Easter Basket Inspo

Okay, I'm not sure how I can even call myself a blogger, getting you an Easter basket inspo post this late in the game. But. Before going part-time, I totally used to do my Easter basket shopping the day before Easter, so I'm pretty proud of the fact that these baskets have been stuffed and hiding for about 2 weeks all ready. I'm only waiting on one more item to get here for Aurora's basket - an alarm clock that I ordered on Amazon two days ago, when I slept through mine and she was late to school. Also, hers has a few more things than Holden's, but he's not old enough to notice, so please don't tell him. We don't go huge on Easter baskets, a few items and a tiny bit of candy. And, because we're stellar parents, we always do Easter baskets for ourselves, too. Again, nothing fancy.

Aurora's basket: A few clothing items, these coloring cards she saw at CVS a few weeks ago that she thought were so cool, some hair chalk, candy

Holden's basket: Alligator hooded bath towel, some eggs and a little chick rattle from Target's Easter section, and some yummy baby treats

Jose's basket: Booze and candy, which I can tell he's already discovered, as some is missing

My basket: Candy and ingredients for my favorite sweet snack (Graham cracker bunnies, marshmallows, and m&m's - Mix them together and it tastes like a s'more!)

Also, we took the kids to see the Easter bunny today. Holden has seen the one at the mall before and has given him high 5's, but we like to take them to a local lawn and garden center because they have all sorts of other stuff for kids to do. Holden's reaction can be summed up in three letters: WTF.

That's all for now, friends! I hope everyone has an amazing Easter weekend!! He is (almost) risen!!!

Overwhelmed

Truth: I love doing this whole blog thing and am so excited that I've been able to put more time into it lately. Second truth: I have so many ideas for it and my mind is always going 1,000 miles a minute brainstorming things for it and then I sit down and try to work on it and get so overwhelmed with where to begin that I basically start skipping around, spending a little time on each thing and never actually finish anything (hence the lack of blog posts). I bought a separate planner for my blog and I even get overwhelmed when I try to plan out what I should work on and when. Prioritizing has never been a strength of mine. I know I'm supposed to pick the most important and impactful thing and start from there, but to me it's all equally important and impactful. So, for no reason other than to simply unload, here is everything I'm working on at the moment.

Website
While Blogger has made this whole starting a blog thing super easy for me and I'm a little nervous to venture into anything else, I want my own dot com (as opposed to at blogspot.com). So last summer I bought jennafromtheblog.com and it's basically sat there ever since with a picture of me looking like I'm a super fun person to hang out with (I'm not), telling you to stay tuned. So I've been trying to get that up and running but, while my research has told me that WordPress is a better platform to use in the long run, it's a whole different story in terms of being user-friendly. Well, I'm starting to think it's more user-friendly than I originally thought, and maybe the issue is more so with the user. That's probably a better way of putting it. So, there's that.

Blog Posts
I have drafts for several different posts sitting in my Blogger dashboard. Some of them were already supposed to be posted. Usually when this happens, so much time passes that maybe only one or two of them actually makes it out alive and the rest get pushed to the side, never to be seen again. So. My goal is to get at least one post out each week, this week included (but not including this post). Hold me accountable, friends!

Social Media
I've always used Facebook and Instagram just for personal sharing. Trying to learn how these platforms can work in other ways is actually really cool and interesting to me, but again, time-consuming. I started taking an Instagram course two months ago and I'm way behind on it, but so far it's been super helpful and, again, fun to learn. Fun fact: I'm super uncomfortable doing Instastories where I'm talking to the camera and will likely never do a live post. <--- There. If that ever changes, you'll know I've grown as a person.

Another fun fact about me: I have some level of ADD or ADHD. Can't remember which and I never did know the difference. I used to take medicine for it and it seemed to help, but it also basically made me a b-word and I decided I'd rather be nice to my family and somewhat unorganized. Lucky for me, I'm able to function okay without it. (I'm sure there's some people that have it way worse and the medicine is an absolute must-have, so I'm totally not making light of that.) I'm not sure Jose would say I'm 100% cured of being a b-word. Actually, he probably would because he's nice like that, but it'd be a lie. Not that he's a lair... okay, back on track... Basically, what blogging has taught me so far is that, while it's such a fun, creative release, it's a LOT of work! Wish me luck! I'll need it.

Holden | 10 Months

So I totally wrote a 9 month post for Holden and then it took me forever to get around to taking a picture to go with it, so I just decided to wait until his 10 month post and now, here we are, already 6 days late! I swear, in some ways it seems like time has just been flying with our little guy and in others, it seems to drag on. With Aurora, I always wanted time to slow down. With Holden, I want it to slow down, but then we're also always counting down the days until his next surgery is out of the way and life gets a tad bit easier. We've definitely been counting down the days until his palate repair in May, so we can get through his recovery and get his g-tube the heck outta here. His feeding team told us that, if all goes well, it could be out as early as August. Whaaaat!? Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not the worst thing in the world, and it's honestly just become routine for us at this point, but life will get quite a bit easier when it's gone.

Regardless. Holden has been doing so great, you guys! He's been traveling at lightning speeds via his walker. Aurora runs all around the house and he just loves chasing after her. He laughs so hard and it's the cutest thing watching his little legs go back and forth. Just watch your ankles! He also loves when you hold his hands so he can walk around and explore. He's been crawling like a mad man and can get to anything he wants faster than we notice he's even moving. His legs are so strong and he can stand on his own for a pretty decent amount of time and he's even taken a few steps here and there between Jose and I. We've already had to start baby-proofing with outlet plugs and cabinet... thingys?... but the gates are next on the list.

He has one little tooth and another one is starting to show through, somehow making his already cute smile even cuter! Little guy loves to eat! He loves oatmeal and pureed fruits, but puffs and yogurt melts are his jam. The yogurt melts are actually my jam too and I'm secretly hoping the Easter Bunny drops some in my basket this year. He's started drinking from a special cup, but he doesn't seem to like it. It could just be trying to get used to it, since he hasn't had a bottle in a while either.

We went down to Riley in February for some appointments and all of his doctors said he is just doing great! I was mostly happy to hear from the genetics doctor that Holden's genetic tests came back fine and he sees no signs of Stickler's Syndrome, which is great because about half of PRS kiddos have it, so that's definitely been on my mind. He'll meet with an ophthalmologist in a few weeks to have his eyes examined, and then he'll have to be checked again in 2-3 years, so we can't officially rule it out until then, but I'm hopeful.

He had another swallow study a few weeks ago that showed improvement from his last one. It still showed penetration, but the one prior to that showed aspiration. Baby steps. I think the difference is basically that aspiration means it goes into his lungs, where penetration means it's hitting the area by his trach, but doesn't go into his lungs. Something to that effect. He can still only drink thickened formula.

Holden has had a few appointments with his speech therapist here locally. He will probably be seeing her fairly regularly, even after palate repair, to make sure he's on track for his speech to develop normally. The good news is that, when we were at Riley last summer they said with a speech therapist, he'll likely have 100% normal speech by kindergarten.

Aside from all that, life is good. God is good and I'm so blown away at the progress Holden has made, which I 100% believe is due to all the prayers. People still tell me they've been praying for him and I just love that so much.

And I can't leave without saying a huge thank you to our family for everything they've done to help us out lately (and always). My mom literally comes over whenever we mention needing time to get things done. My mother-in-law and sis-in-law come over as much as they can outside of their work and school schedules. And my dad and grandma have helped tremendously with taking Aurora back and forth to her rehearsals and class. Sometimes I feel like "thank you" just isn't good enough, so I don't say it. But seriously, it means so much to us! Also, shout out to my Aunt Lori for making all our trips to the doctor way more fun! Love you!