Wednesday, July 20, 2011

9 month photo shoot

We were blessed with a beautiful day to have Max's 9 month photo shoot.  My good friend Julie Dukowitz was our photographer. She also did his newborn pictures.  We had the pictures done at Oak Grove Park in Brooklyn Park, MN.
Our cutie pie


Such a big boy!


We gave him some fruit to play with 


Peek a boo






9 months
10 days old

Monday, July 11, 2011

A mover and a shaker

Max is starting his moves to moving around by any means necessary.  He is scooting on his butt and walking along furniture. We have padded the coffee table edges with foam so he won't smack his head on the corner. That was the best investment we could've done so far for him.  Today he was in the kitchen with me and well this is what I came across. He has started a new sport called chair rowing....

Tomorrow my baby turns 9 months, the same amount of time he was in utero.  He is such an amazing baby, we are blessed to be his parents.  We look forward to many more days of Max making us laugh.

Friday, July 8, 2011

All in a day's work

Last week I had a very emotional experience with a patient.  He is 93 years old and speaks 99% Russian. What I knew from report was he has some dementia, but he is pleasant.  Hard to tell when you don't speak the same language so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  We communicated as best as we could until the interpreter got there. He had breakfast, took his pills, and said "I listen to you."  When the interpreter got there I was waiting for the Physical Therapist to come and work with him.  They didn't come so I spent some time using the interpreter to talk to my patient and get to know who HE is without labels of dementia or confusion.  It is rare I have 25 minutes to stand and have a conversation with a patient to hear their life stories and connect with them personally.  What I found out is what got me so emotional.  He told me of his times in Russia way back to the beginning or WWII.  He is a Jewish Russian and fought against the Germans.  He spoke of Stalin like we would talk about Obama today.  Very casually and with details not many of us would remember 70 years later.  I didn't get if he was in a concentration camp or not, but to hear and see his face as he told me of the memories still so vivid in his mind.  I started tearing up thinking how blessed I was to be speaking to someone with so much history and wisdom to share.  Unfortunately not many else will get to have that conversation unless an interpreter is available and not rushed to leave. I believe there was a reason I was assigned this man and had the opportunity to spend as much time as I did learning about him and his life.  I believe God places people in your life to reveal things about yourself. I learned I needed to slow down and not judge a book (or patient) by the cover.  Sometimes it is hard to see the things that are revealed and it was hard for me to look at myself and learn not to judge people.  The trust I built with this man that day was stronger than an oak tree.  He allowed me to shave him and having that intimate moment with a patient can be scary, especially when the interpreter had left at that time.  I am glad I was blessed with the skills and traits to be a nurse and God has revealed to me that I am not done growing as a nurse or a child of God.  We are constantly being pruned and molded into the person He has created us to be.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

A Day at the Beach

Max and Huntz and I decided to venture our way to Weaver Lake Park today for Max's first day at the lake.  He is such a trooper and started splashing right away.  He loved trying to eat sand, but mom would not let him. It was a good first trip.



Friday, July 1, 2011

A Recent History

So this is my first post on our family blog so a recent history will catch you up to present.  We were blessed with a baby boy October 12, 2011.  He was born at 5:19pm weighting 6lb 14oz and 20.5 inches long.  We named him Max James Colburn.  Our lives changed and were blessed after that day.  Max is now 8 1/2 months old and a joy in our lives still. He has no hair yet (blond peach fuzz), no teeth, and would rather stand all day long and forget about crawling.  He has a smile that will automatically make you smile. He loves looking at his books and bouncing in his excersaucer.  He loves bath time as well.

On this day, the state government has shutdown leaving lots of campers and gamblers quite angry before the holiday weekend. This has not occurred in many years so it brought to my mind many of the historical events that have happened since Max was born. I wanted to do a brief world history since Max was born to recap all the wild, amazing, and devastating things that have occurred in the world. The night I went into labor with Max was Monday night football where Randy Moss rejoined the Vikings only to leave the Vikings 2 weeks later.  We had the most snow in many years in Minnesota and were even snowed into our house for a weekend adventure.  With all that snow brought horrible floods to Minot, ND. These floods are still reeking havoc on North Dakota.  Mother Nature decided to bring a whole slew of tornadoes to the Midwest and South.  There was a tsunami in Japan as well.
The U.S. found and killed Osama Bin Laden after many years of searching. Lots of upheaval in the Middle East area causing gas to near the $4 mark.  In entertainment news Charlie Sheen went bananas and got fired from 2 1/2 men, Oprah retired, and the Hangover 2 came to theaters.
Max's Dedication day March 20, 2011

First Foods at 5 months

Serious, 6 months

Chewing on some grass.

I love sitting in the toy box.

Mother's day

Our favorite peanut pic, love his bird arms