Happy 3rd Birthday!

Wow it’s hard to believe that it has been three years since I started gathering my thoughts and experiences to be able to put this blog together. It’s was an idea that I pondered while pregnant with my first child, a child that would soon come into this world “different”.  A child who I had not yet met, but a child, a baby that I wanted to protect and shield from the world. A world in which we all know can be cruel, very cruel.

When our son Jameson was born he was absolutely beautiful! Although he came to us missing both of his lower arms and hands, the moment I saw him I was in love. However, that was a day that I had been so incredibly nervous for, not to give birth(believe it or not) but somehow my fear was how would I react to seeing my baby. A baby who was not considered “perfect” in the eyes of society. Honestly, I was worried to death about a lot of things, but as I held him for the first time, all of that uncertainty disappeared.

He was perfect.

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Just like any newborn he kept us busy! I completely forgot about starting the blog.

But then a few weeks went by and we began getting lots of questions. Some nice, some mean. Particularly from people who didn’t know us or our story. The answers to the questions were not always cut and dry and I didn’t have time elaborate. So that’s when I finally decided that the blog was in fact a good idea. I felt I needed to share our journey (a long journey at that). I wanted to give my child a voice since he didn’t have one yet, a fair chance to tell people why he looks like this, and the best way in my opinion was from me, his loving mother who was there and always will be every step of the way. (link to very first post)

When I told my husband that I wanted to start a blog he was hesitant and asked “If you want to shield and protect our son, why put him in the public eye?” It was a good question, but to me it wasn’t putting him in the public eye it was like I said, to give him a voice.

Starting this blog was one of the best things I have ever done. It has connected us to so many wonderful people, led us to once in a lifetime opportunities, and I hope that it has brought inspiration and encouragement to other families like ours!

So Happy 3rd Birthday davisday2day and Happy 3rd Birthday to the amazing boy who is my little superstar!

Jameson Cruz

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Today, Jameson is doing amazing!

He is such a healthy beautiful three-year old! A typical little boy who loves the outdoors, muddy puddles, playing ball, going on walks and hikes, he loves to color, play with play dough, do arts and crafts, all of which can do with or without his prosthesis or what he calls his “helpers”. The way Jameson has adapted over the past three years is incredible, he has exceeded our expectations entirely. We could not be more proud of him!imageJameson is such a love, he loves everyone! He is as social as one can be! Other children are always curious when they first meet him and they can often times come across as unkind. Nevertheless God has blessed Jameson with the ability to let it all roll of his back. All the questions and stares have never seemed to bother him. I pray that he can always be this confident and unafraid.

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Jameson attends preschool one day a week and he loves it! This fall he will start going two times a week. I wish it were more only because he wakes up everyday asking “are we going to school today?”

Last May, just after Jameson turned two we were blessed with another baby boy! Jameson is a wonderful big brother, he and his little brother Jackson have a fascinating bond already. I love seeing them interact together. It is quite magical.

 

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imageHanging out with his dad is one of Jameson’s favorite things in the whole world. I adore seeing the wonder in my son’s eyes when he watches his dad work on projects or shows him how to shoot a basketball. Jameson is always eager to learn. I love that about him.image

imageJameson is intelligent, kind, and funny. He often comes into a room and says “I love you guys”!  His vocabulary is really impressive, in fact he never stops talking. He loves to sing, count in Spanish, watch Peppa Pig, build race tracks with his dad, take his toys apart, and is considerably fond of tools. But like any three-year old there generally comes fits, cranky times, and selective hearing. Nothing out of the ordinary, but to say the least he is very head strong and knows what he wants and usually knows how to get it.

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We have been incredibly blessed by Jameson and would not change him for the world. He is now aware that he is not exactly like everyone else, he says to me “mom, I don’t have fingers, but you do, and dad does, and Jackie does”, and  I say “that is okay, you have your helpers. They have fingers, and just like you they are so cool!” He looks at me for a moment and says, “yeah I am cool!”

We still have many challenges ahead of us but it is nothing that prayers, perseverance, and love can not get this little boy through.

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Jameson has my heart.

imageHappy three years of life you have a very bright future ahead! We love you Jameson Cruz Davis!image

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Jackson- is 9 Months old!

Nine Months already!image

Jackson Gene

  • Blonde hair with blue eyes
  • Sleeps in his own room and crib finally!
  • weighs about 20 lbs

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  • Has only two teeth( his brother had 5 by this age)
  • Smiles and laughs all the time😃 Probably to show off his two dimples!
  • Crawls backwards but is trying to go the right wayimage
  • Is a great sitter
  • Loves the Excersaucer
  • Eats a variety of solid foods and breastmilk

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  • Thinks his big brother is the coolest!
  • Says dada and mama
  • Loves his doggies

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Overall Jack, is doing fantastic! He has such an easy going personality, a sweet disposition, and is kinda a mama’s boy but loves everyone!

Jameson on “The Doctors”

When Jameson was just ten months old we were very privileged to tell our story on the television show “the Doctors”!

Davis Day 2 Day 2014 in review! Happy New Year!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,200 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Flashback Friday

Flashback Friday! We have come a long way! This is video footage of Jameson, one year ago…

Making Everyday Memories

Some of my favorite memories of this year so far…

The moment Jackson was born. So amazing to have done this twice, I feel incredibly blessed.

Jackson’s smile. To die for, loving those double dimples.

The fun adventures we have experienced recently in our new neighborhood.

Jameson’s smile. Love that handsome little boy.

Watching my two sons bond. Even at this young age I can tell that they are going to be best friends.

And us. Our little family of four.

 

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Latest Video: Jameson At 2 years old Using his Prosthesis or we call it his ‘helper’ arm

Video: Last night Jameson wearing his left helper! He’s amazing at just two years old!

Getting Back To My Creative Self

Project #1image

 

Being creative makes me happy!

The past few years have been a little rough and somewhere in there I lost touch with that part of myself. Too much time was spent worrying about Jameson and making sure he would be okay. And not to mention five pregnancies, doctor visit after doctor visit, and of course all the time spent raising funds for prosthetics. But now things have calmed down and we are so blessed to have two beautiful healthy children, a new house and I am proud to say that Jameson is thriving and doing amazing!

With our new-found down time and a bigger home I can get back to doing healthy activities with my family. Some of those activities involve arts and crafts and ” do it yourself” projects! With a Bachelors’s Degree in Design, I like to think of myself as a creative person and I could not be more excited for all the possibilities!

My boys are still a little bit young for most of the projects I have in mind, but I love the thought of one day being able to create something together.

With that being said:

Project #1

With Halloween just around the corner, I decided to take all the pickle jars (about eight of them) that I saved this last year (I was pregnant ok) and turn them into colorful jack o’lanterns or rather “jar” o’ lanterns!

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NEXT:

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THE LAST STEP:

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Easy peasy!

 

Back At It… For Now!

It’s been a while since I last posted. One word describes our little Davis Family right now- CRAZY!

We’ve had two major life changes. The first being (of course) having a baby and second we went and uprooted ourselves after spending nine years in one place. It all happened a few weeks after Jack was born. One evening we had a brief discussion about feeling like we needed more room and up and decided to move to a new home right then and there. Our old house was feeling a bit small with the birth of our second child and after an opportunity to move to a bigger place presented itself, we went for it! The whole move was last-minute for all parties involved and needed to be accomplished in less than three weeks.  In retrospect, we probably should have thought it through a little more, but the excitement of a new home had us believing that it wouldn’t be that bad!

Boy, were we wrong. Not only did we have more “stuff” than we thought, it was over 100 degrees most of the days during the move, two-year olds don’t help pack (they unpack), newborns are needy (lol),  power outages and storms caused us some damage, and surprise- many people were unavailable when we needed help. If I would have had the money to hire a moving crew, I would have paid them a million dollars.

To say the least it was a really tough move, but we did it and we love our new home! There are many great things about it. We have lots more space and there is a fantastic view of the river nearby. We are still in the same city, but in a new area which is much closer to my husbands work. Overall, we are so happy we did it, but greatly looking forward to when we can finally get settled in. We still have a little ways to go.  image

 

Jameson is now two and a half! He is talking up a storm and can count to ten, most of the time (sometimes he skips over nine and ten and goes straight to fourteen).  He has a new room with airplanes and he is soon to have a toddler bed and to be potty trained. We hope.  With all this moving hoopla and baby brothers it has been quite the busy summer for Jameson. But we have managed to squeeze swim lessons in there and fun times at grandma’s pool. He also continues to be quite brilliant when it comes to wearing his prosthesis. Jameson is an amazing kid with a new hair style to boot!

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Jackson is now almost three months old! He is nearly 13 pounds and quite chubby and cute. He is such a sweetie who smiles all the time probably so that he can show off his adorable double dimples. He loves to watch and listen to his big brother play with Mike the Knight and tell him stories. We like to call him Jack most of the time. And just yesterday he started to giggle, even though he has been cooing and squealing for a few weeks now! imageimage

Jim and I just celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary! We have lots to give thanks for, we especially love our boys and feel so very blessed! image

Baby Davis #2 is here!

Saturday, May 31st 2014, we welcomed with love, baby boy Jackson Gene Davis! He came into the world at 2:02 am weighing 6 lbs 13 oz (exactly what big brother weighed) and was 19″ long.  

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Jackson’s Birth Story

On Friday May 30th, I went into my Obgyn’s office for my 39th week check up. The appointment was at 10am and I was feeling slightly “off” that morning, crampy and really wanted to clean ( cliché I know but it was how I felt). My doctor checked my cervix and I was only dilated to a 1.5 so we started talking induction for June 11th, assuming this  little guy was going to be late just like big brother. Jim and I left the office thinking we had two more weeks or so left.  As we drove away I swore I felt like I was having mild contractions but didn’t think much of it. We got home where Jameson was with grandma and grandpa and told them it could be a few more weeks. As we got lunch ready I began having contractions, could this be it, I wondered? It was so surreal as I had never gone into spontaneous labor before.  Both Jim and I got excited and we decided to go for a walk instead of eat lunch. If this was real labor, walking would help keep the contractions coming.  By 2:00 pm we had timed them for over an hour at 2-3 minutes apart, lasting  45 seconds so I called my OB’s office and they wanted me to come in ASAP.

After frantically packing and getting Jameson all squared away with grandma, we went back to my OB’s office. If I was making progress dilating they would admit me to Labor & Delivery. I was 4 cm so they admitted me. Off to the hospital we went. Jim and I were ecstatic! This is exactly how we both had hoped labor would start this time. Soon we would meet our second son!

We got checked into our room at about 4:00 pm. Contractions started getting more painful and I was  informed that I could not receive an epidural until 8:30 that night. This was because they wanted the Heparin blood thinners I was taking out of my system.  A little bit of unfortunate news for me but I had no choice, instead we walked the halls of the hospital and labored au naturale for 4 1/2 more hours. At 8:30 pm I  received an epidural.  As I shifted around on the bed to have it placed, my water broke. After the epidural I felt so much better and a lot more calm. A few hours later the nurse check my cervix and said I wasn’t making much progress so Pitocin was started to intensify my contractions and speed things up since my water had already been broken. They told me to get some rest because it could still be a while, but I was unable to sleep. The baby’s heart rate was doing crazy decelerations with each contraction which worried me. I labored for 8 more hours (total in all was 12).

Towards the end, baby’s heart rate decelerated pretty low and would not come back up. I was terrified, it was barely beating anymore. My OB came in in a hurry, checked me, fully dilated (thank The Lord) and then said “we have to get this baby out NOW” I pushed through three contractions and out he came with a little cry letting us know he was okay. I have never been so relieved in my life and I couldn’t believe that I got him out so fast (pushed for two hours with Jameson). It turned out he had a nuchal cord or non medical language-the cord was wrapped around his neck. He is doing great now and we think he looks a lot like his brother! You can’t tell in these pictures, but he has the biggest, cutest dimples in each of his cheeks. We are so in love and feel so blessed to finally have this little peanut out safely and in our arms.image

Jameson is a little young to fully understand what’s going on, but so far he loves baby brother and even helps mama by bring Jackson diapers and toys. He is also very gentle with the baby and says to me “mama he is fragile”!

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