The new Ansel mobile

We got a new car this past week (thankgoodness for tax returns!) It's a 2002 Mazda Protege. My old car was all right around town, but not much past that.







Ansel got his first invitation to a birthday party! Ethan, who just turned a year old, loved his new friend!















While likely several months away from any teeth, Ansel begins to show first stages of teething! Biting down and drooling have become new daily activities.












The Boppy... aka baby recliner
















1st Mother's Day!





























4 generations of Sneddon boys

Blessing day

Ansel was blessed at church this past Sunday! It was a great day that we were able to share with lots of friends and family. Here's a few pictures of his big day.









Ansel got to visit with Amy, his NICU respiratory therapist! He must have been glad to see her because he sure gave her a lot of smiles.











Pictured out!













Cousin Lindsey and Ansel meet again! Lindsey was born a few weeks before Ansel.

1st trip to church!

Yesterday was Ansel's first trip to church. He looked pretty cute in his little outfit (which we had to roll up the sleeves and pant legs to make it fit.) He did pretty well.... no huge outbursts this week atleast, although I imagine there'll be a few to come! He's now about 9 1/2 pounds and 22 1/2 inches long. We're enjoying the smiling and talking and even got his first excited squeal today.. which seemed to catch him off guard. He jumped and seemed a little surprised at the sound which he'd just made.
Exciting news of last week: my incision FINALLY closed up. It's nice not having to rip of and retape myself everyday! I'm left with a crater of a scar, but thankgoodness it is a scar now instead of the never-ending wound!








Getting all dressed up

Happy 1st Easter

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Ansel's extent of easter this year mostly consisted of chewing on the rabbit ears of his new bunny!


Ansel, who's now 8 lbs. 13 ounces and 21 inches long, is now sporting more response smiles and coos. He definitely didn't have ANY smiles at the doctor's appointment today though as he got his 4 month old vaccines! His lungs are working great.. I think he let everyone in the building know how unhappy he was about those shots!









Ansel improvises after becoming impatient while waiting for his bottle

More pictures

There's not a lot of new news... but we thought we'd share more pictures of him, especially now that his oxygen tube is gone. He's been off the extra oxygen for about a week now and is doing great! He now weighs 8lbs. 3oz.







Is it just me or does this dog keep getting smaller?








Wow Dad... will you teach me how to climb mountains someday?













Hurry up with this diaper! It stinks!

Part-time oxygen tube free!

Tuesday Ansel weighed 7lbs. 12.5ounces and got another synagis shot to protect him from RSV. His nurse also turned his oxygen down to 25cc, which isn't much at all, and said he could have breaks throughout the day without it as well. He seems to enjoy those breaks and isn't too happy when we put the tube back on. Soon enough he'll be a full-time cord free baby! It's great just being able to pick him up and walk around the house with him.
As for my wound, it was much better this week. I got different stuff called Maxorb last week to put in it to help absorb the extra drainage. There has been a tunnel at the bottom of my wound for months which hasn't seemed to make any progress in closing up. After only one day of using this new stuff it had completely closed off! So good progress there this week.

Over 100 days old!

Thanks for the update Mom! As she mentioned, the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy getting moved back and settled in at Carthage. We finally got our computer up and going so we have more pictures to share! Wednesday marked Ansel's 100th day. When I lived in Korea, a baby's 100 day mark was a traditional celebration, marking a point at which the baby was much more likely to survive and do well after getting through those first fragile months. So, Happy 100th day to Ansel! He seems to be doing well. He loves the push off game and nearly jumped out of Dad'd lap the other day! He's also working hard at keeping his head up for longer periods of time to look around and he even played with his hands today. . . little developmental steps that make a mom proud. Thanks again to EVERYONE for your continued support!










Dreaming of a Hawaiian luau















Bright colored birdies? I must have bumped my head good!
















Long day!