Nate 18 Months

Nate turned 18 months on Sunday! My little "bubbas" is getting to be such a big "bubbas"! Still loves that thumb!

Here are a few pics to see the difference. This is Nate at a year and then now. 

12 months

 18 months

12 months on Fourth of July with his sister. They didn't like posing together back then. 

Now look at my precious babies!

I LOVE how the two of them are with each other. They laugh at each other in the car, they share food, they console each other when the other is sad, and yes...they still pick on each other. But that is bound to happen. 

As I look at the one year photos, he still looks like such a baby to me! Wow, he has come so far!

We saw the doctor today for his 18 month check up. He had to get 4 shots :-( We had taken Nate in to see his kidney doctor last month, and since then we have had no weight gain, but he is starting to pick up speed with his height and head circumference. We will continue to try to fatten him up....even if it takes french fries (his all time favorite food, j/k). 

We have started him on 2 new medications and he is doing rather well on them. He is giving us a bit of trouble taking his old medication though. (We started this med when he was a week old, so I guess he has finally realized that it is not a great taste) We have found an interesting way to trick him though. The medication is very acidic, so we mix it in a little swig of orange juice and he gobbles it up...silly bubbas! We will have repeat of blood work in March.

Last May, Nate was assessed by the state due to his delayed development. At the time he was 10 months but he was showing scores in the 4 months range. This qualified him for services in speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy. Since then, we have actually gotten none of these services. The state of AZ is not great at being able to provided enough therapists for the demand, so we went without. This did not worry me too much because of all the HUGE gains he made on his own. Recently our caseworker called to followup and was unaware that he had not been receiving services, so she sent out another assessment team to reevaluate where he was. Nate has made huge gains, but there are still some concerns in the physical therapy department. All other areas will be considered on "consultation" basis, which just means if we see a problem, we'll let them know. But for now, he will start getting PT very soon....I hope. The therapist assigned to us has already contacted me and said she is having a hard time fitting us in to her busy caseload....so we well see if it ever happens. 

Other then that, we have a healthy, happy little boy. He is such a ham these days and loves to laugh! Man, I am so incredibly blessed with this precious little boy!