No News is Good News

We haven't had a whole lot going on. Well, at least Caden hasn't! He doesn't have to go back to the cardiologist until May. He's doing really well. He has sooooo much energy, and he just loves his baby brother soooo much! It's very sweet. He lays next to him and kisses him and pets his head, saying "baby, baby". Very sweet. He likes to hold the bottle, get diapers for us, and he even likes to undo Cameron's onesie and rip off his diaper. He's a good little helper. :)

A new friend...

Little "Turnip" was born this week, and has Truncus. His first surgery is planned for early next week. If you would please stop by, and let them know that you thinking about them. Thank you! Click here.

Updates

Nothing much to report here. Pretty boring lately. Caden's doing really well. He had a little cough, but no fever or anything else, so we're just waiting for him to get over whatever it was that got him. He's learning new words every day, and he is getting more and more opinionated. He's going through a phase where he takes your hand and takes you all over the house, showing you different things, and how they work. He got our old TV from our bedroom, because Paul's parents gave us their older, bigger one. He loves to sit on his chair (from his great grandma :)) and watch the Wiggles. Over and over and over and over... lol. It crazy. He gets his fruit snacks and his water and sits in there watching. He only comes out when he wants more snacks or more water. It's pretty cute. :)

There are twin baby boys at daycare. They are really cute, and about 2 months old. He likes to rub (pet-really) their little heads and say "baby" :) It's cute that he's so gentle with them. I think he's excited. He knows what a baby is, and he also knows that there is one in my belly. He plays peek-a-boo with Cameron. :) He pretends that he's hiding him, and then he lifts up my shirt and yells "Baby!" He does it over and over. When he puts my shirt back down he turns his palms up and says "Baby go?" He doesn't know what a brother is, or who Cameron is, but he definitely knows something is happening. I hope he takes the transition well. I think we are going to continue taking him to daycare while I'm on leave. I'm only taking 6 weeks, so it shouldn't be that bad. He also only goes 3 days a week, so it shouldn't be too much of a strain on us financially. Cross your fingers!

I finally got Carol (day care) to decide on a price for the two of them. It's not even double! We are very fortunate to have such a sweet "Grandma" for him to spend the days with. She knows how expensive Caden can be, and it's nice of her to consider that. I expected it to be at least double, with an infant and all. I'm not saying anything else about it, but I'm definitely sticking with her as long as possible. :)

Bowling

So we went bowling last night with some friends. It was really fun. Caden did pretty good. He liked to sit down and push the ball. He kept screaming "ball, ball, ball" and he didn't understand why he could only do it twice in a row. He looked so confused when someone else's turn would come. :) He's so funny. Paul was helping him, and it was really cute. :) I didn't bowl, partly because I really suck at it, but mostly because my center of gravity is already off balance, I don't need to be throwing a 10 pound ball around. :)

Birthday Fun!!!

Caden had a great day! We made the rounds all day long. He got a kitchen, a working candy bear claw thingy, a bulldozer, an ATM, a Mega Bloks wagon, Mega Bloks blocks and clothes, and a Mega Bloks train... and some food to go with the kitchen. He also got a toy car set that came with a toy drill and screwdriver set. The cars come apart into big pieces, and he knows exactly how to take them apart too! I think I covered most of it. He loves to clean and cook. He has his own cleaning set, so now he has his own cooking set too!

Paul was making breakfast yesterday, and got out the eggs. He started cracking them and put them into the skillet. You know how to cook eggs, I won't go into it so deeply. :) Caden ran over to his kitchen, and grabbed his whole eggs. He showed them off, I guess to let us know that he knew what they were. Then, he found the little plastic fried egg and put it in his skillet. His little burner makes a sizzling noise when you put the skillet on it. :) He got out his spatula and was cooking his own breakfast. It was the cutest thing!

We have pictures scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. We are doing a family Christmas pic, and then Caden's 2 year pics. I'm excited to get that done! He hasn't gotten his pictures taken in a while. The ones on my desk at work are so outdated. Not for long though. :)

Thank you to everyone for all of his gifts. Please, if you are going to do something for him for Christmas, consider putting money into his savings account instead of gifts. He really doesn't need any more toys. He would probably beg to differ, but he'll thank us in the long run!

Birthday and Potty

Caden's birthday is on Saturday. He will be the big 2!!! We're not having a big party or anything, but we are getting together with family memebers for lunch and dinner. Then we're going bowling on Sunday. I think he'll have fun. He's got enough presents coming, that's for sure! :)



This is the picture we sent in for his birthday announcement on the morning news. How sweet! Friday morning around 6:45 on KSN channel 3, for those of you in the viewing area. :)

I just thought this one was really cute. He was actually trying to see the TV behind me. I was playing The Wiggles for him. He's a freak about the Wiggles. 5 times a day... WOW.

He's been doing pretty good on the potty. Kind of tapered off a bit now, but he gets excited if you ask him to go. He was so excited when he went potty. His chair makes music when he tinkles. :)


This was less than 5 minutes later, when we made him go to bed. He was screaming "potty!" over and over again. Awww... he's a devoted potty goer. LOL

Cardiology Report

Sorry I forgot to update about the cardiologist appointment the other day. No news is good news, right? Yeah!



This is what she said:



No ASD anymore (YAY)



Minimal (if any) VSD leakage (YAY)



All chambers are enlarged, but they always have been



Every valve leaks, Tricuspid and Trucal valves are mild-moderate. Mitral valve is mild.



The highest pressures she was able to read this time were what was in the "normal" range last time-maybe indicates that things are even better than last time???



He actually did really well throughout most of it. He watched the Wiggles and was doing hand signs through it. Kinda funny, I'd never seen him do that. Towards the end, when they look at the top of the heart, he started crying. He doesn't like it when they do that part. She has to push the wand down and it pushes into his chin/jaw. He hates that part. He was such a good boy though, for the EEG and everything! I was very impressed! I realy didn't have to go, but I worked through lunch to kind of make up for the time off.



She left his meds the same, going to let him kind of grow out of his dose, and hopefully one day we'll be able to stop giving him meds all together! I was hoping she'd go down, but that may have been a little too much to ask. We have to go back in 6 months. I was hoping for 9 or 12, but then again, maybe too much to ask for.

Overall, he looks just the same as last time, if not a little bit better. :) I'm so proud of little man. Not that he could help it, but still. Good genes, I guess. :)

Cardiologist

Caden goes today to the cardiologist. Since I have to miss half a day of work tomorrow, Paul is trying to convince me that he can do it by himself. Well, I believe that both of them will survive, but if any of you have ever been through an ECHO with a near 2 year old, it's not fun! I'm hoping that this time, he handles it better than the last few times. He just hates that goop all over him, and she has to push that wand thing into that dip his collar bone, pointing down, to see the top of his heart. That's usually the last thing they do, but let me tell you, it's the grand finale.

The appointment starts at 3:30, but first they have to weigh him, and she comes in to ask a bunch of questions... ie: "does he pass out, does he sweat a lot, does he seem to be sleeping more than usual..." Yada yada yada. I know that some parents may not pay too close attention to that stuff, but you bet your butt if he started showing signs of heart failure, I'd be in there before his normal appointment was scheduled!!!

Anyway, then she has to listen to him, feel for his liver, push on his chest a bit (not hard), blah blah blah. Then we go to a different room, where they pull out the ancient TV and VCR. The nurse gives him an EKG, the doctor comes in a few minutes later, looks at it, then turns off the lights to do the actual ECHO. Well, Caden might not take it so bad if he didn't have to watch the same Barney video over and over again. But, last time we remembered his blankie, and he did better having that to rub on his face. He just hates to lay there so still for that long. Usually by the time they're done with the EKG and the ECHO, it's been about an hour or so of him laying there. That's not easy for any of us, especially Caden!

I haven't decided if I'm going to leave a little bit early today or not. Maybe if I take a really short lunch, then it'll make up for it. The ECHO won't start till 4:00-ish, so if I leave at 4, then I'll only miss one hour today. Then I'll miss three hours tomorrow. Maybe nothing else will come up the rest of this week. Cross your fingers for us!!!

Updates

Well, not much is going on really. Caden's still doing pretty good. No coughs or sneezes lately. YAY!!! I don't know if I posted this already or not, but he's started doing this REALLY cute thing!

We usually get him all ready for bed and let him play in the living room for a half an hour or so. Around 8:30, we'll ask him "Caden are you ready for nite nite?" and he'll go find his blankie and walk to his room. We get his binkie and water and meet him there. Then we pick him up and set him in the middle of the crib and he stretches to give us kisses. Then he waves at us while yelling "Nite Nite!" He says it over and over. We turn off the light, close the door, and head back to the living room. He yells it a few times more, and then goes to sleep. We still have the monitor in his room (paranoia? Maybe) and you can hear him over it just wishing everyone good nite. He's so sweet!

He goes to the cardiologist on Monday. It's been six months already. I really think she's going to be impressed with him. He's doing so good. He's not sweating or sleeping a lot. He's pretty active all the time, and he's just doing great all the way around. I think his heart is doing great. I think it may have something to do with the double stitching Dr. O'Brien did on his last patch he got. I hope she'll lower his meds or stop one of them, or at least tell us not to come back for 6-9-12 more months. Hopefully 12, but I'm betting on 6 (like now) or 9. We'll see.

He goes in for his first Synagis shot on Tuesday. Blah. He hates shots, and I don't blame him. It's actually two shots.

He's going to be two in a few weeks!!! Eeeeeek! We need to figure out something to do for his birthday. I think we're going to take him bowling. He loves balls and knocking things over, so as long as he doesn't run down the lane, I think it'll be a big hit. :)

I don't know how many of you read my blog, but Paul and I did go to meet with a lawyer the other day. I don't want to get into it again, but if you want you can read it on my blog.

I'll let you know how the cardiologist goes.

Not much to report

Caden's been doing pretty good. He's had some allergies. Sneezing and a little bit of coughing. He's not had labored breathing or anything, so I we're not too worried. He's got a cardiology appointment on the 3rd of November. I can't believe it's been 6 months already. WOW Time flies. I hope she tells us that we can quit one of the meds and go a year between appointments this time. I really hate going to the cardiologist. I'm sure Caden hates it more.

We're going to the pumpkin patch tonight. I charged up the batteries in the camera so that I could take a bunch of ictures. I'll have to post them. I'll try to remember to have Paul take some preggo pics of me too. I'm 27 weeks today. He's getting big enough that from the outside, you can feel his foot going across my stomach. He's big. I know he is. A little monkey. An adorable monkey. I think Caden's a monkey too. Just so cute.

He's been doing this absolutely adorable thing lately. At night, when it's time for him to go to bed, we say "Caden, lets go night-night." He goes to find his blankie, we get his binky and his water, and we all meet in his room. He stands there, ready for the crib. Paul picks him up, sets him in the middle of the crib, and we all say goodnight. It's so cute, cause he sits there, waving, saying "nite-nite" over and over. W say it back a couple of times. Then we turn off the light and close the door. Over the monitor, you can hear him for another few minutes, saying "nite-nite." But he kind of screams it. It's so cute! He doesn't throw a fit anymore. Even if we do it a little bit before bedtime, he's still okay with it.

He's such a sweetie. I'll try to remember to post pics soon.