More Pictures

I wanted to share a few more pictures. Please check the post below for an update!

Growing Up

February 28th was our 6 month post-transplant anniversary! I was just looking at pictures of him when he was a little guy and it's amazing to see how much he has grown in the last (almost) 2 years. His big 2 birthday is coming up in June and sometimes I'll look at him and the skills that he's mastering and find myself awed by the fact that someone whose less than two years old is doing or saying something like that. I'm like, "wait, he's not even 2 yet!"

The 6 month anniversary also marked the time for his routine, scheduled biopsy. If you remember, we declined the 3 month biopsy, although the doctors were right there with us in agreement that we would not do it. The six month was more unclear because at our last appointment they were waiting for some donor antibody blood work to come back to see if the 6 month biopsy was necessary. Now, I'm not exactly clear on what it meant, so I can't go into detail but we never heard from them and still haven't heard from them on the results of that. Anyway, we started receiving calls from anesthesia and PACU talking in preparation for the 6 month biopsy. We had already firmly made our decision that we were not going to do it. Come Monday we received a call from the clinic asking us where we were because he had a pre-biopsy clinic appointment scheduled for 11 am. Well, we were still in Reno, so I didn't see us making that one. In addition, the weather probably would not have permitted us to safely make it over the mountain pass. The I-80 had been closed for a day or two starting Sunday, the day we would have traveled. I took it at a sign and confirmation of our decision to fore go the biopsy. Once I received the call from the nurses about the appointment that we missed, I called Chris who called them and explained that we never received the results back from the blood work-up and that we were not going to do the biopsy anyway. The nurse said, "Alright. I'll look up the blood work then." And left it at that. I guess I'm always anticipating a confrontation from them, but at the same time, they are well aware of our feelings of the biopsies. If we had reason to believe that perhaps Joaquin and his new kidney were not getting along, then it might be a different story. As it stands, the risks outweigh the benefits of the biopsy, we've decided and our family is in agreement with us as well.

So Tuesday, the 28th, I was getting Joaquin changed and dress and ready for his day and I couldn't help but reflect on how today could have been a very different, stress-filled day had we decided to go through with the biopsy. I am thankful for his health and thankful that we did not need to do it. It's hard to believe that it's been 6 months since transplant. Honestly, it's felt much longer than that to me. I was looking back on his baby pictures and it feels like so long ago. To think that Joaquin has only been with us for 20 months...

Currently, Joaquin is obsessed with keys. When we are leaving the house to go to the car he says "keeees, keeees!" and wants to hold the keys and help me open the car door. He wants to hold them in the car and get upset with me when I take them from him and explain that I need them to drive the car. He runs around the house with the keys trying to unlock doors by standing on his tip toes.

He also likes trucks and cars and always points them out. A while back Chris and some friends took him to a monster truck rally and now whenever he sees a commercial for one he gets all excited and yells, "tuck!" and claps his hands and says, "vrooom."

He still loves balls of all different sizes. He's got a rather good pitching arm and he's fine tuning his kicking skills as well. He likes basketball, football, and baseball and whenever he sees the sports either on tv or in real life he says, "b-ball!" while throwing up his arms.

Currently, his favorite foods are chocolate chips, goldfish, anything with tomatoes - fresh, raw tomatoes, pizza, pasta... you name it. He's also a fan of cheese and specifically Havarti Dill Cheese. He also likes crackers. I try to get him to eat more raw, fresh fruits and veggies but unfortunately he's developed an opinion and he's become a little picky. Hopefully we'll work through that by not always having his favorite foods available so that he will have to eat other things or at least give them a try.

He really amazes me how much he's growing and how quickly he's learning and absorbing new things. While he still communicates with some sign language, he's getting better at naming items in his world too. During the day many times he'll stop what he's doing and say, "Daddy?" And I'll tell him that Dad's at work and he'll say, "Oh," and smile. When I'm gone he asks where I am too. If one of us leaves he becomes rather sad and it hurts my heart to hear him crying once I've closed the door, but what can you do? From my experience it only lasts a few seconds and then he's off on the next big adventure.












































(Notice the mismatched socks - I can never keep track of a pair!)