Some March Pictures

9 Months old (with a fever of 102)

Today is a great day, Henry's 9 month birthday. We love him more and more each day and feel so lucky to have him in our life. He is full of smiles daily and a talking machine. I'm pretty sure I got a "mama" in the early morning hours while he was crying from his crib. He says Dada when he's happy and Mama when he needs comforting. Fair enough.

On a less positive note, poor little guy can't seem to keep this silly virus. Took him for his check up today and was running a 102. His buddies at school had it too, just need to get to the Spring.

Sending love to all our friends and family,
Team McDonald

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Grammy and Hacky took Henry to his first parade last week - The St. Patrick's Day parade in Cedar Rapids. He had a great time looking around and seemed very interested in Hacky's beard. The plan was to take Henry back to school after the parade. I'm sure many of you know the chances of that this plan actually happened.

A Fun Weekend

What a fun weekend. Grandmum and Grandad came down for a visit and we all really enjoyed the time together. We took Henry out to dinner for the first time. He's been to brunch, but never dinner. We tried a new place (new to us) called Shogun and it was wonderful. Henry behaved like the gem that he is and we all had a pleasant evening. The hostess was dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono and was gracious enough to pose with Henry. She was hesitant at first, but then could not stop gushing over H and his smile...naturally.

Henry spent time at Grammy and Hacky's on Sunday afternoon and they and Auntie Erin were happy to show him off to a few people that have yet to meet him. All smiles he was, of course.

It was bitterly cold this weekend (low 30's) but looks promising for some more spring-like weather in coming days.


Love,
Team McDonald

Really, really, ridiculously good looking

All smiles

He's very close to crawling

My two boys

A very happy and proud Grandad and Grandmum

Special time with her grandson

Bundled up for a quick walk with Grandmum

So much fun!

Hurry Up Spring

We are anxiously awaiting a longer day and warmer weather. Hurry up Spring. Just a few pictures of the little man.

Henry and Cooper - best buds

Henry hasn't been to school in about a week and a half due to illness. Both his, but also the other kids at school. He went back today and got to see his best buddy, Cooper. Apparently, it was a fun reunion. This picture of the two of them just warms my heart.

Heart Walk

The Johnson County, IA "Heart Walk" is Saturday, May 7. We have formed "Team Henry" and hope to make it an annual event. if you can donate, if you would like to walk with us, or if you can do both - please visit the following website to do so. Thank You!

http://heartwalk.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=426433&lis=1&kntae426433=262997D5FF4B4FC0A51E57DC7B37CE36&supId=319797644

6 months (almost) Post-Surgery

a note from James:

Hey all. Just wanted to let you know what's going on with Henry. We visited the hospital today for Henry's cardiology appointment and had the usual carwash; xray, echo, ekg. His right lung is looking quite good and has grown to an even side with the left. Also, his right pulmonary artery branching off from the main pulmonary artery looks great. It is growing and it looks like there is great blood flow. The difficulty with Henry is that an echo doesn't show areas away from the heart very well. There is a little bit of increased blood flow where the right pulmonary artery connects to the right lung. After all, it was a very small connection to the lung that the surgeon was working with.

He's going to go in for a blood profusion in a couple weeks. That's where they put a radionucleotide into his bloodstream and see how it moves from the heart to the lungs. It's very non-invasive. There is no need to be worried at this point. The doctors are just pointing out that if a narrowing is going to happen, it will happen at that little spot. Frankly, the fact that it isn't narrowing all along the RPA is fantastic news and a best case scenario for Henry. If it needs to be ballooned out, it will be a cath procedure and not an open heart surgery, so that's fine. We all expected this possibility.

Thanks for all your support over the last week. It was a rough one, but I think he's back to daycare tomorrow.

Team McDonald