Whoa! It's been awhile!

Okay, so apparently I disappeared from the blogging world for a whole month! Didn't really mean to do that. The days just seem to all run together and let's face it...when 10pm (or later) rolls around and everyone else is finally in bed and I've switched that last load of laundry and topped off James' feeding bag and tidied up Maddie's toys and the rest of the house...I just want to hit the sack myself! I guess blogging has taken a back burner.

But I do have some photos to share! :-) We've been up to our usual around here...not much. Since we're trying to safeguard James' health, we are fairly home-bound. James was not handling the rate of his IV nutrition very well around Christmas time, so the doctors slowed down the rate...better for him, but a bummer for us time-wise, since now he's hooked up to his IV's for 20 hours every day. So Keith and I take turns going out. I get doctor visit duty and grocery shopping every week and occasionally Maddie and I will go hit Target or something. Keith even offered last weekend to watch both kids so that I could go to a movie!! Wow, heaven! I can't even remember the last time we saw a movie in the theater. We don't have a regular babysitter (we never had any, even with Maddie) and to be honest, I'm not even sure how people go about finding one. But now with James' medical needs, we're even more limited. Thankfully, a family friend put us in touch with a lady from her church who is a nurse at Doernbecher Hospital who has offered to watch the kids occasionally when we need a night out! How awesome is that?! God provides, even when it's something we didn't even think to ask for. :-)

My mom has been kind enough to take Maddie for me one day a week--they go to library storytime and out for ice cream (Maddie's favorite is now Cold Stone Creamery's blue cotton candy ice cream with M & M's and sprinkles) or they go to lunch with Papa or play at Nana's house & take hour-long tubbies and watch movies and do "projects". Maddie cherishes the time she gets to spend 1-on-1 with Nana and Papa!!

Birthday party for Papa & Grandpa Frank. Maddie helped decorate the cake!

Modeling Papa's crazy light-up glasses! :-)

James has been doing great. He's up to 10 lbs 5 oz and is getting stronger and more active. He's definitely a morning boy, just like his daddy. He's all smiles when he wakes up in the morning and is usually happy to play for 30-45 minutes on his activity mat on the bed until his 10am nap. He's discovered his hands over the last few weeks and now he's grabbing at everything...toys, shirts, his tubes (no, no, no!). In fact, a week or so ago when Keith was changing him, James reached down to his tummy and, through the gauze, grabbed the tube in his lower abdomen and yanked it right out! Then he held it up proudly to show Keith, like "cool, look what I just found!" Such a guy! Aside from being oh-so-not-helpful, it was no big deal because it just slides right back in. Well, usually it does. Last week when Keith went to change him at5am, he discovered that the tube had come out sometime during the night and we could NOT get it back in again--the skin had already started closing up! After an early morning trip to the ER, an x-ray and 5 HOURS of waiting for the doctors to make their rounds/check in with us multiple times, we were ready to head back home. I'm sure that was just the first of many hospital visits this year, unfortunately. Speaking of that, Maddie got a random fever a couple nights ago (that thankfully went away overnight) and I asked James' doctor what happens if he gets sick. Apparently, if James gets a fever and even if we know that he got it from someone else in the house being sick, it's mandatory that we have to stay in the hospital with him for 24 hours so that they can rule out an infection in his central line. Dang!! I know, better safe than sorry, but oh how I don't like staying in the pediatric wing!

So glad I caught a smile during a moment of no-nose-tube (yep, he'd pulled it out!).

Here's some random photos from the past month...

Awesome fabric playmat & accessories that Aunt Robin made!

Another cool project from Aunt Robin: Super Maddie costume!

Dessert night with our friends The Newells--Maddie (3), Lucy (2), James & Henry (same original due date of Oct. 12th...Henry looks like a giant!)

These buddies are so dang cute together!