So it seriously has been incredibly too long since I have posted. There are many physical and emotional reasons for this and I am sure as I write more, they will come out. It is obviously too much for one post, or even several. But I did promise myself that I would start this blog back up and running. I will hit major highlights.
LJ did have his open heart surgery on August 5, 2009. He did great. We were out of the hospital within a week and besides some pain managment issues, everything was fine. We had a check up a week or so after and the another in Feb of 2010. The bad news is that the surgery was not as successful as they had hoped it would be. They did a corrective surgery where they cut away the restrictive part of LJ's pulmonary valve and replaced it with a flap. The valve went from being too restrictive to being too loose. LJ's heart is now regurgitating (being blood back into the heart) through the pulmonary and tricuspid valve. He cannot sustain this forever. His cardiologist said there will come a time when he will just get really sick and they will fix it then. *sigh* Nice. LJ ended up with tubes (for his ears) at the end of January. The end of March brought a 5 day hospital stay brought on by a bacterial infection that he couldn't kick. Since then he has been doing great. We have had early intervention for his speech and that is really picking up . He is walking, talking and just all around handsome.
Kaitlyn has grown so much in the past year. Her vacabulary is enough to blow my mind. She is smart as a whip knowing her letters by site and their sounds. She can count to infinity (or so it seems), she knows her shapes, colors, animals, etc. She is now learning addition and all before she has even turned four. She is a sponge who asks to do homework in her free time. I indulge her since it is her request. She has started gymnastics at a real gymnastics gym and is loving it. She is making lots of friends and has started going to birthday parties, which she LOVES!
Myself? Well I finally graduated! In between Dr appointments, surgeries, hospital stays, illnesses, I somehow managed to graduate. I started working at the US Army Corps of Engineers here in Champaign as a post doc and hopefully will be brought to the federal level soon.
Jim? Well he has moved to the day shift! PRAISE THE LORD! Shortly after graduating, Jim was able to move to a position at the local hospital surgery center and works the day shift now. Life is finally back on track and we have a normal family dynamic that I will never take for granted again.
We moved! Yes, we bought a house here in town! A nice two story (though I wish it were a ranch) in a great subdivision full of kids. We love the space (1990 sq ft with 990 ft of basement) and the fenced in yard! We have slowly started filling it. Kaitlyn has a new bedroom set that she boasts about to everyone. We have a new bedroom set with a king sized bed! No more fighting for space! We bought a new camper and plan on many camping trips this year. Oh and right after Thanksgiving our Saturn met it's demise as Jim was struck (everyone is OK). So we now have a 2010 Pontiac G6. Until we bought it, I had no idea there was a song about it. Now everyone hums it when I tell them what we bought.
So there you have it. This is the start. There will be more to come but I wanted to hit the high lights.
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