Surgery

Our youngest managed to be the first child to undergo surgery. JT had surgery for ear tubes this morning.

He has been fighting ear infections for the past 2 months to no avail. He had had many different oral antibiotics as well as a series of 3 injection antibiotics. When the shots didn't work, the Dr. said it was time for tubes and a visit to the ENT.

Everything came together quickly last week, which I took as a sign from God that it was perfect timing and the correct thing to do for JT.

I decided a great way to prepare for the surgery would be to get JT some new jammies for the surgery. We found a cute pair of Carter's PJ's that say "Mommy's Little Monster" I thought they were really cute and he will be able to wear them as its getting warmer and we will remember this day with his monster pjs.

Once we got to the surgery center, JT has been up for almost 2 hours. We ended up waiting about another hour before we were called to the back to prepare for his surgery. Poor JT was so hungry- about 12 hours since he last ate- and tired he was getting a little cranky. He kept yawning which was so adorable and we knew he would love nothing more than a nice warm bottle. We felt bad not being able to give it to him then, but JT handled it well.

Once the nurses came to take JT to the operating room, John and I went to the waiting room. Only 15 minutes later the Dr emerged saying it was a success! JT had a lot of fluid the Dr sucked out and then placed the tubes in each ear. We had to wait about another 15 minutes before I were able to go to the recovery room. JT was pretty fussy- he was out of sorts and you could tell he wasn't sure what the heck was going on. The nurses remarked at how strong JT was because he was kind of fidgety in their arms. I got a chuckle as I have known how strong JT has been since he was a kicking machine when inside of me! I was able to hold JT in a nice recliner and feed him his much needed bottle. JT settled down quickly and slowly sucked the formula down.

Once back at home JT was pretty sleepy and took 2 great naps during the day. When he was down playing before nap #2, he seemed still a little loopy from the anesthesia and was more unsteady than normal, but to be expected from what we were told. By dinner, JT was his usual busy self cruising along furniture, making messes, and loving life :) We go back to the ENT in one week for a recheck.

While Daddy is away...

John has been in North Carolina the entire week for training at corporate HQ for Lowe's. We have all missed John/Daddy and are eager for his return tomorrow evening. However, life continues and JT is a busy boy!

We enjoyed a few days of sun here and JT had his first crawl in the grass. He liked it the first time I placed him in it, though he was a little cautious. Later that day, Lindsay placed JT in some taller grass and JT was not loving it one bit! Tears and all! So shorter grass it is for now until he becomes accustomed to this new texture.

Not for Germ Freaks

I have given you all full warning with this post title. It's not disgusting, but for those who have control issues with their kids and germs, this probably isn't a post for you :)

JT is now old enough to sit in a high chair when we dine out. Nice break for my arms and I attempt to eat while keeping JT distracted with toys, Kix, crackers, bread, or small bites from my meal. He has done quite well for the handful of times we have gone out.

However, he does have this love for chewing on kind of gross things. Like the menu and the table. JT loves tables! Looking at it from his view, it's right at his mouth and eye level, it fits perfectly in his mouth and I imagine it feels and tastes quite yummy. I have tried to get him to stop, pulled him away from the table/menu, said "No No", or "no table", and offered him snacks instead. Nothing really works until he gets his fill of table. I do wipe it down with a wipe and then again with a clean napkin, but I'm sure there are things there that are gross. I just ignore those thoughts within reason and pray God will protect him.

Though this is a gross stage JT is going through, I'm sure it is one we will be telling his future bride one day of what he used to do when he was a baby and laugh it up!

JT can do it with or without hands.....

Family Time

This past week the Apedaile6 had some good family time events. On St. Patrick's Day we all headed out to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate the little bit of Irish in our blood. Well, in everyone except me that is- its from John's side of the family.

I was cleaning out my wallet and found some gift cards and decided to call the 800# to see if any of them had some credit on them-to my great delight I discovered that I had some left on a Texas Roadhouse gift card! Nice surprise! So we thought St. Patrick's Day called for some traditional chicken, ribs, and fries- ha ha! The kids and I met John there after work and you can see some enjoyed themselves more than others.....

Then the next evening Sarah, Lindsay, and I headed to church for a mother/daughter event. It was just for Middle/High school ages that evening. Courtney has an event next month though. We enjoyed dinner, dessert, great worship, and speakers that evening with several hundred other women. It focused on being beautiful from the inside out and how not to focus on the world view of beauty. Even at that, how the media doesn't have an attainable viewpoint of what beauty is- thanks to photoshop and airbrushing! One great scripture from the night was Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,I know that full well."

I am glad that we had a chance to be together for a few special family times last week as John is off to North Carolina this week for training for his job. John left Sunday afternoon and returns Friday evening. I know by the end of the week we will all be so happy for his return!

Success!

I am so excited that not only did JT jump like a mad man in his exersaucer and I captured it on video again, but blogger uploaded it!! Woo Hoo!!! Life's little victories :)

This is the gift Grandma and Granpa C. got JT when they visited last summer. This by far has been JT's overall best toy. It has stages of play-mat and part of the toys form a gym for when he was itty bitty, the traditional exersaucer as he uses it now, and then when hes a little older you can take out just the circle of toys and it forms this "S" of a stand-up play area. Pretty cool!

Check out our little jumper in these videos!

Life with a 9 month old

Life is great with our little 9 month old John Thomas. Never a dull moment or one where you can sit for very long, unless he's sleeping. I can begin to see the transition from baby hood to toddler hood starting to emerge. JT is into everything, curious about all things, tries to fit his body in the most odd places, and is "hands on/mouth on" anything we allow him to.

At his 9 month well check he weighed in just a bit under 23 pounds and is now 29 inches tall. Both of these place JT in the 75% in the growth chart and perfectly healthy.

Here are some photos to highlight what our little man is doing these days.

JT is in awe of the blue light on our computer. It just so happens to be our power button. Its like the blue calls out, "JT, come and touch me...you must play with me." Our computer has been "shut down incorrectly" a few times this month as a result of this new found love.

JT continues to be the master crawler. He is quite fast now. We have seen him crawl like this crazy no knees stance when he's in the kitchen. Pretty sure it due to the fact there is tile in there and his knees get tender crawling on them. He has progressed to cruising along the furniture and anything that can support him, but I haven't snapped any pics of that yet, sorry!

This is JT's special little cupboard in the kitchen. Something I did for all of the girls-the cupboard that is filled with the Tupperware. When I am trying to cook and JT needs to be by my side, the door is opened and its his free reign to play in. He loves it!

This shows his favorite "toy" in the bunch-a

sliver mixing bowl. He loves banging on it and slamming it down on the floor- BANG BANG BANG!!!!

Eating is a major part of JT's life.He is now getting 3 meals a day of solid food and bottles in between. He continues to improve on acquiring his taste of veggies, though he is a fruit boy through and through. I love this pic of JT opening WIDE for his next bite- a sign that he's loving his meal.

JT is also learning how to drink from a sippy cup and self feed some food to himself. Both of which involve becoming quite messy- all part of the learning fun :) The feeding is coming along a lot faster than the sippy cup.

JT is still the drool master- look at that wet shirt! Gross!! He is by far the most drooly Apedaile kid. Most of the time he wears a bib otherwise we would be changing shirts 3 times a

day. Got to love that sweet face though :)

Exersaucer

A few days ago I tried in vain to upload a great video of JT going to town on his exersaucer. He jumped and jumped like nothing else! However, blogger was not wanting to accept this awesome video :( I was bummed out....

Here is another video of JT using the exersaucer in another way.... quite funny I believe. Hopefully JT will jump once again in his exersaucer and we will be able to capture it on video and blogger will let me upload it. In the meantime enjoy this funny video!

Toy Walker

JT is a baby who is on the move! Besides when he is eating ,drinking a bottle, or sleeping he is Go Go Go!!! I love the energy that youngsters have and how they love life. A lesson us grown ups can learn from at times :)


JT is not walking on his own yet and I'm not in any hurry to speed it along mind you, but he does love using his little toy walker to get around even faster than his crawling.


Watch this baby move!!!

Catwalk

Sarah strutted her stuff on the catwalk for the Beech High School Fashion Show. This is the 2nd time she participated in the FCCLA event to help raise funds for this club she is involved in. Again, she had a great time with her friends and peers doing 2 shows in one day- one for the school and another in the evening that was longer and for families and friends.

This isn't simply a typical fashion show where you walk up and down the runway. The students practiced for hours the weekend before learning choreographed dances. They also had a freestyle part where pairs worked together to dance as they walked up the stage.

I know she had a great time and it looks like this officially kicks off the start of the hunt for "the dress" for Prom. Prom isn't until May, but I have been informed by my sweet Sarah that many have already purchased their dress or have at least gone shopping. I guess times have changed from when I went to Prom- I thought I went shopping the month prior, but its been a while.... I think a girls day of dress shopping is in the future!

Reflections

I have been thinking of doing this post for about 3 months now, and finally got around to digging through old photos to do so. You see, back in the old days, most people actually had paper prints of their photos, not digital folders on the computers :)

Having a baby in the house again causes John and I to reflect and remember the times when all the girls were as small as JT, the silly songs we made up, how JT does something just like one of his sisters, or in this case who he looks like.

I know, JT is a boy and I am comparing him to girls, so he will never look as similar as the girls do to one another- thank you God- he he- but I thought this would be a fun trip down memory lane and for some of our friends a first look at our sweet girls when they were babies. All of the pictures of the girls are from around their 9th month. Who do you think JT resembles the most?

Sarah

Lindsay

Courtney

JT

Dada 3 - Momma 1

An exciting time for all parents is when their child starts to babble and say their first words. JT has now begun in full force to have his sweet babbles turn into his first word. When each of the girls did this, their first words was DaDa. It didn't upset me, as I know that the "da" sound is usually formed before the "ma" sound in language development and it wasn't a sign of the girls loving John more than I.

However, it delighted me that JT's first word was MaMa! I was fully expecting to hear the DaDa once again and have been practicing it along with other simple words each day. In addition to saying the words, we have been teaching sign language to JT.

There has been studies that suggest that babies can sign simple words at a much younger age than when they can verbalize it. So, from about 5 months of age, we have been signing a select grouping of words to JT, knowing eventually he will learn them and be able to communicate with us. Words such as: more, all done, milk (for bottle/feeding time), Mommy, Daddy, and thank you.

It was an extra special treat last night as JT signed Mommy for the very first time!!! I was cleaning up after dinner and John was talking to JT saying Momma. He's been saying it for about a week and we haven't been able to capture it on video. Then John says, "Vic, get in here!" So I grabbed the camera ready to finally get it captured. Then to my great surprise, I saw JT sign Mommy as he said Momma!! It was so exciting to see. I think his best signing is at the beginning of the video when its a bit blurry, but he did it a few more times. I hope you are as excited as we were!!

An example of what the sign Mommy looks like: you tap your thumb to your chin with open hand.

Curtain Call

This was Courtney's final class music performance for her elementary days. My baby girl is growing up, like it or not. Every year, each grade level does some sort of musical performance- from Thanksgiving inspired plays, Square Dancing, Colors Musical, and this year a Winter Themed performance. How fitting, with the coldest winter on record in the past 30 years!

Courtney's class, along with another, sang songs to tell a story about lost Snowmen. Courtney's part was singing with the chorus and then for one song, she became a "Mom" who sang for "Henry, come to dinner." That is her child was outside playing with the snowmen and he needed to come inside. She sang for her child as she played the xylophone- a true testament of how us Mom's multi-task!