Jackson's Last Supper

The night before Jackson's palate surgery, our awesome family took us out to eat at a Brazilian restaurant close to the hospital. Yum!

The food was awesome, the company brilliant and our next-table neighbor was Jackson's new friend.

Here is the video from that night:



Last Supper from Halle Whittington on Vimeo.

Notes From Neighbors

We've all gotten them. The "can you please not fill up the trash can before others are able to use it" note or the "can you please not block my mailbox with your car" note. But, I'll bet you've never gotten a note like this.

Yesterday when we checked into the Ronald Mcdonald house, I loaded our stuff into our room and then we went out to dinner. When we got back this was under our door.


Yeah, totally. I'll bet even YOU feel bad now. And you didn't even get the note.

-daniel

p.s. on a side note... did you ever realize how LOUD brushing your teeth is?

The Tube

For the past 10 months, we have putting been this tube down into Jackson's stomach for every feeding. We mentioned capturing a bit of this process as he will be getting a G-tube tomorrow. Here is the proof (Oh, and I can guess what you're thinking... Wow, Halle is wearing STRIPED pants! Yes, but it was nearing bedtime and I was in my comfy Pj's. Perfectly acceptable.)...


The Tube from Halle Whittington on Vimeo.

We leave today at 1pm to drive down to LA. We will be staying in the Ronald McDonald House throughout Jackson's stay, well, at least one of us, while the other stays with him in the hospital. We could be there till Saturday or possibly Sunday. We will see. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Music, Monkey and Memories

There have been a lot of things going on in the Whittington house as of late. Some worthy of mentioning, others not so much.

First off... Jackson is 10 months old today! I can't even believe we are only two months shy of a year. The memories seem to haunt me these days. I can't go through a day without being reminded of last year somehow.

It must be that EVERYWHERE it's starting to feel like the holidays... EVERYWHERE specifically referring to Starbucks and Peet's, but still... I LOVE the holidays! I start feeling all ooey gooey inside (just ask Daniel).

But last year was so different. I was on bedrest from the beginning of December. I spent the entire month there, well, until I finally got admitted to Sierra Vista on December 28th (after a solid month of contractions every 30 seconds to 5 minutes). My family joined me at our house last year for Christmas while I lie on the couch trying to get in the holiday spirit. I feel like I missed last year's holiday season, so I'm trying to enjoy this one as much as possible. And now I have a little companion to share it with.

That all to say, the memories are flooding back. And they're a bit overwhelming at times. It feels as though the pain rushes in, crashing down on me, then departs much like an ocean wave. This past year has been one of the hardest of my life. And now our sweet, broken baby is nearing the ripe old age of one...

Jackson is growing and changing so much right now. He just started rolling over, and now he ROLLS all over the house. It is really quite funny. He's one fast roller! He's also getting better at sitting up. This has been a long time coming, and we are so proud of his progress. He is also getting really tall and weighs about 22 lbs. He is one solid boy.

And he absolutely LOVES people! He will smile and try to engage anyone who comes to our house. In fact, last week the keyboard repair guy came over. The whole time Jackson was trying to get his attention... smiling, talking, rolling towards him. Unfortunately, the repair guy was too busy repairing to notice him. I felt a bit sad for a minute, until I realized Jackson wasn't a bit discouraged. He was just trying harder! And he does this, whether we're in the grocery store, the coffee shop, wherever we are. His sweet yet feisty spirit makes this mom's heart melt.




His palate surgery is set for Wednesday, November 12th, less than a week away. He will also get a G-tube in at the same time. We have been putting a tube down his throat for almost 10 months, and, as you can probably imagine, Jackson is not a big fan. But, thankfully, we have been able to get him enough food and keep him thriving through the OG tube. We are going to try to capture the process of tube feeding, as a type of memoire of the way he had to eat for his first 10 months of life. If and when we do that, we'll make sure to share it here.

Jackson is getting better at eating some solids. So far, he is a huge fan of sweet potatoes, carrots, winter squash, and of course cereal. He is not so much the fan of fruit at this point in time. Crazy, I know. But we just started yogurt, and he LOVES it! In fact, he has gotten mad at me the past couple days when I have put it away. Oh yeah, that brings me to another new thing...

Jackson has been throwing fits! The other day he was playing with a toy piano he has, one of his favorites at the moment. He was lying on his side, playing with it, when I noticed him start to get frustrated. I'm not entirely sure what he was trying to get it to do, but he started yelling at it and pounding on it... HARD. Then, all of a sudden, he threw himself onto his back, and started yelling while slamming his hands and stomping his feet on the ground. I watched in amazement, until it was over, and then I just started laughing. It was just the funniest thing to watch an almost 10 month old do. He definitely has a mind of his own! And we're seeing that more and more these days.

Just a couple recaps... We had a fun Halloween! Jackson was a monkey. I had that planned for awhile, as I thought he would make a perfect little monkey. Then a bit later, we added this:

Every monkey needs a Man in the Yellow Hat!

We spent the evening with our friends and their sweet boy Stewart, who was born the same week as Jackson. Stewie was the cutest little Superman EVER! We had a great time walking around their neighborhood, eating homemade caramel popcorn and yummy chili and sitting around sharing stories.

In other news, Daniel is working on a new recording and has asked ME to play keys on it! This has been a very challenging and yet fun experience thus far. It has been a bit of a whole family experience, as we have been taking Jackson to practices. He sits in his chair with his bright orange earplugs, and listens to the music. He loves it! I think we have a musician in the making...