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.

Bad news on echo findings

Our consultation with Dr Lewin was relatively brief for the bad news. Apparently, the level of turbulence through the aortic valve has increased significantly and we are now on the surgical path.

Since the velocity was so high it was not possible to distinguish the obstruction. Dr Lewin believes it is a sub-aortic muscular bulge which is producing a diffuse narrowing in the sub-aortic area (SAS or Sub-aortic stenosis). This is not a membranous ridge as I first thought.

The plan is to do a cath within the next two months. The cath should show where the stenosis is critical - SAS, valve or above the valve. If it is the valve (he thinks this unlikely) they would try and balloon it immediately. More likely they would refer the findings to Children's Hospital cardiology conference and see what surgical approach they recommend. The options discussed were "cutting away" the ridge or removing that section of the septum and replacing it with a patch. The removal of the ridge is preferred but is not always possible due to access down the ascending aorta and it is a complicated diagnosis due to rarity and the high rate of recurrence after surgery (he did not mention that this time but I know about it due to other kids with SAS).

Here is an article about it.

I am feeling flat and anxious. I hate to be in this place and worry about Wren now facing open heart surgery when he looks so well and active.

We discussed the best place for surgery and Dr Lewin basically said we had to do the research. I said we would consider Stanford and he said that because we have the luxury of time, after the surgical recommendations come through from Seattle Children's Conference we could then send the findings over to Stanford for a second opinion and to see what course they would suggest.

I do not want Wren to undergo surgery at all if its not necessary but if it is I hope we can get through this before RSV and flu season. It sounds as if the timing is definitely before the end of the year.

1/2 way done - no sedation required

Wren had his echo at 8am. Dr Lewin wanted to try without sedation so we used Bob the Builder to hold Wren's attention and he managed to lie still (enough) and play quiet(ly enough) to get through 45 minutes without any sedation. Our echo was done by Erin.

We are very pleased.

Because I was lying next to him distracting him and keeping him from grabbing the imaging wand and goop, I didn't have time to analyze the image as I usually do. I did notice lots of turbulence (still) and high peaks on the little pulses which measure pressure or gradient.

We are home for 2 and a half hours to sleep and then return for the 1pm appointment with Dr Lewin to discuss the findings.

Cardiology Clinic Today

Wren has his first Sedated Echo at Children's this morning. I was worried about him not being able to eat for 6 hours or nurse for 4 hours before his appointment so I woke him at 4.10am to nurse one last time. Wren decided that was a good time to wake up so after he nursed he played and hoo-hah'ed in his crib for 45 minutes with the occasional thud (removing a book from the shelf) and cry "mummeeee" to remind me he was awake.

He has done well so far and we will leave for Children's shortly.

Our last appointment with Dr Lewin is after lunch at 1pm so we may be back later than we expected. I thought all the appointments were concurrent but there is this break in between.

Frost had his first sleepover at a friend's last night. I have not heard from him or Tara overnight so I gather they survived! I am curious to hear how it went.

This week Frost has decided to "grow up and sleep in his own room" too (his words).

Wish us luck. I am looking forward to getting things underway because Wren keeps grabbing me and dragging towards the chair where he nurses crying "mama".

Argh, Lego is the plural

Although Frost has ample Lego, I keep an eye on Craigslist for choice listings and garage sales where we might find mini-figures for Frost or construction Duplo for Wren. My ongoing search term of "Lego" has sparse offerings... every day or so someone lists an X-box game or a bundle of mega-blocks disguised as Lego but not much interesting.

But yesterday, I hit the motherload. I discovered that the Craigslist search engine does not search using the string in other words so my LEGO search did not include LEGOS. Silly me. I never thought a person would say LEGOS but apparently Americans like to pluralize Lego with an "s" and all their sales were listed in this way. I guess one could buy a single Lego block but most people want more which is why they stick on the S.

After I got over the sighing and rolling my eyes part, I have been enjoying catching up on all the LegoS I have missed and having a few more hits on my RSS feed.

Frost's First Sleepover

Frost slept the night at the school sleepover. It was the first night he has slept away from home and he did very well. I did not get a midnight call to come and fetch him and he didn't need to pee in the night.

He is very matter of fact about it but I got Wren to bed at 7.15pm and Josh and I watched a movie and had dinner alone! It was marvelous.

I can see more sleepovers in Frost's future.

After fetching Frost from the park after the sleepover we went to the zoo in hopes of seeing the Siamungs. They were looking rather sad and snuggling inside, probably because of the awful weather. They did not make the impressive hooting and hollering that Wren imitates whenever he sees a monkey.

After the zoo I took Frost and Wren to Kidd Valley for a chicken burger and they shared an Oreo Shake. Everyone was very pleased and it was a good way to start SUMMER VACATION! Yes, Frost has finished first grade and is now on break until September.

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.

The Pee Alarm and Falling over

As Wren approaches 18 months old he has become very strident. He knows what he wants and is very dogmatic about getting it. He wants:

1) To go everwhere with me.
2) To stop at every constructions site (or else he weeps and shrieks "digger, more digger" for the rest of the trip.
3) To eat any sweet thing he sees someone else eating. "more num num! Num num! Cookie!"
4) To have what Frost has.
5) To prevent Frost having anything he has.
6) To run very very fast (and fall over and hit his nose/knee/shin/hand) as he falls.
7) To poke snails and slugs.
8) To get up before 6am, regardless of when he goes to bed.
9) To eat dinner on my lap instead of seated in his high chair.
10) To hit the cats.
11) To Drag the toy digger, excavator and front-end loader around the house even when they are full of sand. He cries all the time as he drags them because they are too big to manoeuvre and jack-knife or fall over or pin his legs in bad ways.

He speaks all the time. Today he said Bean, bear, knife, sharp and many words I can't remember. I shall try and notice tomorrow.

Now I can live in America

Today, I discovered that Safeway stocks Okra Pickles from Texas. These pickles taste just like pickles should and go a long way towards helping me feel at home in America. Finally, I have something to eat with cheese. By contrast, the bottled onions I bought turned out to be just bottled onions, no pickle at all! It was a sad moment. The only pickled onions I can find are cippolino's in the pickle bar (aka Olive Bar in US supermarkets). I have also found Lindemans SOUTH AFRICA Cab Sav at $6 a bottle! It is a delicious drink-now South African red at a great price.

When I bought the wine, Wren embarrassed me by saying "'ine, dada" very loudly and pointing at the bottle. Everyone must think we are regular alcoholics for our little baby to have wine among his first words.

Wren has decided to walk face first down stairs. Until now, he has been crawling backwards in the recommended "feet first" stance. Walking down stairs is much more dangerous and he has already fallen twice today. I am having to escort him down all steps. I should have expected this. For the past few weeks he has been "practicing" stepping up and down any change in grade saying "up-down" as he does it. Honestly, he has done it hundreds of times. Now I see that he was really working on something and feels he has passed the test. Josh says "he had to learn it sometime" but I wish he had waited until he was a bit more able to judge the implications of a fall.

This evening, Frost had his last Husky Soccer Team practice. I had failed to bring snack along so Frost was fake weeping about "how you should ALWAYS bring snack" and Wren was saying "num nums" and crying when I would not share the stick of gum I gave Frost.

I decided to stop at Dicks for burgers.

Dicks has very cheap, relatively good quality beef burgers. They are a bit of a local institution. Frost complained when I said he should share his shake with Wren so I decided to buy them both basic burgers - patty, bun, mayo and pickle. Frost said he didn't want pickle and he wanted strawberry shake instead of the normal vanilla so off I went. Five dollars later I had 2 burgers and a shake. Wren grabbed the burger from me and tried to eat the foil wrap saying "num nums" in a muffled shriek. I guess he was really hungry. I unwrapped it for him.

By the time we reached home he had eaten 3/4 of the burger.

In a weird coincidence we ended up driving home directly behind Joshua in the Subaru. What are the odds of that?

Josh was sad we hadn't bought him a burger but with groceries so expensive I feel compelled to eat what we have whenever possible. Today, I filled the minivan with gas and spent $72. Yes, seventy two dollars. Ouch.

We are going to be hiking in the wild bushes of local parks this summer, not in the wilderness 2 hours drive from here.

We are interviewing decking contractors. THe one we saw tonight said the deck could be made within 2 weeks. I like that thought. We would have to hold a deck warming BBQ ASAP.

Frost invents familial relativism

Me: Frost, come and sit at the table to eat.

Frost: No, pleeeease can I eat in the living room.

Me: Frost, come and eat with Wren and I. We all sit down together to eat breakfast.

Frost: Shannon, there is no actual way to do anything. There are just ways and the adults say "oh, we kind of want you to do this this way." So, you could say Frost, everyday I want you to sit at the table and then we sit at the table. There are basically infinite ways to do things.

Me: That's an interesting idea. Some people agree with you but come and sit down and talk about it.

Frost: See, there is no right and wrong way to do stuff you just make ways and tell other people to do those ways and that is how people do those ways but sometimes they say no and then they do it their own way. You just make up a way to do things and then you do it that way.

Me: But aren't there some occasions when there is a reason for doing things like other people?

Frost: Well of course, with the kids there are board games and they have rules but even then you can make up your own way to play it.

Me: But Frost, what about the reasons for our decisions. Sometimes adults have a way to do things because we know that one way is safer or better. The kids may not understand the reason.

Frost: That is half of what you say. Adults might have a reason to put on the kids. Like you want me to sit at the table. Kids might not understand but the reason is to be polite.

Me: Or, to be safe. For example, I might tell you we roast marshmallows on sticks or not run near the fire. The reason is to stop you getting burned.

Frost: Oh, then the reason to do things and the actual thing you are doing are actually the same thing, they are part of it. The reason is kind of mixed with the actual thing you are doing. It is to help the thing you are doing, to make it safer or better.

I am going to continue this conversation to see whether Frost's relativism is moral, cultural or simply opportunistic before I plan my intervention :)

I suspect he is realizing there is no reason for things like bedtime at 8.30 or eating some place versus another but rather than this being a source of rebellion, for now it is an observation leading to a great deal of discussion about my "requests".