Friday, Brendan had his routine checkup with the cardiologist which includes an echo and EKG. He hates the whole process. Since we were at the main hospital campus, we got “upgraded” to their best tech that did a great job getting Brendan through the long echo while getting the data he needed. He was the same guy that did the diagnostic echo that found Brendan’s heart defect just over four years ago.
Getting great pictures of the inside is so important and it helped Brendan’s doctor give him an A++ report. All defects considered, Brendan’s heart is really strong, no leaky valves, no narrowing of vessels, and has a good rhythm. All awesome news.

Saturday was the final finishing day of the skylight project. As soon as the installer left, Bill and I took over to finish the rest of the room. You can’t paint part of a ceiling so we did the whole thing.
We also fixed some very old holes and damage from the old fish tank!

We took down all the shelves and lights and medical stuff and patched and painted the top half of the wall as well.

The finished skylights!

The problem with a freshly updated room is that the rest of the house then wants to be done too. 😀 😀

Today we took the boys to the science center and we saw their first show in the planetarium. They were not entirely impressed and both of them would have happily left mid-show. But it was OK and they made it through. 😀

Our living room will never be the same!

Construction started on Wednesday and should finish up on Saturday. Trevor has mixed feelings about it. He thinks the construction is cool but he says “All that burning hot sunlight will come in!! Too bright!!!” (This from the kid that always wants the AC off in the car because he is freezing.)

The boys are checking out the work at the end of the day.

Drywall is all done, taping and mudding tomorrow and painting on Saturday.

Our installer laughed about rain in the forecast and said it would be a good leak test. He got his test! We had a downpour!

Soaked!

A little more comfortable

“That silly fool”

Trevor loves summer storms and mud.

Trevor’s second day of preschool went well. He was nowhere near as excited to go today, but ran in and started playing right away. He didn’t want to talk about the day when I picked him up, he just gave me extra big hugs. The teacher said he had a great time.

Later, all I could get out of him was the following:

– “The teacher just says, ‘No, Trevor!’ ‘No, Trevor!’. You can’t do ANYTHING in school!!”
– “The teacher made play-dough. Blue and yellow and orange! But she wouldn’t let me mix it! I was trying to make a banana-blueberry birthday cake!”
– “Where did you go for SO LONG?”

He said he still had a super fun day but he was so tired. I think he is struggling with the structure, and does not like to be corrected when he wants to go do his own thing. He will start to get it!

We are still waiting for communication from Brendan’s doctors. I believe that the cartilage removal procedure is still go for Sept. 21st, but I don’t know if they will attempt to decannulate. I am not even 100% sure about that date yet.
I am beyond frustrated that so few of my calls get returned. The people that are so helpful and do call are not the ones that can provide the answers.

Even so, we go on with our summer. Batman sometimes needs a little extra equipment.

Bill and I are trying one of these make-ahead-and-freeze meals plans. Twenty bags of dinner are going in to the deep freeze. They are all recipes that you thaw overnight, dump the bag in to crock pot in the morning and turn on. I am hoping it all works well, it will save a lot of time later.

These boys are getting so big! Today was a super special day for Trevor. I dropped him off for his first day of preschool! He is enrolled in a 2-day per week, 3.5 hour class at an awesome little private preschool. It should be just enough to help him work on his social skills. Right now there are only 4 other kids in his class, so he gets a lot of attention.

He was running around doing his “I’m a schoolboy” dance.

He was so excited to start school that he woke up really early this morning ready to go. He was amped about having other kids to play with. I dropped him off and he ran right in to the classroom and said, “bye Mommy! See you later!”

The report I got back at the end was good. I think he really had a good time; I also think he has a lot of adjustments to make for dealing with the new rules and environment. He has mixed feelings about how much he liked it. He is so sensitive (like his Mommy!). One of the things they do with the kids each year is they trace their bodies and paint the figure and cut it out and put it on the wall. Trevor liked being traced and he likes his cutout, but he was really upset that they got marker on his shorts and his leg.

The true test will be to see how he does when he gets dropped off on Thursday!