One year old!

We celebrated James' one-year mark with a picnic in the park. Some fun videos were taken but have yet to be downloaded and compiled :) Maybe we'll get to that soon... We had lovely sunny weather and sat out in the shade in Riverside Park.

We picked a spot next to the River Run playground, which has water features and a sandbox that are appropriate for a 1-year old who can't walk yet. We thought James would have fun splashing in the baby river and making a mess in the sand.  Instead, he was terrified and wouldn't touch either! He also didn't care for the chocolate cake we made him, but he did stuff himself with potato chip fragments and have a blast batting around balloons.

He's 17 lbs 7 oz - almost no weight gain lately :( But he's doing great in every other way. He stands up pretty constantly while holding onto furniture, and is starting to cruise around tentatively. He loves climbing and has managed to climb onto our rocking chair without aid. He drums on every solid surface he can find (except, of course, his toy drum, which he totally ignores). He has a preference for circles, balls, and wheels. He spins the wheels on his toy trucks and thinks it's the best thing ever.

From January (L) to July (R): 

 Birthday pictures:

A few more just for fun: 

entertainment via bottle spinning, and mohawk hair

This funny kid

New photos:

He's quite mobile these days, crawling and scooting all over the place... I can't always keep up and grab a camera quick enough for the funny moments. Here are a few I did catch:

classic McMahon face

making friends

post-bath hair

somehow asleep despite the contortions

Problem-solving by James

There's juice in the sippy cup, but how does one get it out? James gives it a try:

Chugging on

It's been awhile since our last post. We've started to wonder where to go with this blog... with the surgeries out of the way (at least for a few years), there is not as much to update as frequently. We'll keep up regular articles about our family as a whole, and photos of James as he grows. However, until we figure out a direction to take with this blog, our posts will be a bit more spaced apart and a bit light on content.

James is 16 lbs, 6 oz as of last week - which means he gained ZERO weight in the past month. Not so great. However, his GI doctor is content to keep him off the tube, since he is so close to eating enough, and push him to develop his eating skills and strength further. We'll help him out by giving him mostly formula, which has more nutrients and calories than most solids and burns fewer calories to consume. His solids will be focused on high fat, high protein, high calorie foods, with butter and oil added in for good measure. So far, we've identified avocado, yogurt, and mac and cheese as good diet options. I'm at a loss though as to what else to feed him... any ideas would be welcome!

He's almost crawling, and loves to scoot backwards. Sometimes this gets him into a bind. He's also warming up to books as something fun to look through instead of merely munch on. He loves trains, and the subway is only a half block away (and above ground) so entertainment is never far. Photos of our growing sweetheart below :)

Back on the charts

A bit of good news this rainy Friday: our doctor visit this morning weighed James in at 16 lbs, 6 oz - which places him officially on the growth curve. He's in the smallest 3%, but he's on the charts at last! At 28 inches, he has officially grown out of his car seat. Time for more shopping...

He's also back on the tube, mostly because the flu kept him from eating his usual amount so we had to keep him hydrated via the feeding pump. The fact that he was off the tube until just this week, and still gained weight, is a great sign. It's very possible we'll be packing the tube away for good soon :) Today was our first visit to Weill-Cornell in 7 weeks, and it actually looked different. (It's amazing how cool renovations appear when you compare 2-month intervals instead of weekly ones.)

We are all excited about the arrival of spring, the increasing independence from the tube, and a much lighter doctor schedule. We have the time and flexibility to get out more, accomplish more, and look forward to new endeavors in coming months!

Spring progress!

Happy Easter! We spent the holiday recovering from a nasty bout of the flu, so it hasn't been very celebratory around here. Rest and relaxation are much appreciated though.

We have actual progress to report on this time: James is off the tube! It's still only provisional, but he's been off for over a week now and he's eating well. He's not meeting his goal (800 ml), but he's obtaining the daily minimum (600 ml) - and day by day he's slowly improving. We change the tube each week for sanitary purposes, and the last time we were all just too fed up with the tube to muster up reinsertion energy. A few days of break did him good though, and his eating skills took off. James has had such "testing" off-tube days before and not done so great, but this time he was ready to show us what he can do.

It is SO nice to not deal with the tube feeding process every day. With the tube out, he no longer needs to keep his hands gloved, so he can play more freely. He doesn't throw up, at all, ever. He's starting to sleep more soundly at night. He's also picking up on solids: yogurt, mashed banana, crackers, soft puffy chips that dissolve in his mouth. He still resists swallowing anything more solid than yogurt, but his Early Intervention therapy has begun so we'll be working on his swallowing with the help of a feeding specialist.

In honor of tube independence, I'm posting a few photos of little J without any medical paraphanelia blocking his face :)

Spring weather and fun fluff

This is a fun post; nothing newsworthy from our end. The camera cord is recovered though so we have some pics of James's recent growth and adventures.

We had our first zoo outing today. I'm not incredibly impressed with the Bronx Zoo, especially since they have no elephants! (?) and the lions and gorillas were not in their exhibits. The giraffes were, and we got impressively close, but only because their enclosure was approximately as small as my apartment. Still, it was a nice day for an outing and I enjoyed seeing the animals. James kind of missed the point. I'm not sure he realized the tigers relaxing on the other side of the glass weren't on tv.

We have a nice playground about a block away, and the 3 of us went together last Sunday to enjoy some sunshine. It was incredibly busy, and James seemed to like just seeing and being around other happy kids. He loves going down the slide, although this playground only had a spiral one and I don't fit too well...

who's here to see who?