One Year!!!

So we understand how much we suck at this whole blogging thing, apparently I can have a new, New Years Resolution. There are lots of things that have happened but the biggest and best thing is that tomorrow (Saturday) David will turn 1!!!!!  It is beyond belief that a year has passed.  A year ago today Nicole and I were enjoying our last day together as just us, getting everything packed, checking things off the list, making sure the nursery was all set up and ready to go.  We knew we were going in the next morning and our lives were going to change forever, we just never knew how much it was going to change.  It is one of the few times I can say that I feel ignorance was bliss.  We were just excited, happy, and really giddy.  The next day had all those emotions but as we all know now they were traded for some different ones pretty soon.  It is still hard for us to think back on what was happening to David and our emotions a little over a year ago.  The emotions are still super raw and not that far from the surface, I'm not sure that will ever change but I will say that while they are close to the surface the emotions we feel and the emotions in our hearts is love, joy, and pride in our son.  So enough of the that, I know what many of you want....pics so here goes.

 He is so close to almost walking, he pulls up on everything and cruises around the living room all the time!

 David went to his first football game over Thanksgiving we went to the Butler/Trinity game.  Sure they lost but he had a good time people watching.

 Have you ever seen awesomeness riding a lion? Now you have!

 David seriously loves bath time!

 My 2 favorite people!! I love them both so much and watching their love for each other is the best thing ever!

This is David's MeMaw (Nicole's Grandma), She has been such an amazing support for all us and has loved David so much even though it took a while for formal introductions to be made.

So our fall has been pretty eventful, Nicole sadly had to go back to work which is no good.  I miss being able to come home for lunch and having my family here to talk to and spend some time with before I go back to work.  I miss them so much during the day, it has made us into big time homebodies because when she gets off from work and he gets home from daycare we just want to spend all the time we can with him.  So David has gone through some sickiness, he had a sinus infection, ear infection, and pink eye all at the same time, as he was getting over that he came down with some respiratory virus.  So that was a fun 3 weeks or so.  He ended up losing a couple of pounds through the whole ordeal which isn't good.  The NICU doctors are a little concerned about his height and weight.  For his age he is in the 3-10% so he is pretty small.  The best way to put it is he looks like a 9 month old for his size but the fact that he's been in the hospital so much and a heart that works extra hard and burns calories so fast we are beyond happy with how he is doing.

David also had to have a heart cath in the fall.  His left pulmonary artery had some stenosis (the artery was closing up really, really slowly) so they had to do an angioplasty to widen it up.  That went well and David's blood pressure was great in the artery and lung which is what we wanted.  Because of this issue with the stenosis the cardiologists and surgeons have started to talk about his next surgery being in the summer instead of next winter.  This caught us a little off guard, we weren't really ready to hear the s word again but it really is the best option.  This way they can do the hopefully last surgery and then a couple of months later to a more permanent fix with the artery with a stint and he should be good to go.  The whole idea of preparing for another surgery is scary and emotional but the thought of being done with them and just letting David grow and be as much of a kid as he can be is amazing to think about.

On the fun side of things David pulls up on everything including our pants, doors, chairs, toys, the crib, in other words anything he can.  He is cruising around the living room like a crazy man and we expect him to be walking anytime soon.  He loves baby food but is not a big fan of food food yet.  We think it is a texture thing more then anything else.  I'm sure if that doesn't happen soon we will be seeing an Occupational Therapist sometime in the next year. He jabbers and smiles   Heat almost anything (except Santa amazingly enough) and loves to play peek a boo(especially with church members while I am preaching).

As emotional and hard and scary this last year has been I always go back to the fact that no matter what David went through so much more and he is always happy and loving.  He is always excited to see us and love on us and play. He hasn't let anything slow him and his heart no matter how broken physically is the strongest thing I have ever seen.  His heart to exceed expectations, his heart and determination to live and to be who he is and his heart to love has made my heart grow and grow.  I call it my Grinch moment.  Through David my heart just continues to grow, where I didn't know how I could love more, he showed me.  Being his dad has grown my heart, grown my love not just for him but for others and helped to me to see what really matters in life.

Merry Christmas to all of you, from our family to yours.  Last year you held us up, helped us keep going, your love and prayers kept us going.  Thank you so much for that.  This year we will celebrate David and his year both good and bad.  While we love Kosair's and the doctors and nurses who saved David and helped him to thrive we are so excited to celebrate Christmas at home around our tree opening present with our little man.  Thank you all again.  We love all of you!