Ready for bed

I think we are all ready for bed a little early tonight! We had a fun day today but at points during the day it was a little stressful. Jack is starting to develop his own opinions and personality. Folks... I'm a tad scared! He is already tossing around throwing fits when he doesn't get his way...YIKES! You shall see this in the last picture... but before we get there enjoy the fun from today.

We got up for the morning and put on some big boy clothes, because we were venturing to the dog park. Thanks to Mr. Norton for this rough and tough camo shirt! We love it and here is to wishing you a very Happy Birthday!

Once we got dressed we packed up and off to the dog park we went. Buckley of course went straight for the water while Chico was busy meeting a new friend that looked just like him!

Jack was loving checking out all the dogs.Once we got the dogs cleaned up we headed home for a much needed nap!

While Jack took a nap I slipped out for a baby shower and once I returned we had a little afternoon fun in the den with a toy that we got for Christmas. He finally has interest in the dragon and all the balls that go with it.

Chico joined us in the den and loved on Jack for a little while, so sweet!!

It was time to wind down for the night, so we went to read a book. He was happy at first and actually was busy playing with his diaper, but then started having a fit for no reason! He was tossing his hands all over the place (that's why they are blurry in the picture). We stopped the book early and gave him his bottle and off he went to sleep. Not sure why he had a fit other than maybe he was just ready to go to bed. And with that... so are we! Night Night.

On the move!!!

Look at this little boy! I pulled out some toys he had never seen before.... Big Boy Tonka Trucks!!! .......and soon enough he was pulling/crawling right to them! I bet it will be less than two weeks before he is all over this house!!

And yes I realize that I sound like I'm talking to the dog, I need to change that!!

I can't stand all this cutness!!!

Check out one cute outfit after the next we had on Jack!

First up our squirrel Viva La Fete jon jon with long Jefferies socks! Love our southern little boy!!

For dinner we put on this Bivo bib, don't you love it?!? The ears on the bib is a removable washcloth ! How clever!

He has been doing this face lately, we laugh and he keeps doing it! So funny! Night Night time we put on some sweet Magnolia Baby pj's

Stylin' mornin', noon and night!

xoxo The Strehlows

8 MONTHS OLD

Whooooooooo is 8 months today???oh wait

I am!!!!!!!! That's right our little stinker is 8 months old today and we are on our 200th post today! Come on ya'll kick your feet up and let's celebrate!!

Has it really been 8 months since we were in the hospital? We can not believe how fast this month has gone! We are already going to be in March! Whew! I know why moms start planning those 1st birthdays ahead of time, because it will be here before I know it!!
I tried to get the best pictures I could, but as they get older sitting in front of a flashing camera isnt that exciting....

....and they for sure let you know when they are tired of it!! Poor baby!!
And just "one more picture" ...ohhh toes look at my toes mommy!

Leaving you with a smile from the birthday boy of the month club!

What he is doing:

• Our big boy is about 21 pounds, not sure on the height but by all the other kids in his Gymboree class he is the tallest!
• 6 oz of formula when he wakes up
• 9 am eats his breakfast - which is one jar of fruit - stage 2
• 11 am goes down for almost 2 hours! wahoo!! We usually give him a small bottle before his nap
• He wakes up and then eats lunch which these days consists of fresh steamed veggies. He looooooves carrots and green beans. So I buy the raw veggies and we use our steamer to prepare a few. He also eats 1/2 jar of veggies at this time too.
• His bottle intake has been less and less so I say he probably is moved to every 4 hours with sometimes not taking a full bottle during those times
• 4:00 pm goes down for his 2nd nap which can last up to two hours but usually is just an hour
• 6 pm has his dinner - which is one jar of a stage 2 or 3 food
• Drinks water out of a sippie cup and now holds it himself. He sometimes drops it but he really has the hang of it and knows what he is doing
• He transfers his snacks (such as Cheerios) from his highchair tray to his mouth with a 70% success rate!
• He has moved his bed time to about 7: 30 pm but some nights still goes down at 7 pm.
• He usually wakes up around 7: 30 am and I let him play in his crib until 8 am.
• Still only has two teeth and we brush them every night! He likes it :)
• Went to Galveston for the first time and had a blast!
• He is still trying to crawl, He is starting to push backwards now - so we are for sure getting closer!
• He finally is sitting up and I think still rather prefer to be on the ground but he plays with his toys sitting up! :)
• Has found the dog toy bin and thinks they are his toys so we really have to watch him ALL the time, or he will be chewing on the dog bone, ew!!
• Loves to give hugs, we will tell him give a hug and he puts his head to your head. He doesn't have the arms around you yet but he knows to put his head to yours. Its the cutest thing!
• He loves to look at his "friend" aka himself in the mirror and tries to eat him. ha ha pretty entertaining!
• Has started to notice really tiny things on his toys
• We finally gave up the swing, he was pulling the over head toys down where it would make a clunk clunk clunk noise on the motor. So we decided no more swing!
• Learned we have to get surgery in April for his breathing issues but he will be a strong little boy!
• .......but I think my all time favorite thing he has been doing is when he runs his fingers through my hair when I feed him ....I just melt!

He is a thriving BUSY boy! Every day he learns something new and brings us so much joy and laughter. Happy 8 months baby boy! We love you!

The Good The Bad The Ugly

So we always said this blog was to document every little detail about Jack's life.... even if it meant sharing with him some of the not so fun stuff life sent our way.

Ever since birth Jackson has had a deep chest congestion, which has turned into severe apnea episodes at times. Where he won't breathe and takes huge gasps in his breathing, which at times is down right scary! He snores at night and not the cute snoring, it's really loud and we know he can't be sleeping soundly. I had this mother's intuition that it just wasn't reflux or something that would go away. So I made an appointment with our pediatrician and expressed my concerns about this lingering issue. She acknowledged that it had indeed developed into something that she needed to start to focus her attention to. She sent us last Friday to Texas Children's Hospital to get x-rays of Jack's chest, even though she was sure that wasn't it she was trying to rule out the most scary of the possibilities, a tumor in his chest. Thank the lord that the x-ray came back that afternoon with a perfectly clear chest and nothing abnormal. So our next appointment was today to the ENT (Ear Nose Throat) Doctor. We originally had it scheduled for later in March but we got a call today that the ENT Dr wanted to see us today per my pediatrician's recommendation. I was a little freaked out that it got moved up so soon, but it's something we needed to do so I told myself at least we get one step closer to figuring out what's wrong. Our appointment was scheduled for 4 pm. We got to the Dr's office just on time, it was freezing outside and the traffic was awful! I was rushing around to make sure that we got there on time and Jack was looking at me like I was a crazy lady no doubt!We met up with Daddy and had a quick bottle while we waited for the audiologist to get us for the hearing test.

The hearing test was a challenge because Jack was such a wiggle worm, but we managed to get through it and passed it! One more thing marked off the list that it isn't and on to what it is. We went back to the waiting room and then waited for the ENT Dr. We met with him and right away he told us that he knew what it was but he needed to do some tests to verify. So off we went to another room and waited for the tests. If you saw Jack you would never know anything was wrong with him until you heard him, he is such a happy baby!

We went through an endoscopic procedure where he put a camera down Jackson's nose to get access to his throat. Jack hated it and I hated holding him down! Right away the doc said "yes this is what I thought and I have just confirmed it with my camera." He told us that Jackson has Laryngomalacia, which is a softening of the tissues of the larynx (voice box) above the vocal cords. This softening causes the tissues to become floppy, and they fall over the airway opening and partially block it. It actually is a really common condition that usually fixes itself. However there are about 10% of children that have Laryngomalacia where it's severe and surgery is required. So here I was, relieved that we had the answer of what was wrong with Jack... but was not prepared to hear that we are a part of that 10%. So our sweet little boy will have to undergo Supraglottoplasty where the extra tissue above the vocal cords is trimmed in the operating room. Jack will have to go under general anesthesia so that they can operate on him, and he will have to spend the night at Texas Children's, but we will be able to stay with him in a private room. We will be in the best hands as this surgeon has come highly recommended and has done this procedure numerous times for children that come to him from all over the world. We have a few dates to choose from but none of which are until the first week of April, as this surgeon is booked solid until then.

So there we have it, our answer. It isn't what I hoped for but while we were in the waiting room there were other children waiting for their appointments that had severe issues that you could see just by looking at them. It made us thankful that we have something that is fixable and should not present a problem for his future.We finally got home around 7 pm, and Jack was plain worn out!

Just look at this face, he is such an angel.
Thank you God for giving us to him, he is just plain perfect to us!

We shall press forward and when April comes around we will ask for some extra prayers but we know everything will be fine and our little boy will finally have relief!
xoxo
The Strehlows

I've Missed You!

I was gone for the weekend hosting my bestie Trisha's bridal shower.
It turned out to be my best party yet! Loved it!

But aside from that fun I missed my little guy sooooo much and Kev too!I swear even when I am away for only two days Jack grows!!

He was diggin' in his toy bin trying to find what he wanted to play with...

Of course he didn't find anything in HIS bin, he had to find something in the DOG BIN!!! He is all about playing with anything other than the toys we have purchased for him. He loves this soccer ball, which is Buckley's toy. Poor Buckley can't play with his toys but Jack loves to play with his.

He is going to be a basketball player and a soccer player?? Ok sounds good to me!

Hope everyone has a great productive week!

Spoon Thief

It makes feeding really difficult when a certain baby wants to "feed" himself... he insisted on holding the spoon tonight! What a mess! But what a fun mess he is!
Not so happy when I finally took the spoon away to finish feeding him! Toot :)

So excited!!

Our sweet boy will get his first friend sleepover on March 20th with the Campbell Family! My bestie Trisha is getting married and having an evening wedding. So instead of putting Jack through a late night we decided to ask JaneE & Les if they would take Jack for the night...and they said yes! We couldn't be more excited for Jack to get lovin' from this wonderful family!Their little one, Hutch is about three weeks older than Jack! He is such a cutie pie and I cannot wait for these two to meet! Check out JaneE and her beautiful family on her blog here

Thanks friends! We shall see you in March! xoxoxo

Galveston

We went to Galveston this weekend and has sooooo much fun! Jack had a wonderful time and like I always say...he was such a good baby!! He adapted to his pack-n-play and rolled with all the activities we did. Just a pure delight! We had friends join us and Kevs sister even came down for a night! We love having this place just down the road! It's such a nice timeshare, I love how it's decorated too :) We can't wait to go back in the summer!

We usually get this room when we come down, this bed is so pretty! However we got the master bedroom since the folks didn't come down this time.

Since we came after work, we fed Jack and then put the little guy to bed, he fell asleep after about 30 minutes of tossing and turning. He knew this wasn't his bed, but he still slept like a champ!The big kids then pulled out the margarita machine and played Pictionary! This was supposed to be Born Again... ha ha ha probably not an image that will make it to the blog baby book, but funny nonetheless. After a rested night we all got up and were ready to go to the Strand and check out the Mardi Gras activities. Galveston is soooo tame for Mardi Gras. It actually is a great place for the kids to have fun in the afternoon. It was chilly in the morning but ended up warming up to a beautiful day!
On the way to the Strand we got stopped at a light as a parade came through. So we just got out of the car to watch it go buy. This was my favorite, Cajun music on the go!

We finally made it to the Strand to meet up with everyone else. Jack fell asleep pretty fast, I couldn't believe he took a nap through all those kids screaming for beads! Isn't his little beach backpack the cutest?? It came in handy to carry all his stuff around!

The costumes were really fun!

Loved this mini float! Too funny! George is a member of the Knights of Momus Krewe they had a prime spot to people watch!
George & ChristinaBrian & Katie Jack finally woke up and was so interested in all the beads!

Daddy put Jack in the baby bjorn and snagged a few beads... "Beads for da' baby"

Oh thank you Daddy!!

After all that fun we came home and took Jack straight to the bath! I can only imagine how many germs were on those beads! Yuck! But he had sooo much fun, so I let him play with them knowing we were coming home to scrub-a-dub-dub!!

We all took naps and then our friends went back down there for the late night crew. We met up with Uncle Joe & Aunt Stacy for a delish seafood dinner!

After dinner we went back to the timeshare to have some hot coco with homemade cinnamon marshmallows that Aunt Stacy made! A nice way to end a wonderful day!

We woke up this morning and got our gear on to head down to the beach... Jack is such a ham!!Love this picture!! He was checking out the ocean!

Sweet boy!

Brrrr ...cold water!!

He was fascinated with the string on his swim trunks..ha ha

Oh look at that face!! He tried to eat the sand, of course!

Today was Valentines Day, so before we headed home we took a few pictures in our red outfits! We even got a rose from the timeshare staff. So sweet! He is the love of our lives!

I don't see how people with kids live without an SUV, look at all that stuff that little guy requires for a weekend!
Thanks everyone for coming down and thanks Gran for allowing us to stay at your place!

xoxo

The Strehlows