Micronaxx

Today was Henry’s appointment with the pediatric urologist at Stanford Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital. We had to take all the records and reports from his prior ultrasounds and X-ray so the specialist could check everything out. The doctor and his resident were both incredibly nice and gentle, and were very attentive to both Henry and I. They answered all my questions and gave as thorough an explanation as they could concerning Henry’s condition.

In a nutshell, Henry needs a couple more tests before the doctor will be comfortable giving a definitive diagnosis of his kidney condition. Right now it’s just known as “megaureter,” which is a general term for inexplicably enlarged kidneys and ureters. Henry will have another X-ray test, called a Mag 3, which is designed to show whether his ureters are blocked (thereby indicating a physical impediment to the flow between kidney and bladder) or unblocked (which could indicate a malfunction with the musculature of the ureters). The doc said that if they’re not blocked, the situation eventually will resolve itself without the need for surgery. If they’re blocked, at some point surgery will be needed to remove the blockages, but we’d wait until he’s older to do that. In the meantime, we keep him on the antibiotic, do the tests this coming month, and then see the doc again in March to see what the tests show.

For his part, Henry was an absolute doll the entire morning. The appointment was smack in the middle of his normal naptime, but he slept in the car both ways, and was happy and calm for the duration of the consultation. Oh, and he was in love with the adorable baby he kept glimpsing in the mirror at the end of the exam table :D. And big kudos to the Children’s medical center–the facilities are so nice, welcoming, well-lit, and kid friendly, it is very easy for everyone to be at ease while they’re visiting.

This past week marked my first week back to work, and I’m happy to report that the boys were fabulous for the nanny all week. Knowing that they were in good hands and having fun made my hours at the office, away from the boys, stress-free. They both napped well, played well, and behaved themselves on all fronts. Whew! Finny’s been having a bit of a rough time going to sleep at night, and we think it’s because he’d like to spend more time with Mom-o and Dad-o since we’re both now away a large part of the day. My singing the “Personal Penguin” song to him in his darkened room seems to put him at ease.

This coming week marks our big nanny transition. Carol (a.k.a. Coco) has recuperated from her back surgery, and is coming back full-time as of Feb. 1. This week she’ll be job-sharing with Laurie, who’s been filling in for her since October. Hopefully this will make the transition a bit smoother for the guys–they can refamiliarize themselves with Coco, and Coco can get up to speed with the day’s rhythms, playgroup schedule, etc. And we will miss Laurie, who has been so good to the boys. She is moving back to San Diego with her daughter and granddaughter at the beginning of February.

Other small things of note from this week: Henry had his first official high-chair meal when we went out for pizza yesterday. He’s now stable enough to stay upright on his own in the chair! And Finny has started referring to himself as “Big Goonie” instead of “Binny”. That little guy is as sharp as a tack. When Dad-o pointed to a vehicle in one of his books and said “What’s that?”, expecting the answer, “bulldozer,” Finny replied “That’s a bulldozer scooping sand in the desert!” Why yes, yes it was!

Sing it with me: Dah, DAH dun dah DAH, dah dah dah…

…Super Henry!!

That’s it; nothing more to report at the moment. 🙂

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The past week has been a big one in terms of developmental leaps for both boys. It’s so fascinating to watch both of them do things that they couldn’t, or hadn’t, just days ago. In the blink of an eye, so many things have changed!

Henry: Has started supporting himself in a sitting position! He’s working so hard to keep his little back straight and his head held high. He’s also very aware of when he is being left alone, even for a few seconds. He protests quite audibly when he sees his companion(s) exiting the room, and he has his eyes trained on us when we’re moving around or talking. He’s started eating some veggies in addition to his gruel–I mean cereal. We joke with Finn that if he could talk, Henry might say “More peas, please!”. His wakeful periods between naps are lengthening out, and we’re no longer doing four shortie naps per day, we’re down to either 2 or 3 almost-decent ones! If he’s like his mom, the full tummy definitely helps with sleeping.

Finn: Instead of “Finny the Carpenter” or “Finny the Engineer” we have started calling him “Mr. Independent Play.” This is such a wonderful and sudden development. Almost literally overnight, Finn went from needing constant playtime participation and companionship by one of us, to venturing out completely on his own and having his own private adventures. We realized something significant had changed when we were able to eat brunch and chat with our friends for almost an hour while Finn kept himself completely entertained with their son’s selection of toys! And all week he has been making up stories and things to do all by himself. Sometimes he requests that one of us be in the same room that he’s in, but we don’t necessarily have to do anything. It’s very freeing for us, and also fun to observe what our little guy comes up with to entertain himself. His imagination is on fire!