Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy 13th!

Happy St.Patricks Day! Thirteen years ago today, I gave birth to a gorgeous little boy, Aaron. My labour only lasted 25 minutes, and he took a while to start breathing properly from the shock. Thankfully, after a bit of oxygen, he pinked up nicely and got to meet his 6 older siblings who had all witnessed his birth. He was delivered by an Irish Midwife, which was very appropriate for the day. He has grown up to be such a great kid, with the most mellow personality and fantastic sense of humour. Happy birthday, Aaron. We love you so much x x x

Busy boy

Felix must have got tired of hearing he'd only put on 200grams in the past six months. It seems, he's determined to rectify that by eating constantly! I am shocked at the amount of food that tiny little body has managed to consume over the past few days. It seems all we hear is "eat" (spoken and signed).

I took Felix to a little friend's birthday party yesterday. While all the other kids were running and playing, Felix sat and ate. I had put a selection of food on to his plate and he ate all of it, and then asked for more. I refilled his plate a second time and he ate all of that as well. The lady, sitting next to us, couldn't believe how much he was eating. She said, judging by the size of him, she wasn't sure where all the food went. Maybe, finally, Felix is having a growth spurt!

Prior to the food being served, Felix enjoyed a big play in the sand pit. There were a lot of kids rushing past him and making quite a bit of noise, but he seemed unbothered by them, which was great. Once he discovered the slide, I endured my exercise for the day, lifting him up to the top and sliding him down, over and over. He doesn't quite have the neck strength to be able to go down a big slide by himself yet. His hypotonia makes him very floppy, and his neck falls back quite easily (banging his head into the slide). As long as I can keep him upright, he has the time of his life on the slide, laughing his head off and then signing 'again' as soon as he gets to the bottom.

I'm watching you Cookie Monster

While Felix was still eating, Cookie Monster and Elmo arrived at the party. From a safe distance, Felix thought they were fantastic. He started pointing at them as soon as he saw them, and making lots of excited sounds. I let him sit, at a distance, for a while until he was used to them being there, and then decided to take him over to see them. He surprised me by being quite OK with being close to them; he even gave each of them a 'high 5', which was great. I handed my camera to someone so I could hold Felix, and get some photos of he and I with them both. That's when it happened...... Elmo touched Felix! It was the whole Santa thing all over again. His whole body tensed up and he started making a really weird noise; not a cry, not a scream, but an 'I'm so scared, I don't know what to do' noise. I'm not sure who I felt more sorry for, Felix or Elmo. The more Elmo tried to make friends, the more Felix freaked out! I'm pleased to say, it didn't last long. We managed to get a couple of photos. My favourite is of Felix looking very suspiciously at Cookie Monster!

Eating and watching Elmo

Today, Felix literally ate from the minute he got up, until he went to bed (except for when he had a sleep). He always eats a big breakfast, then after his mid-morning snack, he goes back to bed. Today, we had visitors so Felix didn't get into bed at his usual time. I decided to give him lunch, before his sleep, which he ate very quickly, and then slept for a few hours. When he woke up, he was sitting, eating another plate of food when Nathan got home from work. Nathan didn't see the plate of food I had made for Felix, so when Felix walked over and asked him for food, Nathan went and made him another one. He wandered back and forward between the two plates and ate both! Unbelievable!! In only a couple of hours, it was dinner time, and Felix ate even more food. Being Aaron's birthday today, we had birthday cake after dinner. I was relieved, when Felix picked up his piece of cake and threw it off the high chair and onto the floor. Thank goodness! I didn't think he could have possibly eaten anything else.