Brighter than the Sun

Friday, May 10, 2013

Mom's Day Lunch at School

For some reason, the video manager is not working. Here are the links to a couple videos you don't want to miss!

Today was the Pre-K Annual Mother's Day Lunch. I was served lunch by Avery, entertained with song, dance and ... well, you'll see...

http://youtu.be/f2IsR0ZyIFI
http://youtu.be/z-ijzhQRgHM

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Quick update about Friday's OHSU appointment

Greetings and sorry for the delay...!

Keane is really status quo. Still no signs of pulmonary hypertension, which means that he can wean off of his Viagra over the next three weeks (whoo hoo!). However, there is between a 5% and 95% chance that he will need a mitral valve replacement in the future, at some point. He has moderate mitral valve stenosis. It will be nice to medicine-free, none-the-less!

Thanks for all your warm thoughts and wishes!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Good catch!

Opening day for T-ball (April 27)

Go short-stop go!

After dinner bike ride... Spring has arrived!

Yes, yes. It's been WAY too long since we've posted anything. We are in full "survive Mom's last term of her PhD program coursework" mode. There's so much to share, yet we are not sure where to start!

Both kids are great. Avery started T-ball, which is hilarious and very entertaining. She recently started at a new gymnastics center, which she seems to be enjoying quite a bit. She is still loving school is becoming an independent and thoughtful little bug. Check her out on her bike - that's only a couple weeks of pedaling solo! In addition, Aves is anxiously awaiting musical theater and horse camps this summer. I am also hoping to enroll her in a survival swim class, but I am not sure where it might fit into our summer schedule. If not survival swim, then just another round of swim lessons!

Keane is progressing well. He has really great cognitive skills that are on par with his peers, with his receptive language abilities improving daily. Although he can understand our communication to him, identify animals, objects and people correctly, he can't say much! He has a few words - "dog," "ball," "Dad (not Mom)," "yah" for yes, and the ever popular "all done." Ben insists he says "elbow," but I haven't heard it. Strange compilation of words, indeed. He's cruising now, army crawling everywhere. He can also pull himself to standing, but doesn't seem to have the confidence yet to transfer between locations.

Keane has potentially his last follow-up sedated cardiac echo on Friday (5/3). There is a chance that he will be cleared to wean off of his three times a day Viagra. It would take a few weeks to reduce the dose until we could finally be done with heart care. Wouldn't it be nice if we could close that chapter before our one year anniversary of what will forever be one of the most challenging days of our lives - June 14. Well, we will have to wait and see what happens on Friday.

Erin has five more weeks of coursework. Five weeks to finish what seems impossible at this point in terms of workload. Ben's been pulling weekend duty and covering for T-ball practice and other after school logistics while Mom sits in Tuesday and Thursday night classes - anyone available to help with econometrics? He really only has time to brew a few beers with his Dad and Eric on a somewhat regular basis. We are looking forward to starting our new life schedule at the end of June, with Erin starting a new 30 hour per week job at a local foundation and no longer having to commute full time to Corvallis. There's still some research to finish and publish before the letters are final... but, Wow! It's been a crazy couple of years juggling school, kids and sanity. Oh wait, something had to give... obviously that was our sanity.

Looking forward to summer that includes more fun, friends and family.