Tom the Bomb and his loving heart

*Please forgive any typos, punctuation or capitalization...  I didn't proof read this before I posted and I showed no care as I typed!*

:)

The time has come where we go back into all the docs... ok, not all the doctors but a few of them as we prepare for heart surgery this summer.  Right now Thomas is at Children's Hospital undergoing a Cardiac MRI.   If it's what they expect, they'll see 2 ASD's and a "partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection"  A pulmonary vein is not connected to his right side) heart, as it should be, but instead is connected to another vein that goes back into the left side of his heart and back to the lungs....  make sense?   I don't even know if I got it all right!!  haha. We've expected to go into surgery this summer for a while now, so this comes as no surprise.  I just can't believe we are already here.  I don't know if I'm at peace with it but I do know I'm not incredibly anxious either.   Our lives are in God's hands and he has shown his protection of our little family on many occasions.  So I have no reason not to trust in Him and his sweet Angels guarding my sweet boy and  out family!  I also know that even with out regular updates on Thomas and our family, dear friends and family continue to keep him in their prayers and I'm always grateful.  Thank you so much.

We'll probably meet with the pulmonary and ENT doc before going into surgery to check his airway but that is still to be determined, along with the actual date of surgery. 

I went through pictures of the last few years and they are not in any order but I love looking through them and if I ever make a book from this blog I will enjoy looking at these for years to come.  :)

 Thomas loves looking at himself in the camera.  I guess you could say he loves "selfies"  He also loves when I make silly faces.  I'm hilarious actually, at least in Thomas' mind!

 These two are double trouble.  and double extreme cuteness.

 See, "selfies" with hilarious mom  :)

 Thomas eating Evelyn's birthday cake.  He really enjoyed it since he was sick for his birthday.   I love getting pics of him feeding himself.  He feeds himself for about half his meals.  There's certain foods he won't eat by himself.  I wonder if it's texture (like the feeling of the banana) or if doesn't think he can.  I cut up his pizza for him yesterday and he wouldn't eat it.  he wanted to pizza whole and for me to feed it to him.  The boy has his opinion and he is getting better and better at expressing it to us.  Another step in the right direction is that he is eating less and less pureed food.  Meats have always been tough for him but he's trying them more and more and resisting anything pureed.  It's nice but feeding him non-pureed foods takes a lot longer so I get to work on patience!  :)  Also, foods make him cough more if they are not smooth.  That makes my heart hurt, watching him cough and cough is never the easiest.  Somethings you just don't get used too, I guess.  This is off the food subject but it's like his "winter bloody noses"  He gets them every winter, worse when he sick with a cold.   Blood is everywhere and he wakes up from nap looking like he lost a boxing match.  every winter yet my heart still drops into my stomach when I see his face looking up at me, or while I"m trying to wipe dried blood of his face while he's trying to get his face away from my washcloth because he doesn't like his face being wiped.  Oh sweet boy....

This picture is more recent.  I've been able to start running on the treadmill even if Thomas is downstairs with me.  He's been able to follow directions better and understand.  He waits around till I'm done running and then, I let him know I"m down and that it's his "turn"  He always runs over and sits on it or checks out every little part of it as if he's trying to figure out how to make it go.  He does it every time.  This picture is of the first time, he followed my direction and waited to go on till I was done.

Grace and Thomas, sometime in 2014  :)

 Thomas meeting Evelyn for the first time.  January 28th 2014

 Thomas' first time in snow  Jan 2014

 How Thomas wakes up from naps sometimes.  Summer 2014

 World cup 2014.  Thomas wearing dad's wig and hat that he got to celebrate the US in the world cup.  Because that's what everyone wears to watch soccer, right?!

Playing at the lake summer 2014

 First day of school August 2014.

 Evi following Thomas all around the floor trying to get his milk from him.

 Evelyn is a quick learner and gives Thomas a taste of his own "not so gentle, loving hair pull"

 and a few kisses too

 we love snuggling

 He fell asleep in time out after protesting his nap.

 The only ride Thomas could go on at the fair.  We rode it over and over and over.  It was a giant swing and thankfully the guy running it let me go for free with Thomas.  :)

if I had time, I'd get the picture of the cd and put it on here but this is quicker.... it's already on the computer.  We had pictures taken in September 2014.  This is the first time Thomas stopped and smiled for a camera, ever.  It was absolutely adorable.  adorable.  

playing at the farm

 getting acquainted with corn at Vala's pumpkin patch.

 getting a little snooze at the homeschool track meet

Evi was trying to eat and Thomas wanted to sit in the highchair.  

Evi didn't care for him up all in her personal space but Thomas thought it was hilarious.  He's a great big brother!  ....and a great little brother.  :)

Quick facts about T;
He's 4 and some months.  He sees OT, PT, speech, and has craniosacral therapy weekly and daily at school.  We love his teachers and therapists.  He's learning so many things at school  He's even keeping his shoes on while he is there and his teacher said he stayed in circle time for longer than ever the other day.  :)  That's a good thing, not because circle time is all that important but being able to comprehend and follow directions is important.  He is signing, thank you, drink, more, all done, cracker and please.  most of the time he uses them appropriately but there's times he just is doing something because he is focused on something he wants and he's trying to sign anything to get it.
The other day he was trying to have me put Evelyn's shoe on his foot because he wanted to go outside.  I said, "where's thomas' shoe?"  he put his hands over his eyes as if I had said to him "where's Thomas?"  So when he uncovered his eyes, I said "peek a boo"  So sometimes his understanding is a little off.  :)  There was another time where I took Evelyn up to the bath and told Tom I would give him one next.  He was clearly unhappy that he couldn't get in the bath with Evelyn.  When I had come back down stairs he had put himself in my bath tub and turned on the water.... Still in his clothes.  It was very purposeful.  Little stinker!  It's difficult for us to be able to identify what he understands and what he doesn't but we keep trying!

He's starting to make new sounds and he loves listening to Evi babble her sounds.  They often crack each other up and the rest of the family with them.

I wish I could write more but I do need to get going on the school day before Rob gets back with Thomas.  I'm looking forward to hearing about his heart.  It may be a little mixed up in there but the one thing that is for sure is that Thomas' heart is made of pure sugar and gold and everything nice and loving and sweet.  That's how the saying goes right?  :)  He's the most loving sweet boy ever.

One more thing.  Thomas loves having only one sock on his one foot all the time.  So we revised a common nursery rhyme for T.  It goes like this.

Diddle, diddle, dumpling our son Tom
goes to bed with his PJs on.
one sock off, one sock on
Diddle diddle dumpling, our son Tom.  


We love you Thomas!