Case closed!

Today I took Jake to see Dr. Butler who is a pediatric neurologist at UT/Houston. This was the follow-up appointment to his episode on mother's day. Dr. Butler was so nice and friendly and had a wonderful accent. I looked him up online and he's from Australia which explains the great accent. He had Jake play with several manipulatives and observed his movement. Jake was able to put several several beads on a rod which apparently is a 2 year skill so Dr. Butler said he was ahead of the curve (we knew that already! :) ). He does believe his episode was caused by the chicken pox vaccine, but had never actually seen this in person before. He had a med. student with him who was quite interested in Jake's unusual case. Dr. Butler said this will have no long term side effects and should never recur again. So there you have it...Jake's case is closed and we have another story to put in the baby book. Praise God that's all it was!

Fun at the Lake

Sunday while we were in Oklahoma Jake and I spent a lot of quality time with my family. Dad kept Jake Sunday afternoon so my mom and I could go shopping together and then Sunday night we went out to the lake with Ryan's family and in-law's too. My dad's newest hobby is kayaking so mom and I pushed Jake in his stroller as dad took his kayak out in the lake. After kayaking we met everyone over at a new park so Jake and Hendrix could play together some more. Both boys ran and played their hearts out...Hendrix was very brave and can now go down several big slides by himself. Jake just loves to climb on everything in sight. Hendrix's other grandparents gave him a trailer for my brother's bike for his birthday. Ryan took the boys out for a bit in the trailer. Jake sat perfectly still and didn't know what to think...they looked so cute with their little helmets on!

Monday Jake and I had to head back home. Its always hard to say goodbye and leave my parents. Monday morning my mom gave me the best present ever! She took Jake when he woke up and let me sleep in. When I woke up, she had made me blueberry pancakes and had my coffee ready. That was SO very nice! Oh, Jake did call my dad "papa" too. Apparently that will be his name. On the way back to Houston, I got to see one of my best friends, Randi. She and her family were at her parents in Dallas. We only got to stay an hour but I got to meet her new baby Brady. She took a picture of our boys together. When I get that from her, I'll post it later. Its always so refreshing to see old friends!

We had a great weekend and got home in time to see Ty before he left for the week. He's in Bristol, England for meetings...He just called and was going to dinner...he said he was walking by a castle. Someday he will have to take me with him! Imagine all of the author's homes I could visit! So Jake and I will hold the fort down and look forward to seeing him this weekend.

Happy Birthday Hendrix!

Last week was my nephew Hendrix's 2nd birthday so Jake and I went up to Oklahoma for his birthday party. Ty had to work and couldn't come with us so Jake and I braved the road trip ourselves. We got to Yukon on Thursday night, and Friday my dad and I kept Hendrix so he and Jake could play together. Jake is finally getting old enough to play with Hendrix and the two cousins got along great! Jake pretty much mimicked everything Hendrix did...he chased him through the house and the backyard. My dad pushed the boys in Hendrix's little car down the ramp of their shed and that entertained them for a good hour. It was great to spend some quality time with my little nephew. Hendrix talks all of the time now but the cutest thing he says is when you say goodbye to him. Instead of saying bye-bye, my brother has taught him to say, "Peace Out"...He's definitely Ryan's son!

Ryan and Crystina had the birthday party on Saturday at my parent's house and it was so cute! They had a barn yard theme...my dad and brother built a "pig pen" and the kids all had pink balls (the "pigs") to kick in the pen. Crys had also found these really cute stick horses for the kids to each have.

The kids hunted for "farm eggs." Since Hendrix loved hunting Easter eggs so much, Crys thought that would be a fun game...it was a hit. My mom borrowed a saddle from a friend for pictures of the kids. They did such a good job on the party and everyone had a great time! Here is both Jake and Hendrix on the saddle:

Here is my Uncle David and my dad at the party...I thought this was a cute picture of the two of them...And here is Jake enjoying his cupcake...he is the master of eating cake and cupcakes...yum, yum!

A great website

I just wanted to share the link to a great website that Ty's Aunt Kaye and Cousin Katie showed me: http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f It is actually a website that is supposed to help with reading, but I think its helping Jake with his words and helps him recognize different items and animals. He loves this and it keeps his attention for a good 10 minutes which is good for him :) His favorite letter is "T"--a tiger will growl when you click on that and he laughs and laughs. Just thought I'd share that today. Here are a few weekend pictures of our favorite boy too:

Jake's new favorite place to hide is under the bathroom sink. I had pretty much moved everything out of there and just put a few things for him to play with while I get ready. He discovered he can crawl in and out and shut the doors himself. He's pretty proud of himself!

His second favorite place to hide is in Gilbert's crate. Gilbert isn't too sure about him invading his space, but they're working it out!This was the first really warm weekend we could get in the pool--here's Jake in his silly pool hat and float. He and Ty played pool basketball for awhile on Sunday afternoon. Ty also made our planters outside into sandboxes for Jake. In the bottom picture you can see Jake playing with his sand pail after he got bored swimming. I need to get him a new water hat for this summer...this one looks a little too girly :)

One more trip to the zoo

Yesterday Jake and I went to the zoo for the third time in a little over a month. This time we went with a playgroup from church so there were about 15 kids or so and several moms to explore the zoo with. Jake was a bit cranky yesterday but managed to pet a few goats, see some fun animals, and enjoy a beautiful day. When Ty got home last night I asked Jake to tell his Daddy what he saw at the zoo and show him what the elephant did, and Jake did his elephant impression. His Aunt Destin taught him to do this: he raises up his head and makes a semi-elephant sound. Its really cute! Jake is definitely a man of few words, but he's coming along. He said bubbles yesterday for the first time. Most of the time he talks in his own little language and just laughs all day. His other new trick is trying to do the hand motions to "The Wheels on the Bus." His little arms are so short they don't quite make the wheel motion, but his attempt is really cute. He also spins in a circle as he plays along. Oh, he's so much fun!

Here are a couple of pictures from the group at the zoo. The first is most of the kids that were there--all we could round up anyway. The second is just one I thought turned out really well of the older kids having a sno cone.

This wasn't at the zoo, but on Wednesday Jackson came over to play with Jake and I snapped this picture of them. They got along great!

This is a random picture that I took Thursday night before we watched The Office. I got out the camera and Jake gave me this crazy smile. I'm not sure where he learned this, but it made me laugh. Ty is trying to ignore the camera in the background :)

Mystery Illness Update

Jake has been doing so much better the past two days. Yesterday he was still a bit wobbly, but today he is pretty much back to normal. We went to see Dr. Chandler yesterday, and she really believes Jake did have a reaction to the chicken pox vaccine. She has tentatively diagnosed him with cerebellar ataxia. She hasn't seen this since around 1993 because the chicken pox vaccine became readily available in 1995, and she sees very few children with chicken pox now. In the early 90s she said she saw several patients with cerebellar ataxia from the actual chicken pox; she had just never seen a patient have a reaction to the vaccine. If Jake had the actual chicken pox, the effects of this would have been much stronger and longer lasting, but since he only had a small "dose" of the chicken pox from the vaccine, the ataxia did not last as long.

In layman's terms, basically what happens is the part of the brain that controls the equilibrium is attacked by the chicken pox virus and swells. It can last for several days, but since Jake only had the vaccine, it only lasted about 24 hours. It apparently has no lasting effects...it just scares parents to death :) Dr. Chandler does want us to follow up with a pediatric neurologist to verify what she and Dr. Bailey have said. We have a tentative appointment with a Dr. Butler for the first week in July, but Dr. Chandler is going to try to get that moved up for us. So, that is about it for now. My mom says this just proves that Jake is definitely not an ordinary child--he must have a flair for the dramatic, and he is quite extraordinary!

I'm hoping for a boring, mundane rest of the week!

A Mother's Day Scare

We just spend part of another Mother's Day weekend in the E.R. Its ironic because just yesterday morning, I had read my friend Stacey's blog about family traditions, and I told Ty we need to think about what traditions we want to establish with Jake. This was not what I had in mind. Last Mother's Day weekend, Jake went to the E.R. because his fever spiked with a stomach virus, and they were worried about the effect it had on his yet to be repaired heart. Last night Ty took Jake and me out for dinner to celebrate and when we got home, I set Jake down in the driveway. He just fell right over. We brought him inside, set him down, he fell over again. Somehow, Jake could not physically stand or walk. At first he seemed to be almost paralyzed. We soon realized his equilibrium was very off. He has a slight ear infection and has been on ear drops so my first reaction was that the drops had an adverse effect on him. Jake would only crawl and kept just putting his head in my lap and whimpering. We started to get frightened so we called our doctor's office to talk to the doctor on call. Luckily (or really "blessedly"), our doctor, Dr. Chandler was on call and called us right back. She was quite worried and didn't think it was related to his ear infection. Because of his heart history, she sent us right to the E.R.

We got to St. Luke's at 9:00 p.m. and the waiting room was packed. When I told the receptionist what was wrong and she heard Jake has an ASD, they checked his vitals right away. His blood pressure was normal which was a good sign. Within 10 minutes, they took Jake back and we saw Dr. Bailey who we had seen a year before as well. Jake was still unable to stand or walk, but was in a great mood and was even laughing. She was puzzled as well, but was curious when she found out he had just had his chicken pox vaccine. Apparently in years past, children had a similar reaction after having chicken pox, and she wondered if the vaccine could cause the same symptoms. Basically she said Jake had Ataxia possibly brought on by the vaccine. With this condition, the part of the brain swells, children become unable to walk for several days, and it eventually goes away.

She also said that children with ASD's are more likely to have strokes and went ahead and called for an immediate CT Scan. They had us back for that in about 20 minutes. The technician was amazed by Jake. He held perfectly still during the procedure and actually had a great time. He laughed and laughed. He loved all of the lights and apparently felt like he was on a ride of some sort. She said he was the best baby she had ever filmed. That's our Jake! His resilient, sweet spirit definitely helped Ty and I stay calm.

His CT Scan was clear so they could rule out the big problems like tumors or a stroke. Dr. Bailey went ahead and sent us home to monitor him with the instructions to call Dr. Chandler first thing Monday morning to see about taking him down to Texas Children's for further testing. She wants us to see a neurologist about the possible chicken pox reaction and an ENT specialist in case it has to do with his inner ear (apparently, he has a middle ear infection which should NOT cause these symptoms). You have to see a specialist to check on the inner ear.

We put him to bed at 11:00 last night and Ty and I got a little bit of sleep. This morning he was even worse when he woke up and I did start to panic. But miraculously, over the course of the morning, his symptoms have gone away. Ty's family came over for lunch and by then he was laughing, running, and playing and acting normal. Its so bizarre.

I plan to call Dr. Chandler first thing in the morning anyway. I'm not sure what's going on, but even if he's acting fine now, I would love to know what was wrong. All this to say, I sure hope Jake doesn't make E.R.'s a mother's day tradition in years to come! Our little Jake is such a trooper...In my mind we had already conquered all of the big hurdles with his heart surgery. I didn't really even want him to have to see more specialists! So tired and puzzled, we'll try to figure this out in the morning and pray that Jake continues to do better later tonight and in the morning (he's napping now). What a Mother's Day!

Here's our very cool 15-month old! He has a huge fascination with sunglasses right now and here he is modeling a pair of mine. These are my cheap sunglasses I got at Sam Moon for $5 which are way too big for me as well, but happen to be the most comfortable pair of sunglasses I've ever had. Jake thinks so too! He's only in his diaper because I had already changed him twice today. The last outfit got soaked when Jake opened the toilet lid and splashed like crazy and then dove into the bathtub I was trying to clean. So mischievous...all the time! He had been nicely playing in the bathroom floor with some toys while I tried to clean, but how quickly things can go awry :)

He's had two doctor check-ups this week and is doing very well. At 15 months, he weighed in at 25 lbs/31 inches at Dr. Chandler's office and now is in the 50-75 percentile. Today we saw Dr. Grenier for the last time. She is moving to Kentucky to work at UK. We will miss her SO much but feel so fortunate that she saw us through Jake's surgery and got him "fixed." She's been a God send for us and so many other families in the Houston area. She did an echo, and Jake got a glowing report. He has a very minimal amount of regurgitation in his Mitral valve and his heart was pumping just like normal. She's keeping him on Enlapril indefinitely which just helps his heart pump a little better--its the same medicine Ty takes everyday as well. We'll see Dr. Reddy from now on but won't have to see him for a year! She did recommend us for genetic testing downtown which we had been wanting to do anyway. She gave Ty the information to set up an appointment. Ty and Jake will make an interesting study for the doctors. Also, there is a researcher in Houston who has isolated about 150 genes associated with heart defects. Its possible that he'll be able to tell us exactly which gene of Ty and Jake's their ASD comes from. He also can tell us the percentage of us passing this on to another child if that's God's will someday. Its amazing what medicine can do today. Well, medicine and our good Lord! Its been a good day.

More Fun at the Fountains

Playing hard with his sippy cup in hand

His favorite game today was chase--he runs and his "Jo Mama" chases after him!

Sitting with Jo Mama

Deep in thought with his friend Nora Bella

Water Fun

Saturday evening we had a wonderful family night at home. I made some fajitas...I did the HEB deal where you buy the meat and get about 6 other items for free along with it (Thanks Kelsey for reminding me of that!)...and we ate outside on our patio. It was perfect weather, and Jake just loves being outside. Ty turned on the hot tub and made sure the water was lukewarm and let Jake play in it. He had a good time splashing with us and playing with the jets. I can't wait for it to get warm enough for him to swim...last summer he was still young to really enjoy the water, but I think he'll love this summer. If you notice in the top picture, Jake has a big fat lip. He fell on the window sill when I was cooking dinner and had quite a bloody lip. It scared me more than him, and he was fine shortly after.

Tonight we tried out the new fountains in the Woodlands with our friends, the Babb's. We had heard great things about the fountains coordinated with the music and lights. I am thankful we live in a city with so many fun outdoor events. It was really cool to watch and Jake LOVED the fountain for the kids to play in. He would put his face directly where the water would come up and then get so excited when it splashed him. Here is Jake touching the water...I didn't get a good picture of him putting his whole face in, but it was pretty funny :) Below is Jake with Lillie Beth--when we first got there, he just held out his arms like this, a little unsure of the water.

Here are Jake and Jackson checking out the water. Jackson and Jake have to stick together because they are the only little boys their age in our group of friends. They'll be spending lots of time together!

Here are Claudia and I with the boys (Gary and Ty were taking the picture)