A Walk in the Park

Washington. Has. Crazy. Weather.

I feel so blessed to live where I do. This morning started with snow on the ground. Nathaniel's fighting a cold so we didn't make it to church. Instead we all stayed in our jammies until about noon, played games, watched mindless television shows, and ate a huge breakfast.

By about 1:00 pm the clouds were gone and the sun was warming us through the windows. I left the boys for nap time while I ran a few errands in town. The whole time I was gone I kept thinking about how I couldn't wait to get Zachary out in this beautiful weather. I ran home and waited impatiently for him to wake up.

Since Nathaniel was sick, he stayed home. But the rest of us bundled up and raced to the nearest park.

As soon as we pulled out of the driveway it started hailing like crazy. But the sun was out so not much else was going to stop us at this point. 

This is Zachary's first official trip to the park. The last time I was at this particular park, I was about 7 months pregnant with him. So I probably spent just as much time taking pictures today as I did enjoying it with him. I was way too excited. 

That's one thing I've learned about being a first-time Mother, I honestly get so caught up in capturing his "first" moments, that I have to remind myself to put the camera down and enjoy them. Pictures are becoming less important to me.

So the boys and I did a quick lap in the stroller and realized we were one of two families at the park. It was wonderful! I pulled Zachary out of the stroller and anxiously put him in the swing, his face lit up and the hail stopped shortly after. 

He LOVED to swing, he giggled the entire time. I was really disappointed Nathaniel wasn't there sharing this time with us. 

We could have stayed there all night. It was a blast, I think if Zachary, Packer, and I had a choice we'd go to the park every day! It was beautiful and the fresh air was awesome. I truly do love Washington. 

Unfortunately, the sun was going down and Zachary's nose was turning pink so we did have to come home.

Zachary wasn't happy about that, we're already looking forward to the next sunny day here so that we can head back down.

When we got home, I enjoyed a nice cup of hot cocoa while Zachary enjoyed 3 bites of squash. That's right... we are up to 3 whole bites! I realize this sounds ridiculous but this is the furthest we've got with ANY food during our trial phase. Please Jesus, let this be one tiny answer to the ginormous MPI puzzle. 

Zachary didn't like squash the first few times we tried it, he pretty much gagged it all down and some days I wondered if he actually even swallowed any. Today was the first day I felt like he enjoyed it a little bit. It's funny, most people find out their kids don't like a food and just decide not to feed it to them anymore. I really could care less if Zachary likes the food or not (sorry Buddy), I just want him to eat. If brussel sprouts is the only food in the world he can eat, by golly he's going to eat brussel sprouts every single day. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I am determined to find at least one food he can eat without pain. Squash may be that "one" food, so I pray that he starts liking it.

Well, we go back to Children's on Thursday. If squash ends up failing this week, we hope that we can get some further instruction on how to proceed since that will officially be 7 foods (all of which are in the "least likely to cause a reaction" category) that failed. If squash passes, I think we'll all have a big boost of confidence in this journey and be ready to strategize our next steps with the GI.

Beyond trying new foods on a weekly basis, Zachary is growing up crazy fast. He has taken over the house, dragging toys with him everywhere he goes. He is running speed walking on his walker from one end of the house to the other. He goes to sleep talking and wakes up talking. He is the loud, obnoxious, vocal child everywhere we go. He talks, yells, and grunts constantly, and I adore it. I am so proud to be his Mother. As loud, busy, and strong-willed as he is... he is happy. I can't tell you how valuable his laugh and joy are to us. Last week Zachary and I went shopping with his Auntie Amy and Cousin Grady - even without an afternoon nap, Zachary was happy just about the entire time. It still surprises me that I can even leave the house with him, let alone be running around shopping for 6 straight hours. We have come so far.

God is good, we are continuing to be blessed and we are moving forward. If squash doesn't pass, I'll be disappointed, but we'll let it go, and we'll move on to the next thing. We are resting in the hands of God while finding joy in the rest of Zachary's life. It's not a walk in the park, although we're doing our best to turn it into one.