Something New Every Day...

Gift from Uncle Jeff, Aunt Leslie, and cousins Max and Greenlee...
He loves it

Well, the boy has officially been at home for half as long as he spent in Children's Hospital, which puts him at nine months old. As you might imagine, a lot has changed since our last update.

Last Wednesday, May 19, at exactly 1:00pm on the nose, Jackman became independently mobile. I am not kidding. When the clock struck one, he made a bee line for the DVD collection, then pulled out all the diapers, then headed for the stairs (which lead up, not down). The way he did it was what was so funny. he had the intensity of a getaway driver (hope it's no indication of his future profession). At 12:59, he did not know how to crawl, but at 1:00, he was setting new land speed records. We just didn't know what to think. guess that's just how it works.

He's virtually walking too. He does it all except walking completely alone. We really thought he would walk before he would crawl. Good thing I didn't place any bets on that.

Nap time and bed time have changed drastically. Now that the boy knows he can get around, he likes to really mess up the nest before he goes to sleep. Sometimes we will lay him in bed upstairs and come back 15 minutes later to give him his medicine, and he will literally have turned 180 degrees without making a sound over the monitor. One would swear the other came in and turned him as a practical joke, but it's happened too many times. Sometimes, he like to play the joke on us, and grab the monitor and breath into it like some kind of obscene phone call. It's pretty funny when you're downstairs, minding your own business, and then hear that heavy mouth breathing over the monitor.

One of the craziest things has to be the latest challenge in diaper changing. I just thought it was hard when he was a little thing. Now, I feel like the late Steve Irwin wrestling a crocodile every time I change one. No sooner do I get the old one loose, and it's like someone threw open the gate at the Kentucky Derby. He goes into overdrive. He's flopping and twisting around like some kind of wounded animal. At times I think it would be easier to put a diaper on a cougar than that little boy. But we both kind of enjoy the competition I guess (he takes it easy on the women folk).

Yep, the age of "No" has officially begun. If he ain't supposed to be in it, that's where he's headed first.

Everything is going good. He isn't eating or swallowing yet, but we're working on it. An occupational therapist comes to the house twice a month to check his progress and help us advance without sacrificing the progress we've made. He's getting to where he's okay with new tastes, which is huge compared to last month, when he wouldn't tolerate anything but the taste of water and plastic.

Anyway, we've had some stressful times, but we try to remember what all the LORD has seen us through up to this point. When you do that for even just a minute, the things that cause us anxiety seem to fade out. God's definitely been good to us, and we know we can count on Him.