Aiden's First Birthday

      

    On July 21st Aiden celebrated his first birthday!!  We had his party last Sat., July 23rd at our house with all of our family and a few close friends.  The theme of the party was Mickey Mouse, which is Aiden's favorite cartoon. He had so much fun playing with his cousins.  It was such a blessing to celebrate such a special day and reflect on what a difference a year can make. This time last year, Aiden was just finishing his fourth surgery.  His abdomen was not even closed yet and he was really going through his toughest days.  We praise God that now he is doing great!!! 

        Aiden now weighs almost 15 lbs and is 28 inches long!   He can stand well with minimal support but is still trying to learn to walk.  He is almost crawling and getting much more comfortable on his belly.  He loves books, to play ball, and being outside.  He also loves to swim at his Mimi and Pop's pool.  He is very inquisitive and points at everything he sees.  He is still in therapy to help with his oral aversion.  The therapy is really helping!  In the past week, Aiden has started to eat more baby foods.  His favorite are green peas, sweet potatoes, and apples.  He also loves any of the puffs that he can feed himself.  We are still working on teaching him to drink from a sippy cup but  for now he is mostly still taking all bottles.  He has been taking more of the bottles by mouth and we are not having to use his tube quite as much. Another big change is that we have just enrolled Aiden in daycare.  He will be attending the First Methodist Early Learning Center.   They have had a few other children with special health issues and even previous experience with tube feeding a child.  We are anxious about this change for Aiden but we think he will learn a lot being around other children his age.  I'm very sad to leave him but know he will be in great hands.  It has been a long, hard first year for Aiden but he made it through by the grace of our Mighty GOD! We are very thankful to all of our family and friends for their tremendous support throughout Aiden's first year of life. 

Aiden playing ball at his party



Aiden's new favorite toy



11 months

On 6/21/11 Aiden was 11 months old.  As I am writing this I can't believe that in just a few weeks my little baby will be a year old.  I can't believe the year has went by so fast...it is surreal! Aiden is getting bigger and at the last doctors visit was over 14 lbs.  On average he is now gaining about a pound a month!  At this rate he should be within the 5th percentile on the growth chart before long. That is our goal! He now has 6 teeth and boy can he bite!!  We are still using his tube to bolus every feeding.   Aiden has started speech therapy to help him learn to eat.  He is taking his bottle better and is learning to use a sippy cup! It is still a slow process in trying to get him to take any cereal or baby foods.  It is not that he dislikes the foods he is just not receptive to having anything of texture in his mouth.  Therapy has given us some new techniques and they are helping.  Aiden can stand and can walk well in his walker but he is still not pulling up on his own.  It will come in time I guess.  He still scoots or rolls to get to where he wants to go.  He has started to lay on his tummy but is still not interested in crawling.  Everyday we are still so blessed by the progress Aiden has made.  It is amazing how far he has come in a year.  He is doing so much better than he was doing even 6 months ago.  He is the happiest baby and most people that didn't know his story would never know he was any different.  We still thank God everyday for his blessings of healing and love! Every time we look at Aiden we have a precious reminder of what a GREAT GOD WE SERVE!!!