Birthdays and Half-birthdays!

In the past week, Jeff turned 35 - now eligible for the Presidency - and Jake turned 2.5 - still eligible for extreme cuteness. Pop-pop and Gammy Jan came to celebrate, along with celebrating Dale's birthday two weeks ago. For Jeff's birthday, I took the plunge and bought him a digital SLR. So now we will have great photos - tens of thousands of them if you know Jeff... Here are a few from the park on Sunday.

In the past two weeks, Jake has started singing songs, which is very exciting for us. This has been one of his speech therapy goals since we started speech back in March. His singing is still pretty unintelligible, but we've had some other great musical milestones - like singing the last note of a song (on key) and tapping in rhythm. The whole family has been going to Music Together classes on Saturday mornings, and we've really enjoyed them. I'd really recommend them for anyone with toddlers looking for a music class.

Here's Jake doing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and being generally adorable. This video also demonstrates some of his apraxia, although I would note that his singing is much less intelligible than his normal speaking. (Note: if you are viewing this post via email you won't be able to watch the video. You'll have to go to the blog webpage).

Tomorrow we head out for Pennsylvania for a big family get-together for Thanksgiving. We're all really excited. Since I never got caught up with the Summer posts, here's a video of Mariah and Jake from August. As you can see, we are in for fun times...

What do you mean that's a bear?!?!

November 17: Prematurity Awareness Day

Today we met with Wake County Public Schools for our "transition meeting" - getting ready to transition Jake out of Early Intervention (birth to 3 (on the dot!)) and into special education services. Oh, how I hoped we would never have this meeting. That he would be all "caught up" and we would leave this whole "preemie thing" behind us. But it seems the "preemie thing" is not going to go away. It's part of who Jake is (part of why he is) and part of us. From the March of Dimes events we go to, to the searching for answers for his apraxia, to my realizations that I have far more patience than I ever did before and a far greater tolerance for accepting help from others, this "preemie thing" is a part of us.

Look at the picture above, really look. That's Jake just a few minutes old - that's his hand around my index finger. That's his red skin - already an indication that he will suffer severe jaundice and spend several days under the bilirubin lights. That's an intubation tube down his throat performed in a standard maternity room by an amazing respiratory therapist who insisted that I get to touch my baby before they rushed him down to the NICU. He's one of my heroes, as are so many of the amazing medical professionals at Duke who saved my son. This year, I'm saying thank you to all of them. And just like last year, I'm so very, very grateful.

Happy Halloween!

Jake had a great time doing his first real trick or treating! On the advice of his speech therapist, we did a lot of practicing of "trick or treat" and "thank you" and answering "bear" when people asked him what his costume was. It really paid off! "Trick or treat" often came out more like "treat or treat" (but isn't that really what he was after?), and his precious "thaankooo" will probably stay with me forever (perhaps I need to take a video of that!). We are loving having Kathryn and Lily here with us (Aunt Kat and Vivi, as Jake says). Enjoy the photos!

And check out the updated photos from Jen and Brett's wedding - little Jake was pretty dapper in his tux!!

Got some good practice at the Junior League Trunk or Treat!


Loved the Bounce House!


Lily took the plunge for apples!

Pumpkin carving night!!

Dora and the Bear ready for candy!!