Oh love and an Austin update

Ashley is doing wonderful! We just adore her and love having her as part of the family. She had her check up on Tuesday and is almost back to her birth weight at 8lb 2oz. I'm sure she is back up already. She is a great sleeper and champion nurser and just a very calm baby. So easy to love! This morning Julie came and picked me up and we went to the children's mass. She was a small celebrity there of course and we then went and visited the individual classrooms too. It was GREAT to see all the staff and students at St. Elizabeth! She has actually been out quite a bit this week. Joe and I took her to her well check then had to kill some time waiting for a prescription to be filled so we went to eat at Bob Evans and toured Babies R Us. Joe insisted we buy a pink bouncy chair, you know the gender neutral one I got for Tommy's shower is just not good enough for our Ashley. The house has been pinked out and Joe is talking about redoing her room from Pooh to Princess's. Can you say spoiled? Meanwhile her forest green carpet is the nicest in the house and could be the first to be pulled up. Wednesday she got to go to Austin's cardiologist appointment in our first family outing together. Yesterday my Mom and Aunt took us to eat at Red Lobster. Yums! She definitely draws a crowd when we are out. Thankfully I think cold/flu season is over. Happy Spring!

In other news I need to update on Austin's IEP last week and his visit to the cardiologist this week.

IEP - I'd been nervous about what to do next year, repeat K or on to 1st. He's actually done very well this year and I don't know why I get these doubts but his teacher is certain the best move is 1st grade. She emphasized that he would be very bored with another year of K. He has really learned a lot this year. He is nowhere near top of his class but she said he's keeping up fine academically and has some very good skills and takes his work very seriously. So that is good news. His physical goals are coming along okay as well. Righty is pretty much a helping arm, the hand is I don't want to say a lost cause but it's only going to be an assist and the function is not coming too well. He is now learning ways to overcome this. He can confidently undress completely if there are no buttons or snaps and can dress himself completely usually too if it's a short sleeve shirt. He's doing well with his day to day functions. He will continue to get OT/PT through the ISD and really likes his therapists. He doesn't like missing out on his regular class though. So overall things are well and he is off to the rigorous 1st grade!! Wow! His reading skills are definitely improving as he has easily memorized all this sight words and is now starting to sound out some simple words. He loves books and reading so that is half the battle. We will work on it a lot this summer.

Cardiologist - That appointment went well. He only goes once a year because of a heart murmur that was caused when they did his ablation when he was 2 days old. This is the appointment I dread and fear so much. Hearts are just so tender. Joe got to go to this appt. since I can't drive so it was good for him to see Dr. Zreik too. He got kind of choked up thinking about the rough start Aus had and how Ashley's experience has been so perfect. Joe thanked Dr. Z again for that birthday when he stayed by Austin's side for almost 12 hours before deciding to airlift him to U of M. The doctor says he remembers it like it was yesterday because nothing was working and it was such an odd case, worst he has seen. The U of M docs said it was the worst they had seen in about 25 years and that kid was 5. Poor Aus, such a rough row to hoe sometimes. His murmur has shown no change which is awesome. Every year the doc reminds me though that we have daily meds in our future and a surgery for a valve replacement. We will just be hopeful that it is many years and maybe decades down the road before we go through that. I'm sure whether he is 10, 20, 30 or beyond it will be heart wrenching to have to watch him go through that. For now we will just hope that he can stay the course and hopefully in 20 years the technology is even better than it is today. We are lucky that he has absolutely no restrictions, he can play as rough as he wants and can ride the wickedest ride at Disney! Yeah!