Finger Paint

Last year Wren was horrified by finger paint. He didn't like "messy" and was quite alarmed when Heather suggested he put his hands in it.

Yesterday he changed his mind.

He LOVES finger painting and has tried to persuade me to do it again a number of times. He used up all the old paint on his first go and we shall have to pick up some more tomorrow to keep him entertained.

Here is Wren, fingerpainting!


Wren tells me that this is painting is WORMS.

This painting is also... WORMS.
This one is more snakes AND worms.

Image from Cath yesterday

This is one of the images we were given from Wren's cath. It shows the obstructions that are causing most of the problem. The large fuzzy black shape on the lower left is Wren's left ventricle. The surgeon has drawn two lines across the space leading out of the ventricle and the aortic valve. This shows that the sub-aortic obstruction which makes the width of the outflow tract much narrower (5.6mm) than the valve (10.2mm).

The longer line shows the potential valve opening from the base of the leaflets but those two bumps under the longer line should not be there. Instead, that should be a straight channel going into the valve.



Again, above the valve there is a pinched hourglass with a big bump - a supra valvular obstruction. This also needs to be fixed.

Both these obstructions make Wren's left ventricle work much harder than it should. His LV pressure was 150 under sedation and Dr J estimated it would be in the 200's when active. He also suggested that Wren's mitral valve was not really exhibiting its true motion due to the high LV pressures. They recorded slightly increased pulmonary pressures too (new to us) which shows the mitral valve is also stenotic. Right now, data suggests it is mildly stenotic but the obstructions further down make this hard to evaluate and the doctors were cautiously suggesting it is moderately affected.

This leaves the surgical team a lot to talk about - definite work on sub-aortic stenosis and 'above valve' stenosis. Probably improving of aortic valve since OHS is happening anyway and possible dealing with mitral valve - decision to be made later.

Wren is 18 months

With all the hoo-hah about cardiology clinic I failed to post the official WREN IS 18 MONTHS hoorah. So, here it is "Wren is 18 months old!"

I am going to write a lot more about him on Friday when I have some time alone, meanwhile, here are some pictures and a reminder of the main themes:
1) Wren loves DIGGERS. He loves digger toys, big diggers, excavators at construction sites, books on diggers and Bob the Builder - scoop and muck in particular. He loves to read books and just point at them and say "roller", "scoop" "BOB", "Digger", bulldozer" and "rock". At Chuck-E-Cheez today (another story) he spent 20 tokens on the Bob the Builder Scoop ride which was bright yellow, toddler sized and rocked while singing the Bob theme song.

2) Wren talks a lot but is not widely understood. Words to follow.

3) Wren is terrified of squirrels (nut or num nums) and Stellars Jays which cackle aggressively at our cats in the yard.

4) Wren enjoys making bread. He says "bread" and "dough" and rushes to the kitchen to get ready when I mention the plan to make dough. His favorite part is covering the butcher block with flour and spreading it around and then hitting and poking the dough down for a final rise.

5) Walking. Wren loves running up the street and going on walks. He also enjoys stroller riding but of late has preferred to get down a lot and walk, smelling flowers, pulling off Lavender, examining bees up close and commenting on things in yards and the street. He particularly enjoys running up and down driveways saying "up" and "down" as he descends.

Here is Wren making a collection of diggers on his kitchen stool. This was very early in the morning on one of his just 5am wakings. We were making bread.



These pictures are of a Sunday Breakfast at Whole foods. The store opens at 7am and we managed to make it there by 6.58am. It helps to be out of the house so Frost and Joshua can sleep to normal hours (7.30am and 10am respectively). This is after eating the scrambled egg and breakfast sausages and some samples of danish.


Joshua and Wren enjoy the hammock on the new deck which is now complete. Notice that Wren has a Duplo digger in his hand.

This evening, Wren discovered he likes limes and walked around sucking on the lime I used for the salad. Frost was very impressed that Wren could suck a lime and suggested I give him a chilli next.

The Deck Cometh (and so does cardiology clinic)

This past week we started our deck project. We have a contractor building a deck off the patio doors at the rear of the house. It is going briskly and OK so far although giving our builder clearer measurements on the plan would have saved a few mis-starts.

Right now, I am contemplating whether the stairs are in the right place or I should ask him to move them a foot to the right.

Anyway, the kids are fascinated by the project and very upset not to be able to get out the back door to the yard. Wren in particular is sad to be cut off from the stairs to the diggers in the cat-poopy sand box.




My shopping list from the hardware store:

1) More play sand because cats pooped in the sandbox.
2) More pipe insulation because Wren chewed and tore up the one we had bought.
3) A new float for the cistern because the old one broke off and made the toilet run all the time.
4) Deck sealant and stain from the Environmental Home Center when the deck is ready!

Meanwhile, on a less fun note, Wren has a sedated echo on Monday 16th June. He cannot eat from 4am onwards so he will have a grumpy few hours from 5.20am when he wakes up like clockwork till 7.45am when we have our appointment.

He looks so energetic and happy that I hope he is doing ok inside as well.

Clouds of Clematis

As the mornings break earlier and earlier and Wren continues to wake in the 5's (5.18am this morning based on the hopefully pushed-forward time of the bedside clock which is in fact 5.08am for everyone else) we have the chance to take morning walks before Frost wakes up.

Many days it is too cold or wet to enjoy the outdoors but as we head downstairs at 6am to do the laundry Wren always goes into the garage and begs to get up into the stroller.

A walk is his plan.

Here we are on one of the days that was actually sunny. I think it was Saturday 10 days ago. As you can see, the neighborhood is beautifully in bloom.

In one picture he is holding a jonquil. We are not flower thieves. It was just lying on the sidewalk and we found it. Wren also loves to hold dandelions (we propagate weeds) and dandelion flowers.

Spring, Summer, Snow

We have had really peculiar weather recently as these before and after shots show. In the first, Wren is enjoying a popsicle last week. It was 78 degrees in the afternoon and we wore sunblock, hats and t-shirts in the garden.



The second picture was taken this evening. Wren is surveying the "doh!" [snow] from the front porch. You can also see the poor little spring flowers I planted last week, their tags snowed over and one of Frost's little "guys" [another of Wren's new words] lying forgotten under the slush.





Josh has dusted off the firelogs in the basement and we are having a nice warm fire while the spring snow accumulates. According to our local paper this weather is atypical and we should have record low temperatures and fresh powder snow on the passes tomorrow.

Icecream obsessions

Wren took his first self-portrait on Monday. He was looking down at the camera on the dining room table and pressed TAKE.






Wren will be 16 months old this Sunday and he is increasingly opinionated. This morning he slept in until 6.30am so, instead of going straight home to nap, we could take a walk around Greenlake after carpooling. Wren loved the walk. All the way along the trail he pointed to dogs and said "oof oof" and to birds to say "kar kar" (for crows) and "mch mch" for feeding ducks (eating). He said "hat" a few times when passers by were wearing caps and became extremely excited when he saw starlings fly up into a tree "up up!!"

Another commonly repeated phrase is "die-die" meaning "dice dice". We store Joshua's role playing dice on a high shelf in the bookcase and every time I do diaper change I let Wren hold a could. As soon as he lies down for diaper change he holds out his hands and says "die-die" again and again until I submit. I am not sure what it is about the repetition but he likes to say words twice, as if for emphasis!

This picture is of a rare moment in which Wren was allowed to play with all the dice together. He is moving them from one bowl to the other.
Frost's Conservation Effort
After our walk around Greenlake we stopped at the library and the park. Wren helped at the library by removing books from the shelves indiscriminately so we were rather brief there. We managed to find a few books on lemurs for Frost to help him learn how to save the Hairy Eared Dwarf lemur. Since the Xeko game arrived in our house and Frost bought the stuffy Dwarf Lemur he is very keen to join in the conservation effort and has committed all his savings to this end. Tonight he became teary when we read that Aye Ayes are endangered in part due to local beliefs that they can cast curses which leads to them being killed out of fear.

Loving the Dump Truck
Back to Greenlake - Wren played for a long time in the sand at the playground using a borrowed dump truck and front-end-loader. He was so happy in the sand that I made an afternoon trip to Lowes to fill up with 10 bags of play sand for the neglected sandbox. Wren hated Lowes. He wanted to play in the fountain (not allowed) and to leave the cement and sand aisle (not allowed) and to be picked up when I had to push a heavy cart (not possible). After lots of struggle we made it home and the sandbox is now half filled with fresh kitty litter, oops, sand. Mental note: buy a tarp to cover it.

Helping out at School
Both boys came with me to school on Tuesday for an icecream social for incoming K-kids. Frost was very helpful, showing people around, answering questions and being generally charming and a good host. He even made nametags for himself and Wren. His read "Kid Helper" while Wren's was "Baby Helper". Wren didn't notice so it stayed on all night.


"Aye-aye"
I would love to say that the icecream social started us off on ice-cream but it started a few weeks earlier. Suffice to say that we have been very much into the ice cream of late, so much so that just breathe the word "ice cream" and Wren chants "aye-aye" [his version of the word] and rushes to the freezer door and tries to tug it open with many grunts, moans and whimpers. When it is opened for him he scoops up a tub of icecream and carries it to the island for serving. He knows the ice-cream scoop and starts the chant in the morning when we find it clean inside the dishwasher. He also tries it after lunch. Here is Wren with his first self-held cone.
I think it is amusing that he is eating icecream wearing his warmest sweater. It is sunny but it has been a very cold week. The icecream obsession has spread into the literary realm. This evening we read a library book on the history of icecream and learned the important fact that the most popular flavors are (in order): Vanilla, chocolate, neopolitan and strawberry.

The Eagle Watching Trip

During Mum's last visit we went up North to the Upper Skagit area so Mum and Frost could go on a Bald Eagle watching raft ride. It has taken me a while to upload the pictures but here they are. In the first shot, Mum and Frost are about to board the bus from the meeting area to the launch site. The bus had a large black fin on the back in honor of its name Orca 2. At first, Frost was worried that I was not coming with him. He was also upset about all the layers of clothing he was being asked to wear. Frost does not like scratchy or hot clothing so he wore it on condition he could take it off if he became hot.


As you can see from this picture of the scenery. It was not exactly hot country. The river was snow-melt and there was still snow on the ground in the shade when we went upriver from Concrete.
Here are the "raft" crew on a tea break by the river. They saw about 10 eagles during the trip although it was not peak season.


Frost was very happy to be the lookout and called out warnings when he saw white water or anything significant. I only found out after the trip that he was not fitted with a child lifejacket. This one would not have been any good if they fell in. I have often said that if we travel to Indonesia with the kids we will take our own life jackets. That was since the leaky creaky fishing boat trip I took into the deep ocean with no form of life preserver on board. One motor was swamped, the swells were heavy and I was estimating how long I could float before I came within sight of land. Frost did not seem to face these anxieties on the trip although the water would have been a lot colder here.

Ah, an eagle. The greatest concentration of eagles was at the dam runoff where salmon are often killed being churned through water turbines. The eagles gather to eat the remains. We saw 5 eagles at the dam wall.


After the trip, Wren and I met Frost at the downriver landing. Frost is holding Wren back from entering the river as he searches for stones to throw.

Here the boys are throwing stones together.

Fattening up

Wren is much better today and has been fever free for 48 hours. He has recently developed a fine red rash on his torso which I was told indicates the breakdown of a virus (a toxin?) so he is probably over whatever it was.

He is also eating very well. Today he fed himself yoghurt for the first time and ate one and a half tubs at lunch. He also ate plenty of fruit, hamburger bun, milkshake and whatever else was offered to him.

Here is a picture taken within the past few weeks which shows how much plumper his cheeks are.

I have also included a picture of Wren and I because I so seldom have nice shots of myself.

The Minivan cont...
This afternoon we went out to the Kia Dealership and test drove a Kia Sedona. We were really pleased with it although Frost and Joshua said it should have only a 4 and half star security rating because he caught his finger in the rear window catch when he tried to open it.

We are going to return on Wednesday and see what we can get for our car as a trade-in.

Christmas-Birthday

This is Wren in the birthday chair at Frost's school. We were at school on Thursday morning and the kids sang Happy Birthday to him, the normal way and the KapKa special song. He was bemused but Frost was very pleased and excited.


And this picture was taken yesterday and shows Wren in his high chair in front of our Christmas tree. It is set up on the table in our Kitchen to keep it out of reach of Wrenness. He is eating french toast made with creme fraiche and slathered with syrup and butter. We are trying to fatten him up. HE is enjoying it.

First step, first shoes, first root-beer float

Wren had a big day today. It was my school workday so he stayed at home with the babysitter Lisa while the wild winds blew and flurries of hail and bouts of torrential rain scoured Seattle. He did okay. He cried a bit, had very short naps but wasn't as wary as before. I think his molars are starting to hurt because although the right has all 4 cusps through, the left are just emerging.

First Steps
Since yesterday, Wren has been standing up all the time. He has learned to stand up from sitting down without holding on and pulling himself up. However, once up, he didn't know what to do so he would just stand there playing with a toy or looking at something he is trying to reach. Today, I showed him that he could take a step once he was standing. He had a few tries and can now take one and a half steps most attempts. He mainly does it because he thinks its funny that I am so excited. He grins at my encouragement.

Shoe Shopping for Frost
This afternoon we went shoe shopping to get Frost a pair of winter shoes. All he had until now was his pair of orange crocs with a pumpkin and black cat stuck on them. He ended up with a pair of Stride Rite sneakers and some socks in which he ran up and down the shop "sliding, like it was really slippery so I was like woooooosh". A customer who came in while we were in the shop said "he is very high energy, isn't he?" He is.

Wren Has Big Feet
While there I was seduced into buying Wren a pair of shoes, his first. He was barefoot at the time despite the cold, storms and rain so it was fitting that he was shod. According to the Shoe Man, Wren has big feet.

He said "The average size for a 12 month old is a 4 and a half and he is a good 5 already."

I commented that it was because he has a longer big toe that sticks out quite a bit. I have posted a picture of Wren in his new stride rites. I bought them because they are as flexible as a porn star. Okay, wrong simile for a baby blog. Anyway, thy are very flexible.

Fries and root beer
Because I was tired and in the car already, we went to fetch Josh from work. No, actually it was because we wanted to see Josh and spare him a bus ride home in the stormy traffic. On the way home we bought Frost a Dicks burger and fries from The Big Dicks at Queen Anne. Wren was sad about being confined in the car so Josh gave him some foam from the top of the root beer float. After that he was very quiet and able to be entertained by a couple of fries until he got home for his healthy squash and quinoa dinner.

Brickcon

Wren stayed home with Joshua while Frost and I went to Alexander's 7th birthday at the Ice Rink. Frost had never tried ice skating and found it difficult and wobbly. I took him around a few times but after half an hour he wanted to take off his skates and stop. That was okay - he said it was fun but scary. The big highlight was a candy machine with a claw which allowed you to grab a random piece of candy for 25c. On one occasion the machine returned TWO quarters instead of one. Zephyr and Frost found another quarter abandoned in another coin return and begged for another quarter to buy a tube of candy. AFter the birthday party Zephyr came home with us and went to Brickcon - a lego convention at the Seattle Center Pavilion. We met Alexander there and then played in the fountain.

First, here is a picture of Wren standing alone. He doesn't do it all the time but is quite stable when he wants to be. He has no intention of walking anytime soon but he is quite comfortable upright and cruising along tables and chairs. Unfortunately all the uprightness and agility have led to table climbing, stair climbing, chair clambering and lots of falling over. This morning Frost pushed him off the coffee table and he bit his lip with lots of bleeding.



The following pictures show Frost, Zephyr and Alexander in awe at Brickcon. They were overwhelmed to the point of running from exhibit to exhibit in a random way shouting about things they saw. They were most impressed by the poses and activities of minifigures. The structures were amazing but not as captivating for the kids. I let each one buy a bag of mixed lego and a custom lego weapon and helmet from Brick Arms .



Frost pointed at everything and talked non-stop. He had flushed cheeks and couldn't focus much in his excitement. In this picture he is pointing out what some minifigures are doing in the castle army.



And in the next one they are admiring a Skeleton Army. Frost wants hundreds of storm troopers for a storm trooper army.



In the final picture they are looking at a shop selling customized Lego STar Wars minifigures. Frost is begging me to buy General Grievous or his bodyguard or a storm trooper.

Last Few Days

Yesterday, Natasha and Douglas left on their long trip home to Natimuk. They had a colossal number of bags and objects including multiple laptops, bicycles and costumery but managed to get it all checked through to Melbourne (all 315lbs of it) with limited overweight charges. We miss them already and are having to make plans to get ourselves back into a getting out and going mindset.

The day before they left (Friday) we went down to the UW climbing wall and Frost and Doug had a go. Douglas managed to overcome more obstacles and scaled greater heights but Frost reached the top of the angled wall and was both alarmed and excited by it. Frost is struggling with physical activities because of his injuries - badly scraped toes on one foot after an accident at the Seattle Center Fountain and a nasty scabbed knee from falling over at the wading pool. Neither injury takes bandaids well so they are getting reinjured daily. Yesterday Josh and Frost tried to play soccer at the park but it was too painful to kick the ball and Frost says he wishes summer was over so he could stop getting hurt.

Frost and Wren on the climbing wall:



Douglas spotting Frost while he does a big move.



Natasha and Frost do a circus trick.

Wren and I hang around and watch and eat pine cones, well, moments before he was eating them.


My mind remains addled because of sleep disruption. I am going to bed at 9.30 to be asleep before 10pm because Wren is goign to bed arond 6.15 and getting up at 4.45am (again). This sucks. Sorry, I have to say it. I have a new plan which is getting him to go to bed progressively later and seeing if I can keep wake-up time from staying the same. I am not sure how to make this happen other than hope hard enough. He actual night sleep is going well in his own room. Last night he cried for 5 mins at 11.30pm and midnight but Josh did not go in. He woke and nursed at 2.45 and then was up at 4.45 ARGH. I managed to stay in bed in the dark with him until Kitty Haiku came in and he tried to lurch off the bed to get the kitty.

This super early wakening gives me a very skewed view of the world. It seems that shops open ungodly late and it gets light late too (6.am). I want to do the Trader Joes grocery shopping at 6.30am but it only opens at 9am. I walked to Safeway in my quest for Ranch Dressing and Dijon mustard and was home at 7.30am after an hour's walk. I guess it is good for my health and weightbeing (yes, I started Weight Watchers yesterday and other than the temptation of left-over Bengal Tiger dinner, did okay).

While Wren had morning nap Frost and I watched REading Rainbow about pioneer families. Frost wants to go and stay at a pioneer village for a vacation sometime. I think this is a mighty-fine idea - especially if one could do it yourself rather than visiting a pioneer theme park, but even so. He had a hard time with the idea that you couldn't pop home to get something you needed.

Yesterday, I noticed Wren has more white patches in his cheeks and I suspect a fungal yeast infection (again, although our ped through it was not so last time). I have been giving him borax homeopathic on advice from our naturopath who we will see next week. ITs a long weekend here for labor day so it won't be until Tuesday. Wren doesn't seem too fussy about it unless I have to schoop somethign out of his mouth like bark, catfood, lego etc.

Okay, time to give Wren his pear breakfast and then head of to the belatedly open Trader Joes.

The little me

My mother has been converting the family slides to digital images. It is a huge task. This morning I received two images of me as a baby around Wren's age, neither of which I had seen before. The black filaments on the image are mould. I am hoping we can find some way to clean them in photoshop.

This first one is of me with my Granny Audrey who died of breast cancer many years ago:



This second one is of Uncle Mike, my Dad, Grandad and Mum. See how wonderfully young they all are. Grandad is now 96!

Mudbath

This morning, I opened my email to be greeted by the following note from my mother:

Poor Wren! Are you feeding him enough solids! I am on his side. There he is crawling around the floor foraging for food! Are you alerting everyone to be ultra-careful about little dangerous items being left around!" I have nightmares [about this].

For the record I am feeding him a wide variety of solid food throughout the day. I am not as systematic as Mum was due to a shortage of labor in our home. I am the labor and the bosses are restless.

Today, Wren has eaten rice cake, banana, spinach, sweet potato and one arrowroot cookie. It is only 2pm.

This morning Wren helped me in the garden. He climbed a tree and played in the mud. Here are the pictures I took:

Joshua watches Wren climbing out of the mud.

Wren plays in a muddy puddle while I water the albizia which is growing vast this summer.

Wren comes to share his muddiness.

Wren stands at the back gate watching Kitties in the garden.


We just returned from a walk to Bagel Oasis where Frost had a bagel with his friend Nate, Clarissa and their Mum Laine. The whole family is moving to Norway and it was good to hear the latest on their preparations. We were going to have Nate for a longer playdate but Laine had to come early because he was stung by a wasp while we were walking to the restaurant. I had some thai chicken salad with roasted eggplant from Bai Pai (which I can highly recommend).

Now its Wren's naptime. This morning nap was only 35 minutes so I am hopeful of a longer respite this afternoon since Josh is going to archery and, if last night was anything to go by, it promises to be a long night.

Oh, the trick of the day was climbing onto the coffee table. I have no idea how Wren did this but I was watching him, turned away, turned back and he was sitting in the middle of the coffee table. I have seen him trying since but he has not repeated it. However, he climbed from my lap onto the dining room table while we were eating breakfast.

Before I go, I want to share a link to a newborn baby with Shones Syndrome [Jelly Bean's Journey]. His family received a very similar diagnosis to Wren's prenatally and he had his coarc repair surgery a couple of days ago. I am sure that prayers and positive thoughts would be appreciated.