Adam also had an eye doctor appt this week. We went in expecting to be told that he would need to get bifocals. There is some concern about lazy eye with him, but we were pleasantly surprised that he was doing better than anticipated and will not need bifocals or vision therapy right now. We have really been pleased with how he’s adjusted to having glasses.

Our other news for the year is that we are expecting our third child, a boy, in May. The kids are quite excited. Adam told me the other day that he wished we had the baby now. Only 4 short months though before he arrives.

The kids are doing well. Both are in school (kindergarten and preschool) and are loving it. It’s fun to hear them talk about what they do during the day and see their projects.

They are both also in gymnastics this year and doing great. It’s amazing to see what they can do now compared to when they started.

Other than that, we are just keeping busy as usual. Our schedule isn’t too crazy this year, but it still seems like there’s always something going on.

The kids are doing great. Adam is loving preschool and has really thrived this year. He is approaching his 5th birthday. I can’t believe he’ll be 5 already! He still loves his trains and playing with his sister. His newest obsession though is the playstation 2. He loves to play 2 games in particular and I’m amazed at how good he is.

Emily is doing great too. She is quite vocal – and totally goofy. She is just fun to be around. She loves Adam and they play together so well. She is also into her babies right now and is currently trying to potty train them (even though she isn’t trained yet herself).

We have gotten outside as much as we can this winter. When it’s not bitter cold, we do bundle up and play outdoors. The kids really love it. The last two days we’ve gone sledding. Adam went too fast down the first time and was almost done, but was convinced to try again from half way up. Once he did that, he LOVED it. He especially loved when he ran into a tree. Emily also went down – some with Adam and some by herself. She wasn’t quite as high as he was, but I was still surprised at how much she loved it. Here are some links to some videos of the kids sledding:

Adam Sledding
Emily Sledding
Adam and Emily Sledding

First off, our remodel is done! It was a long winter/spring. The house is beautiful though and we are so happy with it. We have a ton of pictures on the remodel page. I will be posting more final pictures soon. We are done with all the cleaning and most of the organizing. We still have a bit of decorating to do, but that is a work in progress.

We’ve also had a couple of birthdays. Adam turned 4 in March. The house was in the middle of construction so we had a party for him at his favorite train store – Choo Choo Bobs. He loves being 4 and it’s one of the first things he tells people when he meets them. Emily just turned 2 on May 2nd. She also loves to tell people “Emmy – two!” She talks about her “big party” and her “mouse cake”. She really has started talking a lot lately. She also copies everything her brother does – good and bad! They still get along really well, but have begun egging each other on a bit which definitely makes things interesting.

With birthday’s come doctor appointments. Adam’s stats were 38 3/4 inches tall and 34 1/2 lbs. Emily was 33 1/4 inches and 27 lbs 2 oz.

Our big news for today is that we had cardiologist appointments for both kids. Emily had a small VSD from birth which hadn’t closed by the time she was 4 months. Today was our first echocardiogram since then. We were afraid she wouldn’t sit for us which would have meant no closure for another two years. However, she did cooperate (with the help of a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD) and we got the echo done. Her VSD has been covered by a pocket and she basically got the all clear. She will have a follow up echo in 5 years, but she is officially okay.

Adam’s news was a little more serious. We have known that he will have to have a surgery again sometime and it looks like that time has come. His case is being presented to the panel of surgeons and cardiologists either this Friday or next. They will make the final decision, but our cardiologist seemed to indicate that it will be soon. It is considered elective so we have some choice in the timing. We really don’t want to do it in the summer and they want to do it before cold/flu season, so we’re thinking it will be sometime in September or October. We don’t know for sure though and won’t until we hear from our doctor in the next few weeks.

Basically his mitral valve is still leaking as well as his aorta. That is what they are most concerned about it and they are watching to see when the best time for surgery should be. They don’t want to wait to long as they don’t want to strain the heart too much. He is still on blood pressure medication to help that as well. We will have the surgery at the same place with the same surgeon. Unfortunately they are not able to guarantee that this will be the last surgery either.

Anyway, we’re a little surprised even though we knew it was coming. We’ll definitely keep everyone updated as we learn more.

Here’s a link to some pictures from this morning:
http://www.heidisass.com/CardioMay2008/

Adam actually fell asleep during his echo. It took over 45 minutes. Emily’s was just 15 minutes and once she sat with me, she was fine.

http://www.heidisass.com/remodel/

We had an interesting weekend this past weekend. Emily got sick on Wednesday and threw up a couple of times from 4 until midnight. Then Adam got it on Friday night. Same thing. The good news was that it was short lived. However, I (Heidi) came down with it Saturday night. Jeff went to church Sunday morning to play drums and the kids got to stay home with their sick mommy! (let’s just say that Emily learned how to say the word “yuck” during this time!). Anyway, things were going okay until Adam fell down the stairs and cracked his head open. We ended up at Urgent Care (with Jeff meeting us there) and Adam now has a staple in his head. That was our first time having that sort of experience, but it probably won’t be the last. He is actually doing quite well and probably recovered more quickly than his mom did.

Anyway, we are looking forward to Christmas and hopefully an uneventful couple of days!

Emily’s cardiology appointment – We did this in September. It ended up being just an office visit, so we really don’t have any new news. She will have an echo at her next appointment which will now be in May (if she cooperates!) We have not been given any reason to be concerned about her hole as they expect it to close.

Emily’s 18 month appointment – We saw Dr. Sakkal on Halloween – a couple of days early as we suspected Adam had an ear infection and want to get him in as well. It was nice to have the appointments combined (and he did have an ear infection). Anyway, she was 24 lb 13 oz and 31.5 inches tall. Still perfectly in the 50th percentile. We did do a lead test (haven’t received the results yet) as we did have a lot of the recalled Thomas toys and I know she had them in her mouth. Hopefully we’ll have positive results from that and nothing to worry about.

Adam’s cardiology appointment – We basically were told the same thing as last time. He will still need to have surgery some time in the next few years. They said they would do it before 1st or 2nd grade. The quick summary is that his mitral valve is still leaking (the reason he is still on blood pressure medication and will be until it is fixed and there is no more leakage), there is scar tissue building up around the aortic valve (which will need to be removed) and there is some stretching occurring in his heart. They will now be monitoring him every 6 months instead of once a year. That was a change. It also made it a bit more real to us. The surgery could happen sooner depending on how his heart does. We will pretty much go into every appointment thinking that this might be the time they tell us he needs surgery.

He had a really rough time starting the appointment. When he saw the room and the bed for the echo, he freaked out. Tried to get out of the room, cried, fought us, etc… It took a while, but we got him calmed down and watching a Super Why episode (his FAVORITE show). Appropriate the episode he chose was Humpty Dumpty which talked about being afraid. Once he was calm he laid really well until about the last 10 minutes (the whole thing took about 40). He just wanted to be done. After that though, he was amazing! Everybody there was so impressed with him. He was so polite and can talk so grown up. He asked one nurse if she would like to go outside of the room and see something that started with F (the fire alarm). He also told everyone that the super letters of the day were E K G. He was so polite to Dr. Shanthi and really impressed her. He didn’t have any problem with the blood pressure, EKG or exam. He did say after it was all done that he didn’t want to do the echo, but that it was okay. So I guess that gives us hope that he’ll be okay when we do it all again in May!

Anyway, that’s the news. Of course we’d love to hear that everything is okay and he won’t need surgery, but we are thankful that they are monitoring it as closely as they are and that we really do have fantastic care. We’ll definitely keep everyone informed if there is new information.

She is very active. She has become quite the climber. Emily loves the park and is very brave on the playground equipment. She climbs right up the stairs, through the tunnels and down the slides. Makes her parents a little nervous.

We are planning on having her cardiologist appointment in September (a year from last Sept) instead of December. We had talked of doing it with Adam when he goes in December, but we now feel it would be better to do them separate. Hopefully we’ll get the news that the hole has closed and that she has no issues with her heart. I’ll post more after that appointment (which I just found out is September 6th).

Adam is doing well. He is getting ready to start preschool. He will attend Tuesday and Thursday morning. His teacher is the same teacher that he had for his ECFE class last year and I think it will be good for him. He also has two of his good friends, Carissa and Bailey, in class with him.

Adam’s favorite thing in the world right now is trains. He loves to play with trains and create trains out of anything he can find. He is also quite good at drawing trains and our driveway is covered with chalk trains. We recently went to Stillwater and even got a ride on the Minnesota Zephyr pulled by the “real” Thomas the Train. It was a lot of fun.

We are playing outside as much as we can and enjoying the last few weeks of summer. We hope you are as well!

Adam is also doing great. He turned 3 in March. He is officially potty trained! It happened pretty much overnight (after 3 months of stubbornly refusing to go). We managed to get him to go after putting his sister on for a little while. Then after a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s (where he went 3 times a day!), he pretty much decided to wear underwear and that was it! He’s pretty cute now – he even asks for “privacy” when he needs to go. He tells us when and is even trained at night – yeah!

We are looking forward to the summer. We don’t have any major trips planned this year, but will still keep busy. I just finished up two classes this spring and am taking 1 this summer. I have 5 to go and am planning on being done in Dec 2008. It seems like a long way off, but I’m taking it slow (1 class at a time) and I’m sure it will be here before we know it!

Valentine’s Dance