Monday, September 29, 2008

One of these Sundays...

...we'll get it right.

Every Sunday morning we go to the 8:45 mass at St Ann's. I have to get there a little early because I play drums for the service and need to setup, get a sound check, etc. That means we have to get the whole family going kinda early in order to make it, which is fine because we're up pretty early anyway. But something about Sunday morning just doesn't want to agree with us.

Last Sunday we were doing great. Ang got up at 6 to get herself ready and after she showered I woke Patrick up so he'd be ready to eat by the time Ang was done. While Patrick was eating and getting dressed, I got showered and we were ready to go. We were actually a little bit ahead of schedule (which is how I should have known we weren't really about to leave). Right as we were walking out the door, I thought I'd hold Patrick above my head because it always makes him smile. Of course, as soon as I lifted him to an angle where I was in target range, he emptied his breakfast all over my shirt and his. So, we both rinsed off, changed outfits and headed out. We were only about 15 minutes late in the end.


Yesterday we were doing really great. We left the house right on time and had Patrick dressed in the outfit he soaked the week before. It wasn't until after mass while we were standing around talking to people that we realized his outfit was on completely backwards. Oops.

We figured he probably needed a diaper change anyway, so we searched around for a classroom that wasn't in use to get him all cleaned up and straightened out before leaving to go to Grandma and Grandpa Flowers' house for breakfast. When we finally found one, we plopped him on the floor on a blanket and stripped him down. It was right in the middle of the process (while Patrick was completely naked and Ang was putting the butt paste on him) that little three-year-old boys and girls started filling the room for Sunday School. The Sunday School teacher walked in and looked a little confused as to why there was a naked baby boy on the classroom floor. Oh well, Patrick didn't seem to mind.

Obviously, these pictures have nothing to do with the story but I thought they were good ones from this last week. This video doesn't have anything to do with the story either but it's of Patrick talking to his toys last night. Sometimes he thinks if he yells at the toys enough they'll just walk right over to him like we do.



Sunday, September 21, 2008

I Believe in Angels

I've been told it's about time I contribute to our blog so here it goes...

We sing Patrick about 100 songs a day. Whether we are giving him a bath, changing his diaper or playing, there is always a song to go with our activity. One of my favorite moments is rocking him to sleep. I stare at that perfect face and know I am so very blessed to have him in my life. I usually whisper a prayer before I start or sometimes I sing the song "You Alone" with the lyrics, "You have given me more than I could ever have wanted and I want to give You my heart and my soul." It was one of the songs we sang at our wedding and has never been more true for me.


Patrick seems to prefer a few songs: one we made up about dinosaurs, another called "Godspeed," by the Dixie Chicks that I listened to throughout my pregnancy, "Baby Mine" from Dumbo and especially the Ava Maria (not the traditional one, but the one we sing after every Life Night at St. Ann's). Lately, in light of the release of Mama Mia, we've been listening to a few songs from ABBA. And so I will leave you with the lyrics from "I have a dream," one of my favorites and, I think, the only ABBA song Toby will let me play more than once around Patrick.


I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future
even if you fail
I believe in angels

Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream
I have a dream

Monday, September 15, 2008

2 Months Old!

Patrick turned two months old last Monday! I know I'm a week late but I wanted to give the last post enough time on the main page before I bumped it down with this one.

We took the little man for his two month doctor visit and he now weighs 12lbs 7ounces and is just under 24" long! The pediatrician said we definitely don't need to worry about him missing any meals. As Angie would say, "he'll make it through the winter."

The other new discovery this week for Patrick was his tongue. It's his new favorite toy. He's constantly sticking it out at us and laughing when we stick ours out at him. If you mix sticking your tongue out with making sounds at the same time, you might as well be Superman. Patrick apparently got his dad's "ability" to be easily entertained.

Here are a few pictures from the last week. The first set is from bath time and the second half is tummy time on mom and dad's bed:






Friday, September 5, 2008

Miracle Friday

This was originally just going to be a post with a slideshow from Labor Day weekend; however, we received some really great news today that we had to share with everybody. 

As most of the people who visit this site know , Patrick was diagnosed with supravalvar pulmonary stenosis when he was about 3 weeks old. We were told that this was a congenital heart defect that we would have to monitor and manage for the rest of Patrick's life. The best case scenario was limited impact to Patrick's activities and annual trips to the cardiologist and the worst case was multiple open heart surgeries over time to repair or replace the valve-way. The doctors and all the literature we read said that this was a condition he wouldn't grow out of and would need to be closely monitored for life. Obviously, we weren't real excited about the news but we were happy to hear that even in severe degrees this was a treatable condition. He may not be able to ride roller coasters or play soccer but we'd still have Patrick with us.

Angie and I took Patrick to the cardiologist today for a 6 week follow-up. We were a little unsettled about today's trip because of the unexpected news that was delivered during our last visit. As we found out, our worrying was for nothing. After an EKG and an echocardiogram, the cardiologist told us that Patrick's heart condition had disappeared! Angie and I made him repeat it probably 5 more times before we'd believe it. I kept trying to throw out hypothetical situations like "So, let's say I'm filling out insurance forms, do I have to say he has pulmonary stenosis on that?" thinking that it couldn't have really gone away and there had to be a catch. Of course, his answer was always "No. He really doesn't have it any more."

This was as equally shocking as the news we had received the first trip but in an exact opposite way. We've been coming to terms with the long term impact of his condition for the last six weeks and in one sentence all of that was taken away. We left the doctor's office and stood in the hall and hugged and cried for a good 5 minutes. 

We want to sincerely thank everybody who's prayed for Patrick (and for us) throughout all of this. Apparently your thoughts and prayers worked! Our miracle baby is all better!

Ok. Enough of this sappy stuff. Onto the pictures and video of Patrick...

Here's a slideshow Angie put together from Labor Day weekend at the Suskay Cabin*. We had such a great time with the families. We played a lot and ate even more and loved every minute of it. The whole group planted a beautiful sycamore tree for Patrick on the property. By our best estimates, it should be just the right size for him to start climbing by the time he's 4 or so :)



And here's a video of Patrick telling us about his day after getting his diaper changed. He's been "talking" a TON lately and experimenting with all the different sounds he knows how to make. It's great watching him and you can't help but laugh and talk back (apparently in a really high voice).




*If you click on the lower-right side of the slideshow then the words 'Labor Day', it'll take you to the album on Picasa where you can view, save and order prints of the full sized pictures.