Beginning of Fall

It's officially Fall...where did the summer go?!?!? I truly can't believe it, but I love it. John and I both love Fall, for all of the obvious reasons, plus we both celebrate our birthdays in the beginning and that always feels like a fresh start...a new age, a new year of life, a new beginning. Grady loved celebrating our birthdays with us. He especially loved the birthday cake. He got so used to getting a piece of cake for dessert, that he will still ask, "Mommy, Daddy...if I eat my chicken all gone, and my sweet potatoes all gone, and my broccoli all gone, Grady have some birthday cake???" We love how he asks questions these days...he does a little inflection at the end of his sentence...so cute. Here he is enjoying one of the birthday cakes and painting his first painting with his new watercolors.

We have kind of gotten into a weekly routine...I still need to be better about having something planned on certain days, just to have some markers throughout the week... i.e. store/errands on Monday, craft day Tuesday, walk/park on Wednesday, etc. Maybe the next time I post I will have it all figured out...that should be my goal!  Grady did not start his little preschool program and we have no schedule activities so far. We still have at least one doctor visit each week, between seeing the cardiologist, doing blood work, or going to the pediatrician. We go this week for Henry's five month check-up...can't believe he is 5-months old! Speaking of our pediatrician, Henry's monkey is now named after her...Dr. Francis. Monkeys are kind of a thing at our house...Grady has two that are his best friends, Georgie and Monkey. Naturally, Henry received a monkey as a baby gift and he stayed with Henry in the hospital. We hadn't named him yet, but over the last couple of weeks Grady insists that his name is Dr. Francis. At one point, I said, "Oh, Francis is a great name for Henry's monkey!" Of which G responded, "No. DR. Francis." We couldn't think of a more fitting name for Henry's special monkey...we are so grateful for our real Dr. Francis, for so many reasons, but especially for her proactive care for Henry in getting his heart diagnosed.

Henry had an appointment with the cardiologist last Thursday. Everything is still the same. His heart function hasn't changed at all. This is good that it hasn't gotten any worse and that he still looks so good, but it is disappointing to not see improvement. Even just a little. We will continue with the same routine for the next 2 weeks and then add another medication to his current regiment. As long as Henry is growing and developing as he should, we are ok with his heart function staying the same. I am a little apprehensive about what may happen or change as he starts to get more active...rolling over alot (he has rolled over a couple times on his own!), sitting up, and eventually crawling. One day at a time right now...


We had Grady checked, just to make sure that if Henry's condition were genetic, that G doesn't have it also. He doesn't. He was totally normal.


One day last week, it got awfully quiet in our house, which is often not a good thing. I came around the corner into the kitchen and found the two boys under the desk! I ask G what he was doing and he told me that he and Henry were hiding...I asked who they were hiding from, and he said, "Mommy!"

Henry has a couple of nick names...Henny, Hennybug, and Boogga bear. Here is the little Boogga Bear sucking his thumb...he often finds his fingers/thumb and sucks away! He takes a paci too...something Grady never did. G calls him Boogga Bear too, which is so cute to hear him say.

This weekend we had to change Henry's tube. So we took it out in the morning when his feeds were finished and left it out all day. It was so great to see his sweet, little face with nothing on it. Saturday afternoon, John took G to an A's baseball game...they got to eat hot dogs, of course! And "peanut jacks" (peanuts and cracker jacks). They had a great time, until the last 30 minutes, where G turned into a true 2 1/2 year old. He can be the sweetest little boy ever, but he still has his moments. He tests us often, and acts out when he needs/wants attention. He always knows better, which amazes me. He is also so remorseful and genuinely feels bad for disobeying...he will often apologize hours or even days later for something he remembers he did wrong. Like the baseball game for instance...he knew that Daddy was upset with the way he was acting before they left (he did totally miss his nap though, so who can really blame him!). The next morning, while still in bed, he told John that he got to go to a baseball game with daddy and that he disobeyed and that he was sorry. Like it was the first thing on his mind...so sweet. Tonight he told us how nice it was for the farmer to give him the corn that was on his plate :). I love this age.