Brendan had his cardiology appointment this morning so his nurse and I got both boys all packed up for the drive to the hospital. I don’t know whether it is nerves or motion sickness, but Brendan threw up in the car again.

We travel a little lighter than we used to

Brendan was getting worried

We sat in the lobby for 45 minutes. The boys did exceptionally well all things considered. Brendan just put his feet up and waited.

Brendan was not real happy about getting an echo, but he did a very good job holding still. He just kept trying to grab the tech’s hand and move the camera himself. Then we had more waiting.

Brendan had an EKG and did a good job for that too. He just played his stacking game. Then more waiting.

I tried to keep Trevor occupied with snacks and he played with an otoscope while we waited. The doctor finally came in and gave us big happy thumbs up. He said Brendan’s heart is doing really well. No problems and no changes.

We tried to make sure the boys didn’t nap in the car on the way home. It was almost 1PM when we got home and I got a little more food in Trevor and they both went to sleep. An oxygen tank refill came and went and both boys slept three hours! They probably won’t want to go to bed tonight now!

Trevor took this picture of Brendan

Brendan wanted to play with the camera too. This is is arm waving “I want that” act. He waves his hands and reaches out and makes a little sound. It he doesn’t get what he wants, he makes little goose honks and starts to cry.

I am ultra tired. Travelling with these kids takes it out of me! Then, the phone rings. They have a cancellation in the sleep lab and they can get Brendan in for his delayed sleep study TOMORROW NIGHT! eek! If he doesn’t come in tomorrow, then they can’t fit him in for a month, so we have to jump on this opportunity! Hopefully this will mean bye bye ventilator once and for all!!

Crikey! We worked hard today and I am exhausted!

The boys and I made it a sort and clean day this morning because it helps me to keep them busy.

The boys had their moments of sweet play and screaming fights. And arguments over who sat in the toybox.

They always make up eventually

Brendan is getting in too!

This piano has been sitting up on a shelf with a broken switch. I fixed it today and the toy became the subject of combat for hours.

They made up again. Trevor offers Brendan a drink of his juice. He tried to feed him a goldfish cracker too. I think he is doing more for Brendan than his therapist!

I got Brendan interested in some sliced black olives at dinnertime.

I watched him secretly.

Lick! I think he liked them!

“Oh no! This is going on the blog!”

Trevor was licking his dinner too

He was having a real treat and enjoying every minute!

Brendan really enjoys chewing on the the little blue trach guard. In an attempt to pull it off, he ended up pulling his trach out. He just sat there singing and smiling. I think he really enjoys it being out of his airway. We would love to see it gone too!!

Besides doing a ton of cleaning in the toy area, we cleaned and sorted and purged junk and tried to maximize garbage can usage for pickup tomorrow. It feels good to be making progress on this.
We also got some new cellular shades for in the living room. The old wood blinds were from when we had no covered patio on the house and we needed to stop the hot sun from coming in. The living room was dark like a cave all the time to stay cool.
Since then, the patio cover was finished and we replaced the windows with high rated dual pane ones. Now we can let some of the nice natural light back in! The new blinds are the two stage kind that have the light diffusing and the blackouts. Bill did a lot of work to get the old stuff cleared out and the new blinds hung up.

There was a lot going on today and a lot of stuff that I had to try to keep the boys out of. When there are two babies relentlessly trying to get at something dangerous, one person trying to hold them back is about as futile as trying to stop a river running down hill with a spatula. They make me crazy!

We accomplished a lot today though. It feels good to be sore and tired for a good reason!