Life Updates as of July 2011

Well, I haven't blogged in a while. The main reason has been my little man and his great desire to explore. But here it goes with what we are up to at this point...

In May, Don, Jaxon and I all flew to Lynchburg for Don to interview at Orthopaedic Center of Central Virginia and Liberty University. This was definitely a God thing. About a week and half prior, we had no idea where we were moving and had no job...we were just going to be without a home come June 30th. After a few telephone calls and many many prayers, Don received two job offers in the same day! So we were planning to move to Lynchburg!! Crazy how I said I would never move back here while I went to school in Lynchburg. God really has a sense of humor...

In June, I packed and I packed and I packed!! The whole time, Jaxon unpacked and untaped boxes while I tried to put stuff in them. I would not recommend moving with a young toddler. They can make the process quite a bit longer. We also took some time to visit a few places in the city and see a few friends. Had a great night eating dinner at X2O with Patrick and Cheryl. Fabulous dinner and wonderful company (thought I would send a shout out if you are reading this)!! Jaxon also decided he would take his first steps this month. At 8 months old, I have a (sort of) walking baby - crazy!! At the end of the month, we packed up another U-haul for another move. We moved to "Downtown" Lynchburg into a building built in the 1800's. Pretty cool building. I will post pictures once we have a few less boxes taking up space.

Then just as quickly as June came and went, July was here. Off we went again. Jaxon and I left our house in boxes and went to Knoxville for 2 weeks. Spent some time with family and friends. I also have to add that it was extremely hot, so we spent a lot of time in the house. Right at the end of this trip, Jaxon decided he would get Roseola. Not fun!!! He had a fever ranging from 101-104 for about 5 days. Then the fever completely stopped one day just to discover a full body dotted little rash. He was one irritable little guy for the ride home. We spent one week here and then left for Durham. While Don was busy in a conference for 2 days, I spent time with great old friends that I haven't seen in a very long time. Great lunch with Kelly, seeing all my co-workers from Duke; and of course, the time spent with the Hambricks.

Well that is all for now. Stay tuned for more important announcements from this broadcasting family...

Happy Half Birthday

Jaxon is officially half way through his first year of life. It is crazy to think how quickly it has gone. We are so truly gracious to have been blessed with such a wonderful baby. No, he is not perfect by any stretch of the means; but he definitely is a great little dude to have around!! Here is where we were to where we are now:

Happy Half Birthday!!! I love you, little man!!

The Journey Continues

Here is where we are in our diaper free world. We have made some great progress. Jaxon's signals have changed so much from when we first started our journey. He now gets quite fussy and audible when he needs to pee or poo. He will get very squirmy when being held and not be consolable if he is playing on the floor by himself. It is so nice to understand almost all of his cries and fussiness. I can meet his needs so much quicker which increases our relationship exponentially.

I don't like to focus on catches and misses, but he has been doing exceptionally well the past couple of weeks. We had a rough few weeks during his and my sicknesses. Needless to say, we weren't communicating very well. As he started to get better, our communication picked right back up. He has not had a poo diaper (minus one because I didn't get out of bed in time) in about 2 weeks!! I still probably miss about 30% of his pees. Sometimes those misses are a small tinkle before he makes it to the bathroom.

A few funny things that have happened include:

I wouldn't consider this incident a true "miss", but we didn't quite hit the toilet. He woke up one morning and was quite squirmy. I got him undressed and headed for the bathroom. We got just inside the bathroom door and started to position for the toilet seat when he poo'd all over the bathroom floor. Mind you, he was in my arms...so this was quite a distance from the floor. Yeah, we had high velocity splatter! I don't think I was quick enough on the draw for him that morning.

Another thing is his noticeable excitement for pooing. I make a "psss" noise when he pees and say "poo" when he poos. He has a little grunt for poo, waits for me to say "poo" then smiles and laughs at what he has done. It is really cute and I can't help but laugh.

Our journey is good! We have some upcoming new things like more teething and creeping and crawling have commenced! We will see what new excitement this brings!

Trying this again...

Well, here we are again, trying to keep everyone up to date with our lives. I think we are going to have to slow down in order for that to happen. Here is a quick update on the past few months. Don graduated on April 18 from physical therapy school. We left the next week for a trip to NYC. That is how he got his job working for Professional Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy in New York. His clinic is in Mamaroneck, NY. (For all of you trying to pronounce that, it is not even work it.)

We soon started our drive across the country on June 2nd. We left San Diego to go to Arizona and visit the Grand Canyon. That was awesome and we stayed right on Rt. 66. Pretty cool part of our trip.

Next comes the boring part of driving every day for the next 3 days to end in Knoxville, TN. We spent 3 days in Knoxville with family having a BBQ and seeing old friends.

We soon made our way to our alma mater - Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. We spend an unexpected, but relaxing 2 days in Lynchburg with friends and professors. It is amazing how much one place can change when you haven't seen it in 3 years. We also got to stay with one of Don's professors "out on the farm". We had a relaxing time in their farm house while being surrounded by cows, donkeys, goats and every other animal you can think of. Just a shout out for Dr. Howell's new book that is coming out The Barfoot Book. (check out the website: www.drdanielhowell.com to see if he is coming to a town near you!)

We finally left Lynchburg on June 9th to arrive later that evening in Long Island. We drove through the busiest time in NYC to get there. Never will we make that mistake again. After driving everywhere we go for 1 week by GPS, I think we are beginning to feel "at home". (figuratively speaking-because we don't have a house yet).

In a nutshell, I will post pictures once we have a permanent living situation and an internet link to post them with. We are currently "camping" indoors with an air mattress and some clothes. Hey, we are survivors!

The next few months will be interesting with finding a place to live, getting situated, having a baby and anything else that we can undertake!!!