Thanksgiving Fun

We began our holiday Wednesday evening with a visit from Jack's cousins. Jack's cousin Alichia brought Jack's second cousin (her neice) Brooke from Georgia and Uncle Jay Jay brought Jack's cousin Crystal from California.

The girls enjoyed playing in Jack's playroom and showed him what to do with his crayons and his building blocks.
Doesn't Jack have beautiful cousins?
On Thanksgiving, we could only get the little girls to hold still for a group shot. Jack does have boy cousins but they just don't ever seem to stay in one place.
Jack is getting some teeth so his new FAVORITE thing is this teether that is chewy but also shake shake shakes.
Oooops, dropped it.

Well, I'll just pick it up.
Hee, hee, success!
On Friday, we met up with Jack's newest second cousin, Caleb, and oh yeah, Caleb's Mommy (Jack's cousin Anastasia) and Daddy were there too. Jack loved little Caleb and wanted to rub his head. He got so excited when I was holding Caleb. He did not show one little bit of jealousy.
After the game Saturday, we were a little bummed.

Sunday was Elise's birthday so we went for a little visit.

What a great holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving

Last year, Jack made this little Turkey at school. They used his five little digits and some paint and made a cute Turkey. If you've been with us since birth you know how precious this was to us. Jack just had his last finger seperation surgery last June and his fingers were healed up probably around August so this was the first piece of art work to capture those wonderful, amazing little digits in all their glory. Anyway, I'll probably pull this out every year!!!

In Need of a Village with Great but not Hyperactive Immune Systems

Don't get me wrong. I love our village and all the great people in it. Here's my conundrum who exactly do you ask to get sick? Jack and I have been sick all weekend. Thursday afternoon I went to the doctor for some peculiar muscle aches and increasing fatigue. Fortunately, Dr. Aizenman said that he thought it was just a virus and more symptoms would soon present themselves to help us figure just which virus. Whew! I was concerned about some type of auto-immune disorder and so was his nurse. I would much rather have a virus. Then....Friday morning Jack woke up with lots of drainage. We thought maybe it was just his response to the dry heat of the heater coming on or maybe teething. It's so hard to tell with Jack since he is prone to nasal drainage when anyone else would just have sinus drainage down the back of their throats. By Friday late afternoon, it was obvious that this was not to be shrugged off. Saturday morning, he woke to even MORE drainage, fever, and coughing. Extremely fatigued Mommy and sick baby is not a good combination. I knew it would be a hard day and so I tried to think of who I could call for help. Let's see--Grandma or Nana--are you kidding me? who wants to be the one that got Grandma or Nana sick? Uncles and Aunts--they all have kids too and their kids also have the sniffles so who wants to have all the kids infecting one another? Friends--they either have children or how do you call someone up and say, "I know that you've had a long work week but do you think you could come hang out at our house to hlep us out and possibly get sick too?" Ugh. Well at 330 this morning when I'd gotten virtually no sleep because Jack was having difficulty breathing with all his drainage, I woke up David and begged him to take off work. How do other people do this? I really would love to get some comments on this post.
Who else could look this cute while not feeling good?

Pictures of Jack with his eyes on the ball

Clapping too

He's really clapping now too! As in putting his hands together and making a clapping sound. Unless you've ever met Jack and watched him put his hands together it is really hard to know how great this is. He has been putting his hands together for a while now but no sound because he did not get his palms and fingers lined up just right but today there's actual clapping!!!!!
The hits just keep coming. I don't want this weekend to ever end!

Sent from my Palm Treo

More Ball Fun

Remember the balls he carried to his playroom yesterday? Today he picked up one of them and carried it all the way across the house to the kitchen where he accidentally dropped it. Dropping a toy used to be the end of playing with that toy for Jack. Not today! He looked down, found the ball (fortunately there's not much on the kitchen floor), picked it up, then sat down and started rolling it on the floor and crawling after it. He motioned me to sit down and we rolled the ball back and forth. He did a great job actually keeping his eyes on the ball even when I did not roll it right to him. He had to watch the ball and look for the ball. This is a lot of visual stuff and this is a BIG BIG deal. He was not doing this just 1 week ago when he had his vision evaluation. It's almost as if Jack is saying, "Oh you want me to use my eyes, well, okay. "
This has been a great weekend. I am so grateful and feeling so blessed.

Sent from my Palm Treo

Help Jack's School

If you read this blog, you know how much Jack has blossomed through all his therapy. Please consider clicking on the new fundraising link and help Jack's school. Thanks!

Pictures

Here is Jack practicing the balance beam at school with Miss Caroline.
Beautiful Aunt Bobbie became beautiful Aunt Cleopatra for Halloween. That's a genuine Egyptian robe!
Jack would not attend a party without cute girls.
Do you think Jack likes his cousin Jeanie?
He's so cute it's scary!

I think this face says that we made a wise decision about our Halloween activities.
It was great to see Jack playing in the jumper with the other little kids.
After the party, we went out for drinks (at Sonic). Jack really really really liked Sonic's strawberry slush.
Look who is now trying to be Mr. Independent Face Washer.

Sad Morning followed by GREAT Day!

Yesterday morning Jack did not feel well. He had a very sad time for the little bit of school he did before I decided to take him out for the day. I never did really figure out what it was except that he could have still been tired and running a sleep deficit from Halloween or it could be his teeth coming in. I took him to the doctor who confirmed a left ear infection but we had been treating that since last Monday and it really did not seem to be bothering him. In any case, he seemed to feel fine after he took a nap yesterday. I was afraid that our weekend was getting off to a bad start. Fortunately, I was wrong.
TODAY has been AMAZING!!! Jack did not exactly love running around to do errands this morning and he certainly did not love getting a haircut but he has just been showing off today.
I think I had one of those days that other people would probably take for granted. In a way, I am blessed to know just how blessed we are because of all the days I struggle to understand how all of this (our lives) fits into God's plan. Did that make any sense?
Anyway....today Jack very unceremoniously took his little hands with the unbending fingers and grabbed a little ball in each hand. Then, he stood up and practically ran down the hall without dropping the balls and dumped them on the floor in his playroom. How cool is that?!!? How many days did I wonder when he would walk? How many times did I wonder how those little hands would pick things up? I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful it felt to complain to my husband, "Between the two of you moving stuff from where it's supposed to be, I'll never be able to find anything anymore!" :)
And (this is a little scary) I think he may have opened the office door twice today to get to his computer. I'm still not positive on this one because I could not get him to open the door while I watched him. David thinks that the door was probably not completely shut and he just pushed it open. I guess we'll see.
Also, when we went by our pharmacy to pick up a prescription, Jack insisted on stepping up on the curb and walking on it like a balance beam. I had to help him balance and get his feet just right but he definitely chose to do it. He has apparently decided that this is a skill that he now wants to master as well. Again, I remember just wanting him to walk not too long ago. Now he is not only walking, he is working on his balance while walking. Do you know how big a deal it is that he chose to do this? Walking on a balance beam is something they do with him at school but it means so much more to me that he chose to use that curb and practice.
What a day!!!