Henry is 17 months!

Henry's cath was discussed with the surgery team a little earlier than we'd expected- which was a nice surprise. Henry's Cardiologist, Dr. Raghuveer, called us to relay that the team was happy with Henry's progress and leaning towards planning for Henry to have the complete fix surgery this summer. But, as the recent cath procedure did not capture adequate pictures of Henry's shunt due it's location, the team is recommending Henry have an MRI to get better pictures of the shunt before confirming these plans. The team will then re-discuss the MRI results and finalize their plans the following Friday. An MRI will require some anesthesia, so it will probably look like a similar day as the cath was- which he was a total trooper for. Henry's MRI is scheduled for July 13th first thing in the morning, so hopefully we'll be in and out as quickly as with his cath. So we'll keep everyone posted on their finding and plans later on in July. In the meantime we're going to have to schedule a LOT of swimming this summer in anticipation:)

Other news, Henry is still proceeding with his "cautiousness" and walking with assistance predominately from mommas all over the place. Julie and I laugh about our sore backs from hunching over so that he can hold onto our fingers while walking... parenting sure does make you soft:) He continues to learn new words- my new favorite is "pretty" referring to noises the wind chimes make on our front porch. My second favorite is when Henry fondly says "kiki" in reference to his binki. Most often "bye bye kiki" after waking up in the morning when we let kiki take a rest for the day:) He said "boom" the other night when I pulled out our nighttime books and I think his "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" book is by far the new favorite! Henry has lots of new teeth to show off including four shiny new molars- and he loves to bite the toothbrush rather than let his momma brush them. We try to take turns during that ritual so everybody wins! Henry LOVES wagon rides and would be happy strolling along outside 24/7 if that were possible. Rainy days are a challenge, but thankfully our living room is full of distractions (aka toys galore:).

We're gearing up to celebrate the marriage of several of our good friends in Des Moines, IA this weekend with a "staycation" pitstop in St. Louis with Grandma and Grandpa Simpson the following week. We'll meet up with Uncle Tom, Aunt "CoCo", Uncle Bob and Cousin Leo to have some fun QFT together... and of course we can't wait! Henry is now in a big kid car seat facing forward- so we know the road trip is going to be awesome (we also borrowed a DVD player from a friend in case it isn't!). I'm pretty sure the back of Julie's car will be filled to the brim with our stuff, so if we get stuck somewhere together for a month we'll be prepared:) St. Louis or BUST!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!


Love,

Kate, Julie and Henry