Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. Hope that you all had a good one.

Action!

Cade has been busy today. Here's a couple of videos to show you his progress. He's also started laughing and I need to get a good video of that. When he laughs, it causes him to hiccup. :) Poor baby. He hates the hiccups. He laughs at the bottle of antibacterial gel on his changing table. He must think that it's really cool with the bubbles inside. Another thing that he loves to smile at is a wood carving from Thailand that is hanging on the wall. Maybe, he'll be an artist. Other good news today: We went to get a head ultrasound (notice his spiky hair from the ultrasound gel) and followup with neuro and his ventricles have remained stable with the new shunt setting. Also, his head shape is improving which confirmed what the PT told me a couple of weeks ago. All the tummy time and trying to get him to look left has paid off. We don't have to go back for another 3 months.

Phillip's Baptism

Phillip was baptized on Saturday October 25th in Lake City. Jill grew up there and her parents still live in Lake City. Her sister was in town to have her little girl baptized too. Sean and I share the duty of godparents with Jill's sister and brother-in-law. Phil, grandma and grandpa came to our house on Friday afternoon so we got a chance to visit before we all travelled to Lake City on Saturday afternoon. We attended the 5:00 mass which was Cade's first church experience. Then the baptism was right after the ceremony. Both boys slept through most of the service so both were a little crabby by the time the baptism was taking place. We all made it through though. Afterwards, we went to the local golf course for dinner. Then, Sean, Cade and I went to Treasure Island with Phil, grandma and grandpa to spend the night. It was nice to not have to drive all the way home and gave us some more time to visit.

6 month stats

Cade had his 6 month check up today and here are the stats:
Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz (1st percentile for 6 months, yey! we are on the charts; 50th percentile for 3 months adjusted; 75th percentile on the preemie chart)
Length: 23 3/4" (not on the 6 month chart, 50th percentile for 3 months adjusted; 75th percentile on the preemie chart)
Head circumference: 15 3/4" (not on the 6 month chart, 25th percentile for 3 months adjusted, 50th percentile on the preemie chart)

He also got his immunizations and a flu shot. I think that they made him tired because he's been sleeping most of the night. The doctor and I also talked about changing his formula. I decided not to fight it so we will be changing within the next week when we run out of Neosure. Also, if the formula change goes OK we will be starting solids after that.

6 months

It's been almost 2 weeks since I've written but we've been busy around the Bober house. Last Saturday, Cade turned 6 months and his auntie Marcy turned 30. A bunch of us went out to Buca in downtown Minneapolis and Grandma Linda babysat. We all had a good time. My mom was in town for our annual trip to Albertville while my dad goes pheasant hunting. So, both grandma and grandpa were here on Thursday and then grandpa went hunting and the girls went shopping. Sean took the day off and we (my mom, sister, aunt and 2 cousins) were gone from 9 am to 10 pm. Sean and Cade survived the day with no problems. I think Sean enjoyed his day home with his son.


Here's Cade's new walking outfit. It's a hand-me-down hot dog costume from Sean's friend Holly. Her son Leo wore it last Halloween. It's nice and warm and we get a good laugh every time he wears it.
I have wanted this t-shirt for Cade for a long time but I couldn't justify the $16 is cost at Gap. So, when Amy, Evan, Cade and I were at MOA a week and a half ago the shirt was on clearance for $4 and I snatched it up. It's the perfect description of my baby :) We had a great time at MOA. Cade stayed up the whole time and was happy to look at all the lights and action.

Cade loves his Daddy and his Daddy loves him.
"I decided that I didn't have any "naked" pictures of Cade so I decided to take a few. He is such a cutie. You can see his scar on his belly from his shunt surgery and his cute round belly button from being a preemie.

On October 11, we went to Molly and Matt's house in Shakopee to have dinner with them, their 2 girls, Carolyn and Allison and Holly, Roger and their kids Laila and Leo. I know Molly from Seagate and Sean grew up with Holly in Chisholm. Then, Molly and Holly met because they live in the same neighborhood. So, the 6 of us make a good mix. The girls loved "baby Cade" and Cade was flirting with them too. The night was alot of fun and was constant action and noise. Sean and I were exhausted by the end.

Wow!

Cade rolled over today! It was amazing to watch and I thought it was maybe some type of fluke so I flipped him back over and he flipped again from his tummy to his back. He pushed off with his right side and threw his head back and then just rolled. He was a little surprised but was happy. The third time I flipped him back onto his tummy he screamed and wouldn't flip. So, now we are hoping he will roll again tonight for Sean to see. I looked up in my baby book when kids typically roll over and it's sometime after 15 weeks. Since Cade's adjusted age is 10 weeks, he's ahead of schedule but of course behind schedule for his actual age which is almost 6 months. We call him our "hybrid" baby.

Weight check

So, the top pictures I've been meaning to upload for all of the Chisholm folks. Cade got an official Blue Streak sweatshirt from the Petrangelo's and he can now wear it proudly (because he's finally big enough :) )
The other pictures are from tonight when Cade was talking to his lion. Today, I also caught him in his crib smiling at the wall. When I told Sean, he said that God or angels must be talking to him. I would like to think that his great grand parents are coming down to check on him and maybe telling him funny stories about his mommy when she was a baby.
Today, we had a drs appt for a weight check and to get a Synagis shot. Synagis is a shot that provides antibodies that prevent RSV. RSV is especially dangerous for preemies because their lungs aren't fully developed. Here's more info: http://www.synagis.com/how-synagis-works.aspx I guess that the insurance company was questioning Cade's need for the shot and the dr wrote them a nasty letter saying basically "this child was born 15 weeks early, came home on O2 and had chronic lung disease and has a VP shunt. Please tell me who in this country has a greater need. I'm sure you won't be able to come up with many." Yeah for our doc! I think the shot is rather expensive and has to be given once a month throughout RSV season which I think goes through April. So, that means 6 shots. Poor Cade because shots are so traumatic but it's so much better than ending up in the hospital this winter. Cade was also traumatized by a blood draw to check his hemoglobin. But, the good news is his level was 13.1 which is great (normal range 11-13 for kids) so we can discontinue his iron supplements. Hopefully, that will help his digestive system. And, finally his weight...... he's up to 12 1/2 lbs. We were actually thinking that he would be a bit heavier since he was gaining about a pound every 2 weeks. But, on the chart that I have for preemie boys born less than 1500 grams, he's about at the 75th percentile for 2 1/2 months adjusted age and 50th percentile on the standard growth chart for boys. We go in for his 6 month check up on the 22nd and he'll get his vaccinations and we'll talk about taking him off of the Neosure (preemie) formula and onto standard formula. I'm not convinced that's the right thing to do but we'll see if I can convince the doctor. He did, however, give us 4 cans of Neosure which saves us about $60. I guess I should have been asking for samples at all of our appts!

Simple To Say Hard To Do

OK. I need a place to rant while I wait for someone to screw up my project at work. Last night, I was telling Jill how I felt regarding what needs to be done in order to fix this country. So, here are the things that I can think of off of the top of my head.

1. Reform the Federal Reserve

Watch this to see why. If you are really bored, just google "federal reserve reform video".


2. Enact campaign finance reform to eliminate the influence of special interests.

3. Enact term limits.

4. Enact a flat tax.

5. Eliminate the electoral college.

6. Enact a policy of 1 man 1 vote (it isn't like we don't have the technology or the man power to have every vote truly count).

I guess what I am saying is that it is time for fairness to reign over the current modus operandi.

If we were somehow able to let fairness and common sense take over, the American people might just be able to get back in the saddle and do what they do best, innovate and work. Hard work and innovation in a fair world, would lead to a larger gross domestic product.

Big smiles

I love the big smiles

Cade licking his monkey because now everything that gets close enough to his mouth gets licked
My favorite