A Christmas Story...

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

Andrew has a new favorite Christmas movie..the same one as mommy (and mommy didn't have a thing to do with it, I swear!  Ha!)  It matches his "shiner" he got at school last week (he did it to himself this time).  It cracks me up- I brought out the Christmas movies tonight because it is a tradition for me to watch "A Christmas Story" while putting up the tree every year.  Then I pretty much watch it daily from then until Christmas!  Sometimes multiple times a day!  There is just something about a cheerful Christmas movie to put you in the spirit!  Anyway, Andrew got really into it!

 

Andrew loved watching those boys press their faces against the window!  I suppose he'll be doing that soon enough now!

On Saturday we put up the Christmas tree.  Andrew was beyond excited.  He kept saying "Christmas tree!" over and over.  He was so happy he gave daddy and I a hug, then hugged the tree!  He loved the lights and kept saying "pretty."  We saved the decorating for tonight.  I made a special supper and we put up decorations.

Do your Christmas ornaments evoke memories for you?  That is one of my favorite parts of decorating the tree- talking about each memory as we unwrap the ornaments.  It is a tradition in my family that on each Thanksgiving, my grandma gives each of the grandkids an ornament.  She's done it since my first Christmas.  I have so many special ornaments, one for every year of my life.  Each one brings back a memory from that year.

This is my "Annie" ornament.  This was my favorite movie when I was a little girl.  I've seen the musical a bunch of times.  I used to scrub my dad's garage floor with all my neighbor friends while singing "It's a Hard Knock Life" and wearing my grandma's old dresses.  My dad always said he had the cleanest garage floor in town!

 

This is my favorite Christmas movie of all times; "A Christmas Story."

 

This one is from the year Craig and I got engaged.

 

Bought our first home together...

 

Had an incredible Honeymoon in Maui...

 

And were blessed with our first child.

I just think it is so special to be able to look at our tree and share those special memories together, year after year.  The tree sort of tells our life story, and I just love it.

 

This year I put so many lights on it, it is almost blinding!  I had forgotten that I recycled most of my strings from last year, since half of each string went out.  So I had to purchase some new lights.  I bought a few boxes, thinking I'd take back what I didn't use... well, I went ahead and used them all!  I love lights!  There is just nothing like shutting off all the lights in the house and having only the Christmas lights on.  I just love this time of year so much!  I can't wait to decorate the rest of the house!

 

This is one of my favorite ornaments. I hope to get one each year and put Andrew's picture from each Christmas in it.  I love hanging pictures on the tree as memories, too.

 

Andrew hung up his special ornament from his 2nd Christmas, Thomas the train!

 

He was so funny, when we started hanging things on the tree, he found they "stuck" better when he threw them in the branches!  He was getting so excited because he'd just toss them in and they'd stay!  I had to do some rearranging later!  Ha!

Andrew was climbing up to peek in the boxes to see what ornaments we'd pull out next!  He had a blast!

 

Little stinker...I was trying to get his picture by the tree, but he wanted to sit here!  Go figure! (Can you see his shiner??)

I realize it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and our tree is up...but if you think about all the work that goes into putting up the tree, and the number of days between now and Christmas, it really doesn't seem that far away.  Time goes so fast.  I want to have time to enjoy the decorations and I just hate taking them down.  The house seems so empty afterwards somehow.

Many of you have been asking about Andrew's results from his scan last Friday.  I have been putting off posting, simply because we don't have all the answers yet and I hate to say too much when I don't know everything yet... Dr. M called us and said the results weren't what we had been hoping for...there was 69% flow to his left lung.  He thought Dr. D (the one who performs the caths in Iowa City) may want to do the cath sooner than we thought (he even breathed the word...surgery...which I promptly ignored.)  However, I know the last scan he had done the flow was 75%, so it seems like it is better than it was then.  Dr. M and Dr. D need to discuss the next step, and they haven't connected yet.  Iowa City has the results and we are just hoping and praying we can put this off until after the holidays and his birthday.  I'll be sure to update when we have a plan.  Until then...thanks for your prayers!  Please pray we can put it off and enjoy the holidays together.

 

I'd love to hear about your Christmas holidays and traditions!

Growing Up!

This little monkey is excited today!

He just found out he's going to see...

Andrew loves Curious George lately.  I mean, he IS a little monkey, after all!  Some of you may remember this was his first birthday theme, even though at the time he really didn't know who Curious George was!

They were about the same size!

Anyway, this little monkey has grown to love George more and more, and the CG movie is his favorite thing to watch (it is almost tied with Elmo!)  So, we couldn't resist getting tickets to see the upcoming live performance.  We took Andrew to Sesame Street Live back in May, not sure how he'd handle it, and he loved it.  So we are pretty sure he's going to love this too.  It is coming in January, so we got him tickets for his birthday!  We can't wait!

In other news...Andrew is reading!  I was so shocked the other day when he was going through books in his room and pulled out "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle and started reading it!!  Obviously, he is learning more at school than I could ever imagine.  I had no idea he knew all his shapes, colors, numbers, and most letters too!  His teacher told me the other day that he is the leader at circle time!  Shouting out the names when she shows them.  (Now we just have to work on raising his hand!)  Ha!  We are so proud of him and everything he's learning.  Listen to him read!  Turn your sound up because he is kind of quiet, but soooooo sweet! (Pause the music at the bottom).

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We can just tell he is getting more and more grown up each day.  Where he used to throw all the tracks off his train table and mess it all up, playing with his "choo choos" is now his favorite thing to do.  He spends countless hours in his playroom, putting all his trains together and driving them around and around his table.  He used to get mad because he couldn't figure out how they "stuck" together with the magnets but soon figured out if they don't "stick," just turn the train around!  The other day I watched him create his own little design on his table, placing all the bridges, roundhouse, mountain, etc so carefully, just the way he wanted them.

Andrew has another new addition to his bedroom too.  A friend of mine told me about a posting on Craig's List- a pirate bedroom!  Tons of neat stuff for sale.  I found this darling boat bookshelf, which is now in Andrew's room!

Isn't it perfect?

Thank you so much for all the fun ideas on what to do above Andrew's bed!  I love the paddle idea.  I think that is what I am going to do!  I can picture them criss-crossed with his name on one of them.  I also want to put his name on the treasure chest for his toys.  I can't wait to get his room all done!

Thank you again for all the prayers for Andrew's appointment.  We still don't have results yet, but are having fun this weekend and trying not to think about it!  We have the tree up and one excited little boy!  You can't help but be happy watching the joy on his face.  I'll have more pictures to show soon...

There's No Place Like Home...

Thanks so much for everyone's prayers.  We really appreciated all the calls, emails, messages and texts! :)  It is so nice to know so many are thinking about and praying for Andrew.  Reading all the messages kept me busy while waiting for the procedure to be completed.  Thank you so much!

Andrew was just in the best mood all day.  He woke up happy as a lark and never once asked to eat.  He cuddled in bed with us and then I moved into his bed with him and he read me a story (yes, he can read now! Ha!) :)  More about that later... anyway, we were able to distract him with his trains (his new favorite thing to play with). 

When we got there he was in such a good mood that I really wanted to try to do the test without sedation.  He was flirting with the child life specialist and playing with all the toys, etc.  He was so happy.  I was so proud of how he behaved- he never ran from us (we are usually chasing him up and down the halls!  Ha!) and he held our hands every time we walked somewhere.  He did such a good job sitting on our laps and playing with his toys while we waited.  The poor little guy hadn't eaten since last night and he never complained or cried once.  He is getting to be so much more grown up and mature.  Not a baby anymore!

The child life specialist was showing him what the machine looked like, using a smaller replica and having Sheriff Woody lay down on the table.  She showed him how it took pictures of his heart.  He had fun playing with this for quite a while!

Well, when they came to do the IV, it was all downhill from there.  He freaked out when they were holding him down.  We couldn't distract him with bubbles, shiny toys or anything.  They had the IV in at one point, but he moved his hand and it came out.  This was pretty traumatic for him, so at that point we all decided rather than attempting to poke him again and not being successful, we would go ahead with plans to sedate him.  I was a nervous wreck, but I knew it was for the best. 

The bad part about sedation (besides the risks we won't talk about!) is the fact that we don't get to stay with him throughout the scan.  Had he been awake, they would have let us stay.  This meant I had to pry myself away after they put him under using the scary mask over his face, which is almost worse torture than the IV was.  We had to wait in the surgery waiting area, an all too familiar place.  I was slightly unhappy (that is putting it mildly, just ask Craig!) because it was supposed to take 30 minutes, and we didn't hear anything for over an hour.  Turns out, they had taken him to the first recovery room and had him wake up without us being there.  Yeah, I was NOT happy.  In Iowa City we always get to be there the second they roll him out of the room so when he wakes up the first thing he sees is our faces.  When we were finally told we could go to see him, I could tell he had been awake for a while, as a nurse was holding him and walking around the room with him, trying to console him.  All I can hear is him screaming, "Mama!  Mama!"  My heart pretty much broke.  Are they nuts?  Nobody can console him but Mama.

I scooped him up right away and he immediately snuggled into me- the best feeling in the world.  They gave him some apple juice and crackers, which he promptly threw up on the way home.  Yeah, add cleaning the car and car seat to my long list of things to do this weekend!  Gotta love that sedation. 

He is napping now after a bath and some toast.  He's happy to be home.  We all are.  We are so grateful everything went well (for the most part!)

We won't know any results probably until Monday.  I called Dr. M and he said he'd give me a call when they know something.  We are praying for good results so we can put the cath off even longer!

Thanks again for all of your support.  We really appreciated all the messages.  It helps so much to know how many people are thinking of us and praying for Andrew.

Sleep tight, my sweet, sweet boy...

Prayers for our little man!

Will you pray for my little man?

The little man who has captured my heart, along with so many others.

Tomorrow is his Lung Profusion Scan.  Many have asked me what this is for, and what it is, so I wanted to post a quick update letting everyone know.

A lung profusion scan is performed to determine the amount of blood flowing to each lung, basically.  Last time Andrew had this scan performed, it was 25% and 75%.  This was about a year ago, and we were told these were okay numbers ("for him").  Of course, 50/50 is a much better scenario.  But this is a heart child we're dealing with... different set of rules.  At Andrew's last cardiology appointment, it was decided that he wouldn't need surgery as soon as we thought (yay!) but that he'll still need a cardiac catheterization sometime in the near future.  We were told back in February at his last cath that he would need another one in 6-9 months... well, we are in the 9th month now.  However, Dr. Mooradian thought we might be able to put it off until after his birthday (another yay!) based on the results of his echo (stable).  After consulting with Iowa City, Dr. Mooradian and Dr. Divekar decided to have this scan performed, just to make sure he is stable enough to put the cath off for a few more months.  They are being cautious... and this is fine with us.

Although, does it look like this kid could have any MORE energy???

(And yes, I am aware he has Curious George socks on over the top of his footie pj's... I just have no explanation!)

Andrew can't eat after midnight, and the test is at 10:00am Friday morning.  We are praying he sleeps late and eats a huge dinner tonight!  The question of whether to sedate him or not is being tossed around.  I am leaning towards no sedation, because the risks scare me.  However, he's been sedated many times before, and I know God is watching over him.  He'll need to have an IV placed so they can inject dye to get good pictures.  Then he will be placed on a large table (much like an MRI) with a large machine that will take pictures.  If he is not sedated, they said he can watch a video and they can try to do it.  But, if he is too wiggly and they can't get the info they need, they'll have to go ahead and put him under.  My plan is to play it by ear and see how the morning goes.

I'll update once everything is done.  I'm not sure how long we'll be in the hospital, but the test only takes about 30 minutes.  I am hoping they let us go after he's in recovery for a while and wakes up.

We appreciate all of your prayers and support!  We are so encouraged by your messages also.  Please remember, I made it easier to leave comments here on the blog.  Just click "comments" and another box should pop up.  You type your message, then type a code (and mark anonymous unless you have a google account), and it should work.  Be sure to sign your name so we know who you are! :)  If you receive these updates by email, you can just click "email author" at the bottom and we'll get your message.  Easy!  We love hearing from everyone who is praying for our son.  If you don't leave a message, we don't know you've stopped by! :)

Andrew says, "Thanks for praying for me!"

Everything but the Kitchen Sink!

Whew!  It has been quite the busy weekend around here.  First of all...are we back to summer?!  The weather was too gorgeous to not be outside.  Despite the long list of things I wanted to get done this weekend, we did make some time to walk to the park and play outside.  Gotta take advantage of it, because SNOW will be on the way before we know it!

Before I tell about our weekend, will you pray for Andrew's upcoming appointment on Friday?  He's having the Lung Profusion Scan done here at Mercy, but he needs to be sedated so he can't eat all morning- the test is at 10:00.  Thank you!

The first thing I wanted to do this weekend was use up the 4 cans of pumpkin I had in my pantry.  So at 6:30 on Saturday morning when Andrew's sweet little voice was calling for me, I got up and started baking!  (I know, those of you who knew me in my past life are thinking...WHAT?!?)  There was a day I wouldn't have risen much before 10:00am, especially on a Saturday morning!  I baked 8 loaves of bread and 3 dozen muffins.  Soooo yummy!  (By the way, in case you are wondering what on Earth we plan to do with it all...most of it is frozen for Thanksgiving get togethers, and some has been distributed to my mom and the neighbors... bet you wish you lived next door!) Ha!

It's okay though... Andrew and I had a perfect Saturday afternoon nap together...

Priceless.

Something else we had to tackle was Andrew's new big boy bedroom.  I wanted to take a minute to reminisce again... All these transitions have made me so emotional- thinking back to those early days when we first brought him home and he used to sleep in a little glider by my side of the bed.  Then the transition to his crib and his room...

 

This has always been one of my favorite pictures of him.  He has always been such a good sleeper (NOT napper, though!)  But at bedtime he always would go right down in his crib, and put himself to sleep.  He still does... most of the time!   The funny part now is when we ask him if he is ready for night night, he'll shake his head and say "No!" Ha!

Another favorite... this was right after we brought him home from the NICU in March of 2007.  He only weighed 5 lb.  Look how cuddly he is!  He was wearing my favorite preemie outfit my mom gave him to wear home.  It came with a little hat that matched with elephant ears.  There is an elephant on the front eating a peanut.  We always called him "Peanut" (still do!).

 

Ok...need I say more??  These pj's were my favorites... I love how tight they are and how his little legs are curled up.  We used to have to roll a blanket and put below him so he wouldn't scooch down (we had to elevate his bed because of his reflux)!

 

Ok, this one pretty much speaks for itself!  This is probably my favorite one yet.  These are footie pajamas, yet, he HAD to wear the Elmo slippers over the top!  This was our first sign he might be getting a little big for his crib!  He was about to turn 2.

This was the first night in his toddler bed~ the night of the Heartwalk in June of 2009.

It was pretty much after we switched him to a toddler bed that he decided mommy and daddy's bed was more appealing!

 

Lol!  This just cracks me up.  Honestly, this is what he does!  Takes up one entire side of the bed... and sometimes both!  He occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night and he always wants in our bed.  We figure, as long as he still goes to sleep in his own room at bedtime, it is okay to let him come in bed with us when he wakes in the night.  And also, because basically, we are too tired at that time to fight it!

I mean, seriously!  Could he take up any more space?!?

It's okay.  I absolutely love those nights when he wakes up to come in our bed.  I love hearing him say "mama?" on the monitor until I come get him.  I love that when I go in to get him he lays his head right down on my chest as I carry him to our bed.  I love how when we get into bed, he lays in my arms and lets me rub his back until he falls asleep.  I could always bring him back to his bed at that point.  But the truth is, I'd rather cuddle with him in that bed forever.  So I let him stay.

 

Ok, so a toddler bed is actually the same size as a crib, it's just lower to the ground!  I always knew I wanted a bigger bed for him...just wasn't sure when the time would be right.

We decided that this winter, he was going to be too cold laying on the floor (lol!) or just on top of his crib sheet because he never stays covered.

So the time was this weekend.  I had been planning it for a while.  Back when I was pregnant with him, we had his room painted with this mural that I love so much.  I loved it because it didn't look too "realistic" and was very fun and whimsical.  I struggled with what to do for a big boy room for Andrew, because I never wanted to paint over that mural!

 

I always liked Pirates for him (since he has such a "cool" battle wound across his chest!)  And I fell in love with this pirate bedding by Olive Kids.  I couldn't believe how well it matched his mural.  It even has a palm tree in sand that looks just like his wall.  The colors matched perfectly and I didn't even need to change the curtains or the rug.

 

I am still deciding what to do about a headboard.  This is an odd sized bed.  We had it at the lake after Craig and I got married- it had to squeeze in a small room.  I thought it would be a perfect size for him.  It is between a twin and a full.  The bedding is all full size in case I ever want to go up in size.  A headboard won't fit so I'm going to have to custom make it.  I am thinking about a boat steering wheel or a life preserver with his name on it.  What do you think?

 

We also had this neat chest at the lake to store sheets in.  My mom gave it to me thinking it would fit perfect in his pirate room, since it looks like a treasure chest.  I think it looks awesome!  I plan to keep some toys in it for him.  He is also going to get a chair for Christmas for the corner, along with a pail for books.  I am still not sure what chair yet.  I am also still playing with the arrangement of the room, but for now I like it.

 

Andrew loves it!  He was so excited when we were putting it up for him.  He ran in and out of the frame and when we put the box spring on he wanted to lay on it!  He wouldn't even let me make the bed, he just kept jumping on the mattress and looking at himself in the mirror!

We are going to start a new tradition of reading him a bedtime story in his new bed (because we can lay in it with him!)  Then we always have said prayers, so we will continue to do that.  The other night he started rattling off the prayer all by himself.  He went through every name of his friends and family.  It was just precious and I am so proud that he knows how to pray.

That was just one of many more projects we squeezed into one weekend!  Ha!  I'll quickly share with you my next project...

 These were mine when I was a little girl.  My uncle made the set for me and my dad painted it.  It has been saved for me to use for my kids someday.  I thought the someday might not come until I had a little girl...but let me tell you...Andrew loves play kitchens!  It is his favorite thing to play with at school.  I bought him a huge box of play food for $10 to give to him for Christmas, along with this kitchen.

Only it's not going to look like that!  It's going to look like this:

Yeah, this is from Pottery Barn Kids.  And it costs $299 per piece (in case you're not doing the math, that's $900!)

I'll show you my project when it's all done...it's in the works right now.  It's all been painted chocolate brown (my weekend project!) now I have to do the silver trim and replace the hardware.  I am so excited... it's going to look like it was straight out of the PBK store!  And it's going to cost about $875 less!  The best part is, Andrew is going to love it and I can't wait to see his face when it is sitting under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

While we were doing projects...Andrew got into a little mischief... (don't ask why he has no pants on, my oven mitt on his hand and all my potholders on the floor!)  He learned how to open the oven door now so he was "pretending" to cook.  There's an accident waiting to happen... I told you he loved kitchens!  Ha! (Oh and his shirt is quite fitting...it says "I'm ready for FUN!  Let's PLAY!")

Apparently he loves sinks, too.  I caught him in one when I turned my back for 2 seconds.

He did manage to give us an hour of free time when he took a nap... on the floor by the gate of his bedroom!

It's really a miracle we got anything done isn't it?  I didn't mention that we also rearranged Andrew's playroom upstairs, set up a playroom for him in the basement for this winter (so he can ride his bike around and learn to pedal!)... oh yeah, and Craig hung the Christmas lights on the house.  Whew! 

Isn't it fun to get things done!  And I still have time to go downstairs, eat some pumpkin bread with my hubby and snuggle in to watch our favorite Sunday night shows!  Because the little pirate is crashed and down for the night (hopefully) in his new pirate bed!

Next weekend, I'm tackling the Christmas decorations..