Finally...the Ocean!

We live about an hour away from both coasts - the Atlantic and the Gulf - and believe it or not, this is Ezra's first trip to the ocean! He was quite mesmerized by the waves. It was chilly though, so we did not spend a ton of time frolicking. This is the Atlantic coast, just near the Kennedy Space Center.

Just to Say "Hi!"

Leaps and Bounds

Ezra goes to physical therapy twice a week. He loves his therapist, Amber (who cannot be pictured for legal reasons) and all the new toys he gets to discover there. Amber works him pretty hard and we have seen such incredible improvement. Here he is on "tall knees" which activates his butt muscles - needed for standing one day.

Because of the all work, Ez has mastered the army crawl and has gotten really good at a "bunny hop" sort of crawl. So he's really moving well around the house - even managing to chase after the "titties" (a.k.a. kitties)

He is getting better and better at climbing stairs. He doesn't get to practice this at home though, since we have none. He is VERY good at coming down the stairs backwards, very cautiously. In this second picture, you can see he gets a little distracted sometimes by other kids in the room. He always needs to know what's going on!

And here he is ready for one of his favorite activities - the mobile standing frame. He loves zooming around the room, saying hi to everyone and getting into all the toys.

Because he was doing so well with this, we started looking into wheelchairs for him. I came across the ZipZac chair - a small chair created by hand for a little boy with Spina Bifuda. His uncle, the creator of the chair is selling them. So we ordered one for Ez. You can see that it fits him perfectly, and really gives him freedom of movement, especially outside (it's not really meant for outside, but our courtyard doesn't count). It allows him to get into the stuff he wants to get into.

And now he's able to play ball outside with his girlfriend!

We are so proud of him and all the progress he is making. I have the time to post right now because he is actually in surgery - he had surgery on his spine to prevent tethering, as well as a muscle biopsy, two more tenotomies on his achilles tendons, and a lengthening of a tendon in his hip. I just heard from the second surgeon, saying everything went great and he'll be waking up in about an hour. So I'm gonna run and get a coffee so I can make it through the rest of the day. (yes, I drink coffee from time to time in pregnancy and I don't want to hear your opinion on it :) )

A Whole Year Old!

We can't believe it - our little man is one year old already! His birthday was September 5. He is changing daily - picking up new talents, developing his awesome personality, and trying to communicate. Here he doing a good job feeding himself.

Okay, Jihae, I obviously need your help. I put a lot of effort into the dinosaur cupcakes, but I will be the first to admit they didn't look too awesome. Oh well. They tasted great and I don't think Ez cared too much.

Here's the little swimmer in our roof-top pool with his cool new turtle.

Just chillin' - he's cool like that.

Reading books with Grandma Ippel.

My next post will be about all of Ezra's progress with physical therapy and his new mode of transportation. Oh, and yes Aunt Lottie, I'll fit in a pregnancy picture one of these days! :)

Where have we been? Part II

Okay, so it's a little overdue, but here are pictures from our second trip of the summer - to Montana. My grandmother lives there and my parents met us there for a week. We had a great time hanging out at the farm, going to Yellowstone, and just relaxing. Ez loved the tractors and the cows.

Where have we been?

Flying high - and loving it!
The Happy Camper chilling with Great Grandpa Ippel

Camping with the whole Ippel family

Experiencing Lake Michigan

Messing around in Chicago

It has been a really long time since I have posted, and for that I apologize. This summer has been busy. We have had two trips (see next post for number 2), we had our adoption homestudy, we filed our adoption hearing paperwork, and we go to medical appointments on a VERY regular basis now (E has pt 2x/week, has gone to specialists, has had a muscle biopsy and genetic blood testing, I have my prenatal appointments...).

We had a great time in Michigan and Chicago and Ezra seemed to love camping and even flying. Well, he loved the take-off, and then would sleep! Yay! Couldn't have asked for a better-behaved traveller.

Jon's First Father's Day

Quote of the day: "Argh! I got it on my hands!"

This is what Jon called out from the bathroom while he was cleaning up Ezra's dirty diaper. It was a cloth diaper, and it was relatively full, which meant it needed a good toilet-dunking. So his statement made me laugh because I was thinking "How would you NOT get it on your hands?"

Anyhow, I salute my diaper plunging husband for being such a great dad to Ezra, who loves him TO PIECES. You should see Ezra's smile and hear his shrieks when dad gets home from work. It's like the world is as it should be.

Oh how beautiful!

North Carolina

It's been a while again, sorry! Life has been just moving along and I find myself busy with a multitude of things that keep me from posting. But here are some recent pictures. Over Memorial Day we went to North Carolina with some friends of ours. Ez had a great time in nature and among the farm animals at the petting zoo. Actually, I think dad had more fun in the petting zoo than Ezra.

Family Photos