Carlie's cardiology check-up

Last Thursday Carlie had an echo and check-up with her cardiologist Dr. Mulla. Carlie saw Dr. Mulla back in May, but she hadn't had an echo since March, which is when she was diagnosed with her pleural effusion. I was anxious to hear how her heart has been performing especially since it has been six months since her Fontan. I'm happy to report that everything looked great! Carlie weighed in at 24 pounds and 33 1/2 inches tall and best of all the regurgitation of her mitral valve was mild. Dr. Mulla said that Carlie's heart is as perfect as it could be given her defects. She said several times that we are very blessed that Carlie has progressed the way she has because it was just two years ago that Dr. Mulla wasn't sure that Carlie's heart would be able to keep her alive. We are very thankful that Carlie and her heart are healthy. Everything looked so good that Carlie's next check-up isn't for another four months!

Sea World

Yesterday we took the girls down to San Diego to visit Sea World. We took Caiteyn a couple of years ago and she seemed the right age (2 1/2) to enjoy all the animals so we thought Carlie would enjoy them as well; we thought wrong! Just like everything else, they are SO different. Carlie would be interested in the shows for about two seconds and then start climbing anything and everything that she could. I think the only thing that she was really into was the 'Pets Rule' show which has dogs, cats, pigs and birds in the show. I think my favorite show of the day was the Shamu show that they had during the day (they also have one at night called 'Shamu Rocks') named 'Believe'. It was just a very touching story about having a dream and going after it. I have to admit that it made me tear up a couple of times and I'm not sure if it is because I have a soft heart for animals (and these animals are truly amazing!) or because of the message. Either way it was a beautiful show and had a catchy tune that Caiteyn sang for the rest of the day. Here are some pics from the show...

Waiting for the Shamu show to start.

While Carlie took a nap, Caiteyn and I walked into the penguin exhibit and I was surprised that she knew two types of penguins in the exhibit. For those Noggin families out there, I thank Go Diego Go! for that. That channel is the best! While Carlie continued to nap, I took Caiteyn on the ride Journey to Atlantis which is a water ride and roller coaster in one. Within the first ten seconds of the ride you hit a 60 foot drop and let's just say that Caiteyn didn't handle it so well. She was supposed to go on the ride with Mike after, but she refused saying that it was too scary. I explained to her that when we go to Disneyland (which is supposed to happen Friday) to go on all the big rides that they will be just as fast. She said that she won't be afraid of those rides, and is still insisting that she will ride Splash Mountain when we go...we'll see! Here are some more pics from the day...

Because the park is sponsored by Anheuser-Busch they had a beautiful Clydesdale that you could have your picture taken with.

We were killing some time between shows and Mike saw this... He wanted to try and win one for the girls but I explained to him that they would end up fighting over Elmo and that he would have to win two. I told him not to waste the money because a little dollar toy would turn into a twenty dollar toy. It cost one dollar for two tries and wouldn't you know, he won an Elmo on the first try. Now we were stuck trying to win another...
I was happy that he was able to win another one, as was Carlie (because the first one was Caiteyn's), and in all, it only cost four dollars! Way to go Daddy!!!

As close to Shamu as they could get.

Overall it was a fun day and hopefully the next time we go Carlie will be more interested. Here are two more pictures that were taken at the end of our day (I promise they had sunscreen on all day, the sun really got the best of ALL of us!) and about 45 minutes later they were both knocked out.

Family trip to the river

Since Carlie was born, Mike has had to work A LOT! I was not able to substitute anymore because Carlie needed so much care and it was not worth being around school kids to bring something home to Carlie that might get her sick. So family vacations have been a little scarce the last couple of years. This past week however we were able to spend a week out at the river as a family. We had a lot of fun!

Carlie made a trip to the river last year (she was post Glenn) but my parents were with us as well, so whenever Carlie started to look flush, my Mom would take her into the air conditioning. This year it was just the four of us and Carlie (now post Fontan) did great. There were some hot days, 110-113, which was what I was worried about going out there, if the heat was going to be too much for Carlie, but as long as she was sitting in the water, she was happy...she LOVED the water! When we would take a ride in the boat, she would pull her blanket over her head and just fall asleep. If she were awake and we hit a bump she would just giggle. She had a great time.

Caiteyn tried to be more daring this time by trying to jump off the back of the boat but she soon realized that her head would go under water when she did this and so it didn't last very long. She did enjoy playing in the sand and trying to build sandcastles. We also met up with some friends who have a daughter her age so she had a lot of fun playing with her.

We had so much fun and can't wait to get back out there...

Cody hanging out on the beach.

Carlie thinks she's Daddy driving the boat.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 8th Anniversary Mike...I love you!

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