Ducks and Toys

Yesterday Travis and I had a nice day together. His pulse/ox machine was acting up so we had to take it over to Apria to get it repaired. During the drive I received a call from the San Diego Blood Bank saying that I was a potential match for a patient in need of bone marrow. This is the second time I've been called for bone marrow donation. The first time, the patient's condition worsened before I could get the marrow to her :( This time around, the guy was asking all sorts of medical questions and found out I had herrington rods in my back (from my two spinal fushions) and unfortunately, that ruled me out. Made me sad. What a gift it would be to help somebody out like that. Ever since my dad had a organ transplant I have been very pro-donation! If you haven't registered you can here... http://donatelife.com/

Anyway, after that Travis convinced me to take him to Target to "look around". I admit, I am an addict. I can not stop buying things for Travis! Yesterday, we ended up with two new toys, a football piggy bank, and some pajamas that say "Tough Guys Need Sleep Too". How appropriate, right? We had to have it! All the shopping wears Travis out....he quickly fell sound asleep in his stroller.

After Target, it was Travis' lunchtime so I took him over to the duck pond and found a nice bench to feed him on. After his lunch, Travis stared at the ducks and watched them swim back and forth. At one point I looked to my left and saw a menacing looking duck just inches from Travis' toe. He looked quiet hungry so we promptly relocated to a new bench. Travis and I had a long talk about how we were going to tell daddy that the Target purchases were necessities ;)

Travis is inching closer and closer to 11lbs. He tipped the scale at 10lbs 14.5oz the other day. He is so big that I had to finally pack away his newborn clothes. He is now wearing sizes 0-3. It kind of made me sad to pack away those tiny clothes! On the other hand, it is exciting to see him getting bigger and learning to do new things.

More Pictures of Travis

Travis loves to swim with mommy in bath tub.

Travis is part guido and is ready to visit the Jersey shore.

Travis is such a good little dude.

Travis' Guido Hair Style

Travis loves his mommy.

Travis was not so excited about getting his hair shampooed.

All clean and back to being happy baby.

Travis just staring into the camera and into our hearts.

Travis got another new toy to work on tummy time.

Travis actually enjoys tummy time now.

More pictures in the album below:

http://cid-d843a26bcc8dd2a4.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Travis%20282010?ct=photos&sa=530359231

New videos of Travis - 2/7/2010

Travis is just loving his baths with mommy.

Travis just loves to swim in the bath tub.

Catching up with some more photos...

Mr. Smiley
Oh Daddy.....You're funny.
Travis just hanging out.

This is how Travis rolls.

What's up dude?

Yum, Yum I like my fingers.

Fight the Power...

Little Rookie.

See plenty more of Travis Photos at our online album.

http://cid-d843a26bcc8dd2a4.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Travis%20February?ct=photos&sa=193818975

Foto Friday

Here are some pics from the past week or so....

Our little rookie! He can sit on this blanket all day and smile and kick. Such a happy baby!

What a cutie!

Travis has found his hands. He LOVES to eat them. He's going to choke

himself one of these days.

This is Travis' new toy. He can push himself up and down with his legs. Also,

when he kicks the pad it plays music and lights up.

Vinny loves to stay close by to his brother Travis. It's really cute. Travis and Vinny are going to

be best buddies when he gets a little older!

Had to post this picture. What a funny little face!

Five Things Friday

I've decided I love the idea of "Five Things Friday" stolen from a blog I follow. So, here goes.

1. Travis had his first professional photography shoot this week. He did so well. Here is one of the pictures!

2. Sadly, we have put our house on the market. We found out that Riverside County EMT will not cross county line to take a patient to Children's. Instead, they would take Travis to Rancho Springs which is ill-prepared to handle a cardiac case like Travis'. Therefore, we need to move over the border. It wouldn't hurt to get a lower mortgage also.

3. Next week is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness week. Join me in helping spread awareness for CHD. 1 in 100 babies is born with a CHD. Travis is one of them! Hug your kids a little tighter this week and pray for those who are fighting this battle.

4. Several weeks ago I decided to try to take a bath in the big tub with Travis. He was unsure at first...but, after he realized he was safe....he LOVED it! Last night we had a bath together and he was so funny. He kicks and kicks and flails his arms around. All along making noise that approximate a laugh, with a big grin on his face. I think he may be a swimmer!

5. We had a reality check last night in the form of a facebook post from one of the other families who were in the hospital at the same time as us. Their son, Riley, has HLHS also. He had his Norwood 1 month before Travis did. Riley has not been well enough to leave the hospital. The post said he actually coded three times last Thursday. Roger read this to me as Travis and I were in the bath. I looked at him gleefully enjoying his bath and I said a quick prayer right then that God would grant us MANY, MANY more baths and loving moments. It is easy to take Travis' health for granted. It is easy to forget everything we have been through. It's easy to look at his beautiful face a forget he has 1/2 a heart. It's easy to forget just what a blessing he is....what a gift God has given us. The facebook post was a reminder to us to not forget what a miracle Travis is and to continue to pray for all of our heart baby friends and families!!!!

Moving On

It is hard to find the time to update this blog lately as we seem to always have something urgent we need to handle. The week days fly by and the weekends seem way to short!

This past weekend was fun. My good friend Jen is getting married and has asked me to be a bridesmaid. I had the honor of going dress shopping with her! Fun! She will look amazing on her big day. While we were out I received a call from the vet (the dogs had been dropped off for a teeth cleaning). The vet wanted to discuss some issues with the dogs blood cultures. Both dogs had high levels of protein in there blood and Vinny had high calcium. She threw out the tumor word but mentioned that their levels were not TOO worrisome and may be cause by the ear meds we've been giving Zee (and Vinny licks it out of his ears). We are going to have them rechecked in a few weeks and I pray their levels look better. They BOTH can't have cancer, right? I'm sure it's something they got into and ate.

Sunday, we had to make a run to BabiesRUs this past weekend because our little man is growing out of his pj's. He has to have button up PJ's so the wire from his heart machine can come out the leg. We ended up getting him a bunch of PJs and a swim suit as his cardiologist gave him a green light for swimming (as soon as the weather warms up).

Yesterday was kind of a sad day for me...was the day I had originally planned to go back to work. It's just really crazy how so much has changed in such a short amount of time. It's days like that that make me feel overwhelmed at what has been dished out for us. I couldn't be happier to have Travis but there is always a piece of me that longs for more normalcy.

Travis is doing well! We took him to get professional photos done yesterday and he was such a trooper! The photographer got some really nice shots. Hopefully, we can post them soon! I have been doing far too much online shopping and we have a few new fun toys for him. A friend recommended the Kickin' Coaster and he LOVES it! It's a fun toy to build leg strength too. I'll post a picture.

Travis gets to spend some time with Nana this week. She is coming to watch him tonight while Roger and I got to our weekly home fellowship meeting. Then, Nana will visit again on Saturday night while Roger and I got to see Joel McHale (from The Soup) perform at Pechanga. Should be really fun!

Can't think of anything else to add......tata for now.