Joshua had his routine 6 month cardiology appointment this morning.  Erick wasn’t able to go with us so I was pretty worried about how it would go since it took both of us to calm him down last time.  Fortunately, one of Erick’s classmates was doing her peds rotation at the time so she was a big help.  Joshua screamed hysterically while the corpsman placed the stickers for the EKG but eventually he calmed down enough that he could attach the 12 leads & let it run to get a good recording.  Erick’s classmate read a couple of books & helped distract Joshua at the important times.  The echo went fairly well, with the tech asking Joshua if we could find what was in his tummy.  We looked for a puppy, kitty, Santa, Frosty, & then got to “hear” them (when she was listening to Joshua’s heartbeat).  Josh enjoyed the “heart movie” on the screen but eventually he got tired of it & was ready to go.  They got enough of a view to be satisfied that Joshua’s heart structure hasn’t changed since his last exam, which I was so relieved to hear.  Dr. Shmorhun still didn’t think Josh will need any intervention for the next few years but that a heart cath might be needed eventually.  He gave me some recommendations for great peds cardiologists at Madigan (including one physician who actually wrote Erick a recommendation for residency, so we’ll probably go with him).  He also said that Seattle Children’s is a great place to live near just in case, & agreed that we made a good choice in choosing Madigan over Tripler in Honolulu in case Joshua needed anything that couldn’t easily be handled by the military peds cardiology department.  Josh still needs to go in every 6 months for now, but that works out well, especially since we’d want to get established with the new clinic anyhow once we get there.

The weather in the DC area has been ridiculously cold for the last couple of months but it was finally cold for a reason yesterday—it snowed.  I’d been anticipating this for some time & bought a sled from Craigslist last fall so that Joshua could learn to not hate the snow like he had the previous 2 winters.  I also got Joshua another snow bib, boots, & water-resistant mittens so he was all ready.  Joshua was excited to see the snow when he woke up & was agreeable to go outside, which I wasn’t even sure about.  He adamantly refused his boots but he even wore the mittens so I was happy (lately he’s been excited to wear mittens because Frosty & Santa wear them!).  I pulled him up & down the sidewalk a few times which he really enjoyed.  Then we ran around in the snow, trying to throw snowballs at each other.  The snow was really loose so it didn’t pack together but we still had fun throwing snow around.  It didn’t work to make a snowball but Joshua got really excited when I drew a smiley face on the ground, saying “Frosty!”  Getting Joshua to go back inside was not easy but we had to go in eventually because his mitten kept falling off & it was really cold out (especially by my wimpy Southern California standards!).  As long as the roads are OK so we can get around, I don’t mind this weather—every now & then—so we can have fun playing in the snow.  Otherwise, there’s really no point in it being so cold!

Joshua & I went to a friend’s place for a playgroup get-together yesterday & it turned out to be more eventful than I’d anticipated it would be.  We were all playing in her living room when Joshua & other child went to the other room to play or explore.  Joshua stared at their fireplace & then touched the chain-link fence in front of it.  Apparently it was on because he said “hot” & pulled his hand away quickly.  I don’t think that my friend’s child is as curious as Joshua so she didn’t think much about it being on.  I looked at his hand right away & it looked fine & after the initial touching incident, he was fine.  We played for over an hour longer & all was fine until midway home when we left.  All of a sudden, Joshua started screaming & asking for me to “kiss boo-boo” over & over.  As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I looked at his little hand & saw that it was light red & had white grate marks from the fence part of the fireplace.  It was pretty small—about 1×2cm & a little bit on the sides of 3 fingers, but that was enough to worry Erick & me.  The poor thing!  It’s weird that it didn’t show up at all until so much later but that’s what happened.  I ran his hand under cold water at the sink, which he didn’t enjoy at all, but after that he seemed back to normal.  He was protecting it slightly for a little while but within an hour, he was using his hand completely normally.  Since it was so small, it didn’t warrant a doctor visit but I e-mailed a friend of mine who’s an excellent burn OT for her advice (thanks, Allison!).  Fortunately, Joshua is still using his hand completely fine, with normal range of motion & coordination.  No damage.  Hopefully this will teach him a lesson—not to touch fireplaces or anything that’s got a flame.  It has taught me a lesson—always double-check when there’s a fireplace & not assume it’s off or not hot.

Erick jinxed us.  We’ve been expecting Joshua to realize he can climb out of his crib for about a year now & last February, I bought a toddler bed rail in anticipation, so that we’d be ready to convert his crib to a daybed as soon as he started to escape.  The rail was sitting in its box for 11 months in our guest room pretty much ignored however we were putting some things away on Saturday in preparation for a friend coming in town for the inauguration & then he said it—Erick said “why don’t we put the box in the basement because it’s been there a year & we probably won’t need it for awhile.”  That’s like saying “it’s pretty quiet” in a hospital because then it gets flooded with patients, or like saying “what’s the worst that could happen?” because then something often does happen.  Well, less than 15 seconds after Erick said that, we heard a thud coming from upstairs & then a cute little toddler comes walking down the stairs with a big smile on his face.  It’s as if Joshua could hear us talking & finally realized that it was possible to get out of his crib.  We took him back to his room & put him in the crib, & he showed us how he did it.  The good thing was that at least he landed on his feet, but I didn’t want him to have a bad fall just in case so we spent the next hour or so converting his crib into a daybed & then taking the bed rail out of the box (which it was perfectly happy being in!) & installing it.

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