Dawson vs stairs, Softball, and Soccer

I stepped out onto the deck at my parents house to throw the ball with Katelin. Dawson came outside with me and while I was involved in playing ball this happened to Dawson!!. I felt horrible as I watched him tumble down the stairs and land in the yard. In my mind it all happened in slow motion and my brain was screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Gravitational laws were definitely in effect. Shortly after, he tripped and busted the inside of his lip..... Did I mention how HORRIBLE I felt!!!! I'm still getting the " How could you let that happen?" look... I really feel horrible!!

Katelin at her first Softball game. She got two base hits and we were SO proud of her.

Katelin playing in the outfield

Dawson is soooo happy with mom

Madison at her first soccer practice

Trying to figure out what to do..

Flowers

Yesterday Madison and I were sitting on the swing and the following conversation took place..

" Daddy, did you know that all flowers have stems?"

" Yep"

" Daddy, did you know that all flowers have petals?"

"Yep"

" Daddy?" *( looking at the grass) " that purple flower has a stem."

" Yep"

" Daddy?" ( looking at the grass) " that white flower has petals."

" yep"

" Daddy?" ( looking at the grass) " That pink flower has a stem."

" yep"

" THEN WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING THEM WEEDS?!?!?!"

Dawson is doing great!!! and is trucking right along. New words continue to come rapidly and I think he knows more words than I do!!!!

And..... he even ate a box of raisins without it having to put it between two pieces of bread.

We love you

Jeff and Allison

No Appetite

There is one thing Dawson has always been good at..... Eating

Until now that is..

For the past couple of weeks Dawson just has not been eating like he used to. Since birth, No matter what you put in front of him he ate it.. meat, veggies, baby food of all kinds, yogurt, It just didn't matter what it was. Not only would he eat it, he would eat ALL of it.

As of now, the only thing he will readily eat is a sandwich. Isn't that funny??

He looks and snubs his nose at everything right now. Try to feed him chicken he says UH UH. Put it between two pieces of bread and watch out!!

As long as you can get whatever you want him to eat in sandwich form.. All is good.

Anything other than a sandwich... forget about it.

I know its just a phase, but try putting cereal between two pieces of bread HA!!

Thank you or you prayers and for checking in on Dawson

Our love to all
Jeff and Allison

sunny day photos

Dawson having some fun on a beautiful day

bad night sleep

Dawson has never been the best sleeper... It's no secret. Buuuuuut the past couple of months he has gotten into a better sleeping pattern at night. He has always been easy to get to sleep, the trick is keeping him asleep. So he has only been waking a couple of times a night ( which is a dream come true for us) with the exception of last night.. He fought sleep, tossed and turned, flipped around and around, cried, SCREAMED, cried some more, and just would not get to sleep.

What a stinker!! In his defense, he almost seemed like he was in pain or something. He never acts like that unless he is hurting or is sick. So we did the Motrin thing and eventually he went to sleep.. Sigh

Hopefully tonight he will be back to his old self again..

When you've been spoiled with sleep, and then get deprived of it, it seems to hurt just a little more.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support

We love u all

Jeff and Allison

Cold again

Where did that Spring weather we were braggin about go??? Today has been just a miserable 34 degrees and rain all day. Five day forecast is for rain, rain, cold and yet more rain. UGGGG this is a horrible time to have Spring fever.

Dawson is still doing really well. He has been such a happy little man this past week. I think he finally feels good after being sick most of this winter. His evenings have been spent roaming back and forth between the den and play room playing his little heart out. He is really loving Noggin on TV. This morning he saw an activity book for Madison that had " Blue" from " Blues Clues" on it and he chimed in " Blues Clues!!!" He knows and can say " Dora" from Dora the Explorer" as well as " backpack." If you haven't seen the shows then absolutely none of this makes any sense. But if you have then you know perfectly well what I'm talking about.

It seems our house is mostly run by Noggin. There is at least one TV in the house that is turned on Noggin 24/7. The kids love it and when they are watching it it does allow Allison and I a little down time in the evening. Soooooo everybody wins.

As mentioned before Dawsons language skills continue to develop at an age appropriate rate which we are so thrilled about. I swear it seems as if he is learning and saying different words every day now. Hes just so ........ well, normal is the best word I can think of and the fact that he is , is such a miracle. It has been so long since we have seen a seizure that is seems like all that was just some bad dream or something. I remember in the beginning of all this how sad I was. I just so afraid that the worst was in store for us. That the son I had so longed for,was not going to be able to do all the things I had dreamed of us doing. That he would be physically challenged and mentally challenged..... What I didn't know at the time was that God had very different plans for us as long as we completely trusted him.... I want everyone who reads this to know how thankful we are to him for that miracle of healing. I can't imagine one day that will go by as long as I am on this earth that I wont thank him.

Also ( with the exception of last night) he is sleeping soooooo much better at night. He is only waking a couple of times at night now. We are so glad to be sleeping the greater part of the night now. Keep it up little man you are doing so good!!!

Thank you for your support and prayers. We love you!

Jeff and Allison

Spring has sprung

What terrific weather we've had this weekend!! The kids finally got to spend a weekend outdoors and there is no place they would rather be.

Dawson has a great time wandering around outdoors and so far his favorite place to be is in the driveway playing with the gravel. He swishes it around with his hands and then picks up handfuls and throws it... He is all boy!!

He is still doing just awesome. Allison and I got to go to dinner Sat night ALONE ( which was the best) and we were both talking about how we are still in such awe at how well hes doing. Its not something we talk about everyday or even every now and then anymore. But even though we don't speak a lot about it, there is not a one single day that we don't praise God for this miracle we call Dawson. He is a walking, talking, running, eating, mess making miracle. He is smart, he is extremely sociable, he is funny, and greatest of all he is seizure free!!

His language skills are still blossoming right now and he is saying more and more every day. He is even starting to put two words together such as " more please." and of course he signs it as he says it..

So that's about it for us right now. No news is good news. We are just enjoying the gifts God has given us.

We hope you all have had a great weekend!!

Our love to all

Jeff and Allison

behind the glass door

Dawson is on one side of a glass door and Madison is on the other. It was a quick moment with a cell phone and I hope you can see it ok..

Love to all

Jeff and Allison

Snow day

Look at what we woke up to this morning!!! When you live in Alabama, you very rarely see anything like this so this was a pleasant surprise for the kids. Ive been hoping for Spring to arrive and this is NOT what I had in mind for March 1st. Did that big overgrown rat see his shadow???? must have..

Anyway we made the best of it and the all the kids got to go out and play in it for a while. Dawson wasn't too sure what to think of it, and as long as he was holding mommy's hand he was OK with it. Me and the girls had a big snowball fight and of course there were snow angels made.

So now that we've had some snow can we please bring on the warm spring weather??

I don't want to curse us but I don't think anybody is sick right now ( knocking on wood, rubbing lucky rabbits foot, getting out four leaf clover) Last week Dawson had a pretty nasty fever for a couple of days and for the first time in a month I can say that today all the kids are well..

I haven't mentioned anything about Katelin in a while and just wanted to let you guys know she is still doing really well. She is getting a half unit of insulin for every 40-60 carbs she eats and that equals to getting a shot with every meal. She is still handling it very well and is very aware of when her blood/sugar gets to low. I know there is a ton of research going on with Diabetes right now, and we sure hope that a cure is found sometime in her lifetime. Our wish for her is to be a carefree kid, but right now Diabetes is a 24/7 disease that has to be managed 24/7.

In the meantime, Dawson is busy just being Dawson. A happy, healthy, walking, talking, eating machine.

As always, thanks for stopping by to check on our family. We love you all!!

Jeff and Allison