Colby's new glasses

(Colby clears his throat and begins to read..."Once upon a time......"

(Colby says "Well mom, let me see here. I'll take a look a this thing now that I can actually see what I'm looking at and tell you all about it.)

( If any of you watch Jake and Kate Plus 8, you may remember Joel. He's one of their 8 kids and has glasses. Sometimes Colby reminds me of him now that he too has glasses)

(I love this picture. )

Colby got his glasses yesterday. He doesn't seem to mind them too much. I was thinking that he'd try to pull him off his face constantly. But he'll try for the first minute or so when you put them on. Once he knows that we won't let him take them off, he gives up. Then about 5 or 10 minutes later, we'll look over at him and he'll have his glasses in his hands. That's OK, all in time.

He went through a short phase this past week of being cranky and not quite himself. We wondered if his top teeth were finally coming in. But still nothing there. Then we thought he was getting a cold because his nose was running, he was coughing and his eyes were puffy....but not it's pretty much gone away. We also thought he had a touch of pink eye because he was rubbing his eyes, they were red and he'd have gunk in them. So the doctor gave us some medicine. Now that's gone too. It's so difficult when someone can't tell you what's wrong...you just have to guess.

My mom comes to our house every Tuesday and stays over night into Wednesday. She's an absolute god sent! Tracey works Tuesday afternoons into the evening and Wednesday during the day. I need to keep my schedule busy so having mom here every week allows us to work My mom took Colby over to her house this week. The break was wonderful for Tracey and I. We missed Colby dearly, but I think it's healthy to get some time to recharge and keep things in balance. It was great to have him back home though!

We were a bit of Halloween scrooges yesterday. We didn't dress Colby up. Tracey was out running Evan around to his father's house from 5pm to around 7pm (prime trick or treating time). I was in the office until about 7. It just didn't work. At Colby's age, he doesn't know the difference anyway. Next year, I hope he's able to get into it a bit more.

Developmentally, Colby is still moving along, slowly but surely. He's gaining some strength with his arms and is tolerating his belly time much better. He's more comfortable rolling onto his side. He still won't roll from his back to his belly. If he accidentally finds himself on his belly, he'll usually try to flip onto his back. It is difficult at times when I see other one year olds crawling around or starting to walk....then there's Colby, still just sitting there. But his time will come.

I do believe that with children like Colby, they need extra guidance to get them crawling, walking etc. I think in some ways it's a bit too easy to simply let things slide....but I really feel the best thing I can do for him is to support him, love him, but try to help him catch up as quickly as he can. It doesn't do him one bit of good to be behind. I plan to work with him today on his belly time. We've found that once he learns to do something, he progresses rather well, it's jut a matter of getting him to do it.

So that's the latest in our Colby's journey. Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.

Our little cowboy

(Colby says "Howdy folks. Hope y'all enjoy the pictures.")

(Is this a boy who loves his mother or what?)

(Showin' his toofers)(Tracey took some great pictures of him wearing his cowboy hat today.)

(Munchin a cookie)

(Taken about a month or so ago while we were in Cape Cod)

Colby's right eye has been getting more and more crossed lately. Not exactly sure why. It doesn't seem to bother him too much. But it must be hard either seeing double or having your brain use only one eye. I'd imagine the depth perception must be off. Tracey ordered his glasses this week. Hopefully they'll be in next week or so. I can't wait to see what he looks like in them!

Apart from that, Colby has been doing well. It seems like he's plateaued a bit in his progress in the last week or so. He's been very quiet. I think his gums may be bothering him. Hopefully once his teeth push through, he'll be back to his old self again.

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Apple Orchard Visit

Just some quick pictures from our trip to the apple orchard this past Saturday.

Putting things in perspective

Tracey brought Colby to look for glasses yesterday. I guess his prescription is going to make at least one of his lenses rather thick. Couple that with the fact that he's so little and still a falls over quite a bit and we think we're going to end up with some...well....rather thick and not so stylish glasses for the Colbster. We are going to continue to look around and hopefully we can find something that fits him, gets his prescription right, but doesn't look like he has swimming goggles on! Ow well, it is what it is and as he gets older, there may be some things we can do to help his vision.

I'm still not entirely sure what his vision is....or what he can or cannot see. I guess one of the main things right now is that he's a bit cross eyed. So he's using mainly his left eye. It's amazing how the brain can some how shut off the information coming from his right eye and allow him to focus with just one eye. He's not horribly cross eyed and at times his eyes seem to both be focused on something correctly. But then other times it's very clear that his right eye is turned in.

Having glasses isn't the end of the world (as I type this looking through the glasses resting on my nose). I know Colby's situation is probably quite a bit different than mine, but I have hope that over the years they may be able to do some things to help straighten his right eye and correct his vision a bit. And if not, that's OK too. As it is, without glasses, he's able to see things fine it seems. He'll watch everything that goes on around him. He can focus on his little treats that we give him. And given the laundry list of complications the doctors told us he might have, at least thus far, we're continuing to beat the odds.

I've tried so hard though out his journey to keep a positive outlook. I do believe that you can in some ways influence your future. I'm sure all of you know people who are always complaining how bad their life is, all the bad luck they have and how things just suck. But if you take a step back and look at what's happening to them, I think it's much the same with that's happening to you and I. They just choose to focus on the negative, bring it to light and thus magnify it's affect on their life. I'd rather acknowledge that it sucks.....and move on. So much in life is all how you look at it and how you choose to react.

Tracey got Colby a high chair yesterday. He's been sitting in his bumbo, but it starting to get too big for that now. This fits him better, has a nice big tray and keeps him a bit more confined. When we'd but him in his bumbo, he's big enough that anything with a two foot radius of him was fair game! You'd set him down, move things way, then start tending to dinner or whatever and you'd hear his little hands getting into something. Although his butt would be in the bumbo, he'd be slouched over the sides, his arms outstretched reaching for things. LOL

We're still waiting for more teeth to break through. He's been drooling a lot and a bit cranky, but no more teeth. Just the bottom two for right now.

It's looking like a nice fall weekend in Connecticut. So I think I'm going to head over to the NICU today to visit them and let them see Colby. This afternoon we plan to go apple picking which will be nice. I love bringing Colby out to expose him to new things.

Mr Fussy

(What a big boy holding his own bottle!! Just a couple weeks ago if you tried to put his hands on his bottle, he'd either pull them away and cry or hold it for a little bit and drop it. Now, he'll reach out, grab the bottle and bring it up to his mouth.)
(Our messy little man)
(Grandma reading Colby a book before bedtime)

The last couple days, Colby hasn't been quite himself.....just more quiet and a little cranky. Tonight is more of the same. We think his gums are hurting him and that more teeth are pushing through. He has two on the bottom right now. Maybe he'll start to break through on the top. Just have to wait and see.

As I drove to an appointment today, I was thinking that just one year ago, we were juggling day to day life with having a baby in the NICU. It seems like so long ago. I remember saying to myself that we just needed to get through that hard time. That as time goes on, things well improve. Sure enough, here we are a little over a year into Colby's life and things are going so well.

Too long

(Colby in his fire engine PJ's)


(Colby having fun with Grandpa)
(Colby and daddy at the Garlic Festival in Bethlehem today)

It's been way to long since my last update. I think this is the longest I've ever gone. Sorry about that.
Lot's going on though. Colby had his one year checkup. He's just under 18 pounds now and he grew 4 inches since his last visit. He's really getting to be a big little boy.
He continues to refine his fine motor skills with grabbing things and passing things easily now from one hand to another. We think he's definitely right handed as he uses that hand most of the time. He's started to try to grab the spoon when we feed him. If we give it to him he'll shove it into his mouth, sometimes gagging himself, but at least he gets the idea.
We've really been working with him to feed himself with his bottle. For weeks he'd just cry with his arms straight out beside him. We'd take his hands, bring them to his bottle, but he'd pull back in protest and as soon as we let go of his hands, they'd go flying back to his sides. I guess something clicked and now when we put the bottle in front of him he'll reach right out, grab it and bring it to his mouth! Huge change in our independence....being able to tend to other things as he's taking his bottle!
He's been eating some plain yogurt mixed in with his fruit and is tolerating that fine. He's a great eater and we're thankful for that. We've finally been able to get him off of the Pregestamil and he's now on Nutragamil or something like that. It's a bit less expensive so we're thrilled to be able to start saving a couple bucks on his food. Especially now that he's sucking down the bottles!
Crawling...well...that's still not happening. Although he's tolerating his belly time much better than he ever has, he still doesn't get that he can move himself around. If you put him on his belly, his legs go straight out in back of him and he'll push himself up a bit on his arms, but before too long, he'll just plop down and either be content to just lay there or he'll start crying.
He's a jabber mouth though. Just babbling away. Da-da-da seems to be his favorite thing to say....or at least that's what I think. Maybe I'm biased.
Anyway, I'm so sorry for not posting anything for so long. I'll honestly do my best to post updates, even if they're short ones, more frequently.

Quick update

....blame the market. Everyone else is....
Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a bit. I've been absolutely flat out with work lately. If any of you watch the news you can understand why I'm suggesting that you blame the market for me not having time to update the blog.
So...how's our boy? Wonderful!! He had an eye doctor's appointment the other day and we were told the Colbster will need glasses. Of course our first choice would be that he didn't need them, but now that we know he does, we're looking forward to picking out a little pair of glasses for our boy. We can't wait to see what he'll look like with them. I guess they can somehow tell with kids as young as Colby whether or not they need glasses. Amazing....
Apart from that, he's doing really well. Just babbling away and happy as could be.
I'll have to take some more pictures soon and post them.