Dylan's Cardiologist/echo Appointment

Dylan had a follow-up cardiologist appointment with an echo cardiogram today. Well, the echo wasn't originally scheduled and they called me earlier this week adding on the echo. I wasn't at Primary's as long as I thought I would be, which was nice. Dylan didn't like getting his chest x-ray at all, but was all smiles during the echo. He even didn't really seem to mind the part they said would be the part of it he wouldn't like. Everyone commented on how cute he was in his pumpkin costume. :)

Unfortunately, the echo showed that his conduit (the new vein) is leaking. Dr. Menon said mild to moderate leak. There isn't a need to do anything about it at this point, but they will need to watch it closely. I take him back in a little over a month for another echo to check it again. I was hoping it would be a bit longer before we really had to worry about him again. Ah, well.

Preschool Halloween Parade

Today at Molly's preschool, they got to dress up in their costumes and had a Halloween parade at the end of class. All of the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Molly ended up being the last in the parade because she kept losing her shoes. Maybe she won't be wearing them when they go trick or treating tomorrow. They did the costume parade then lined up and sang a few songs for us. It was cute.

This is Molly as she walked by me, which is why the picture isn't the clearest. My camera couldn't really focus well on the movement because I had it in the wrong setting.
I snapped this one of Molly as she stopped briefly to see how far ahead of her everyone else got.
Molly's preschool class and teacher all dressed up.
Just thought I'd throw in this one of Lys since she begged me to take her picture, too.
Before the kids came out for the parade, the brother of someone in Molly's class stood and watched for them to come out. Lys begged me to take his picture too. I thought it was a kind of cute picture, so I'm throwing that one in here, too.
Here's a short video of one of the songs they sang. It had problems loading it, so I'm hoping it works okay. It paused a bit for me when I tried to watch it and I'm hoping it was just me.

The Things You Discover

Today Jimmy called to have me get him from school because he wasn't feeling well. I wasn't surprised he called. He wasn't feeling well last night and only seemed to want to go to school because medicine was working so he felt okay and I told him he couldn't touch Dylan since he was sick. I got to the school to get him about the time morning kindergarten classes were letting out. On my way out of the school after checking Jimmy out, I stopped to talk briefly with his and Emma's kindergarten teacher. We got talking about Dylan and his congenital heart defect. She mentioned that she had a congenital heart defect. I asked what she had and she said she had a coarctation of the aorta. I told her Dylan had that along with his truncus. She said they didn't find hers until she was 16. She was a runner and had no idea she had a problem until they took her blood pressure and it was quite high. I thought it was very interesting to learn that she had one of the same things as Dylan.

Dylan's Blessing

Yesterday we had Dylan's blessing. Thanks to all who could make it. I think it turned out nice. And especially thanks to Dave and Michelle for letting us have the food afterward at their house. That was really nice of you to offer.

I didn't take many pictures, and I'm not really sure why. I did get a few, though. This first one I took while Dylan was asleep in my arms. Not the easiest task. Should have had someone else take the picture, but that's okay. I wanted to get at least one with him in his blessing outfit. That he was almost too big for. If we had waited any longer to bless him, I'm sure he wouldn't have fit. The hat that came with it didn't fit as it was.

This is a picture of two of my nieces with Dylan. Mariah (the younger one) wanted to hold Dylan so Kady (the older one) helped her. He was just starting to get upset when I took this picture.
This is my aunt Evelyn and my niece Kelly after their small food fight that was somewhat accidentally started but not so accidentally finished. (They hope you weren't too upset with them, Michelle. I told them it was fine since they did clean up the mess.)

Rebecca (yet another niece).

Dave (bro-in-law) and Jimmy

Heart cake

Tomorrow we are having Dylan blessed. Just because I felt like it (even though I think it's a little cheesy), I made a cake for some of the dessert for the food after. I have two heart shaped cake pans and decided to use them to make a double layer cake and then decorate it like it had been broken and repaired with bandaids. Here are two pictures of the cake. I think I probably should have left off the bottom bandaid, but that's okay. Either that or make the line for the broken heart longer. I wanted to make the frosting for the heart a darker red instead of pink, but I ran out of my red food coloring. It works as it is though. You can tell I frosted it on the board in the bottom picture. I'm not the neatest froster. Ah, well. (As I was typing this, Jimmy finally understood why I had it with the heart broken and then fixed. "Oh, it's like Dylan. His heart needed to be fixed!" I thought he figured out why when I first said how I was going to decorate it.)

Halloween Party

Last night we went to a Halloween party that our friends Jo and Kathryn threw. We had a lot of fun at the party. The kids especially liked being able to dress up in their costumes. Here are a few pictures from the party. If you notice, Emma, Molly, and Dylan are missing from the pictures (and me). They seemed to disappear whenever I had the camera ready. Well, Dylan can't really disappear since he's a baby, but he had fallen asleep and we just never did take his picture. Ah, well.

This first picture is of our friend, Jared.
This next one is of Jo.
Here's Russ and Kathryn chatting. I personally think Russ cheated on his costume. I at least had a real costume. No picture of me though.

Here's Jimmy posing by the cauldron filled with dry ice and water.

Lys and Jimmy.

Trip to the doctor

I took Lys to the doctor today because she has had a fever since Sunday. I figured after this long, I should get her checked out to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or strep throat or something along those lines. She had been telling me since Sunday that she didn't want to go to the doctor, so I didn't tell her until after we had stopped by my mom's house to eat lunch quickly (I went right there from picking up Molly from preschool). And since Mom is getting new doors, she decided she would come with me to help with Molly and Dylan. Of course, today Lys has been acting like she's feeling better. Still pale, but hasn't been laying in my bed begging for me to lay down with her because she feels miserable.

Anyway, the first thing they did was to do a quick strep test. Her throat looked pretty bad. Then the doctor checked her ears and did the usual exam. Everything was negative, so she basically just has a cold. Said she should be on the downward slope of it, so if she gets worse or doesn't get better to let them know. One of those appointments where you know that by taking her in, there's nothing really to be done, but if I didn't take her in she would have had strep or an ear infection and would have gotten worse.

I have very shy children. He would ask her a question and she would kind of smile and dip down her head and refused to answer. I would ask her and she wouldn't speak, but she would nod or shake her head. I could tell when she had enough. I asked her the question and she reached out and grabbed my arm and hid her face. She practically danced out the door when I said we could go.

Molly had a good time at preschool, at any rate. They went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. She came home very excited with a small pumpkin. And straw in her hair.

Pumpkins!

We have a very nice neighbor who has a farm. (We actually have lots of nice neighbors who like to give us stuff from gardens, including two small pumpkins recently.) The past few years he has called us up around this time to see if we would like to take our kids out to let them pick out pumpkins. He called today so I took the girls (Jimmy didn't want to go). Sometimes I'm amazed I remember how to get out there each year. Anyway, he said his pumpkin crop wasn't as good as it normally is, but that didn't stop the girls from finding the pumpkin they wanted. Actually found them faster this year than they did last year. They keep asking me when they can carve them. Emma and Molly picked out big pumpkins, Lys picked out a small green one (and he was nice enough to let me take one home for Jimmy). Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Another haircut

I must have gotten into some haircutting kick. And really ought to leave it to professionals sometimes. Ah, well. Molly's hair is growing out from when Emma cut off her ponytails. The back was a bit longer than the sides so I decided to just trim it up a little. It ended up being more than just a little. Molly likes it, so I guess that makes it okay. Here's a picture of Molly with her new hairdo. It actually looks a little better in person than it does in the picture. She likes to pose, as you can tell.

Kids and cameras

I need to hide my camera when I'm not using it. If my kids find the camera, they will take a ton of pictures. Lys found the camera today. She and Molly had fun taking many, many pictures of the floor or toys or the tv. They did take a couple of pictures that were amazingly good for a 3 and 5 year old. These first two were taken by Lys. I only slightly cropped the picture she took of Dylan. The one she took of Molly and the one Molly took of Lys are unedited.


This next picture I took of Dylan in his bouncer chair. He loves his bouncer chair and will grin and grin at the toys and music on it. At first I thought the music would drive me absolutely nuts but after seeing how he smiles at it, I don't find it quite so annoying (except for when the songs get stuck in my head for hours on end). The next is a video I took with the camera of Dylan in the chair.

Russ haircut and play

As most of you know, Russ let me cut his hair after the play was over. When he started to grow it out, he told me he wanted to grow it out so he could donate hair to Locks of Love. He said there was a contractor who would come into his work and would do that every few years. I think he really decided he wanted to do it about the time we learned about little Mason in our ward with leukemia. The following are kind of before and after pictures. Russ was all ready for me to start and then said he wanted me to take the pictures. I have three pictures. One before, one right after I cut off the many ponytails I put his hair into for donating and then one after I finished up cutting it. I was good, though. I didn't tease him right after by looking at him with a disappointed expression and ask if we could put it all back. :)


I haven't really checked the quality of this video I took with my camera (really need a camcorder one of these days), but this is a scene with Jimmy and Russ in it. I did have kids around me bumping me and a baby in my lap, so it isn't the steadiest picture.....The play turned out really well though. Russ and Jimmy were both glad they did it. And somewhat glad that it's over now.

On with the show!

Tonight Russ and Jimmy have their final practice of the Savior of the World play that they are in. They perform it tomorrow and Saturday nights at 6:30. I must admit, I'm kind of looking forward to it being over with. The last few practices they've had have lasted a long time (usually getting home after 10:00 at night). Just sometimes easier with Russ home at night in getting the kids to bed. Take last night for example. I let the girls stay up a little later than usual. And then they didn't want to go to bed when I told them to. They went to their room okay. But decided to talk and play and things of the like instead of getting in bed. Okay, Emma got in bed like she was told, but snuck a toy up with her to play with. They do this a lot, but last night it was harder. Dylan was cranky. He would settle down for a little bit then start crying again. So add to that three (but mostly two) girls who decided to ignore me even with rantings and ravings and telling them they couldn't have their bedtime snack and drink until they were in bed and quiet (so they didn't get their bedtime snack and drink) and it gets a little on the stressful side. I've always done my best cleaning when frustrated though, so sometimes it's a good thing. :)

Anyway, the play is a free play so anyone who wants to go to see it is welcome. It will be held in the Davis High Auditorium. Should be good. Let's just hope that Russ remembers his two lines.

Children group picture

I decided to try to take a group picture of the kids today. Easier said than done. Also decided to take a couple with Xena in it. While I didn't need her to smile, she wasn't much better because she wouldn't look at me. But then I was afraid that if I said her name, she'd move. But at least I now have a picture with all of the kids in it. Even if they wouldn't pose how I wanted them to. I took more than I'm posting. The rest aren't any better (or worse) than the ones here.

This first one is probably the best of the ones I took that had Xena in it. Goofy expressions and all.
These next ones are just an example of how I really didn't get one that was good of everyone. I would have tried for more but Dylan wasn't enjoying it and they started to get bored and so I gave up. Maybe I'll try again another time.
This one is probably the best of the ones without Xena. Again, goofy expressions and all.

2 month checkup

Dylan had his 2 month checkup today. I think it's a little funny that his checkup with his pediatrician was scheduled for today because it was exactly 2 months ago that he had his surgery. He's still doing really well. He got mad with anything they did, but that's probably partially because he had been asleep when we got to the doctor's office. He really got mad when the doctor took him to examine him. He wanted his mom, didn't want to go to the doctor. And he really didn't like getting the shots at all. Took a few minutes to get him calmed down after that. Molly and Lys, on the other hand, had a great time playing with the toys in the waiting room. I was surprised that they didn't complain when I told them it was time to leave.

Dylan is now 23 inches long and weighs 11 pounds, 8 ounces. He has gained about 4 pounds in a month. He went from being at about the 10th percentile for weight to hitting the average. He is average height and his head size went from about the 25th percentile to average, as well.

His next appointment with the cardiologist is on Halloween and I take him back to the pediatrician on the 8th of December unless we find out he gets the synagis shot to prevent RSV and then I will take him back in sooner. (The doctor told me to call next week when the lady who keeps track of those things for him is back to work.)

Mice! Ugh!

I hate mice. Really, really hate them. Granted, I can't picture anyone saying that they love it when mice get in the house and wish more would. Growing up with a field behind the house, we had a lot of mice until we got a cat. A very mean (but funny) cat, but that's a different story. Our house now isn't far from a field. And when we first moved in, I found rat poison under the stairs, so it shouldn't surprise me when we get mice. And I should just be glad they aren't rats, since I have seen some nearby.

I will say that a dead mouse Molly found once made for a funny story. Totally grossed me out, but was funny. I still chuckle to myself when I think of Molly's innocent voice as she chased a screaming Emma up the stairs, "But it's nice!"

Anyway, I think the mice got in this time because of my leaving the back door open for the dog when I leave. Think I'm going to stop doing that. Russ set a trap up behind the computer because I told him I could hear one there a lot. Yesterday as I was getting off, I jumped a foot when I heard a very loud SNAP! Yep, the mouse was caught. Lys wanted to "wake it up," so I grabbed some pliers and threw the mouse (trap and all) in the garbage outside. Then washed my hands really well. I hoped that was the end of the mouse problem. But the occasional noise I hear as I sit here tells me otherwise. Too bad Xe doesn't catch mice like the cat taught Taiga (Lab we got when I was 12) to. She was good at catching mice. Xe, not so much.

October Birthdays (edited because I realized I forgot two and now feel bad...)

Happy birthday this month to Dominic, Madelyn, Olivia (all 3 turning 5!), Bryce, Jennifer and Kathryn (all a bit older than 5)! Hope you have a good one this year. Guess I could throw in a happy birthday to Dylan since he's 2 months old today.