Oliver is One!!

Happy Birthday sleepy boy!!

This is a picture at my pinning ceremony with my favorite nursing gals! I finally finished!








On May 1st Oliver turned one!! We did not have a big birthday for him since he had the wonderful Olive Branch celebration only a few days before. My sister did buy him an ice cream cake from DQ, which we all enjoyed.
I have been thinking about Oliver and yes his real birthday is on May 1st, but for some reason I feel like his real Birthday is September 26th, the day we learned and began to better understand Oliver. I don't know if this is weird or not, but I think of that day so often. It was a very devastating day, but also, it was a day that started to make life easier, in a sense that at least we started to understand.
I think that Oliver's Birthday will be hard for me every year. Normally we celebrate everything our child has learned to do in the last year, crawling, walking, waving, laughing, etc. I guess we just celebrate the smaller things he has learned. There are days that I see other kids his age and younger reaching their milestones and their parents are so excited and proud, which is how it should be. I wonder, when Adina learned these things, did we really celebrate enough or were we rushing for her to learn the next thing. Did we enjoy it enough? Were there ever parents in the distance watching, wondering with a bit of sadness what it would be like for their child to be able to do this? It breaks my heart to see how hard Oliver has to work to just bring his hand to his mouth. But we celebrate every single silly little moment like this. Adina is always there as well to say, "Good Job Oliber!"
I hate for this to sound like such a downer, but these are the feelings that came with Oliver turning one, and most likely will come with two and three...
Yesterday Oliver was laying on the floor and I tickled his chin and he laughed!! So sweetly... Whenever I am down I am going to think of that laugh..
Medical Updates... We had a whirlwind of a appointments that came with Oliver turning One. He went to a different Ophthalmologist, she is like the eye doc that all other eye docs turn to when they don't know what the heck is going on. She's known as the "Guru." She told us that Oliver can see some light and a bit of black and white and that is all. We thought it was more but she said that people who are blind find other ways to see things. I think about this now and close my eyes in stores when I am looking for a toy. I am sure I look crazy but I want to feel what Oliver sees. Also, when we thought he was following us, he most likely felt the slight breeze on his face. Close your eyes and wave your hand in front of your face. Did you feel it? Kind if crazy huh. She said Oliver has Delayed Visual Maturation. I said.. ahhh.. so when people ask if he is blind? She said tell them yes, it may develop but not much.
Also, we are going to have another MRI on June 1st to see of there is any change of the brain, mostly bad changes. And a bunch more blood work to check for certain genes. We brought him to a feeding clinic where they did a swallow study, all this time Oliver has been sucking fluid into his airways. "Silent Aspirator" Now we thicken his bottles, problem solved! It took a week to get used to, but now Oliver likes his thicker bottles.
So that is that, I know this was a lot of info! Time to go and enjoy the warm sunny weather!! Mommy and daddy are both done with school (for now--daddy starts on June 1 with summer school). Hope all is well, we have a lot of fun stuff coming up, stay tuned for more pics!