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!