September 2010 Update

Just in case anyone still checks Braden's blog, we thought we really should update it! Braden is almost 22 months old. He is the happiest, busiest little guy ever. He runs everywhere and climbs, jumps and dances. What a miracle. He keeps us busy trying to out-think him. Thank goodness for nap time.

Braden has finally started becoming more verbal. He "talked" before, but gibberish, with lots of facial expression and gesturing. Now he is saying numerous recognizable words and parroting everything his sisters tell him to repeat. They like to follow him around with pencil and paper and jot down his pronunciations. Also new, Braden has started singing. So sweet! His favorite songs are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Winnie the Pooh".

Next week is Braden's every other month call-in pacemaker check. It is a reminder of his dependence on that unit, but we really take it in stride these days. Originally, we were told to be cautious of the unit placed in his abdomen, and we are, but he is a BOY, rough and tumble, active every waking moment. All he knows is the pacemaker in his tummy so for him it is normal. He flops on his stomach, somersaults, slides headfirst, no problem! Still, we are thankful he has had no major falls. At this point our concern has been the antibiotic he has to take for cuts in his mouth, due to the residual shunting from the VSD repair. Usually Braden falls and cuts his mouth when we are away from home or in the evening after hours, but thankfully we have refills at the pharmacy and it hasn't been a huge problem. It ends up just being an inconvenience.

We continue to delight in all that Braden IS that he "wasn't" supposed to be. According to the experts, he was a "decision to make" at the first medical appointments, once the heart defect was detected; he was high risk to be Downs or Trisome 13, and delayed physically and verbally. God had different plans for him and we would have missed out on the biggest joy in our lives if we had followed any other plan. We love our Braden boy!