Lately...

Lately, you want to be outside. We think you are even trying to say "outside." But then again we may just want you to soooo bad that everything sounds like it to make us happy. The other day upon waking up, and getting your diaper changed, you stood up, grabbed your dads hand, and yanked him down stairs screaming the whole way. With only your diaper on and it being 30 degrees outside, you took our house keys from the entry way table and touched the door. When that didn't magically open it, you hung on the door knob. You hung with all your weight, and even lifted your feet. But still it didn't open, then you pushed with all your might, all the while screaming. Your dad stood there and laughed with every attempted to get that door open. He turned the knob cracked the door, and just enough wind came in to give you the chills and make you realize you didn't want to go outside naked after all.So you grabbed your boots and tried again.

Lately, you are a picky eater. Your body cannot physically take down certain foods, and your body gags it all up until it is all the way out. This has caused problems in public, because who wants to see a babe gag or even vomit? You can't eat eggs, potatoes, most noodles, or mozzarella cheese. We are not sure why. Maybe you take after your mommy after all?!?

Lately, its hard to go grocery shopping with you. I try so hard to be a good momma, and not pay attention to those fits in hopes to get you to stop throwing them for attention. You normally start out fine. I put some mommy food in the cart and you don't seem to mind, i even put some toothpaste  in and you try to reach it for a minute before you give up. But when i put anything that resembles a snack or food that you want, it is a full blown tantrum. It makes the people at check out uncomfortable to watch you scream. They all start offering you stickers and baloons, anything to calm you down. When I explain you just want to cry, or you want the food, i get these looks "do you not feed your child?" I promise, i feed you. And i feed you a lot! That is why a year ago you were in the 11th percentile in weight and now you are in the 80th. You just think you always have to eat. We are working on it.

Lately, you have gotten attached to your blankets. Yes, multiple. One of them is very thick and fuzzy. it looks pretty similar to the throw blanket momma uses to keep warm on the couch. Well, at least it must look a lot like it, because sometimes you rip my blanket right off me saying "mine!" and drag it around to cuddle with it. When you think its yours you refuse to share.

Lately, you are into stacking things. You love to sneak into my bathroom climb on top of the toilet seat facing the wall and stack all my candles on top of each other. When you finish, you round up any other candles you can find and stack those too. I can't complain, at least you are not always getting into the toilet paper. Once you even stood in the grocery cart as I was paying for our food, and you stacked the cans of corn that belonged to lady behind us in line.

Lately, your absolute favorite toy is a hot wheels car. A 1980's brown station wagon. It is one you took from grandma's house. It used to be your dads, so maybe you are more sentimental then we give you credit for, or you just have really bad taste in cars!

Lately, you have learned to climb like a crazy person. You hang on the bar in the bathroom and run your feet up the wall. You also found a way to climb up on mom's bed, you just haven't figured out how to get down. I even caught you standing on the counter and just about had a heart attack. Turns out you climbed up the bar stools and got yourself that drink on the counter since i was ignoring you.

Lately, you love movies. At first it was Cars, there were no scary parts and you could watch it by yourself without having to hide your face in my neck. Then other pixar movies seemed to peak your interest. These days you LOVE Avatar. At first i thought it was the blue people. I just realized it was actually the dragons that get you all sorts of excited.

Lately, you have a special eye and a great memory. You recognize when you are in a Cafe Rios, even if you have never been there or not. We walk in and you run the the register looking for peppermint mints every time, without fail. At Thanksgiving we took you in the backyard of Grandma's house to play in the leaves. Across the street, beyond a field, and up giant hill way off in the distance was a playground you went to once with your cousin James. As you swung your hitting the leaves your attention was immediately focused on that little park way, way, way in the distance and you took off running for it. You didn't even slow down to check both ways when crossing the road! Luckily momma and daddy had caught up to you by then and grabbed a hold of your hands and you dragged us.

Lately, you have a way of making me want to pull my hair out, and also melting my heart. I can't get enough of your laughs, all of them, even the fake one you give your Nana just to make sure she keeps playing with you. I love your kisses, and that you don't know how to pucker so instead you stick out your bottom lip. I love that you grab my face with both hands to tell me something serious. I love that you bring my phone to me asking me to dial your dad so you two can chat.  And most importantly, i love that you love me.

one year, plus a little more, post surgery update

We were lucky enough to meet at the Riverton clinic this time. Problem is, in order to get momma and daddy to work on time, your appointment had to be extra early! But you didn't seem to notice it was still dark outside once you got some breakfast in that cute round tummy.

You had the first appointment of the day. I had hoped this would be a good sign, and that they number of minutes we sat in rooms waiting would be less than normal. I was sorta right. And sorta not. The appointment took forever, as always, but not due to waiting rooms.

The problem with appointments at our small Riverton Primary Childrens, is the fact that they dont have the means to sedate your sweet body to sleep in order to do an echo. So instead, they thought that putting on a movie would do the trick. Yes, A movie. Little do they know, my wild child, my 18 month old, can't sit still or pay attention to a movie when a gooey electronic device is circling his chest, and when he is forced to lay down, and he has no treats! You cried enough to make a technician of a pediatric hospital uncomfortable. She called for re-enforcement. At one point we had three people making facing, blowing bubbles, and singing along with sesame street attempting to distract you from the lady rubbing stuff on your chest. At one point they were so desperate to get you tos top fighting, they asked me if i brought your bottle, and why i hadn't given it to you yet. "A bottle? No, he hasn't had a bottle for 6 months!" I wasn't sure if we would get this this appointment after all.

Finally, I asked if i could be of assistance, since watching the professionals be unprofessional in every way wasn't working. I sent our team looking for suckers, after all it was a pediatric ward, this couldn't be too crazy. I then laid on the bed with you and stroked your hair. It took the technician by suprise, but we were desperate weren't we? Running my fingers through your thick hair typically only works when you are tired, but it seemed to help. Eventually you were distracted enough that the technician could start doing her thing. We only ran into problems when your hand rested into that yucky goop on your chest. You weren't having it. The fit started all over. And unfortunately the fit got worse when your dad stood up to comfort you. You love your daddy, and knowing he was in the room made you want to be in his arms more than ever.

We finally got you calmed down again. You slowly started to doze off to the sound of your own heartbeat on the monitor. I was glad when it was over. You hated it, and my arm was beyond numb lying on it for so long.

Then they attempted to do their standard blood pressure test. You were so riled up that the nurse left really concerned with how high our blood pressure was since they had last seen you. She came back 15 minutes later, and said she just had to try again. We found another sucker and she played peek-a-boo with you, and fortunately your pressure was normal after all.

Dr. Mart eventually arrived. He shook momma and daddy's hands and said hello while you played in the corner with your white tiger and brown bear. You then strutted up to that Dr. Mart and insisted on shaking his hand too. It obviously wasn't fair that he shook our hands and not yours. You even said "hi!" with a giant grin.

Everyone seemed super amazed at how healthy and strong you had become, including Dr. Mart. We couldn't be more happy. We were of course were informed in that appointment that your Big hole, you know the VSD, was closed properly. It was looking great. We had a feeling that was the case since we hear this good news every time we meet with these people. He said that your heart tissue should have grown all the way around your device and it is safe and snug, not going anywhere!

Then we heard, "but..." We hate pretty much all sentences that start with "but (long pause)." Turns out the news is not as bad as I had let my mind believe it would it would be. It wandered aimlessly during that long pause. Then the news. You have another little hole, right below your device. It seems to not be affecting your health, but... with the amount of blood rushing in and out of that hole, there is a lot of turbulence and room for bacteria to build up. Infections in the heart are never a good thing. If i thought we hated "but.." i hated "turbulence" and "holes" a lot more. Again, my mind started to wander. But if momma could focus for more than a second or two at a time, she would find out that they are not worried about that hole, and as long as we followed special direction and give you the right kind of antibiotics you were going to be fine. Phew!!!

Not to make matters worse, it turns out you have another small hole somewhere else as well. I know I know, it feels like they are multiplying. Together, these two holes are making that weird "thud" sound or heart murmur. Good news is, we were cleared to go, regardless of the holes, and excused to leave for an entire year with NO appointments!!! It may have been a rough appointment for a tired baby, but the good news is, it was worth every second. It feels good to hear it from somone other than your dad that you are perfect!