Laundry Duty!

We decided that Silas needs to learn responsibility at a young age. So, we gave him laundry duty. Unfortunately, he believes that his good looks and incredible smiles will allow him to coast through without accomplishing an acceptable end result. The cloth diapers remain unfolded, but we have some Great pictures!! And, after a busy day of not working, he took some time off to lounge on the couch!

Bath Time!

Because everyone needs one baby-butt picture!!

Silas LOVES bath time!! He splishes and splashes until we are sitting in the

same amount of water that he is!!

Someone recently stated that Silas looks as though he has

a bit of mischief in his eyes. You think?!?!?

Who Do I Look Like Now?

It's pretty plain to see that Silas clearly takes after one of us! I mean, come on,
would you look at those eyes? (Not to mention the five o'clock shadow!)

Super Bowl Commercial

Here's a little Super Bowl Half Time Inspiration. Nothing to do with Silas. However, after viewing this, you may want to keep him in your daily prayers considering the antics of his parents and all that he has to look forward to in life with them!!

PS-All time best Super Bowl ever? We choose to believe so!

7 Months Old and Counting!

Today Silas turned 7 Months Old! And to celebrate the occassion, we decided to revisit Pooh Bear, once seemingly much larger! Enjoy the trip down memory lane. We sure did!



Silas continues to amaze us! He is growing, laughing, rolling, flirting, and all-around fun. He has come to the conclusion (or realization) that he is indeed the boss of this house. When things don't go exactly how he would like, we know about it immediately. Grandma Ward would have called that the "Bull" in him. We're glad that there is a part of her in Silas. Although we might have preferred her love of chocolate.



Our latest trick is to "cry" a tearless cry until someone picks us up...at which point we immediately start laughing. We also will do "tricks" with our Physical Therapist while periodically looking to make sure an audience is still present. Otherwise, the effort just does not seem worth it.



Overall, Silas is a barrel of laughs and a true joy! We continue to thank God each and every day for all of His provisions, for bringing Silas into our family and for the journey together that He has and continues to lead us through. Our prayer is that, with each and every passing month, God will guide and direct us as parents as we attempt to guide and direct Silas into relationship with Him. We covet your prayers each day as we seek to make that happen.



As previously mentioned, Silas has decided to let us know that it is his time to eat. So, we are now signing off for Sweet Potato Duty.

Looks Who's Laughing Now!

This past week Silas' incredible smiles started to turn into belly laughs. While they only come once in a while, we were able to catch some on tape! We wanted to share a video with all of you, our committed blog readers. Make sure you have your volume up for this one!

In other news... watching Silas grow (over 13 pounds as of today!) continues to be one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. His personality is starting to take shape more and more each day. We are quickly beginning to realize that he is an explorer of the world and has no interest in sitting still. Not sure where he got those genes from?!?! He would probably be sitting up by now, but as soon as he is in position he starts to look all over, reach for his toes, or throw his torso around in excitement. We have also found that he loves his toys! But no matter what he's playing with, boredom sets in within minutes! What an adventure!

I guess you could say that most days are filled with all the normal baby stuff. After all of the journeys of the past six months, anything "normal" is a true gift from God and more of a blessing than we could ever explain!

Hope you enjoy the video!

New Year, New Eats!

It's been a long time since we've updated everyone on everything going on, so we'll take a quick tour through our last few weeks since bringing Silas home from Dallas. Due to Sy's premature lung development, we need to be extra diligent in avoiding any respiratory illnesses this winter season. So, we decided to have a nice, laid-back Christmas at home with no travel and limited exposures. Two out of three ain't bad!! After warp-speed gift opening with the Miller Family, all 12 of us headed off to Shea's in Buffalo to see a live performance of White Christmas. We had a great day and enjoyed celebrating with the family before getting hit with the big snow storm!

On Christmas Eve, Heidi's parents watched Silas so that we could go to church together. The day was doubly exciting as we celebrated 6 months since Silas joined our family!! What an adventure we've had since then! We decided to take a break from a whirlwind of services by taking some Christmas cookies in to Sy's first home...the NICU at Sister's Hospital! It was so good to see some of the people that helped us so incredibly much in getting Silas to this point!

Our Christmas with Silas was amazing! We celebrated together as a family, singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and reading the Christmas story. Santa, of course, dropped by sometime in the night (or early morning) with a couple of little presents and to enjoy some cookies. Turns out he is lactose intolerant as well. Who would have guessed?? And to remember what a special first year this has been, Silas got a train set from Mommy and Daddy to have under the tree each Christmas season. We rounded out the week by celebrating with Auntie Christina and Uncle Rick (who wore a mask the whole time!), Nana and Papa and great-Nanny and Poppie. We'll never forget this first Christmas together!

And, one last major milestone included introducing solids into Silas' diet...Very exciting!! Rice cereal down and on to butternut squash!

Here's a picture to prove how very little is getting into his mouth!

Home Again!

Oh what a week we have had!! On Tuesday we checked out of our hotel and left Dallas behind. After a long day of travel, we were ready to be at home! Silas did remarkably well on both flights and has surprised us here at home too. He is healing well, the swelling is diminishing each and every day, and he did not take any steps back developmentally…except for the milestone of needing sleep. He hates the nighttime and lets us know it. But, other than that he is back to his happy, smiling self! We love that everything is behind us and that we are carefree as we prepare to celebrate this special time of the year.

And speaking of this time of year…we could not have been more surprised to come home to our friends having helped us get in the Christmas mood. On Tuesday morning, three of Heidi’s girlfriends went out to a Christmas tree farm to cut down the tree that we had tagged prior to leaving for Dallas. The funny thing was, we ran out of time to tag a tree and never knew that we would need to tell anyone that small piece of info. So, needless to say, they spent a good deal of time searching through the 1500 pines to find the one that did not exist. (We would like to pause at this time to extend our most sincere apologies to the person whose tagged tree our friends decided they would write “Miller” on and tell us was the tree we previously picked out. It is most certainly a beautiful find.) Our friends and church also stockpiled our freezer with many meals to help us over the course of the next few weeks, a decision that, as we run around like crazy people, will keep us from one continuous cereal buffet.

Yesterday we celebrated the fact that it had been one full year since we found out that Silas would be joining our family. We never could have imagined all the blessings that we have experienced since his birth. Each day we are truly amazed and grateful for all that he means to us and pray that his little life would impact many, many others as well. At this time of year we know that his life and ours as well hold true meaning because of another baby whose birth and life continue to change the world. We pray that the JOY that only Jesus Christ can bring will fill your hearts and lives this holiday season and always!

Love,
J.L., Heidi and Silas