A Little Of This And......... A Little Of That

Where has the time gone? We are so sorry for the long stretch between posts, the days seem to be flying by, and now low and behold it is December and soon time for jolly old Santa to make his deliveries.

Since our last post, we have celebrated Thanksgiving. We celebrated quietly at home with Rhonda's Mom and Dad and just spent the day enjoying each others company, watching some NFL football on TV, a bountiful feast of turkey and all of the fixings prepared by Rhonda's Mom complete with homemade pumpkin pie Yummy!, and of course the incredible Arizona winter weather with lots and lots of sunshine (the temperature got up to 84 degrees!)

Rhonda is still trying to shake off the effects of her bout with pneumonia that she has been dealing with for the last 3 weeks. She has a lingering dry cough that just won't go away. I feel sorry for my girl, she has been such a trooper with all of this and has only missed one day of work (that's dedication to helping others!) That's what makes her such an incredible nurse.

A great big "Congratulations" goes out to Joy and Kelly on the recent birth of their son. We are so happy for both of them. Rhonda had the opportunity to talk to Joy just after the birth when we called the Docs. It was a coincidence that both of the Docs were with Joy and Kelly and their new little one in their hospital room at Hiranandani. Dr. Yash was busy feeding Samuel while Rhonda was able to speak with Joy. We look forward to talking with them once they get their newest bundle of joy (no pun intended!) back home safe and sound.

Another "Congratulations" went out to our amazing Doctor and Blaze's Indian God Mother, Dr. Yash. She celebrated her birthday this past week and it was great calling and wishing her the best for her "special day'. The entire SI staff were all going out to celebrate at a favorite restaurant of hers and ours, Mainland China in Powai.

And yes it seems that all good things come in 3's. We have to give one more very big "Congratulations" out. This time it is for the fertility clinic that made our dreams come true, Surrogacy India in Mumbai, India. They gave us our miracle, our beautiful boy Blaze. This past week was their anniversary. There are so many couples lives that they have touched and like us, they have been able to make their dreams come true.

Well with those updates out of the way, it is time to tell you what has been happening lately in the life of our "little monkey" He is now 13 weeks old. Wow! It just seems like yesterday that we excitedly emailed SI with a multitude of questions and then I spoke with Dr. Sudhir about getting the process started. There were ups and downs and a few disappointments along the way, but each and every time we pick Blaze up in our arms and squeeze him tight and look into his beautiful brown eyes, it was all worth it.

As each day passes Blaze is more and more active. He really enjoys laying on his back and playing in his Fisher Price Rainforest Activity Center. He kicks and grabs at his toys and stares at the flashing lights. He really enjoys sitting on his Mother's lap and leaning back on her legs and smiling and talking (well making lots of noises) and reaching out and grabbing and playing with his Mommy and just eats up all of the one-on-one interaction with one of his favorite people in the world (me being the other favorite of course).

Being able to spend so much time with my boy is awesome. At first it was a bit difficult I will admit. Not the actual taking care of him (I'm pretty good at that!), but trying to take care of him and continue to do all of the things that I used to do around the house as well. As a guy, I always have a bunch of projects on the go and before the birth of our beautiful boy, I had plenty of time to work at them. That all changed when our little guy came along, but thankfully that was only short lived. It does get easier and lately, I have really gotten good at using the time during his naps to at least get a few things done and crossed off of my list.

As usual our little man is continuing to grow like a weed. For the last month now he has been routinely sleeping completely through the night. We bath him around 7 pm, then feed him his evening bottle and then it's off to sleep around 8 or 8:30. And we usually don't hear him stir until around 5:30 or 6 am. We had read about the importance of a routine in a babies life, so we came up with this routine for our Blaze and have been sticking to it as best as we can, and it really has paid off. We are still putting a teaspoon of rice cereal in his evening and morning bottles which he usually drinks 7 to 9 ozs. Just over a week ago I started him on strained bananas at his lunchtime and suppertime feedings along with his bottle, and he really seemed to enjoy them. He now has moved on to sweet potatoes. The look on his face when he tried his first taste of them was priceless, but just like the bananas he really seems to be enjoying them and smacks his lips between spoonfulls. And just this morning to go along with his mid-morning bottle, I made a small bowl of rice cereal to feed him and you guessed it, he enjoyed that too! I think he is going to be just like his Daddy and eat almost everything. I was never a fussy eater growing up.

With Christmas fast approaching we are in search of a few gifts for our boy. What do you get a little guy that seems to have everything he really needs right now? We are kind of leaning towards some things to help keep him occupied during the day in between his naps. Maybe some sort of sit-in activity center. Evenflow makes a nice one, the Exersaucer that seems to have a lot of things to catch the babies attention and keep them occupied.

Today Blaze and I started to put up some of the outdoor lights around the house. Well Blaze did the supervising from his stroller, and I did the work. As funny as it may seem, even though we live in the desert and don't get any snow, the majority of people take the time to get into the Christmas spirit by putting up lights and decorating. I have an 18 ft Saguaro cactus in my front yard that I put lights on, and you know it looks pretty good when it's done.

Well , my boy is waking up from his nap, so I will end this post for now. Hope you enjoy the latest pictures of the many faces of Blaze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch Out Michael Phelps!!!

Well our boy Blaze continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Each day we are amazed at how he is changing and turning from a once small fragile newborn baby to our "little man." He now is a whopping 12 lbs, which means that he doubled his birth weight in just 11 weeks.

Lately, when Gerry is home for his stretch of 4 days off after working his 48 hour shift at the firehouse, he has been taking his boy for a few short outings around town. These outings include quite a few trips to the local mall for some window shopping (a favorite of Gerry's) . The proud Dad reports that Blaze really enjoys getting out, especially visiting the pet store and of course the toy store.

Gerry and his Father-in-Law recently rolled up their sleeves for a bit of work and washed all of the windows of our house inside and out including washing the sun screens. Even though my Dad is retired, he hasn't lost his touch when it comes to doing windows. He owned and operated his own window washing business for over 40 years.

We are both missing our Frankie girl so very much. With Christmas just around the corner, this will be our first Christmas without her in many, many years, and it will definitely be sad, but on the other hand it will be our first Christmas with Blaze and a time to celebrate. Life sure is full of ups and downs. This past weekend we took Blaze to see Santa and he was great, no tears and he waited in line patiently with all of the other children. He loves all of the bright and flashing Christmas lights, so Daddy is VERY excited to get the house decorated for his little boy.

Blaze just LOVES television, especially animated movies and NFL football. He sure watches them intently.

From the very first time we put Blaze in the tub for a bath, he just loved it. He continues to enjoy himself so much in the bath, kicking wildly and making lots of noises. We both definitely believe that we are going to have a great little swimmer on our hands. Check out the video and see what you think.

WARNING the following video contains some nudity and goofy Mommy voices...

Well, I am officially out of Quarantine...thank heaven for Grandparents and N95 respiratory masks. I started coming down with 'something,' early last week and decided to get myself to the Doctor right away. I am not taking any chances with our little guy. The Doc said it wasn't contagious but we didn't want to take any chances and so I wore my N95 mask around the house and Grandma and Papa came to stay while Daddy was off at the firehouse for his 48 hour shift. Just yesterday this pesky cough wouldn't go away and I was still feeling very tired, so I went and got a chest x-ray and low and behold, I have pneumonia! I was never so happy to have an abnormal test result as I just want to get better and find out what was wrong. So I rushed back to the Doc after work to get a shot of Rocephin in my butt to kick start my feeling better and then I will start a course of 10 days on oral antibiotics tomorrow. WHEW! It's been a long, tiring week. I can't wait to be all better soon!!!

Playing with Papa

Snuggling with Grandma

There is another round of amazing parents welcoming or soon to be welcoming their little ones into the world with the awesome clinic Surrogacy India...Jackie and hubby, Joy and Kelly (any day now) and so many more (Stan and his wife, Todd and Alper, Rob and Greg, Johnny and Darren, and I am sure I am missing a few more) to come over the next months. We have been a part of each of their journey's (and so many others) from the beginning and also have been in contact over the past year. It is so great to know first hand of their abundant joy and excitement. We couldn't be happier for these wonderful people, so deserving of parenthood.

So for you photo junkies, here is our boy...

The MANY faces of Blaze:

Tummy time makes me tired!

In A Blink Of An Eye .................

That describes how we feel our beautiful baby boy is changing.  Each and every day seems to bring on something new that we notice, a new facial expression, a new little sound, a great big ear to ear smile, so many new and incredible things.

 Even a 'What now?' look

Blaze seems to also be growing in leaps and bounds.  He has moved up to size 1 diapers, and is wearing size 0 -3 onsies and sleepers and even some size 3 months.  He also has outgrown some of the shoes we had bought and now he is into size 1 shoes.  So every now and then, we continue to feed Rhonda's addiction to buying our son clothing.  He really does look adorable in everything!

Daddy teaching Blaze to swim

Having Rhonda's Mom and Dad here in Arizona for the winter is so great.  Seeing them interacting with Blaze is just incredible. This has been something that Rhonda has looked forward to for a very long time. Their weekly schedule is pretty packed with lots and lots of golf, playing Pegs and Jokers and Aggravation, shuffleboard, swimming, and just plain relaxing.  They are retired you know!  So we had to make sure that we had one day set aside just for us and therefore Saturdays are reserved for us to all spend time together. Well, on Tuesday, both Rhonda and I were off, so we decided to go over and have a quick visit and a swim, and we got an added surprise, a fantastic home cooked meal.  This unexpected visit sure made Grandma happy, and us too! 

Our nanny is working out fantastic.  She is such a natural with Blaze and already has begun to bond with him.  It is so hard to find someone to take care of your child, we are so very thankful that we were able to find her.

We took the doctors advice and added a teaspoon of rice cereal to Blaze's nighttime and morning bottle, and I must say that it is really going well.  He is sleeping longer and longer each night.  Just last night we fed him and put him in his crib at 9:15 pm and he slept until 5:15 am.  Count it .......... that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hours, WOW!

Well on Saturday, it was Halloween and our boy just couldn't be left out.  So he actually had 2 costumes, nothing fancy but nonetheless adorable.  One was a cute little bear and the other, an even cuter little monkey, which is Rhonda's pet name for our little guy.

Grandma and Papa got to see him dressed up and we also went and paid a visit to our neighbors house who have 6 boys, who just found him so neat.

This coming week I will be getting the H1N1 injection at work, due in a large part to the fact that since I am a firefighter, I come in contact with a lot of sick people and I definitely don't want to pass anything on to my newborn son.  Rhonda on the other hand, is uncertain about getting the injection.  Even though she is a nurse, she works at a facility that mostly takes care of the elderly and the risk is much lower.  So this is our dilemma, I feel that she should get the injection, but I also know that it is a personal choice and can't force her.  I am certain that there are so many others facing this decision as well.

The stores are all getting decked out for Christmas now that Halloween is over.  We are really looking forward to celebrating Blaze's first Christmas, even though it is hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it is sunny and 90 degrees and no chance of snow whatsoever, but we will definitely try.

Our little Trooper...

Blaze went for his 2 month check up with Dr. Gentile on the Monday, the 26th.  He has gained a bunch of weight and I just knew he was getting heavier.  He is now up to 10.7 lbs. and a whopping 22.25 inches long.  Almost double his birth weight!

We are now going to start placing a teaspoon of rice cereal in his morning and night bottles and see what he thinks.  Our Doc says its fine to start doing this.  As I mentioned, Blaze had his 2 month set of vaccinations and he ROCKED!  The nurse was quick and great, 2 injections and 1 drinkable ( Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Haemophilus Influenza Type B, Pneumococcal Congugate, Rotavirus).  He let out a holler and then Daddy picked him up and he quieted down immediately.

He was great for the next few hours and then woke up after a nap and his poor little thigh, where the injection site was, was red and swollen.  We knew he was hurting and he let us know.  It broke our hearts.  Poor baby, he cried real tears and his bottom lip was justa quivering.  Poor darling.  We applied his stuffed sea turtle ice pack and he laid on Daddy's chest and fell asleep all the while taking short little high pitched breathes.

We are NOT looking forward to Dec 31st when he gets his 4 month round of vaccines, but we know how important they are, and to have him protected.

He is starting to interact more with us and cooing and smiling.  He loves, loves, loves lights and ceiling fans and stares at them incessantly.

This has really been since day one.  He especially loved the lights in the elevator at the VITS.

His eyelashes seemed to have grown overnight.  They are SO long.  Lucky guy.  I am sure the girls will be jealous some day.

Papa and Grandma arrived on Sunday afternoon from Niagara Falls, and couldn't be happier to be back in sunny Arizona to enjoy the winter, especially now that they have a little grandson to enjoy.  Gerry decided to play a trick on Grandma and tell her Blaze wasn't feeling well (I said just say he was fussy or she may get worried) and so we stayed at home and didn't come to the airport.  I was right, she got worried and then minutes later when the 2 of us came out from around the pillar, her eyes just got so wide and the 'OMG!' came.

We couldn't get her attention for the rest of the day...well WE couldn't, but Blaze certainly did!  ALL DAY LONG!  She was just elated, such a happy Grandma.

 

The boys (minus Blaze) took a trip to Mom and Dad's trailer to get everything in order.  While they were gone, Mommy gave Blaze a bath and Grandma watched with delight.  Then the tears came.  She was just overwhelmed with emotions watching me there with my sweet little boy.  She was just so happy to see me after so long with my dream come true.  It was a wonderful moment.