B has a heart murmur

Today was B's first cardiologist visit.  He's been having some minor symptoms that could be linked to CHD (and that could also be many other things) and combining that with our family history (two siblings with CHD and a great uncle that died a week after birth), he got a referral to be checked out at the cardiology clinic that diagnosed S.

He did fantastic :)  He was very cooperative and followed directions really well.  His EKG was normal but the cardio wanted an echo as well because Iz and S both had CHD.  It turns out that B has a heart murmur--first I've heard about it!  But his echo went beautifully and they got many really clear pictures that show no defects :)  Our tech was very thorough and it took a long time but they wanted to be really sure he was okay!  So his murmur is being classified as an innocent murmur and he does not need follow-up care and it shouldn't effect him at all.

I was hoping for everything being normal but I'll take an innocent murmur over a more serious diagnosis :)

What do you say when you see someone?

Lately in therapy Izzy has been working on ordinary things that make her anxious and therefore shut down.  Today, we were talking about what you do when you see someone (say hi!) or are leaving (bye bye!).  Typically when we see someone, she shuts down and looks down at the floor and won't interact with them, even when it is someone she knows well.  So we practiced waving and saying hi or bye.  And then her therapist took her for a walk through the office and they practiced saying hi to people and then bye on the way back to the room :)  When we left to go home, she even spoke to people in the elevator, which is a really big deal for her.  It was a good session!

She talks!

Izzy had Early Intervention today.  We were meeting in her old playgroup classroom, the informal one she went to before she was old enough to be a part of the structured "official" group.  I think Miss J and I were both expecting her to be very hesitant since she probably doesn't remember the room and new things make her so anxious but she did really well.  She spent some time hiding behind me and pretending Miss J wasn't there but eventually some of the toys caught her interest and she even went through several period of talking to Miss J!  We still had plenty of silence where she verbally shut down but even then she was still engaging Miss J, showing her things, making eye contact, gesturing for her to play, too.  Eye contact and engaging and talking?  That makes for a fantastic visit :D

I'm a spider!

Last night before bed, we took a family walk :)  Izzy loves to go for walks and whenever we visit my parents, she bugs my mom to take her on walks around the neighborhood.  We typically go for walks at local parks that have walking trails but last night, we opted for around our neighborhood.  We don't do this often because there are no sidewalks but it seemed to be a quiet night and we tried to stick to the lesser traveled side roads.

We meandered our way to a small park and despite it being a rather sad old park, the kids were very excited to stop and play because it was "new".  They can have fun just about anywhere, as long as they can say they were at a park :)

S decided to go head first up and over this and he got stuck LOL  He wanted me to take and picture and then get him down :p

B also loved it and spent most of his time climbing up and then lowering himself down through the bars so he could swing :)

S also declared himself a spider and this was his web:

And they never go in the same direction!

Would you like to Facetime?

Today was Izzy's therapy day. She has been looking forward to it and talking about it for days--she really does like her therapist.  But, man, the moment we go through the doors to the building, she just shuts down.  She loosened up a little in the waiting room and even talked to me a bit about what she thought we were going to do but as soon as Miss S appeared, she was full-on throwing a fit about NOT GOING IN.  *sigh*  She loves therapy but she gets so anxious :\

We tried something new today and Miss S used Facetime.  Izzy thought this was the funniest and silliest thing ever because we were sitting across the table and using Facetime :p  But she did loosen up and by the third Facetime call, she was actually talking on it, which is kind of big for her.  Now, she typically will talk on the regular phone just fine but once we use Facetime, she takes a while to warm up which I think is probably really hard on her Dad.  He lives in North Dakota for work and without internet where he lives, he has to find time to go to the local coffee shop before they close (middle of nowhere means they close early, often before he's done with work).  It doesn't happen as often as he'd like and when he does call, she takes so long to warm up he doesn't get to talk to her too much :(  And the boys have the attention spans of gnats so when he calls/Facetimes, they blurt out everything in a few seconds and then get distracted and wander off......

Miss S is hoping to get her more comfortable with Facetime so her anxiety won't keep her from talking to her Dad!  She does like talking to him on the phone, though, so at least they have that.  He'd like to see her as they talk, though, and I'm betting she does, too, since she talks up a storm about Facetiming after we hang up.  Poor kid is sometimes crippled by that anxiety :\

More referrals!!

My busy little B had his yearly checkup today and he was having a good day :)  He was cooperative and talkative and his pediatrician was so pleased with the progress he's made from when she first met him.  Those two years of special ed preschool have done wonders for him.  There is still plenty to work on, though, but she is also feeling hopeful about things because Dr. B (neuropsych) has made more progress on diagnosing him so he can get therapy in the last few months than I've been able to do in the last three years.  You get the right team and you finally start getting somewhere!

One thing we talked about is his excessive sweating.  You look at him wrong and he sweats.  His teacher often has to change his clothes at school because he is soaked.  Everyone else will be fine and he will be bright red and dripping.  When he was younger, it was bad but not quite this bad.  It has a fancy name, hyperhydrosis, and our first step if seeing if it is just "normal" for him or has a medical reason is to send him over to cardiology.  I wanted him evaluated by cardiology anyway, just in case, so two birds and all that, right?

I also brought up sending him over to neurology and she said she was going to ask us to go so she and I are on the same page there :)  B used to have the same symptoms as Iz that led to her epilepsy diagnosis and while it doesn't happen as often to him, I still see some of those things.  And Dr. M (pediatrician) said sometimes the extreme meltdowns and sudden end of them are actually seizure behavior.  So we'll have him checked over and see what happens.

Progress :)

Water parks are fun! Until you freeze.....

Last week was S's birthday and one of his presents was an afternoon fun with his aunt.  They went to a waterpark and had dinner together and she and I thought they would spend hours at the waterpark.  It was a very hot and muggy day so the cool water would feel great.  He tends to get very cold in water so the hot weather would keep him warmed up so he could have fun.

Nope.  They were there for a very short time.  While everyone else was sweating, my poor boy started to turn blue from cold.  I  used to think his inability to handle very hot and cold was because he's such a skinny little thing but Izzy is a solid little girl now and she also can't handle extremes.  Makes me wonder if the (now closed) CHD cardio discovered a few months back is actually the culprit.  He still had fun, though, and went on his favorite tube slide multiple times and has been talking about it nonstop :)  He is hoping she'll give him a trip to the waterpark next year, too! 

Facebook?

I guess we'll try our hand at this Facebook thing, too?

https://www.facebook.com/piperandthekids

Another cute kid post.....

Well, since S got a picture post and B got a picture post, I figured I'd better give Iz one, too ;)

The Super B!

There's no real point to this post other than LOOK AT HOW CUTE MY KID IS!!!!

Happy Birthday!

I'm about half an hour late with this :)  It is technically July 9th, not the 8th but we had a bit of a late night!

Nine years ago, on July 8th at 9:28pm, my first little man made his appearance:

He has been growing up too fast ever since: