The Weekend

Did you know that a dollar worth of glow sticks can create hours of fun?

This past weekend Gavin's two cousins, Morgan & Grant, (and their parents) were in town from Southern Indiana, and will be in town until the 6th. Morgan absolutely adores "baby Gavin" and Grant can't figure out why Gavin won't walk with him when he grabs his hand. On Saturday night Casey's mom got out the glow sticks and the kids had a blast. Morgan made everyone bracelets and necklaces to wear while Gavin just goobered on whatever he could get his hands on. We have a pretty fun day planned tomorrow, you'll see pics of this later of course!

Casey's highschool friend Emily had her baby Juliet Jude on Saturday evening (you did go "early" Em! Even if it was just 2 hours before your due date! hehe). While Juliet's daddy Dave is already concerned about "that Groettum boy" and has sworn that the two cannot hang out without supervision until they are at least eighteen, I think that they are pretty cute together...maybe fifteen years down the road we'll get another of the two of them together attending a formal dance? :) We promise he'll have her home by 10 pm!

Another little friend, Liam Winkler, the son of Jen's college friend Suzanne, arrived via c-section on Sunday. Yes, I've reached the age where every weekend there seems to be either a wedding or a new baby born! Hopefully we can get those two boys together sometime in the near future. Congrats Suz and Ryan on your new little one!

Just 4 1/2 weeks until the third annual Heise family reunion...Gavin cannot wait to meet even more of his extended family! Maybe he'll even try to waterski? :)

One Year Ago

One year ago today we discovered that you were coming into this world! A year that has gone by so incredibly quickly. It has been a rollercoaster ride, but I sure love rollercoasters :) We love you so much little man!

And today your new friend Juliet Jude was born! Welcome to the world little Nemecek! We cannot wait to meet you!

Why a bronch?

I've had several people ask me why we are having Gavin do a bronchoscopy when we go in for his PFTs at the end of July. It is part of a research study that our CF clinic is performing. Our doctors are trying to figure out what kind of changes happen to someone with CF in their first year of life (I guess there is very little research on this). They are also trying to figure out if there are any ways to predict the severity of a child's CF at a young age. We agreed to do it because Gavin would already be sedated for his PFTs. If he was not having the PFTs we would not have agreed to the "bronch." Will it be a good day for Gavin (or us for that matter...)? Probably not. But the advancements in CF care would not be where they are today if people before us did not participate in clinical studies, and we believe that this research could provide some very valuable information for CF docs. We plan for Gavin to participate in any research study he feels comfortable with, but until he has the ability to make those decisions we as his parents are doing our best to make them for him.

Also, the University of MN CF patients live 10 years longer (on average) than the country's median age of 37. To me that proves that they are amazing doctors that know what they are doing and are doing everything possible for our son to live as normal a life as is possible.

I mean, come on...wouldn't you do absolutely anything to ensure that this little guy gets to live a happy, long life?

Good Clinic Visit!

Gavin had another CF clinic appointment and all is well! He weighed in at 15 pounds 6 ounces, that is just under two pounds in one month! Woohoo! I truly think that he is gaining so well because we've started feeding him every two hours or so. We did get the go ahead to start him on solids. CF kiddos are a little different in this aspect, we will start him with rice cereal and then will move directly onto meats and will add veggies/fruits in later. This is because the meats have the fats/proteins that he needs. We will also be adding olive/canola oil to his rice cereal to add calories. I asked about adding coconut oil but our nutritionist said to avoid that kind of oil, its not the "good" kind of calories she wants him to get. We are also able to give him Pedialyte on the days that he seems overheated/sweaty to keep him from getting dehydrated...and guess what. He doesn't have to take enzymes with that drink...woohoo!

We got scheduled in for his Infant PFT and bronchoscopy at 9 am on July 27th. We are the very first family at our clinic to do both procedures back-to-back so hopefully it all goes smoothly. We learned that we have to deprive him of sleep (so that he is sleepy when they give him the oral meds that will sedate him) and he cannot eat after 6 am. Oh boy...that should be interesting. For those of you who have met our little guy, when he is hungry or tired he is a very crabby baby! Oh well, we do what we gotta do!

As you have read, Gavin spends hours throughout the day in his jumperoo, so I combined two of his favorite things. His jumperoo and playing in just a diaper :) Boy did he have fun!


This picture sums up many of our evenings. All three of my boys are lounging on the living room floor. Casey was "talking" to Gavin who decided it was more exciting to roll over and stare at Louie, who in turn didn't care at all about either Casey or Gavin :)

When Gavin is not interested in staring at Louie (which is rare!) he is often found playing with his toes.

He also loves to have tummy time playing on the boppy. The other day I came back into the room and found him out like a light all curled up.

I left and came back again and he was using it as a pillow...

We will miss you Michael Jackson. You were my most favorite performer growing up. I spent 15 years of my life dancing and you were such an inspiration! I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that we will never see you perform or sing ever again. You will be greatly missed.

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me Monday!

Time for another Not Me Monday!

On Saturday night I most definitely did not stay out until 1:30 a.m. celebrating my friend Emily's upcoming wedding at her bachelorette party in downtown Minneapolis. I of course did not convince several bartenders to fill her shot glass ring with free shots. Nope, not me! I'm a responsible mom now. I would never get a little crazy on a girls night! And Casey would definitely not pack up our 4 1/2 month old baby in the middle of the night to go pick me up. No way. We're way too good of parents to ever do that! I of course did not get annoyed that Casey was not there in the 15 minutes he had promised. I did not forget that it takes extra time to get out the door when you have to get a sleeping baby in the car.

I don't try to tell myself that Gavin will of course attend the University of Minnesota for college even though I myself went to school in Wisconsin and his dad in Colorado. I never consider the fact that he may want to move out of state. No way. Not my son. He will be a Gopher fan forever.

I do not think that it is totally adorable that Gavin doesn't even fill up half of the baby swing at the park. We never take him down the park to swing with the main goal of getting him sleepy enough to fall asleep (and stay asleep) in his stroller on the walk back.

I don't ever take a picture and immediately make a mental note that this picture could be considered blackmail in the future. I do not think that Gavin is absolutely adorable in just a diaper and a t-shirt. I of course never question why we have so many clothes for our little guy when he is always so happy to be wearing next to nothing. Nope, not me!

I never think that Gavin's addiction to our tv remote will become an issue.

I would never find a way for Gavin to do his "own" nebulizer treatments at night. I would never wait until so late in the evening to do them that I am truly exhausted. I would never love the fact that Gavin sleeps right through both his nebulizer and chest therapy making it so much easier for mom and dad. Nope, not me!

Daddy's Day

Happy First Father's Day Daddy!

We Love You!

Missing Rolls

Casey and I are a little nervous about Gavin's weight. He doesn't seem to be gaining and his tummy rolls are gone. We are going back to feeding him every two hours and I may start getting him up once in the middle of the night to eat to see if that helps.

The saying, "don't wake a sleeping baby" unfortunately doesn't work in this house...our little man has to get woken up for treatments at night, and now for more feedings. But I am not complaining, if it keeps him healthy and strong then it is all worth it.

Thank goodness we have a clinic appointment this upcoming Thursday to see if we are overreacting or if we need to begin his lifelong process of adding calories.

Sticky Humidity

It was stinkin' hot today...

So stinkin hot that this was Gavin's outfit of choice for the afternoon...

yes, Casey and I did sing 'Born in the USA' about 50 times today!

We spent the afternoon trying everything to avoid turning on the A/C. All windows and doors were open, and we had a fan going...can you tell that I hate having the air on?!? For those of you out of state, Minnesota summers are really, really humid! So although it was only in the eighties it felt much steamier because we all are sweaty and sticky!

Gavin decided that staying on the blanket I had spread out on the floor wasn't all that fun. It's much more fun to roll around on the carpet. He rolled across the living room floor just to play with a blanket hanging off our ottoman. Again, I spend money on baby toys because...why again???

Now we are waiting for the arriving thunderstorms to get here and cool it off for the night. Pretty much the entire state of Minnesota is under a watch/warning for severe weather. And please pray for little Stellan, he is back at Children's Hospital here in the Twin Cities.

Lil Frog Legs

Gavin has always enjoyed his jumperoo, but only recently has he figured out that he can get himself to bounce around instead of just twirling or standing. Look at those little frog legs go!

I think part of the reason that Gavin loves this toy so much is that it allows him to be upright without anyone holding him. And the world looks a lot different when you're not stuck on your back! One of his favorite things to do is watch Louie (our dog) and laugh at him. I only caught a little bit of the giggles on tape, but you can see how much Gavin loves the dog...and how little the dog wants anything to do with Gavin!

I really should start taking videos with our video camera vs. our digital camera to get some better quality clips...but no matter what Gav sure is cute in all of them! Not that I am biased or anything :)

We are stuck inside again as it is gonna be another humid, sticky, stormy kind of day. Oh well, at least our lawn is nice and green! Maybe we'll all just hang out in jammies today...

Wordless Wednesday

Home Again

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of Gavin in his new swing out in the backyard. We have a small yard, too small for a swing set (or Casey just doesn't want to mow around it...) so we attached it to a pole meant for a clothesline. Btw...a swing just like this one at Target costs eighty dollars. Umm excuse me? Eighty dollars for a plastic swing?!? I don't think so! We got essentially the same swing at Walmart for just twenty-three bucks...



I brought my camera with us to the grad party on Saturday but I only took one picture. I know I know, really? Me? Forget to take pictures? I guess I was just too busy talking!! The one I took does show off Gavin in my his favorite pair of overalls :) The blanket was made by Casey's childhood friend Kevin's mom Cindy. Gavin LOVES the soft texture of the blanket and loves to chew gum-down the tags.

Well our 24 hour trip to Rochester ended up taking 48 hours, but because we stayed Casey was able to interview at a second place so it all worked out ok. If one of these interviews ends up in Casey getting a job then we will be relocating to Rochester, but at this point that is still a major if. This is also why I did not do a "Not Me Monday" sorry! Of course the check engine light in the car decided to turn on while we were there so we had to get that checked out as well (nothing major, but we'll have to get it fixed soon...) which took not one, but two trips to the mechanic. After the hour drive home we are relaxing in front of the tv and staying away from the pouring rain outside.

But before we took off on Sunday afternoon, Gavin decided that no one was going to put him down! So guess who put on the baby Bjorn so we could get packed up...it wasn't mommy!

While we were in Rochester, Casey's mom took out a hand mirror for Gavin to play with...it was a hit! Not only did he enjoy staring at his reflection, he also decided to lick his reflection. What a goon.

So, so, so tired, but having so much fun with the mirror

(remind me again why we even spend money on baby toys?!?)

Yesterday evening we met up with some of Casey's family to celebrate Father's day with his grandpa who is currently living in an "old folks home." The Brown's had the biggest family in attendance (eight of us) what a lucky guy! Of course everyone had to have some time to stare at our little man! From left to right, Great-Aunt Julie, Great-Grandpa (Charlie) Brown, Great-Grandma (Jerry) Brown. Casey's mom, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kate were also present.

Can you tell that I love babies in overalls?
The fact that he matched the decorations was purely coincidental

What happens when it's daddy's turn to do Gavin's treatments and he's waited until late at night and is really tired?