Carson is 11 months

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on a year already. Of course, people who see Carson still think he’s much older than 11 months, and often thing he's a girl. A stranger may ask Collin, ‘How old is your sister?”, to which he replies, “ I don’t have a sister, that’s my BRODER”. Despite the length of his hair and these type of comments, I’m holding out on cutting the back until he’s a year old.

Carson is quite the scooter these days. Check out this video to see for yourself!
He’s pretty fast when he sees something he wants, putting his hands in front of him and pulling himself along. He also loves the Walker, Corn Popper or Tractor Vehicles that he can use to do laps around the house. We have to steer his driving, as he can’t pull himself backwards when he runs into a wall so MUCH of our time is spent either holding his hands to let him walk, or steering whatever vehicle he is using at the time. I know this is a short phase that we’ll be doing laps helping him walk and I enjoy watching him be so proud of himself. He is really determined and LOVES practicing his walking so we do many laps. Just recently he has a definite opinion of where he wants to go and f you try to go another direction he gets mad and lets out a squeal. We are trying to discourage him from wanting to practice steps but he has discovered a new skill to master and heads for the stairs quite a bit. He still gets very excited when he sees the cats and tries to chase them. They’re surprisingly tolerant and let him get pretty close and even lets him pet them if we’re holding them.

He does best when he has two naps a day – one around 10 & another around 2 or 3. If we have something going on he can get by with one nap in the middle of the day and his pretty flexible. Most of the time he is sleeping through the night in his own crib - a welcome change. He sleeps on his tummy even though he still doesn’t’ like to be on his tummy during the day. We haven’t made any progress on having him GO to sleep without mom – something we need to work on over the next month or two. I’ve started having him in childcare at bible study or during meetings I have to attend, which usually is fine for a little while as long as it’s not during his nap (which it usually is, since that’s when Collin is in school).

He is less interested in eating jar food and being spoon fed, unless he is allowed to hold and dip the spoon himself, which is really messy. Overall, he prefers finger foods that he can feed himself - fine by me. For breakfast he eats Cherrios and bananas or his new favorite – blueberries. Other meals usually consist of Ritz crackers and usually what we’re eating chopped small.

Mike says he's not as easy going this month as other months, but I think he's just becoming more opinionated and knows what he wants (i.e., to have you walk arond holding his hand for 10 or more laps at a time and where he wants to go). He doesn't seem to enjoy baths as much as he used to, but I'm hoping this is just a phase.

Dallas & Austin

For the second time in six months we traveled to Austin for a wedding. Check out Tara's pictures too! I love Austin so it was quite a treat, and there’s no easy way to get there directly from Atlanta, so it’s a good excuse to stop in Dallas. I went on Tuesday to spend several days with friends and my parents and Mike met up with us at DFW airport on our way to Austin. It was a quick trip in Dallas, but we got to meet Chrissie’s new baby, Taylor who is so cute spend time with Laura’s Addison just before her first birthday. I was able to attend my Mary Kay training while mom & dad watched the boys and had my first evening out in a long while to celebrate Ed’s birthday – with Ashley, Laura & my friend Brian from high school. And of course, it was great to see my parents again and I’m so happy mom has been able to see the boys the once a month for the last three months.

Austin was quite fun! Brett & Tara renovated a duplex that’s RIGHT on the trailhead of the Austin Greenbelt, a great hiking trail that connects to many running trails in South Austin. They live in the larger half and will be renting the smaller half, but for this visit we had quite spacious accommodations…we didn’t want to leave! It was so great to be able to catch up with Tara, and go running and hiking together. Jenny came down to visit several times which was awesome too. Mike & Brett enjoyed each other’s company and Collin and Gage got along great! Collin also fell in love with Maris (his favorite dog as he said) and Carson was definitely interested in her but a little scared at times.

The weather was beautiful while we were there! I took the boys to a Dinosaur digging at a nature center on Friday while the boys played golf, then we hiked down to a neat playground where we took a train ride along the River. Brent’s wedding was Saturday night. We ended up taking the boys since the wedding was at 6 PM and too early to leave Carson for the evening, which didn’t go too well. Weddings and babies aren’t the best combination, as we should know by now but it was very nice reception. On the way back mom & dad met us at DFW during our layover so we could tell them about our trip and get an update on my dad’s trip to St. Louis after moving my Grandma out of the hospital. Please keep Grandma in your prayers as she recovers from her fall and adjusts to a new environment.

Your prayers are needed!

Another reason it was extra special to all be together at New Year’s was to support Mike’s sister Karen and her husband Greg. They are expecting their third child (and first son) this May. At their 19-week sonogram, the baby was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a very serious condition where the left side of the heart (left ventricle, aortic valve, and aorta) is severely underdeveloped. There are two major treatment options for babies with hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a three-stage surgical procedure, which reconstructs the child's heart so it can work using only two of the heart's four chambers or a heart transplant. The three open heart surgeries are the Norwood operation, bidirectional Glenn operation, and the Fontan operation. The Norwood operation is done very soon after birth, and converts the right ventricle into the main, or systemic ventricle. The bidirectional Glenn operation is done when the baby is 3-6 months old, and diverts half of the blood returning from the body to the lungs. The Fontan operation is the last stage of the staged palliation, and diverts all of the blood returning from the body to the lungs. It is typically done between 2-4 years of age. The most critical time, and the time of the highest mortality for the baby, is the time between the two first surgeries. Approximately 75% of babies survive.

Needless to say, our new nephew needs many prayers, so please keep Karen, Greg and the baby in your prayers. I can’t even begin to describe the feelings and sadness I experienced when hearing this difficult news. Karen has started a blog they will update to keep friends and family informed on their journey. I have added a link (The Ward Family Blog) on my “Friends with Blogs” section.

Happy New Year & Christmas with Voegtles

The day after my parents left we had our second round of company. It was great that Mike’s family could come down to celebrate Christmas all together since we didn’t make it back to St. Louis for Christmas this year. Laura, Tim and family came on Dec 30th, and the rest of the gang (Karen, Greg & girls & Mike’s parents) on New Year’s Eve. In all we had 14 people staying at our house, including 5 kids under 3 and Collin. Does this sound like a zoo? It was! We do surprisingly have beds for all 8 adults to sleep in and the kids are in pack-n-plays but it was still pretty close quarters to all be under one roof for 5 days. Given the alternate nap schedules, we didn’t venture out too much but we did get out to a “Noon Year’s Eve” party (which looking back was a mistake given that’s likely where we picked up a stomach bug), a mall with the American Girl store and a carousel for the kids, and a trip to Mike’s new office space downtown. We cooked a lot and enjoyed adult time after kids went to bed. Everything would have been quite manageable if we’d had a little more sleep and if we didn’t have a stomach bug that decided to visit almost everyone in the gang. Regardless, Collin LOVED having all his cousins here and it was very wonderful we could all be together!

Here are pictures of Carson with his two youngest cousins, Meg (18 mo) on the left, and Drew (4 mo) on the right. Can you believe he's 9 months younger than Meg and only 6 months older than Drew?