Anniversary

On Friday May 27 Peter and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary! It is also the 2 year anniversary of Lucas' first heart surgery, a day we certainly will never forget. We had a nice evening at home with the kids. We would have loved to gone to dinner, but we don't have many sitter options in our area. We watched our wedding video with Lucas, he loved the "mommy and daddy Moondie" Moondie is his word for Movie. I am so grateful to have our wedding video, it is amazing to get to experience the whole day again and to share it with your kids. It also gives us some pretty incriminating footage of our friends and family.

I could not have asked for a better four years. A lot has happened and we have grown in so many ways. Peter said he can't wait for the next 55.. I am hoping for more than that. I love my husband and our little family. Life is so great!

Cardiology X 2

Last Friday, May 20, both of the kids had a much anticipated cardiology appointment.

It had been a VERY long time, too long (in our opinion), since Lucas had had a decent echo due to a variety of reasons. The last attempt he had a double ear infection and the time before that he had just gotten a set of immunizations a few days before, so he feared pain I am sure, and would not cooperate. So, needless to say we were anxious to hear the results of a decent echo and prayed we would get that on Friday. Lucas is really understanding things now and we can pretty much talk to him about anything so we had been prepping him for the visit for a week or so. We practiced taking pictures of his heart (echo), putting a sticker on his finger (pulse ox), seeing how big he was (getting weighed), and squeezing his muscle (blood pressure). I am so happy to say that he did EXCELLENT! He was sweet as can be laying on the table by himself for his echo and just talking with the tech, and was an angel for all of the other tests. His sats were 88% and he is still hanging around 29 lbs and 34 inches. His echo looks stable. The doctor said there are no changes and that everything looks pretty much the same. The same is GOOD!! He did mention he saw a collateral vein (which is to be expected at this point) but it explains his higher oxygen saturation. He told us we could try Lucas off of his Lasix. He has been on such a small dose that hopefully he will be fine coming off of it. We would like to potty train Lucas in the next six months or so (that is the goal at least) and the Lasix obviously creates some obstacles to that. Our cardiologist still wants to get Lucas to that magic 33lb marker (15kg) before his Fontan. We are thankful that he considers Lucas stable enough to wait until he reaches the optimal weight for the surgery! He said we may discuss a cath after the next visit in six months...we'll see! I hate to even think there is a heart surgery in his future but it is our reality. Ughhh. So thankful for a thorough and positive appointment.

We wanted to get Claire double checked. I had a fetal echo when I was around 18 weeks pregnant with her and were told everything looked good at that time but there were a few CHDs that aren't able to be detected that early in development. Our pediatrician didn't feel overly concerned that we needed to have a second echo because she looked and sounded great but we wanted to follow up for peace of mind, and I am happy we did. She was also an angel for her echo. She laid in my arms and cooed and blew spit bubbles! Couldn't ask for better than that! We got confirmation that her heart is perfect and everything looks great!! Thank Goodness!

Her BIG news is that she is 13.5 lbs and 24 inches long! I knew she had been packing on the pounds but didn't realize how much. She looks so petite in my eyes, then again I compare her against Lucas who is Mr. Bear paws!

We promised Lucas a fun day if he was a big boy so..we met Papa at McKinnley park to play on the play ground and feed the ducks. We had a picnic lunch! Then we headed to Funderland and William Land Park for some good times! Lucas was really tired but he loved the rides.

We are so proud of what a big boy he is becoming.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's day this year. My first with two little ones. We spent Saturday in Lodi having a nice picnic at Lodi lake and letting Lucas play at the park. Sunday we just relaxed and had a wonderful breakfast prepared by Lucas and Peter.


Claire is 2 months old!
All smiles.

Our attempt at a picture with me and both kids. Picture taking is no longer a simple task!

Easter 2011

We had a great relaxing Easter this year. It fell on Lucas' birthday weekend, so he had quite the fun weekend. He loved everything about the day from breakfast, easter baskets, egg hunts, and church. Note to self (and to Peter) please don't give Lucas jelly on his toast before church on a day he is already really ampped up for. I guess the jelly was a little Easter treat that daddy thought would be fun, but it was not fun when Lucas was shouting very excitedly about the "Easter bunny wabbit" in the middle of church. A second good lesson learned: Do not tell Lucas about any of the days fun activities prior to when you need him to politely sit through church. Needless to say church was the big hurdle of the day with all of the excitement (and sugar) going around. We headed to Grandma and Papa's where Claire got to meet another Great Grandma and Grandpa. Lucas, as always, got A LOT of attention and fun times in with family. Our kids are so lucky that they have so many people who love them. Family Photo!
There is no messing around here, this hunt is serious people!
The Easter Bunny left these baskets for the kids!
Sweet Girl in her Easter dress and bow!

The egg hunts!

Cute Conversation

Lucas is loving this weather! He is such an outside guy. No real agenda when he's outside he just loves hanging out out there. Yesterday evening he was just standing staring at the shed in the backyard where Peter keeps all of the yard equipment, and this is how the conversation went from there...I just want to write down these cute conversations because I don't want to forget how sweet he is right now...

Me: Hey buddy, what are you doing?
Lucas: Mommy, I wanna Lawn Mow (his words for lawn mower)
Me: you have your own lawn mower that you can use (the little plastic one that sings)
Lucas: I wanna use daddy's lawn mow.
Me: Well, maybe in a few years you can help daddy
Lucas: When I get bigger?
Me: Yep, when you're bigger!
Lucas: Use daddy's lawn mow when I'm bigger??? (He was very excited at the prospect of using daddy's lawn mower)
Me: Uh huh
Lucas: And make money???
Me: what?
Lucas: I wanna make money, and lawn mow!
Lucas: and use earplugs and sunglasses like daddy(Ha)


So, I thought maybe Peter had talked to Lucas about mowing some neighbors lawns to make a little money when he is older, but Peter says they had never had a conversation about it. So, whoever is the person who told Lucas we will pay him to mow our lawns could you reveal yourself :), we need your bank account information :)).

In reality we had been to the bank earlier that day and the teller handed Lucas the cash back, he had never held money before, and she said "this stuff is good, you will want this when you get bigger" so I am guessing that is where the money idea came from. I think we may have an entrepreneur on our hands...

Such a crackup how he puts all of this stuff together. Peter wears earplugs and glasses when working in the yards and of course Lucas wants to be just like his daddy.. such a sweetheart!