Pray for John's Patients

John is completing his pediatrics rotation today. I think overall it's been a good experience and he's enjoyed it. The last two weeks, he has been at a children's hospital in Fort Worth. The first few weeks were like family practice - well child checkups, kids with colds and viruses, etc. These last couple of weeks have been a lot tougher. He has had children whose parents weren't feeding them and babies being abused. It hurts my heart to hear these stories, and I can't help but think about the way I feel about Drew. I would do anything within my power to protect him, and it breaks my heart to think of all those kids whose parents don't protect them. So, please keep these kids in your prayers. John will move on to his next rotation, but these kids have a lifetime of difficulties ahead of them.

7 month Portraits

Drew turned 7 months old yesterday (wow! time flies), so we wanted to get some updated pictures made. We went to Portrait Innovations, where we had his pictures made at 1-month and around Halloween. We were very happy with the way they turned out and wanted to share a few of our favorites with you. Please leave a comment and let me know which is your favorite!


Drew's precious smile. Love those chubby cheeks!

Drew's close up portrait. This is what I think of when I see Drew in my mind - those eyes wide open, that look of wonder at everything.

Drew loves to take baths and apparently also loves to take pictures pretending to take a bath.

Drew in the bathtub, making his precious "old man" face.

Drew with his Baylor bear, supporting his favorite team.

Here we are when Drew was 1 month old...

... and here we are when he is 7 months old. How time flies!

The Tongue

Sorry for the lack of pictures and posts the last couple of weeks. Here's a quick update:

Things are slowing down at the Slaton household. My busy season schedule has become much more manageable and John is doing his pediatrics rotation, which involves much less time than his fall rotations. The weather is great, we haven't been sick (except for a stomach bug that John and I shared for a couple of days), and life is going well. I have some great pictures of Drew recently, but they're still living on my memory card.

This week we've been working with Drew to help him figure out how to crawl. He rolls onto his tummy and then we put a toy just out of his reach. To get to it, he'll stretch, put his head down and curl up a knee under him. Then he raises his head and tries to push off that leg to move forward. It works sometimes, but he hasn't quite figured out how to get leg #2 involved in the crawling bit. We've been helping put his legs in position to crawl or put something behind that he can push off of. In the last couple of days, he's been building enough arm strength to start pushing himself backwards a little at a time. It may be the wrong direction, but I'll still call it progress.

Drew has also figured out that his tongue is great entertainment. He's been making those motorboat noises at us for quite a while now, but he just recently figured out all sorts of new stuff he can do. He can stick his tongue out and smile. He can stick his tongue out and wiggle it. He can try to reach his nose with his tongue. He can try to reach his chin with his tongue. He can chomp on his tongue (still no teeth, so I guess it doesn't hurt). His favorite: He learned that when he sticks his tongue out, the drool comes with it and is fun to play with. Luckily he has not yet figured out that he can use his tongue to lick Sadie, although it's probably just a matter of time.

Giggling