November

It's officially the holiday season...at our house we just made the transitions from Fall to Christmas (literally just yesterday we had pumpkins still on the porch and some Christmas things up inside...which, by the way, got called out by Cousin Bea!) So, we threw the pumpkins out and we are officially Christmas! 

I was bad with taking pictures this month...I got some great ones, but most are from the last week of the month, even though we made some other wonderful memories that just didn't get captured on film...like celebrate our 8th anniversary! With everything going on, we simply did not stop and take a photo. John and I got to go out for dinner to Wood Tavern...it was wonderful! GREAT time alone together and GREAT food...John now claims it as his best meal out, ever! That title previously belonged to a dinner we had at Mustard's Grill several years ago. We also got to celebrate that week by going to see the Lion King...I had never seen it before and I loved it! It is truly amazing. This was made possible by Aunt Nancy and a good family friend, who happens to be a Pediatric Nurse. They came over and watched the boys, while John and I took BART to San Francisco, had dinner out, and went to the Orpheum Theatre (which I love going to...it is so beautiful). This was the first time that we were not the ones administering Henry's medications and food, which was a big deal for us. But we felt totally comfortable and had a great, but very late, night out. In honor of our anniversary, here are wedding pictures of us, 8 years ago :)

I hope I don't get in trouble for posting these pics...but they are the only ones I have saved on our computer!   We also have somewhat of a tradition of watching at least part of our wedding video every year around our anniversary...this year we shared it with Grady. It was so sweet to show it to him...he loved seeing us on TV and everyone else that is important in his life. We will definitely continue this in the years ahead!

We had a good Thanksgiving...celebrated with the "immediate" Branagh family...sweet time together, lot's of good food, and constant entertainment from all the kiddos. So very thankful for our family!

Henry, John, Millie

Friday after Thanksgiving, we loaded up and went to Mendocino. We had a good trip...so good to get away and breathe some different air, and just good to do our routine somewhere else :). The weather was great Friday and Saturday and the drive there is simply stunning.  It had been 2 years since we had been (we are never going to go that long between visits again!) and went a couple weeks earlier that time, which was equally as beautiful. You drive right through Sonoma County...the vineyards span the rolling hills, and the foliage on the vines is spectacular. We witnessed one gorgeous sunset over the ocean, had some great beach time playing in the sand, ate some good Mexican food, and just had some much needed time away. The boys slept good and traveled well. We will do it again soon, but maybe try to have one more full day there...by the time we packed everything and made the drive, it sure would be nice to stay a little longer ;)

Henry conveniently pulled his NG tube out Saturday morning...
that is why it isn't in these pictures

worn out boy on the way home

Henry update...This last week has been a roller coaster. We had our appointment down at Lucile Packard (Stanford). We were obviously anxious leading up to the appointment...hoping for a miracle of everything to be better, but also realizing that the doctors could say the opposite. At the least, we wanted this "second opinion" (we have had several along the way, this was just an official one) to be parallel with the thoughts and treatment Henry is currently getting at CHO. Though most things were parallel, the Stanford doctor surprised us by being much less optimistic than we had hoped. He said that he did not think that Henry was going to get better on his own and that numbers and statistics show that he will need a heart transplant. And that this would most likely happen before Henry was a toddler. He wants to see Henry once a month for now, while continuing his treatment at CHO. He was, however, very pleased to see how well Henry looks and hear how well he is, considering his heart function. We were shocked...we knew that transplant was a possibility, but we have not been thinking that we were anywhere near that right now. They do a whole day just for information on the whole transplant process, and he wants us to come do that in the near future. We intentionally held back from learning too much about it yet.

That was Tuesday. We had our regular appointment with Henry's Cardiologist Dr. Patel at CHO on Friday, and both John and I feel much better after talking through all of this with him. He reminded us that we don't know what the outcome of all of this is going to be...we can talk to several different people who can either make us feel good about it, or make us terribly upset about it all. He encouraged us to continue to focus on Henry right now...and not to worry about the future until we need to (easier said than done, but we are really going to try to do this). He didn't disagree with the doctor at Stanford, but he assuredly said that Henry does not need a transplant now, and that is most important.

What John and I are taking from this...we are grateful to be near one of the best Pediatric Heart Centers in the world and under the care of very good doctors. We were disappointed for this news, as we were hoping that we never had to have that conversation. But we will continue to put our hope in the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and the perfect Creator of our little boy. We are praying for complete healing, and that in the mean time, Henry's heart function would be just what he needs to happily grow and thrive. We are praying for clarity, as we cipher through all of the information that we are about to receive. And we are praying for normalcy...that we would not be so bogged down and worried that we miss out on the here and now. For what is present, is pretty sweet.

Some funny things by Grady that we never want to forget...

*We have had a few "daddy packs" this month...A daddy pack comes out if Grady doesn't like his dinner and it happens to be a dinner that mashes well together and can be squeezed out of a plastic bag! We have found that this works really well with Turkey Loaf...and magically, he eats it! 

*Grady loved being at the house in Mendocino...it was a little confusing that we went to stay in a house where the owner was not around...he kept asking, "Who lives here?" One night, we went to get ready for bed, and he turned back to us and asked, "Do these people have a toothbrush and toothpaste for me?"

*We don't have cable. Yes, this is the truth and we haven't had it for 2 1/2 years now! So when Grady watches TV, it is at very intentional times and he gets to pick from the videos that we have. He loves "watching something". At least once a day he asks, "Can I watch lil' something on my TV?"

*When talking to Coley last week, she made her Santa nutcracker talk like he was really Santa, and Grady believed it! He sweetly and innocently answered all of his questions and genuinely wanted to carry on a conversation with him. Hilarious! 

*I am daily amazed how he plays with his trains alone...he is so creative, so imaginative, and has the cutest conversations and interactions between them.

*We survived the first round of sickness through our home this fall...Grady came down with a pretty bad virus with a high fever that lasted a few days...he has seen Henry get poked and prodded way too much and always refers to the pokes as "flu shots". And he knows that Henry's pokes are only to make Henry better. So when he was not feeling well, he kept asking for a flu shot. One night he was relentless in asking for one, so John grabbed a huge (big enough to hold a glass of orange juice!) syringe and pretended to give Grady a "flu shot"! It was followed by lots of screams, even though he still wanted it, and we all couldn't help but laugh when he finally understood that Daddy was just kidding ;)

*He is very polite and uses please and thank you often. One of his favorites is No, Thank you. The only problem is he uses it when you are telling him to do something and "No, thank you" is not an option! For example, "You need to pick up you toys." "No, thank you." Or, "It's time to get ready for your nap." "No, thank you Mommy." ;)