Months 20 and 21

The months are all running together around here and so once again I have skipped one. We were on a two week vacation to California and Utah when Maddox turned 20 months, and have been dealing with illness of one kind or another since returning home, darn it. Isn't it summer? Some of us came home sick from our trip and then that illness morphed into walking pneumonia. Maddox narrowly escaped a trip to the hospital and is now, after almost a month, still coughing and wheezing very occasionally, but overall doing much better. Keyan, Tracen and I are now on antibiotics to restore us to health. It's been a LONG month.

Maddox did well for the two weeks of our trip, five days and 3700 miles of which were spent in the car. He was still riding in his infant car seat because the kid is not growing and still weighs 19 lbs, which led to him being pretty uncomfortable for a good portion of the trip. Thankfully he only complained loudly upon occasion. We went to visit our friends the Wunderlis and the O'Verys and have our "Wundovixon" vacation in Southern California. We had a great time and Maddox enjoyed interacting with lots of kids and walking everywhere. He wasn't a big fan of the beach, or the splash park, but loved exploring everything at the children's museum. It was so fun to watch his little curious self.

Then we drove to Utah to visit Grandma and Grandpa Dixon, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. We had a wonderful time. Grandma bought all the kids squirt guns and Maddox made shooting sounds when he aimed and then would fall dramatically to the side and moan as if he'd been hit. HILARIOUS!! We also went to the zoo, had a fun day at the park with lots of extended family, played games, ate good food, and had a great time. Maddox practiced going up and down a short flight of stairs at Grandma's house and continued to perfect his walking.
(Sorry about the pics, the collage program was cutting parts of pictures off, which is why some of my favorite family members are missing from the big Dixon group shot below. Sorry Beth and Ada. Love you.)

Maddox is now in the adorable habit of kissing everyone. We LOVE it!!! He'll kiss whatever body part is closest. Sometimes I'm not quick enough to keep him from kissing our dirty, sweaty feet. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to mind. It is seriously one of my favorite things to see him pucker those little lips of his. He can really be so charming. He is cuddly and affectionate, tries to make us laugh, and is happy even when he's sick. He coughs and retches until he's purple in the face and gasping, and then with his next breath he says, "hi" and smiles and then gives a kiss. It amazes me every time. And yet the kid can pout like anything. He sticks that bottom lip out, droops his shoulders and will hang his head back, looking up at the ceiling or look down, depending on the day, and walk slowly and dejectedly away if he doesn't get what he wants. And watch out if you make him really mad, he will let you have it. He will glare, then start swinging. He hits and throws things and yells. It is hysterical because he's so little, but maybe a little frightening to see how intense he is already. He cracks me up. He gets his feelings hurt when he gets in trouble and sometimes I am surprised at how mature his reactions are to certain things. It gives me comfort though to see everything that is going on in his mind and that he has appropriate responses and understands a lot of social cues.

Mad is mimicking us more and more. He is communicating with words and through any other means he can. He signs a couple of words, points, gestures, and generally gets his point across rather well. He loves to play with cars, balls, and star wars action figures. He definitely fits in with the boys. He loves to wrestle and chase and be chased. He loves music and has started singing to himself. He also LOVES to dance!! It is too cute. He has great rhythm and claps, bounces, spins, sways...the kids just loves to move to the music. We have quite a few dance parties at our house with all the kids and they all love it. Great memories.

Maddox has a quite the little sense of humor and really enjoys making us laugh. He plays the class clown and just loves to ham it up for us. He has also starting laughing at his own flatulence, so yes, the potty humor is already alive and well.

Maddox has completed his physical therapy and is essentially caught up with his gross motor skills, or enough so that he no longer qualifies for therapy. We are thrilled to have reached this amazing milestone!! Quite the accomplishment for our determined little man.

He still qualifies for the occupational therapy due to his feeding issues. Maddox still loves to drink water out of any cup, straw, water bottle, and also likes root beer, which we have for pizza and movie nights, but other than that he continues to pretend to eat. He plays with forks and spoons and puts them into his mouth, but only without food on them. He will pick up little crumbs of food -crackers and such- off the floor and nibble and even swallow minuscule pieces sometimes, but nothing to help with caloric intake. We have stopped our attempts to wean him from the tube in an effort to just get him to grow. In order to start the growth hormones he has to have sufficient calories for growth. Right now he is getting 900 calories a day through his g-button. He has grown a tiny bit length wise, but has been 19 pounds for NINE MONTHS!! Pretty discouraging. He's the size of your average 9 month old. So, we have even had to start a drip(continuous pump) for part of the night to be able to get all the calories into him. It's been difficult, especially with him being so ill and coughing so hard, to keep him from throwing his feeds back up during the day. He handles it just fine when he is asleep, but going back to a nighttime drip is a big step backwards. Any sort of growth would make it completely worthwhile, so we will do it until he can handle it all during the day again.

The paper work for the growth hormones has been completed and we are waiting to hear if our insurance will cover it. Mad's endocrinologist said we will do a 6 month trial with the growth hormones, and if we don't see much improvement then we're done. I want him to have as normal a life as possible, so I'm praying that the shots do what they are intended to do.

Things have been stable from a cardiac stand point. We go back to the cardiologist again in September. We are on an every three months schedule still, which I like. Too much time between check-ups makes me nervous. Maddox is getting slightly better about going to the doctor, which means he isn't screaming the whole time anymore, and has even smiled and waved goodbye to the doctor. Baby steps. I'll take it.

Well, that's Mad. He's trouble with a capital "T" sometimes, but everyday I'm so happy he's here. He is such a love and he's mine!!