Great Brennan Quotes of 2012

Brennan is hilarious! I copied these all from my Facebook page from the last year. Enjoy!

2012:

Winter:

Brennan can count to ten with no problems. After 10, it gets a bit hairy..."Eleventeen, ...*mumble*...6, 17, 17 and the 18."

Brennan is supposed to be taking a nap. Instead: "Daaaaaddy. Daaaaaaaddy. Daaaaaaaddy. ...Oh well. MOMMY! Mommy, wanna get out!"

Brennan was carrying around two pieces of aluminum foil: "Whoa, lotta shiny!"

Me: "Ooooh, Brennan, you're so cute!"
B: "Nooo."
"Why not?"
"Big boy. Big boy now."
...He was a little offended when I burst out laughing.

Me: "Go to sleep, Brennan!"
Brennan: "Silly Mommy!"

Spring:

Funny Brennan story of the day: He was telling me to drive "really really fast". I told him I had to go slow because that car had an owie. After that, if we started slowing down again, he would yell, "Oh nooo! Car got owie a-GAIN!" It took me several times to convince him it was all better!

Brennan's little world has been topsy-turvy lately. Things keep disappearing, because Mommy is doing something called "packing". So yesterday, when Brennan noticed his Thomas train case in a box, he took it out and brought it to the playroom. He set it on the floor and commanded, "STAY!" and then continued on his merry way!

Brennan got 3 new Lightning McQueens and a new Mater today. So, there's no napping. But there IS a lot of: "Light on! Open door! Nenny wake! Lightning McQueen and nother one Lightning McQueen and Mater and one pick-up truck and purple car! Mommy! Mommy, I want you to obey! You comin'? Mommy!" *throws cars*

Brennan still can't find where we moved his books too. "Where it IS, Mommy??" Poor child.
He was reading one of the ABC books. "Duh, duh, doll...duh, duh, flower..."
Me: "That's a daffodil."
B: "Duh, duh, daffo-flower."
Close enough.

"Look at dat RAIN! I need a towel!" - Brennan, after our soaking 5-second dash in the rain. "Dat fun!"

I love how Brennan tells me when he's doing something naughty. For example: "Nenny standin' on da table!"

Brennan's nap: "Hey yellow car! What doing? Drivin' on a bed! Ken? Ken! Goin' Grampa house? Bye, Ken! Hey 'nother yellow car! What? What doin'? Ken? Ken! Hey blue pick-up truck, what doin'? Bye! ... Everybody! Everybody! WHAT! ... OHMYGOSH. *cackle*"

"I squishin' pea. Aww, poor pea!" – Brennan

Summer:

I think Brennan turned into a teenager overnight. This is our conversation this morning:
Me: "Brennan, it's time to get out of bed!"
B: *head under blanket* "Nooooo!"
"Come on! We're going to church!"
"I sleeping!"
"I think Valerie will be there..."
B: *head pops up* "Valerie!?"
And then he got out of bed. For a girl.

Brennanisms today:
Brennan: "Ouch! I gotta owie! Hey, Mommy, is dis a owie?"
Me: "No, you're fine."
B: "Okay!" *happily scampers away*
***
B, to himself: "Have underwear on? Probly not."
***
Me: "Brennan, you don't have any pants on!"
B *looks down; pulls his shirt down over his knees* "It's SHIRT-PANTS."

Me: "Who should we invite to the party?"
Brennan: "Cake!"

Me: "So, there are 6 bananas and five apples. Are there more bananas or apples?"
Brennan: "Cherries."

Brennan: "Oh no! Milk all over!"
Me: "Do you need a towel?"
Brennan: "No. I just whining 'bout the milk."

Brennan: "I AWAKE NOW! I awake Mommy! MOMMY! Listen to Brennan, Mommy! Now! Brennan is awake!"

"My head is beautiful and dry!"

Brennan is starting to get desperate at nap time. First, he tried "Mommy, I have a present for you!". Then he tried: "Mommy! Remember, I'm a gummy bear!" For some reason, that didn't work either.

 "See horses, singing, play balls, have lunch, and eat cake and pie. That's a wedding." – Brennan, after Jotham and Pamela’s farm wedding

All too early, there was a small child sitting on my back saying, "You can wake up, Mommy! I turned the light on for you!"

Brennan just put a bowl on his head and said, "I'm a birthday party!”

Brennan: "I fly with these wings, Mommy!"
*Jumps of couch and crashes*
*Looks dejectedly at his arms*
"Hey, these ones not working!"

Me: "Way to go, Brennan! You kept your underwear dry all morning!"
Brennan: "I did? WHAT?!? Already?? That's incredible!"

Best Brennan quotes of the day:
Me: "What are you doing?"
B: "I'm really not sure!"
**
B: "I'm the best ever Brennan!"

Fall:

Brennan has decided not to nap today. He says: "MOMMY! YOU TRICKING A LITTLE BOY!"

Me: "You are going to Grandma's house after your nap today."
B: "No, we not take a nap at Gramma's house."
Me:"No, you're going to take your nap here."
B: "HAhaha, no, Mommy. I don't think so. This bed is too hot. And Charlie's bed too hot. Also, all the things too hot."

Me: "So, you want Charlie to watch you fall asleep??"
B: "Yeah!"
Me: "That doesn't sound like much fun."
B: "Yes it is. SO much fun."

Me: "You're goofy."
B: "Haha, yeah. And weird."

I asked Brennan what his favorite part of his party was, and he said: "Raspberries! And I eat with everyone and I had a pickle! I have one of Grandma's pickles and it was yummy!" I asked if he liked his presents and he said: "It was SO much fun! There's cars in my presents!”

Me: "I am amused!"
Brennan: "No, you are a woman!"

Every night, I pray Ephesians 3:16-21 over the boys, then we do our "God Bless"-es. This is Brennan's version: "God Jesus, loves the power, strong in spirit, stronger in love. Amen. God Bless Dee-dee, God bless Luigi....uh, I think I need to play with Luigi."

Once a once a time, there was a cat named Emily Elisabeth. He liked to eat fish because they were SO cute! Then he went go outside, but he was scared of the worm so he ran away. Then the Wonder Pets came to save the animal in trouble! The told him [the worm] to go away because the cat wasn't scared any more.

Brennan: "I can't sleep like this, Mommy!"
Me: "Can't sleep like what?"
B: "I just fell out of this bed!"

Brennan was holding our friend Baby T. I thought we were about to have a thoughtful, educational discussion, but it went like this:
Brennan: "What color is Baby T?"
Me: "What color is he, Brennan?"
B: "Gold!"
Me: "Oh...what color is Brennan?"
B: "Shiny!"
So much for that educational discussion.

Brennan picked out Christmas presents for everyone. Daddy: a violin. Charlie: a watering can. Mommy: Celery, because it's good for you. And for Brennan: A pine cone, but not for eating. squirrels eats pine cones, but people do NOT.

A while ago, we were listening to our kids' Bible songs CD. "God Made Me" was playing, one of Brennan's favorites...
Brennan: "God made ME?"
Me: "Yes, baby, He did!"
Brennan: "God loooooooves me!"
He gets it. :)

Yesterday, Brennan went with Daddy to pick up my Christmas present. I was hoping to get what it was out of Brennan, but that kid's lips were sealed:
"What's Mommy's present, Brennan?"
"A box."
"What's in the box?"
"A present."
"What kind of present is it?"
"A box present."
That is one tough kid to crack!

Only my child: When playing with tangrams: "They're hexagons! They're rhombuses! Oh, they're SQUARES!"

I wasn't paying attention to Brennan until I heard him say to himself: "This is not something to color on." ... I found him with a pen on my bed. Then, while walking past the box where he'd found his present a few days ago: "We can't play with these beautiful cars *sad sigh*".

Me: "Lay down so I can cover you up."
B: "You know what? I'm making cookies right now."

Merry Christmas!

With cousin Baby Selah!

Thanksgiving 2012

So blessed to call these treasures mine!

Time Warp!

Yes, we do still exist. I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged! It kept getting bumped off my to-do list. And now, suddenly, it's January. Just BAM, now it's 2012. What happened? And why do my babies look like little men??

I swear, if I leave the room for a minute, they've grown an inch by the time I walk back in.
Too fast.
The good news is, they're such fantastic little men! They are smart and adorable and I feel so blessed that they're mine.
Charlie is loving school! In fact, often on the weekends he'll ask (by signing) for school! He's doing so well. At PT, he's starting to use a walker. He's got a ways to go before he can do it on his own - he'll go a few steps and then randomly let go - but he's quickly gaining the strength and skills he needs. Last month Charlie got some AFOs to help support his lower legs and help the arch of his foot form correctly. They help him out a LOT and he can *almost* stand on his own! When he's really focused, he can stand with just one of my fingers on the middle of his back for support. And he loves being able to stand! Once Charlie really gets mobile, we're going to be in trouble! We'll have TWO energetic toddler boys running around! Yikes.
Another big development for Charlie is eating real food! He loves to eat, and who can blame him? For awhile we were really struggling to get Charlie to gain weight while weaning him from his Pediasure. It didn't help that he was NOT a fan of drinking regular milk from a cup. Also, his jaw was quite weak, so he'd tire out before taking in enough calories. But we kept at it and now we're down to only one bottle of Pediasure a day, split between breakfast and bedtime! I've learned how to add calories to ev.er.y.thing. He loves mashed potatoes, and we load them up with butter, cheese, and olive oil. We add cheese to his scrambled eggs (another favorite!) and carnation instant breakfast to his yogurt. And you can add so many things to oatmeal! Charlie goes crazy over cookies and cake! He fits right in with this sweet-tooth family! Food is a great language motivator for Charlie, too. I think nearly half of his signs are eating or food related. It's also one of the best ways to get him to do two signs at once - "More potato", "more chicken", etc. One of his few spoken words is "more" and when he's eating something he loves, it's so cute to hear him yelling "MAH! MAH!" so enthusiastically for every bite!

Brennan is finding his groove as a two year old. I took both of the boys to Target a few days ago and couldn't figure out what happened to my sweet, obedient child and replaced him with this terror who kept lying down on the floor and running away from me, giggling maniacally. Yup, he's definitely two! Lol. He's still very good, *most* of the time. But then there are the days where he's just...two. He really cracks me up though. Brennan talks ALL day long, and some of the things he says are just a hoot! Like the time he was trying so hard to pick Charlie up off the floor, straining and pulling, and finally sat down next to Charlie and said, "Charlie stuck!" And when Ken was putting up the Christmas lights - oh, that made Brennan's day. "Oo! Oo! Red light! Green light! Blue! Green! Oo! Oo! Lights! Red light! Big tree! Pink light!" It was so funny! We taught him to say fun things too, like "What does a Ninja say? "Hi-yah! (arm motions)" and the Feeny call "FeenyFeenyFeeny!" He is an endless source of entertainment!
Brennan is so smart, too. He knows all the letters - lowercase and capital - and he knows what a lot of the letter sounds are! He knows B says Buh, P says Puh, etc. I'm pretty sure he'll be reading chapter books by the time he starts kindergarten! Every where we go he reads letters and numbers that he sees. It keeps him busy in the Target check-out lane! My favorite thing about B right now is that he loves to sing! It's adorable! He sings at the top of his lungs when we're in the car or when he's supposed to be sleeping. He sings really quietly when he's trying to copy us and get the words right. He used to drag a small reading lamp around the house with him to use as a microphone, so for Christmas we gave the boys an old karaoke machine that was my sisters' and mine. It has a camera so the boys can watch themselves sing on TV. They love it! Yesterday I made up a song to the tune of "Clementine" : Oh my Nenny, oh my Nenny, oh my little Nenny boy... [B calls himself Nenny] so now he walks around singing "O-Oh Nenny, Oh Nenny, oh little boooooy!" Love! 

So there's your super-long update. Hopefully it won't be so long til the next one. ;)

Six months home! -Pic heavy

October marks six months home for Charlie.

When we met him, he was 3.5 years old and weighed only 16 pounds. 

Charlie was very weak, and had just begun sitting up on his own. He frequently fell over. Our 1.5 hour visits completely wore him out. He had no language. He wore size 9 month pants.

When he first came home, he was quite sick. We were in the ER one week after he came home, then again 2 days later for an 8-day stay. 

Once we got him healthier, we saw the real Charlie start to come out! We found out he's smart, a good imitator, and very observant. He's a quick learner! He quickly learned his first word, "All done!". It was a long summer as we met with many specialists and dealt with lots of fevers. In his first five months home, Charlie had 5 ER visits, 3 hospital stays (not including surgery), 2 day procedures requiring full sedation, a sleep study, one failed heart surgery attempt, and numerous consults, doctor appointments, xrays, and labs. And, finally, the heart surgery we'd been waiting for! 

Now, at 6 months home, Charlie has truly blossomed. He is my Superman. He's gained a whooping 11 pounds, weighing in at 27lbs. He's now in size 24 month clothes and is finally catching up to his little brother in size! He's gained a lot of strength and energy, as well. Charlie can sit for long periods of time, roll across the room, and bear weight on his legs for up to a minute! He works really hard at physical therapy and leaves us amazed. He's learned a half dozen spoken words and around 30 signs. 

Charlie is a completely different kid than the one we met in the orphanage. He's come so far in so many ways. I am so glad God blessed me with Charlie. I love you, rock star!

Jump!

First day of school! - Backdated

On October 14th, Charlie had his first day of school! He is in the school district's Early Childhood Special Education preschool class. I had/have mixed feelings about sending him off - he's so little, and I just got him! But he really seems to like it. Right now he's going 2 mornings a week, and in a few weeks he'll start going 3 mornings. He also has therapy twice a week, so he's a pretty busy little guy! They are doing in-class observations of Charlie before we do an IEP, which I am eager to get started on because then I know he'll be working towards goals in class, and not just there to watch the other kids, which I know he prefers! On Friday I asked his teacher (who is wonderful) if he was participating in class, and she said he would do some of the actions in the songs. I was glad to hear that! Charlie is able to do it, but I know he'd be much happier to sit back and watch! So I'm glad he's participating. Here's some pictures from his first day!

Charlie gets his very own wheelchair to use at school! It's pretty spiffy. It has a little more support than he really needs, but it's better than not enough! It's a smooth ride with a wide base, so the other kids are less likely to knock him over.

One of the best things about Charlie's class - there's another little Ukranian in his class! His buddy Stas was adopted close to a year before Charlie, and now they are both 4 year olds in the same class. It's pretty amazing!

They're on their way to being BFFs!

Brennan is 2!

Two years ago on September 26, my dreams came true and I became a mommy! My little man weighed in at 3lbs 10oz, but now at 2 years old he's nearly 30 pounds! Brennan has come so far, from a baby who didn't know how to breathe or eat on his own to a happy, silly, rambunctious toddler. He is absolutely delightful and I love him to pieces.

Charlie has been a bit of a blog hog lately, so this is for all the Brennan fans out there. :)
Brennan is swiftly moving from babbling all day to speaking English. I admit I'm sad to see the Brennan-ese go, but it's so much fun to hear real words in Brennan's little voice. Some of my favorites - kewkic (music), jujles (noodles), ursles (circles), popple (pineapple), bapples (apples), bapes (grapes), juge (orange), gackgack (backpack), bup (jump), Onsha or Ashon (his aunt Shonna), Bampa and Mehma (Grandpa and Grandma), and the adorable way he says "AhhSOME!" Brennan repeats pretty much everything we say! It's adorable. 

Lately Brennan has been a huge Charlie fan (and vice versa!). He gives Charlie hugs and kisses, and brings him toys and water. But my favorite is the way Brennan loves to entertain Charlie! Brennan will do things that he knows makes Charlie laugh - like running really fast back and forth, or jumping of the step. Brennan watches Charlie's face the whole time, and really gets a kick out of making Charlie laugh. When I'm feeling more ambitious, I might post a series of photos that demonstrates it. :)

Brennan's also into trucks and cars, balls, dirt and water, and playing outside. I think he'd play outside all day if we'd let him. He likes to watch cars go by, and naming what color they are. He knows all the colors, including grey, silver, and gold, thanks to cars! He has a bunch of toy trucks and cars that he'll drive around the playroom for about 20 minutes all by himself. Today I found a car rug (the kind with roads) at a garage sale so now his cars have somewhere to go! Brennan also loves books, and we read 8-10 books before naptime every day. One of them is the "truck book" which has a picture of a different truck on every page. He can "read" this one by himself! It's so cute!

I hope you enjoyed this look into Brennan's life. :)

Can you believe it??

We're HOME.

Charlie amazes me. On Friday, he had open heart surgery. On Thursday, he's at home playing in the sandbox.

Just playing, as if his chest had not just been cut open. I can't believe this kid. No one expected him to do this well. Even right after surgery, when he was doing so well, we were prepared for him to go downhill at any moment. I think it was day 3 before we started realizing that this was it - there was not going to be a downhill, there was just going to be awesomeness.

Charlie came home yesterday, on day 5 post-op. I am in complete awe of him. The only new meds he's on are tylenol and an antacid. No heart meds, pressure meds, or blood pressure meds. May I just say, !!!!. I had him wear his Superman shirt home from the hospital. It seemed appropriate. :)

Day 2 - with pics

It's the end of post-surgery day 2, and Charlie is wowing us all!
Initially, it took some work to get his blood pressure and sedation under control. But since then, he's been doing great. His pulmonary artery pressures- which we were worried would be high - have been perfect! Last night they began weaning him off the nitric oxide, which is used to lower pulmonary pressures. He came off of it completely by early this afternoon. And the best part is...Charlie came off the vent completely today! He came off around suppertime, and he's doing great. He's still on some oxygen through a nasal cannula, but it's nice to see his gorgeous little face without all the tape. Today he got rid of the vent, the nitric, foley, an IV pole, and another sat monitor from his forehead. There's much more room in here now, and it looks so much more normal. AND - he hasn't had a fever at all! Charlie is absolutely amazing. We were prepared for him to still have his chest open at this point, and be very sick. But he's perfect! We're so happy.
Now, here's some pictures. Warning: some of them are graphic.

Going to get my zipper

  

Shortly after surgery

So many tubes and wires!

Look, I'm breathing on my own!

I'm a rockstar!

 I'm also a little naughty, so I've been tied down.

But look at those AWESOME numbers!

In order: heart rate, blood pressure, pulmonary pressure, CVP, O2 sats, and respiratory rate - all where they should be. 

Way to go little man! 

Thanks for the prayers everyone!

Surgery's over!

Charlie came through with flying colors! He's doing much better than we expected. He will be kept sedated and paralyzed overnight. Tomorrow if he's doing well, they might start weaning him from the respirator. The only issue he has right now is maintaining a good blood pressure - but even that is going very well. YAY!
I keep staring at him - this feels so unreal. It was such an ordeal getting here, and now surgery is over. It's hard to believe. We're exhausted, but glad Charlie is doing so well.

Surgery, Take Two

Charlie's surgery is scheduled for Friday morning. I've been holding my breath to see if it's really going to happen, and so far it's a go! Pre-op is tomorrow - merely a part of an insane day. Our bags are mostly packed, various projects are ready, we're almost ready to go. This time, I'm not nearly as nervous as I was last time. I feel much more prepared and I think it will go great!
Tomorrow Brennan is going to go to daycare for the first time. It's strictly a back-up daycare that contracts with a few companies; Ken's company being one. So we get 20 days a year for only $15! We visited today and at first B wouldn't even walk inside. But then he saw some fish, and a baby, and he was good to go! Today they only had three kids. It's hard to leave him there but I think Brennan will have a blast! He'll go a few days next week as well.
Back to chores...

The cuteness of Brennan

Brennan was particularly cute today. Or maybe I just got enough sleep last night. ;) So, mom readers, here's some cute Brennan stories of the day:
~This morning, Brennan decided his red "feffer" (sweater) was awesome. So he went to the park in a red sweater and green pants. I tried to convince him to change into a different sweater, but he thought that was an awful idea! At the park he was getting warm, so I asked him if he wanted his sweater off, but he got upset and whined "More!" until I assured him he could keep the sweater on!
~At snack time, I let B choose between two things, and he chose a "popple" (pineapple) fruit cup. He wouldn't let me open it for him, because he wanted to feed himself. So I said, "Fine. You can have it. What are you going to do with it now?" He thought for a minute and then shyly handed it to me!
~When we were coloring, he signed "black", with an UNcapped black marker in the same hand. Do you know what happens when you do that? You get a black line on your face!
~We recently taught Brennan how to kick a ball. So now he runs around the yard with the ball, and he yells "KICK!" every single time he kicks the ball. It's adorable!
~Another recent "skill" is jumping (falling) off the bottom step of our stair case. Brennan runs over and signs jump, then waits for us to say "Ready?" and then he jumps/steps/falls off. Both boys thinks it's hysterical, and it occupies them for minutes! Brennan pronounces it "bup".

That's a miniscule glimpse of the cuteness I deal with every day.

In Charlie news, he has his Infectious Diseases doctor appointment tomorrow. I'm hoping we can work everything out to be on the surgery schedule next week. It's not likely to work, because our surgeon is pretty full usually. But here's hoping for good news tomorrow...

Home

Charlie's home.
We had a roller coaster of a stay. We were back and forth on surgery on Thursday, and each "yes", "no", and "maybe" brought a slew of emotions. On Wednesday, the surgeon came in and told us Charlie would be on the schedule Thursday. He walked out, and a minute later came back in and told us one of his cultures grew, so surgery was officially off. We were totally bummed. It turns out that Charlie has a UTI. They kept him in the hospital long enough to make sure that he was responding to the antibiotics, and we got home late this afternoon. We had been told that Charlie could have surgery next week, but we found out today that's no longer the case. Apparently, in their conference this AM, the infectious diseases doctors decided they wanted to prevent this from happening again. So the current plan is to keep Charlie on antibiotics until the 8th, and then switch him over to a maintenance dose. And then he needs to be fever-free for a week before they'll let him have surgery. I'm angry and I disagree. If they want to prevent this from happening again ('this' being finding the infection in the OR), then they should do surgery soon! It's very unlikely that Charlie will remain fever-free for very long. If he does get a fever in the next 1.5 weeks, I'm supposed to bring him to the ER and have them page the peds ID on call. Areyoukiddingme. I should make them babysit Brennan while I make these ER trips. I'm going to try and call them and see if I can get a better plan, but they have such random clinic hours, I don't know how easy it will be. We have an appointment next Wednesday, so we might have to wait until then, but that definitely rules out surgery next week.

So, that's where we stand as of now. Charlie will probably not have surgery until late September. If that's the case, I'll have them push it out til October, because we have a lot going on at the end of September. Charlie won't be able to start school this semester, but I was on the fence about that anyway. And this does give us more time to pack some pounds on Charlie - in this hospitalization Charlie lost every ounce we'd worked so hard for these last few weeks. But knowing that makes me more eager to put weight on Charlie - he loses it so fast! He needs every ounce he can get!

We learned a few more things that will help us for the actual surgery. We learned Charlie's chest will likely be left open for a few days after surgery. He'll be in the hospital for longer than we thought. I am going to pack differently next time - instead of a backpack with a change of clothes, I'm going to pack a suitcase with a week's worth of stuff. That way, even when I do get to come home, I don't have to spend time running around and repacking things. So all is not lost. Also, Brennan learned how to say "Mommy is awesome". So, that's awesome.
 

Surgery Fail

We got here, handed Charlie off, they put him under and intubated him...and he had a fever of 102.2. The surgeon came out to the waiting room to talk to us, and you never want to see that. Also, when a seasoned heart surgeon says a hole is HUGE and NEEDS to be closed...also not good.


We knew this might happen, but we're still disappointed and frustrated. They're doing ANOTHER full work up - labs and blood cultures, etc. - and if they STILL don't find anything, we will again push ahead with surgery. They just want to make sure they're not missing something simple like an ear infection before they cut him open. We're in the PICU right now. They're going to clean out and look in Charlie's ears while he's still sedated, and then he'll be un-sedated and extubated. I'm glad because the sedation keeps wearing off - it's often this way in kids with ds - and Charlie gets ANGRY and fights the vent. It's hard to watch and nothing calms him down (except more drugs!). My poor guy. We'll be in the hospital for at least 48 hours for antibiotics until his blood cultures come back clear. We *might* be able to have surgery on Thursday - the surgeon is trying to fit him in so we can get this done. Otherwise it will be next week. In the meantime, we're just hanging out and trying to keep Charlie healthy.

Surgery in the morning!

Tomorrow morning is Charlie's heart surgery. We have to be there at 6:30freakingAM and surgery is at 8:30. That's less than 12 hours - gulp! Today he had pre-op, which included an echo, an EKG, labs, a chest xray, and an appointment with the physician's assistant. It was a long day, and Charlie missed his nap, but he still did really good! He's pretty awesome like that!

The CT scan didn't really give us any answers. His lungs looked "junky" - which is common in kids who aren't breathing on their own (intubated). Charlie's lungs looked more junky than typical, but the radiologist thought that's what it was anyway. Also, there was one lymph node in his chest that was slightly enlarged. More "slightly", more non-answers. It could be a clue, but it's probably nothing. All the doctors agree it's best to go ahead with surgery and hope it solves everything. The surgeon will grab the lymph node if he can while he's in there, but he's not going to dig around for it. Lately, Charlie's fevers have been less frequent and not as bad, so maybe whatever it is/was is getting better anyway!

Brennan is spending the night at my parent's house, and I already miss him. It's hard to be away from him when he doesn't understand why, and I'll miss seeing my little sidekick everyday. He'll spend most of the time with my parents, with other family pitching in here and there. And Ken will take him home to sleep at night, for the most part. I feel so bad for him, but luckily he's a pretty easy-going kid who loves his "Gammas" and "Bampas"!

In other news...Charlie now signs "duck"! It's pretty cute. He's up to about 10 signs now. And Brennan knows his colors! He's still working on a few, like brown. But he knows the rainbow plus gold, black, white, and pink. He's really been focused on it and names colors of things he sees all.day.long. He loves to name the colors of cars, which is how he knows "gold". As he says, "mommy car gold"! He's getting better at saying "More ____" instead of generic whining. Yesterday he also said "Where Daddy going?"! Can you tell I love language development? ;)

I REALLY need to go to bed. I'll try and update tomorrow!

Vocab update and lack of CT update

Life is never dull with two toddlers around! I had no idea to little boys could be so time-consuming - and so messy! I was going through some old photos and I noticed how clean my house was when I only had one pre-mobile baby. Ah, the good old days... At least my kids are super cute, so I forget about the mess.

I was hoping to have an update about Charlie's medical issues...but I don't. On Tuesday he had a CT scan, and I still haven't gotten the results. At least two specialties were going to look at them, maybe three. First each specialty looks at it, and ponders. Then they discuss, then ponder. Then they talk about Charlie at one of their conferences, where they usually decide on something (their decision may be: Wait and see what Other Specialty says...). Then, they may or may not decide to tell me about it! Cardiology has conferences every Tuesday and Friday, and they talk about Charlie often! Even though I get frustrated with all the waiting, the doctors are working behind the scenes. In fact, the pulmonologist and infectious diseases doctor attended conferences with cardiology specifically to talk about Charlie. It's great that his doctors are working so hard for us, but in a way, kind of depressing that they have to.

Anyway, the last time I spoke with cardiology, no one had a plan what to do when they got the results of the CT scan - they were just kind of hoping an answer would pop out at them. So, even if the scan was clear - they still would need to come up with a plan. The ID doctor was still "thinking about things" and planned on discussing Charlie with a few of his colleagues. They may decide to treat him for TB, even if nothing shows up on the scan, because that's the most likely cause for all of Charlie's fevers. I really hope that whatever they do decide, they do NOT move Charlie's surgery. It's only ten days away! Since Charlie can't get sick within two weeks of surgery, we haven't been going anywhere. No church for either of the boys, no library, no Target, nothing. Only therapy and doctor's appointments. I do not do well being home all the time, so I don't want all this time inside to be for nothing and have to start over!

Meanwhile, the boys are torturing me with cuteness. They are really that adorable. Brennan is learning colors. He knows all the color names and their signs, but he only correctly guesses a color about a third of the time. He's working hard at it though! All throughout the day he brings me objects and says, "Purple!" or "Orange!" Usually he's wrong, but it's oh so cute. Yesterday he had marker all over his hand, and while we were playing he'd stop periodically, study his hand, yell out "Blue!" and then go back to playing! He cracks me up. Brennan's vocabulary is growing fast - both spoken and sign. He's still hard to understand in both languages, but it helps when he uses them together. Brennan learns a sign the first time you show it to him! He would have a massive vocabulary if we taught it to him! Sometimes he makes up signs, and then it's impossible to guess what he's really saying. But he'll say/sign it over and over until we correctly guess what he is saying, and he gets frustrated if we don't understand. It happens frequently because Brennan likes us to say whatever word is currently on his mind - so, for example, if he sees a puppy he'll say "puppy" until we say it back. The other day he was trying to get me to say "stinky" but it sounded like "keekee" so I had no idea what he was saying for awhile!

Charlie's vocabulary is growing too! He started calling me "mama" again, and now he says it when he actually wants me! He now signs: Brennan, car, more, eat, milk, water, daddy, mommy, grandma, grandpa, hat, fish, and ball. He learns them pretty quickly, but I forget to reinforce them, so he looses signs here and there until I notice and reteach him. Charlie's getting stronger physically too - he's standing! With a lot of assistance, but hey, it's a long way from April when he wouldn't even put his feet on the ground! We have a couch that's just the right size for Charlie to lean over so he can stand without us holding on. His legs are getting so strong. I can't wait for surgery to get over with - I know he's going to grow so fast!