What a Party!

What a day!  We celebrated Grady's first birthday on Sunday with approximately 40 friends and family!  It was such a great day!  

Grady could not have been better.  After not sleeping well on Saturday night, I was not sure what to expect, but he was great.  He let anyone who wanted to hold him, he wore his birthday hat like a trooper and ate pulled pork!  

We had the food catered by Dinosaur and I made Grady a Hippo "smash" cake for the event.  While he did dive into it, I was surprised that he did not make as much of a mess with it as I thought he would have.  

Everything went smoothly and we are so happy that everyone was able to share this special milestone with us!  

ONE!

Oh the day that I had been dreading for months has finally come!  My little - tiny baby has turned one!  Where has the time gone?  It seems like just yesterday I was sitting and snuggling with him in NICU.  Now his big and wants to be on the floor playing.  He eats pancakes, fruit and pulled pork!  How did this happen?  This was not part of my plan!  

Don't get me wrong... One is FUN!, but I just was not ready for my baby to grow up! Even with another baby on the way, it does not make it any easier.

Today we had a nice day as a family. David was home and we worked around the house in preparation for friends and family who were coming in for Grady's party on Sunday.  We ran a few errands and ended the day with a visit from Ya Ya.  

It was as if Grady knew that today was special, because he was just full of it today.  He was giggling and just being silly all day! It was just a great day!  

We are so thankful for everything!  We are truly blessed!  

Grady's One Year NICU Clinic Visit

This morning we headed back to Strong for Grady's ONE year check up from NICU. What memories it brought back traveling the same route we did for 70 days (Poor David had to travel it more due to the bed rest...what a trooper!) My friend, Kim (who had a preemie) had already taken her son and called to tell me what was involved, so we kind of had an idea going into our appointment.  

While I had no concerns about Grady, I was worried that he would not "preform" the tasks that he was asked to by the Neurologists, Psychologist and others he would have to see. Silly me!  

Grady was once again the life of the party! He flirted with the Doctors and was a champ when it came to preforming the developmental tests. The Psychologist was thrilled with everything he could do and could not even keep up with him on the test that they follow, as Grady was preforming each task so quickly. Grady was evaluated based on his corrected age (when he was supposed to be born) which was 9 months. His weight was 19 lbs 10 oz and he was 27 3/4 inches long. He was between the 25 and 50% tiles for his weight and height and his head circumference was in the 95% tile. The Doctor said that it was nothing to be concerned with as his head was not out of proportion and it showed that his brain was growing! We are thrilled to report that Grady was released from the clinic and will not need to be seen again. We are so thankful and count ourselves blessed that our baby is growing and developing as he should be.  

After the clinic, we went for a quick NICU visit and took cupcakes to say thank you to the Doctor's and Nurses. Unfortunately we were only able to see two nurses, be we left a thank you note with recent pictures of Grady.

We are thrilled that there is no need for Grady to return to the clinic and be evaluated, that they have no concerns and have told us that he is doing great! What more could we ask for!

Hello Sweden!

This post is especially for Uncle Bud in Sweden!  I was finally able to dress Grady in all Swedish clothing today!  The outfit he is wearing was a gift from Uncle Bud and his parents Karl-Erik and Lena in Sweden.  Bud brought the clothes to Grady when he visited in May!  Well, I am happy to say that Grady finally grew enough to be able to wear his Swedish "duds".  

My favorite is the viking hat which is still a little too big, but not by much!

Thanks Uncle Bud, Karl-Erik, and Lena!  We miss all of you!  

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, my water broke for the second time and I was admitted to Strong Memorial Hospital for bed rest and to see how long I could keep our little baby inside.  While I only lasted 8 days, it really was a huge accomplishment.

This morning I sent a note to Christine who was my roommate during bed rest.  She had been admitted almost a week earlier than I had.  She was expecting twins and had the same due date with me.  Christine kept her boys in a couple of weeks longer than I did with Grady.  I shared with her this morning how thankful I was that here we were a year later, three healthy and thriving boys later.  How blessed we are!  

This morning my little man was in the computer room with me (in his walker-thanks Ya Ya) and he discovered the electrical outlets!  What a guy!  I am so thankful that he is a busy and inquisitive little boy who just loves every adventure he gets into.

Holy Teeth!

I took this picture yesterday before the photo shoot and I got Grady laughing.  I was shocked to see how many teeth he is getting all at once!  On Monday his second top front top tooth came in and we saw that the eye teeth were coming in, but I was shocked to see that he is also getting his molars as well!  

For Ya Ya

Today was just beautiful!  The temperature on the truck read 67 degrees!  What great weather for November!  Since it was so nice out, we decided to take advantage of it and squeeze in a small photo shoot.  (I only took 159 pictures!)

After Grady and I were done with his photo shoot, we walked over to the school and voted.  We then headed out and spent the afternoon running errands.  Grady was so cooperative and just chilled as we headed in and out of several stores.  What a challenge it is to put him in the car seat, take him out, put him in the stroller, take him out.  Ugh!  I am exhausted!  

I am starting to feel better.  As we start week 14 I am hoping that we are out of the woods for the 24/7 nausea.   Only time will tell!  But I hope that the worst is behind us!

Miscellaneous Halloween Photos

Here are a few more Halloween photos from this year!

Halloween Part Two

On Halloween I poured Grady into his Chicken costume one more time and we headed into the city to Highland Hospital to see Auntie Jo Jo.  She was the one who found and bought Grady's costume last year the day after Halloween.  Little did we know that he would come two weeks later - so Auntie Jo Jo had bought a 0-9 month costume and we actually ended up needing a 9-12 month costume, but we made it work.  Thankfully Grady will never remember how we had to POUR him into it!  

Needless to say, Auntie Jo Jo was very surprised.  We called from the lobby and I said... "there's a chicken in your lobby can you come and see it?"  What a fun surprise!  

After Highland we were off to Ya Ya's for the Halloween party that she was having with her work.  We were so excited to have been invited to it!  Grady made his rounds visiting all of his fans at Xerox.  Ya Ya got him some fun Leap Frog Maraca's for his Halloween gift and those kept him busy for some time.  

That evening we left David at home to hand out his full size candy bars (he started this tradition last year and the kids love it.  You can hear them say "dude, you're awesome" when they see their options.  Ya Ya and I went and visited the Jansen's and the Howies.  It was a lot of fun and Grady had a great time.  

Halloween Part One

Halloween was fun this year, despite Grady not really knowing what was going on.  We packed a lot into two days and it surely kept us busy.  

Thursday, we went to David's work where they have a little Halloween party for the kids.  Grady was great.  He was busy watching all of the "big kids" trick or treat around Daddy's work.  

Thursday evening, Ya Ya joined us for dinner out and we went and surprised the Pendell Family with a visit from the cutest chicken you have ever seen!  We had a great time visiting with Pat, Tiffany, Kyle, and Grace and we convinced Kyle and Gracie to get dressed in the Halloween costumes since we would not see them on Halloween.  Gracie was an adorable butterfly and Kyle was Flava-Flav.  I laughed so hard when I saw him!  It was great!