Baby's Got a Big Head

That's right...I said my baby's got a big head.

BuddyRoe had his 1 year well visit today and the doctor confirmed what many others have suspected (and shared with us) - while BuddyRoe falls in to the 25th percentile for both height and weight, he's up in the 75th percentile for his head circumference! We're going to take that as a sign of extreme intelligence and let it go at that!

All-in-all he is doing fantastic. He weighs 21 pounds 11 ounces and is 29 1/4 inches long. He's not walking yet, but is cruising all over the place so we know the walking will come along shortly. And despite my earlier mentions of "talking" the doctor says that a one time mimic of a word doesn't count :( And even though he is saying 'mama' and 'dada' (over and over and over) because he doesn't really associate those words with us they don't truly count either. So technically, he has zero vocabulary at this point. The doctor said he isn't going to worry about it yet, but if he hasn't developed some vocabulary by his 15 month check up we'll start looking at it a little closer.

He did get several shots today - the standard immunizations for 1 year plus the first of two flu shots (just the regular old flu, not H1N1). He wasn't happy about it while he was being held down, but as usual the minute his daddy lifted him off the table he was done crying and good to go.

So the final verdict of the checkup: We have a healthy, happy boy who is growing bigger and better every day!

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Baby Boy

Where does the time go? I truly can't believe that it's been a whole year since our family was completed. I could write a whole long post about this boy, but I'm already having an emotional time with today so I won't! (I know, I know I'm a sappy mess)

We had been fighting early labor and other complications for five weeks by this point last year and the doctors had finally decided that this was the day that the risks associated with my trying to carry BuddyRoe to term outweighed the benefits. So we headed to the hospital, got checked in and prepared to welcome our little man.

At 11:08 a.m. our wonderful doctor held him up and introduced us to our 5 lb. 9 oz. miracle boy. He was perfect. The neonatologist let me give him a quick kiss before he and Hubby headed out to the NICU.

Even though he struggled for a few days ~ the doctors called him a 'Whimpy White Boy' (apparently that's an accepted medical term because my girlfriend who's a LD nurse said the same thing) ~ we knew how blessed we were. Overall he did so well and was able to come home just 8 days later.

While it took us a few months to get past some of the preemie issues and he gave us more than one heart attack a long the way, looking at him today you would never know of the challenges he faced.



BuddyRoe - from a Mommy and Daddy who love you and a Sissy who adores you...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!!

Celebrating BuddyRoe's Rookie Year!

Saturday we celebrated BuddyRoe's first birthday (which is actually this Wednesday) with a sports-themed party at the house.

I made the invitations featuring baseball, basketball, football and soccer and asked everyone to wear their favorite team's gear (somehow about half the guests missed that part).

I decorated the tables with equipment from each of the sports I mentioned and then added popcorn, peanuts and cracker jacks to round out the centerpieces. I also had mylar balloons for each sport on their respective tables.

We enjoyed a lunch of hotdogs, hamburgers (and all the toppings), chips and typical ballgame drinks ~ soda, gatorade, rootbeer, water.

As a small thank you I attached little papers that said "Thank You for helping us celebrate BuddyRoe's Rookie Year!" to individual bags of cracker jacks with sports stickers.

I promised everyone that I did consider the weather when planning an outdoor party, but how was I supposed to know it would be in the mid-90s in October! It was blazing hot outside, so as soon as we finished lunch we moved all of the presents and cake inside and enjoyed the air conditioning.

I made 5 cakes for the day - yes, I said I made 5 cakes for the day! I made a basketball, a football, a soccer ball and a baseball smash cake for BuddyRoe. I also made a German Chocolate cake for my m-i-l's birthday (which is today - Happy Birthday!).

I can't speak for BuddyRoe, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the smash cake was a success!

BuddyRoe received so many wonderful presents - an awesome homemade toybox, a tv/dvd player for his room, a My Pal Scout, two t-ball sets (one for now and one for a little later), a basketball goal, lots of trucks, planes, tractors, tons of clothes and so much more. And he had plenty of help from BBug, his cousin Boogie, M & W opening all of his presents!

So many of our amazing family and friends came out to help us celebrate, and we couldn't be more grateful. We really are so blessed. To all of you who were there with us, thank you so much for making it such a special day! A special thanks to NahNah, PopPop & Boogie for making the long trek down and to Grandma & Papa Pat for planning their trip around the party!

A Few Updates on BuddyRoe

An update for those of you who are aware of BuddyRoe's tough week - after a very rough day he seems to be doing much better this evening! We are currently hive-free - although that comes and goes - and his cough has eased off a little for now.



For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. BuddyRoe has had a sinus/ear infection issue since mid-August. He'll go on various antibiotics, get rid of the symptoms, finish the medicine, come off of it and be sick again 4-5 days later. According to the dr. his immune system just isn't quite up to par yet, but it should get there one day. Well...Days 4-5 came again this past weekend. Monday we headed to the pediatrician's office and got put back on amoxcillin (this is one in a series of four antibiotics that we've been rotating to try to get rid of this junk). When he took his Tuesday morning dose he ending up breaking out in to hives all over. Turns out, he has developed a penicillin allergy. So since Tuesday morning we've been dealing with ear/sinus infections, a terrible cough, sore throat and hives. He's now on Zithromax (instead of penicillin) and Benadryl for the hives and home for the rest of the week. We're just hoping that he feels up to par on Saturday for his big celebration!

Now, in much happier BuddyRoe news...

This past Saturday he both stood on his own and took a couple of steps for the first time! He probably would have kept walking except I screamed so loud that he immediately sat down and started crying. Now Hubby says he won't walk again until he's 15 because he's scared I'll scream at him!

We've also been a little worried about his talking - or lack thereof. Unlike his sister he's been a very quiet child. He doesn't need to use words, so he doesn't. He'll occaisionally use "mama" and "dada" although it's not necessarily directed at either of us. That's been it though - nothing else...until tonight!

Tonight he said "up" when he was finished eating dinner (that's what I always say when I take him out of the highchair) and then I asked him if he wanted to take a bath and he looked at me and said "a bap." Just to make sure we heard right I asked him again, and sure enough he said "a bap" again! I know that in a few months I'll probably be wondering why I ever wanted him to start talking - I know I've had those moments with his siter - but for now we're so excited!

Take Me Out to the Ballgames

This past weekend we took BBug and BuddyRoe to their very first high school football game. Luckily for us our local high school team has the same colors as our favorite college team - orange & blue! So Friday evening we put on our team colors (well, everyone except BuddyRoe) and headed to the game.



We ran in to our old neighbors whose daughter plays in the marching band, watched the game with our friends B. & K. and their kids, and enjoyed good old fashioned concession stand junk food. We had a great time - until the end.

We decided to leave during the third quarter to beat the traffic and to get home at a reasonable hour. When we got back to our car though we were blocked in! And I don't mean it's gonna take some careful maneuvering to get out blocked in. I mean we aren't going anywhere blocked in. About an hour, and several curse words from Hubby later, we were finally able to leave. Unfotunately our team didn't have a very good end to the evening either - they lost.

Saturday the kids went to Grandma's while Hubby and I headed to a MLB game with our friends Aunt A. and Uncle M. Uncle M. has access to great seats through his work so we were lucky enough to take advantage of those.

Sunday we headed to Grandma's to pick up the kids and enjoy one last day of swimming with the family - including our cousin Kyler. I didn't remember to take my camera so I don't have any pictures, but you can see a few over on Aunt Sheri's page (SAK's 4th Ave).

Now we're just trying to get BuddyRoe well (I'll have another post on that shortly) in time for his party this weekend!