I'm a bad blogger

I've been busy.

Some of it has been super important!

Some of it has been pretty useless.

Some of it has been wonderful and amazing!!!

Some of it has been bags of crap covered in more crap. With a side of crap. And little crap sprinkles.

So goes life!

Just wanted to hit a few highlights from the last bit...

The boys are great! Dax is pretty consistent with signing "more," "eat," "I want," and a long, complicated series of nonsense signs that Nana loosely translates as "Steal 2nd base."

His current favorite spoken words are "bok bok," "quack," "duck," and "bite."

Biting is also one of his favorite activities.

(Getting bitten is one of Ty's least favorite activities.)

Dax will now do all of "Patty Cake" including "rolling 'em over" and then "shooting them in the pan," although apparently the pan is his face. We haven't figured that part out yet, but oh well.

He also likes to do "Itsy Bitsy Spider," which is, to the untrained eye (and also the trained eye), exactly like "Patty Cake," "If You're Happy and You know It," the regular clapping of his hands, and "more."

He's eating a huge variety of foods now, although we still have to cut them into small pieces for him since he refuses to chew. Still putting all the think liquids through his tube.

We had a super-scary incident at the end of April when I really thought we'd land back in the hospital, but thankfully we were able to avoid it. His lungs were so wet, he was retracting, he had his first fever since he was six months old, and his breathing sounded like he'd been running uphill. I am so completely thankful for lots of praying friends and family, a wonderful home health nurse, and the best pediatrician and pediatric nurse I could ever hope for. We're so blessed to be surrounded by so many caring people!

Oh, and Dax is in a toddler bed now, and he does amazingly well with it! He was so proud of himself his 1st night... I have never, ever seen him that excited. It was one of the most heart-warming, most precious nights of my life, even if the thought of him being a big boy now nearly broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

Moving on to the little chubbo-tubbo now :)

Ty is 10 months old now, and he pretty much exclusively wears 18-month clothes. He's big and tall and handsome and smart and... okay... pretty whiny, but it's a cute whiny.

(Most of the time.)

(Or maybe just some of the time.)

(Ok, so maybe it's not that cute.)

Ty spends most of his day trying to be right next to his big brother, doing everything his big brother does.

Ty hates wearing clothes. Ever. Huge fit every time... The only way he'll get dressed and not be upset is if we... wait for it... allow him to have a pretend breathing treatment afterward.

As I said, he wants to be juuuust like brother.

Ty plays "Patty Cake" with Dax and loves, loves, loves to clap his hands all the time :) That, I suppose, he gets from his mother :)

Ty also waves "bye bye" with a finesse that most babies could only dream of!

Ty is cruising everywhere and just barely lets go for a short, short time. He'll walk holding our fingers and can climb the stairs with someone right behind him.

Oh, and then there were the two times he climbed the stairs when we weren't paying attention. (Don't do it; I've already nominated myself for Mother of the Year for that one!)

Ty has 3 and a half teeth now!!! I say half, since there's one on the bottom that cannot make its mind up. Hopefully it will emerge soon, to stay, otherwise we might be throwing one loud baby out with the bathwater!

Ty's favorite words are "DaDa," "TyTy," "Dax," "MaMa," "dog," and "WAAAAAHHHHH!"

His favorite activities are eating, bouncing, eating, hugging, eating, and whining.

I guess he's just going to be my sensitive one... and he has the sweetest hugs and kisses ever, which totally makes up for the Irritable Boy Syndrome.

He, in addition to the biggest heart and biggest smile I've ever seen, continues to have the biggest butt ever found on a white boy. Beyonce, you better watch out. My baby got back!

Ty and his big brother share a room now, and each morning they talk about their dreams, favorite TV characters, and plans for the day, in some strange language I can best describe as Swahili with a touch of kitten. It's so very sweet, and so very special.

And I reckon that's the high points!

We have a lot of things going on now, and a lot of things coming up. Dax is getting his tubes replaced in addition to an ABR hearing test on Friday, and those procedures will be the first time he has had to be sedated in over a year. Please say a prayer for him to tolerate the anesthesia well and have an uneventful surgery!

Please also continue to pray for Baby Teegan to stay put, and for Rosemary to get her trach out next month. Please also add Baby Salem and his parents, as Salem may have an undiagnosed genetic disorder, Baby Chase and his hope-to-be-adopted family, and Braden and his family, as they fight to make sure Braden can get all the therapy and treatment he needs while trying to fix a really crappy situation, to your prayer lists, too. There's a lot of need and a lot of sadness in this world, but there's also so much good, and so much to be thankful for!