Helmet Free & Loving Peas!

Except for wearing the helmet at night for three weeks, G is officially DONE with his helmet!!! Wa-HOO!! He is pretty happy about it too :).

Other than that, we had a very good Memorial Day weekend hanging out as a family. We tried to have a nice picnic/BBQ outside on Monday, but it was way windy and then it rained later that day. So we were outside for a little bit while the sun was shining. Here is G from the "picnic":

We went to the park on Monday afternoon, but we were only there for 20 minutes because it started raining. The picture above is of Ale and G -- he loves to be swung around when he's in his carseat. He just laughs and laughs.

We went down the slide together for the first time (he wasn't too sure about it). And you can see the stormy sky in the background :(

He's been starting to eat more solid finger foods and today we ate avocado (no pic, but he loved it) and PEAS. He loves peas. He couldn't really pick them up by himself, but when I popped one in his mouth, he happily chewed away. What a love muffin!

The two bottom pics are just some cute ones of him while he was eating tonight.

Dimples

G has a dimple on each {face} cheek, two on each of his elbows ... and I am sure I'll find more in other places soon enough. The picture below is a perfect display of his cute little dimples:

These pictures are just to show off his adorable, lovable-ness {and his cute new jammies}

Other news:

G had his first helmet measuring appointment (i.e., we got to see how much improvement his head has made since wearing the helmet). I don't know all the logistics of prosthetics, but this is what they told us: When he got his helmet on, his head was at a -16, but yesterday it was at a -7, which means his head has changed quite a bit. A centimeter of growth -- meaning, reallllllly good! We are excited and have found a new determination to keep his helmet on 23 hours a day. He doesn't mind wearing it, it just gets really sweaty and smelly at times. But we're all being troopers and can't wait until his head is perfect again!

Feet & Sitting Up

Many people have been asking me why Gabe has to wear a helmet. So I will give a quick run-down of the basics. Gabriel was born with torticollis. Which, basically, is stiffness in your muscles or joints. He had this all along the right side of his body. Due to this problem, he couldn't move his head like other babies, so he ended up sleeping with his head in the same position night after night (even with many attempts from his parents to get him to change his position). He has been going to physical therapy for five months and that has helped with his movements, but his head was getting flat in the back and his forehead was getting bigger.

Well, we didn't want our baby being a mini-freak, so we decided to get him a helmet to remedy his head's uneven-ness. He also goes to massage therapy, as well as physical therapy, to help with his movements and motor skills. He hasn't been able to consistently flip over, grap his toys, or sit up on his own. However, in the past few weeks since starting massage therapy and getting his helmet, he has improved significantly. It's amazing all the things that have happened to help our little boy grow and progress. Heavenly Father has truly answered all of our prayers and then some. He is the light and joy of our lives and I love taking him to his appointments and being with him all day. Alejandro and I were talking the other day and saying how we are always excited to see him every morning and just how much he has added to our family. We love him tons.

Sorry this is so long. I usually don't like writing a lot, but I felt that I needed to explain some things. The pictures below are the explanation for this post's title. Gabe is obsessed with his legs and feet. Just today I took all of these pictures and in many of them he was touching his feet or crossing his legs. He also sat up by himself for about 7 or 8 minutes (which is huge for us). We are so proud of him! Anyways, here are the pictures and notice how he is crossing his legs in them (too cute).

P.S. In some of the pictures he doesn't have his helmet on because he gets a break for about an hour each day. He's letting his head breathe!

He's trying to suck on his feet here, but he has yet to discover how to get them to his mouth while sitting in his Bumbo.

Sitting up on his own -- for more than 30 seconds!!


All he wanted to do was suck on this toy


Oh my goodness gracious -- crossing his legs -- this cracks me up.


Helmet pic

Crossing his legs & holding his own bottle (YAY!)

Being a baby is so chill :)

A New Kind of Super Hero

Let me introduce you to .... Helmet Boy.

He fights crime every where. The crime of pessimism and gloom.

No self-respecting super hero can fight crime without stretching first ....

... or staring crime dead in the face


And at the end of a day of fighting crime, he can eat his pears & peas knowing he did all he could to make the world a better place by being optimistic and joyful!

The Music of Opportunity

Today at church we learned about creation -- God's creations. The teacher was telling us that when we look in the mirror, we need to look deeper, just not on the surface. She also showed us a video of this young man, Patrick Henry Hughes, who was born without eyes and has never been able to walk. However, he was born with tremendous musical abilities. He is in the marching band at the University of Louisville, and he dad marches him around the field and goes to all of his practices.

This made me think of how lucky I am to have sight and the ability to walk {two things I definitely take for granted every day}. But more than that. I am truly grateful for the talents and abilities I've been given. Sometimes I do spend too much time thinking about what I look like in the mirror, when in reality I need to be looking much deeper. At the end of the video our teacher showed us, the commentator said, "Patrick Henry Hughes was given the music of opportunity," which I took to mean that we have so many opportunities to be what God wants us to be. We just need to grab those golden moments! I know my body is not perfect, and it never will be, but my life should be more about my inner beauty than my physical appearance.

Of course I always have to show pictures of our little man. Ale's parents check the blog out daily in hopes of new pictures. So here they are:

Making him smile one day as we hang out on mom & dad's bed.

Aunt Jilly has been so kind to come hang out with us a couple times a week. And he loves hanging on her. I thought his legs looked funny in this picture. What a lover muffin. :o)

In other news relating to Gabriel, he was supposed to be getting his helmet this past Tuesday, but the prosthetic people called that morning to say they didn't like the way the helmet turned out. So they are having the manufacturer re-make it. That means it will be another week to week in a half before he gets his helmet now. Since the last post, he has also acquired massage therapy appointments, to help with his hyper-toned muscles and other problems with his little body. We are still very blessed to have such a happy, smiley little boy. Amidst all his physical problems, he continues to remind both Alejandro and I that we need OPTIMISM and JOY every day. Thank you Gabe! We love you tons.

The Tale of the Littlest Ewok

The inspiration for this post:

An Ewok

{if you haven't seen these movies, you're really missing out!}

Today was the big day: Gabriel got his head cast for his helmet.

I asked the prosthetic guy {I really don't know what they are technically called, sorry} before we started how most babies react to plaster being put on their heads. He said 75% of babies wiggle, scream, cry, and really hate it being on their head. The other 25% are rather good; only minimal crying and stay still, for the most part. Well ... let's see what percentage my little Ewok fell under ....

Stripped down to his diaper and ready for the get-up [happy right now]

Hmmm .... starting to look Star Wars-ish {Obi-Wan as a baby}

Then the head covering; it's starting to get good

My Little Ewok!


Starting to put the plaster on ...

still looking like an Ewok


Relatively calm ... getting a little fussy

Ahhh!! This Ewok was MAD!

Butttt ... you might be surprised. The pro guy said he actually fit under the 25% because the above pic was taken after 20 minutes of having all this stuff on his head. This was right at the end of the process. Gabe has a bad case of Emotional/Mood Confusion -- a condition I just made up. He would be whimpering a little bit, but then if we would smile at him, he would start smiling again. He cried about 30 seconds total. Good boy!

This is him getting cleaned up afterwards.

He stayed still the whole time. He was a very brave little boy, since having something like that on your head can be really weird for a baby. We will be getting a call within a week in a half to get his first fitting in his helmet. Yay!

Thanks for joining this little Ewok on his adventures!

GOOD NEWS!!!

Gabriel got approved for his helmet. He wasn't approved, but the insurance was. :D He goes in this Thursday for his molding {that sounds disgusting} and then in a few weeks he should get his helmet. Heavenly Father has sure blessed our little family and answered many, many of our prayers.