Week 52?!?! When did we get here? Birthday in 9 days? Impossible!!
Gramma, Erin, and Caleb in 3 days!! Can’t wait for the madness!

In all, it was kind of a tough day. I am glad we had nurses these last couple days to help Brendan cope with his withdrawal symptoms. It just isn’t fair to see him pay the price now for the “relief” back then. We have months of this yet to do.
Brendan’s symptoms are bad enough that we are going to hold steady for a while now and let him adjust before we continue to reduce the dose. It isn’t right to suffer like this for your first birthday party.

Hopefully the worst is over for now, and he can feel better to meet his aunt and cousin for the first time.

It was early, but the boys got to open up a birthday gift that came in the mail today. These adorable little animal backpacks are from Great-Grandma Bobbie. Trevor’s will probably get used a lot with the tail to keep him from running away in Walmart. Brendan will probably use his to carry medical stuff when he learns to crawl and walk. They both got a chance to look at both of them and pick their favorite. Trevor picked the monkey and Brendan picked the lion, so there was no coin toss required!

Trevor was dressed today, really he was. But his drool was overwhelming so it was easier to keep him dry this way. He thought he would “rotate the tire” on his stroller.

Brendan tried to play in the jungle but it was hard to get in to it today.

He lost his favorite alligator pieces off the side and couldn’t get them back

Little brother to the rescue!

Trevor really did help put the pieces back up in place

Yay! Brendan is so thrilled that Trevor is starting to play with him

Brendan is not so thrilled about Trevor wanting to suction his mouth

Brendan goes to bed earlier than Trevor, so we have to go play in Trevor’s bedroom to wear him out before his bedtime. I found this little wind up toy in a drawer and it was the highlight of his night.

Bill brought home some old reels of Super 8 film from his dad’s house and set up the Instamatic tonight. We watched a couple of short home movie clips from 1970-1971. It is pretty amazing how times have changed. The difference between the handful of films and photos of Bill growing up and the thousands of pictures and almost 100 videos of the boys in the first year.
We had a good time with the blast from the past and seeing little Bill running around was so cute!

Brendan has gotten in to the full swing of withdrawal issues now, it could be a rough month for him. He did manage to sprint for almost 4hrs, but he had rough spells all day. He still smiles and plays when he can!
He had an occupational therapy evaluation this morning, and the therapist is going to write her report recommending weekly OT sessions. Physical therapy is going to keep working with him every other week to address gross motor skills, strength, rolling, crawling, standing, walking, etc. OT will work on fine motor skills, coordination, and developmental milestones.
He showed off his stacking skills.

He was pretty proud!

Trevor had to spend a little time in the jungle while I did some paperwork. He is far too big for it now. When I bought the jungle exersaucer, Trevor could not even reach these hanging toys!

This is how he starts to climb out! Trevor is really ready for it to be opened up in to the standing play center, but Brendan is still using it like an exersaucer and he loves it.

We had to go to Walmart again today for some things that we forgot. I picked up this very handy little baby-view mirror for the car and now I feel much better about travelling with Trevor in the rear facing car seat. I can see him very well!

Funny thing is we got a phone call about a grandma planning long distance baby super-spoiling that involved the Walmart trip. Great-Grandma Bobbie loved Trevor’s purple monster video so much that she couldn’t resist but to buy Trevor the monster so that he could continue to enjoy it and share it with Brendan.

Trevor was thrilled! I have heard purple-people-eater at least 800 times tonight.

Brendan was a little concerned at first and just stared at it with his own “what the heck?” face.

He did warm up to it!

I think this video has it all!! Tragedy, suspense, drama, violence, clever dialogue, and dancing!

Setting aside the monster, Brendan had to get ready for PT tonight. He did a great job with his therapy and learned a set of new skills that he has to work on. They are challenging.

Brendan has a game he likes to play that impressed the therapist. It is his “trade” game. His toys all have a hierarchy. If you don’t want him to pitch a fit when you take something away from him, you have to offer him something of greater value. He will either accept your offer and trade, or he will just ignore it, obviously finding the new toy unworthy.

I am still learning the order of things. Tonight, the yellow mega block was tops until he saw Trevors leopard print paci. Then it was game over, he would not trade anything I offered for that one!

Leave it to Trevor… all week he sleeps in until 7ish, but then the night that I have to stay up so late, he decides to wake up at 5:30! It was another beautiful morning so the boys got chucked in to the stroller still in their pajamas (well, Brendan was put into some pajamas). We did a lap of the neighborhood and then sat out on the patio for a while.

Rollin’ like they were twins

After almost an entire year went by, we were able to do something special with the boys today. Brendan took a trip out to meet Grandpa Jack for the first time! It should not have taken this long but we are so glad to have these three generations together at last!

Trevor had skipped his naps all morning (since 5:30am!) and had finally fallen asleep in the car (around 12:15pm). We had to wake him up to go in and visit so he was a little scared and a bit disoriented. He did pretty well though.

Brendan was all smiles the whole time! He liked his grandpa!

The visit was wonderful!

“Well here’s your problem, right here!” Mr Fixit Trevor gets in to everything.

Grandpa might have said something like, “You mean the world to me,” but Brendan heard, “Here’s the world to eat.”

Mega chomp face!

(Trevor dug out the squeezy globe thing from Grandpa’s room and brought it home with him)

The visit to Grandpa was a great family outing that allowed us to experiment with travel arrangements with carseats. No great solution has been found yet, but we got there and back safely.