First Birthday Blues

I believe I started planning Grady's first birthday (in my head) at about 6 months old. Ridiculous I know, but I'm a major planner and this was going to be a huge milestone for us. I settled in on the Winter Onederland theme since he's a January baby. But, when I started looking over the guestlist I quickly realized there was no way we could fit everyone in our house. So, why not throw 2 parties? We planned for his family birthday to be on his actual birthday, January 26. It worked out perfect because it landed on a Saturday so my familiy could come from Raleigh. One problem - Raleigh decided to get a major ice storm prohibiting everyone from coming :( I was so bummed. I had worked so hard as did my mom with decorations. Oh well. To be honest the first birthday really is for the parents not the kids. They don't know what's going on. Either way we went forward and had Dave's family over. A part of me knew Grady was going to hate cake and icing, but I just had to try. So we all gathered around Grady's highchair and sang Happy Birthday. Once we finished we all clapped and said "woooo" and out came the tears! He absolutely hated it. We tried putting icing in his mouth and he cried through the whole thing. And then had to take a nap. Sigh.....

 

 

So even though the family party didn't turn out quite as planned, nothing was keeping my spirits down because his friend party was the very next weekend and in my head it was going to be nothing short of awesome. Sarah and Jonathan were coming in town for the friend party because Sarah was in the Middle East for his real birthday. This was great for me because I needed tons of help. They came in late Thursday and Friday morning Grady seemed a little off. In fact Thursday night he had a low grade fever but I figured he was teething and brushed it off. By mid Friday his fever was around 102. Shit. So I did the very adult thing and cancelled his party. I didn't think it was right to expose all the other babies and children if in fact Grady came down with something. Funny thing is that he acted fine. Slept through the night, eating, drinking, playing. You would have never guessed he was so sick. But every 3 - 4 hours, just as his meds wore off, his fever came right back. I felt so bad for Sarah and Jonathan! Come Saturday morning his fever registered 103. Now I was getting nervous because he's never had a high fever. I called the doctor and we decided to keep a watch on him, switch between Tylenol and Motrin every 4 hours, but as long as he was happy, eating and drinking there was no cause for concern.

 

I was feeding him dinner Saturday night and Sarah was sitting on the other side of his high chair when all of the sudden I noticed his sippy cup shaking. Weird. Then it happened again so I asked Sarah if she noticed he was shaking and she said yes. Freaking out now. Then I looked at his lips and said Sarah, are his lips turning blue, and she very reluctantly replied yes. Holy Shit! I grabbed him out of his high chair and ran to the back deck where the guys were steaming Oysters. I told Dave what happened and immediately decided to call 911. I wasn't sure if he was starting to have a seizure, which I knew could happen with a high fever. The 911 operator told me they needed to get him to the hospital via ambulance in case something was happening. So, I obviously became hysterical as I packed his diaper bag and probably walked around the house ranting about God knows what while we waited for the ambulance.

 

When the paramedics arrived they decided it was best to be safe and take him. So we loaded up into the ambulance and Dave followed behind us. I figured I could hold Grady but that was not the case - he needed to be stapped into a stretcher. I thought he was going to totally melt down. Instead, he yet again made a liar out of me, took both hands and held onto the sides of the stretcher and chatted up the paramedic. Not a single wimper or tear the whole 15 minute ride to the hospital - from Grady that is! The nice thing about arriving in style via ambulance is that you get the fast track straight into a room. They immediately took his temp which turned out to be 104.5. Cue the mommy heart failure. I was mystified because he wasn't even warm to the touch. They checked his pulse/ox and everything was perfect. They decided he had rigors because his internal temperature spiked so fast but his external didn't have time to catch up so his body started shaking. Dr. assured me this was perfectly normal and he would be just fine. They ran blood work but no signs of the flu or bacterial infection. He did however have a horrific double ear infection so we figured the fever came from that. He was such a little trooper and so brave. I was a hot mess though!

 

Everything ended up being just fine. We had several check ups with his pediatrician regarding the really bad ear infections, and we even thought he was going to have to see an ENT specialist for tubes. But, miraculously they cleared up within a week - oddly enough after we took him off antibiotics. Thank God - we all needed a break.

 

To break 2013 down for you, he had a bad cough, cold, ear infection for New Years. Then 2 weeks later he got the stomach flu, and so did Dave and I...at the exact same time...it was horrific. Dave's parents were in Arizona so I had to call my mom to come help take care of Grady. This sounds silly, but I swear I puked 70 times in 24 hours. It was so bad my mom convinced me to go to Urgent Care to get an antinausea pill so that I could eat something. Well wouldn't you know I was so dehydrated that they sent me straight to the ER. Awesome. Mind you, this was all going down at the same time that our sweet Porter because extremely ill. Presumably he had a tumor, but we're not exactly sure. He got sick and less than a week later we had to put him down. Then 2 weeks after that Grady got sick and ended up in the hospital. Then we dealt with 2 weeks of his really bad ear infection. So, to put it lightly 2013 started off horrible!

 

We finally had Grady's friend party the end of February. It was a great time with great friends and great kiddos. We also confirmed Grady still hates cake and icing. Sigh...

XOXO,

Court

Grady's baby book

Wow - this was quite the project. I may have taken thousands of photos of Grady during his first year so sifting through them was very tedious. Especially because I sat and stared, laughed, teared up, and started all over again.  Here's a link to his baby book...

Ill still do a somewhat traditional baby book with some of the cards and things I've saved along the way, especially the cards from family members who have moved onto Heaven. But I like the idea of a "coffee table" book he can have later on. Enjoy!

XOXO,

Court

11 Months Old!

Seriously, am I really planning Grady's 1st birthday parties (yes 2 - we have a large family)? Yikes.

 

 

 

 

He is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds and everyday I am a mixture of impressed, amazed, bewildered, and a little sad by how fast he is growing. Crawling is a thing of the past! He's actually more interested in running which scares me to death. This is how the first major injury occurred. We were playing his favorite game of "I'm going to get you" (which incidentially when you say this to Grady, he turns around smiling wide as possible and runs straight to you - not quite how the game goes, but he's his own person now!) and BAM. He tripped and went forehead first into the corner of door trim. He cried immediately so hard that I had to blow into his face to get him to breathe again. My heart stopped and I yelled at Dave to go get ice because the goose egg appeared immediately. How he didn't split his forehead open I do not know. Now Dave handled this like a champ, calm and reassuring for Grady. I, on the other hand, failed epically. I could barely hold Grady I was crying so hard. I felt so guilty, even though I was standing 3 feet from him I couldn't catch him from falling fast enough. I tried to convince Dave we should take him to the ER and he calmly tried to reassure me he didn't need to go (the look on Dave's face told a different story - I could tell he wanted to call me crazy and slap me across the face to snap me back to reality, but he knew I was in a terrible emotional state and clearly that wouldn't have helped.) The next day I, of course, called his doctor to be sure and she, along with 20 other moms, told me he has a very strong head and is just fine and it will probably happen again and again and again. Dave's mom told me when Dave was little he would trip over dust so I guess I better get used to it.

So, since that fateful evening my days and nights consist of hovering over Grady, saying no and no touch 500 times, and running interference from our everyday furniture which in my eyes is now evil. Yep - I'm a hoverer. I never thought I would be but motherhood has proved me wrong yet again.

My little bug is walking, running, climbing, basically into everything he shouldn't be these days.

But more importantly, he melted my heart a few days before Christmas when he mumbled those sweet words every mother patiently waits to hear ... "momma". He actually repeated it several times in a row - just to make sure I heard him. So, here we are at 11 months and he has 3 words - dada, momma, and baby. Grady's latest is waving hi and bye-bye. Sometimes he looks at you and sometimes he just pans the room around while waving, but he definitely understands hi and bye. Again, I am in constant amazement with what he has accomplished in just 11 short months.

Now on the eating front, still not too interested in eating small pieces of chicken, turkey, etc. He pretends he's gagging and chocking everytime. Yet, he'll eat the heck out of puffs, cookies, baby goldfish (his fav) so I know he's faking! I'm now trying cinnamon raisen bread, we shall see!

He's busier than ever and is very curious about his toys, how they work, and inspects every inch of them with the cutest serious face I have ever seen.

 

 

 

 

Stay tunned for details and pictures on his first birthday.

 

XOXO,

 

Court

Recap on Grady's First Christmas

Holy moly the holidays came and went! I'm not even sure where to start and I'm quite sure I'm missing some things in this post.

Dave's parents headed to California for Christmas so we celebrated Christmas with his family a little early. Grady's first stab at opening gifts went ok. He made it through 2-3 presents, melted down and then took a 2 1/2 hour nap. By the time we had dinner all 4 cousins were loosing their marbles. Poor Lora, she worked so hard on dinner and we had to rush through it to get Grady in the car and home. Unfortunately he was sick and we had to get him home early to do his nebulizer breathing treatment. I've decided in years to come we're packing his pjs and he can fall asleep whereever we are because Dave and I feel like were missing out on everything having to leave by 6 pm.

Two weeks later we headed to Raleigh for Grady's first Christmas with my family. Suprise - Uncle Fran, Aunt Barbie, Nicki, and Mike all came up from Florida to spend the holidays with us. I'm so glad they finally got to meet the little guy who stole Nona's heart! Grady was much better at the gift thing for round 2 - although he seemed much more interested in ripping the paper than playing with the toys.

(Sidenote - we learned while at my parent's house his favorite color is purple. My little pirate!)

We drove back to MD on Christmas Eve morning and thank God he slept 3 out of the 5 hours we were in the car. Hallelujah! I... eh hem Santa bought us a portable DVD player which he let us open before Christmas so I think it saved us from a total Grady-in-the-car-too-long-meltdown!

Finally, we had our first Christmas just the three of us. We put a cookie out and showed Grady (he didn't seem too impressed) that it was for Santa. I was so excited once Grady went to bed to pull all the presents out and arrange them under the tree. I couldn't wait for morning to arrive. I had envisioned it going a little different than it actually did. He wasn't too excited about hanging out near the Christmas tree and he wasn't too thrilled about the whole present thing either. (Cue the sigh) Oh well, till next year!

I can't believe I did this, but I left my camera in Maryland when we went to Raleigh so as soon as my mom sends me pictures, I promise to update! 

 

 

 

 

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10 Months Old!

Apparently I never posted this - oops!

Cue the broken record - again! Good Lord this little guy is growing by leaps and bounds. Just before his 10 month birthday, Grady graced us with his first word ... "dada". He has been babbling for a few weeks now and would say "dadadadadaada". However, this time he was playing in the family room and Dave walked in and Grady looked right at him and said "dada". MELT MY HEART. I think Dave's heart skipped 5 beats. The look on his face was priceless. Since then, I've been stalking Grady saying "momma" every 10 minutes. He repeats what he thinks is momma, but its really "baba". Oh well, it will happen soon enough. He is talking nonstop now. He talks to himself, his toys, really anyone who will listen. Precious. Grandma Schoen told us he held up a ball and said "bahh", but I haven't been able to get him to repeat it :(

 

Some other firsts just before 10 months old ...he dances. So cute! He just goes up and down while standing in the same place. He mimics what you do. If you growl at him, he growls back. If you laugh at him, he laughs back. If you pat your hand on the table, he does it right back. Amazing!

 

And my favorite first, he took his first step. He actually did it Thanksgiving morning. He was walking around the coffee table, looked at the couch, let go of the table and took one step unassisted and reached the couch. Dave and I were shocked! Its only a short time before he's walking all over the place! For now, just a step or two is fine by me.

 

And as I write this, just last night Dave and I had to give him his first hair cut. Don't freak out, it was just a little snip in the back. No child of mine will rock a mullet!

With all of these firsts happening one after the other, I feel like I can't keep track of it all. I hope I don't miss something!

 XOXO,

Court

Thankful

The usual Thanksgiving tradition is to sit at a beautifully decorated table filled with amazingly delicious foods and everyone says what they are thankful for. There are not enough hours in one day for me to share with everyone what I am thankful for this year. The obvious is Grady. He is everything I imagined and then some. But not only am I grateful for him, but I'm grateful for my family. Recently we had a "family" member unexpectedly get called up to Heaven. It puts so much into perspective when something tragic like this happens. The only silver lining, if there is such a thing, is that you realize what is important. I drove to Raleigh for the funeral and left Grady and Dave in Maryland. The entire drive down I thanked God for my boys, my family, my friends. I prayed he would return me to Maryland safe and sound so that I could love on my boys. Life is so precious and sometimes too short. I made a promise to myself that I won't sweat the small stuff anymore.

 

As the holiday season is now in full swing, I hope everyone keeps a little perspective. It can be a stressful time, trying to make sure the meal is perfect, the house is spotless. Hunting and stressing over finding the perfect gifts for everyone. In reality, its not about that. Its about family. Spending those precious moments with the ones you love. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!

Enough with the perspective talk. It was a Schoen Thanksgiving this year as we will be in Raleigh for Christmas. Here's some pics of the family - which continues to grow every year (yay baby boy Stebbins!)

 

 

XOXO,

 

Court