Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tyler turned 3 on the 15th. I am amazed that's time has gone so fast! For his big day we took a trip to the zoo. Grandma Nina and Grandpa Mel came with us. Along with Grandma Anderson, Aunt Joyce, Nicole, Reese, Amanda, and Peyton. We had a good time. The weather was just right: warm and sunny. Tyler really enjoyed looking at all the animals.

Afterwards, we went back to Hooper and had cake and ice cream. Tyler has now realized what presents means, and is very fond of receiving them.

The goal was a cookie monster cake. It didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped, but Tyler still liked it.

Tyler has been making us smile tonight. He’s such a character! He had a hefty dose of sugar this afternoon, so he’s been VERY energetic. He kept saying over and over, “I not a puppet. I a real boy!” He likes to watch Shrek, so that’s where he learned it.

We have been helping him to say prayers lately, and he was very excited about praying for dinner tonight. He had to wait until dinner was ready, and then Ryan helped him. It went something like this:
Ryan: Thank you for this day.
Tyler: Thank you for nursery.

Ryan: Thank you for this food.

Tyler: Thank you for church.

Ryan: Please bless this food.

Tyler: I like nursery. (still in prayer tone)

Andrew had a follow-up visit with the Genetics specialist this week. The doctor saw him playing and asked how he was doing and said he's confident that Andrew has VATER. Which is just the initials for a group of birth defects that group together often. Andrew has Tef, Esophageal atresia, and Renal deformities. That group is sometimes part of chromosome problems as well, so the doctor wanted to make sure that Andrew didn't have any other problems beyond that, but said he is confident that he doesn't have any genetic problems.

I learned from the doctor that Andrew's type of birth defect occurs when the embryo takes some sort of hit, sometime between conception and 20 days. He said it could be something like a minor illness, even a low fever that I didn't even realize I had. The experts really don't know what causes it, and because it happens so randomly and early in gestation they will probably never find out. The good news is that it's not likely that Ryan and I will have another child with EA/TEF and it's not likely that Andrew will have children with these problems either.

Andrew also had another dilation yesterday. Things went well for the procedure, but he's had a rough time since. I think he may have a virus that's upset his system. He's not been interested in eating, has been throwing up, his reflux has flared up, and tonight he has low fever. He was very uncomfortable, so Ryan gave him a blessing and he's been able to go to sleep now.

Otherwise Drew is doing great. He's making progress toward walking. He likes to walk with push toys, and has figured out how to turn them so he can go where he wants to now. He's also been practicing going up and down stairs. He gave the porch steps a try this week while I was planting flowers. He made it up and down once, but the second time he stood up against the house and ended up falling down the last two steps. He got a pretty nice scrape on his forehead and nose, but was fine otherwise.

He's also added some new words to his vocabulary including cookie and see-ya. He yabs a lot when he plays and certainly seems like he knows what he's saying. He definitely understands a lot a what we say. I like saying, "Andrew, you want a bath?" He'll take off crawling to the bathroom every time.

I love my boys!!