The Digression Of A Photo Op

There is not much to say about this series of pictures. It just so accurately describes life these days. It always brings me back to the old Bill Cosby stand-up about "Jeffery." I would suggest searching it out on You Tube

Happy 9 Months Boys!

Yesterday was nine months since Wyatt and Parks were born. We can hardly believe it's been almost a year. They are learning new things everyday and beginning to really keep us on our toes. Wyatt is now sitting up unassisted for hours. He is very interactive, and his fine motor skills seem to be improving daily. Parks is doing the army crawl and is getting close to the real thing. He is also getting very strong on standing and pulling up. If he only had a little more balance, he would be walking soon. He's already got the motion down.

We get stopped all the time with people asking us how we can tell them apart. Independently, people say that Parks looks like Randi or me, depending on which parent is with him at the time. We don't really get that with Wyatt as much. We see little features from us both in him, but we are still trying to figure out who he really "looks like." Wyatt is still an inch or two shorter and a couple pounds lighter. He has some little, skinny legs and arms, while Parks looks like a real beef eater. He has no wrists...still.

Their personalities are the true tell-tell's. Parks is babbling in longer sentences and loves to cuddle up and sleep on your chest, but he also has a short fuse. Wyatt, on the other hand, is laid back and will give you a good belly laugh but is such a whiner and is already addicted to TV. We have already recognized the difficulty we face in having to parent our two boys using two completely different approaches. They are lots of fun and lots of work.

Better Together...

The boys spanning the generation gap...playing with their great grandmother.

Parks being sweet, usually he's grabbing at Wyatt's face.

Carnival mirror fun.

The boys in their train conductor overalls.

It took about fifty pictures at one sitting to get a picture where they were this cooperative.

Wyatt Pictures

As promised, he are some pictures of Wyatt by himself that we took since the first of January. We love this picture of him in the bathtub.

This is a picture of him post-circ. surgery. Can you tell how drugged he looks?

Wyatt in his decorated Starband helmet. Nice job mom.

Wyatt or Bruce Boxleitner

As you may have seen by now, Wyatt is sporting new headgear. Although it is not designed to protect him from the Master Control or ENCOM, it will give him a more symmetrical head shape to impress the ladies when he gets older. Tron is one of my favorite movies, and I have to mention it here. The similarities are comical.

Mardi Gras...Babystyle!!

As many of you know yesterday was Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal where we live and our boys both love the beads. Wyatt's infant developmental specialist gave them to us months ago because they are a great learning tool for babies. Above is a picture of the festivities that took place at our house.

Parks Pictures

It has been over a month since we last posted pictures, and with boys growing this fast, a month is a long time. So, here are some pictures of Parks from the last month. Since there are so many, I'll split the boys up and post pictures of Wyatt tomorrow.

A freaky picture I took when he was in the play yard.

At Lowe's shopping for power tools at an after Christmas sale...very manly.

G.Q.

Lifting weights to build up those shoulders.

He's already a show off...he did one more than I could.

Learning some new skills with a sippy cup.

Ready for a jail break.

We had to put this hat on during our one day of winter.

Too cute!

Finally Some Answers

I am so sorry it has taken me this long to post results of Wyatt's MRI. I literally just spoke to Wyatt's pediatrician last night. Pretty much everything seemed the same as his original MRI. The white matter loss was of course still there, but had not progressed so that was good. I assume and am praying this is something that will remain static. He had delayed myelination in his earlier MRI and now he has the myelination of a 6-month old. He was a little over 8-months old when the study was done. This is pretty consistent with his developmental milestones and as long as he keeps progressing then we're not worried. As I have heard others say, we look to the child for his prognosis and he's doing very well. What caught my attention, and the reason I didn't post until I spoke with the pediatrician is the radiologist noted "loss of periventricular white matter bilaterally is as seen in periventricular leukomalacia or PVL". This was what bothered me the most because this is the first time I've heard the words PVL in regards to Wyatt. I believe it is usually associated with brain bleeds and we concluded with MRI #1 that Wyatt didn't have a brain bleed. What I am reading more and more says that PVL can also be caused by lack of oxygen in utero, which we know Wyatt was a victim of due to the poor blood flow in his umbilical cord. So, I don't know if he actually has PVL or if this radiologist felt that the white matter damage is similar to what's seen with PVL. The pediatrician cannot really answer this, so we decided our next step is a neurology consult. All in all the pediatrician said she does not consider this a bad report. We will see the pediatric neurologist at the end of the month, which certainly won't change anything, but my hope is it will help us gain a better understanding of what has occured with Wyatt's brain and how better to tailor any therapies he may receive.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and encouragement.