woohoo

Max finally ate some applesauce this afternoon! He didn't like popsicles or slushies. Too cold I think. So we tricked him by putting milk in a cup with a straw. I think he thought I was giving him some diet coke :) whatever works!
Hopefully we'll be home by morning. I just left him throwing things out of his crib at the nurse to grab some lunch :) he's definitely feeling better.

Max update

Max continues to do well. Thanks to loritab.
Very happy with Dr. Smith. Because of Max's heart defect, he feels safer having Max spend the night in PICU. He hasn't needed any oxygen, which is amazing (remember the 15 liters high flow he needed in May?). If we can get him drinking, we'll get to go home in the morning from the PICU. I'm not holding my breath. But he's finally sleeping in the crib without me holding him, so we're making progress :)
Still don't have pics to post here... But there's some on facebook :)
Thanks for all the well wishes!

Surgery went great

Can't figure out how to post pictures from phone... All went well.more later.

Surgery Tomorrow

Please pray for the tornado :)
He's going in for surgery tomorrow morning.... tonsils, adenoids, tubes and a throat scope. Hoping to fix his sleep apnea and check for any reflux damage in his esophagus. They're just throwing tubes in his ears for good measure.

The Beach

Chasing the tornado...

Pretty little star bokeh.

Paddle boating with Grandma :)

A little snack break at the lodge.

Good night lake.

Nature Walk

After the fish hatchery, a nature walk is usually in order. Amazing view.

Max obviously didn't care about the view. Bye!

Oh wait, there's something to climb on.

 A little bird's nest fell out of the tree :(

The red fish.

Sawtooth Fish Hatchery

Stopping by the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery is always a hit while you're staying at Redfish Lake.

The baby trout literally jump out of the water to get the food pellets you can feed them.

  

Who let Max out of the stoller? 

He's off... 

  



Redfish Lake Lodge - Day 1

We made it to the lake Monday late afternoon. Piper couldn't get her swimsuit on fast enough! We didn't even bother to put on Max's. We didn't think he'd go in the cold water.

We were wrong.

We stopped playing long enough to roast hot dogs and make smores... mmm.

Where is this kid's mom? She should be wearing shoes!

We love that this lake is so shallow all the way out to the docks. Maybe that's why we drive 6 hours year after year to come back...

Back at the cabin.

Time for wrestling.

Piper is scared of this picture.

We woke up to deer outside.

He's Finally Getting It !!!!!!!!!

Haven't made it to the grocery store yet, so we hit the drive thru for lunch...

Max LOVES french fries. He won't eat anything else until he's had his fill of fries. Then he'll eat apples, a hamburger, nuggets, whatever... as long as he had fries first.

The other day I grabbed a yogurt parfait through the drive thru for Piper (no fries) and he cried all the way home!

But I digress...

He is finally picking up on signs {remember when his DDI coordinator said to maybe just give up on trying to get him to sign a few months ago?}. He's finally getting it. He loves mimicking you or having you follow his gestures. So signing is coming along. He still only does a few, but is definitely on the right track for picking up more and more easily. His newest, 'apple' (at 44s in the video), learned last week after eating applesauce several times. So exciting :)

{And when we were up at Redfish, he signed doggy a lot, which he hasn't really done since our dog died in February. Not to mention, he watched his favorite Signing Time DVD at least 30 times in the car over the last few days. He's got to pick up on something!}

P.S. In case you were keeping track.... Max was signing 'doggy' and 'baby' at his second birthday, although he didn't know what 'baby' meant, he just thought it was fun to rock his arms back and forth.  He only made the 'd' sound.
At 29 months, he waves 'hi' and 'bye', signs 'doggy', 'baby', 'more', 'milk', 'all done' & 'apple', and points to his head, nose and ear. He now makes the 'd' and 'b' sounds, and says 'dada' with meaning - most of this just within the last month or so :)

Redfish Lake.... Ahhhh

Just got back from our mini vacation to Redfish Lake, ID. It was beautiful as usual.
It was much more relaxing in years past, before Max was mobile :)

Grandma came along this year... a great help in chasing Max :)

Many more pics to come... after unpacking, laundry and naps...

Happy Birthday Grandma Joan

Well, it's not quite her birthday, but she was in town, so we celebrated anyway.

Piper painted her a picture frame and stamped "we love Grandma!" all the way around it. I forgot to take a closeup of it...

Piper helped decorate the cake.

 Then she moved on to decorating graham crackers.

I made her a set of nativity glass blocks for Christmas (thanks to Pinterest).

Aunt Momi brought the kiddos animal hats. Max actually wore his for about 2 minutes.

Grandma getting ready to blow out the candles - all six. She's getting younger every year.

And last, just a random picture of Max hoping if he smiles cute enough I'll lift him over the gate so he can tornado the office :)

And in case you missed them last month, the out-takes of the 'happy birthday sign picture' are a must see, here :) One of many reasons Piper packed paper for Max to eat on vacation.