How cool is it when you dad is a firefighter!?Simon has recently become very interested in trucks, momos (motorcycles), and gogos (diggers) so I know that if his dad happened to drive one of those he would be all about it!

beautiful little guy!

An update on Simon:
He continues to improve and get more energy though he is still taking 2 really long naps a day (down from 3). Tonight we walked down to the park and he played a little bit but mostly he just wanted to watch the other kids.

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Poor Simon has been SO sick. After we returned from camping all of us got sick, first Simon, then Myles, then me. It was just the stomach flu, it lasted a few days, we were miserable and then we got better. Only then Simon got sick again. At first I thought Simon never really got completely better and he was just suffering from the same flu. He had a low fever and vomited a few times. Last Saturday he seemed to be healed so Myles too him to the zoo but that night he woke up vomiting with a fever again so first thing Monday morning I took him to the pediatrician. She examined him and determined that is was just a bad virus but to keep him hydrated and that he should soon be better. Only he didn’t get better, he kept vomiting, and the fever continued and got worse, by Wednesday it was 103 so we headed back to the doctors office. She told me she was sure that he would have an ear infection but when she examined him his ears were fine. There was no sign of any bacterial infection anywhere. She even checked for a urinary tract infection, and lets just say that getting a urine sample from a dehydrated 18month old is not fun. But everything checked out normal so she wanted to wait one more day to see if the fever would resolve on it’s own before putting him on antibiotics. He had gotten really dehydrated because he was refusing to eat or drink much of anything. Our Pediatrician pointed out that it is difficult for little bodies to break a fever if they are dehydrated so she asked me to keep him on a regime of ibuprofen very 4 hours to keep him comfortable so that he would take some fluids and that seemed to work. We got a lot of helpful suggestions from friends and family on facebook about how to get a sick toddler to drink. Crazy straws worked like a charm and he decided he liked water and those electrolyte drinks  again. But every time I let the ibuprofen wear off the fever would come right back so on the amoxicillin he went.  It can take up to 48 hours on antibiotics to see an improvement and he has only been on them for a little over 24 hours (and the first does he threw up) but he already seems to be much better. This morning he drank a lot of water and even ate a bit and the fever hasn’t come back. So our current thinking is that perhaps we originally all had the same stomach bug and when his immune system was down he got a bacterial infection. So thank you everyone who has been following us on twitter and facebook who have been praying for us and offering us encouragement and good advice. We appreciate you a lot. Hopefully I will soon be able to report that Simon is 100% healthy.

-Emily

This picture was taken on Wednesday right before we left for the pediatrician’s office. The doctor wanted to examine him unmedicated so I hadn’t given him any ibuprofen and his fever was 103 and he was so lethargic and just wanted to lay on  the couch.

Seriously, can all sessions be this easy? Perfect light, perfect temperature, very cooperative child.She warmed right up to me and even wanted to sit on my lap!

love it!

and she thought I was funny!

love this age -

until next time!

-Emily

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Such a fun session and I can not wait to meet this little guy or gal (they are waiting to find out). And is it just more or are more people waiting to be surprised? I have 3 clients right now who didn’t find out their baby’s gender so I am thinking it’s becoming cool not to know. I guess we were quite the trend setters in that regards : )

Another family from our adoption group is in the process of finalizing their adoption! It’s so fun to watch families being built. You could just feel the joy this family felt with being together – I have such a great job.

And for those who are wondering we do still plan on adopting. We have completed almost all of the course work with the exception of our CPR class (which we should have done before Simon was born) we are just waiting for the right time and honestly it could be a few years off still but for now we are enjoying watching our friends get their kids and celebrating with them.

The last 6 moths has taught me that toddlers learn about their world by exploring it and exploring it usually involves creating some pretty fantastic messes. This one was Myles’s fault. He left the baby powder open and on a low shelf just at Simon eye level. I sat down to check my email for just a few minuets and when I realized that it was just a little too quite it was already too late. I walked out into the hall to find this.

The hallway was covered with little powdery footprints that led into Simon’s nursery.

He pretty much emptied the entire container on to his legs and the floor.

I guess this is just payback because I can  remember “making it snow” with my mom’s make up powder as a kid

Now it’s your turn to share – what crazy kinds of messes have your kiddos made? Please leave me a comment!

I have already posted the sneak peek of this Bendy Baby but while proofing these images I found some more that I just had to share. How adorable is she in daddy’s hands!

And here in mom’s hands. I know parent’s forget how tiny their babies were so I love to give them images like this that show the scale.

What I have learned from photographing births is that life rarely goes as planned and your best off learning to just go with the flow. Laurie and Kunga were planing a natural birth center birth, however, Laurie went into labor at 32 weeks. Plans changed – and Laurie labored and delivered in hospital so her baby could have immediate access to the NICU. What was amazing to me was how serene, peaceful, and beautiful Laurie and Kunga were throughout this process. Having a baby 8 weeks early is scary – baby’s lungs aren’t ready to breath on their own, and it can be months before you can take them home.  Laurie had only attended one birth class, they had not purchased all of the baby necessities (car seat, crib, etc) but Laurie kept calm and collected and and birthed her son like a fertility goddess. I was so impressed. Immediately after birth Alex was whisked away to a pediatrician and neonatal team that suctioned him and got him breathing – I was not allowed to take photos of this process. After Alex was stabilized his mom got to hold him briefly before he was taken straight to the NICU where he weighed in at 4lbs .03 oz. Today Alex is doing very well, he is still in the NICU but he is now over 5lbs and is learning to nurse, his parents anticipate being able to bring him home shortly.

So without further delay here is Alex’s birth story (CLICK BELOW FOR THE SLIDE SHOW)

The Birth of Alexander Kesang Tsering

Laurie’s birth support team included her husband, her mother, and her doula Emily Fontes.  I also should mention her OB (assigned to her by chance) who was was very progressive and supportive of Laurie’s desire to have a natural childbirth. Unfortunately in this day and age it seems that Doctors like him are few and far between. So if you are looking for a progressive OB who is pro natural childbirth try Dr. Matthew Banfield.

Thank you Laurie, Kunga, and Alex for allowing me to be a part of your very intimate experience.

Camping with an 18-month-old is not that relaxing. I was constantly afraid that he would wander into the lake, fall in the fire or walk out in the road. Regardless we had a great time with old friends!

we spent the weekend out in the San Juan islands – it’s gorgeous out there. Truthfully we could not live in a more beautiful part of the world. We love it here!

Simon is a big fan of these guys (Naomi and Hudson). He followed Hudson around and kept trying to wrestle him – it was really funny.

And of course our end of summer camping trip would not be complete with out the annual burning of the Christmas wreath.

Yes, we actually save our Christmas wreath from the previous Christmas and toss it on the camp fire – it’s our tradition and who doesn’t love 6 ft tall flames?

I am so behind on blogging (sorry). I wanted to post a little about what is going on with us – we are having a great summer. Two weekends ago Myles’s parents visited and Simon got some quality grandparent time.  We went down to Mt. Rainer and hiked up to the view point at Sunrise and had a picnic. It was a gorgeous day and after some lunch we did the grove of the patriarchs walk. If you live in the area and you have not been to Mt. Rainer you are missing out. This is a awesome sate park and the grove or the patriarchs has amazing 1000 + trees. Here are just a hand full of the 100+ photos I took.

I was terrified that Simon would walk off the ledge behind Myles and we wouldn’t even let him down here.

hey mom- let me help you with your hair!

Simon and grandpa in the grove of the patriarchs.