It’s been a ride this week with two others in my family losing organs and me getting tested to be Gavin’s match. My younger sister had her gallbladder removed and is recovering and my mom had her appendix rupture and a terrible infection. I am happy to report that she is starting to get on the mend as well. In the midst of this insanity, I met with the transplant team to start my work up as the donor. (Jay is not a blood match.) I had five separate blood draws a half an hour apart, xray, EKG and a CT. It’s weird having so much done, it made me feel like I could some how more relate to what Gav goes through in pretty much a normal day for him. We have discovered Emla cream which numbs his arms for the blood draw. I just got it prescribed for him. I wish that someone would have suggested this a long time ago and saved him the psychological torture of blood draws!

So far all looks good for me to be his donor, we are just waiting on the final review from the CT scan. It seems like transplant is right around the corner, and now that it’s here, we have so much to plan. It almost feels like it popped out from no where! They told us to start making a list of things we will need help with: taking Lauren on adventures for us, cutting the grass, mail, dinners, etc… since Jay will be with Gav mostly and I will be too sore. I think the hardest part in all this is that I won’t be able to hold the kids for a month! I have already started preparing Lauren for that, and let me tell you she was not to excited to hear that part of it! That’s our medical update for now.

Getting to the fun little life details, Gav is starting to wave, back to front not side to side so it’s quite adorable seeing his little floppy hand wave when he sees a familiar face. He is quite the lover, hence his nickname “Romeo”, and has taken to giving some sweet little pecks, especially to Lulu. He is tearing up the floor and now is simply irate if you try to pick him up when he is busy. He has baby missions that supersede your desire to carry him to where you would like him to be. He adores standing by the window looking for birds, dogs or passerbys and is starting to be able to bear weight on his legs for extended periods of time. He enjoys singing into microphones and of course, is still number one obsessed with balls! He is starting to eat a little more food (thanks to Aunt Pat’s banana bread) which is refreshing. I so worry about him losing his skills, but hopefully they will stay with him since he did eat for some time.

Lulu is now switching careers, her second as to date. She has decided to step from the people medical field and become a veterinarian. She told me that when I grow up I should be one too, so that I could help her. I told her it would be awhile until I grew up, but I would take it into consideration. Last week she got her first splinter, she rushed in and told me she was worried about her “blood circulation”. After removing the splinter, we had to nap with an elevated pointer finger on the pillow next to her to make sure that it was secure from all future injuries.

She is getting into story telling, with a couple of lead in words such as, “FYI” – which is Jay’s favorite. I am more apt to hear, “Did I tell you this already?” and then the story comes.

We had our community wide rummage sale this week so I found two great finds…a snow blower (good bye shovel!) and a battery three wheeler for Lauren. She zips around the neighborhood on her little pink “motorcycle” as she says, and loves every minute of it! Lauren is a rummage sale junkie, and now when she sees people cleaning out their garages, she asks if it’s a rummage sale and if we could please go!

Those are some tidbits of here and theres…life is good. We had a great mothers day. My two kids are the greatest things on earth to me – so to get a homemade card with scribbles and google eyes randomly everywhere was the best! We are enjoying the weather and ready to start our daily tradition of walking to the park back up! Hope this finds you and and all who you love well!

Jill