Nice Day

Today was such a beautiful day outside. It was the perfect day weather-wise. It was sunny and windy and hot but not too hot. I think it was high 60s, warm but cool, ya know? Mom and I went for a walk today and it was so much fun. It was so nice to just be outside and do...nothing...but just 'be'. Does that sound corny? Sorry...I just feel like our lives have been 'go, go, go' lately and it was relaxing to do nothing but 'walk' with mom.

So tomorrow I meet with the director of First Steps. Dad is coming home a little bit early so that he can be in on the meeting. I guess we're going to go over a report that the director has written up so that she can send it on to the board to see if I qualify for the program. I've had two assessments done so far - one with a PT and then an OT...it's been such a long process. I hope we actually get something accomplished tomorrow.

Not much else going on...I got 2 more teeth last week...so that makes 14 teeth! Holy moly! I'm eating like a real CHAMP these days...I had mashed potatoes, cheese and farmer's market vegetables for dinner tonight (oh, and dad snuck me a few cookies) thanks dad!

Back from Texas

Hey Ya'll! I'm back from Texas...got back on Thursday and it feels good to be home but I miss the Longley-side of my family :( I had such a good time. The drive out there wasn't bad at all. Mom and I left our house around 730am and picked up great grandma Ward, grandma Longley and Auntie Laura at the Tulsa airport. We continued our drive to Abilene and got to Uncle Donny and Aunt Katie's house around 630 that night.

I met my cousins Coleman and Ethan for the very first time and let me just tell you...they are my new best friends :) Coleman chased me around the whole week and I'd never scooted so fast on my butt as I did then! I got a whole bunch of great new books and cute new clothes...we got our pictures taken - can't wait to see what those look like! We sat in this beautiful field filled with tons and tons of blue flowers. It was amazing.

Gram and Laura left my house this past Saturday and headed back to Massachusetts. Grandma Longley stayed in Texas since she was flying to SC for work. Why does there always seem to be a 'sadness' after being on such a 'high' with family? I was so excited to be with everyone and now I'm sad because I'm not with them anymore. And not knowing when I'll get to see Katie, Donny, Coleman and Ethan again makes me sad :(

Well, mom and I have got a busy week ahead of us so maybe that'll take my mind off of being sad. I meet with the OT tomorrow for the first time...Wednesday, mom said we might go to the zoo...Thursday, I'm trying out the 'tots' class at yoga for the first time and Friday is grocery shopping. Saturday, I think mom has an interview for work and Sunday, we are all going to Silver Dollar City for the first time. I am so excited!

My Best Friend

Quick post! Take a look at me and my best friend!!!

Bronchoscopy

Okay, I've been gone for a while. Mom has been bad about letting me write before bed. So I'm sneaking out of my crib to do this. I hope you all enjoy it :) Updates - here's what been going on with me...

Well...I had my bronchoscopy on Monday...it was pretty scary. BUT I'm just glad that it's all over with. For those of you who don't know what's going on with my little lungs...I've had 4 xrays so far...all showing that I have reduced volume in the upper lobe of my right lung. Doc had me on a breathing machine thing for a while but mom and dad couldn't get me to sit still long enough for the stupid thing to work...so we only did that for a week or so.

Anyways, I've been feeling fine. You'd never know that my lung isn't working at 100%. We got the results last night and my cultures came back negative and doc says there is nothing wrong anatomically with my lungs - so this is great news. I will have to go back for another xray in 3 months just to make sure that nothing has come back. He's pretty confident that he 'flushed' everything out during the scope.

Mom and dad were both super troopers Monday morning. I thought mom would be a mess and she only cried once! Here's how that morning went: mom woke me up at 515am! put me in the car...and we got to the hospital around 6am...nurse checked my vital signs...I watched Baby Einstein (thank you Theresa and K!)...got my IV in my FOOT...ugh!...I cried of course, but did great with it once it was in. Then my scope started around 8ish. The whole thing was about 15-20 minutes...I'd say the worst part was waking up...I was flailing...crying...spitting up blood and saliva...all while mom and dad were trying to hold me.

Once I was able to drink some stuff - I was allowed to go home. I slept when I got home for a little while. It was a LONG day but I'm so glad it's over.

I'll be leaving this weekend for Texas so I won't post until I get back! Sorry! I'll try and post again tomorrow though...I'm going to see my cousins Coleman and Ethan for the first time. I'm so excited :)

Happy Easter

My internet has been down...so I'm finally back! Ugh! In the meantime...I've had a lot going on. In a nutshell - I'm pretty much a big boy now. I have all 4 molars...wowzahs...my favorite things to eat are vanilla pudding, animal crackers and 100 calorie pack cookies...(yes, mom makes sure that I eat my veggies too) don't worry...

Dad bought me a season's pass to the zoo :) Yay! And he took mom and I this past week. I went on the train they had there for the first time. It was so much fun. Now mom and I can go whenever we want - thanks Dad!

Easter is tomorrow and I can't wait to see what the easter bunny is going to bring me!!!

Happy Easter!

Sit to Stand - Finally!

Sunday night - big night for the Ruffing family...I went from a sitting position to standing all by myself :) Dad and I were playing in the living room while mom took a nap...and I saw a sock on the couch that I wanted to play with - so I shimmied on up and snatched it! I'm still a little wobbly at the sit-to-stand thing but I'm getting the hang of it! I did it a lot today! One more step towards being mobile! Oh boy mom...watch out... (video to come)

Mom and I really missed dad while he was in Vegas. It was hard without you dad :( Mom was pooped out by the time she went to bed every night! Thank goodness we have you!

I'm still saying a lot of words...here are some new ones...'moo', 'baby', 'door', 'cheek'

I LOVE vanilla pudding (thanks to Grandpa Ruffing). It's actually helping a lot with the weaning of my afternoon nursing session. It seems to be the only thing that makes me happy. I had 2, yep, 2 full containers of vanilla pudding today! Go me! And today was day #2 of no afternoon nursing. Does that mean we are officially down to 2 nursing sessions a day? Just one in the morning when I wake up and one at night before I go to bed? Mom's goal was to have me down to one nursing and/or completely weaned by the time we left for Texas in April...and that's about 2 1/2 weeks away...so things are lookin' good!

Mom is still trying to get me to drink my whole milk - but I'm not liking it. Any suggestions out there? So far, the only thing I will drink out of my cup is water. No juice. No milk. Just water.

The Passing of an Era

So today, my grandpa's best friend's father died - Mr. Gray. He was somewhat of an icon in Ashfield, MA and I am sad that he's gone :( But my grandpa was there with him in the hospital during his last few days and I'm so glad for that. Hang in there gramps - I love ya.

When my mom was a little girl - her dad (my grandpa) used to take her, my Uncle Donny and my Aunt Laura to Gray's Sugar House every year. It was their tradition. They used to all wait outside in the long line...in the cold weather...when it was sometimes snowing...and wait - smelling the sweet smells of pancakes flipping, bacon frying and sugar on snow melting. It was, to say the least, one of the best memories mom has from her childhood.

They used to sit on these old, handmade tree trunk stumps when they ate and at the end of their meal they'd go up to the register and pick out a couple of pieces of maple candy. Since grandpa was best friends with Raymond - (who's family owned the place) - mom, Donny and Laura got to head back to the house and get maple candy 'scraps' for free. Auntie Laura and mom would make themselves sick off of it b/c they'd eat so much!

Secretly, mom always wanted to take her kids there when she grew up. But - the sugarhouse has been closed now for quite some time. Maybe someday someone will reopen it? I never got to meet Mr. Gray - but I heard he was quite a nice man.

Dad left for Vegas today and I miss him already. But I know he's probably having a great time and he said he'd place a bet for me on one of the teams. Go dad!

It was quite a trying day for mom and I. We had yoga this morning which dad was able to come to - and I held up pretty well considering I didn't take a nap on the way there like I usually do. I fell asleep on the way home, ate lunch, played and then mom tried to put me down for my afternoon nap...yah right mom. We found ourselves back in the car on our way to Springfield for the 2nd time today. Definitely NOT what either one of us wanted to be doing. BUT, it got me to fall asleep for at least 30 minutes...and mom splurged at Starbucks and got a frappacino which she hasn't had in like 10 million years. It was just one of those days where a bit more caffeine was needed and mom didn't feel like counting any WW points.

I have my 15 month checkup tomorrow and Bailey is getting groomed...so it's another busy day. Maybe it will be better than today? I sure hope so.