Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma turned 9 years old today.  I'd say that's crazy that she's 9, but I have a tendency to think she's older than she is.  So I've been thinking she's 9 for a few months now.  A few weeks ago I even said something about Emma being 9 and she corrected me. 

Anyway, happy birthday Emma!  Pretty soon I'm sure I'll start thinking you're 10 and you'll have to correct me again.

Rachel's 2 Month Check-up

I took Rachel in for her 2 month check-up this morning.  Before I left to go to her appointment, I had to wake up Dylan.  Told him we were going to take her to the doctor.  He immediately said, "I don't like the doctor."  I told him it wasn't for him, it was for Rachel.  That made him much happier.  Although he did keep checking to make sure it really was for Rachel.  Even told the nurse it was for Rachel when we went back to the exam room.

Rachel is now 24 inches long and weighs 11 pounds, 11 ounces.  She started out as our biggest and is staying that way so far.  Twenty-four inches puts her at the very top of the growth charts and her weight is around the 75%.  Her head size is just above the 50%.  So she's tall and skinny (skinny for her height, anyway) and has a little head.  Wonder how big she will be in 2 months at her next appointment.

She got three shots and one oral immunization today.  Didn't cry very long from the shots.  I didn't think she would stop crying before I could pick her up to comfort her, but she did.  She did start crying a little again, but seemed more hungry than sad.

Rachel is a very good baby.  Rarely gets upset and is smiling more and more.  She coos more and more as well.  Just the other day I had her laying on my bed and Emma was laying next to her and talking to her.  She cooed at Emma about as much as Emma was talking to her (yes, Emma was talking).

SEP Conferences

I attended SEP Conferences for my kids today. All went well. Jimmy's and Lyssa's were what I expected. Doing well, keep reading more, etc. I always worry a little bit going to Emma's because of her lack of doing work in kindergarten and in 1st grade. But hers was good. The AR reading has Emma reading a whole grade above where she is and her math is into the grade above as well. She just needs to get a little faster. Molly's also went about like I figured from the papers she's been bringing home. She gets 100% on almost everything and is very good at art. Her teacher wants her to have a goal of reading 2o minutes every day instead of the 5-10 that she suggests for the 1st grade.

When SEP Conferences are being held, the school holds a book fair. My kids love getting new books so we went to the book fair in between conferences. I broke down and let the kids get a little toy thing as well. Jimmy got a rubber fly. Walking out, he let Dylan hold it. Dylan happily held it to his chest. Then looked down at it. At that moment Jimmy really wishes we had been filming. Dylan started to scream and cry, "It's going to get me!" Jimmy had to take it from Dylan before he would stop.

A New Adventure

Last month our family attended IHH's 3rd birthday party/Halloween party. At that party they went over some business matters with the group. One item they discussed was the upcoming board elections. All of those currently serving in board positions have done so for the entire three years the group has existed. With the end of 2010 approaching, so does their tenure. Because of this, they announced that from then until midnight on October 31 they would be accepting nominations for board positions (essentially saying if you want to help by serving in one of the positions, send in an email stating so and which position you would be willing to hold). As they were listing the board positions, Russ kept nudging me. Later, as we were leaving, Carolyn Quigley, the current president, asked me if I'm thinking about one of the positions because they need good people.

I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to go ahead and submit my nomination. I stated that I was thinking of secretary or if more wanted that position, vice-chair. A few days ago I received a phone call asking me if I really was fine with vice-chair. They had one other person who had stated they would be interested in the secretary position. Including my nomination, they had 5 nominations. Five nominations for 5 positions. Technically there were 6 positions but 5 works.

The announcement that went out to everyone in the group after the party stated that the elections would take place for the week of November 7 until November 13 with the final results posted the first week of December after background checks have been completed. Sure enough, when I looked at the forum tonight there was a post with the voting polls up and my name on the list.

I will admit, I am a bit nervous (also a little excited) about this position I will have, assuming it's confirmed by the other members. The current board, like I've said, has done an excellent job. I've said before that I'd hate to follow them because of how well they've done. Yet here I am. Hopefully I won't mess things up too badly.

Reality Check

I subscribe to the newspaper. Which makes me think of the Mark Twain saying, "If you don't read the newspaper you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper you're misinformed." But I digress. In this morning's paper there was an obituary of a man who is the same age as Russ. The obituary stated that this man was the oldest survivor of Truncus Arteriosus type IV. I will admit that I had just kind of skimmed over the obituaries this morning until after my mom mentioned it by asking what type Dylan has. (He has type II.) I think Russ would have been happier had I not mentioned the obituary to him.

As a parent of a child with Truncus Arteriosus, reading an obit of a young man who had it isn't always a pleasant thing to read. Dylan is doing well enough that it's easy to forget that problems can (and do) arise in children and adults with CHD's. When I was changing my calendar over to November, I thought how had Dylan's cardiologist wanted him back in 6 months from his last echo instead of 9 that he would be going back this month. And how nice it is to not have to go back for another three more months. Mostly because it's nice to go longer without having that worry that this time the doctor will say that it looks like he'll need more surgery. It was a nice relief after his MRI to be told that everything looked good and he wouldn't need the cath like they thought he did.

I have read about a few babies with Truncus recently where things haven't gone so well. Makes me realize more how things could have gone wrong with Dylan's surgery and recovery. I think of his surgeon telling us that with his Coarctation of the Aorta in addition to his Truncus that the chances of him surviving that initial surgery was between 70 and 80%. What I mostly heard there was the 20-30% chance of not surviving it. I feel very blessed and lucky with how smoothly things went. I sometimes think of how one nurse said to us, "You will soon realize that you will be out of here a lot sooner than some of the others in here." And it was true.

I guess in the end, all I can really do is hope and pray and have faith that Dylan will continue to do well and that his next surgery (hopefully long in the future) will go even more smoothly than the first. And also pray for other children and adults going through the same things, as I hope others do the same for us.

Random, Catching up and Pictures

I realize I haven't posted a lot lately. I blame Facebook. Not that I really post much there, but it makes me realize how little I have to say. Even when I may have things to say if I were to blog more often. Like how Russ was recently called as 1st Counselor in the Elder's Quorum in our ward. (Which I found to be hilarious because he was serving before as the 11 year old scout leader and the first time he was in the Elder's Quorum presidency he had been serving as the 11 year old scout leader. Let me know if you don't follow that and I'll try to explain more clearly.)

People have asked me what it's like having 6 kids now. I always respond, "Not much different than having five." And having six kids really doesn't seem like a lot when they're yours. Except for those moments of temporary insanity when you decide to go to the store with all six. Funny part is the looks people give you as you parade through the store. Which, honestly are not quite as funny as going to the store pregnant with your sixth and taking the other five plus the youngest four of a sister.

Anyway, before I ramble even more, here are the promised pictures:

This was taken tonight of Lys and Rachel. Rachel is 7 weeks old today. Crazy.
Dylan told me to take his picture here. Then covered his face.
This is what I got after trying again and telling him to keep his hand down.

Emma, Molly, Lys and Russ carving pumpkins. Dylan decided he was done and went to find Jimmy.

Dylan and Rachel.