Britton's Racing Car

Britton l-o-v-e-s to be pushed around in his new racecar. I'm not sure how it got started since he initially only liked to walk behind and push the car. He now likes to ride at breakneck speeds on the makeshift racetrack that goes around our kitchen island. Since he doesn't know how to make it "go" himself, the car is all daddy-powered. Here are some video clips ...




Notice he says "dada" at the end. He knows how to make that car go. ;o)


This is how he travels around the house these days. (Oh, and that's not a dirty clothes pile you see at the end of the hallway.)

Dancing Machine

Oh, my son will be a hit on the dance floor in years to come, if he keeps up these fancy moves ...

... Well, maybe not. But that smile is bound to melt some hearts.

A Boy & His Dog

Britton loves to give Piper hugs! ... like all the time. Every time he can get his hands on Piper, he leans in for a hug. It is very sweet. He also loves to hug the stuffed animals in his bed. Whenever we put him down for a nap, he will lean over and hug his monkey, then his puppy, then his Sleep Sheep. It is so sweet and fun to see him show affection.



Here is some of the Piper-hugging-action. It is obviously "set up" so that we could document it on video:

Britton & Piper

Their favorite spot. (More coming tomorrow on these two cute little guys.)

Speech Evaluation

Britton had his first evaluation with the speech pathologist today at our Early Intervention provider, and it went very well. We had been wanting an eval for him now that he is one.

Despite not napping all morning (a rarity lately), he was a little angel at the appt. I was waiting for a meltdown, but the little extrovert in him came out. She pulled out a box of toys and he crawled right over to her, and played and smiled and flirted with her for nearly an hour. Mom, who?? She introduced him to bubbles, which he thought were the most enthralling things in the world.

She asked us a ton of questions, and he a "scored" with just a minor delay ... enough to qualify for therapy, which we are happy about. So, we will see her twice a month, and will work on adding to his one-word vocabulary. She gave us some marching orders to encourage his sounds, introduce sign language and phase out the pacifier.

She also said that autism spectrum disorder is not even on her radar for him, thanks to his stellar social skills (he does not get it from me)! We knew that, but it is always great to hear it from an expert.

We are looking forward to having a new friend around! Have I mentioned how much we love EI?!

Gotcha Day Pics

Here are some pictures from our fun day of celebrating. For his first Gotcha Day, we gave Britton a ride-on/push toy that his PT recommended. Here he is when he first saw it:

I love this face! He was so excited.


Riding it is fun ...


... but pushing it is better!

Take 2 on cake-eating. I made a carrot cake for some friends last weekend, and made him a cupcake with the extra batter and icing. For whatever reason, he liked it much better than his birthday cake, and enjoyed most of it until he sent it over the edge. Oops.

Diaper Day

Nothing cuter to me than a wee one toddling around in his diaper.






Helping Daddy with the dishes! They do this every night. I think he's going to grow up like his daddy and be a good helper.

Britton's Gotcha Day!

Today, we are celebrating Britton's 1st Gotcha Day! It is our celebration of the day we brought him home from the hospital. After a looonnng 5 1/2 weeks, we brought our boy home. It was a much-anticipated event and we were just giddy about it.

If you're wondering what a Gotcha Day is, it is actually adoption lingo for the day a child becomes a part of his or her new family, especially in int'l adoptions. Since we will one day have an adopted child, we thought it would be great for both of our children to have Gotcha Days to celebrate. And we certainly went through a lot during the time Britton was in the hospital that today will always be a day worth celebrating!

So, back to that day a year ago ... we spent the night at the hospital the night before -- Valentines Day -- so that we could have a trial run of taking care of him and figuring out his apnea monitor. We, basically, got no sleep that night. With all the excitement of finally having our baby with us, round the clock feedings, uncomfortable beds, and ungluing ourselves from the ceiling every time the apnea monitor sounded its false alarms, it was a tough go at sleep. We didn't mind though ... we had our baby! We "woke up", drank a lot of strong coffee (thanks to the hospital Starbucks), signed paperwork, met with visitors who came to say their goodbyes (esp. the OB who delivered him), paid our bill at the cashier's office ($0!), got his discharge paperwork, and profusely thanked all the nurses and docs who took good care of him. We said our goodbyes and finally got to load that boy in his carseat, took a momentous trip out of the hospital, and drove him (oh so carefully) home. It was an amazing day!

A little walk down memory lane ...

My two tired boys that morning in the NICU family room. Danny said it got really warm laying like that. It wasn't until I picked Britton up did we realize he had peed all over Danny. It wouldn't be the last time.


We loaded him up in his carseat.


We arrived home, and Piper was the enthusiastic welcoming committee. Love this picture!


Finally home! Here's that obligatory front door pic. We were ecstatic. Britton was cranky.


We immediately changed his outfit (which he went through several that day, just because we could). And we held him and held him.


We watched him sleep.


We tried out every little thing we had been waiting to introduce him to -- his bouncer, his play mat...


Look how tiny he was?! This was taken a few days later when he went for his first pediatric appointment. He was wearing a tiny preemie outfit. I look at that thing now and cannot believe Britton was ever, ever so tiny.

Because my memory is already having a hard time remembering how little and precious our boy was back then, I am so glad we have tons of pictures and videos. Here is a "never-before-seen" quick clip of our tiny boy back then:


And here he is these days:

So handsome.


So happy.


So healthy.


So full of personality!

Thanks for sharing our joy this past year. It has been such a fun year of having our baby home and, most of all, seeing him thrive. We will celebrate this day for years to come, and we continue to praise God for letting us keep and hold and love our baby on this side of eternity. We are very blessed.

The Difference a Year Makes

A year ago tonight, was the very first night we got to spend with our baby boy. He was 5 1/2 weeks old, and boy were we excited. I remember being in a straight-up panic all of that day that he would have a d-sat and we wouldn't get to bring him home after all. I sat by his bed in the NICU all day and watched the monitor like a hawk. I could hardly tear myself away to go home and pack my clothes so that we could bunk up with him in the NICU that night and take him home the next. Alas, he didn't d-sat. It was Valentines Day. And, by far, the best one we've ever had!

A year ago today:



Our little 7 lb., 13 oz. munchkin. Almost all ours.

Today:



So big and healthy!

Me & My Boy

We don't have too many pictures of us together since I am usually the one behind the camera.

Quarantine

Britton & I have had quite the adventure lately. For the past several days, we have been hosting a missionary family in our home. Neat family. They are TransWorld Radio missionaries in Benin, West Africa, and are in B'ham for our church's annual missions conference. "They" are a family of 5 (the mom is a cousin of Danny's), as well as a young Beninian man who is an engineer at the TWR site. We love hosting people in our home, so we have really been looking forward to having them here.

Not long after they arrived on Saturday, one of their daughter's came down with a suspected case of malaria (common for where they live in Africa & probable as they had only been in the States for a week). She got really sick in the middle of the night, so they took her to the ER at Children's Hospital. The docs couldn't make a definite diagnosis of malaria (which is not contagious human-to-human), so we decided to play it safe and get Britton out of the house. We are staying with some friends who are gracious enough to let a one-year-old roam their house.

Britton has discovered a fun new thing at our friends' house -- stairs. He has only been on stairs once before, but was immediately scaling a set of 15 steps. He is developing (physically) so fast considering he just started crawling two months ago. I have some cute pics on my phone of him on the steps but have to learn how to post them remotely. Project for tomorrow.


Stair climbing.

Updated: Docs are saying it is not malaria or typhoid. Just a virus. Great news for them, but glad we are away so we won't catch it. Thankfully, she is well on the road to recovery.

Big Boy

Look who is excited about moving up to his big boy carseat!

He is finally big enough to move out of his carrier, and I am so glad. Love that carrier, but it was getting heavy!

More Walker Video

Here is another video of Britton with his walker. This was probably his 2nd try moving the walker across his room the other day. He was so proud of himself!


Danny was excited to get home last night and see him do it in person. Britton has now taken to pushing and walking behind his big chair in the den. I am sure, before long, everything will become a push toy.

12 Month Doctor's Visit

Britton had his 12-month doctor's appointment today (a few weeks late), and he got a great report, along with a few shots to the leg. Here are his 12-month stats:
Height: 29 1/4 inches, 25th percentile
Weight: 19 lbs., 14.5 oz, 10th percentile (two weeks ago he was 20 pounds!)
Head Circumference: 17 1/4 inches 3rd percentile (he's on the charts!)

His head grew a whole lot between his 9-month visit and now, and his doctor was very pleased. I'm excited that he's finally on the charts. He continues to be a small guy, but he sure doesn't look like it (or feel like it) to me!

We are off to pick up "Dada" who is flying back in from a weekend ski trip in Colorado. Can't wait to see Britton's reaction when he sees his beloved Dada again!