Tuesday, June 30, 2009

All Great Trips Must Come to an End


What a wonderful trip we've had! It was the perfect amount of fun and relaxation that was needed. Jaxon did wonderfully the whole time! We had fun at pools and parks, and visiting many very-missed friends. We are finally missing home and Daddy a great deal, so tomorrow evening we are headed home. It's so much fun to be on a vacation, but the best part is coming home.
I can't wait to see Jaxon so excited to be in his Daddy's arms again, and to show off his new clapping skills!


Here are a few pictures of Jaxon at the park yesterday. More photos of the trip to come.







Sunday, June 28, 2009

GQ

Jaxon and I are on our trip to Oregon, and Jaxon had his first dip in the pool yesterday! He was totally enthralled with the whole thing! We got a little float raft for him and he had a blast kicking and splashing up a storm!

While sportin' his new swim shorts, he thought it was the perfect time to work on his modeling face...


Work it, Baby!



Pretty GQ don't you think? I think he's got this modeling thing down a little too well!
Will post more pics of our trip as I get time!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Photography Blog

I have finally decided to start a photography blog! While my website is in process, I figure this is the best way to go. It is still in process, so make sure to visit again in the next week or so! I will soon be making links to different albums and have more information on prices and such. So, go check it out and let me know what you think!

http://kristin-harris-photography.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your support!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mr. Busy and Mr. Chill

Meet Mr. Busy. He's on the move and raring to go...



Meet Mr. Chill. He's happy sitting and eating grass...



This picture demonstrates their personalities respectively. Mr Busy is crawling to see what is up with all the grass eating, while Mr. Chill is...well...chillin!

Although Mr. Busy and Mr. Chill have their own agendas, they are buddies just the same.

And two pretty darn cute little buddies at that!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Daddy's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. I could go on and on about what a wonderful Father my husband is to our son, how he has exceeded my wildest dreams on how I would want someone to father my child, what a wonderful relationship they have, and how much Jaxon adores him. While all of these things are true, I think the following pictures speak all those things and much much more than I could ever describe.











Happy Father's Day, Rob! I am so proud of not only the man you have grown to be over the last several years, but also the man I see you becoming. You are a WONDERFUL Daddy to our little J-Man!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Survey Says...

This little survey is what I created to get a better idea of what people enjoy most. I created it for my photography Facebook page, but thought it would be fun to get your opinions too! Let me know what you think!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

"What, Mom?"

"What, Mom?"





"It's just a MINOR adjustment..."

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Darth Vader Visits Children's Hospital!

Our little Jaxon unfortunately caught his Mommy's sickness and decided he would turn it into something more fun. The last couple of days his little raspy self sounds more like a seal when he coughs and Darth Vader when he breathes. Last night he worried me some because it seemed he was having such a hard time breathing. He has been very irritated at the fact that he cannot suck on his binky when his nose is all stuffed up at night as well. During the day he is still a little peach although his appetite isn't the same and he is a bit more of a Mamma's boy than normal, (not that I mind that!) But last night, he was NOT himself.

This morning I woke up to Darth Vader breathing very loud in the monitor and I figured I should take him into the pediatrician...just to make sure he didn't have the swine flu and all. (Yes, I'm kidding.) Actually I was just concerned it would turn into bronchitis or something like that. I also figured that since we had his appointment today at Children's, we should find out what he had before the other children there caught on and decided to be Darth Vader too. =)

Thankfully, it is just croup and nothing more. Well, not really thankful he has croup either, but thankful it wasn't worse.

Anyway, the appointment at Children's went very well. I could write all the details out, but I am very tired tonight (as I am sure you are too after reading all this) so I will make it short. After poking, prodding, oooing and awwwwing over our little guy, asking a bazillion questions and deliberating...the neurologists decided Darth Vader, aka Jaxon, seems perfectly normal and didn't see why they should look any further. The elevated CK levels I described in my previous post happens because in the first several months of birth, the are high anyway. Usually they taper off to a "normal" level shortly after 3 months. It is not too abnormal for it to climb down slowly which could be the case with Jaxon. To be safe, they took another blood test to see where it lies now. If it is normal, we will drop this issue. If it is elevated any more than it was, we will go from there. We will hear the results of the test hopefully tomorrow. We are praying all is "normal".

Can I just say that for being sick...my son did AMAZING through it all. He hammed it up for the nurses and dr's and was very chatty for having very little sleep over the last 48 hours. He cooperated with all the tests and even when his blood was taken, he cried maybe 20 seconds. This kid is a trooper!

Thanks for all your prayers! We are continuing to pray the results of the CK test are better and will update you on that when the results are in!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Jaxon Update (Tis a Long One Folks)

Several weeks ago I put up a post about Jaxon having some issues with an abnormal blood test and needing to be evaluated by Children's. I meant to follow it up and apologize I kind of left it hanging. Here is a little more details on what's going on since we know a little more now.

At Jaxon's 6-month well-child appointment, I brought to his pediatrician's attention that at that time, Jaxon was not doing some developmental things gross motor wise that I thought he should be. (Keep in mind I've worked with children with disabilities for several years and I studied child development in college for two years, so am hyper aware of these types of things. Almost to a detriment. The pediatrician did mention that most parents wouldn't have even brought these things up or be concerned.) At that time, she wasn't very concerned, but referred him to a physical therapist to double check, and asked me to bring him back in 6 weeks to check his progress. The physical therapist scored him on his development and he was ahead cognitively and fine motor...and right on 6 months (which he was at the time) for gross motor. However, she did want me to check back after 6 weeks as well because she was afraid he could be one of those kids who fell through the cracks. Some of the issues we were seeing we thought was due to his reflux and the fact that tummy time has been a challenge because of it.

Skip 6 weeks forward, and Jaxon had improved a lot. The things I was concerned about he caught right up, except for the fact that he refused to push up with his arms still. When I took him back to the pediatrician, she was happy with his improvement but did notice what she thought could be a bit of low tone in his upper arms. To cross every "t" and dot every "i", she wanted to run a few tests. One of these tests caught me off guard a bit...a test to check his CK (Creatine Kinase) levels which determines whether or not a child has muscular dystrophy. In case you don't know, muscular dystrophy is kind of a hefty diagnosis. One that would change our entire lives. I thought it was a bit extreme but went along with it.

The next day I found out that his CK levels were slightly elevated. Normal would be 195 or less and his was 295. It sounds like a big elevation, but it actually is very slight. Good news: if it was muscular dystrophy it would have been over 15,000! So it's not that...praise God. Bad news: we don't know why it is elevated. Because of this, she referred him to Children's hospital to be further evaluated.

Enter freaked out mother. Mostly because no one could tell me what an elevated CK level could mean. Given, I was thankful it wasn't muscular dystrophy, but who knows what it COULD be. It is hard to not know. As a mother you don't want your child to have to suffer at all.

Encouragement soon followed. Jaxon's physical therapist was super pleased with Jaxon's development and sees him still on track with his gross motor development. She calmed my fears that she has worked with many children with muscular diseases and did not see those warning signs with Jaxon. In fact, she didn't think he had low tone at all. She tends to think this is a mild sensory issue (the palms of J's hands and feet seem to be more sensitive and he is resistant to certain things because of this.) This is something that is very fixable. Jaxon CAN do many of the things he needs to be doing, but is more resistant to doing them. We are going in on Thursday to address more of this.

The reason I post this now, is that Rob and I are going to be taking Jaxon into Children's Hospital (outpatient) tomorrow to meet with a neurologist to make sure we cover all bases included the elevated CK levels. I did get some more information from the nurse there. She said that whatever it was, it seems to be mild. She also said that the elevated CK level could simply mean he had an infection that day (which he did have a cold.)

I feel a bit better about the whole situation now than I did. Jaxon seems to be progressing nicely, and we've had positive feed-back. I am a bit nervous about the appointment tomorrow so would still ask for prayers. Pray for peace and the dr's wisdom!

Either way, God is in control and we place our trust in him. We dedicated Jaxon to the Lord last week and that includes our acknowledgement that Jaxon is His and He knows what is best for Jaxon.

Thanks for all your prayers and support and I will update after we know more tomorrow!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Sick

Been pretty sick the last few days and don't have much energy to write anything. Thought I'd post this cute pic from the other day though. Love him! =)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

A Splendid Idea

I thought...


...it was a splendid idea!

He on the other hand...

...did not.

Friday, June 12, 2009

And to My Surprise...

I woke up this morning and grabbed a very starved J out of his crib and placed him on our Papasan chair while I made him a bottle.
Normally, I hear impatient squeals from the other room as if he were going to starve to death. This time, however, he was completely quiet. I peered around the corner...
...and to my surprise I found this...



Raider plopped himself directly on Jaxon's belly and together they were as content as can be. How cute is that?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Braving the Trails While Cheerio Chuckin'

Julie and I packed up the kids and headed out to the Centennial Trail for some fresh air and exercise. It was a beautiful day and we are thinking of doing this more often! Julie brought her kiddos Elijah and Mila (and Jasmine the dog of course).

Baby Mila enjoyed being in her "big girl" stroller for the first time!


Jaxon enjoyed his stroller ride too. Especially when I put Cheerio's in his tray.

Funny thing is, he has more fun taking fists full of the Cheerio's and chucking them out the side of the stroller than he does eating them!
I think the ratio was 2 Cheerio's eaten to 10 Cheerio's chucked.

And very pleased he was with this ratio...

...along with the birds I suppose.
More pics to come of our future stroller hikes through the Cheerio-laden trail!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Silly Songs With Daddy...(the part of the day where they sing a silly song!)

Here is a little window into our world in the mornings. Mommy gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 with Jaxon, fixes him breakfast and gets him dressed. The days Daddy goes to work, Mommy make sure his little alarm clock, (aka Jaxon) is placed directly on Daddy's belly at 8 am sharp. It's kind of enduring, but Rob insists this is how he will wake up, or he will not wake up at all. =) Sweet huh?

Cuddle time ensues for about 30 seconds. Jaxon then babbles on and on about his morning, loudly belts out his infamous monkey grunts (if you've ever met him, you know what I'm referring to), rips out half of Rob's goatee, and squirms all over the bed, laughing at Daddy as he goes. Enter cats. By this time all 5 of us are in bed and Jaxon is tackling Raider, pulling out clumps of his hair, and crying at the fact that Hawk won't come anywhere near him.

At this point, Daddy heads into the shower, and Jaxon jumps in his Jumperoo while Mommy gets ready for her day.

After Daddy has showered and had breakfast, he roughs Jaxon up a bit and sings, "Gonna Shake Shake Shake My Sillies Out". And that is what he literally does, cause after 5 minutes of this...



...and this...

...we get this...

...a very tired-out cuddly boy.

And off to dream land he goes while Daddy heads to work and Mommy has her quiet time. =) What a morning!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Bathtime, Bathtime So Much Fun!

Bathtime around here is the best part of the day at the Harris household. We have a VERY vocally excited little boy the moment he is plopped in the tub. (Actually the moment the water is turned on if we're being honest.)

  • He loves splashing in the tub.
  • He loves playing with his toys in the tub.
  • He loves sucking on his wash cloth in the tub.
  • And a new favorite...he loves POOPING in the tub.

Apparantly Jaxon hadn't gotten the memo yet, that toilets are for pooping in, not bathtubs.

Despite all the excitement that ensued, Jaxon was still completely thrilled with his bathtime. And this time the excitement continued right out of the tub and into his little bathrobe:








Maybe it was the newfound freedom that made this time extra special? Or the sheer excitement of trying something new and taboo in the bathtub? Whatever it was, he was crawling out of his skin with his excitement. Yes, boys will be boys!