Little Mango's First Easter

Yesterday was little man's first Easter. We dressed him up in his Sunday's best and headed to grandma Carol's side of the family in Tilden. It was a pretty quick 2 1/2 hour drive {despite the Easter traffic} and Cruz slept the entire way.

We ate our way through the Easter feast, the guys played their normal card games {Pitch and Casino}, some Candyland with Emma and then a little Cranium, which was a pretty fun game. It was a great time catching up with that side of the family and an overall great day!

Easter outfit -
Looks like he should be at the track betting on the ponies!

Big smiles for daddy's funny faces over my shoulder

Posing with daddy before our trip

Great grandpa Florian

Jodi, Mattox, Cruz & Emma

Our little family

All tired out from the day's activites

Had to throw this one in there - Nick thinks he looks like a girl!

Happy Easter everyone!

My Baby Boy: Twenty-One Weeks Old

Yesterday our little guy was 21 weeks old! I envision him being a bit more excited for another "21" birthday, but nonetheless I'm super excited that our little guy is 21 weeks old! {Couldn't get a smile out of this little guy as hard as I tried!}

Soaking Up The Gorgeous April Weather

Last Sunday was such a nice day. Little man and I got up early for a run around Lake Zorinsky. I decided to bring the camera along for some pics....the only thing is that I had a sleepy boy on my hands. As much as I would love to be a photographer in my next life, I realize I have a long, long, long way to go. :)  It was a gorgeous day...and made for a relaxing run and great views.

Lounging in the grass

Hanging out on the dock
{Notice my leg in the corner :)}

So serious

Ahh...

...cannot even wake up for my big photo debut.

Later that day, we headed to lunch with daddy before he left to work for a couple hours and then little man and I hit up Westroads for some shopping. {Again, my bags were full of goodies for Cruzer, not much for me...wah, wah.}  I have to say my favorite part of the trip was when we were walking through the main area of the mall and a group of people broke out into a flash mob dancing to "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" for the new Joe's Crab Shack opening up...it was pretty cool to see.

After shopping, we went to Gene Leahy Park downtown and lounged around on the grass enjoying the gorgeous day right by the water.  Of course we had to take some pics.

Enjoying the sun at Gene Leahy Park

My baby blues

Laying in the grass

First day wearing shorts!

View of the water

Afterwards, we met up with the hubby, Nanu and Grammy for dinner at Nichola's Ristorante. It was a new place Nick & I noticed across from one of our favorite restaurants {Hiro 88}. It was so cute and quaint. We got a table on the patio where there were strung lights in the trees and had a great meal. Food was excellent even according to Nanu {who makes some mean Italian food}, conversation was great and the weather was perfect. It was a great night to end the weekend.

Accessorizing

Since finding out there was potential for Cruz to need a cranial remolding helmet, I've been digging around online and in the blog world to find out options to make his helmet unique...just like him. As I mentioned in a previous post {here}, one of the moms in the blogs I follow recently posted pics of her little cutie with a cranial helmet. I had to find out where she got it, it was so cute and different from everything I had seen. She quickly responded that they got her little one's helmet wrapped by Wrap Buddies. I immediately checked it out and was in love! Their work is super cute, but it's their story that is even more amazing!

The owner of Wrap Buddies has another company where he wraps Nascar helmets, etc. One day the father of a little guy who had a helmet came in and asked how much he would charge to have his son's cranial helmet wrapped. They had never done this before and he mentioned it normally costs $300-$1,000 to wrap Nascar helmets. The father mentioned that cranial helmets cost anywhere from $3,500-$4,000 and often times insurance will not cover the cost because they consider it "cosmetic."  He decided to wrap the cranial helmet for no charge and the father was grateful. Soon after word spread and his non-profit business, Wrap Buddies, was born. Now they have a "wrap party" once a month where parents can bring in their kiddo's helmets and get them wrapped for no cost. Such an amazing story and I'm so impressed when I hear stories of selfless people.

I contacted the company and found out that they do not have a partner in Omaha or nearby {they are located in Dallas}. Our Orthotist was very impressed by this organization when we told him the story and has reached out to try and become a partner where he will be able to wrap the helmets, prosthetics and wheelchairs for his clients. I am so excited that Wrap Buddies may be partnering here in Omaha so they can provide other parents with this unique feature to customize their children's helmets, etc. Unfortunately, he more than likely will not become a partner until well after we get Cruz's helmet. So.....

I'm trying to talk Nick into a family getaway for a couple of days to Dallas. On May 4th, Wrap Buddies has another wrap party and I really want to get little man the custom helmet he deserves. I also would love to meet the owner of Wrap Buddies and some parents going through the same thing we are experiencing. Keep your fingers crossed that we can make it work....

Our Next Step...

On Monday we had a follow up appointment with little man's orthotist, Tim. We knew it would be the day we find out if we need to move forward with getting him a cranial remolding helmet to fix his plagiocephaly. I have to say that even though the process is a bit obtrusive, Cruz has done such a great job and is always so smiley during these appointments or at the very least just inquisitive about what is going on.

First we had to get the nylon fabric over his head and cut out a hole for his face and ears in preparation for the scan.  He was keeping us all entertained during this process...

Cutting face & ear holes

Then Tim adds the scanning device to the top of little man's head and under his chin. We have to keep him still during this process to make sure the scan comes through...once it starts taking a while, Cruz tends to get a bit restless.

Ready to be scanned!

Tim scans his entire head - in the upper right corner of the picture {below} you can see the start of the scan which creates a mold of his face/head on the computer and displays accurate measurements of his asymmetrical head. From here we see how many milimeters his head is off a "normal" symmetrical head - in our case he is 12-13mm, which lands him in the "severe" category.

During the scan - checking out the gun

We then wait until they figure out if they accurately scanned and got the information they needed. We took this time to play "flying baby" with Cruzer to keep him occupied.

We ended up finding out that we will in fact need to order a helmet for our guy. Not only that but for the first month, he will have to wear a cheek pad on his right cheek to keep it as is and allow his left cheek to fill in.  So, prior to placing the order {did we want a design, plain to add our own decals...so many decisions}, I wanted to look into some options I had researched.

We left knowing that Cruz would be getting his cranial helmet in 10 short days....all I know is that I'm going to soak in this helmet-less time with him and give him as many snuggles and kisses on his sweet little head that I can manage. Just knowing that I will only have one hour a day where we can take the helmet off completely breaks my heart.  {Can I also tell you I now despise the word "helmet?" I'm going to have to come up with another word to refer to little man's head cover....and very, very soon.} Please think happy thoughts toward a very quick process!

Always aware of the camera!

Making faces at Daddy



My Baby Boy: Twenty Weeks Old

Twenty weeks old...hard to believe! I can remember when I hit 20 weeks along in my pregnancy (1/2 way point!) and thinking there was still so much time left. Now our little guy's here and life couldn't be better. Happy 20 weeks to our baby boy!

Happy little guy!

Reaching for Daddy!

Showing off his PJs

Swoon For Boon

Thanks to Little Baby Garvin for the heads up on great baby products! I'd never heard of Boon, Inc. until today and I'm hooked at all of the great baby junk they offer. Yes, I have a bottle drying rack...but the Lawn rack is so much prettier. And, yes, I have baby spoons/dishes for solid foods...but the Squirt is WAY better. I could use a regular old knife to cut up a banana for my cereal and for little man's future solid foods...but Nanner is immensely cooler {plus the name is amazing!}.

Love the product names. Love the product descriptions. Love everything....can't wait to add a lot of these to little man's collection of stuff. Check them out....

Going to have...

Lawn Countertop Drying Rack
Can't wait to get this bad boy in!

Lawn Drying Rack Accessory

Twig Drying Rack Accessory

Squirt Baby Food Dispensing Spoon
Are you kidding me....dump the food into the Squirt spoon & squeeze out as needed.

Need to have....

Nanner Hand-Held Banana Slicer
How freakin' cute is this thing?!?! {And the name!}

Flair Pedestal High Chair
Love our Chicco 360 chair, but this is gorg!!

Glo Color-ChangingNightlight w/ Portable Glowing Balls
In LOVE w/ this nightlight!

Removable Glo balls. Turn a light into a game of catch -
they don't get warm and they won't break (not electric).
Glow fades after 30 minutes, helping them fall asleep
(95% effective at keeping monsters away).

Flaunt Shelf Displayx

Curl Baby Shoe Rack

Penguin Stack Snack Container

So many fun products...and so little time!