Some Bad News

In April, Dave and I noticed a slight ridge forming down the center of Moses' forehead, from hairline to nose. Initially, we thought it was part of the growing process, but by 6 months, it only seemed more pronounced. I researched causes and wasn't happy with what I found so I mentioned it to his pediatrician, Dr. Gray, at his 6 month appointment. Dr. Gray said one of Moses' sutures could be closing early, and we should keep an eye on it.
Well, me and my mom-sized worry couldn't play the waiting game so two weeks later, Dr. Gray checked it out thoroughly and found that his anterior fontanel had closed significantly more since he visit two weeks before. With this news, Dr. Gray scheduled a CT Scan to check out his sutures.
On June 19th, 2007, Moses, Gran (Sally), and I went to Covenant Hospital for the scan. Moses did really well considering he hadn't been allowed to eat for the six hours prior in case sedation was needed: he slept through the whole scan without a sedative.
On Monday, July 9th, Dr. Gray's office called with the results, Craniosynostosis. Moses' Metopic Suture is completely closed. Typically, a child's sutures remain open for the first several years to accommodate brain growth. When a suture closes early, it can sometimes cause developmental delays, disfigurement, or brain damage. Sometimes the closures are only cosmetic and never cause any real damage, but other times, surgery is necessary to open the suture. We're hoping the latter isn't the case with Moses. His case seems very mild in comparison to others we've read about online. He hasn't shown any developmental delays or other symptoms to cause alarm, only the ridging.
He has his next appointment with a pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Telfeian, on August 6th. Dr. Telfeian will evaluate him, and then we'll know more about our next step. Obviously, we are willing to do anything to help our little boy's wellbeing. We are optimistic about the outcome of all this, but we ask for your prayers as we continue this journey.
Craniosynostosis is most often a fluke occurrence, and it is fairly common--1 in 2,000 kids--so we feel reassured by that. It's also good that we caught it early.

Crawl-ish.

Moses hadn't shown much interest in mobility until the Journeys catalog arrived. Is it his well-known love for paper that lit his auto-mobility fire? Or does yet another member of this household have a shoe fetish? You decide.


-Lindsey

False Alarm

Well, we've tried our hardest to catch a glimpse of "THE TOOTH," but we don't see anything resembling a gnasher. I don't know what I saw yesterday, but whatever it was (a curd of spitup?) is gone. Oh well. He's still the best thing ever:


-Lindsey

TOOTH!

I'm proud to announce that Moses' first tooth, his top left, is breaking through his gum!
I was feeding him bananas when I noticed a white dot on his upper gum. At first, I thought it was a spot of missed banana, but then I realized A) pureed banana isn't exactly known for it's durability b) bananas aren't that white.
I'm trying to get a picture of it, but it's in a very difficult spot to photograph. When Dave gets home from work, we'll put our best smile-provoking skills to the test and get a shot of his pearly white.

-Lindsey

Like a sack of potatoes, a very large sack of potatoes.

Recently, I bought a few clothes for Moses at Gymboree's semi-annual sale, and, holy moly, the kid is wearing 12-18 months---at 7 months old! The clothes look enormous, but sure enough, they fit. I'm amazed and a little sad at the same time. Where did my little boy go? If I must dress this toddler that replaced him, I suppose I'll do it in style. That little orange and green number from my July 2 post is new. Plus this fantastic shirt:


He also got these roll-up cargo pants in khaki and navy blue:



Watch out world, a very dapper man is being groomed for greatness.

-Lindsey

Kingpin

Today at Target, I picked up a plastic bowling set they had in the über-fabulous dollar aisle. I could not have made a better purchase: in just the three hours we've been home, it's proved itself invaluable in terms of teaching him cause and effect. He ceaselessly swats at the erect pins and then watches them scatter and spin on our wood floor.
The only downside of such an economically-minded purchase: the bowling balls. They do not follow the accepted behavior of all things round and, instead, teach him that balls behave as boomerangs and magically return after each roll.

-Lindsey

Time with the G'Rents

Moses' Mimi and Papa (Dave's parents) came to visit this weekend, and they brought Jasmin--Dave's niece--with them. We had a fun, relaxing afternoon hanging out at home and enjoying their company.





-Lindsey

A Mos'hawk and A Table-licking Goodtime

-Lindsey

So close!

In the past two weeks, Moses has developed a love for the push-up. He does this anytime he's on his belly and doesn't tire of it easily. He'll hold himself in this position, and as soon as his arms fatigue, he belly flops to the floor with a "thud."



It's only natural that his push-up would progress into the crawling form. It has. He can now get on his knees and rock gently. He hasn't figured out how to move his legs, and he's obviously frustrated by the lack of know-how. Hopefully, his crawl will develop sooner than his teeth---which we still haven't seen despite some very irritable days.


-Lindsey

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

We kept pretty busy in May. Moses' first road trip was the six hours from Lubbock to Horseshoe Bay, Texas for my cousin Ryan's wedding. There, Moses had his first dip in a pool, and his first, of many I'm sure, dance to The Isley Brothers' Shout.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some (okay, 16,000 words worth) pictures to recap our busy May:


















-Lindsey

6 Month Check-Up

It's been awhile since I posted, but today was his 6 month appointment so what better time to start up again.

Dr. Gray said everything looks great. He's 17 pounds 13 ounces (50th percentile), 28 inches (90th percentile), and his head circumference was 45.5 centimeters (90th percentile). Looking at those numbers, it seems our little chunk had a good growth spurt!

He seemed to *remember* Dr. Gray this time because he started crying as soon as he saw him. Of course, he had reason to cry as he had three shots and one oral immunization. Then, we had to go to the lab for a pin-prick so they could test his blood for anemia (it's standard for this check-up).

We still haven't seen any teeth, but we can see them just below the surface. I'll be happy when they break through because he's constantly gnawing on everything.

We also started him on solids a couple weeks ago. He's had applesauce, bananas, green beans, squash, and sweet potatoes. He likes applesauce and bananas the most but still prefers breastmilk more than anything. Since he associates me with breastmilk, Dave and his grandparents have greater luck feeding him solids than I do.


Moses is now "scooting." He'll lie on his stomach and push himself backwards or pivot on his belly. He hasn't figured out crawling but has managed to get in the crawling position on a couple of occasions. It won't be long until he's everywhere!



-Lindsey

Good nights make for good mornings.

Moses' sleeping has improved greatly in the last month. He now goes to bed between 9 and 10, wakes at 1:30 to eat, sometimes again at 5:30, and then up at 8:00 a.m. All this uninterrupted sleep makes us very pleasant...and extremely giddy. After almost four months of zombie-engendering sleep deprivation, we are back among the living. That's definitely something to smile about.



-Lindsey

Because I'm a doting mother...

and it's my job.

Jump around, jump around...

When Moses becomes a pro athlete, we’ll be sure to have his jumperoo bronzed. Here’s video of our future athlete exercising his legs and smile. And despite the way it looks, Moses is actually jumping that much on his own! The video is long ( 2 minutes 40 seconds) but well worth the time spent.



If anyone's unfamiliar with youtube.com videos: press play, then pause, and the video will load (the red line indicates how much is loaded). Once the video is loaded you can play the video without stop/start troubles.

-Lindsey

I shall call him Chip.

I was looking through old pictures of me as an infant, and Moses sure looks a lot like me. Here's a picture of my mom and me in January of '82 (4 months old), and here's one of Moses and me this month (he's 4.5 months old). There's definitely some resemblance, but of course Mos adds his own boyish spin to it.



It's funny because when Moses was born, he sure looked like his Daddy: a little Asian boy.




-Lindsey

An Easter Weekend Story

Saturday morning: We woke up to snow! What? In West Texas...in April? NO! Yes.



The snow made us lazy. We vegged all Saturday. However, someone almost figured out how to roll from back to stomach. Too bad he couldn't take his eyes off that mobile, or he'd be a champ.



Sunday morning: Easter! It's still cold! What to wear, what to wear? Mom knows. This outfit was a Christmas gift from GramGram and G-Dawg(my Mom and Kelly). Isn't he the bee's knees?




The Easter Bunny dropped off some goodies for Mos at his grandparents' house (Sally and my Dad). Thanks Gran and Granpop, er, Easter Bunny. He can't get enough of his books and Jumperoo!




Tuckered out. We sleep.

-Lindsey

4 Month Check-Up

We just returned from Moses' four-month check-up with a rave review. He's now in the 75th percentile in weight (15 pounds 10 ounces), height (25.75 inches), and head circumference (43 centimeters). We're relieved that he's proportionate, and our large heads have yet to doom him. Dr. Gray said he looks great. He's strong; He's on track developmentally; His first two teeth are almost here--All the things parents want to hear (well, we could argue the downside of teeth). And of course, we finished the visit with those pesky vaccinations, three shots and an oral dose. Poor kiddo turned bright red then screamed bloody murder. I didn't cry last time, but this time I teared up. Luckily, we have another two months to prepare for the next round.

On a lighter note, he got some summer shades:




-Lindsey

Like Night and Day

Drumroll please.......

Moses spent his first full night in his crib lastnight. Can I get a hallelujah? Sigh.

The night was relatively uneventful. He went down at 9:30 and woke at 10:30, 1:00 and 6:00 to eat, but he wasn't completely awake for those and went back to sleep immediately. There were only a few times during the night that he need a shush/pat. It was marvelous! I'm only hoping the nights to come will get better and better, and Dave and I can reclaim our space without the fear of finding wayward dirty diapers, spittle-soaked sheets, or worse, a larger ring of wetness.

In all his independent glory:



As I promised yesterday, here's more video of Moses' morning chat, with himself. This is 1 minute of video. Imagine this for 40 minutes at a time in the morning. It's downright hilarious. Those high-pitched pipes could give Maria Callas a run for her money. I'm sure deep down inside Dave's masculinity he's concerned that we'll have to enroll Mos in The Vienna Boys' Choir. I'm game as long as they throw in some of those sausages...

-Lindsey

Gift of Gab

Moses can talk. Well, babble. Toe-mate-toe, toe-mot-toe.

This morning I let Moses entertain himself for a bit since he was in a good mood. He just talked and talked and talked to himself--for almost 40 minutes! I didn't even say a word. Of course, when I tried to capture it on camera, he slowed a bit and started to focus on the camera instead of his growing vocabulary. He's quickly learned that the funny silver rectangle I bring around so often does something, but what?. Here's some of this morning's chatter. In the meantime, I'm working on a contraption that'll hide the camera and capture him at his best.



-Lindsey

Teething Troubles

Today we took Moses into the doctor because he had some symptoms indicating a possible ear infection. After getting checked out (and weighing in at 15 pounds 5 ounces!), Dr. Gray said he's getting in his bottom two teeth, and that is what is making him feel bad. Apparently, some babies have an easy time teething, others difficult. Poor Mos is on the latter end of that spectrum. Dr. Gray said he's a little early with the teeth, but it's completely fine. I just hope he cuts them soon because he's obviously miserable. Poor little boy. We'll post some pictures when those first teeth peek through!

-Lindsey