I put together a vidoe montage of Brodie’s second year- the images say it all- Brodie has had an incredible year and we are so proud of him- this is the year he learned to sit up by himself, crawl, point at objects, do yogo LOL (its in the video). Some of our best memories of the year are in this montage:
1) Playing in his blow up plastic clubhouse.
2) Thinking he’s so funny for sneak-attack pulling glasses of people’s faces.
3) Going to the fair. (It was 90 degrees so there’s a reason he has no clothes on – typical boy though he loves being naked and thinks its so funny when his clothes come off.)
4) Riding any kind of toy car, at home and also the quarter rides at the mall.
5) Taking nature walks in the yard with my sisters.
6) Seeing his first parade which he LOVED- especially the marching bands.
7) It wasn’t easy to watch him go through the cleft-palate surgery but it helped him eat so much better and no more food and formula ever came out his nose again (like it used to at every single meal!)
8) Being chased while he crawls away still makes him laugh hysterically.
9) Going to Mamaw’s kindergarten art class to do crafts with the kids.
I started back to work full-time in January and it’s still difficult to know if it’s the right thing but there is also no doubt that being around the kids at the babysitter has make Brodie so happy every day- he comes alive when other kids are around. The things he has learned from the other kids and the way he is motivated to be like them and do things like them, are things I never could have taught him. Its been a very rewarding experience to see my son have his first play friends – he knows all their names and loves each one of them. His babysitter framed a picture collage of shots of Brodie playing with all of his friends and it said “Brodie’s Friends” on the frame. He was immediately enthralled by it and held onto it forever pointing to the pictures, I just cried because I realized in that moment how much it meant to me that Brodie has this ability to have these connections with not just family…he has these great social instincts and friends! Enjoy the video (even though its not hi-def).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAX7EBu1NT8
Here’s the link to his first year video too so you can see how far he’s come!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tXD5oiFGuo
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What an uplifting post and video, Leann. Brodie is such a cutie and you have every right to be incredibly proud of him (and yourself!) for the progress he has made this past year. Thanks so much for sharing.
Happy Birthday, Brodie! X
Leann what a beautiful video! Brodie is such a cutie and has made so much progress. He’s got so much energy! There are so many things he does and mannerisms he has that reminds me of Ellye. It’s great he’s started being around other children at the babysitter. We can’t wait to start Ellye at Nursery school in the fall -we’re just waiting on her cleft repair date. Everytime we put Ellye around other children close to her age we can see how unbelievably important it is. Children need children. It’s amazing how we can spend forever trying to get Ellye to do something new and then she watches a child doing the same thing and she’ll try to copy immediately. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRODIE and CONGRATS on doing such a great job with him!
Leeann, I totally agree with the deja vu sensation. I didn’t mention it before but the week before the dreaded phone call of Ellye’s diagnosis, I was frantically looking up chromosone 4 problems on the internet and somehow happened upon your original post introducing Brodie. I must have clicked on just his name randomly because I didn’t remember the blog until my mother directed me to it later. Anyway, after reading his story with all the uncanny similarities to ours, I knew that this is what Ellye has. I kept it to myself for a week because my husband didn’t want to hear anything about it, but I was certain to the point that I felt sick. I’ve (we’ve) always known deep down that there was something “not right” about Ellye, but like you we blamed everything on the cleft palate and the eating problems it caused along with reflux problems and food allergies. We were very antagonistic towards the doctors and their insane requests for genectic tests as I had found on page 38 of google a link between milk allergies, developmental delays, and failure to thrive or cleft palate and failure to thrive and WHY isn’t anyone sending us to a GI or an allergist instead??? Despite the mania, we are also grateful for the late diagnosis at 17 months (shy one day) because it enabled us to see Ellye as Ellye and not as a child who will live with limitations (what we hear now). To be honest, I could have done with some more time of ignorant bliss.
Anyway, it’s a shame we live so far away because Ellye would LOVE LOVE Brodie! She adores blonde children, especially boys!
Take care!
What a great video! Brodie is so strong and amazing!