Micronaxx

When Henry was born, we had to have his kidneys checked out due to possible hydronephrosis (too much fluid swelling the kidney). His ultrasound (at the ripe old age of 2 days old) showed that his left kidney was indeed swollen, and we have been keeping him on a daily antibiotic to prevent kidney or bladder infections.
At Henry’s 4-month check up, Dr. S ordered another renal ultrasound for our boy, which we did last week at the hospital. Dr. S called us yesterday and said that the swelling is still present, and so she wants us to do further testing to determine if it has gotten worse, and also how serious the condition is on a 1-10 scale. She thinks he is “mild to moderate”, but needs more info. We are scheduled for the VCUG (X-ray test) next Wednesday.
Regardless of the severity of his condition, we will continue to give him the antibiotic and meet with a pediatric urologist to set up a plan to monitor the situation. If it is bad enough to require surgery on his renal valve, we would still wait until he is older to do the operation because he is just still too little right now. And there is still a decent chance that he will simply outgrow the problem, which is what happens in most cases. We’ll just keep checking it every 6 months or so.
Please think good thoughts for us on Wednesday, because the test won’t be any fun for Henry, who has to get catheterized. Hopefully the test itself won’t last longer than an hour. I do hope we confirm that his case is mild or moderate, and not severe.

We’ve been a tad light on picture & video-taking lately, but there’ve been no end of little developments with our big(ger) guy. Random news from the Finn front:

• Language fun: Finn’s learning to conjugate verbs, adding “-ing” to the end of many (for example, “Finny achoo-ing!”). I’m especially fond of his onomatopoeia. He says, “Turn on the vaporizer. More ‘hwwwoo‘-ing!”
• In a similar vein, he’s learning to make things plural, adding “s” to the end. Unintentionally funny stuff often results as he lays it on a little thick–“Gobots-es,” “green beans-es,” etc.
• Birdman Sings The Hits: The little guy gleefully recites the bits of popular songs I sometimes warble to him. Current fun includes Usher’s “Yeah!” (Finny: “Yeah, yeah!… Rea-dy to go!”), Soundgarden’s “Spoonman” (“(S)’poonman… save me!”), Rick James’s “Cold Blooded” (“Dad-O cold blooded!”), and Fatboy Slim’s “Rockafella Skank” (“Funk soul brutha!!”).
• With a chill now in the air, our breath condenses visibly. Pointing to my mouth during yesterday’s AM garbage can run, Finn said, “(S)’moke! ‘Moke coming out!” He was a little too psyched out to try making his own.
• It seems that despite all our blogging, we’ve somehow neglected to talk about “The Meedgit House,” an innovation my dad used to apply to me–trapping a little kid by crossing one’s legs, then holding the kid prisoner while he delightedly tries to wriggle free. Finn took a shine to the idea right away, often trapping things in his own meedgit house (“Leo meedgit house! Squash!!”). Now Margot has added some Aztec flair, making “Meedgit Tacos.” The recipe consists of one (1) giant floor pillow and one (1) fast-moving lad. Delicious! 🙂
• Speaking of Mexican chow, Finn greeted me last night saying, “Horchata, horchata!” He’s kind of a sweet rice milk junkie, so we trundled off to grab drinks & tacos. En route, we talked about different animals and the noises they make. “Who makes bubbles, Finny?” I asked. “Fish,” he replied, then added, “Goonie!”

This morning, Laurie was talking about her young granddaughter Chloe learning to speak, saying that Chloe likes to say “Dog.” And just as Laurie finished saying “Dog…,” Finn jumped in with “…Goneit!!“ Rad. 🙂
Later, Margot and the big guy were eating some popcorn. “Mmm,” she said. Finn shouted, “Delicious corn!!” He’s up to eight cylinders–er, syllables–in a row. Right on, big guy.
In other news, Henry’s new leg-locking technology affords us the chance to do a little “Danger Management,” as we did with Finny. Videos and, I’m sure, chuckling hilarity to follow!

Heh–I got a kick out of this article from the satirical paper The Onion:

ATLANTA–A Zogby poll of 1,542 American grandparents published Monday found that grandsons were described as “very” to “extremely” talented by 1,542 of the respondents. “Participants in the poll were emphatic in their descriptions of the talents of grandsons in fields as diverse as advertising and sales, choral performance, baseball, talking, crawling, making their beds, video games, and instructing their elders on proper cell-phone use,” pollster Tom Waterton said… Sources at Zogby admitted that the survey was incomplete, as several hundred pollsters are still unable to get their assigned grandparents off the phone.

🙂

Finn is talking up a storm, but even we struggle to understand him some of the time. This plus his increasing grasp on useful little phrases led to a funny exchange the other day:

“Boo* book,” he said–possibly gesturing at a coloring pad–“Boo book!”
“Uh, boo book?” I asked with some hesitation.
“Uh Huuh” he chirped. But reading my hesitation, he added, “Might be.”
“Might be?,” I repeated.
“Uh huh,” he said. And then after a beat, “Maybe not…”
* Halloween has gotten him hooked on ghosts, and he loves his “Boo shirt,” saying boo (“Scare Mom-O!”), and even calling himself “BooMan.”

Finn gets to be a funnier, wackier dude as the days go by:

• Lately he’s started pointing at (seemingly) random things and excitedly declaring, “Imp! Imp!” Presumably he’s not seeing lots of lesser demons running around, so we’re kind of puzzled and charmed. In particular he identifies the little thermometer strip in Henry’s tub as “Imp.”
• Speaking of that tub, Finn and I (and now Mom-O) like to play a game with the little valve in the bottom. We’ll unplug it, and I’ll reach through with two fingers that make a little biting motion. Finn yells “Coyote!!” and braves its maw with his fingers. The coyote celebrates success by howling (despite its mouthful of finger), much to Finn’s delight.
• In an old episode of Star Trek, the human captain yells “KeeBLAH!” (“Goodbye”) at his Klingon crewman, who gruffly replies, “Goodbye, sir.” Well, you can guess what exchange Finny and I have been having lately, especially on his changing table. Audio file to follow. 🙂