Big Update

Hey Everyone! So as the saying goes, no news is good news! I can't believe it's been six months since our last post. That is about to change because we have a lot coming up! We've had a lot happen in the last six months so, if you're up for it, hang in while I try to catch you up to speed.

I'll start back in March, shortly after where the last post left off. Early in March, we found out that we're having another baby - due November 2nd. We told Ethan a couple weeks later and he was pretty excited and immediately starting sharing the news with everyone that he's going to have a little brother. :) At 8 weeks pregnant, we had to stop him from telling everyone yet

because it was still way too early to know for sure about the gender of the baby. Also in March, we finally got around to getting Ethan's 3 year portraits done at Wal-Mart. And the biggest news of the month, Ethan got to be a ring bearer in his Aunt Jenny's wedding!

Ethan and his cousin Annie (as the flower girl) at the rehearsal.

Ethan's 3.5 year portraits in his ring bearer suit

Another shot from the portraits

Then in April, Ethan went for a cardiology checkup and things still looked good with his heart on the echo (ultrasound of his heart). As a result, his cardiologist felt confident to go ahead with a heart cath to prepare for the final heart surgery later this year, at a date of our choosing.

May was a pretty low key month, Julie celebrated her 31st birthday by Dan whisking her away to South Carolina for a weekend away to go to the Kenny Chesney concert & visit from friends while Ethan spent the weekend with Dan's parents.

June was a super busy month for us all. On June 2nd, Ethan had his heart cath at UNC Hospital's pediatric cath lab. Again, things looked very good with Ethan's heart. In fact, Dr. R, his cardiologist, even went so far as to say that Ethan has one of the best looking anatomies for someone with HLHS! This was very encouraging news for us to hear and, upon review of his cath results with the peds cardio-thoracic surgeon, we should be on our way to booking the final heart surgery, the Fontan!

Also in June, we had a level 2 ultrasound of baby #2, to evaluate the anatomy, specifically the heart, and also find out the gender of this baby. We are happy to report that this baby is completely heart healthy and Ethan was correct in guessing that this one is, indeed, a brother to Ethan!

We also had a family beach trip with Julie's family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, & cousin Annie) in June. This was a much needed time of relaxation and fun for us all to break up our busy summer! We stayed so busy that we forgot to get many pictures of the trip. Ethan and Annie enjoyed lots of play time in the sand and waves, as well as some time in the pool. Ethan loved the water last summer but has gotten a little more timid of pools for some reason this year. We probably should have put him in swim lessons again but time got away from us! We also took Ethan to see Cars 2 on the day it was released in the theaters (June 24th). If you know Ethan at all, you know that he's a bit obsessed with all things "Cars/Cars 2" related so this was a big treat for him!

June was also the month we heard back from UNC and booked Ethan's Fontan heart surgery! He is scheduled for surgery on Thursday, September 1st, with a pre-op appointment the day before, Wednesday, August 31st.

July has flown by for us. It's always a busy month with Aunt Jessica's birthday on the 1st, Mimi's (Julie's mom) birthday on the 13th, Mimi & Pop-Pop's anniversary on the 23rd, new bro-in-law Brandon's birthday on the 26th, & me and Dan's anniversary on the 27th (9 years for us!).

Well if you've made it this far, then you're pretty much caught up with our lives. August is here and we're busy trying to make the most memories and have as much fun as we can before surgery on September 1st!

August is Ethan's birthday month, and also anniversary of his first heart surgery! We're stretching out the birthday celebration all week long. We started with a small party/cookout with our small group at church on Sunday night, August 7th. We had a Finn McMissile & Mater cake to celebrate. Then, every day this week I'm trying to do a little something special for him.

Monday, August 8th, Dan and I went to UNC to meet with his surgeon to get more info about what to expect with this surgery and recovery. So while we were in the meeting, Ethan's Mimi took him and cousin Annie to the sprayground/pool for a couple hours. They had a blast playing together!

Tuesday, August 9th, we went and had lunch with Dan then went to Rita's Italian Ice for dessert.

Wednesday, August 10th, Ethan and I met up with some friends to watch Cars 2 (for the 3rd time this summer) and then we ate ice cream at Baskin Robbins!

Thursday, August 11th (today!) - Ethan's 4th birthday! We're going to meet Mimi at Sears for Ethan's 4 year old portraits, then get lunch at the food court (probably Ethan's favorite - a cheeseburger (no pickle) from McDonald's. Then for dinner, we'll take Ethan out for pizza and doughnuts and let him open one present.

Tomorrow, Friday, August 12th, I've got to go into work for a couple hours so the plan is to let him have a playdate with cousin Annie. This may have to be postponed though because Ethan's starting to get a runny nose :(

Saturday, August 13th, this is the 4 year anniversary of his first heart surgery. Don't have anything planned yet for that day so I've got to think of something. I guess it'll mostly depend on how Ethan's feeling with his cold.

Sunday, August 14th, we plan to have a family cookout/birthday party! I'll stop here and update more after the party. I'll hopefully have some more pictures to include too!

Birthday Boy!

I'm busy cleaning and prepping for Ethan's birthday party so I'll keep this short and sweet until I have time to blog all the details. Two days ago, Wednesday, August 11th, our sweet boy turned 3! Happy birthday to our sweet Ethan Scott Miles!

Instead of celebrating just on his birthday, we actually started the festivities last Tuesday, August 3rd, and we're keeping the fun coming until his big party tomorrow, Saturday, August 14th. Last Tuesday, we began the celebrating with a small family party while away on our annual Garrett Family beach trip! Ethan's Aunt Jenny (and her boyfriend!) was with us from SC and wouldn't be able to come back to town to see Ethan for his actual birthday so we decided to include her in the festivities by celebrating early! We ate cupcakes & ice cream & let Ethan open his present from Jenny and a few smaller gifts from the rest of us.

More details about the beach trip and Ethan's birthday party to follow soon!

It's Been a While!

Wow, does time fly! Today's the first day of summer and I just realized I still have Valentines wallpaper up here on the blog! Guess it's time for a makeover and some big updates! Well, like they say, "No News is Good News!"

So what have we been up to for the last 4 months? Lots - but nothing involving anything medical for Ethan! He had his last cardiologist checkup back in February and doesn't return until mid-August (after his 3rd birthday!). At that time, we expect to have a little more info as to when Ethan's 3rd (and hopefully final) stage of surgery (the Fontan) should take place. At his Feb. appt, he was about 3 pounds shy of the minimum weight required to do the surgery so we've just been working on fattening the boy up as our main priority. Easy to do in the summer time with lots of cold sweets to chow down on! Ethan wakes up asking for ice cream, popsicles, candy, etc. Of course, we don't let that be his "breakfast of champions" but it does tend to make it into our mid-afternoon or evening snack time!

And speaking of surgery, we have had 5 other heart friends (most of them younger than Ethan) already make it through their 3rd stage of surgery in the last month so we've been following their journey's, praying for them, and learning what recovery looks like for them so we can start to mentally prepare for our own when our time comes. We just have to keep in mind that this particular heart defect, HLHS, is one of the most complicated ones (in case you didn't know or have forgotten, there are over 35 known heart defects currently) so each case is unique with the outcomes and how each child's body handles the surgeries & recoveries. As we're learning, heart kids live on their own timetable for recovery and nobody seems to really go "by the book" so just because one kid may struggle with a certain aspect of recovery (such as eating, keeping O2 sats up, chest tube drainage, etc), doesn't mean that it's the same for everyone (Ethan included) so we will continue to just trust God when our time comes.

Well enough about Ethan's medical stuff, time for the fun stuff! First, I have to admit I've been bad about not getting a lot of pictures with the camera lately so this post won't have a lot of pictures. Dan & I both got new phones back in January that take good pictures and I have hundreds on there, I just have to figure out how to get some on this site. I've uploaded lots straight to Facebook but am still learning how to get them to other places!

This spring, Ethan and I wrapped up our first year of Community Bible Study! I had a great time getting to know ladies of all ages from different churches across the city. We spent the year studying the book of Luke. Ethan's class had a great time doing their own lessons throughout the New Testament. He learned 6 different Bible verses set to music, along with lots of other Bible songs. He had a great time at his year-end concert getting to perform these songs on stage with all the other kids. He goes around the house singing these songs every day & I've come to learn most of them as well!

Ethan continues to continually amaze us with his non-stop energy, creativity, extravertedness (if that's even a word!), & his love for God & his family. He loves to lead family prayer time at meals, bedtime, the car, & more. He still naps most afternoons for a couple of hours but gets up early (about 7:30am) and goes strong all day long until 8:30 or 9pm. He loves to draw (especially footballs) - he colored all over his walls with his (not-so) washable Crayola crayons, he draws in the tub with his tub crayons, outside with chalk & on paper as a last resort is seems! He also is proving to be a smart kid - he can count to 15, knows his colors, numbers, letters, and always barters for more of anything (like I'll say he has 5 more minutes to play & he'll ask for 6 minutes or I'll say he can have 1 book read to him before bed & he'll ask for 2).

He still doesn't know a stranger. One night when we were out to eat, an older gentleman passing by our table waved to him and held out his arms & Ethan reached out his arms trying to go to him! He also talks to any & every thing he sees - greets everyone in stores, says "bye" to all the trees we pass as we drive down the road, even carries on full conversations with the geese we feed at the lake.

Ethan also has grown a lot spiritually this year through his attendance at Community Bible Study, MOPS, Sunday school & of course by following our example at home. He is sensitive to the needs of others - especially his family, extended family & our heart friends. He often initiates prayer when I don't even think to stop and pray at times. We let him help decide which heart friends & which family to pray for at meals & before bed time and he even will stop me in the middle of the day randomly and just tell me we need to pray for someone (or something). I look forward to seeing him grow closer to God & especially look forward to the day he decides on his own to accept Christ as his own personal savior because he wants to & not because we tell/ask him to do so!

Well in other big news, I'm tackling what I've been dreading as much if not more than Ethan's upcoming 3rd surgery - I'm starting on potty training Ethan! I know this sounds like I'm being overly dramatic & exaggerating but I'm not! I really have been nervous about the whole process. Fortunately, Ethan's been really excited about it. He received big boy underwear for Christmas & keeps asking when he can wear them. As of late last week, we have started the transition to pull-up diapers & Ethan has loved it! He has gone potty a handful of times each day for the last 4 days but still soaks his pull-ups. I've found his reward of choice/best motivational tool for him is a few M&M's ("nuh-nems" as he calls them) for each time he successfully pees in the potty. We also have an Elmo ptty chart w/ stickers that we started using today as well. So pray for us as we start this new journey towards no more diapers!

I'm sure I've left out lots of small things to update that have happened over the last four months so I'll just end with a list of Ethan's favorites (in no particular order):

Foods: red seedless grapes, watermelon, cheese, yogurt, cheeseburgers (w/ ketchup & mustard), lettuce (plain), ice cream cones (with any kind of ice cream as long as it has chocolate &/or sprinkles), Rita's Italian Ice (with sprinkles), M&M's, cheese quesadillas ("dillas"), tea, Krispy Kreme doughnuts (especially the ones with sprinkles), popcorn....the list goes on and on (except for most meats)

Toys/Games: anything with tires (I forgot to mention I had to get 4 new tires on my minivan about a month ago and E still hasn't stopped talking about it to everyone he sees) - I just got one of those fishing games for him where the "fish" are actually tires from the movie Cars, his train set, CandyLand, anything related to cooking (he doesn't use his tool workbench much for building, but rather for cooking up his nuts/bolts as "meals"), he likes using his shopping cart to go shopping "at Target" & he tries to swipe every purchase across my laptop to "pay for it" at a cost of "2 bucks" for each item - no matter what it is/how much it really costs

TV/Movies/Characters: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Toy Story (especially Buzz Lightyear), Handy Manny, The Count ("Ha Ha"), Elmo & Big Bird from Sesame Street (still his most popular category of movies to watch - especially Follow That Bird), Veggie Tales, & Richard Scary's Busytown show.

Well I better end the post for now but pictures will come next time!

2 Years Old!

Where and how do I even begin to put in to words all I'm thinking and feeling today?!?Wow, I can hardly believe that two years ago today we met our sweet little heart baby for the very first time! What a blessing these two years have been for our family and also truly what an answer to prayer this has been for us to even be able to have a child at all after having miscarried a year earlier (and ironically enough who's birthday would have been later this month). This is going to be a long post but I promise there will be pictures!

We are very thankful for such a great team of prayer warriors we had during my pregnancy and delivery of Ethan. And, needless to say, we are also very thankful for the wonderful medical team that helped take care of him those first hours and days as we awaited his first open heart surgery at just 2 days old. Not to mention, the surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and more that cared for him before, during and after surgery and also our cardiologist that continues to check up on him every couple of months. We have overcome quite a bit these last two years, including a second heart surgery and the not so easy task of staying fairly healthy during RSV/cold/flu seasons. We continue to praise God daily for the gift of our little miracle - Ethan Scott Miles!

Since my last update (June VBS & Tatoo), there's been a lot happening. Ethan tagged along with me in July as I helped out with our church's July VBS (no tatoos this time!). He has become better at walking and talking since the first VBS and he just absolutely loves church - it's like a second (or maybe third if you count all the time he spent at UNC Hospital) home to him! LOL Each morning of VBS, I'd wake him up and tell him it was time for church and VBS and he'd rejoice and say, "Yay! Turt (church)!" By the time we'd walk up the sidewalk and into the building, he'd already be saying, "Bye!" like I couldn't get him to his classroom soon enough and leave him to play with his buddies!

Then one week ago (last Tuesday, 8/4) I took him in to UNC's Raleigh Clinic at Wake Med to see his cardiologist, Dr. R. We had not been there since January and I remember what a hard time we had in keeping him still for the echo so I brought nearly everything but the kitchen sink along in hopes of keeping him distracted long enough to do the echo. That last visit he was just not cooperative and didn't want to sit still long enough to get all the pics they needed so they sent us (back in March) to UNC's Cath Lab to have a sedated echo done. We never got any definite answers from that other than it looked "fine" and there really wasn't anything more to discuss. So, I was determined to "make" Ethan cooperate this time so we didn't have to go back to UNC again if this attempted echo failed.

At last week's cardio appointment, I'm pleased to say that Ethan weighed in at 12.6 kilos (27.7 lbs) and 34". His blood pressure was good (don't remember exact number) and his pulse ox was the best I'd seen yet - 87%! When Dr. R came in to talk to us, he said that he reviewed the March sedated echo and it looked so good that they didn't even need to do one that day and we can just wait 6 more months to come back for another visit! This was obviously an encouraging visit for us!

We know that given Ethan's particular heart defect, he does still have one more heart surgery to go but we know it won't even be something we have to even think about until after the next visit in February. Ever since we first heard of Ethan's condition and started learning about treatment options, we had always been told the 3rd surgery would most likely take place between 2-5 years old. This is such a wide age range for us - especially since he had his first two surgeries within the first 6 months of life!

Well speaking of Ethan's birthday, we celebrated with all our family (16 adults and kids) here at our house on Sunday evening. The menu was all of Ethan's favorite foods - "peesha"(pizza), cheese doodles, popcorn, M&M's, Kool-Aid juice pouches (thanks VBS church staff for that one!), salad (for the adults) and confetti cupcakes with Elmo candies and sprinkles! Yes, Ethan's still obsessed with Elmo so we did the same party theme again this year!

Ethan had a lot of fun eating all his favorite foods (did I mention this kid likes to eat?!) and opening all his presents. Some of his favorite gifts included a T-ball set from his Aunt Jenny, a collapsable tunnel from his Aunt Jessica (aka "Ca-Ca") and Uncle Brandon (aka "Bo-Bo"), a bubble blower (thanks Aunt Amanda, Uncle Reggie, cousins Rebecca & Marissa), and some new Elmo DVD's and Elmo puppet book (thanks Mimi and Pop-Pop). He also received some nice new clothes (thanks Uncle Chris - aka "Kiss" & great-grandma Jada), a shopping cart (thanks Grammie & Pap-Pap), coloring books and puzzles. It's been non-stop fun around here since Sunday night! Now if I can just figure out where to store all the new stuff!

And if you've made it this far through my post (or just skipped ahead), congrats! Time to see some pictures of the party!

Presents, oh boy!

Going Shopping!

"Oh, Ball!"

"...two, fee, go!" - Ethan as he waits for the tunnel to pop open

I love my new t-ball set!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Oh, something to read! Toddler's are so easily distracted!

Look what I got!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY candles

Not sure if he's more excited about the fire or the Elmo candy and sprinkles!

Yummy - sprinkles and sugar...

Oh yeah!

Ice cream and cupcakes on my Elmo plate and Cookie Monster placemat!

Family Beach Trip '09

So I guess I should've looked at our beach trip pictures first before promising a post full of pictures. I really only have one good beach picture to share. :-( Too bad since we had a busy, fun, full week when we were there!

Ethan, Pop-Pop & Aunt Jenny

Mid-late May at Myrtle Beach is a nice, comfortable air temp but the water is still a little too cool. Ethan took a couple of days to get re-aquainted with the sand and water but then he enjoyed it the rest of the week. In this picture, Ethan and company enjoyed playing in a little puddle where the water was a little warmer. This picture was actually taken on our last day - just hours before we drove home.

Now to back track and give a chronological description of our week. This may get pretty detailed so don't feel like you have to read it all. This is the only place I'm journaling our only vacation of this year and don't want to forget what all we did!

Day 1 - We started our trip with a drive to Columbia, SC to help Jenny move out of her dorm and attend graduation. Well, she had such a busy last couple of weeks that packing is all that really got done the day we arrived. If you remember my last post before we left town, Ethan had an ear infection and the day we left, Dan also started not feeling well. :-( By the time we made it to our destination, Dan had a full blown fever/chills and crawled into bed at the hotel and stayed there most of the day/evening. Fortunately, Ethan felt good for the trip - as I've come to learn with his 2 back to back ear infections that he had, the first 24 hours is the worst and then he feels fine for the duration of the ear infection. With 2 sick boys, I had to stay at the hotel to take care of them so I couldn't help with packing.

Day 2 - Graduation Day! We were all pleasantly surprised and proud that the baby of the family graduated Cumm Laude from her school. This is way better than I ever even came close to doing - and this was her 3rd school in 4 years! After graduation, we all went downtown for a celebratory lunch with a couple of her closest friends. Then it was time to head back to campus to help Jenny finish packing and moving her stuff off campus to storage for the summer. She'll be returning in the fall to share an apartment with a few friends still in school. Well, by that time, it was Ethan's nap time and there was no place for him to nap except in the car (which he actually fell asleep in during the ride back from lunch). So we were able to get out of packing/moving and got a head start on the rest of the family to the beach. We arrived at dinner time, found a place to go eat and then went ahead and hit the grocery store for the week. The rest of the family made it around 9pm.

Day 3-9 All the mornings at the beach started out pretty much the same. Dad (Pop-Pop), me, Brandon, and baby Annie (who napped after her first feeding) all got up around 6-7am and enjoyed a couple hours of quiet time until the rest of the house woke up around 9-10am. The first couple of days at Myrtle, it rained and was kind of chilly. We spent most of our time in the beach house just relaxin'.

Highlights during the week included my sisters and I having a girls day out - shopping and lunch at the outlets (while Mom (aka Mimi) babysat the grandkids), the men all going golfing together later that same day, Mom & Dad enoying an early anniversary gift from the kids - going to Le Grand Cirque, several yummy dinners out like at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville at Broadway at the Beach, Carolina Roadhouse & Crab Catchers, running into some church friends at the condo's pool, and shopping at Barefoot Landing! Mimi even bought Ethan a personalized children's CD that says his name more than 45 times during the 6 songs on the CD.

Some less memorable events included having the golf cart stollen from our condo the day before we left, Ethan busting his lip open at the playground at Broadway at the Beach, and Ethan having a diaper blowout on my leg at Margaritaville (oh the joys of motherhood!) during dinner, and me getting a striped sunburn on my leg from missing spots with the spray on sunscreen the day we went to the beach/came home.

Well that about sums up our one and only "summer" vacation for the year. Back to reality now - lots of hot, humid NC weather (except for the flooding, 3+ inches of rain and mid-70's day we're having today), and trying to keep cool finding by finding friends with free pools in their neighborhoods to go visit!

22 months!

I can't believe it's been 5 weeks since I last updated. Fortunately, I can safely say that we have all been healthy since our last post! So much has happened since then so I will probably post several updates to keep from having just one super long update.

First, I'll start with the most current news. Our little guy is not so little any more! Today he turned 22 months old. He's weighing in at a whopping 27 pounds right now and I think he's also going through a growth spurt, eating us out of house and home! Hard to believe that he will be turning 2 in 2 more months!

And also Ethan's crush (he gets this glazed over, goofy grin every time he sees her picture), princess Lindsay, turns 1 year old today! Happy Birthday princess Lindsay! For those of you that may not remember Lindsay, she has the same heart condition as Ethan (HLHS). Her first surgery went well, her second surgery didn't and she ended up on the transplant list. She has been in the hospital since October (her second surgery) awaiting her perfect new heart and last Friday she got it! You can read more here.

And in other news, my baby sister, Jennifer, just left home yesterday for her 6 week mission trip/school internship in Turkey. I have included her blog link in the side bar for those of you who want to follow her.

Well, that's enough for right now. Updates and pictures to follow in another post about our family beach trip and Jennifer's college graduation.

Family Update

Well it's been a pretty uneventful past couple of weeks here in the Miles' household. Ethan is continuing to do well physically and stay very active like all the other kids his age. He babbles all the time but still doesn't say much that we can understand so we're continuing to work on vocabulary and adding more sign language for him. Below is a list of what he knows so far:

WORDS:

* Da-Da

* Ma-Ma

* Ba-Ba (for bye-bye)

* Nuh-Nuh (for night-night)

* Guh-Go or Ma-Mo (for Elmo)

* Hoo-Hoo (for dirty "poo-poo" diaper)

* Bah (for ball)

* Mimi (for Julie's mom)

* Bop-Pop (or Pop-Pop for Julie's Dad)

* Ca-Ca (for Aunt Jessica and for chocolate!)

* Bo-Bo (for Uncle Brandon)

* Be-Be (for baby)

* Ah Gun (all done/all gone)

* Nana (for banana)

SIGNS:

* more (accompanied by saying "m-m-m")

* milk

* all done/finished (accompanied by "ah gun" for all gone)

and we're working on learning please, thank you, help, hurt, juice & water this month

Ethan can also point to various body parts and knows the sounds for several animals. He loves the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" - both usually get him giggling or at least distract him from crying if he's upset.

In other news, all 3 of us have had some kind of cold/sinus/allergy problem on and off since around Valentine's day. Just as soon as we think we're on the mend from one sickness, we get sick all over again. Dan's been feeling the worst and finally went to the doctor last Monday (3/30). His doctor said he's got Pertussis (whooping cough) and quite possibly also RSV - scary!

Fortunately, I think Ethan's received enough doses of the DTaP vaccine (P being for Pertussis) that I don't have to worry about him contracting it but I am still being very careful about Ethan's exposure to RSV. This is the big respiratory virus that can be life-threatening (if left untreated) to preemies and young babies (mainly under 6 months old) who have other heart/lung issues.

In case you don't remember or just found our story, RSV is the same virus that we had to safeguard against last winter by having Ethan get monthly antibody shots from Oct.-April. Due to several factors this year: 1) Ethan's older, 2) he doesn't have his next surgery any time soon, and 3) his 2nd heart surgery/hospital stay was significantly cheaper than those shots, we opted to pass on those shots this time around.

Well sorry for the long update. For making it to the end of this post, here's some pictures I took the other day!

Mimi & Pop-Pop with their 2 grandchildren!

Enjoy a home-made chocolate chip cookie!

Still eating and making a mess!

cousin Annie's arrival

Well, she's here! Ethan's cousin Annie made her arrival at 5:01pm today, 3/14/09 - on her due date! She's 8lb. 2oz., 21" and so pretty. She's got dark hair and blue eyes. We hope to take Ethan over to the hospital to meet his little cousin tomorrow after church.

Walking!

I think I forgot to mention in our last blog entry that Ethan's finally walking! He's been taking a few steps at a time since early November. Each day he gets a little more confident and Monday he started really picking up the pace and doing laps around our kitchen bar/living room! So he's officially a walker now. He is still working on learning how to stand up when he falls/sits down - he has to crawl over to something that he can use to pull up on - a table, sofa, etc. - but he's getting there!

Now if we can just get the boy to talk more! He knows a few animal sounds - cat (he meows or sometimes hisses since that's what Mimi's cat usually does to him! LOL) , lion (he roars/growls - his favorite sound!), snake (he hisses) . We're still working on what a dog says (I thought he would've learn that first since we have a dog). The pediatrician isn't concerned right now so we're not either.

Fun Weekend Planned and Ethan Update

This coming weekend, Dan, Ethan and I are planning a trip down to Columbia, SC to visit my sister (Ethan's Aunt Jenny), as well as a few other friends - including one of our heart friends that we only know through their blog. If you have been following us and our heart friends then you may have guessed it already! That's right, we're planning to meet Angel Annabelle's family - Scott, Rebecca and Wyatt! We know it will be a busy weekend but it will be a great time to get away. We haven't traveled anywhere as a family since May when we went to Myrtle Beach with my family, so we're really looking forward to getting away! Please pray for safe travel for us as we leave early Friday and return Sunday night.

And I guess since this blog was originally created to update you on Ethan's health and life, I guess I should mention that he continues to do extremely well. We don't see the cardiologist again until the end of January so life has just been pretty normal for us lately. Ethan's got 4 more teeth that he's cutting so that's been our biggest challenge lately. He is still not walking independently yet but is very close. He has given up his bottle, just using sippy cups, and has almost given up his paci too - we just use it at night now. It's hard to believe our little guy is growing up so fast - he'll be 15 months old in a few weeks (Nov. 11).

Ethan also loves electronics - remotes, phones, laptops, etc. He drives us crazy "typing" on the laptop and teaches us short cuts we never knew about. He has recently learned that my cell phone does not have a number lock so he's started using the speed dial to call various family members. So for all family reading this - now you know why you may have received calls lately from me with nobody talking on our end or hanging up quickly after the call's been made. He even managed to text a message to his Aunt Amanda, saying "Please call." I don't know how that happened - I don't do the texting thing. She called us back to make sure we were OK and we both laughed about the incident! What a smart kid - just like his Daddy!

Ok, well speaking of this kid and electronics - I better run because he keeps trying to take over the laptop as I type - pulling the screen back so I can't see what I'm typing!

Another update on Mimi

So much has happened since my last update. Ethan, Dan and I went over Friday night to spend time with my grandma and take her some dinner. Mimi (my mom) didn't get discharged until lunch time on Sunday. She's doing a little better now that she's back home, but still has a drainage tube that she should be having removed tomorrow (Thursday). My grandma left yesterday (Tuesday) and is now back home in Chattanooga, TN. Thank you to everyone who has been lifting my mom up in prayers. With her mono and then this appendectomy - her recovery is slower than normal but we're praying that this surgery will help her body to be able to allow her body to heal faster from the mono now.

Update on Mimi

Thank you to anyone out there that read my last post about my mom (Mimi). She's still hospitalized and having to work on getting up and walking around before her doc will let her leave. We were hoping and praying for a Friday discharge (today) but now they're saying it will probably be tomorrow. So please, everyone, be praying that the docs will either change their mind and let her go today or else let her go home tomorrow at the latest. Anyone who's ever stayed in a hospital knows that it's hard to get any decent amount of sleep and also the longer you're there, the more chance you have of catching some kind of illness going around the hospital.

Urgent Prayer Request for Mimi

Ethan's doing well right now, but his Mimi (Julie's mom) is not. Mimi (real name Rhonda) had sharp stomach pains all day yesterday so last night around 5pm Pop-Pop (real name Mike/Julie's dad) took her to one of the nearby satellite hospitals. They did a cat scan and determined her appendix was about to rupture. So they rushed her in an ambulance, across town to the main hospital campus (WakeMed - same campus we take Ethan for his cardiology appointments for those of you out of town folks). Around 3am they did an appendectomy surgery and during the surgery her appendix did rupture but everything was successfully removed.

Please pray for Mimi to get lots of rest today and to be able to come home by the weekend since she's got her mom (Julie's grandma/Ethan's great-grandma) in town until Tuesday from Chattanooga, TN. Also pray for Pop-Pop as he is sleep deprived today from the overnight surgery. He went home to get a short nap and change of clothes and get some work done and now he's headed back to the hospital for the day.

Oh, and in other news - Ethan's going to have another little cousin! Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brandon found out on Monday that they're having a girl! So we're super excited for them!

Birthday pictures!

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures from yesterday's festivities. Ethan and all his guests seemed to have a great time celebrating together!

The Birthday Boy after he woke up!

On the move!

Mommy decoating the Elmo birthday cake!

Party decorations!

Ethan surrounded by all his presents!

Another birthday gift - from Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brandon!

Elmo birthday cake !

Digging into the cake with Mimi and Pop-Pop's help!

Did we mention it is Cake Time!

Yummy cake!

August 11, 2008 - 1 Year Old!

August 11 - we made it! I remember last August as this date quickly approached (which, by the way, was Ethan's due date!) that I had no clue what the future would hold for us and if we'd even have the opportunity to be celebrating Ethan's first birthday. It is with great joy and humble gratitude that we thank our Heavenly Father for allowing us to be able to celebrate this first year of Ethan's life!

We had a great family cookout and birthday party for our little guy yesterday. Ethan was able to have both sets of grandparents, one of his great-grandma's, all his aunts and uncles and cousins in attendance for the celebration. It's so nice to have all our immediate family so close by! Ethan had a great time chasing balloons, eating cake (he ate more than his cousins which are 3 & 5!) and helping open presents!

You'll have to check back in later today for pictures, I'll get those loaded during his nap time. Right now, it's all I can do to keep his little fingers off the laptop as I try to type this!

As always, thanks for your continued prayers for our sweet son. We deeply appreciate them and we're very humbled that God has been so gracious to us to let our son turn out so healthy.

Some long overdue pictures!

Thank you Aunt Jenny for all the great pictures of our time at Myrtle Beach and the pool (May 18-21, 2008)! Ethan sure seemed to have a fun time with you and looks forward to much more swimming this summer at your neighborhood pool!

Mommy & Ethan getting lathered in sunscreen
with Pop-Pop keeping watch from the lifeguard stand

Future Lifeguard?

First Water Bottle

Posing for the camera

Hot Stuff!

Pop-pop introducing me to the beach

This water's kinda cold Pop-pop

Chillin' in my new swim gear

Aunt Jenny introducing me to the pool for the first time!

Ahhh, this is the life!

first weekend away from my baby

So in case I didn't mention it already, Dan had his first time away from Ethan 2 weeks ago. He was out of town all week for work. Now it's my turn. Over this past weekend (Friday and Saturday), I went on a trip with my mom and two sisters to Indianapolis for our cousin's wedding. We were only gone about 36 hours but it was still hard being away from my boys (Dan & Ethan)! Dan's mom came over for the weekend to help him out and they all seemed to have a fun time together.

Our whirlwind trip was fun and definitely a memory-maker. It was filled with late nights and action-packed days. It was great getting to see all of my mom's side of the family again (we all met up a few days before Christmas in Knoxville, TN except the bride-to-be) Besides the fun of the wedding, I also really enjoyed the plane ride. It's been nearly 6 years since I've had a reason to fly anywhere (last time was our honeymoon) and I love being up in the sky and looking out at the world below.

We will try to get some more pictures of Ethan up soon. His 2nd tooth has come through and we think more are on the way because he's been fussy today and still gnawing down on everything in sight (he especially likes my hair today for some reason). We'll try to see if we can get a good picture showing off his teeth but that's a rare sight. Usually if he's got his mouth open wide enough to see them, he inevitably sticks his tongue out!

"For Tricia"

As I've mentioned before, I've really enjoyed getting to know other families who have also had extended hospital stays with their children. So far, I've only mentioned other "heart baby" families, but another family that I follow daily (well more realistically, several times a day!) is Nate, Tricia & Gwyneth. Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis and is in the hospital awaiting a double-lung transplant after having an emergency c-section 2 months ago to give birth to little Gwyneth at 24 weeks gestation. You can read more details about their story by visiting their website (see link on right). On Nate's website, he has encouraged all the blogging moms to make a list for Tricia about what they may often take for granted with their own kids and what they can't wait for Tricia to get to experience with her daughter Gwyneth once they are all back home together.

So Tricia and Nate, here's my list (my son's only 7 months TODAY so I'm still learning about motherhood!). I try to not take any of these things for granted because of all we've been through but also, knowing that you're going through even more and other heart babies we've known have also been through alot more than we've experienced too.

I can't wait for you to experience...
- feeding her a bottle for the first time
- finally coming home from the hospital (we were in the hospital for 28 days so I can only imagine the long wait you're experiencing)
- her baby dedication at church
- sleeping in the same room, getting woken up at every little peep she makes
- the first time she sleeps through the night (but you don't because you wonder if she's ok because she hasn't woken up at all)
- her first bath and all the water you get to clean up afterwards from all her splashing
- watching the grandparents enjoy spending time with her, making her laugh, get re-acquainted with diaper changes, bottle feeding, etc.
- hearing her laugh for the first time
- playing peek-a-boo
- being there to hug her and comfort her when she cries (especially after getting shots)
- eating baby food for the first time and watching the faces she makes
- having her spill your entire glass of ice cold water on both of you as you're out to eat (happened twice at the same meal last weekend!) then throwing up all over you as you walk to the car - all I could do was laugh - it was almost too crazy to be true, but at least I could be thankful that I had my baby in my life in the first place!
- family snuggle time on the couch (pets included!)
- shopping for bigger sized clothes and diapers because that means your baby is growing!
- watching her be entertained by the dog that's running all around the house
- watching her learn to sit up on her own
- all those toothless grins at you
- having "staring contests" & having her win every time because she can't take her eyes off you!
- having people comment on what a cute baby you have, but then cringing when they touch her hands and she immediately sticks them in her mouth - who knows what germs she just picked up and praying she doesn't get sick from it!
- watching her put EVERYTHING in her mouth and cringing about what germs she must be picking up (after been in the hospital and having to wash hands/use hand sanitizer so frequently, we quickly became germaphobes for the first time in our lives!)
- reading Bible stories and saying prayers together before bedtime

This list could go on and on but these are just a few of my favorites that I've experienced so far! Praise God for every moment we've had with our little guy and for all the many more we have yet to experience as we watch him grow - children really are a gift from God!

- and one more I just thought of... creating your own list once you have your own experiences!

Christmas pictures!

As mentioned in our last update, we do have some Christmas pictures and some pictures from our trip to Tennessee last weekend.

Our trip to Opryland Hotel in Nashville, the whole inside was decorated like this, with a riverboat ride in the middle of the exhibit below these lights.

A view below all those lights, some smaller ponds and greenery near the river.

An outdoor nativity exhibit - imagine that, a biblical display in a public place!

Ethan taking it all in!

Daddy (Ethan's Pop-Pop) and his girls (Ethan's mom and Aunt Jessica & Aunt Jenny) in front of a huge Christmas tree made entirely of Poinsettas!

Ethan with his Mommy, his Pop-Pop, and Aunt Jessica.

Four Generations: Frances Wrinkle (Mam-ma), Frances' firstborn- Rhonda (Mimi), Rhonda's firstborn - Julie, and Julie's firstborn - Ethan!

Well that sums up the highlights of our trip to Nashville to see the Garretts (Julie's dad's family) and then to Knoxville to see the Wrinkles (Julie's mom's family). I think we also have some pictures from Christmas day to come later. We just got a new digital camera for Christmas so we're still experimenting with it. Hopefully we will have some good Christmas day pictures to share.

Thanks for continuing to think and pray for us. We are so blessed to have Ethan in our lives and can't imagine life without him. Thank You Jesus for making Christmas special for us this year by giving us the gift of a son, just like you were a gift to Mary & Joseph so many Christmas' ago!

More family updates

What a blur this last week has been! First, my grandpa's health rapidly declined since my post last week. In fact, just 4 days after I requested prayer, he went to be with the Lord. On Monday, 12/17, he slipped into a coma and then by the following night, he breathed his last breath. My dad and his 3 siblings were all able to be there with him to say goodbye in his final moments, including my aunt Jo who had been in Korea with her husband for the past week on business. She managed to get to my grandpa's side, for his final 3 hours. So...Tuesday night mom called us and told us to get packed and ready to leave the following morning for a 12 hour drive to Nashville, TN for the visitation and funeral. Ethan was my Papa Joe's only biological great-grandchild and I wish they could've met, but Papa Joe at least got to see lots of pictures when my sister Jessica and her husband Brandon went to visit him last week. Papa Joe loved children and Jessica said that despite how sick Papa Joe was, just seeing the cute pictures of Ethan brought a big smile to his face!

Ethan did well with the car ride, he slept most of the way there and most of the way back today as well. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, it was nice to be able to get doctor's approval to travel with Ethan and let all the extended family meet him! Everyone seemed to be healthy, which is good because he got passed around to everyone! And on the way back home, we made a stop about 2 hours into our journey in Knoxville, TN to see my mom's side of the family - her 2 brothers and mom. Ethan is my grandma's only biological great-grandchild as well, so he's now got one more "claim to fame" to making him a special little boy!

Oh, and most important update of all...as we were loaded down with bags in hand, about to get in the car to start our journey on Wednesday morning, UNC Hospital called with Ethan's surgery date. We are scheduled for his 2nd heart surgery on Tuesday morning, January 22nd, with a pre-op outpatient appointment on Friday, January 18th. So please keep us in your prayers that Ethan (and we) can stay healthy until surgery time. This will mean we will need to really crack down on keeping him and us isolated as much as possible. We usually "cheat" and go out to eat or go shopping at least once or twice a week. Being around people we know is hard enough, because everyone knows his situation and wants to see how he's doing, but now we're also facing strangers in public who can't resist this cute little kid. We stopped at Cracker Barrel twice on our trip - once going there and once coming back. Both visits, we had complete strangers come up and touch his face and hands - which, of course, made us cringe as we watched Ethan start sucking his fingers and rubbing his face before we could get out a wipe to sanitize him!

Well it's late and we've had a long couple of days so we're off to bed. Thanks for reading our lengthy update and continuing to lift us up in your prayers. To summarize, here's our current requests:

- Pray for our family, as we continue to grieve the loss of Papa Joe Garrett over the Christmas season
- Pray for health over the next month for Ethan and me and Dan
- Pray for wisdom for Ethan's doctors and surgeons as they prepare for the 2nd surgery

Merry Christmas to everyone! We will post more pictures during the week of Christmas!