A Few Things

Kamryn's school had their yearly bookfair this week. You know... your mom sends you with money and you buy wacky stuff that she would never really buy you. Kamryn took $20 today and I said "don't spend it all, and please buy something interesting." I guess we have different opinions of 'interesting'. She didn't spend ALL of it, but has $3 left after picking out the Pokemon Ultimate Handbook, Pokemon pencil, twirly eraser, and this little thingy. I had to laugh because I had absolutely NO idea why she would buy a pointed finger on a stick for $5!
The short version of her response is "it's a pointy finger for reading... when you get distracted when reading, you can point the finger to the word you left off on and come back later." Really? Who thought of that? She thinks it's a great invention! :)

Owen thinks she bought it for his chewing pleasure. Thanks sister.

Owen is going to be 13 months old tomorrow! He is still working on doing anything besides sitting up or laying down. We're working on getting him to lie down or sit up by himself. He'll crawl and walk someday! Physical Therapy has been working him hard but he just exhausts so easily.

His speech is coming along great... "MAM (yelled when he's mad only), Da Da (said so sweetly all the time), Du - Du (Duck), Ah Dun (all done, usually when we're eating), Na Na Nu (no). The rest is a bunch of babble, but we know exactly what he means.

He waves bye bye, does the motions for "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Tiny Turtle", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and helps with the animal sounds when we sing "Old McDonald's EIEIO".

This little man LOVES music... this weeks favorite... you ready for it?

SINGLE LADIES by BEYONCE... he just cracks up when he hears it! It might also have something to do with me dancing around like the video when it's on.

HAPPY 13 MONTHS BUDDY!!

As you can see.. he is back to his delightful self again. He is still puking and can't tolerate even the tiniest amount of formula though. He keeps dropping pounds and yet I have NO idea what to do. He tolerates clear liquids and ice, but anything with calories he pukes. Maybe since he's acting more like himself, he's getting over it?!

Ice Ice Baby

Mr. Owen is still puking and having watery (you know what). He tolerated about 5oz of formaula yesterday and then puked that up last night. He is back on pedalyte at 4oz every 5 hours... not much. He has lost 2lbs in 5 days and he worked really hard to gain those pounds. The only thing that makes him 100% satisfied is ICE! Not any ice... SONIC ice. Did you know you can buy a great big bag of it for $1.50?! It's easy for him to chew and he just munches and munches all day. It probably feels great on all those teeth coming in too!

Fatigue comes along with feeling sick and losing weight. He just lays in bed all day. When he's awake he plays for all of 5 min before he wants to go back to bed. As I'm sure you know.. I am scared that it all relates to his heart. I pray that this is just a bug but fear that it's worse than that. I know that we are blessed to have him home in Arizona so we can be together. At any time, I could be on my way to LA with Owen leaving Kamryn and Carson six hours away. I'm trying to look at it s an adventure. If I don't, I just hate the idea of being without Kamryn and Carson! Sure, I'll see them often and anytime Kamryn has a break from school (summer vaca) she'll be in LA with us. It's just going to be difficult. A new city (where I don't know a soul), a new hospital (with new dr.'s and nurses), a new place to live (we won't even start on that yet), and a new beginning for Owen! :)

Home at Last!

So long ER! In all honesty... they didn't discover anything new with Owen. He would have been just fine at home and avoided the pokes, xray and sleep deprivation. I always feel good about getting him checked out though. His teeth are looking aweful because he is cutting all four molars at once, the 'dracula' teeth are stabbing their way through and he bit his tongue earlier while chewing ice.

Carson is still sick as can be and I'm afraid to touch anything for fear that it's contaminated (a little germ phobic I might add). Owen is feeling better, tolerating his formula at a really slow rate and FINALLY sleeping. Excuse me while I go join him.

Patience

My patience is being tested and I haven't slept in over 48 hours. Owen is Mr. Crabby pants! We're still sitting in our ER room and it's been over 9 hours. He's dehydrated and they tried to place an IV several times with no luck. Owen's veins are just shot. We were able to get enough blood out of one stick for his labs. We ran him down for a quick tummy xray and all was well. They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and started him on pediatlyte. If he can tolerate 2 ounces without puking, we can go home. Sounds like he just has a nasty tummy bug and we'll see how his heart is functioning next Thursday when we do his echo.

Owen woke up from a nap around 1am when the IV team came in and his mouth was full of blood. We cleaned it out enough to find the source was coming from one of his top molars. It's cutting through the gum and bleeding like crazy.. thanks to the daily dose of asprin he takes. This too could be a source of all his crabbyness.

I'm praying that Owen holds these 2 ounces down and we can go home and both get some much needed sleep. Mr. Crabby Pants sleeps for 3 min intervals and then squirms and throws his binki on the floor. So I then get up from my comfy spot and wash the binki just to have him throw snorty on the floor. Like I said... my patience is being tested.

Grandma Monica is on her way down here to sit with Owen so I can go potty and get something to eat. I don't need another meltdown.

We're in the ER

Owen woke up at 11pm puking, puking and more puking. Followed by shaking and crazy crabby. I called cardiology to "let them know" and they said go to PCH because it could be "heart failure". We jumped in the car at midnight and Owen had a massive icky, watery movement. I stopped at a gas station to change him, get some caffine and off to the ER. I walked right into a room bypassing all of the nasty, germy, symphony of coughing children. They said he looks pretty dry and so we're waiting on the IV team to come TRY to find a vein. He has none left after all of his recent IV's and he's dehydrated so that makes it even harder. Wish us luck! Anyway.. they plan to give him IV fluids for a while and then we'll do more labs to check his electrolytes. They are planning on dripping a lot of fluid into him and so I asked the ER doc (that looks like a 12 yr old by the way) how they know if they are giving him too much fluid. He said his lungs will become wet and he'll desat... FABULOUS! :)

Waiting til' Morning

I decided to wait until morning before making the decision to take Owen into the hospital or not. I just think of how gross the ER is at night when regular Dr.'s offices are closed...yuck! He is tolerating his feeds a tiny bit at a time. He's on 10ccs an hour drip.. that's probably a quarter of an ounce an hour (REALLY SLOW).. but better than nothing. We're hoping for a restful night, no puking and a happy little guy tomorrow morning.

I forgot to mention that Carson has the same aweful stomach bug. Poor Daddy. Kamryn and I won't get sick. (knocking on wood right now)

Should I stay or should I go?

Owen is CRABBY!! For those of you that know Owen.. he never cries, he never whines, he is happy 110% of the time. All day long he has whined, cried and can't sleep. He has been attatched to me all day and even then continues to whine. He didn't puke until 4:00... but his total intake has only been 70ccs... TOTAL today. He has had 2 wet diapers, so we know he's not dehydrated. Hmmm... now the question is... should I stay at home and give him one more night to feel better? Or do we go to the hospital?

Sick :(

Owen is sick... puking for more than 48 hours now. He can't hold down his meds, pedialyte or formula. I took him to the pediatrician today and she said SIX hours. If he doesn't stop puking in SIX hours or if he stops peeing... I gotta take him in! I'm watching for dehydration and who knows what puking up his heart meds is doing for his already cruddy heart. Say a little prayer that he will get rest and feel better today. I really don't want to take him back to the germy hospital.

We're Home Again

We made it home late last night. Owen's monitor continually showed his oxygen saturations dropping into the 60's, but he didn't look like he was that blue. I requested another oximeter (the one on the bed) and he had one foot hooked up to each monitor. I was right! He was actually in the 80's and the other monitor was just trying to keep us in the hospital longer. So long room 415.. and so long to our roomate that arrived at 1am Thursday morning :).

Since our cupboards and fridge were bare, we decided to go to Joe's Farmgrill for breakfast. Mmmmm$$mm$$mmm. So expensive, but delicious. Owen was thrilled to be outdoors....

Kamryn wanted to walk and walk and walk around.

I get a little freaked out by the signs that say "watch for falling scorpions" by all the trees.

We are glad to be home... there is so much to catch up on after just three days away. Owen's been puking and has a runny bum.... I'm putting off calling cardiology because I don't want to go back :(. Pray that this is short lived and goes away.

Oh.. I forgot to mention that Gracie got a heart today!! Just 3 short days after being listed for a heart is a miracle. It appears that her body is rejecting the heart... they are working on other treatments, but if she rejects this heart... she cannot be relisted for another. Prayers to her and her family and also the family that lost their little one.

Bad IV

Owen finished up his first 18 hour dose of IVIG and we gave him a few hour break before starting the next dose. Five minutes after starting it... Owen screamed and grabbed his IV. I have never seen him in that much pain... ever! His IV was flushing beautifully but he continued to scream and grab his arm in pain. The IV team came down (we don't mention Owen's name on the page to them anymore) and they were so sad it was Owen. They all love him so much and it breaks their heart to stick him over and over and over again. The worst part is.. he sees them as his friends and smiles at them as soon as they walk in the room. I'd be running the other way! We got another IV in after a few painful sticks and digging around the veins. Took out the bad IV and just started on his next 18 hour round. I am so grateful that he won't remember any of this one day! We have a fabulous nurse tonight who normally works in the PICU and remembers Owen from his Norwood. He definetly leaves a memorable impression on everyone he meets.

We have a room to ourselves tonight... let's pray we don't get a "behind the curtain" friend until tomorrow.

A Quiet Afternoon

After I had a meltdown -- yes, tears were shed -- things have been much better around here. I vented to my nurses and explained what I expected of them (which isn't much). Carson came to hang out with Owen so I could go shower in the smallest shower I have ever seen... but it was hot and it felt good!! The nurses have been accomodating and we're all happy. Our roomate was discharged so we are enjoying a little bit of privacy before we get a new one.

Our transplant coordinator was on call today so we had a good chat about Owen. I talked to her about our heart friend Gracie and what a miracle it is that her antibodies are so low. I mentioned that hers were zero and weak and asked "so what are Owen's?" Her reply was "they range from zero-100%... Owen's are in the 90's range. Well.. sorry I asked. :)

We're still working on Owen's first dose of Immunoglobulins... we still have another 18 hours to go. If my calculations are accurate... things so smoothly... we'll be outta here by Saturday around 3. Also... remember Owen's spooky eyes... THEY'RE BACK!!

Frustration

We slept maybe 3 hours last night... blah. Between the nurses coming in every 4 hours, the poor little girl behind the curtain screaming "owie" because her new gtube is hurting, and Owen's machines beeping... I consider our 3 hours of rest a victory!

Owen ordered from the "big boy" menu today because he finally eats more and more. Bananas, Cheerios, and eggs...mmmm. Only a few bites of each and he says "Ah Dun".

He got a cheerio stuck in his throat and puked it all over his sheets. Two hours later, after notifying several nurses, I ended up scrounging up my own sheets and changing them myself. Call me grouchy from lack of sleep, but I don't think there is any excuse for 3 nurses and one PT to not be able to find a second to change sheets that a baby puked on! I have to constantly remind him when to feed their patient...my child (so I don't mind). I'm not "allowed" to leave him unattended because he's in a big boy crib .. understood.. but is it too much to ask to have one of the many volunteers wandering around to come sit and play with him for five minutes so I can go to the restroom? I think of myself as an extremely patient person, but I'm done being patient. We sat here for seven hours yesterday for nothing because the nurse didn't want to walk down to the pharmacy to pick up his immunoglobulin and the pharmacy continually forgot to bring it up... THAT was the hold up! AAAAAHHHHHHHH... so frustrated. Carson is coming down to relieve me for a while so I can get outside, shower and regain my positive outlook on the situation! :)

We're a GO!

I am writing this prematurely, but it's 9pm and the night nurse just ran down to the pharmacy to pick up Owen's Immunoglobulin. After SIX hours of wasted time... Owen should start his 36 hour treatment soon. Instead of going home to our cozy beds tomorrow evening... we'll be here through Saturday. Needless to say... I'm irritated. To top it off... it took the IV team 3 tries to get an IV in and we're praying they heal up before our next round of chemo because his veins are shot. He's such a little trooper and he's thrilled that I get to sleep in bed with him tonight. All my frustrations disappeared when I climbed in his hospital bed with him and he grinned ear to ear. Sweet dreams .. hopefully we'll get some sleep. Our sweet little roomate is in dreamland... we'll pray she sleeps through the night as well.

Admitted and Waiting

We got the call at 1:00 that Owen's room was ready... finally... YES... let's get this done.

HA... what was I thinking? It is now 5:30 and we are still waiting. Waiting in our room on the fourth floor. Waiting in our SHARED room on the floor with an adorable little girl that just had surgery yesterday and is NOT very happy. Waiting for the Dr.'s to finally put the orders into the pharmacy so we can start Owen's IVIG. Waiting for the IV team to come up and start his IV. Waiting for Owen and sweet little girl behind this rainbow curtain to fall asleep. Waiting for cardiology to come up and say "oh... hey... how long have you been here?"
While we wait... Owen is pulling off all his leads. Beep Beep Beep... we wait for a nurse to come turn off his monitors. This is going to be a LONG two days. Did I mention that I get to sleep in this bed with Owen... there is no where else to sleep.

Bath Tears

This is how I feel about taking Owen back to the hospital tomorrow! It's time for his second round of IVIG (immunoglobulin) .... broke down into 2 doses over 18 hours each. We're hoping to be outta there by Friday night.
I had to snap this quick photo of Owen crying... he never cries... but he did today. After his encounter with ravioli for lunch, followed by a thin mint cookie and another 4 oz of milk dribbled down his chest... I thought it'd be a great opportunity to try a bath. Owen has only taken one bath ever (he prefers showers). I filled the tub to the perfect temp, found his favorite floatable toys and I was so excited to watch him play while washing away his lunch. What was I thinking?? The minute his feet touched the water, he screamed...and screamed...and screamed...and continued to scream for five minutes after he was out of the tub and dried off. I only sat in the tub with him for 10 seconds until he turned beautiful shades of blue and magenta. No more baths for Owen.... ever!

Sorry Owen... bad Mommy for thinking that an afternoon bath would be such a great idea.

Our First Born

It's time for a post about our wonderful first born!! I found this little "about me" on facebook and thought I'd share.
* Was your first pregnancy planned? Not even close. I was 19, Carson was 21.. we had only dated for six months. We were madly in love and didn't spend a moment away from eachother.... surprise!!

* Were you married at the time? Not quite... but we were married 5 weeks after I peed on a sitck. It also happened to be 5 days before my 20th Birthday. We were smitten with eachother!

* What were your reactions? Our first reaction was "how did this happen?"... Ok, we knew. Our second reaction was ... "let's get married!" After the wedding and the morning sickness ended ... we were excited!!!!

* How did you find out you were pregnant? After puking every night for a couple weeks, then missing my monthly cycle.. I took a test.

* Who did you tell first? Seriously? I called Carson first!

* Did you want to find out the sex? Of course.. I didn't need more surprises.

* What was your due date? January 1, 2000... Millenium Baby!

* Did you have morning sickness? Let me just say that I spent the majority of our wedding receiption and honeymoon in Vegas in the bathroom puking. It was very romantic...wasn't it dear?!

* What did you crave? The same thing I crave now, always crave, can't get enough... chocolate and diet coke.

* What is the sex of that baby? Girly Girl.

* How many pounds did you gain? 60 pounds of baby... or 6lbs of baby... 50lbs of placenta. However you like to think of it!

* Did you havea ny complications? If you call puking for 9 months complicated.. then yes.

* How many hours were you in labor? I showed up at the hospital at 8pm complaining of horrible contractions... in reality, I wasn't effaced or dialted at all and they were minor cramps. They were going to send me home but I was already past due and wouldn't leave. They induced me, gave me some IV drugs, then some magnesium and then an epidural. Let's just say it would've been much quicker if I weren't so drugged.

* Who was in the delivery room? Carson, my mom on video, Kelli on photography, 1 nurse to hold my completely numbed legs and 1 doctor to catch her.

* When was your baby actually born? Jan 03 -- after 2 1/2 hours of pushing she made her debut.

* How much did she weigh? 6lbs 13oz == 21" long

* What did you name her? Kamryn

Kamryn at 1 month

Kamryn at one year

* How old is your first born today? NINE... an amazing, funny, silly, intelligent, sometimes sassy, nine year old girl.

As she reminded us on her birthday ... "I'm halfway to 18!" I wish we could stop time.

Sippin' and Spittin'

Owen learned to finally drink from a straw!! He never learned the suck-swallow motion and has never been able to drink from a bottle. He is getting better at swallowing and now he finally learned how to suck. The next challenge will be teaching him what to do with the milk after it comes out of the straw...

Check out that steady stream of milk down his tummy....Cracks me up!!

Happy Valentine's

We had a wonderful day together as a family. This time last year, Owen was recovering from his first open heart surgery. I remember holding him in the PICU and praying that I would be able to bring him home!!
We celebrated Valentine's at home... together! We had a "fancy" candlelight dinner and the kids thought it was great! Valentine's day has a different meaning to us this year... Happy HEART Day!

Another dear heart friend, Gracie, is in need of your prayers. They just found out she too needs a heart transplant but is having many complications and will be in ICU until her heart becomes available.

Owen's Antibodies Answered

I emailed our cardiologist at UCLA for some clarification on Owen's antibodies... how they are measured... what our goals are... what we're up against! Of course the amazing Dr. Halnon immedietly replied to my email with thorough answers and proceeded to make arrangments to call me today to claify even further!

I wanted to know what Owen's antibody levels were so I have a realistic idea of what we're dealing with and how difficult a donor match is actually going to be.

Owen has antibodies to several COMMON antigens and a large amount of these antibodies are cirulating. Once you have these antibodies, you will probably always be able to make more. Ideally, they would like to avoid the antigens altogether and find a donor with NONE of them. This is difficult because Owen has antibodies to many and they are COMMON. This significantly decreases his donor pool ! The best they can do is make the amount smaller so the chance of immediately rejecting a heart is decreased.

The IVIG and Rituximab treatments are supposed to make the amount of antibodies decrease. In bigger people, they can use plasmaphereisis, a procedure like dialysis that can only be done in small children if they are on ECMO... not a practical option.

After the 44 days that Owen has to complete of IVIG and Rituximab, it will probably need to be repeated if there was little effect. If there was good effect (less amount or number of antibodies) then we will probably keep it up to keep the antibodies from coming back and see how he is doing. It appears that we will continue the treatments indefinetly?!

Dr. Halnon said "Some kids get over some hump and cook along for awhile even if they don’t look good for a Fontan they may last awhile with the glenn shunt. If they start having trouble later we revisit the whole thing again and when they are large enough add plasmapheresis into the mix. Certainly all this is more art than science and not very pretty art at that. Just flowing with it is the best thing."

We will continue to "cook along" and go with the flow! Continue to pray for this crazy little man and his broken little heart.

Still in ICU

We showed up at the hospital at 8am.

Settled in ICU room 42 (with our own bathroom)... room 42 is in the neuro unit because cardiac was full... thankfully, we got one of our favorite cardiac nurses! The IV team comes and gets the IV in ... Dr.'s have to order the Rituximab... we then wait for the pharmacy to deliver the meds... then we had to start the dose at a very slow rate. What should be a quick 4 hour dose of Rituximab, turns into a 12 hour day of trying to entertain a 1 yr old crazy little man fun! Dr. Stock has come by every hour to entertain us. All of Owen's nurses, previous Respiratory Therapists and PCT's are dropping in to visit. Owen is amused.

Owen hasn't had any reactions this time around. Last time he had this treatment he was given Benadryl via his IV and turned into a wild child! We blamed it on the Benadryl. This time he hasn't had any and he is just as crazy. Rituximab side effect perhaps? Could it be ICU boredom?

If our calculations are correct.. he'll be done with his 50cc's by 6pm... then we have to wait around for an hour to be discharged. Do I really have to come back in 7 days for more IVIG? Do I really have to stay for two days next week? I really hope this is going to work!!

Rituximab.. Round 2

I just called called the charge nurse and we're taking Owen in at 8am tomorrow for his second dose of Ritxuimab. It should be about 4 hours in ICU -- in and out. Last time he had a yucky reaction and this time we're increasing the intensity of it. We're also doing labs to check his PRAs (panel reactive antibodies)... we'll do that tomorrow and again on March 4th. Even though it's a quick visit to ICU, it still involves an IV, hooked up to monitors and lots of meds dripping in his veins. We're praying for no reactions and that it does it's job.

A Little Advice

A little advice please.

As you know, we have chosen UCLA as our primary heart transplant facility. You also may know that we are working to lower Owen's antibody levels because they are highly sensitized. In patients with highly sensitized PRA's (panel reactive antibodies), it significantly lowers their donor pool. With a smaller donor pool, it decreases their chances of getting a heart.

UNOS (united network for organ sharing) is the national database that all donors/recipients go through. UNOS seperates organ donation into regions. We are currently in region 5 which means Owen can get a heart from a donor in that region.

We are fortunate enough to have wonderful medical insurance and they will pay for Owen to be listed at two different transplant facilities in two seperate regions. This is a huge blessing because it opens up his donor pool, which is already limited due to his sensitized antibodies.
Here's where we need a little advice... or recommendations. Since Owen is listed in LA and will probably be admitted to that facility (at some point)... we need to choose another transplant facility in a different region... but close enough to get Owen to a heart if it becomes available. Our options appear to be... Seattle Childrens (Region 6), Denver Children's,(Region 8) or Texas Children's (Region 4).I have met heart families from all three of these hospitals and I'd love to hear some insight about each one.

By listing Owen in multiple regions, it will increase his chances of finding his "perfect" heart!

CHD Awareness Week!

Feb. 7-Feb. 14 is Congenital Heart Defect awareness week. Before we had Owen, I had never even though about heart defects. I knew of cancer, diabetes, obesity and many other issues that children have to face thanks to the media and public awareness. I never knew any of the following facts... I never thought to donate blood... I never even thought about organ donation!

Did you know???

** CHD's are the number one birth defect and the number one cause of infant death related to defects-- 1 in 100 babies born will have a CHD

** 1 in 10 of those babies will have a fatal defect

**In the U.S., nearly twice as many children die due to CHDs than that of all forms of childhood cancers combined. Yet there is 5 times more research for pediatric cancer than for CHDs

**Causes for CHDs are still being studied. While there is no known definitive cause, it is said that both genetics and environmental factors can play a role.

**About 40,000 units of blood are used every day yet only about 5% of the adults, the only ones who are eligible to donate blood, do so. Someone needs blood every three seconds in the United States; that someone is often one of our heart children.

**Only about 30% of the children who need a heart transplant receive one in time.

What can you do??

RAISE AWARENESS -- DONATE BLOOD -- REGISTER TO BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR!

Owen was born with one of the most severe CHDs. Fortunatly, he has made it to his first birthday and continues to do okay. We pray that Owen will get a perfect heart when the time is right and that it will last him a while. The average heart only lasts an average of 10 years! We have lost many of our heart friends and have prayed for many more! Join us this week in not only celebrating Valentine's Day.. but raising awareness for our little ones!

Cardiology Update

We visited Dr. Stock yesterday and it was so nice to not have an echo! Dr. Stock agreed that Owen looks great and we're just hoping the cath did him some good. We'll know on March 5th when we go back for his next appt and echo. Owen is on 1/4 liter of oxygen and his sats have been in the mid 80's so I'm dropping him down the puff of air on 1/8 liter and PRAY that he'll be off by next week. It'll be so nice to take an oxygen break for a while. We confirmed the dates of his next IVIG and Rituximab doses and lots of blood draws over the next few weeks.

I emailed our cardiologist at UCLA to find out what Owen's antibody levels are at and what our goals are. Also... what happens after this cycle of treatments.. do we start all over again? We are all cautiously optimistic that time is on our side and Owen is sustaining himself well at home. We're also realistic about the situation and know that anything can change at any time. We just pray for Owen to stay healthy and strong!

Please say a prayer for our heart friends Lindsay and Sofi who are currently in the hospital waiting for their hearts. They both have HLHS and are dealing with the same highly sensitized antibody issues.

1 Year Old

My mommy has posted lots about celebrating the fact that I turned ONE last week. She totally forgot to tell you what I've been up to and how big I am!
* I'm not sure why they weigh me ALL the time, but I'm growing BIG at almost 22lbs!

* I am loving food and I just learned to drink from a straw all by myself... someone just needs to teach me how to swallow it after I drink it. It is very fun to spit it all over the place though!

* As I was saying... food is great, but I only want a few bites and then it belongs on the floor. Mommy likes to clean the floor. Besides, my tube is great... I have this little port at the end and it's a great chewy tube for when I'm teething.

* Speaking of teething... I have 8 teeth, 2 molers and more coming in.

* I have been trying really hard to stand up on my legs.. it's just SO hard! Can't I just walk on my bottom?

* Crawling is even harder... who wants to walk on their hands and knees??

* I'm learning how to say more things each day... no matter what I say.. it makes everyone laugh! I'm such a funny guy.

Darn it. It's time to go get my synagisis shots now. Bummer. My mom will update tomorrow when we get home from seeing Dr. Stock (cardiology).

Owen's Birthday Party

Owen's jungle party was a lot of fun! The weather was amazing in the mid 70's with just a light breeze. Owen had no clue why his entire (almost) family was there and kept saying "Owen... Owen... Smile"... but he was obviously very amused. I have to say that the many, many balloons were the highlight of the party as you will see in the pictures.
We made our own cakes for Mr. Owen. Daddy made the lion cake....

Kamryn made the monkey cake. Seriously... if I would have made the cakes they would have not resembled an animal.

We discovered Owens complete disinterest in cakes and anything related to the blowing of the candles or eating it. It's a good thing he's got a big sister who has done this nine times and is a professional now.

On his actual birthday (Wed.) we baked him a small cake in hopes that he would smash it and at the very least ... eat a little. He found it more entertaining to toss the whole cake on the floor instead. Since we learned our lesson with cake already, we went for the bite off a fork approach today. He tried it....

then made this face.

Apparently he prefers to eat balloons instead!

He was tuckered out in time to open presents... but he got some fabulous clothes and books (just what Mommy asked for)! He woke up in time to play "attack the balloons" once more. We finally got a shot with all four of us in it. It's an aweful picture of myself, but the camera does add ... what?... 50lbs or so?

Our little guy is finally one. A year ago we weren't sure what was in store for Mr. Owen. I didn't buy a car seat, crib or clothes for him yet.... I was waiting for the official "you can take him home" first. It's been an emotional year for all of us, but HAPPINESS is the one that jumps to mind first! We can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays!