Just another quick update

Blair continues to do so well. He is almost 17 lbs. He is still such a happy little guy. He loves to giggle and loves it when others laugh with him.
He already looks so big to me. He is finding a little independence, and he makes it known when he needs his space. Even though I would like to keep him a baby forever, I can already see that he is not going to go for that! He can wiggle with the best of them when he is done being held. He is sitting by himself, and he loves to reach for anything so I think that crawling will be soon.

We have been back to some of his specialists and things continue to improve. We saw his pulmonologist, and he was very positive about Blair's progress. AND, he has told us that soon we need to start getting out more. We have been waiting for this time since he was born, and we are so grateful that it is finally here. We have started to do a few things. He has been to his first birthday party. His cousin turned 3, and we went to his party. Blair was amazed at all of the stuff, the lights, the noise and all of the other little people. He loved it. He has also been to his first play date, and again, he loved the newness of it and loved being around other babies.

As I said before, we (especially me) have been looking forward to the time when we could get out of this house and do more for so long, and I am so excited, but the crazy thing is that I am also scared. Fear is terrible. It can and usually does paralyze me. It keeps me from doing and being all that I should do or be. I have realized how fearful I can be since Blair was born, and I am working on it. I do not want to be afraid that Blair will get sick and end up in the hospital. I do not want to be afraid of the procedures that he will have to undergo in the future. I do not want to be afraid that his progress will slow down or stop, BUT I do fear those things and more. I try to keep it in perspective and to push those fears out when they creep into my head. As usual, I am learning so much from other people- Friends who have been there before me and are going through it now. I hope that I will follow their leads. I hope that I will always be grateful for the day that I am living and that I will always celebrate every single day of Blair's life without getting bogged down in the fear.

We head back to the cardiologist in February, and I will update after that appointment.

The babysitter called......

This is the first time that we left Blair and his babysitter called to tell us to come home. Ok- we don't leave him much at all, and she has actually called once before, but we were already on the way home. This is the first time that I actually heard the phone ring, picked it up and then heard the loud screaming on the other end. Yikes! Scary for a minute, but then I quickly realized, IT IS HIS TEETH! Those sharp little guys hurt.

By the time we made it home, his little face was red and splotchy from all of the crying, and it took some time for us to get him settled down. Our sweet babysitter, Audrey, who sees Blair every week because she helps me 2 days a week said "I think that he actually knew that y'all were not here tonight." Oh no!! That breaks my heart. Only yesterday when I left the house after Audrey got here I saw those sweet big brown eyes of Blair look at me like "hey where are you going." I love that he knows me AND misses me, but it also makes me feel so sad to think about him missing me and/or his daddy, and I am only talking about a couple of hours at the most. Boy, do I have a long way to go........

Happy New Year!

Christmas was wonderful! We had such a great time with our family. Blair loved getting to be with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! We live in such an isolated state right now that having people- other than his mama and daddy- around him was awesome. It was funny to watch him watch everyone else.

We had great plans to do a lot of things over the Christmas holiday that did not happen. We thought that we would finally get out to some friends houses for parties, go see santa and most importantly get back to St. Peter's for Christmas Eve service. We realized that while we are definitely ready to get out and do more it is not time yet. We have made it this far without any unnecessary colds, viruses or flus so why start now.... So we regretted to all of the parties and decided to stay home again from church, but we still had a great Christmas. We are lucky to have a great priest and friend who remembered us and brought church to us. We certainly miss St. Peters!

While we did not do a lot of the things that we thought that we would do, we did alter our strict little schedule! Blair slept at his grandmother's and his aunt's house. He did great, and now we are feeling like we can do more and more....

For the last week, Blair has been SITTING UP to eat in his booster seat. He looks SO BIG in that chair. AND, I was right, he now has a tooth. He cut his first tooth yesterday and the 2nd one will be here very soon. It is crazy how wonderful and sad that can feel all at the same time. When Stephen got home last night, I told him that I had some news..... I told him that Blair definitely had a tooth. Even though, we both knew that it was coming, Stephen's mouth dropped. Then, I showed him the new sharp little guy, and Stephen looked at me with those sweet little eyes and said "this is so exciting but I am a little sad too." We only want Blair to grow and be stronger every day, but we are enjoying him so much that we just wish that we could stop the time. I know that every parent feels these amazing feelings of love for their children, but it is something that no one can accurately describe until until you are experiencing it for yourself!

How grateful we are for our sweet little Blair!