Have You Ridden Your Daddy Today?

I just walked outside to find Henry perched up on his Daddy's back. Smart kid, there's no better seat in the yard.

Announcing a New Little Sprout

Dave and I are excited to announce that we are expecting a little boy due to arrive this autumn. He's due 10-12-08. We're looking forward to the harvest of our "Little Pumpkin".

Happy Mother's Day!

I got an early Mother's Day surprise. On Tuesday, I went to my front porch and found a box. It was these beautiful flowers from Dad and Lizzie. I love them!!! The flower's, a patient who brought me fudge and a thank you, and Henry's great news made my week!

Looks Like a Big, Scary Rat to Me!

When were at Chuck-E-Cheese, Henry was a bit frightened by Chuck. Henry's first encounter with him was a character in a costume (approx. 6' tall). Henry cluched onto Dave's leg until the big rat left. Then there was a car ride (seen above) with Chuck (or maybe Chuck's kid). We thought Henry would love it, as he is very fond of cars and trucks right now. As you can tell he wanted no part of that. I don't blame him. Dave told me Laurie said something like, "Chuck-E-Cheese is a Mouse." Dave's response was, "Looks Like a Big, Scary Rat to Me!"

Whaddaya think?

Two Cute

Henry recently turned two. Grammy came up to celebrate the week before and on his Big Day we took him on a little adventure through town. We went to Chuck-E-Cheese and he was a little timid at first, but then warmed up to the whole idea. He had fun pointing to the games and then watching Mommy and Daddy play. He would cheer us on. Towards the end of the day we took a piece of cake and some gifts to a park called Kids Kingdom. Henry had a great time, but he wanted to wander and play with some big kids who were playing rough. We decided we wanted him around at least until three :), so we called it a day and lavished him with attention at home. Actually, it was pretty much a typical day for this family :).

All Heart

When Henry was born he had a small heart defect. It is very common, called a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Along with all of the emotions of having a new baby, a first born, came the stress of being told, "we need to follow up of this quickly...your child may be in congestive heart failure". This took us by surprise and scared both of us. So, we left the hospital pretty much AMA in order to follow up on this as soon as possible.
Where we live there is no pediatric cardiologist. We had an ECHO (ultrasound of the heart) done and is was sent to Sacramento to be read. After a couple of weeks we saw Dr. Monohar (see picture) who works for Sutter and travels around to evaluate children in outlying areas. He is the nicest man and has the best bedside manner. I would recommend anyone to him and plan to refer patients to him if the need ever arises.
He told us it was benign and that most of these will close by age two. We agreed to follow up when Henry was 2 years old to see what the status was. If the defect was still present then he would need a dose of antibiotics prior to dental care or any surgical procedure due to the risk of getting an endocarditis.
On Friday we saw Dr. Monohar and he gave Henry a glowing report. No defect was present and there wasn't even the typical innocent murmur common in childhood. I thought to myself that this is the best Mother's Day present I could ask for.

New Do

Henry had his first professional hair cut a couple of weeks ago. He did very well. This place was so cool. Henry sat in a little car and made car sounds the whole time. He kept the hairstylist laughing. It came out cute. These pics don't do it justice, as I had to pry a hat off his head right before these were taken. Maybe Henry thinks otherwise :).

Short Stack

 

In April there is a week called "Week of the Young Child". In celebration, there are several local events. On this day we went to breakfast, to story time at the library, and then to the Planetarium. I had ordered coffee and after being distracted for a minute I looked over and there was Henry creating his masterpiece. Since block stacking (or cream stacking shown here) is a quintessential milestone a child must reach, I felt it was worth a blog entry. Watch out world, now it's cream, tomorrow it's designing roads and bridges. (His daddy will like this one)

Henry's Friend Jeffrey

 

Henry and I had some friends over last month. Henry really loved seeing his two little playmates, but he also realized how hard it is to share when your so close to two. All in all they did pretty well

Oh, Brother!

 

I was just uploading my pictures when I came across this shot. I thought this was a classic two year old kid picture.