Our Week Home - Adam 11 Months

We got to spend a week back in the cities last week, which was wonderfuL!  I was lucky enough to have a week off, so we decided to go back to the cities so Derek could work from the home office while Adam and I spent time with grandma and Michael.  It was a great week! Great Grandma Johnson and Derek's uncle Mike were in town to visit, so we were able to see them and spend some time at the 3M golf tournament as well.  Adam loved great grandma G.G. because she always had goldfish or teddy grahams to give him.  He would walk around with a cracker in his mouth and then point to her every time he wanted another one!  He thought this was the best thing ever.  We also were lucky enough to spend a little time with Vicky and Tracy, as they were in town as well.  Tracy was working on her music videos, so we got to help with that a little.  Also, we saw Jason and Melissa, Russ and Krissy with Trevor and Gwen, as well as Teresa, Brian, and Nora for dinner at La Casita one night.  It is funny how much Adam watches Nora when she is around.  He is fascinated with other children!  I think it is probably time for me to get him involved in some play groups or something, since he is such a little social butterfly!

Also while we were in the Cities, Adam turned 11 months old.  I can not believe how much it seems like he has grown over the past several weeks.  He went from crawling to now walking holding on to things and he seems to have picked it up so quickly.  Now he can walk as long as he is holding one hand.  He will take 2-3 steps on his own if we trick him into thinking we are holding on to him, but he is a little too nervous to try it himself yet.  I think it will definitely be in the near future!  He now has 6 teeth - 2 on the bottom and 4 on top.  He eats anything we are eating and it is funny to watch him take little bites of his crackers and things!  He is working on his words.  Over the past few weeks he has learned a few new ones... when Journey goes outside to go potty he tells her to "Go" and then when she comes back inside he says "good girl" which really sounds more like "goo goo", but he gets the concept.  He now says Mama and Dada more distinctly without the continued rambling, and when he babbles now he does it with many different patterns and tones to his voice.  He is starting to get the inflections of different names, and is getting much clearer with his tones.  I think he will be talking much more over the next couple months.  He has gotten very good at pointing to tell us what he wants or who he wants to go to.  He is particularly good at this when there is food nearby that he wants or his bottle.

         

 

 

Overall, we had a wonderful week with our families, and as usual it went way too fast.  Now we are back in Sioux Falls and back to work, which luckily means that Adam is back to his regular sleeping through the night. Yay!

 
                   

Adam is 10 Months - Learning to Walk

We are living the crazy life these days!  Our move to Sioux Falls, SD a month ago has kept us busy, along with working 80 hour weeks in the NICU.  Unfortunately that means I have not had a lot of time to update the blog for Adam so here goes!

This week, Derek is in Canada fishing with my dad and brother.  My mom then came to Sioux Falls to hang with Adam while I am at work during this week with the plan to drive back to the cities together on Friday.  Of course, having grandma around means Adam has gotten very spoiled over the last week.  Grandma and Grandpa bought him a Thomas the Tank engine toy that he walks behind and has a "secret place" in the seat.  He thinks this is the greatest!!  We originally started letting him walk behind the lawn mower, but it would go pretty fast for him, so he would fall and then started getting scared to try.  Dad ordered him a new walk-behind toy and now the new train means he got two walk-behind toys this week!  And let me tell you....he is cruising!  He has gone from timid to speeding around the kitchen in no time flat!

 


Other new things for Adam:  He now has 5 teeth, 2 on the bottom and 3 on top.  He is a great eater and loves to have everything that we have on our plates.  He is smart enough to know when you have something that he doesn't, and he will sure scold you about it until you share.  His favorite of these items in ice cream.  If you hold ice cream in the front seat of the car and try to eat it without Adam knowing..... good luck!  He catches one glance in his mirror and he will scream until he gets some! haha great!!  He has learned to start annunciating to make works.  He makes a sound like "all done" if you ask if he is finished eating.  When grandma takes Journey outside and Adam goes along (which he always has to do or he gets mad), after she goes potty, he knows that grandma says good girl, so he will say "goo gool".   Now that he is walking, he is starting to get new shoes, which makes him think he is a big boy!! And he sleeps great through the night.... occasionally not getting up until 9 or 10!  Love that kid!  All sorts of fun.

We are missing Derek like crazy and have had a few chances to Skype with him this week, which has been great for Adam.  He runs around the house most days saying "Dadda"!  Can't wait for our week long trip home this weekend!!

Adam is 9 months Old! Trip to the Minnesota Zoo

Oh where to start.... things have been CRAZY!  Between packing the house to move to Sioux Falls next week, and getting ready to start residency, I am way behind on posting, so I will start with this week!

Adam had his 9 month appointment this week.  He is doing amazing!  He is growing right on track for weight, though his height has dropped off a little bit and he is now <5%ile for height.  It seems like he is getting tall to me, but aparently whoevere is measuring him doesn't think so!  haha!  On other notes, he is crawling around like crazy, he has 2 teeth (which he loves to brush) and is getting his 3rd tooth (according to the MD).  He still says Momma and Dadda, Titi (Tracy), Nana, and now is starting to wave and say all done "ah da".  It seems like he is starting to change so quickly these days!  He got the clearance to eat anything that we are eating now.... which makes me a little nervous, but he is glad to be eating off the table and now will scold us if he doesn't get a little of whatever we happen to be eating!

Today, as a nice break from packing up the house, we decided to go to the Minnesota Zoo!  We were joined my Tracy, Russ, Krissy, Trevor, Gwen, Michael, and my mom.  We had a blast!  Adam loved seeing the animals and he even got to feed a giraffe! I have never even gotten to do that!  He went from being fussy to just staring at the giraffe in awe!  Turns out he is definitely a zoo fan.  He loved to watch the fish!  He did get a little scared when he got sprayed with water in the dinosaur exhibit (thanks Derek!) :-) but otherwise we had a blast!  Enjoy a few of our favorite pics!

 

 

Adam Waves! 9 Months Old

Grandma taught Adam to wave today!!  He always has his hand turned toward himself as if he is picking up a cup :-)  but he gets the concept!

Adam Crawls!

Today, Adam figured out how to crawl!  Up to this point for the past month or so he has sat and rocked himself into a crawling position, but would only go one knee or two forward and then would stop and sit back up as if he was hesitating.  Today, he finally figured it out!  I was in the living room with him and I turned around for a second only to turn back around and see him 6-7 feet from where he had been sitting before.  I wasn't quite sure how he got over there until he got up and started crawling again!  I was amazed!!!  Take a look!!

Adam stood up in his crib at 8 months

Last night, Adam stood up in his crib for the first time.  Derek and I were laying in bed watching TV and we heard Adam start to stir on his monitor.  We were watching the video monitor to make sure he was doing okay, thinking that he might just go back to sleep on his own (which he usually does).  We were checking every 30 seconds or so.  When Derek picked it up to look at it, he immediately panicked when he realized that Adam was no longer in the screen for us to see.  He went rushing into Adam's room and found him standing up in his crib reaching for Derek to pick him up!  He gave Derek quite the scare, but was completely fine!  I think this will be a new change and hopefully we will be getting a smiley happy boy when we go in to get him now that he can stand and look around!

Adam rolls, sits, and stands - 8 months old

Today Adam figured out how to consistently roll from his back to his tummy then push himself backwards to a sitting position.  He has learned that from that point he can stand on the table by himself.  Quickly starting to become more adventurous and independent!!

Adam's Surgery - Finally Over

Today was Adam's surgery.  We were scheduled for 11:30AM which meant that he could not eat after 6AM.  I was really worried that he was going to cry all the way to the hospital since he couldn't eat, but I was totally wrong.  He was a happy smiley guy all the way up until they had to take him away from us into the operating room.  He looked so sad and confused as they walked away with him, and I definitely started crying the second he was gone.  After an incredibly long hour, Dr. Vandersteen came to tell us that everything had gone very well.  What a relief!  We were able to see him a little while later, and though he was upset and crying a lot at first, he ate and then calmed down quickly.

This whole day got me really thinking about how different life is on the patient side of things as opposed to the physician side of things.  I remember feeling similar to this when Derek had his hernia surgery.  I remember crying the second they told me Derek was okay because I was so stressed with everything being out of my control.  You put the people that you love the most in the world in the care of complete strangers and have to trust that they will take good care of them.  That is really hard for me to do.  So, I felt the same way today.  I prayed and prayed while he was in surgery that the people around him would do everything they could to take good care of my baby.  I really don't know what Derek and I would do without him!  Being a mom with a kid having surgery is tough.  I am glad it is over!!

After surgery, we were able to go home within an hour or two, and Adam was doing so great and being playful and happy even though we knew he was probably in some pain.  Poor little man! What a trooper!  He slept a little while this afternoon, but was happy and playful talking to his "dadda" and "titi" (Tracy) at night.  See for yourself.  Here are some pictures before and after surgery, as well as his talkative self tonight.

  

 

Adam 7 months - Changing Quickly!

Hard to believe Adam is already 7 months old.  I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up on his progress over the last several months as well as our changes as a family, but to start.... let me just talk about the changes in the last week!

Approximately 1 week ago (4/5/2013), Adam learned that he could stand up from a sitting position.  He now thinks it is the greatest thing every, since of course we praised him like crazy!  Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9ejcdV-Po

So now he has spent the last week trying to stand up on everything when he is sitting, including his toys on the floor.  This usually means that he will stand up and then fall right over, look at me, and start crying!  I am sure he will soon learn how to maneuver this. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTDZ0H52Tag
Now, as of 2 days ago, he has learned he can scoot backwards on the floor.  He has not quite figured out how to crawl forwards yet, though he gets into crawling position.  If he is on a wood/hard surfaced floor, he will get on his tummy and push himself backwards with his hands while he laughs.  I have a feeling that we will have a crawler very soon!!  As soon as he figured oout how to sit from laying down and how to crawl, we will be in trouble!

Adam - 6 Months Old & Baptized 3/3/2013

Today was a big day for Adam!  He turned 6 months to start things off.  I can hardly believe that he is already 6 months old!  He is sitting up on his own, and occasionally falls to the side, but is really good at lifting himself back up to sitting position from backwards or forwards.  He is also rolling from his tummy to his back, though he does not love to be on his tummy in the first place, so he often just whines and waits for us to roll him onto his back.  He LOVES to bounce.  He has a Johnny jump up that we got from Russ and Krissy ( I guess it was once Amy's!), and he will spend an hour just jumping around and talking to himself. His legs will surely be very strong.  We have his Doctors appointment tomorrow, so we will see just how big he is getting!

As for the rest of today, we were blessed to have our families join us to celebrate Adam's baptism at St. Anne Church in Hamel, MN.  This is the same place that we were married at, and Father Belden was also able to baptize Adam, which was fabulous.  The ceremony was beautiful!  We were honored to have Tracy and Michael accept our invitation to be Adam's godparents.  We know they will be great role models for him as he grows, and he adores them both!   We were joined by our families, Grandma and Grandpa Schjenken, Jim & Maria Benson, The Claypool family, and Jason and Melissa.   We then went back to our house to celebrate, where Derek had smoked some pork on his smoker.  We visited, opened gifts for Adam, and shared many laughs with our family.  We had just an amazing day!  Adam was smiley and happy the entire time!  Hard to believe, since he barely had a 20 minute nap!  What a trooper!  Then, to follow it up, he had a bath from his aunts and then we went to the Wild game, and he continued to smile the entire time!!

Derek and I feel amazingly blessed to have such an incredibly fun and happy little boy, as well as supportive loving families that support us wholeheartedly in raising him to be a great man someday!  We are hopeful that I will be matching in Minnesota so that we will get to spend the next several years here with our families!  We should have more information next week!