile for weight...and that is for his actual age, NOT adjusted!!! This is great for a preemie, it usually take two to three years for a 26 weeker to catch up to his peers...and he is exceeding them in under two years!
Everyone was healthy and we were happy to spend Thanksgiving with the whole family this year. We had a great time eating yummy food and catching up with everyone. Dane found his way to the piano, where he sat down and played while we poorly sang...hard on the ears but cute none the less!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sorry about how dark the video is, it was taken with my camera's video option and as you will see it's not very good quality. I need to learn bring my camcorder with me more often!

I've lowered my standards!

I have come to the realization that posting on a monthly basis will have to be enough! I will try to post more, but once a month is my official goal!

We have had a wonderful month, thanks in part to some gorgeous weather. There is a small window after the weather gets nice and before the brown cloud rolls in...and that is what we are enjoying right now. Dane loves to play outside, he is especially happy to just roam around the yard with a stick and explore. He loves to look at bugs, and move rocks from here to there...then back again! His speech continues to be taking off, tonight Gage taught him to say "pound it" then do the knuckle bump! He is still using sign language, but less and less now that he can repeat most things, however refuses to say certain words that he has been signing...like "more", "please", "drink", and "thank you". He will sign them, but when I tell him to say them with his mouth, he just continues to sign only with his mouth open! It's very funny!


I have seen an improvement in his breathing since starting the treatments last month, he can play a few minutes longer before the coughing and wheezing start. Looks like we will not be approved for the RSV shots this year, not a big shocker to us. Our co-pay would have been around $800.00 every 28 days, and we couldn't afford it anyway...who could??? So, we are limiting his exposure once again. No more taking him shopping during busy hours, no malls, no day care, no being around other kids that are in day care...etc. We are all praying to keep him healthy one more winter, in hopes that he will out grow his lung disease. His physical therapist, Miss M, thinks that he is doing great and has basically almost caught up to his peers in gross motor skills! Amazing huh?

Enjoy a quick video montage of what he has been up to the past month...

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Where has Dane been???

Sorry that it has been so long since I have updated the blog!! Hopefully I didn't loose to many readers in my laziness! Dane is doing great, but he is more than a handful these days! He is into everything and has no fear of anything...including me! We have cut back on his physical therapy because he is doing so great with his motor skills, we are so thankful to have had such a great therapist and we will miss seeing her every week! Dane's speech is taking off as well, he can say too many things to list here...and we couldn't be happier! Dane's lung disease has been showing itself lately, now that the weather is nice and we are able to go outside he hasn't been able to run and play hard for more than two minutes with out wheezing and coughing. So we are back on breathing treatments twice a day for the steroid and up to three times a day for the one that opens his lungs up. I can already see a difference, but it is another big reminder that we need to stay germ free another RSV season to give him the best chance of out growing the chronic lung disease. He hates his treatments and fights and cries the entire time, but this is one battle that he will not win! Enjoy our little montage!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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Munds Park (part 2)

Here is the kiddos at the park, Gage was so excited to get his picture taken by his Mom at the park...get over it Gage...I am still the boss! Gage was even more excited when I made him sit on the swings so that I could get a picture of all the cousins on the swings together!

Anyway, the weather was beautiful and we all had a great time. The kids have been cooped up all summer (unless they are in the pool), so it was so nice to just be outside. Munds Park is gorgeous, maybe some day we can afford our own get away home...or heck I would live there year round!

Thanks to Gary and Dee for letting us invade their home up north! We had a blast!

And yeah to Dane's little lungs who handled the change in altitude like a champ! He is one resilient child!

Munds Park (part 1)

Chad's birthday was Friday, we were trying to plan a weekend up north to celebrate and get out of the heat. Chad's sister, Kelly, grew up with a family that has truly become "family" to her...and they own a gorgeous cabin in Munds Park. They were so generous and offered the cabin to all ten of us for the weekend! This place was amazing, tons of room, kid friendly...and way more than we could have ever enjoyed renting a cabin. This picture does not to it justice! They have two rhinos, that the boys (Chad, Dan & Gage) and kids had a ton of fun riding around the town in...this is one of them.
Dane and his cousin Mallary had a fun time playing together. Both the front and back porch were totally enclosed so we didn't have to worry about them getting hurt...They loved being there!
They even a had room designated just for the kids. They colored, watched movies and hung out in this room when they were not enjoying the outdoors. Dane looked so cute hanging out with the big kids.
The community that we stayed in had nice park where Dane loved being on the swings...the higher we pushed him the more he laughed!

High Altitude Test

Before planning for our weekend up north, Dane had to make some phone calls to make sure that his lungs were going to be able to handle the change.

We brought his nebulizer just in case, but after his long conversations with some of his preemie friends, we were assured not to worry!

So, we headed up to Munds Park. Elevation 6600! This was the highest altitude Dane has been in, last summer we were told not take him above 4000...and even then to make sure that we new ahead of time where the closest medical facility was...that was enough to scare us, so last summer we stayed in the valley. So, did he pass the test??? Yes, with flying colors! He was a bit more tired, but he did great!

Chim-chimney, chim-chemney, chim-chim cher-ee!!!

This is Dane's impersonation of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins...not too bad, huh? We were rearranging my room (and yes, still cleaning it out) and Dane who has been known to be a garbage picker, found a candle that I threw out. I threw it away because the glass was full of soot and looked pretty ugly...Dane thought otherwise. This picture cracks me up, Katie's face is like "wooaahh..." "I don't know how my hands got dirty?!?"
"My Mom is over reacting and making me take a bath..."
"Okay, maybe I won't be a chimney sweep...I am way too cute when I'm clean!"

Strollin' down memory lane

For those of you who know me really well, you know that I am in a never ending attempt to clean and organize Chad and I's bedroom. I feel like my room has been a mess since I was little, I'll keep the rest of our house clean and somewhat organized but it all stops at our room. So, in yet another effort to clean out the clutter I ventured into a forgotten drawer where I was so excited to find all of Dane's NICU awards...well, they really are not "awards" but little signs that nurses would make and hang all over his tiny space to make it feel more home-like. I have one that says "Congratulations on being extubated...what a brave boy!!!" they would include the date, and are decorated with stickers and stuff too. They would always make them when we were not there and it was a highlight to come in and see a new sign up by his incubator. You could tell how long the little ones had been in the NICU by the amount of "awards" they had. Looking back now, I find it kinda funny...how many Mom's can scrapbook with a sign that reads "Congratulations on being extubated!" or "Congrats to Mommy for the first diaper change!" And yes, I deserved that award...it should have been statue award because changing a barely two pound baby's diaper was like doing surgery! I remember my hands were shaking, as the nurse lovingly said "make sure you lift his legs and hips together so you don't dislocate his hips"...nice huh? So, yeah, I am a little proud of my awards too!

But these are the two that I cherish the most. This one was taken when he was almost one month old. I put my cell phone next to it so that you see how tiny his hands and feet were. You could fit both of his hands and feet inside the perimeter of my cell phone with a ton of room to spare. He was heading towards the 3lb mark and I remember thinking he was getting so big. This one was taken on his two month birthday, I put a quarter on the picture to see the size (I thought of the cell phone after the first picture, then my battery went dead before I could take this one with the phone) This was a week before we had him transferred to a closer hospital.
I am so thankful for the reminders, they keep my heart in check when he is driving me crazy!

If they don't win it's a shame...for it's 1, 2, 3 strikes your out at the DiamondBacks game!

Me and Katie!
Perks of having good seats...you actually can catch some of the souvenirs they throw out! We were very excited about our little foam ball!
Fireworks!!!
I had to add a picture of Dane...being his blog and all...

A very generous customer from work gave me four tickets to the D-backs game on Friday night, now these weren't just your average tickets, they were right above the D-backs dugout! You see, Katie won tickets for a project she did at the science fair at school, she had to plan a baseball team...everything from picking the right players and their salaries, to what concessions they would sell. She was sooo excited to win the tickets, but when we got them we were a little disappointed to see that they were in the extreme nose bleed section. It would have cost us more to drive downtown and park than the tickets were worth, so we decided to save our money and purchase our own tickets and make a fun night of it. I shared the story with Lena, one of my faithful customers, and she said that she gets free tickets at her work all the time and that she would try to score us some tickets! So, Katie, Chad, Uncle Dan and myself headed down to Chase Field (still BOB to me) and had a fantastic night that ended with the roof opening up to a great fireworks display! Icing on the cake since they cancelled fireworks on the fourth of July! They did loose to the Braves...but we had a couple good innings that kept it exciting!

THANK YOU LENA, for the awesome evening...memories that Katie will not forget anytime soon!

Dane spent the night at Grandma and PapPap's house and had an equally good time!

Chonicles of a one year old driver

Yes, I am cool...and yes ladies, I am single!
Gotta go, you can't hold me down now that I have wheels! I am free to experience all that my little red car has to offer...I want to let the wind blow through my hair!
Wait a minute...I forgot Daddy buzzed my head...and now the wind can't blow through my hair!


*In case you notice the bruise on Dane's forhead, he tripped and caught the corner of our paper shredder! Poor guy, but he barely cried...because he is one tough kid!

Developmental Evaluation #3

Sorry I have done such a cruddy job of posting, these are my excuses: our Internet has been going crazy, I think that we have been off line more than on line the past couple of weeks, and we have been getting ready for back to school for Gage and Katie. Katie started school today and Gage starts tomorrow. I will miss my helpers, especially Katie, they have been a big help around the house and with entertaining Dane.

Today was Dane's third developmental evaluation with Phoenix Children's Hospital, I really like getting feed back from the therapists there...the majority of kids they see are former preemies, so they really understand the development of these little miracle kids. Well, besides her immediate response to how huge Dane is (she said that we should do a study on him, he is the biggest preemie she has seen!) she was amazed with his progress. She put him through lots of little tests and then scored him in all of his developmental areas. They go off of his adjusted age of 14 1/2 months, and his lowest score was 15 months! The majority of his scores were at 17-19 months!!! AMAZING!!! Thank you Jesus!!! She was impressed with his sign language, and how he stacked blocks like a pro, he also went up and down the therapy stairs while only holding on with one hand...very fancy stuff! She wasn't that concerned with his wobbliness (I think that I just made that word up), because he has only been walking for two months. She feels that we can back off a little on his PT too, so I think that we may go to twice a month on that. We celebrated his awesome report card with an iced americano and some apple juice...not mixed together of course!
I felt an overwhelming urge to praise God as we left Phoenix Children's...so I put on a CD and sang worship songs very loudly and yes, very out to tune...but I know that God has ears to only hear my heart...to which we are both thankful! It is truly a miracle to watch how Dane has been healed. I am not in denial to what problems may lie ahead for our journey, but I trust in God's plan and know that any future heart ache will only draw us closer to Him.

BTW, his hair is growing out and I think that it looks much better and I am no longer angured with Chad when I see his little head!

Pictures to come soon!

"You, did NOT buzz his head!"

"It's okay, I still look cool Mom!"

Where did Dane go???
"Here I am!"
"YOU DID NOT BUZZ HIS HEAD!!!"

The reply from my dear husband was "yes". I came home from work to see a toddling Dane come around the corner with a silhouette of an egg head that I was so desperately trying to hide with his hair. Yes, Dane did need a trim as the dreaded mullet was starting to appear. I have been ever so slightly trimming his baby hairs for the past six months, and Chad has been teasing me that he was going to buzz him, which I kept saying "you had better not TOUCH his hair". Due to his prematurity he does have a skinny head, the NICU nurses call it a "toaster head" and say that they can spot a grown preemie by the shape of their head! I was trying to grow it out a bit to off set the shape of his head...which I must add is not that bad, the nurses did a great job of turning Dane every couple hours while he was in the hospital to keep the "toaster head" to a minimum. So okay Mom's, I know you can sympathize with me here...yes, he is still adorable and yes, it will grow back...but girls...I was soooo mad at my husband!!! Needless to say I am quite sure that Chad will not go near Dane's head again with anything sharp!

Otherwise, Dane is doing good. We are working on trying to strengthen his core to help him with balance, he is still falling a little more than he should. We are basically doing a Pilate's move on him, his stomach and neck muscles are a little weak and he has compensated with VERY strong shoulder muscles. We are also working on behavior, as he thinks that if we tell him "no", he should try to bite or pinch me. I know that it is out of frustration as he can't communicate with us they way that he wants to. The funny thing is that he only does this to Katie and me...never once does he try to bite Chad or Gage. It also doesn't matter who tells him "no", if Chad tells him know...he tries to pinch me, if I tell him "no" he tries to pinch me. Let me tell you, he has some strong pincher's!!! So, for now we are just removing him from the situation when he starts to do this...time will tell what we try next. He is very strong willed and stubborn, which was a necessity in the NICU...but a bit of a challenge as he gains Independence! We love him though, and we try to remember that it was his rebellious nature that helped him get him where he is today!

Happy 4th of July (on the 3rd!!!)

This is what Dane does when you ask him "who's so cute?" or "who's so smart?" Too cute, he always proudly raises his hand!

I know that I won't have time to post tomorrow, so I thought that I would do it today! I hope that everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow full of lots of family, friends, food, and fireworks.

Beware, hot topic ahead...and it doesn't have one thing to do with Dane or prematurity!

We will be going to a church party/baptism at an unbelievably generous persons home that has offered their gorgeous home to our church family for the evening. This house is awesome, the pool has a lazy river and a buried treasure ship in the shallow end! Gage, Katie and myself have made the decision to be baptised also. Baptism itself has raised a lot of questions for me, since I became a follower of Christ I am very skeptical and aware of trying to stay clear of any legalism in my relationship with God. When I read the gospel what resonates in my heart is that we are to be baptised in the Holy Spirit and if you are not careful, water baptism can feel like another notch on your Christian belt. It is something that I have decided to do as an outward symbol of the internal change that I have had in my life, not as a legalistic, religious thing that somehow makes me more Christ like. There has been an odd stigma that I have found is attached to not being baptised in the church, there are brothers and sisters in Christ that have acted shocked and said "YOU have not been baptised!" and I think that it is for that reason that I haven't done it yet, when people act like that it changes the experience for the person being baptised it makes it about everything that Christ preached against. It's like when you see people take communion, and they really have no idea why they are doing, just another "to do" thing on their God check list, and like taking communion, baptism needs to come from the heart, a decision that is between you and God alone, and I might add a decision that is for God alone to judge. Anyone can get dunked by their Pastor, but it takes a secure relationship with Jesus to search yourself for the real reason you are doing it. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to really pray about it the past couple of weeks, and thankful that I have had the chance to share my heart with people about why I hesitated to do it. I am proud of my kids for making the decision to be baptised tomorrow and I pray that it is truly is a life changing experience for them. I pray that they are not doing it because it is what man expects them to do, but what God wants them to do to show and share with others their faith in Jesus... and that they know it doesn't make them any less or more loved by God...He sees and knows our hearts, whether we have been submerged in water or not. Google "different thoughts about baptism in Christianity" and you be amazed at the discussions out there on this topic. I am glad that I have decided to share this experience with my kids, heart and eyes wide open knowing that there is not any legalistic reason attached to this public symbol of my new identity in Christ. Just as a side note, my Mom baptised me when I was a baby and I think that is awesome, you know why? There is not ANY legalism attached to a Mother baptising her baby with no one else around but the Lord...so thank you MOM!

Oh yeah, make sure in the midst of your 4th of July celebration that you pray for our country, and it's leaders, our soldiers, and their families!!!

Okay, back to Dane, he is doing great! Getting more and more stable on his feet and though he may not be hitting every milestone on time, he shows improvement everyday. We have been taking him swimming, which he loves a little too much...he has ZERO fear of the water! He is my happy guy and our family is blessed by his big brown eyes!

Today is the first day that I have actually felt a lot better, I can have conversation with out my lungs burning. The way I figure it Dane is about 4 days behind me in this flu/chest cold thing. He still has a very nasty cough, but his lungs were clear when we took him to the doctors. (BTW, he weighs 25.5lbs!!!) He is back on breathing treatments, mostly for preventative reasons. He is a much better trooper than I, you barely know he is sick except at night when he tries to cough up all the junk in his chest. We are praying that it doesn't turn into anything worse.

When he is sick or very tired it really effects his motor skill, so he has been falling a lot...which he has actually gotten very good at. He does get frustrated because his body won't do what he wants it to do. Now that he has been walking for two weeks, we have noticed that his right foot is turned out and his right leg is a bit stiff. So, we will keep our eye on that to see if may need a little help with it. We are so proud of him!

The never ending night

Well, I did it...I gave Dane my cooties. He started coughing pretty hard yesterday and I just knew that it wasn't going to be a fun night. He woke up crying and coughing after 15 minutes of sleep, when I went to pick him up he promptly vomited all over me. Now, I am not complaining, we have been so blessed that we haven't had any of the preemie eating, gagging, and vomiting issues. For so many preemies and their families vomiting is a part of the daily routine. I think that Dane must have steel guts, he eats and poops like champ...and has done so since he was in the NICU. With that said, curdled milk and half digested dinner down the INSIDE of your shirt is not cool. He was feeling better, but it took what felt like forever to get him back to sleep. I thought that I would share this cute picture so not to leave you with the mental picture I just created for you above. Then Gage came home from work to this, you guessed it folks, we have a revenge T.P.'ing at it's best. Yes, it sucked that he had to come home from work and clean this up, but the reality of war is not pretty. One of his best friend's that was involved in the initial attack that lead up to this revenge attack came over and helped clean up...there is one thing for sure, the bar has been raised and if I know my boy he will rise to the occasion. So the war will continue, consider yourself warned. Jade, Krystal and Allison!!! :) Gage has a job and plenty of money to buy loads and loads of toilet paper! This was written on the drive way, a cowardly move for sure! I personally think that this Bobby character has made himself a target fair and square...no pun intended of course.
Okay, getting back to Dane, he woke up with a fever and in need of a breathing treatment at around 3:00am. He seems to be a little better this morning but we are taking him to the doctors to be safe, though he has steel guts...his lungs are still a little lacking.

Hopefully, we will all rest well tonight!

Happy Fathers Day

This has nothing to do with Fathers Day...just a funny picture of my personal choir! Gage came home with these from work the other day because they were going to throw them out, but we managed to entertain ourselves for at least 20 minutes with these beautiful red and hot pink choir gowns!

A special Happy Fathers Day goes out to my Dad and my husband, the two guys in my life that I know no matter what happens will always be there for me!

I had to work this morning, and I have been fighting a bit of a yucky chest cold that has turned into what is looking like the flu, but it was a great day still. We went to church, then napped, and I made chicken pot pie to take to my Mom and Dads.

Dane is walking up a storm, though his walk does resemble a zombie that has had a couple cocktails! What a great gift for fathers day, to see our little man toddling around!

He is still doing great with his communication, his new thing is what I call "babbling in sign language". He will start doing things with his hands, I know he is trying to sign something but I have no idea what! I know that he is soaking up all the signing that I am teaching him and the signing videos too, so I guess it's just like the babbling he does in reaction to all the talking he hears around him...just with his hands! It's very cute none the less.

NEWS ALERT!!!

Sorry about the quality of this video, it was taken with my digital camera...anyway...Dane has been taking three or four steps on his own for the past week or so, but today we had some friends over and when they went to leave he walked from our kitchen to the front door to follow them out! We grabbed the camera and did a reenactment by dangling my cell phone in front of him! We are so proud of him!

We thank God for his continued healing of our sweet miracle!

The eyebrow

So, for those of you in our family...well at least my Mom's (Grandma Kathy) side of the family, there is the famous "eyebrow". My Mom can raise her eyebrow at you like no other, my brothers David and Mark also have "the eyebrow", it's been kinda a joke in our family as long as I can remember. Katie snapped this picture of Dane, and you can see for your self that the legacy of "the eyebrow" will live on for another generation! Though it's not raised nearly as high as my Mom can raise hers, not too shabby for a one year old. For those of you that don't care about our family eyebrow raising...it's still a funny picture!

You may have heard me say this before, but....This little boy amazes me! We were at the grocery store when he started making quite the scene over a picture of a baby in a magazine. So, once again, we showed him the sign for baby...which is folding your arms as if you were holding a baby and rocking. Well it finally clicked with him and he is now a "baby" signing fool. As you can see from the video, he shakes his head "no" when I keep asking him to sign "duck" (which he knows how to do)...but if you listen closely you can clearly hear him say duck. He has grown leaps and bounds in the past two weeks with his speech. He is clearly starting to mimic what we say to him. It is soooo exciting and one of the many "Thank you Lord" moments as we get to watch this miracle unfold right in our very own little house!

He is still very, very close to walking and has started taking one or two steps consistently between furniture with out holding on. He is extremely stubborn, and refuses to practice walking unless it is his idea and not ours! He is currently tempting his boundaries on behavior, which we are doing the best we can in being consistent...though it is very hard to keep a straight face when he is being a stinker! He already broke the first set of baby locks on our cabinets, and Chad just installed the new ones...hopefully they will last longer than the first ones! He favorite thing is taking everything out of the pantry, and when we ask him "who make this big mess?", he proudly raises his hand! We are baby sitting my Moms dog, and has been saying her name, Molly, like a pro...well at least he says "olley"...good enough for me~

We celebrated his "adjusted age" birthday party last weekend. We had his dedication at church, which was a tear jerker for me, then we had family and close friends over for some cake. Dane did great at the party, and let everyone hold and play with him. It was a great day, I only wish that we had the finances and the space to have invited more people to share in the celebration! I better go, I can hear Chad scolding Dane for getting into the garbage...he is worse than a dog when it comes to getting into the garbage!

We are really working on signing please and thank you, but as you can see from the video or if you have ever been around Chad and I, you know that we both seem to talk at the same time...so the fact that Dane can hold two conversations with us at once makes him a double genius!!!

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New goals

"Good grief Mom, enough with the camera!"
"Okay, I'll smile for this picture...but only because it's Mothers Day"

Every six months the DDD comes out and we talk about how Dane is doing and set new goals for him for the next six months. I was so proud that he had mastered all of his goals that were set for him six months ago, like getting himself into a sitting position, crawling and more babbling. He has kicked some serious preemie butt in all of those goals...so now we move on to new goals. Of course walking is a major goal for the next six months, but the big one is speech. Speech is the area that he is the most delayed in, he does a lot of pointing and grunting to communicate with us. We encourage him to sign to us, which he has been doing awesome with...he is pretty consistently signing "more", "drink", and "all done". There are times that he refuses to sign, but we take his hands and do the signs for him before he gets what he wants. We want him to start mimicking our speech with in the next six months...that is the biggie right now. He seems to have a bit of an ornery side to him, but for now we treat him like we would any other child when he acts up. Time out in his play pen and stuff like that, it's just so hard to tell what is a behavior issues VS. disabilities. I personally think that he is a smarty pants with an attitude!

Today, we had him strapped into his toddler rocking chair to watch a video while Chad and I worked on a spread sheet for his business. Next thing we hear "THUMP", we look over and there goes Dane crawling across the floor with the chair still attached to him! He couldn't see where he was going because he couldn't look up, ya know these things are hard when you have a rocking chair strapped to your back...we heard him swinging his legs but we had no idea that he was doing it with the intention of rocking himself completely forward! He looked like a hostage victim trying to get to away while still tied up! He took off crawling until he hit the wall! There is no one that can tell me that this child is not a genius...or at least an escape artist!

We are going to try to get a video of him doing it, it was the funniest thing that I had seen in long time!

I know, he looks like an angel in the pictures above...but trust me, there is something behind those eyes that is full of mischief!