santa

mommy and daddy took me to the mall today.  daddy kept grumbling about mommy wanting to go the saturday before christmas, but mommy kept saying something about this dude named "santa."  we drove round and round and round until daddy decided to park our big, giant car in a spot with a "c" on it [compact cars].  i laughed when daddy had to climb over the middle and out on mommy's side of the car because he couldn't open his door.  we went inside the mall and i saw this wondrous sight with trees and lights and LOTS of kids.  there was a really long line and mommy said we had to wait in the line to see the "santa" dude.  after waiting a while, mommy bought some cookies and we had a yummy snack....still waiting in the line.  after what daddy said was "forever" [really an hour and a half], we made it the "santa" dude.  OH MY GOSH!  It was santa claus ~ he was in a bright red suit, with a hat and long white beard.  at first, i didn't really want to talk to him, but daddy convinced me that i should because he's the dude who is going to bring me presents on christmas morning.  mommy, daddy and the picture-taking dude were jumping around like fools trying to make me laugh, so i finally gave in and smiled.  it was pretty cool!

duke, the dude and lala

This is "Duke" our Elf on the Shelf -- he keeps an eye on the dude to make sure he's behaving!

 Spontaneous hugs to lala Lucy

A Super Baby ornament for a true Super Dude!  (one of his nurses gave him this when he was in the NICU)

riley's bubba

my mommy is away for work, so i get to talk to all of you tonight.  this is going to be all about riley's "bubba," travis, and how he needs your happy thoughts and prayers.  travis is the best big bubba anyone could ask for and i know this because riley and i shared a room in the nicu when we were at duke.  travis was there visiting riley anytime his parents would let him visit.  recently, travis's mommy and daddy [you may know them as Lindsey and Jay Souza] found out that he has something wrong with his spine.  i don't know how to spell it, so i'll let you go to their blog to read more about it.  they will be traveling to duke and putting their trust in the doctors and nurses there to fix travis just like they fixed me and riley.  my mommy said that dr. h won't be able to fix travis because that's not the kind of fix-n he does, which is sad because dr. h is the bestest surgeon in the whole world, but i know that travis's doctor will be great, too.  please think of them as they go through a very scary time.  [i hope that they will stay with us so i can play with riley!]

here's the link to more information on big "bubba" travis: http://lindseysouza.blogspot.com/2010/12/dec-7.html

xoxo,

c-a-r-t-e-r

i can spell my own name!  mommy puts my letters on post-it notes and then i line them up on the floor.  if you ask me what my name is, i tell you "ter-ter"

rudolph

nooooooooooo

Super Dude has a major toddler crush on his CDH pal, Sofie.  Although she is a Kansas Jayhawks fan, he says he can overlook that because she is so stinkin' cute.  For a very long time, the only way that Super Dude would sit long enough to eat or take his breathing treatments was if he was watching videos of Sofie.  His favorite one is of Sofie counting and saying "noooooo!" when she gets to three.  He laughs so hard at her that he loses his breath.  Click on this link for Sofie's video (and I have to admit that it's super cute):  COUNTING NO!

I took this video of Super Dude counting so you can see his awesome counting skills....that he learned from Sofie :)

go cool??

The dude LOVES school.  Every morning when he wakes up, he asks "go cool?" and if you tell him that today is not a school day, he sternly says "GO COOL!!!"  We are very fortunate to have found a fabulous school with low student to teacher ratios.  He is in a toddler class, three days a week, with only children 2 - 2 1/2 years old.  They send home a daily activity report detailing activities such as language (they teach 1-2 new signs each day), tactile experiences, music, reading, science, creative art, motor skills, life skills and manners (a CDH parent's dream--ha!).  They are also working on potty training him and his teachers say that he'll be fully potty trained very soon!  Writing that tuition check each month is painful, but it's worth it to see the payoff.

The dude's verbal skills and sign language are improving drastically.  He's become very independent, too.  They expect him to put on/take off his coat and hang it up in his cubby; help get dressed after going potty; clean up after lunch (putting his bowls and utensils away and throwing away his trash); wipe his area at the table after eating; wash and dry his own hands; remove his sheet and blanket from his mat after nap-time and put them away in his cubby; put away the toys he plays with, etc.  It's certainly made life at home much easier!

Today, Mrs. L told me that she was shocked when they were doing number puzzles and the dude started counting on his fingers!  She said she ran to the next classroom to get another teacher just so she could witness it.  Mrs. L told me that a lot of the kids can count out loud a few numbers, but they don't really know what it means and can't count on their fingers.  The dude can count to 5 consistently (with 6 and 10 thrown in there sometimes).  She said she randomly said a number and he'd show it to her on his fingers!

It's such a relief to see him prosper so well in school.  We had to have him isolated for the first 2 years and we were concerned about his social skills and learning.  There's only so much that the mommy and daddy can do at home before he gets bored with us.  I also think that the interaction with other kids is helping him learn to talk, learn that the world doesn't revolve around just him, and have certainly helped to improve his eating.

Of course, I'd love "cool" too if I got to do stuff like this:

i wuv my lala

Teehee...mommy walked in my room and found me and LaLa snuggling in my bed!

there's an elf in the house

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I had to make several side dishes today and Super Dude the little elf was a huge help!

Putting pecans in the food processor

Stirring the sugar and butter into the sweet potatoes for the casserole

Realizing that there's sugar and butter in the sweet potatoes

Yummy!!!!

Hey, Mommy!  You gotta try this.

perfecting the flirt

please excuse the spaghetti face!  make sure you watch until the end for the "flirt"

two peas in a pod....or bed

i love getting into things, especially the trash can.  it's the kind where you can step on the pedal and the lid pops up.  it's so much fun to open and close and open and close.  sometimes, i even see something in there that looks yummy and i'll eat it.  mommy and daddy really freak out when i do this, which of course is funny to me.  daddy likes james brown and has a james brown "doll" that sings and dances and i'm terrified of it, so he put james brown in front of the trash can to guard it from me.  they think it's sooooo cute to see me stop in my tracks when i see james.  lately, i've been a really brave little boy and i've been inching closer and closer to james.  this week, i started feeding james some of my snacks and realized that he's not so scary.

tonight, james and i became best buds.  i've been carrying him around all night and insist that he goes everywhere i go.  and this is what mommy and daddy found when i went to bed...

privacy...what's that????

best seat in the house

oh, what a night..

Hubs called me at work this afternoon to tell me that the dude didn't have a wet diaper all day.  Yesterday, his teacher said he never had a wet diaper, either.  I put in a quick call to the Pediatrician, but considering the dude's history with his kidneys and his entire medical history, they suggested we take him straight to the ER.  It could indicate dehydration, or something more serious like a kidney blockage, clot or infection.  I took off out of work, picked up Hubs and the dude and off to the ER we went, where we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited......let me just tell you that trying to keep a 2 year old happy in an ER where he can't touch anything because it's just gross is not fun.  Not fun at all.  It was getting really late, so I checked on the progress and was told that he'd have to have a chest x-ray first and then the Doctor would see him, and that Peds was really backed up, so it was going to be a while.  This was after waiting over 2 hours.  So, we made the executive parental decision to leave.  Keep the dude in a yucky ER with people yelling, rolling on the floor and puking into buckets, or bring him home and keep an eye on him.  Not a hard decision.  While we were waiting, the dude drank 3 big bottles of water.

On the way home, I started feeling very lightheaded because I had not eaten since lunch.  Brad had to pull the car over so I could "share" my lunch with the Interstate.  Apparently, the sounds of me losing my lunch were freakin' hilarious to the dude and he was laughing and laughing as I was puking and puking.  

When we got home and took the dude out of his (brand spanking new) car seat, the entire seat was soaked in PEE!!!!  I guess the sounds of me puking literally made the dude laugh so hard that he peed his pants!

Here's the dude and hubs in the ER.  Can you tell we're thrilled?

it's fall, y'all

tell baby claire to stay in there!

Some sweet friends of mine are expecting their first child, Claire, in December.  Rebecca went into pre-term labor this past week and is currently on bed rest at Duke.  Baby Claire has a heart condition, which will require surgery after birth, among other medical diagnoses, so a pre-term birth is not in her best interests.  I visited with Rebecca today and she's in great spirits, but they are very worried about the future holds.

I'm asking that you take the time to visit their new blog (written by Rebecca's sisters), offer some words of encouragement, and say a prayer for them.  Join me in telling Baby Claire to "Stay in there!"

http://babyclairesblog.blogspot.com/

super dude goes to preschool!

The hubs and I just dropped off super dude at his first day of preschool!  We can't believe that the little boy who had a 30% chance to live is now partying in school with other kids.  If we didn't tell you what he's been through you'd never know.  He washed his hands, sat down at the table and ate a snack with all the other kids.  It was so awesome!!!!!

super dude with his clothes laid out for school

 getting socks