Your Happiness Embracing Me

I look around and all I see
Is your happiness embracing me
Oh Lord I'd be lost
But for the grace of God

~Keith Urban

 

I was driving in the car the other day and heard one of my favorite old school songs, 'But for the grace of God' by Keith Urban. I sat and listened to the words, even though I could easily sing the whole song by heart and it hit me. Kellan and everything that comes with that little boy is my happiness. I sat thinking about how thankful I am for all the lessons he has taught us in his short 2.5 years since he was born. And I got so excited to think what this new baby will bring to our life and how he will affect Kellan's life.

 

It also made me reflect on two very important people in my life and struggles they are going through. One continues to be my best friend's little brother, Mikey. At 26 years old, he still is battling Stage 4 cancer. Why should anyone have to be dealing with that? And as many of you know, my Special Needs Mom friend, Sally, lost her sweet Lydia at the way too young age of 7 years old on Mother's Day. Mikey and Sally are two of the strongest individuals I've met in my life. Both faced with such unfair things, I only hope the grace of God will embrace them and carry them through the rough, rough days.

 

I realized the last time I updated was the beginning of March and wow am I excited to report some of the new things happening in our house! Probably the biggest and best, Kellan is a full fledged walker! Funny enough, I keep notes for my next blog and when I went back to look at what I wanted to write about this time, I had that he was taking steps....nope, not just steps. Walking! And he walks around and thinks he is SO cool. Most times with absolutely no destination in mind...he'll walk, turn around and walk right back to where he came from. I can only imagine the sense of freedom he feels. It happened so quickly, one day we could tell he was figuring it out and every single day after that he went further and further. Our next goal was to get him to stand on his own without holding on to something to pull himself up...something that sounds so easy, but Kellan's core needs some work still. We showed Kellan a few times what he needed to do and BAM, one day he figured it out and has it down. Amazing how quickly that brain of his works. If only his little body could keep up with his mind, we would be in really, really good shape. Not that we aren't already, but I know his capabilities are far more than what his body allows him to do.

 

He has quickly gained the nickname 'King Kong Kellan' and he is into everything and is rather destructive as he explores this big world in front of him! [Sorry Mom again for your lampshade :/ ]  

 

Since March, he has become my little prepster with his cute glasses and most days he wears them without a problem. He does take them off if he realizes he has them on, but for the most part I'm very proud of how he has grown to accept them. Unfortunately at our eye follow up last month, they didn't see the progress they wanted, so we are back to doing dialation drops 2 days a week to hopefully strengthen his weak eye even further.

 

We also had our GI follow up since our last post. He was on feeding tube watch for a month, he needed to gain 9 grams per day and the little chunker gained 19 grams per day! We will have one more weight check right before we go on our Daiker Family vacation in July, however I am confident he is gaining weight appropriately for his size. Adding vegetable oil to almost every meal will beef a little boy up :) The dairy allergy really limits the fats he can consume in a day, so adding the oil is an easy way to make his food more calorie dense.

 

His communication skills are really growing too! We counted his signs for his Speech Therapist and came up with over 50 that he knows. Pretty incredible and it feels like he learns a new one all the time. He now has a few words that he consistently says outloud...."Mow" [More], "Mil" [Milk], "Dat?" [What's that?] He continues to love looking at books and just recently requests us to read to him and he actually listens to the book! He still likes to rapidly turn the pages while he looks at a book himself, I like to think he's working on his fine motor skills at that point :)

 

In other news, Elmo has been replaced by Kellan's new love, Frozen. Words can't describe how much he loves that movie and the songs that come with it. It was a nice break from Elmo for a while, however, it is starting to get old. 

Here is Kellan relaxing while watching Frozen...

And a few minutes later, his relaxation gets deeper....but he isn't phased.

 

We just found out that after a short and successful stint in the toddler room at school, he will be moving up one more room in September. That next room you have to be 2 years old to move up to, so we are excited that he is making a quick transition and getting closer to his peers. His skills have certainly flourished in his current room...sleeps on a cot like a champ, eats at a table like a champ and I definitely attribute his walking skills to keep up with his friends as they race circles around him.

 

Only a few more days and baby Kleczewski #2 [Name yet to be determined] will be here. The anticipation of this birth is crazy this time, I don't remember it being like this with Kellan...not to mention the extreme swelling, sleeping fingers and hands and the fact that I can barely lift or snuggle Kellan anymore.....pretty excited to meet this little guy.

 

I had an ultrasound at 33 weeks to see how "big" this baby is....the words "chubby cheeks" and "77th percentile" were probably the sweetest words I could hear from the Ultrasound tech! 

 

Can't wait to see what a giant Kellan feels like compared to baby 2!