Long Overdue Update

It's been so long since I posted about the kids that I really don't know where to start.

Dominic is doing really well to the point that I sometimes don't know what to say when people ask how he is doing. Since his last heart surgery, and getting off of his sternonomy precautions, he has been just a regular 6 month old baby.

January had been a really busy month for appointments, I think that although I felt swamped in December, a lot of the specialists pushed his appointments to January to avoid the holidays and it had really made January crazy. The good news about that is that a lot of the specialists he saw last month determined that they don't need to see him again for quite a while. His neurologist has stated that so far his stroke doesn't seem to be effecting the left side of his body too much, and since he hasn't had any seizures, she is unconcerned about him for the time being. I think she said she'll see him again in about a year unless he starts having seizures, which is possible, but she thinks is unlikely at this point, because she thinks he would have had some already if he was going to have them. He also won't need to see his hematologist for another 2 -3 years. His levels (for whatever makes his blood clot) came back on the slightly low side of normal, so she just changed his injection medication to just aspirin daily. I was a bit concerned about Dom's head shape and his top soft spot closing up early, so we saw a neurosurgeon about it, but he also was unconcerned and just told us to have him sleep on his side whenever possible. We were hoping to get an estimated date for his cleft lip surgery on January 21st at his Cleft Lip and Palate Team meeting, but for some reason the plastic surgeon didn't show up. None of the other doctors or nurses had been informed that she wouldn't be there, so we left that trip to the hospital a little disappointed. We have rescheduled with her for an individual appointment, but it got cancelled because she was ill and now we are seeing her in a couple of weeks. Dom's Pediatrician said that the Plastic Surgeon probably wouldn't want to do the surgery while he still had his feeding tube, so we are going to an appointment next week to discuss getting him a temporary G-button, but it sounds like that's the best idea for everyone involved anyway. But it is another little surgery on the way.

Developmentally, he is a little behind on a few things, like his head control, because after being denied tummy time and making everyone feel nervous about holding him upright for about 6 weeks total that really did put him about a month and a half behind. He is now holding his head up regularly on his own, but he's still a bit wobbly when he's tired and ends up resting his head on my shoulder most of the time that I carry him around. He giggles and grins when people play games with him (my favourite is Rapid Fire Kisses and I can always get a belly laugh out of him eventually, and he's a fan of the song The Grand Old Duke of York, so I play that with him often too), he babbles when he thinks we aren't paying enough attention to him, but generally I just think he is a quiet baby. He loves grabbing onto his toes and rolling from side to side while he's on his back, but his favourite activity is just getting cuddled. I think being uncuddled for a couple of weeks in hospital after his first heart surgery has really turned him into a little cuddle bug!

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I have been noticing a steady improvement in my relationship with Brayden these last few months. *Knock On Wood* I'm not sure if it's because of Dominic being born, or just that I am home more, or maybe we were just butting heads for so long that we started to understand what makes each other tick and where the line is and we have learned how to avoid going there anymore. Whatever the reason, I'll take it. Although we are still struggling with making Brayden responsible for his own work at school, and we still argue about this constantly, there doesn't seem to be any hostility outside the issue at hand, which is a great improvement. My favourite improvement to date is that he is regularly calling me Mom. We have never, ever pushed him in any way to call me this. The only time it has ever come up is when Rosalie started talking and we told him that if he is ever talking to her about me, he needs to call me Mom as to not cause confusion with her. He accepted that as reasonable and would drift between Mom and Anne accordingly, but now the only time in recent memory that I can remember him calling me Anne was a passive aggressive goodbye on the way to school when we disagreed about what is considered "Breakfast" . It's a pretty great thing. I feel like we have come a long way and he has matured a lot this year. I think perhaps Highschool being on the horizon has done it for him

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Rosalie is pretty much just Rosalie. She's my little spitfire love bug. She's bossy as hell, but I wouldn't change her. Her favourite things to tell us is to "Leave alone me!" and "Stop talking" when she doesn't get her way. It's actually pretty funny, and it's hard not to laugh sometimes. She has also started saying things are "cool" and tonight when Roland asked her how old her milk was, she said "This? This is AWESOME" making Roland and I burst into giggles. She's drifting back into a mommy's girl from being daddy's princess, but I have a feeling that will be a constant rotation depending on her mood, and age. I'm predicting when she's a teen she'll be all about Dad because Roland still has a tough time saying "no" to her and sticking to it and she will milk that for all that it's worth.

I have amazing kids. What can I say? :) :) :) <3