My kids and I

My mother's day photo with my children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Mother's Day To All

Training Bike

When I came back home from the store this afternoon, my husband pointed to me while my son was riding a training bike. He thought that I didn't know that he can pedal the training bike now. I said he started using the training bike last week. Then he told me to write on his baby book ( which I always forget to do). But he made sure that he got few pictures and video of him riding the bike. This is one of the PT goal for this time. I guess the goal for him to ride a training bike has been met.

 I have to mention that our bike at home is a whole lot smaller that the training bike that he uses at the therapy clinic. He can reach the pedal now without any problem.

 Sometimes that rear wheel just spins when he pedals and the bike was not moving forward. Maybe its because he was riding on dirt and not on the pave road.

And here he is with Ms. Nancy with a bigger training bike. When he pedal this bike it goes backwards and locked up the wheels, it makes him really frustrated. Plus he could hardly reach the pedal too.

Well, the next time that he goes to PT with Ms. Nancy , daddy said that he is going to bring his own bike and show it to his therapist. That will make her happy :-).

Ist day of May - At the Park

I can't believe that it is month of May already. What happen to April??? LOL time flies when you are having fun.

Anyway, we took the kids to the park today. It was a good timing to be at the park today because the ticket was sold at the cheaper price in celebration of Cinco De Mayo. The price was really a cheap since the bracelet ticket was almost $20 a pop I think and today they sold it for $7. Yehey! I'd better purchase the yearly pass which is a whole lot cheaper. Anyhow, the kids enjoyed the ride today because it was unlimited. We rode the train I think 5 times and some other ride. They can only handle couple hours at the amusement center, and they are becoming grouchy. When that happen it is time to go home :)).

Kathlyn was quite excited to take a ride on a carousel. She kept saying, " are you coming?"

Here are they, waiting for the carousel to stop and get on it.

This is actually the second ride :) Gerald actually doing well riding the carousel this time. Normally he likes to sit on my lap.

This was new to me also that Gerald Jay actually get into that car with his little sister.

The airplane--- Gj has no object to ride it :-) , but KC can't she was too small :(

she was so sad that she couldn't ride with her brother, so I took her to ride the helicopter

then  later when brother was done with the plane ride , he joined with her. But he was covering his ears. Noise sensitive sometimes...just noticed it!

the last helicopter ride KC decided not to go with her brother...she was tired and being grouchy.

but she keep an eye on him :)

the last train ride

Just me 25 weeks prego :-)

Fetal Echo

Greetings!

I had a fetal echocardiogram this morning at the Eller Congenital Center ( St. Joe's). The result is great! My baby Madison have a healthy heart! Yehey!

Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! My family surely had a great Easter at my mother-in-law's house. We had a great dinner, and it was good to see all the members of our family.

My kids had fun egg hunting at their grandma's backyard. I didn't grew up in egg hunting, so I don't know how to do it :-). What I did was I put all the eggs in the basket and gave it them this morning after church. Which I think my little daughter enjoyed the colorful eggs. So, when we arrive at grandma's house, she took the kids in the backyard and teach them how to find the eggs. Thanks MOM! 

I was actually surprise that the kids knows what to do after they found their first egg. My daughter kept saying, "anymore?" here are some of our photo this Easter!

Big balls for the kids waiting in the backyard :0)

Happy to find the first egg!

 Gj has no idea what was going on

 Kathlyn found the egg again.

 He saw the egg, but he ignore it so I made him take it before the little girl does.

 He found it by himself..good job baby G!

 nice car you got there baby G!

 Kathlyn found the last egg.

Kathlyn and big brother

Good Friday

I missed celebrating Holy week with my family! I came from Philippines which is almost 90% of population are catholic. My family is one of them. We do not eat meat for holy Wednesday until Easter Sunday. Holy Monday and Tuesday as much as possible we avoided to eat meat as well. Holy Thursday and Good Friday we go to church and joined the procession. My dad normally help push the cart where the dead of Jesus laid down for few hours depending on the route that the church planned to cover.

Here in the US is totally different. Holy week is the same as the ordinary week. I remember only one Good Friday I went to church in 2004 since I came here a week before the Holy week. After that I celebrate most of my holy week at work or at home because we do not have a car to go church.

Today, I woke up planning to go to church with my kids. The station of the cross will start at 3pm, but I still don't have a car to use for transportation. Renting a cab is quite expensive and I cannot afford that. I was thinking to take the bike trailer to haul my kids , but the weather is quite warm, they will be cooked in that trailer for few hours...sighhhh oh what to do! what to do! Nothing actually, but pray at home from the bottom of my heart. HAVE A GOOD FRIDAY EVERYONE!

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I was able to go to church before my husband went to work today. I saw the church schedule that they were having a station of the cross from 12nn. So, I went and did  the station of the cross by my self and offered some prayers for our friend who is in the hospital recovering from the major heart surgery. Thanks to our Lord for saving us from sins.

School celebrate Spirit Week! - Outfit inside out

 This week GJ wore weird outfit. Dad read the letter from the school , and he did chose the clothing for Gj that day. I was not gonna let him participate, but dad already planned for it :-) good for him.

 I was in KC's room when I saw them outside the front yard. I took some photos of them as a remembrance of that day.

 He was happy as you can see. He is feeling great and enjoying the life of a 4 years old.

 Of course my little daughter always takes him to the bus stop. SHe is a happy girl too. This is dad's job every morning..taking care of the kids and take them to the bus stop. Mommy on the other hand ...sleeping in :D.

Kathlyn's 2nd year Well- Check

Kathlyn had her second year well-check today. She received only one poke today ouchhh! She is a tough girl, so she didn't cry much. About KC's health wise, "she is perfect" as Dr. Gerald Golner said. Oh by the way, we love Dr. G. He is "THE BEST" pediatrician in town :-).

Kathlyn and Dr. Golner

 She was very good of following instructions during the well- check. No problem at all! Good job baby girl!

Gerald Jay and Dr. Golner

Well,  of course brother GJ was jealous that Dr. G was holding KC. Ralph had to take Gj out of the rooma nd came back later after KC's was done. And it was his turned to be on his lap :-).
What we like about Dr. G is that he gave the kids fair attention even it wasn't GJ's time to be check!
Thanks a lot Dr. G. Golner !

Eller Congenital Meeting--- Goodbye to Dr. Cleveland

I don't know where to start of today's(4-19-11)  event . Gerald and I attended a meeting at the Eller Congenital (St. Joe's) basically just to say "thank you and goodbye" to Dr. Cleveland. But my little heart hero show off to the crowd how well he is now :D. He run to the stage and play hide and seek with me when I tried to get him off the stage. Off course the program just started, then he laid down on the stage. I chose the very end seat  and give him some toys to play with; however, my boy just couldn't keep his growling noise low. So, while Dr. Cleveland saying goodbye I had to take GJ back home ( it took me about 35 minutes back and fort) and came back to the meeting. Dr. C was already left and I didn't get a chance to say " thank you and goodbye". But he saw how well was GJ after the fontan and as far as I can see from his face, he was really happy to GJ was doing well. GJ gave him a hug!

To Dr. Cleveland,

My family are grateful for saving our son's life. He won't be here to this day if it wasn't your and Dr. Nigro's saving hands. Please accept out gratitude from the bottom of our hearts and goodluck! God bless!

I didn't have any picture of Gj and Dr. Cleveland. If my son ask me who did his surgeries, I don't have any picture to show him what his surgeon looked like :(. I am so sad for that. But the Laura the NP at cardiac clinic told me she'll give me a picture of Dr. C from thier office. Thanks to that.

Also, ST. Joseph's Medical and PCH are merging in June. Too bad I didn't hear all the information about this merging because I left before Dr. C finished his farewell message. When I cam back, I only hear the portion of " questions and answers". But I am pretty sure that either hospital will take care of our heart kids.
 

Mended Little Heart of Phoenix Family Pinic 2011

Last April 2nd the Mended Little Heart of Phoenix organized a family picnic at the Indian steel Park. My kids had a blast, and I had a chance to talk to other heart moms. Thank You MLH.
Here are some of the photos that the official photographer that day. Thank you very much for the ocmplimentary photo.

My daughter and I

My family-- Ralph, Gerald Jay (HLHS), Nelda  and Kathlyn

Kathlyn had a great smile

Kathlyn and the dog... they call it a therapy dog or something :-)

 I didn't know that the took this picture until I saw it on the MLH wedsite :-) Thanks it is a great photo!

She like the dog

Little girl's skirt

Tonight, around nine o'clock I didn't hear any noises around the house. I locked-up my self in the study room and let my husband takes care my kids. Well, hubby had a good sense of taking care the kids :-) they put them in bed. Well, normally between 8 pm to 9pm my kids are saying " night night".

Anyway, since my kids are in bed, I feel bored. So I decided to take all my scrap fabric and laces, I laid it on the floor and stared at it for 15 minutes thinking of what to do with it. Then I finally came up with making a new skirt for my little daughter. I read some blog that have tutorials for making skirts from this blog . It was very easy to follow. So, here is my finished product...

Cardiology Follow-up visit

Gerald had a cardiology visit and everything went well. Although the kids behavior was the worse behavior I ever seen. But my son was very cooperative during the vital signs, EKG, and body check.

 Kathlyn on the other hand didn't score a good point from us tsk tsk tsk. As you can see in the photo.

Anyway, Dr. Nowlen was happy to see us and Gerald Jay. We are gonna start weaning Gj from the sildenafil starting on Monday. I am excited about it, because one less meds the better. But our Dr was very conservative which we love about him :-). He want us to watch closely for some signs of fatigue and etc from the .01- 0 dose because that is where we see some difference. He will have 3 echos within 15 weeks and follow-up visit with Dr. Nowlen on the 16 weeks. All was good and it was a great cardiology visit!