Grace and Ears

I believe I mentioned Grace's ears at her 12 month wellness. It was the third time her pediatrician mentioned "watching her ears" in the event she got an ear infection. I brought it up and he sent us to a specialist, ENT doctor. We saw one doctor and I didn't care for him, so we sought out a second opinion.

I'm ready for the doctor.

And we're waiting for the doctor...

And we're still waiting...

The second doctor confirmed the issue, but we preferred his way over the last doctor. She needs tubes in both her ears.

She's never had a fever. She's never had an ear infection. But I guess when she's had colds in the past, the mucus can slide down the eustachian tube (which for young children is completely horizontal from eardrum to nose, and as we grow becomes more diagonal - hence why adults don't usually have ear issues like children) and sits behind the eardrum getting stuck. The stuck fluid makes her ability to hear a little more difficult - like being under water. Though I never notice having to raise my voice for her to hear me and she's saying words like: No, thank you, night night, bye bye, hi there, mama, dada. The doctor said we could remove the mucus and not insert tubes, but the fluid might return then we'd be back to square 1. This is such a critical age in learning to speak that we don't want to hinder her at all, and so the procedure is super easy (15 minutes), in and out.

Miss Grace is scheduled for surgery in early December. Quite a bummer, but at least it's nothing too major. As she grows the tubes will fall out (in around 6-12 months depending on her growth) and the eustachian tube grows larger making it harder for fluid to get stuck. She should be good to go.

Always smiling! She'll do great!

Let's Get Swimming!

William started swim class this week at the YMCA and so far so good! I know he loves the water, but I was wondering how he would like some of the unpleasant water dunking. The class is only 10 minutes, but 10 minutes every day for 6 weeks. This isn't an attempt to turn him into Michael Phelps. He isn't learning freestyle and the butterfly at this moment -- the purpose is to teach him water safety and in the event he falls into a pool/lake/body of water that he will instinctively know to float and go to the edge. Guess this is what you do when you live in Florida and water is nearby every where!

The first day William met the instructor who is very nice and he didn't have one issue going into the pool with just her. We have been three days now and he cries throughout the lesson, but not at all in a terrible way. She actually told me he's pretty calm for a first timer. We encourage him, tell him good job and it was so funny - yesterday toward the end of the lesson and being dunked under water, he would come up whimpering, but started clapping for himself. You can tell he's proud that he's enduring through such a difficult task!

Today he sat at the edge of the pool staring at the instructor with another student. He loves splashing on the side and tried to go to the steps to get into the water. I think we will have a pretty good swimmer on our hands one day! For now we will work on the basics though... close your mouth when you go under water (which he is doing really well already!).

Let's get swimming!

Petting Farm

This weekend we went to Green Meadows Petting Farm and I'm not sure who had more fun! I might say me... There were so many fun animals to see and touch that we didn't even reach the end of the tour before William was completely exhausted. Literally 1 minute of getting into the car he passed out. There were train rides and hayrides and lots of interesting tractors and playgrounds. A kid (or overly excited animal lover) paradise. We took many pictures and here are a few of our favorites!

Exhausted baby boy...

William today

I miss William's monthly updates. It was a lot of fun his first year to document each changing month from his personality to abilities to growth. In addition to the blog, I had a calendar from his first year that I filled in pretty much every single day with very brief happenings from that specific day... I know the day of his first smile, his first laugh, his first time sleeping longer than 3 hours, first time napping in the crib, first solid, how many bottles a day, etc. I know the next baby will be different, but I think it will be very helpful to have an idea when we reached milestones with the first -- plus a fun memento for William to see what he did the first year of his life!

So we don't have monthly updates and we don't have a calendar anymore, and I thought it would be nice to share a handful of William today updates...

Catch me if you can!

• Gives kisses when you ask for one and hugs too (a kiss is usually a big sloppy open mouth though!)
• Points at everything
• Crawling off of furniture by himself, but crawling up onto furniture without a small step is still difficult (not complaining about that one because he likes to lean over the back of the couch to check out things...)
• Can find his belly button and likes to find my belly button too!
• At the park he went down the slide by himself for the first time last week - he's very cautious. I was worried he'd fly down and hit the back of his head, but he holds the sides and knows to slowly loosen his grip to slide down
• Naps twice a day still - occasionally he's not in the mood to nap during one nap or the other, but he sits in his crib and plays for most of the nap time. He loves his green blanket too and as soon as he spots the green blanket he knows it's time to sleep. Pops his thumb into his mouth and snuggles up to the blanket.
• Climbing the stairs (up and down) is a favorite activity. He reaches his hand out because he wants you to hold his hand as he climbs. Again - he's pretty cautious! If I want to carry him upstairs, he fights to get down so he can climb himself - with assistance, of course.
• Speaking of being a strong little guy climbing he is actually a really strong walker too! We walked from our townhouse to Matt's office the other day - there AND back - and he walked by himself the entire way. For an adult this is not that long of a walk (maybe 1/2 a mile?), but for a baby it had to be a marathon! He was determined to walk alone and did it. He napped for nearly three hours after the marathon walk :)
• Balloons and balls are still very much loved. God forbid we are at the grocery store and he spots the balloons at checkout and there is a line to checkout... He has his own version of saying "ball" and "Balloon" -- recently I think I figured out he's saying Maggie's name, but he says "Ge! Ge!" As in "Mag-gie."
• Dancing all the time. As soon as he hears a song he stops what he's doing to feel the rhythm. The radio will be on in the car and when I look in my rear view I can see his two hands bopping up and down over the top of my headrest!
• Cars and carseats are still not a favorite... don't drive for too long or go on too many errands with William or you will have one unhappy little boy... 
• Sweets, sweets, sweets... just like his Daddy! I made a big mistake of ordering chocolate munchkins on a couple different occasions from the drive-thru and now when I go to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee he gets upset immediately if he doesn't see a munchkin... He's too young to reason that munchkins are only available on the weekends... ha!
• Still "Oooh" and "Ahhh"s over new discoveries.

Skinny, but strong!

Utensil practice... gotta start somewhere!

Green blanket

Sitting forward in the car

Bouncing with Lucy and Brooks at open gym

Total guy

He cracks me up every day with something new. He's being picky some days about eating and others he can't eat enough. William starts swim class next week, so that will be interesting! I bring him to the pool every so often to sit on the steps and splash, which he loves. I save him from drowning every few minutes because he tries to dunk his head into the water - the concept of not being able to breathe under water isn't there yet :) We have so much fun with the little guy and we have so many new adventures planned. Will keep you updated on the little man as time goes by - goes by quickly, that's for sure.

A second from running






I love apples!