Up.....up....and away!

It has been a while since I have posted.....only because I have been packing and trying to get all of Oliver's gear in order before we head to Colorado. Oliver, Mom, Jack and I leave early tomorrow morning. Owen will hold down the fort here while we are gone.....I'm sure I'll have lots to tell about when we get back.

In the meantime, the Hopebuilders 5K is less than 8 weeks away! We have our team, Oliver's Army and we would love more team members (password to join is oliver, all lowercase) OR please consider a donation to this wonderful cause. Levine Children's Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center is an awesome hospital with wonderful people who took AMAZING care of Oliver while he was in the NICU. Any size donation helps! Thank you! Click here to go to their website.

Messy Play for Oliver....and ostomy bag heaven!

So as part of his ongoing eating/swallowing therapy, his speech therapist has added something fun to the list of things to do with Oliver - "messy play"! Basically just pop in his high chair and spread the baby food (in his case, banana or pears right now) all over the tray, roll his pacifiers, spoons and teethers in it and let him go to town! The idea is that he'll play, have fun and put stuff in his mouth and still get to taste things without it being his feeding time.....and so far, so good! He has enjoyed his messy play time and though it makes my skin crawl to see the mess that it creates, if it works for him and he has fun, then fine by me! :)

On another note, we are in new ostomy bag heaven!! Oliver has been wearing the same type of ostomy bag since he had his ileostomy back in December and he has definitely outgrown them. Prior to switching, we were changing his bags AT LEAST every 24 hours (sometimes more often, ugh) because they were just falling off and/or he was pulling them off. So leave it to Owen, he figured out another alternative for us and it is absolutely wonderful!! His new bags are bigger and have a gas vent (TMI probably but oh well) which is awesome because it means that we aren't constantly letting out the gas. They also don't have to be emptied, we just switch out the bag because it snaps on and off the wafer....YAY!!! They are SO much easier and less messy.....so we are in ostomy bag heaven......for now until he outgrows these! :)

7 months and......teeth!

So, a day before he turned 7 months old, Oliver's 2 bottom middle teeth finally pushed through! I was working with him and his sippy cup/eating and I saw a flash of white! A quick probe confirmed my suspicions, we have teeth! :) It made perfect sense that they came in when they did, a couple days before he was ULTRA grouchy.....No more chewing on fingers for Oliver - that will actually hurt now! No pictures of them yet, he won't let me get a good one :)

All in all, Oliver is doing really well. Yesterday morning, we went to his surgeon, Dr. Cosper, for a check-up and he looks great! When Oliver was first diagnosed with HD we knew it would be at least 9 months - 1 year before he could have his pull-through surgery but after talking to Dr. Cosper today, it will be longer than that. Oliver is definitely thriving and doing really well in terms of his health.....but, it would be better to do the pull-through after Oliver is eating by mouth. His ostomy output will change a lot as the food he eats and feeding changes so we'll wait to get through that until doing the surgery. So we are looking at sometime in 2011.....maybe closer to his 2nd birthday but we'll see. But, he don't have to go back to see Dr. Cosper until Oliver's 1st birthday!

We are also having to adjust his ostomy bags, the ones that we were using are just too small now and he can easily loosen those enough by grabbing them and also because he is sitting up now so much that we were having to do bag changes at least every 24 hours.....not ideal! So, we are trying larger sizes......

Oliver will go see the GI doctor (Dr. Dranove) in 2 weeks.....We are still working on getting him to eat by mouth. We have bypassed the bottle.....he just wasn't interested and wouldn't take it. So, now we are working on a sippy cup with him and that has already worked much better. I am also working on feeding him a little bit of rice cereal and bananas......but there isn't too much progress to report as yet. At least not to anyone but us :) Each bite he takes without spitting it right back out is exciting and we only get a few of those a day.....so, when I have more news, I'll be sure to share but I have a feeling that this is going to be a long process.

This past weekend, Oliver had his first trip up to Blowing Rock! Owen and I hadn't been up since October so it was wonderful to get back up there! We also got to see Jack's new apartment and just hang out and relax. It was wonderful to not have to do anything or be anywhere and just enjoy the mountains......Mom and I took Oliver and went up Thursday afternoon and Owen and Dad joined us Saturday morning. It was interesting because Boz (my parents' dog) gets a little agitated whenever Oliver gets all the attention at their house but he didn't care at all this weekend....Jack said it right - Blowing Rock lowers everyone's blood pressure :) I was too relaxed to get many pictures this weekend but here are a few......

July 4th Festivities!

The Taylors have a fantastic tradition that I hope goes on forever.....The Owen side of the family has been getting together to celebrate July 4th every year and for the past few years have met in Waynesville at Bill & Sandra's house. It is so much fun to get to see Owen's aunt, uncles and cousins and now.....the second generation of cousins :) With the addition of kids and pregnancies these past 4-5 years, it has become even more fun to see everyone! We look forward to the family gathering every year and this was a special one for me and Owen since it would be Oliver's first 4th of July! We had a blast and are excited that there will be additions to the family because Owen's cousin, Tyson, is pregnant with twins --- babies 3 and 4! :) YAY!

Owen with Oliver after his bath......I walked in to the biggest ostomy bag mess EVER that morning :)

Chris, William, Bryan and Owen

Nana and Oliver

Jennifer, Oliver and Bryan

Hello Mr. President!

We had a wonderful time this past weekend....We all headed down to Wilmington for the annual North Carolina Bar Convention.....Bar as in lawyers, not the place where you can knock back a few :) They alternate locations each year and usually we just go to the Convention when it is in Asheville (because really, how can you resist a chance to stay at the Grove Park Inn?!) but this was a special year because my dad was sworn in as the 116th President of the NC Bar Association!

When Oliver first came home and still had his central line for his TPN, we thought that there was no way that the 3 of us would be able to go and celebrate Dad, but a little partof me hoped that it would be possible and of course when we found out a couple months ago that Oliver was getting his line removed, we were thrilled about that but also excited because that meant that we could leave Charlotte! So, it was amazing to be able to go down and spend time with family and hear nice things about Dad and see this wonderful honor. Friday night, K&L Gates had a dinner at the Bellamy Mansion in Dad's honor and then Saturday night was the main event - the formal dinner and swearing in. It was lots of fun and Dad did a great job! :)

Most of us....Owen had to leave dinner to put Oliver in bed (check out Jack's good-looking hair)

Oliver, Blake & Sarah

A caricature of Oliver from the Bar Convention (the scanner didn't get his whole head...)