All Sorts of News

February 15th was B.J.’s b-day, we are both officially now “in our 30’s”. We’ve had a few different celebrations for him. At the Super Bowl party we attended I made cupcakes and we sang to him, over the weekend we celebrated with his parents and had cake and ice cream, and then on the 15th we went to Red Robin with my parents and enjoyed his sundae there!

The 15th was also Annabel’s echo. She did great for it, didn’t even need to be sedated. Her little heart is absolutely perfect, just like I knew it was! Nephrology does want to repeat a renal (kidney) ultrasound in 6 months to monitor the growth of her left kidney compared to the scan done 6 months ago which had shown it growing but fairly smaller in size compared to her right kidney. I was in complete agreement of this, not that the results would change anything regarding her care but if something were to happen down the road with her right kidney we would want to know the functionality of her left kidney. After this appointment I imagine that we will be discharged from Nephrology. The fellow couldn’t believe how much Annabel has grown and both of the doctors were amazed with her progress! While we were waiting for the echo I was looking at a book of puppies with her and she clearly said “puppy and ball” and while I was tickeling her she repeatedly said “tick, tick”. She is definitely coming along in her speech!

Saturday the 13th we had the Daddy/Daughter and Mother/Son dances. Johnathan was a hoot! As soon as we entered the gym with the music he started jamming, he’s got some great moves! He was by far the smallest boy there; in fact, when they sat down to watch the magician he stood and was pretty much the same height as the other boys sitting!




B.J. said that Mady also enjoyed herself, dancing around and twirling and very curious of the all the girls. She loved the special attention of dancing alone with Daddy. Annabel of course loved the music, especially the songs with a lot of bass. She was up standing and dancing for quite awhile!





On the 18th I visited Mady and Johnathan’s (and possibly Annabel too) preschool where they will start in the fall. After visiting I am confident that Annabel could function well in that classroom too, now it’s just a matter of determining if there are opportunities in the 5 day program that would help her accel even more. The teacher was great and according to her they will get any equipment that Annabel may need – whether it’s a special chair, the platform swing, etc. I will also visit the 5 day classroom/teacher, I’m hoping that this visit will provide a clear answer as to the best solution for Annabel. We will continue to get further input with the 4 day teacher and therapists and the 5 day teacher visiting the kids in their SMILE preschool as well as visiting them in the home. The 18th was also Annabel's last OT session with Stephanie who saw her while her regular OT was on maternity leave. Stephanie has gotten to see her do some great developments in the last few months!


While Annabel was doing hippotherapy on Saturday the 20th my cousin Julie and I took Mady and Johnathan to Borders for Elmo’s birthday celebration. It was ok but not what I was expecting. It was good for the kids to get out though and to experience “circle time”, sitting still and being quiet while the story was read.

Last week Johnathan had his vision consultant come to the house for their monthly appointment. Between her, myself, and our other therapists we have been evaluating him in certain areas to see where he falls in comparison to others his age. It provides a good understanding of the areas we need to work on and where he’s acceling. I have to say that overall we were very pleasantly surprised, he is falling well in to the 2-3 year old range in many categories – way to go Johnathan!! On the 25th Johnathan had his audiology follow-up appointment we received an FM transmitter to try at home with him. I can’t wait to see how it will benefit him!

This past Saturday B.J. and I were able to have a date night – dinner at Red Lobster (one of my favorites) and whirley ball with 6 other couples from our multiples group, we had a great night! This week has all of the usual therapies plus I’m meeting with the teacher for the 5 day program at Pathway to gather more information to help make the decision for which classroom Annabel should be in. Johnathan also has his pulmonary follow-up on Friday, hopefully it goes as well as last time!