Jimmie's Shiner

Jimmie's first black eye. )-:

Rachael is so sad. Jimmie has been sleeping rather restlessly lately and sometime in the night she woke to a big WHACK and Jimmie screaming. She brought him to bed and comforted him. Then she woke up to this. )-:

To use bumper pads or not to use bumper pads - that is the question... She doesn't because of the suffocation risk, but seriously, waking to your baby having a black eye from the crib is NOT COOL!

In other better news Jimmie's nutritionist came yesterday and in the month since her last visit Jimmie has gained 14 1/2 ounces, grown 3/4 ths of an inch and is now on the regular growth chart in height! He's 30 inches tall! Go Jimmie go!

Pray for Jimmie to sleep well, his eye to heal and as always to eat eat eat!

Love,

Amber

Jimmie's Nanny

Here she is! One of Jimmie's Nannies. He has TWO! It's about time we told you all what Jimmie is drinking out of his soft tipped Nuby sippy cup.

That's right! Goats milk! Jimmie has been drinking goats milk from two Nanny Goats for the past month. A month ago Rachael started drying up and she went with it and weaned herself from the pump.

Here is the precious Nanny kissing Rachael. I'm thinking Rachael kissed her back!

Rachael is so very grateful for this fresh goat's milk for Jimmie for quite a few reasons.

1. It is much fattier than her milk.

2. Jimmie reacts badly with loose stools, mucous and puking to cows milk and all kinds of formula. However the goats milk is treating him wonderfully!

3. Jimmie loves the taste and has progressed to 16 ounces a day!

4. And last, but certainly not LEAST Rachael is free- FREE from pumping. She slaved away with that pump for 15 months to provide Jimmie with her breast milk. Now it has become clear that her milk is no longer sustaining Jimmie the way it needs too and a wonderful healthy alternative has been found!

So last Friday Jimmie went to visit the Farm where his milk comes from and meet his Nanny.

He also got to meet all the kids! They were super cute and excited to meet him!

Maybe a little too excited . . .

Despite being practically buried in licking bleating baby goats- Jimmie was not scared.

"Scared" rarely ever describes Jimmie . . .

He loved this big huge dog!

And this one!

Can you guess what scared Jimmie on the farm?

There is a clue in this picture . . . (-:

Did you guess? Yep, a chicken! It's those pesky BIRDS!

They scare our brave little man into a panic.

He really is brave though.

Despite his fear he wanted to touch one . . .

He walked around in the chicken coop bravely . . .

Here he is reaching out in friendship . . .

An olive branch if you will . . .

Sweet brave boy!

We are very thankful for our Lady Farmer and her two Nanny Goats. They are filling our Jimmie's tummy with yummy fatty milk!

Go Nannies Go!

Love,

Amber

Dear Jimmie- Happy 16th Month Birthday

Dear Jimmie,

Happy 16th Month Birthday!

This you right after you were born.


And this is you today!

Look at how you have grown next to your Rottweiler Puppy!

This is you with your real live Rottweiller Puppy!

Look at how you've grown in your Father's hands!

Here is your special "Watch Me Grow" montage!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

You have gained 5 ounces this month in weight. You are exactly 16 pounds at 16 months.

You have gained 7/8 of an inch in height. You are 29 inches long!

You have gained 1/4 of inch in your head circumference. You are at 18 inches.

You have 116 followers on your blog that's 3 more than last month.

Your "Faithfulness" Video Montage has been viewed 10,711 times. That's 995 times this month!

Your "Jimmie's Wonderful World" Montage has been viewed 859 times. And your "High Places" Video Montage has been viewed 511 times!

Your blog has been viewed 5,036 times this month for a total of 97, 162 hits! You have a lot of very cool people who love to check on your progress Jimmie.

You are continuing to do well eating solids, except when you are sick. Unfortunately you have been sick twice this month. You had some snot and a low grade fever at the beginning of the month and now you are getting over an intestinal virus of some sort.

The great news is that you have doubled you fluid intake by mouth this month and you are now averaging around 16 ounces a day!! You drink out of a soft tipped sippy cup!

Physically you are amazing. You are running, climbing and squatting to pick up your toys so you can walk around carrying them. You love the Coupe Car your Grandma and Grandpa Gravitt got you for your birthday and you've figured out how to push the button on your 4 wheeler to make it go.

You are babbling, but still a little delayed in this area. You have speech therapy twice a month. You are communicating more and more with sounds and gestures. You are very into pointing at things and wanting your Mommy to name them.

Your mommy was in a car wreck this month Jimmie. She was almost home when it happened. Unfortunately her left foot was hurt. For a couple of weeks it was really hard for her to watch you by herself because you are so busy and in to everything and she couldn't walk. She is doing better though. We were so very thankful you were not in the car.

1 week after the car wreck your mommy awoke at 6 am to discover your g-tube had come out of your tummy sometime in the night. The hole where it was supposed to go back in was almost closed up. So your Mommy and Daddy rushed you to Children's Mercy Hospital where they were able to reinsert the g-tube. They had to push a metal rod in your belly and move it around and around to dilate your stoma. Mommy and Daddy had to help hold you down on the table and you were screaming Jimmie. You were very brave though- as always. You recovered quickly, but you did have a pretty sad face when I saw you later that morning . . .

You had your 1 year old developmental birthday this month Jimmie. You were born so early that all of your doctors and therapists adjust your age to the day your Mommy was supposed to have you. That's your developmental birthday. So on May 28th 2010 you were officially considered 1 years old!

We celebrated Memorial Day at my house this year and you had a blast playing in the sprinkler! Uncle Eric took some pretty awesome pictures of you.

Jimmie I absolutely love watching you interact with the world around you. You are so very bright and energetic. I love the little noises you make when you are looking at me and telling me something. You have a lot to say, it's going to be so much fun to hear about the funny little things you say someday when you have words. I love how sweet you are and also how feisty. You can go from yelling to kisses in a few moments. It's also fun to see you and McKenna butt heads a little. Your mommy says you and your cousin Acacia are so cute in the church nursery together. She says you love Acacia's toes! The other day you were looking and pointing with both hands upward as you ran across the nursery. Your mommy, Cousin Janelle and baby Acacia got quite the laugh when you ran into a wall. You also tripped over something and splatted forward. Mommy held her breath and looked at you waiting to see if you'd cry and instead you just started moving your hands around and pointing at the stars on the carpet with a funny little grin on your face.

I am loving watching you grow Jimmie and with you it's easy never to take a moment for granted. I am so very blessed by your life. Ma used to recite the 23rd Psalms to you when you were fighting for your life in the NICU. The Lord is your Shepherd Jimmie and He has led you beside "still waters". You are thriving and we are glad!

Love you forever!

Auntie Amber

Jimmie Is 16 Months Old!

His special post will be coming soon.

Love,
Amber

Strong Willed

Well, this may not be a surprise to any of you, it's not to any of us... Jimmie seems to be very strong willed. If you know Rachael OR Justin you'll know that Jimmie is genetically inclined in that direction. Rachael and Justin are 2 of the more strong-willed people I know.

Jimmie is now very loudly asserting his will when it gets violated. The other morning shortly after he woke up he was walking down the hall just as Justin was walking out the front door. Justin shut the screen door as Jimmie was trying to follow him out. Rachael said the result was a huge screaming fit!

Over the weekend Jimmie was playing at my house and he went into Cole's room and tried to take one of Cole's "softie" blankets. Jimmie LOVES soft blankets. Well Cole decided that Jimmie already had his own blanket and did not need to take over his. So Jimmie threw himself down on his little butt looked right at my mom and started screaming like, whaaaaaaa, you better take care of this!!" He was comforted when Rach brought him his own blanket.

And there is the constant fight over not getting into the cat's water and food bowl. Literally every minute or two Rachael has to pull him away. She's finally just putting it up out of reach. The dog bowls at both sets of grandparents are always a problem.

Justin had the dehumidifier out in their living room the other day and it has a big tempting button. Jimmie figured out how to push it and turn it on and off. Rach told Justin she wasn't going to fight that battle with Jimmie and as far as she was concerned it should be put out of reach. As she left for work Justin was saying how he was going to fight the battle and teach Jimmie better. Rach was like, "okay, good luck." When she got home the dehumidifier was gone. LOL!

This was a cell phone picture Rach sent of Jimmie in the toilet paper.


Jimmie has also taken to screaming at his toys lately. They frequently misbehave and do not do exactly as Jimmie wants. Rachael explains it like this, "Jimmie has very definite ideas about things and what he wants and how he wants them to go."

The good thing is that Jimmie is very busy and easily distracted from whatever is upsetting him. So if you redirect him his fits don't last too long. Rachael knows that his strong personality, his loud voice when things don't go his way and the fact that he clearly has his own agenda are all wonderful developmental signs. Jimmie is a normal toddler. Well I would argue he's an extraordinary toddler, but I may be biased. (-:

He is so little and still quite young to be so independent. He is a little force to be reckoned with for sure. He is also seriously the strongest kid I have ever seen. He'll try and pick up things like, a 5 pound bag of potatoes, a really heavy back pack . . stuff that you think there is no way he'll be able to pick that up and then he does and staggers along with it, or drags it a long the floor.

Remember back in the NICU the nurses and our family used to call him, "Small But Mighty" . . . Well that still applies. He won't always be small, but the "Mighty" part will always be true!

Go Jimmie go!

Love,
Amber

Memorial Day- By Jimmie Gravitt

I had a BLAST on Memorial Day guys! We went over to my Auntie Amber's house and my Ma and Pa AND my Grandpa and Grandma were there along with a lot of other people.

I played outside all afternoon, except for a nap . . .

By FAR the best part of the day was playing in the sprinkler in the back yard. I'm fearless when it comes to water. Well- unless you ask me to drink it. (-; My uncle Eric took many awesome pictures of me.



I walked right into the spraying water . . .


Notice my shirt says, "My Auntie Is The Best" (-:




I got a little overwhelmed at one point . . .




My momma . . .


. . . and my Grandpa made it all better though.


I went right back to that water fun!






I noticed the sprinkler was comin out of this slide . . .


I started thinkin about climbin it . . .


So my Grandpa sacrificed himself and got all wet . . .


to help me slide!





I was brave . . .


Then mommy decided I needed to dry off and warm up . . .


Man that was fun!


Last year for Memorial day we went to the Graveyard and remembered my Great Grandpa Jimmie Gravitt. He's my namesake and a Veteran. Look how tiny I am!!


My sister Gracie is buried at his feet. Here we are at their place . . .




I've come so far!!


Thank you for prayin for me!

Love,
Jimmie Jim Jim

P.S. Auntie says to tell you her computer died this week. )-: She's upset about that for a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones is that it is harder to post these awesome blogs about awesome me! Don't worry though nothin can stop her from sharin about me. (-: Auntie is pining for somethin called a Mac!! We'll see . . .