For Fabre Buble (and the rest of the Miller family)

This is just a quick note to say Happy Chanukah to the Miller family from the Tome's!  

I picked this bib up for Grady last year after Chanukah for 98 cents at Babies R Us as a joke since Joe and I celebrate Chanukah (not that we are Jewish-we started purely for the 8 days of gifts when we lived together).  We have kept up the tradition, and now we have good friends who are Jewish and thankfully appreciate our humor!

Have a wonderful Chanukah Miller family --- is tonight the pajama and underwear night?  

Hi Sophie!

The other afternoon we got home from shopping and Sophie was curled up in a blanket on the floor and I set Grady down on the floor and he army crawled his way over to see her.  He squealed with delight when he reached her.  Sophie was so good that she tolerated Grady pulling on her and "petting her".  Grady was so proud of himself!

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

We are in the middle of a winter snowfall.  We are expecting 12 inches or more today!  Grady and I have stayed in and had a pajama day.  

This afternoon I put him up to the window so that he could watch the snow for a few minutes.  He thought it was big stuff.  I think he was more interested in putting his face against the cold glass of the window.

I am working on getting our house decorated today and we are going to get a tree (finally) tomorrow.  I think it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  

Hey Santa!

We visited Santa on Saturday at Eastview Mall.  Grady was not at all afraid of Santa.  He seemed curious, but would not crack a smile!  

NICU Tile Wall

On Saturday we attended the unveiling of the NICU tile wall that will be displayed in the waiting area of the NICU in the coming weeks.  We made a tile for Grady and our friends the Buzards made a tile for their son Ryan.  

We were a bit surprised that the "wall" was so small, only approximately a 4 foot square.  It will be displayed in the waiting area of the NICU in the coming weeks.  David and I felt that it was important to have a tile made for Grady, as it will provide a source of inspiration to families who have a preemie and feel like they are not going to make it.  There is currently a tile wall up displaying tons of NICU success stories.  While Grady was in the NICU, I used to stand in the waiting area, making phone calls and updating family and friends on his condition that day.  I always looked for babies who were around the same weight as he was.  I found it to be an inspiration and I hope his tile is now an inspiration too.

Dr. Stevens, the head of the NICU was there along with Dr. D'Angio and one of the nurses.  It was so nice to see them and again thank them for everything that they did for Grady.  (Dr. Stevens was Grady's Doctor for three weeks and Dr. D'Angio had Grady last two weeks that Grady was there.)

After the unveiling, we went to see Santa.  The last picture is of Ryan and Grady waiting in line to see Santa.  (Those pictures will come tomorrow!)

Think.....PINK

We are thrilled to announce that BITB is a GIRL!  I must admit I am so excited!  We had our ultrasound this morning.  David and Grady went with me (of course they would not have missed it for the world).  David was having a hard time actually believing that we were going to find out, as we never really did know for sure with Grady. 

It took the Tech almost the entire ultrasound to be able to see what sex of the baby was.  Finally decided to let us in on her little secret.  After the Tech told us, I started to cry.  I am so thankful to have a little boy and now a little girl. She looks great and is measuring right on target.  We have our next appointment in three weeks, and at this point they are not concerned at all!  

David took us to Carter's after the appointment and we picked out two cute outfits for BITB.  A pink sleeper and a cute lime sundress with a pink bug on it!  How fun is it going to be to dress a girl?!  

What a difference...

Grady plays with his psychedelic beanie baby moose almost every time I change him in his room.  I give him his moose to keep him from doing the crocodile roll on the changing table.  Tuesday, after I changed him I asked for the moose back to put back on his shelf and Grady just did not want to give it to me.  So, I let him have it and I brought him downstairs and set him on the floor in the living room.  I was in the kitchen listening to him squeal with delight as he played with his moose.  

It brought me so much joy seeing him play with his moose.  This moose had been given to him by one of the NICU nurses, Rachel, when he was two days old in an effort to help position him as he slept and grew in his isolette.  

I couldn't resist sharing the then and now pictures.  Happy Friday!

Brusha-Brusha-Brusha

Last night we decided that we really needed to get Grady's toothbrush out and start brushing his teeth.  I really was not sure how he would react, but he loved it.  Once I was done I let him hold the toothbrush and put it in his mouth.  I did manage a few pictures!  The best was that he cried when we took it away!  Hopefully it will always be this easy to get him to brush his teeth! 

It's Been Awhile....

Sorry it's been awhile since I have blogged.  I really have no excuse, except that I have a year old little boy and am 18 weeks pregnant.  Does that work?  

We have been busy doing random things.  The Friday after Grady's birthday party, I hosted a baby shower for my best friend Joe.  I was a soup making fool. We had three different soups, salad, fruit, cheese and bread.  It was perfect as it was about 25 degrees that night.  We had a great time and Joe got great things for Lucy!  

I spent the next week trying to recuperate from the shower and get our house back in order.  

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We spent the day with Ya Ya, Mr. and Mrs. Howie and Tiffany Pendell (who had to stay behind in NY while her family was in Michigan because she had to work on Friday).  The food was wonderful and Grady ate everything that we gave him.  The only thing that we did not give him to try was the brussel sprouts!  (Neither David or I like them, so we decided that Grady did not need to be subjected to them!)

Monday was the first day of our Christmas card photo shoot.  The above picture is my favorite from the shoot.  Unfortunately, as I started to edit the pictures I noticed that Grady still had mac and cheese on his face from lunch and it was even on his onzie!  Argh!  As hard as I tried I could not edit it out, so yesterday we tried again, this time with a different outfit and I got some great shots.  I'll share some of the ones that we did not choose this week.  I'm finding it hard to actually get pictures of him now because he is on the go and so fast!  Photo shoots tend to be 10 minutes and I manage to get about 100-150 pictures in that amount of time--granted only about 20-30 are keepers, but at least I have a lot to choose from.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday. Things are looking great with the BITB.  We are just 18 weeks and things are going well.  We go on the 15th for our next ultrasound to find out if it is a boy or a girl.  I am extremely anxious to find out.  I am pretty much half way through the pregnancy.  The doctor said on Monday that as long as everything is going fine and the baby and my body are tolerating the pregnancy they will wait until week 37 to deliver me.  So, that looks to be the week of April 13th.  Which will come fast.  We are anxious to start getting the baby's room ready, but have decided to wait until the new year to start any projects.  

This week will be quiet as we start to get ready for the holidays.  I need to have David bring the Christmas decorations upstairs so I can begin to get things out. I was telling someone that it will be weird, as we did no decorating last year with Grady in NICU.  So, I am sure that it will be interesting to see some of the decorations that I have probably forgotten about!