One Year

So one year ago (yesterday) was my surgery to remove the tumor (and my left lower lobe) in my lung.  It was hard leaving my 2 week old baby, but he was in good hands with Jeff and his mother.  This surgery was easier than all the other ones (I figure, by the 4th time, we should learn from past mistakes!)  and I didn't have to stay in the hospital long at all.  I think surgery was on Wednesday and I was home by Saturday afternoon.  I had a good reason to be a good patient and get out of there quick!  My baby needed his mom!  And I needed him, too!  I (we) are hoping and praying that we are finally done with all this cancer nonsense and can move on with our lives.  I believe Charlie is my miracle baby in many ways and feel that he is the ultimate healer for me.  It was a gamble to have him and it paid off.  I don't regret anything and would do it again in a heartbeat.  I can't imagine life without him and he brings such joy to our family. He is our hope for a better and brighter future.

Potty training

I think he'll be a natural when it comes the time to start potty training.  I think this is so cute! He is on the space toilet.

Birthday weekend

Yesterday we had a joint birthday party for Jeff and Charlie.  The weather was excellent and so was the food.  We had a great day and were glad so many of our friends and family were able to come and celebrate with us.  A big thanks to Erin for baking the cupcakes and Charlie's cake.  Everyone loved them! Here are the pictures:

Birthday #1

Happy Birthday, Charlie!  It seems like just yesterday that we were in the hospital preparing for your arrival.  We went to the doctor today and he is still very skinny at 20 pounds (10%) but has gotten a little taller at 29.5 inches (50%).  He got a great report from the pedi and escaped with only 1 shot and one blood draw.  He has a total of 8 teeth, 4 on top, 4 on bottom, with more to come shortly I'm sure.  He's chewing on his hands and drooling a lot.  He is not walking yet, but we are practicing with the new push toy he got for his birthday.  It won't be long now.  Not sure I'm ready for that just yet! He sleeps from about 6:30-7pm to about 630-7:30am.  And he takes one morning nap for about 1-1.5 hours and an afternoon nap for about the same amount of time. No complaints there!  He is saying Mama and Dada and can wave bye bye and also sign for milk.  He's pretty much fully weaned and on mostly cow's milk until we run out of the frozen stash of breast milk.  I achieved my personal goal of breastfeeding for his first year.  No small feat, but definitely worth it.  Now the next challenge is getting rid of his bottle.  Sort of ironic since it was a battle to get him to actually drink from one consistently! He truly is a blessing and a joy.  We love him to pieces and can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

For those of you interested, we took some birthday pics on Monday.  Check out this website www.mindyrathe.com to see the sneak peeks! 

Can't believe it's that time already!

It is almost Charlie's first birthday!  Where has this year gone?  This past weekend, we went to Louisiana to celebrate my stepmother's birthday and also have a party for Jeff and Charlie.  It was a very busy weekend, but very fun.  We had my stepmother's party on Saturday night.  Then on Sunday was Jeff and Charlie's party.  On Monday we had family/birthday pics done by my friend Mindy and then drove home.  Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.  (They first ones are random ones from the house).

NASA Tour

A couple of weekends ago, NASA had a family day where they opened up the entire center to employees and their families to come and look at the facilities.  This included areas usually restricted, ones that many people (including employees) don't get to visit.  So Jeff, Charlie and I decided to go and take a look.  It was really neat to see the simulators and mock ups of the shuttle and space station.  We had a great time and took lots of pictures.

Grandpa Mauldin

Last week we got the unfortunate news that Jeff's grandfather had passed away.  This was his dad's father.  He passed away in his sleep, so he did not suffer at all.  He was a generous, kind, funny man and will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

4 Generations of Mauldin men

Jeff and Charlie with his grandparents

Bromley snuck in the picture!