Lawson Andrew & Amelia Paige

We recently found out that Lawson will be moving up to the next class in school (the Adventurers). This is the big potty training class. Should be fun.

Lawson is talking so much now. He mimics everything Eric and I do. (i.e. after dinner, he runs over to the papertowels and says, "nakin momma." Then to the cleaning cabinet. Then to the table so he can clean up after dinner). What a little helper.

Lawson doesn't realize that mommy is on bedrest. So when he says, "more milk momma", I have to say, "daddy will get it." Then he says, "nooo...momma get it. Up momma." That is the hard part about the bedrest. But he and daddy are having some fun bonding time together.

The Thanksgiving holidays were busy but nice. Now Chirstmas is fastly approaching. Lawson is growing so fast and talking all the time. I don't think we'll have a picture with santa this year. They tried it at school and he wanted nothing to do with him. Granted, that Santa often looks like he came from a rough part of town but I don't think that was it.:) Lawson talks a lot more in sentences and is really into the word "No" and testing mom and dad. But I guess that's all a part of being 2. We ask him what he thinks about having a little sister. He says, "blah blah big broder." ("I'm going to be a big brother") I think he'll be a great big brother and little helper!

Today was a big day for Lawson...BYE BYE baby bed, HELLO big boy bed. He slept great in his bed. He is very proud of it!

Today was Lawson's 2 yr old checkup. Everything went well. Lawson is in the 5% for height and not quite on the chart for weight. He is cutting 4 new teeth, 2 molars on the top and two more on the bottom front. The doctor seemed pleased with his progress.

He is VERY verbal. He says MOMMA ALL the time. Which is GREAT except for when it is 2am:). Lawson is also doing really well with "tee-teeing in the potty." He actually asks to "tee-tee" when I am changing his diaper in the mornings and before he gets in the tub. I am hoping that means that the transition will be easy.

Today we celebrated Lawson's 2nd birthday at the Trussville park. We enjoyed it with lots of family and friends. Boy are we blessed to have so many great friends and family who love Lawson. What a great day to celebrate his life!
God is SO good!

Today is Lawson's 2nd birthday. It is so hard to believe that 2 years have gone by. We made cupcakes for his class today - - so they will be celebrating at school.

Lawson started in the Explorers class today. In this class there are no buggy rides, he sits at a table for lunch (no highchair), he eat with a fork and spoon (unassisted) and he plays on the big playground. He did very well today. He really enjoyed the change in scenery. New toys, new routine and old friends/classmates. He is loving it.

Today Lawson visited his Great Grandmother Freeman. We had lunch with her and John, her boyfriend. It was such a nice visit. Lawson ate and ate and ate. Guess you can't resist a grandmothers cooking! Lawson tried peaches for the first time. He really liked them! In the past, he wouldn't eat fruit b/c of the texture. I guess he is over it. YEAH!!

I think we are cutting two top molars but I don't dare stick my finger in his mouth. Tried that once and realized really quick that it wasn't a good idea. The JAWS OF LIFE do not feel good.

We just returned from a nice long beach getaway (8 days!). Lawson was great and really enjoyed the water. He wasn't thrilled about the sand but was very content eating his cheese puffs and people watching under the umbrella. Seems like he talked the whole time. We went down with the Wood's (Nana, Pop, Beth, Parrish and the boys) Saturday-Saturday. Then the Sisk's (MeMe, Pappy, Les, Bubba, Gavin, Shane, Summer, Blake and Kelly) came down Thursday - Sunday. We really enjoyed having time with both sides of the family!
Lawson had a ball playing with Cameron and Brantly. Then when Gavin came, he was all smiles. He was full throttle until the moment his head hit the pillow.
His first 2 molars finally broke completely through while we were there (that makes a total of 8 teeth). What a relief. He ate GREAT while we were gone too.

What's new in Lawson's world?
He is starting to "tt" in the potty which makes him and mommy & daddy proud! I am sure you know by watching the video, he LOVES being outside. If he could sleep outside with Gunner (the dog), he would:). His favorite thing to do each day is go outside and "help Mommy water the plants." That is his excuse to go "out." He is talking more and more each day.

Lawson is cutting 2 molars (third tooth from the back - on the bottom of each side). This would make for 8 teeth. We are a little slow with cutting teeth. Nights are a little rough during this teeth cutting stage. It would really be ideal to wake up and he have all his teeth in...in the perfect world of course:).

Poppa & Grandmother came in town to visit. What a fun visit we had. The last time they saw LAW in person was last summer. So they were thrilled to see that he is thriving. He put on a show for them, swinging his bat and golf club. He is ALL boy. ALWAYS has a ball in hand...like father - like son:).

Hallelujah...Lawson said "MOMMA" for the first time today. This, of course, was music to my ears:).

Today Lawson moved up to "A Step Up" class at daycare. Lawson will now sleep on a napmat (instead of a babybed), eat all table food and only take 1 nap a day. He did very well his first day. He slept 3 hours during nap time and ate a great lunch (mac&cheese, greenbeans and a roll).

It is hard to believe that he is such a big boy!

Lawson is finally eating like a champ! This past weekend was big. He tried rice, carrots, greenbeans, potato salad and a Gerber Graduate lil' entree (turkey w/ mashed potatoes and gravy). This is quite a milestone for Lawson!

Ok - Lawson says DA DA, DUCK, TOUCHDOWN and YELLOW (etc) but not MOMMA. What is wrong with this picture:)? YELLOW - the most difficult color to pronounce and that is the one that he says. Go figure....

He'll say Momma in his own time:)

Lawson got his first haircut today. He was such a good boy. He had a, "what's she doing back there?" look on his face. Though we got it trimmed, Eric doesn't think we got enough cut off. I guess it was hard for me to part with the curls:).

Today was Lawson's 18 month checkup. People always say, "they grow SO fast." But you don't really think about it until it is your own!
We got a good report from the doctor. He is still small for his age but the doctor said that he is on an upward climb so she isn't worried. Lawson did get his HepA shot today. It is a immunization that they give at 18 months and 3 yrs. old.

A quick update on everything else:
Eating - it is a slow process but he is starting to try new things. He loves a "brown and serve" dinner roll, cheese puffs and Gerber puffs. The therapist wants us to introduce him to several bites of thicker Stage 3 food one meal a day. She said that we will eventually get there. Eric and I look forward to the day that we can place a green bean (his FAVORITE) on his tray and he can eat it without gagging. :) Maybe soon.

School - we are going through a stage with separation anxiety. He doesn't like being dropped off at school or the church nursery. This has just started over the past two weeks. He has a bit of a COME APART. We HATE leaving him like that but they say that you have too. We stand outside the door (out of site) to make sure that he settles down. It doesn't take long.

Lawson is doing really well. He is on a new medication that helps in his digestion. It has done wonders. He actually has an appetite now and gets excited about food. That THRILLS us!!!

We're walking - see video -

BIG NIGHT -
Lawson has been cruising around taking 2-3 steps on his own here and there for the past month. But tonight he took 8 WHOLE steps by himself! He walked to Eric then to me - - back and forth. And the more exctied we got, the more he wanted to do it. Laughing the whole time.

What a big boy:)!

Lawson started an antibiotic today for his ear infection & congestion. The doctor said that we should see a big difference within 72 hours.

On a different note, we are starting to see an OT and Nutritionist at The Bell Center in Homewood (www.thebellcenter.org). The center is for children with special needs (cerebal palsy, delays in walking/talking/eating, etc). We are really looking forward to working with them on Lawson's eating.

Lawson is developing quite the personality and attitude:). He is constantly on the go. Cruising from room-to-room. He takes 2-3 steps on his own and continues to get braver with each day. We expect him to be taking off any moment now.

Went to Children's to get Lawson's sodium checked. It was 145. A little above normal but not too bad.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We are going to get our little man on track and growing like a weed:)

We were ordered to see our Pediatrician today for Lawson ear infection. It is getting better with drops.

The probe was removed today and we are going home. YEAAAAA! We are all anxious to sleep in our own beds tonight.

We are going home on some new meds. One med is to help strengthen that muscle between the esophogus and stomach. It is cammed Bethanacol. We take that 4 times a day (30 minutes before each meal and before he goes to bed). Then we are on two doses of Prilosec a day.

Lawson had a Gastric Emptying test today. He had to drink his milk that had some special powder in it. Then he had to lay under a machine for an hour to watch the emptying process. His stomach was supposed to have emptied at least 50% of the content within that hour. Well, it only emptied 10%. This told us that his stomach is slow in digesting his food/milk.
One more test...

Lawson had to have a pH probe inserted in his nose. It runs from the nose to the bottom of his esophogus. It measures the amount of acid in the stomach. He had to have this in for 24 hours. Eric and I had to document each time he coughed, vomitted, slept, etc.
We are waiting for the results.

This morning Lawson had to be put to sleep so that Dr. Morris could perform the endoscopy procedure. He took lots of pictures and biopsies. For the most part, everything looked normal. He said that the pictures show signs of inflamation from where he was vomiting a lot. The scope also showed that the flap between the esophogus and stomach is sitting open. Which can make him more prone to reflux.
On to the next test...

I guess I should say "Happy New Year." Not quite the way we thought we would bring in the new year but we are still praying for a healthy year. They did more bloodwork today. It came back normal.